Love's Labour's Lost

The King of Navarre and his friends Longaville, Dumaine and Berowne (the latter somewhat reluctantly) swear to devote themselves to three years of study, forswearing all distractions. However, the arrival of the Princess of France and her ladies in waiting (Rosaline, Maria and Katharine) scuppers their vow, as each man falls hopelessly in love with one of the visitors. Unusually for a Shakespearean comedy, the couples are not all happily united at the end of the play: the women leave on news of the death of Princess's father and demand that the men prove the constancy of their love by proposing marriage again in a year's time.