Moments of anti-puritan satire do not help in determining a specific date.
SOURCES: Main plot derived from Giovanni Boccaccio’s Decameron (Italian, fourteenth century) by way of William Painter’s English translation, The Palace of Pleasure (1566); Countess and Lafew are Shakespeare’s invention, as is Parolles, who is in the tradition of the braggart soldier of classical comedy—a character type of which the greatest Elizabethan examples were Falstaff in Henry IV and Captain Bobadil in Ben Jonson’s Every Man in His Humour.
TEXT: First Folio of 1623 is only early printed text. Many features such as misassigned speeches, repeated speech headings, inconsistent naming, and probably misplaced lines suggest that the manuscript was not neatly prepared and that it caused confusion to the printers. Apparent authorial first thoughts suggest influence of Shakespeare’s working manuscript, while music cues suggest that of the theatrical promptbook. Of the many textual problems, the most frustrating concerns the two lords/brothers Dumaine: they have several different designations, variants on “1 Lord G.” and “2 Lord E.,” “French E.” and “French G.,” “Captain G.” and “Captain E.” The initials are sometimes supposed to refer to actors’ names. Shakespeare sometimes seems to forget whether “G.” is “1” and “E.” is “2” or vice versa. This means, for instance, that there is confusion over which brother leads the ambush of Parolles and which accompanies Bertram as he sets off to seduce Diana. We have adopted a solution that is dramatically consistent while requiring only minimal alteration of Folio’s speech ascriptions.
ALL’S WELL THAT ENDS WELL
LIST OF PARTS
BERTRAM, Count of Rossillion
COUNTESS of Rossillion, his mother
HELEN (occasionally known as Helena), an orphan in the protection of the countess
REYNALDO, steward to the countess
LAVATCH, clown in the countess’ household
PAROLLES, a boastful follower of Bertram
KING of France
LAFEW, an old French lord
GENTLEMEN of the French court including an Astringer
Brothers who become captains in the Florentine army
FIRST LORD Dumaine
SECOND LORD Dumaine
FIRST SOLDIER, who plays role of interpreter
DUKE of Florence
WIDOW, Capilet of Florence
DIANA, her daughter
MARIANA, her friend
Lords, Attendants including a Page, Soldiers, people of Florence
running scene 1
Enter young Bertram, [the] Count of Rossillion, his mother [the Countess], and Helena, Lord Lafew, all in black
COUNTESS In delivering1 my son from me, I bury a second
husband.
BERTRAM And I in going, madam, weep o’er my father’s death
anew; but I must attend4 his majesty’s command, to whom I
am now in ward, evermore in subjection.5
LAFEW You shall find of the king a husband6, madam, you,
sir, a father. He that so generally7 is at all times good must of
necessity hold his virtue to you, whose worthiness would stir8
it up where it wanted rather than lack it where there is such9
abundance.
COUNTESS What hope is there of his majesty’s amendment?11
LAFEW He hath abandoned his physicians, madam, under
whose practices he hath persecuted time13 with hope, and
finds no other advantage in the process but only the losing of
hope by time.
COUNTESS This young gentlewoman had a father — O, that
‘had’! How sad a passage17 ’tis! — whose skill was almost as
great as his honesty18, had it stretched so far, would have made
nature immortal, and death should have play for lack of
work. Would20 for the king’s sake he were living! I think it
would be the death of the king’s disease.
LAFEW How called you the man you speak of, madam?
COUNTESS He was famous, sir, in his profession, and it was his
great right to be so: Gerard de Narbon.24
LAFEW He was excellent indeed, madam. The king very
lately spoke of him admiringly and mourningly: he was
skilful enough to have lived still27, if knowledge could be set up
against mortality.
BERTRAM What is it, my good lord, the king languishes of?
LAFEW A fistula30, my lord.
BERTRAM I heard not of it before.
LAFEW I would it were not notorious.32 Was this
gentlewoman the daughter of Gerard de Narbon?
COUNTESS His sole child, my lord, and bequeathed to my
overlooking. I have those hopes of her good35 that her
education promises her dispositions36 she inherits, which
makes fair gifts fairer. For where an unclean37 mind carries
virtuous qualities, there commendations go with pity38, they
are virtues and traitors too. In her they are the better for
their simpleness; she derives40 her honesty and achieves her
goodness.
LAFEW Your commendations, madam, get from her tears.
COUNTESS ’Tis the best brine a maiden can season43 her praise
in. The remembrance of her father never approaches her
heart but the tyranny of her sorrows takes all livelihood45
from her cheek. No more of this, Helena. Go to46, no more, lest
it be rather thought you affect a sorrow than to have.47
HELEN I do affect a sorrow indeed, but I have it too.
LAFEW Moderate lamentation is the right of49 the dead,
excessive grief the enemy to the living.
COUNTESS If the living be enemy to the grief, the excess makes51
it soon mortal.
BERTRAM Madam, I desire your holy53 wishes.
LAFEW How understand we that?54
COUNTESS Be thou blest, Bertram, and succeed thy father
In manners as in shape. Thy blood56 and virtue
Contend for empire57 in thee, and thy goodness
Share with thy birthright.58 Love all, trust a few,
Do wrong to none. Be able59 for thine enemy
Rather in power than use, and keep thy friend60
Under thy own life’s key. Be checked61 for silence,
But never taxed for speech. What heaven more will62,
That thee may furnish and my prayers pluck63 down,
To Lafew
Fall on thy head! Farewell.— My lord,
’Tis an unseasoned65 courtier. Good my lord,
Advise him.
LAFEW He cannot want the best67
That shall attend his love.68
COUNTESS Heaven bless him.— Farewell, Bertram.
[Exit]
To Helen
BERTRAM The best wishes that can be forged70 in your
thoughts be servants to you! Be comfortable71 to my mother,
your mistress, and make much of72 her.
LAFEW Farewell, pretty lady. You must hold the credit73 of
your father.
[Exeunt Bertram and Lafew]
HELEN O, were that all! I think not on my father,
And these great tears grace his remembrance more76
Than those I shed for him. What was he like?
I have forgot him. My imagination
Carries no favour79 in’t but Bertram’s.
I am undone.80 There is no living, none,
If Bertram be away. ’Twere all one81
That I should love a bright particular star
And think to wed it, he is so above me.
In his bright radiance and collateral84 light
Must I be comforted, not in his sphere85;
Th’ambition in my love thus plagues itself:
The hind87 that would be mated by the lion
Must die for love. ’Twas pretty88, though a plague,
To see him every hour, to sit and draw
His archèd brows, his hawking90 eye, his curls
In our heart’s table — heart too capable91
Of every line and trick of his sweet favour92:
But now he’s gone, and my idolatrous fancy93
Must sanctify his relics.94 Who comes here?
Enter Parolles
Aside
One that goes with him: I love him for his95 sake,
And yet I know him a notorious liar,
Think him a great way fool, solely97 a coward.
Yet these fixed evils sit so fit98 in him
That they take place when virtue’s steely99 bones
Looks bleak i’th’cold wind. Withal, full oft100 we see
Cold wisdom waiting on superfluous101 folly.
PAROLLES Save you, fair queen!102
HELEN And you, monarch!
PAROLLES No.
HELEN And no.
PAROLLES Are you meditating on virginity?
HELEN Ay. You have some stain107 of soldier in you. Let me ask
you a question. Man is enemy to virginity: how may we
barricado109 it against him?
PAROLLES Keep110 him out.
HELEN But he assails, and our virginity, though valiant, in
the defence yet is weak. Unfold112 to us some warlike resistance.
PAROLLES There is none. Man setting down before you113 will
undermine you and blow you up.114
HELEN Bless115 our poor virginity from underminers and
blowers up! Is there no military policy116 how virgins might
blow up men?
PAROLLES Virginity being blown down, man will quicklier be118
blown up. Marry, in blowing him down119 again, with the
breach yourselves made, you lose your city. It is not politic120 in
the commonwealth of nature to preserve virginity.
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