Mark your calendars for the next BBT on March 5

“Therefore brave Conquerors, for so you are,

That war against your own affections,

And the huge Army of the world’s desires –

Our late edict shall strongly stand in force,

Navarre shall be the wonder of the world.

Our Court shall be a little Academe,

Still and contemplative in living Art.”

Love’s Labour’s Lost, I.i

In Love’s Labour’s Lost, one of Shakespeare’s most delightful comedies, four noble ladies easily win the battle of wits with four noble gentlemen. The play’s setting in the court of Navarre in France, the crazy scene with the dancing “Muscovites” and many of the play’s word games and topical illusions become so much easier to understand when you learn how the playwright wove 16^th century English, French and Russian politics into the script.

Come join our Blue Boar Tavern regulars, Bonner Cutting, Dorothea Dickerman, Alex McNeil, Phoebe Nir and bartender Jonathan Dixon when we turn the tavern into a “little Academe” to learn from two guests: Elisabeth Waugaman, PhD in Medieval French Literature, and currently on the faculty of New Directions in Writing for the Baltimore-Washington Center for Psychoanalysis, and Rima Greenhill, PhD in Russian Languages and Literature, and currently Senior Lecturer in the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures of Stanford University.

Dr. Waugaman will school us on why the play was set in “Navarre” and who some of the characters are; Dr. Greenhill will enlighten us on the Elizabethan Court’s Russian diplomatic relations.

Therefore, brave Conquerors, for so you are, join us on Zoom on March 5, 2025 at 8 pm Eastern and 5 pm Pacific, as we make The Blue Boar Tavern “the wonder of the world” for an hour or so!  Link to follow!