The First Mentions of Love's Labour's Won
The first discovered mention of a Shakespeare play titled Love's Labour's Won was found in an essay/book written in 1598. Pallidas Tamia, Wits Treasury was a book written by Francis Meres to praise English poets of the time period. Being that Shakespeare was indeed writing poetry around this time, there was no possible way his name could be excluded from the writing. Meres mentions Shakespeare, by name, on page 152 of his book. Shakespeare is not simply mentioned in the writing, but many of his literary works are also mentioned by name; the list of works also includes the title of Love's Labour's Won.
The title can also be seen in other areas of writing. The title Love's Labour's Won was also discovered on a packing slip dated 19 August 1603. The packing slip was not discovered until 1953 when it was uncovered by a London bookseller as part of a collection of sermons the bookseller had acquired. The packing slip was turned over to The British Library where it was studied heavily and ultimately attributed to a much older book seller by the name of Christopher Hunt. It was discovered that Hunt had completed his internship in London and was relocating, because of this he had many of his books ship to him at his new location. The packing slip contained the titles of all of the writings that were inside of the package, both Love's Labour's Lost and Love's Labour's Won were included on that list.