Dumain, Biron, the King, and Longaville (Shakespeare, Love's Labour's Lost, Act 4, Scene 3)
Medium
Etching and engraving
Dimensions
Sheet: 3 7/16 × 2 9/16 in. (8.8 × 6.5 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Harriet McDonald, 1941
Accession Number
41.91.157
Tags
Art Historical Context
This delicate etching and engraving captures a pivotal moment from Act 4, Scene 3 of William Shakespeare's comedy *Love's Labour's Lost*, featuring the lords Dumain, Biron, the King, and Longavillelikely huddled under trees in a moment of clandestine oath-breaking and romantic intrigue. Created between 1825 and 1840 by illustrator John Massey Wright, engraver Charles Heath the, and inspired by Shakespeare, it exemplifies the Romantic-era fascination with the Bard's works, when lavish illustrated editions proliferated to bring Elizabethan drama to Victorian audiences. Measuring just 3 7/16 × 2...