Line Numbers are editorial, for reference and to key the explanatory and textual notes.
Explanatory Notes explain allusions and gloss obsolete and difficult words, confusing phraseology, occasional major textual cruces, and so on. Particular attention is given to nonstandard usage, bawdy innuendo, and technical terms (e.g. legal and military language). Where more than one sense is given, commas indicate shades of related meaning, slashes alternative or double meanings.
Textual Notes at the end of the play indicate major departures from the Folio. They take the following form: the reading of our text is given in bold and its source given after an equals sign with "F2" indicating a correction that derives from the Second Folio of 1632, "F3" a correction from the Third Folio of 1663--64, "F4" one from the Fourth Folio of 1685, and "Ed" one that derives from the subsequent editorial tradition. The rejected Folio ("F") reading is then given. Thus for Act 2 Scene 5 line 30: "2.5.30 heard = F2. F = hard" means we have adopted F2's "heard" instead of Folio's "hard" in the phrase "should be once heard and thrice beaten," judging that it makes better sense of the line and that "hard" was either a scribal or compositorial error.
KEY FACTS
MAJOR PARTS: (with percentages of lines/number of speeches/scenes onstage) Helen (16%/109/12), Parolles (13%/141/11), King of France (13%/87/4), Countess (10%/86/7), Bertram (9%/102/10), Lafew (9%/97/7), Lavatch (7%/58/6), First Lord Dumaine (5%/ 70/7), Second Lord Dumaine (4%/47/6), Diana (4%/44/4), First Soldier/Interpreter (3%/37/2), Widow (2%/21/5).
LINGUISTIC MEDIUM: 55% verse, 45% prose.
DATE: No external evidence to indicate when written or first performed; usually dated to early Jacobean years (1603--06) on stylistic grounds and because of similarity to Measure for Measure. 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
Act 1 Scene 1
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 i
n 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 arched 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. Loss of
virginity is rational increase, and there was never virgin got122
till virginity was first lost. That you were made of is mettle123 to
make virgins. Virginity by being once lost may be ten times
found. By being ever kept, it is ever lost. 'Tis too cold125 a
companion. Away with't!
HELEN I will stand for't127 a little, though therefore I die a
virgin.
PAROLLES There's little can be said in't129, 'tis against the rule of
nature. To speak on the part130 of virginity is to accuse your
mothers, which is most infallible disobedience. He that131
hangs himself is a virgin: virginity murders itself and should
be buried in highways out of all sanctified limit133, as a
desperate offendress134 against nature. Virginity breeds mites,
much like a cheese, consumes itself to the very paring135, and
so dies with feeding his own stomach.136 Besides, virginity is
peevish137, proud, idle, made of self-love, which is the most
inhibited sin in the canon.138 Keep it not, you cannot choose
but lose by't. Out with't! Within ten year it will make itself139
two, which is a goodly increase, and the principal140 itself not
much the worse. Away with't!
HELEN How142 might one do, sir, to lose it to her own liking?
PAROLLES Let me see. Marry, ill, to like him that ne'er it143 likes.
'Tis a commodity will lose the gloss with lying144: the longer
kept, the less worth. Off with't while 'tis vendible. Answer145
the time of request. Virginity, like an old courtier, wears her
cap out of fashion: richly suited but unsuitable147, just like the
brooch and the toothpick, which wear not now. Your date148 is
better in your pie and your porridge than in your cheek.149 And
your virginity, your old virginity, is like one of our French
withered pears: it looks ill, it eats dryly.151 Marry, 'tis a withered
pear: it was formerly better: marry, yet 'tis a withered pear.
Will you anything with it?
HELEN Not my virginity yet --
There155 shall your master have a thousand loves,
A mother156 and a mistress and a friend,
A phoenix157, captain and an enemy,
A guide, a goddess, and a sovereign,
A counsellor, a traitress, and a dear.
His humble ambition, proud humility,
His jarring concord, and his discord dulcet161,
His faith, his sweet disaster.162 With a world
Of pretty, fond, adoptious christendoms163
That blinking Cupid gossips.164 Now shall he --
I know not what he shall. God send him well!165
The court's a learning place, and he is one--
PAROLLES What one, i'faith?
HELEN That I wish well. 'Tis pity--
PAROLLES What's pity?
HELEN That wishing well had not a body170 in't,
Which might be felt, that we, the poorer born,
Whose baser stars do shut us up in172 wishes,
Might with effects of them173 follow our friends,
And show what we alone must think174, which never
Returns us thanks.175
Enter Page
[Exit]
PAROLLES Little Helen, farewell. If I can remember thee, I will
think of thee at court.
HELEN Monsieur Parolles, you were born under a charitable star.
PAROLLES Under Mars, ay.180
HELEN I especially think, under Mars.
PAROLLES Why under Mars?
HELEN The wars hath so kept you under183 that you must
needs be born under Mars.
PAROLLES When he was predominant.185
HELEN When he was retrograde186, I think rather.
PAROLLES Why think you so?
HELEN You go so much backward188 when you fight.
PAROLLES That's for advantage.189
HELEN So is running away, when fear proposes the safety.
But the composition191 that your valour and fear makes in you
is a virtue of a good wing, and I like the wear192 well.
PAROLLES I am so full of businesses, I cannot answer thee
acutely. I will return perfect courtier in the which194, my
instruction shall serve to naturalize195 thee, so thou wilt
be capable of196 a courtier's counsel and understand what
advice shall thrust197 upon thee. Else thou diest in thine
unthankfulness, and thine ignorance makes thee away.198
Farewell. When thou hast leisure199, say thy prayers. When
thou hast none, remember thy friends. Get thee a good
husband, and use201 him as he uses thee. So, farewell.
[Exit]
HELEN Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie,
Which we ascribe to heaven. The fated203 sky
Gives us free scope, only doth backward pull
Our slow designs when we ourselves are dull.205
What power is it which mounts my love so high,
That makes me see, and cannot feed207 mine eye?
The mightiest space in fortune208 nature brings
To join like likes and kiss like native209 things.
Impossible be strange attempts210 to those
That weigh their pains in sense211 and do suppose
What hath been cannot be. Who ever strove
To show her merit that did miss213 her love?
The king's disease -- my project may deceive me,
But my intents are fixed and will not leave me.
Exit
[Act 1 Scene 2]
running scene 2
Flourish cornets. Enter the King of France, with letters, and divers Attendants
KING The Florentines and Senoys are by th'ears1,
Have fought with equal fortune and continue
A braving3 war.
FIRST LORD So 'tis reported, sir.
KING Nay, 'tis most credible. We here receive it
A certainty, vouched from our cousin6 Austria,
With caution that the Florentine will move7 us
For speedy aid, wherein our dearest friend8
Prejudicates9 the business and would seem
To have us make denial.10
FIRST LORD His love and wisdom,
Approved12 so to your majesty, may plead
For amplest credence.13
KING He hath armed14 our answer,
And Florence15 is denied before he comes:
Yet, for our gentlemen that mean to see16
The Tuscan service17, freely have they leave
To stand on either part.18
SECOND LORD It well may serve
A nursery to our gentry, who are sick20
For breathing and exploit.21
KING What's he comes here?
Enter Bertram, Lafew and Parolles
FIRST LORD It is the Count Rossillion, my good lord,