1776 print by Charles Grignion of Thomas Weston playing Costard
Created by
William Shakespeare
Portrayed by
Thomas Weston Paul Jesson Nathan Lane
In-universe information
Gender
Male
Occupation
Jester
Quote by Costard from the 1598 quarto using the word honorificabilitudinitatibus; his name is given as "Clow[n]."
Costard is a comic figure in the play Love's Labour's Lost by William Shakespeare. A country bumpkin, he is arrested in the first scene for flouting the king's proclamation that all men of the court avoid the company of women for three years. While in custody, the men of the court use him to further their own romantic endeavors. By sending love notes to the wrong women and blurting out secrets (including that of an unplanned pregnancy), Costard makes fools of the royal court. Along with Moth the page and Jaquenetta, a country wench, Costard pokes fun at the upper-class. While mocking a pedantic schoolmaster, Costard uses the word honorificabilitudinitatibus, the longest word by far from any of Shakespeare's works.
Costard makes many clever puns, and is used as a tool by Shakespeare to explain new words such as remuneration. He is sometimes considered one of the smartest characters in the play due to his wit and wordplay.
Costard's name is an archaic term for apple, or metaphorically a man's head.[1] Shakespeare uses the word in this sense in Richard III.[2]
^"Brewer, E. Cobham. Dictionary of Phrase & Fable – Costard". Retrieved 2007-01-13.
^"William Shakespeare: Richard III, Act I, Scene IV — Infoplease.com". Retrieved 2007-01-13.
Costard is a comic figure in the play Love's Labour's Lost by William Shakespeare. A country bumpkin, he is arrested in the first scene for flouting the...
Under Milk Wood, and as Bonario, Volpone, all National Theatre, London; as Costard, Love's Labour's Lost, as Lorenzo, The Merchant of Venice, and as Ferdinand...
whose 1598 play, Love's Labour's Lost, includes a reference to dog Latin: Costard: Go to; thou hast it ad dungill, at the fingers' ends, as they say. Holofernes:...
state of being able to achieve honours". It is mentioned by the character Costard in Act V, Scene I of William Shakespeare's Love's Labour's Lost. As it...
Bibcode:1974Moon....9..227W. doi:10.1007/BF00565406. S2CID 120233258. Costard FM (1989). "The spatial distribution of volatiles in the Martian hydrolithosphere"...
two-wheeled barrows. London street traders were called costermongers (from costard, the mediaeval word for apple) and more generally barrow boys, since anything...
costermonger, coster, or costard is a street seller of fruit and vegetables in British towns. The term is derived from the words costard (a medieval variety...
Beauchamp hires two men, Costard and Podd, to break into the safe after hours and steal the gems. Diana stumbles on the robbery, and Costard kills her with a...
whose 1590s play, Love's Labour's Lost, includes a reference to dog Latin: Costard: Go to; thou hast it ad dungill, at the fingers' ends, as they say. Holofernes:...
he joined Barrie Rutter's Northern Broadsides theatre company to play Costard in Shakespeare's Love's Labour's Lost. Since 1992 Fogerty has had numerous...
and Lewis 2004, p.16 Kargel 2004, pp. 185–6. Kargel 2004, 99ff Forget, Costard & Lognonné 2007, pp. 80–2. "Solar wind ripping chunks off Mars". Cosmos...
of Don Juan Fernandito San Jose Repertory Theatre Love's Labour's Lost Costard California Shakespeare Theater 2001 The Two Gentlemen of Verona Speed Geva...
back to London. Edward I reportedly received "700 Regul pears and 300 Costard apples" during his stay at Berwick Castle. There are also records of Henry...
(1957) - Rosie Foster Dracula (1958) - Inga Model for Murder (1959) - Betty Costard In the Wake of a Stranger (1959) - Barmaid Libel (1959) - Barmaid Devil's...
very best toilet water and a hell of a lot of aftershave." After playing Costard in a BBC television production of Love's Labour's Lost (1965), Hunter was...
Archived from the original on 2010-12-18. Retrieved 21 December 2009. Costard, F.; Dupeyrat, L.; Gautier, E.; Carey-Gailhardis, E. (2003). "Fluvial thermal...
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