lon is so like that of Polonius to Laertes in a similar situation,
that either the latter is an expansion of the former, or the former a
reminiscence of the latter; and as the passage is written in the later
style, the second supposition appears the more probable. Finally, it is
worthy of remark that both the French officers who figure in this play
as First Lord and Second Lord are somewhat strangely named _Dumain_, and
that in 'Love's Labor's Lost' Dumain is also the name of that one of the
three attendants and brothers in love of the King who has a post in the
army; which, when taken in connection with other circumstances, is at
least a hint of some relation between the two plays."

If the reader who has gone thoughtfully through the plays in the course
which I have indicated will take up this one, he will find in the very
first scene evidence and illustration of these views. It is almost
entirely in prose, which itself shows the weight of Shakespeare's mature
hand. The first blank verse is the speech of the Countess, in which she
gives a mother's counsel to Bertram as he is setting out for the wars,
as is pointed out above, and which is unmistakably of the "Hamlet"
period. Then comes a speech by Helen beginning,

O were that all! I think not on my father:
And these great tears grace his remembrance more
Than those I shed for him--

and ending with this charming passage, referring to the growth of her
love for Bertram:

'Twas pretty, though a plague,
To see him every hour; to sit and draw
His arched brows, his hawking eye, his curls
In our heart's table; heart too capable
Of every line and trick of his sweet favor:
But now he's gone, and my idolatrous fancy
Must sanctify his reliques. Who comes here?

It is needless to say to the advanced student of Shakespeare's style
that this is in his later manner. A little further on is Helen's speech
to the detestable Parolles, beginning with the mutilated line, "Not my
virginity yet," which is followed by some ten, in which she pours out in
Euphuistic phrase her love for Bertram, saying that he has in her "a
mother, and a mistress, and a friend, a counsellor, a traitress, and a
dear"; and yet further,

His humble ambition, proud humility,
His jarring concord, and his discord dulcet,
His faith, his sweet disaster, with a world
Of pretty, fond, adoptious Christendoms
That blinking Cupid gossips.