You’ll be amazed as Helena uses her medical skills to bring the king back from death’s door with an old family cure. Although not as amazed as a real doctor, maybe …..

All’s Well That Ends Well is not considered one of Shakespeare’s best plays, and to a certain degree this evaluation is deserved. Certainly the level of the writing is uneven, and there are a few very unmemorable characters. However, the comedy is as broad as anything we can see in Comedy of Errors or Taming of the Shrew, and while it may not have the most distinctive verse, it is unmistakable as the Bard’s. It is possible that this was an early comedy which Shakespeare later revised for production, but at that stage of his career he was much more interested in writing the great tragedies such as Hamlet, Othello, and King Lear. According to one theory, this was the long-lost comedy which a contemporary had referred to as Love’s Labours Won.

The probable source for this play is Boccaccio’s Decameron (a collection of stories which also inspired Cymbeline.) It contains many elements which are familiar to the regular Shakespeare reader: in particular, strong and virtuous women who remain steadfast and constant despite the multiple flaws of the men. (Here’s a quiz: how many plays can you name which follow this pattern? And conversely, how many have female characters who get into trouble for their vices? The answers are below!)

It has been suggested, among the people who claim that William Shakespeare is not the true creator of these plays, that the only author who could have written so admiringly about women is another woman (they actually suggest that Queen Elizabeth is the most likely candidate!) I don’t agree at all, but it is clear that whoever wrote the plays admired and respected women very much. In particular we have the character of Helena, who sees through the immaturity and insensitivity of Bertram and loves him anyway. Even the smaller parts, such as Diana, the Widow, and the Countess, are overwhelmingly positive roles.

On the other hand, we also have Bertram and Parolles. While they are not evil to the degree of an Aaron, Edmund, or Iago, they provide a foil for the strength and love of the women. Bertram may at heart have a loveable nature, but it’s not apparent to anyone except Helena herself. We never really know what she sees in him (but then, all of us have known couples like that, haven’t we?) To help explain this mystery, Shakespeare gave us the character of Parolles, a thinner version of Falstaff; we are given to understand that it is Parolles who has been corrupting Bertram, and as Bertram’s eyes are opened to what a braggart and coward Parolles is, he begins to reject his bad influence. The parallels between Parolles and Falstaff are amusing: compare the “ambush” of Parolles in Act IV to Falstaff bragging about the “highway robbery” in Henry IV Part 1.

In addition to these familiar themes, this play presents a point of view that is absent in any other that I can think of — namely, that the concept of “noble blood” is meaningless, and that a good person of “low” birth, such as Helena, would be a fine match for a count like Bertram. In a sense, this is Shakespeare’s most egalitarian play. In no other play do we have such a repudiation of the age-old prejudice that the nobility should never marry commoners. No less a character than the king mandates that, as a reward for their virtue, both Helena and Diana, who have no blue blood at all, may choose from among the lords for their husbands. (The king, it must be said, exempts the royal family from this choice. Even Shakespeare, no matter how egalitarian his feelings may have been, couldn’t go that far!) Compare Helena with Ophelia, who is instructed by her father Polonius that “Lord Hamlet is a prince out of thy star.” Bertram, no doubt, would have agreed with this sentiment, at least in the beginning when he flees to war rather than consummate his marriage to this woman he feels is so far beneath him. Only by the end of the play does he see how lucky he is to be married to such a wonderful person.

In this play, as in Measure for Measure, two women fool a man by switching places in bed and the man never suspects a thing. Shakespeare may have admired women, but what must he have thought about men, to have both Bertram and Angelo completely taken in by this trick?

Answers to Quiz:

All’s Well –  Helena, Diana, Countess

AYLI –  Rosalind, Celia

C of E –  Adriana, Luciana

Cymbeline – Imogen

Lear –  Cordelia

Measure – Mariana

Merry Wives –  Anne, Mrs. Page, Mrs. Ford

Much Ado –  Hero, Beatrice

Othello –  Desdemona, Emilia

Two Gents –  Julia, Silvia

Winter’s Tale –  Hermione

Answers to Anti-Quiz:

Coriolanus –   Volumnia

Cymbeline –  Queen

Hamlet – Gertrude   

Henry VI –  Joan of Arc 

Lear –  Goneril, Regan 

Macbeth –  Lady Macbeth 

Taming –  Kate 

Titus –  Tamora 

Troilus –  Cressida 

Vocabulary:

• calumnious – false and malicious
• cicatrice – scar
• in fine – to conclude
• malady – illness
• mell – meddle with
• obloquy – abusive language
• owes – owns
• poniards – knives
• quick – alive
• sinister – left
• sithence – since
• surplice – modest robe worn by the clergy
• withal – with
• without – outside of

And some references from classical literature:

• Cressid(a)’s uncle – as Shakespeare himself would dramatize a few years after writing All’s Well That Ends Well, Pandarus was a priest who arranged meetings between his niece Cressida and the Trojan prince Troilus .
• the fox and the grapes – from a tale by Aesop. When the fox couldn’t reach the grapes, he muttered that they were probably sour anyway. Even today, “sour grapes” describes a situation in which one criticizes something one can’t attain.
• Nebuchadnezzar – king of Babylon. According to the Bible, he went mad and started eating grass like a cow.
• Pepin and Charlemain – two ancient French kings

ACT I

scene i

Count Bertram is called by the King to attend him, leaving behind his mother the countess, recently widowed, and Helena, a young woman who is under the care of the countess. Helena, daughter of a famous doctor who recently died, is in love with Bertram, but he pays her no attention. Parolles, one of Bertram’s companions, debates with Helena over the wisdom of remaining a virgin. Bertram believes that Parolles is a good soldier, but everyone else knows that Parolles is a coward.

scene ii

The king greets Bertram. The king is worried about a war between two of his allies, and will not take either side, but gives permission to members of his court who wish to fight. He is also afflicted by an illness his doctors can’t cure.

scene iii

Bertram’s mother the countess confronts Helena, who confesses that she loves Bertram, but has no hope of marrying him since she is not from a noble family. She announces that her father revealed to her a medicine that could cure the king of his illness, so she will follow Bertram to Paris.

The court clown asks permission to get married.

ACT II

scene i

The king bids farewell to several lords going off to war, but forbids Bertram from joining them. Jealous that others will get all the glory of war, Bertram decides to disobey and leave anyway.

Helena persuades the king to try the medicine she brought. In return he promises that, if it heals him, she may have her pick of any man in the kingdom as her husband.

scene ii

After joking with the clown, the countess sends him with a message for Helena and Bertram.

scene iii

After curing the king, Helena chooses Bertram as her husband. He is shocked that the king would force him to marry someone who doesn’t come from a noble family. Although he goes through with the wedding, he decides never to have sex with her so she can’t have any of his babies, and to run away to the wars instead.

Lafeu, an old lord, picks a fight with Parolles, knowing him to be a great coward. Parolles doesn’t defend himself but vows to get revenge later.

scene iv

After a long discussion with the clown, Parolles tells Helena that Bertram wants her to leave the court immediately.

scene v

Lafeu insults Parolles again, even though Bertram defends him. Bertram sends Helena back to his home, telling her that he will be with her in two days. However, that’s a lie; he vows never to go home to her.

ACT III

scene i

The Duke of Florence discusses the necessity of war, and wonders why the king refuses his request for help.

scene ii

The Countess learns that Bertram has run off to war rather than be a husband to Helena. He swears never to come back unless she gets a ring (which he never takes off) and bears him a child (although he won’t sleep with her.) But Helena still loves him, and rather than let him face the dangers of war, decides to run away herself so he can come back home.

scene iii

Bertram joins the Duke’s army.

scene iv

The countess learns that Helena has run away.

scene v

Helena, disguised as a pilgrim, arrives in Florence. She meets several women of the city who know that Bertram abandoned his wife in France. One of them, named Diana, has been refusing Bertram’s entreaties of love.

scene vi

Bertram’s friends arrange a trick to convince Bertram that Parolles is a coward. In the meantime, Bertram continues to try to seduce Diana.

scene vii

Having revealed herself as Bertram’s real wife, Helena asks for Diana’s help in deceiving him. Namely, Diana must pretend to submit to Bertram’s wooing. Then she will change places with Helena in bed (exactly like Measure for Measure!) so that Helena can get pregnant. In doing so, she must require of him the ring on his finger, and replace it with one the king gave to Helena.

ACT IV

scene i

Bertram’s friends, pretending to be enemy soldiers, capture and blindfold Parolles. He agrees to betray his side if they will spare his life.

scene ii

Diana gets the ring from Bertram, and convinces him that she is willing to have sex with him (although she will trade places with Helena instead.)

scene iii

Bertram hears that Helena has died (still unaware that she is the woman he just had sex with!) and since a truce puts an end to the war he prepares to return to France. However, first he listens to the blindfolded Parolles confess everything there is to confess to his “captors”. This includes dreadful insults about several of the commanders present, Bertram among them. At the end they remove Parolles’ blindfold and walk away, laughing.

scene iv

Helena thanks Diana and her mother for their help, and together they return to France to get to the king ahead of Bertram.

scene v

Lafeu and the Countess mourn, thinking that Helena is dead. They await the return of Bertram. Lafeu has a daughter, whom he suggests that Bertram should marry instead.

ACT V

scene i

Helena arrives in Marseilles, but finds that the king has gone instead to Bertram’s house. She sends a message to the king via a gentleman and hurries after him.

scene ii

Parolles arrives, so dirty (and smelly) from the trip that neither the clown nor Lafeu recognizes him. He asks Lafeu’s help in overcoming the disgrace he’s in, but by now everyone has heard about the trick that was played on him.

scene iii

The king has forgiven Bertram for his disobedience, and agrees that he should marry Lafeu’s daughter instead. However, they see Helena’s ring on his finger, and believe that he murdered her for it. Diana arrives, claiming to be Bertram’s wife, shows his ring as proof, and identifies Helena’s ring as her own. Bertram tries to wiggle out of it, but he is caught in his own (and Parolles’) web of lies.

When the king asks Diana how she got Helena’s ring, she begins speaking in riddles, making the king lose patience with her. Now Helena reappears, visibly pregnant, showing that she has fulfilled both of his conditions: she got the ring off his finger, and conceived his child. Now Bertram repents of his actions, and accepts Helena as his wife.