Character Summary

Ferdinand: King of Navarre who resolves to live a life of virtue and deprivation for a 3-year period only to fall in love with the Princess of France

Berowne: a lord of Navarre who reluctantly joins his king in living a life of virtue and deprivation for a 3-year period only to fall in love with the Lady Rosaline

Longaville: a lord of Navarre who joins his king in living a life of virtue and deprivation for a 3-year period without reservations only to fall in love with the Lady Maria

Dumaine: another lord of Navarre who joins his king in living a life of virtue and deprivation for a 3-year period without reservations only to fall in love with the Lady Katherine

Dull: a constable who is susceptible to malapropisms

Costard: a clown

Don Adriano de Armado: a Spanish man of fashion who falls in love with the country wench Jaquenetta

Moth: Armado’s page

Jaquenetta: a country wench

Boyet: a lord attending on the Princess of France

Princess of France: French princess who has beguiled King of Navarre Ferdinand according to Boyet

Lord 1: another lord attending on the Princess of France

Maria: a lady attending on the Princess of France and on whom the Lord Longaville takes an interest

Katherine: a lady attending on the Princess of France and on whom the Lord Dumaine takes an interest

Rosaline: lady attending on the Princess of France and on whom the Lord Berowne takes an interest

Forester: a hunting guide who guides the Princess of France and her retinue to a spot most favorable for hunting deer

Sir Nathaniel: a curate (a clerical assistant) who associates with the pedant Holofernes and is Holofornes’ diametric opposite in terms of intellectual modesty

Holofernes: a schoolmaster and a pedant whose book learning often gets in his way at perceiving the truth

Marcade: the lord attending on the Princess of France who delivers the news of her father’s—the French king’s—death