HELENA         Things base and vile, holding no quantity,

Love can transpose to form and dignity.

Love looks not with the eyes but with the mind,

And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.

Nor hath love’s mind of any judgement taste:

Wings and no eyes figure unheedy haste.

And therefore is love said to be a child,

Because in choice he is so oft beguiled.

As waggish boys in game themselves forswear,

So the boy Love is perjured everywhere.    (1.1.232-241)

Helena is consoling herself with philosophy, or rather perhaps as a parent might a child: there’s someone for everyone! everyone’s beautiful to the person that loves them! even things base and vile, holding no quantity, worthless things, love can transpose to form and dignity. Love’s transformative! It’s rose-tinted glasses, it’s FAIRYDUST! (Hmmmm.) Because, after all, love looks not with the eyes but with the mind, and therefore is winged Cupid painted blind. Love’s blind, it is, it is, it doesn’t matter what you look like! But then she takes a slight step back: nor hath love’s mind of any judgement taste: wings and no eyes figure unheedy haste. Love’s not always rational either, flying blind, making bad choices. Love can make you go a bit mad! And therefore is love said to be a child, because in choice he is so oft beguiled. Always bad decisions, picking the wrong one, distracted by the pretty things, not listening to good advice… As waggish boys in game themselves forswear, playing around, telling lies, making false promises, so the boy Love is perjured everywhere. Love’s a liar, and a cheat, and never keeps his word, even after he’s sworn solemn oaths!

What starts as an effort to console herself, talk herself down, has turned into an excoriation of the perfidious Demetrius, who has behaved like a selfish child. That’s what love does to you, it’s only to be expected….