“stay here the forehorse to a smock,
    Creaking his shoes on the plain masonry,
    Till honour is bought up, and no sword worn
    But one to dance with.”

He therefore resolves to “steal away” to the war along with other brave and enterprising spirits; and we have some lords of the Court ministering fuel to this noble fire burning within him.  These stirrings of native gallantry, this brave thirst of honourable distinction, go far to redeem him from the rank dishonours of his conduct, as showing that he is not without some strong and noble elements of manhood.  Here we have indeed no little just ground of respect; and that his purpose is but quickened into act by the thought of finding a refuge in such manly work from the thraldom of a hated marriage, operates as further argument in the same behalf.  And this purpose, springing as it does from the free promptings of his nature, has the further merit, that it involves a deliberate braving of the King’s anger; thus showing that he will even peril his head rather than leave what is best in him to “fust unused.”  All which plainly infers that he has at least the right virtues of a soldier.  And the promise thus held out from the start is made good in the after-performance.  He proves a gallant, a capable, a successful warrior, and returns with well-won laurels.  In all these points, the play is a manifest improvement on the tale.  And I suspect the Poet took care to endow his hero with this streak of nobility, because he felt that there was some danger lest Helena’s pursuit of Bertram should rather have the effect of lowering her than of elevating him in our thoughts.

But the crowning innovation upon the matter of the tale lies in the characters of Lafeu, the Countess, the Clown, and Parolles, and in the comic proceedings; all which, so far as is known, are entirely of the Poet’s invention.  And it is quite remarkable what an original cast is given to his development of the borrowed characters by the presence of these; and how in the light of their mutual interaction the conduct of all becomes, not indeed right or just, but consistent and clear.  Helena’s native force and rectitude of mind are approved from the first in her just appreciation of Parolles; and her nobility of soul and beauty of character are reflected all along in the honest sagacity of Lafeu and the wise motherly affection of the Countess, who never see or think of her but to turn her advocates and wax eloquent in her behalf.  The thoughtful and benevolent King also, on becoming acquainted with her, is even more taken with her moral and intellectual beauty than with her service in restoring him to health.  The Countess regards her as “a maid too virtuous for the contempt of empire”; and, on bearing Bertram’s “dreadful sentence” against her, she is prompt to declare, “He was my son, but I do wash his name out of my blood, and thou art all my child”; and it is her very heart that speaks,—­