losophers of Athens and their student followers.
Another educational plan "for the bringing up in vertue and learning
of the Queenes Majestis Wardes," was devised by Sir Nicholas Bacon, in
1561. Later, in the reign of James I, the establishment of the
"Academe Royal" by Bolton, is an example of the early vogue of the
name, which has since become familiar everywhere, for educational and
learned institutions.

A less important element in the formation of the plot is the allusion
to current French politics which the situation of the characters of
the Play suggests.

A King of Navarre and a Princess of France conferring in treaty over a
disputed province and a claim of allowance for services rendered is an
incident constituting a reference to a state of things in France then
closely concerning England. The succession to the throne of France of
Henry of Navarre, the champion of the Huguenots of France, was long
contested. England was friendly to Navarre, the object of her foreign
policy being to counterpoise the power of Spain and the Catholics of
France, with whom Queen Elizabeth's most formidable rival, Mary
Stuart, was allied in interest.

No king of Navarre was ever named Ferdinand. Yet by making an entirely
fictitious hero a king of Navarre and the suitor of a princess of
France, the relationship of Henry of Navarre to dominance in France
was suggested in an unobjectionable and amusing way. And the death of
the King of France introduced at the close of the Play, involving the
prospect as a probability that the hero might then succeed to the
throne of France, could scarcely fail to remind Shakespeare's audience
of the actual struggle of the King of Navarre for the French crown,
and also of the fact that on the death of the French King in August,
1589, Navarre then became heir presumptive, and after the battle of
Ivry in 1590 Spain delayed but could not long obstruct his complete
success.

In 1593 the most important cities of the Kingdom yielded him
allegiance and in the Spring of 1594 Paris herself opened her gates to
him. These dates 1589-1594 indicate the time, also, when "Love's
Labour's Lost" is likely to have been timely in these references, and
yield a clew to its date of composition.

The effect of these allusions to French political affairs, made more
piquant by the downfall of Spain in her political opposition both to
England and the party of Henry of Navarre, was intensified in
Shakespeare's Play by the