Summary
Don Armado asks Mote to free Costard from prison so that Costard can deliver a letter to Jaquenetta from Don Armado.
Mote teases Don Armado for being in love with Jaquenetta, but agrees to retrieve Costard. Don Armado praises Mote for his wit.
When Mote arrives with Costard, Don Armado and Costard argue about Latin and French forms of salutation. Don Armado tells Costard that he has only been freed from prison because he must carry a letter from Don Armado to Jaquenetta. He gives Costard a coin for renumeration.
Biron enters and he and Costard discuss the meaning of the word "renumeration."
Biron asks Costard if he will do him a favor, and Costard agrees, not yet knowing what the favor is. Biron asks Costard to carry a letter from him to Rosaline. Costard agrees, and Biron pays him for his service.
Costard exits, and Biron laments how he has fallen under Cupid's spell and is in love with Rosaline.
Biron thinks of Cupid as a harsh military commander and asks whether he is now expected to obey Cupid and become submissive. He refers to love as an infectious plague before resigning himself to his fate as a lover who will "love, write, sigh, pray, sue, [and] groan" (3.1).
Analysis
Act Three of the play is perhaps the best example of the reputation Love's Labour's Lost has for wordplay, wit, and an infatuation with language. Some scholars have criticized the play for its complex dialogue, saying that it is evidence of Shakespeare's novice playwright status and that he learned to perfect his dialogue for later (and more popular) performances. Others, like famed literary critic Harold Bloom, praise Love's Labour's Lost as a triumphant depiction of the power of language on the stage.
The lengthy comic exchanges involving Costard, Don Armado, Mote, and Biron are evidence of this focus on language in the play. Costard, for example, hears the word "renumeration" and mistakenly identifies the coin given to him as "renumeration" rather than "coin." Of course, this moment is meant to entertain audiences and emphasize Costard's foolishness, but it also introduces in a small-scale way one of the themes that would become prevalent in Shakespeare's drama: language as a plot device. Conversations – especially misunderstandings within conversations – play a major role in Shakespeare's comedies, as characters struggle to understand what other characters are thinking and what their motivations are. That Love's Labour's Lost dwells so long on linguistic meaning showcases Shakespeare's own growing interest in how language can be used to further complicate a play's central conflicts.
The third act also presents the audience with a more intimate look at Biron, the only one of the three lords to receive a more complex characterization. Originally a skeptic over the King's plan for an academy, Biron is here portrayed as a lovesick but bitter man who is well aware that he will have to break his oath in the name of his love for Rosaline. Biron is angered by the fact that he loves Rosaline, expressing displeasure over the notion of Cupid as a military commander who has defeated him.
This characterization of love suggests that Biron sees love as something external that has happened to him, rather than something that comes from within. This was a common way to describe love in early modern literature, specifically early modern poetry, and it is therefore unsurprising that Biron resigns himself to love by saying he will also "write."
Unlike Don Armado, Biron's love is presented in a more serious manner, portraying him as a tormented lover who must now grapple with the larger conflict of disobeying the King. Many critics believe that Biron is an early incarnation of Benedick in the later comedy, Much Ado About Nothing.
