# Moth — Love’s Labour’s Lost character guide

> Moth in Love’s Labour’s Lost by William Shakespeare.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Moth Master

**First appearance:** 0001-act-i

## Snapshot

Armado's tiny, razor-witted page, whose puns and parries deflate his master's grandiosity one quibble at a time.

## Who they are

Moth attends the bombastic Armado as a boy whose small stature and quick tongue make him the perfect foil to his master's swollen rhetoric. He mocks Armado's melancholy, proves him a cipher, and offers a deadpan recipe for wooing with French brawls and sighs. His penny of observation and his genius for turning his master's words against him make him the play's engine of verbal comedy, and his running commentary keeps the audience aware that the lords' romantic poses are as performative as Armado's.

## Relationships

### [Holofernes](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/love_s_labour_s_lost_se/characters/holofernes)

_rivalry_

Holofernes and Moth engage in a battle of wits, with Moth often outsmarting the pompous schoolmaster.

### [Boyet](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/love_s_labour_s_lost_se/characters/boyet)

_social_

Boyet and Moth exchange witty banter as fellow servants and participants in the courtly entertainments.

## In the story

### [Scene II](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/love_s_labour_s_lost_se/chapters/act-i-scene-ii)

Engages in witty wordplay with Armado, defines melancholy, and recites a rhyme about white and red.

### [Scene I](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/love_s_labour_s_lost_se/chapters/act-iii-scene-i)

Moth engages in clever wordplay with Armado, mocking his master's love and providing witty commentary.

### [Scene I](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/love_s_labour_s_lost_se/chapters/act-v-scene-i)

Engages in witty banter with Holofernes and Costard.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/love_s_labour_s_lost_se/characters/moth
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/love_s_labour_s_lost_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/love_s_labour_s_lost_se/characters