Ivry in 1590 Spain delayed but could not long obstruct his complete
success.

In 1593 the most important cities of the Kingdom yielded him
allegiance and in the Spring of 1594 Paris herself opened her gates to
him. These dates 1589-1594 indicate the time, also, when "Love's
Labour's Lost" is likely to have been timely in these references, and
yield a clew to its date of composition.

The effect of these allusions to French political affairs, made more
piquant by the downfall of Spain in her political opposition both to
England and the party of Henry of Navarre, was intensified in
Shakespeare's Play by the names given to Navarre's lords. _Berowne_,
as the name appears in the Folio, is an English spelling of the French
name _Biron_, to which it is changed in modernized editions of
Shakespeare. _Longavill_ is an English equivalent of _Longueville_,
and _Dumaine_ or _Dumane_ of De Mayenne, names which also are changed
in the modernized editions, although not consistently. All these names
are associated with Navarre's struggles in France. The Maréchal de
Biron and the Duc de Longueville fought prominently on Navarre's side.
The Duc de Mayenne, brother of Henry of Guise, fought on the opposite
side. The Duc d'Alençon long a suitor for the hand of Queen Elizabeth,
is mentioned as the father of Rosaline.

Another veiled reference to a Russian suitor of the Queen's seems to
be made in the incident introduced in the last Act. This scene of the
wooing of the King and his lords when disguised as Russians makes fun,
perhaps, of an actual embassy of Russians to the Court of Elizabeth,
in 1583, when the Queen had arranged to put upon Lady Mary Hastings
the suit which the Czar Ivan had originally hoped to proffer to the