Most scholars believe the play was written 1594–1595, but not later than 1598.[6] Love's Labour's Lost was first published in quarto in 1598 by the bookseller Cuthbert Burby. The title page states that the play was "Newly corrected and augmented by W. Shakespere," which has suggested to some scholars a revision of an earlier version.[7]
Dating to 1598, Edinburgh University's manuscript is one of the earliest known copies of the work and according to its title page, is the same version as that which was presented to Queen Elizabeth I the previous Christmas, in 1597. It is in quarto format and was donated to Edinburgh University between 1626 and 1636 by former student William Drummond of Hawthornden, making it part of the university's first literature collection.[8]
The play next appeared in print in the First Folio in 1623, with a later quarto in 1631. Love's Labour's Won is considered by some to be a lost sequel.[9][10]
Love’s Labour’s Lost features the longest scene in all of Shakespeare's plays (5.2), which, depending upon formatting and editorial decisions, ranges from around 920 lines[11] to just over 1000 lines.[12] The First Folio records the scene at 942 lines.
The play also features the single longest word in all of Shakespeare's plays: honorificabilitudinitatibus, spoken by Costard at 5.1.30.
Title page of the second quarto (1631)The speech given by Berowne at 4.3.284–361 is potentially the longest in all of Shakespeare's plays, depending on editorial choices. Shakespeare critic and editor Edward Capell has pointed out that certain passages within the speech seem to be redundant and argues that these passages represent a first draft which was not adequately corrected before going to print.[13] Specifically, lines 291–313 are "repeated in substance"[13] further in the speech and are sometimes omitted by editors.[14] With no omissions, the speech is 77 lines and 588 words.
