Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

Only $9.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

All's Well That Ends Well
All's Well That Ends Well
All's Well That Ends Well
Ebook157 pages1 hour

All's Well That Ends Well

Rating: 0 out of 5 stars

()

Read preview

About this ebook

All's Well That Ends Well is a play by William Shakespeare, originally classified as a comedy, though now often counted as one of his problem plays, so-called because they cannot be easily classified as tragedy or comedy. It was probably written in later middle part of Shakespeare's career, between 1601 and 1608, and was first published in the First Folio in 1623.

The name of the play comes from the proverb All's well that ends well, which means that problems do not matter so long as the outcome is good.
LanguageEnglish
PublisherFlip
Release dateJun 13, 2018
ISBN9782291037682
Author

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare was born in April 1564 in the town of Stratford-upon-Avon, on England’s Avon River. When he was eighteen, he married Anne Hathaway. The couple had three children—an older daughter Susanna and twins, Judith and Hamnet. Hamnet, Shakespeare’s only son, died in childhood. The bulk of Shakespeare’s working life was spent in the theater world of London, where he established himself professionally by the early 1590s. He enjoyed success not only as a playwright and poet, but also as an actor and shareholder in an acting company. Although some think that sometime between 1610 and 1613 Shakespeare retired from the theater and returned home to Stratford, where he died in 1616, others believe that he may have continued to work in London until close to his death.

Read more from William Shakespeare

Related to All's Well That Ends Well

Related ebooks

Architecture For You

View More

Related articles

Reviews for All's Well That Ends Well

Rating: 0 out of 5 stars
0 ratings

0 ratings0 reviews

What did you think?

Tap to rate

Review must be at least 10 words

    Book preview

    All's Well That Ends Well - William Shakespeare

    All's Well That Ends Well

    All's Well That Ends Well

    William Shakespeare

     Copyright © 2018 by OPU

    All rights reserved.

    No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

    Act I

    SCENE I. Rousillon. The COUNT's palace.

    Enter BERTRAM, the COUNTESS of Rousillon, HELENA, and LAFEU, all in black

    COUNTESS

    In delivering 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 attend his majesty's command, to

    whom I am now in ward, evermore in subjection.

    LAFEU

    You shall find of the king a husband, madam; you,

    sir, a father: he that so generally is at all times

    good must of necessity hold his virtue to you; whose

    worthiness would stir it up where it wanted rather

    than lack it where there is such abundance.

    COUNTESS

    What hope is there of his majesty's amendment?

    LAFEU

    He hath abandoned his physicians, madam; under whose

    practises he hath persecuted time 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 passage 'tis!—whose skill was

    almost as great as his honesty; had it stretched so

    far, would have made nature immortal, and death

    should have play for lack of work. Would, for the

    king's sake, he were living! I think it would be

    the death of the king's disease.

    LAFEU

    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.

    LAFEU

    He was excellent indeed, madam: the king very

    lately spoke of him admiringly and mourningly: he

    was skilful enough to have lived still, if knowledge

    could be set up against mortality.

    BERTRAM

    What is it, my good lord, the king languishes of?

    LAFEU

    A fistula, my lord.

    BERTRAM

    I heard not of it before.

    LAFEU

    I would it were not notorious. 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 good that

    her education promises; her dispositions she

    inherits, which makes fair gifts fairer; for where

    an unclean mind carries virtuous qualities, there

    commendations go with pity; they are virtues and

    traitors too; in her they are the better for their

    simpleness; she derives her honesty and achieves her goodness.

    LAFEU

    Your commendations, madam, get from her tears.

    COUNTESS

    'Tis the best brine a maiden can season her praise

    in. The remembrance of her father never approaches

    her heart but the tyranny of her sorrows takes all

    livelihood from her cheek. No more of this, Helena;

    go to, no more; lest it be rather thought you affect

    a sorrow than have it.

    HELENA

    I do affect a sorrow indeed, but I have it too.

    LAFEU

    Moderate lamentation is the right of the dead,

    excessive grief the enemy to the living.

    COUNTESS

    If the living be enemy to the grief, the excess

    makes it soon mortal.

    BERTRAM

    Madam, I desire your holy wishes.

    LAFEU

    How understand we that?

    COUNTESS

    Be thou blest, Bertram, and succeed thy father

    In manners, as in shape! thy blood and virtue

    Contend for empire in thee, and thy goodness

    Share with thy birthright! Love all, trust a few,

    Do wrong to none: be able for thine enemy

    Rather in power than use, and keep thy friend

    Under thy own life's key: be cheque'd for silence,

    But never tax'd for speech. What heaven more will,

    That thee may furnish and my prayers pluck down,

    Fall on thy head! Farewell, my lord;

    'Tis an unseason'd courtier; good my lord,

    Advise him.

    LAFEU

    He cannot want the best

    That shall attend his love.

    COUNTESS

    Heaven bless him! Farewell, Bertram.

    Exit

    BERTRAM

    [To HELENA] The best wishes that can be forged in

    your thoughts be servants to you! Be comfortable

    to my mother, your mistress, and make much of her.

    LAFEU

    Farewell, pretty lady: you must hold the credit of

    your father.

    Exeunt BERTRAM and LAFEU

    HELENA

    O, were that all! I think not on my father;

    And these great tears grace his remembrance more

    Than those I shed for him. What was he like?

    I have forgot him: my imagination

    Carries no favour in't but Bertram's.

    I am undone: there is no living, none,

    If Bertram be away. 'Twere all one

    That I should love a bright particular star

    And think to wed it, he is so above me:

    In his bright radiance and collateral light

    Must I be comforted, not in his sphere.

    The ambition in my love thus plagues itself:

    The hind that would be mated by the lion

    Must die for love. 'Twas pretty, though plague,

    To see him every hour; to sit and draw

    His arched brows, his hawking eye, his curls,

    In our heart's table; heart too capable

    Of every line and trick of his sweet favour:

    But now he's gone, and my idolatrous fancy

    Must sanctify his reliques. Who comes here?

    Enter PAROLLES

    Aside

    One that goes with him: I love him for his sake;

    And yet I know him a notorious liar,

    Think him a great way fool, solely a coward;

    Yet these fixed evils sit so fit in him,

    That they take place, when virtue's steely bones

    Look bleak i' the cold wind: withal, full oft we see

    Cold wisdom waiting on superfluous folly.

    PAROLLES

    Save you, fair queen!

    HELENA

    And you, monarch!

    PAROLLES

    No.

    HELENA

    And no.

    PAROLLES

    Are you meditating on virginity?

    HELENA

    Ay. You have some stain of soldier in you: let me

    ask you a question. Man is enemy to virginity; how

    may we barricado it against him?

    PAROLLES

    Keep him out.

    HELENA

    But he assails; and our virginity, though valiant,

    in the defence yet is weak: unfold to us some

    warlike resistance.

    PAROLLES

    There is none: man, sitting down before you, will

    undermine you and blow you up.

    HELENA

    Bless our poor virginity from underminers and

    blowers up! Is there no military policy, how

    virgins might blow up men?

    PAROLLES

    Virginity being blown down, man will quicklier be

    blown up: marry, in blowing him down again, with

    the breach yourselves made, you lose your city. It

    is not politic in the commonwealth of nature to

    preserve virginity. Loss of virginity is rational

    increase and there was never virgin got till

    virginity was first lost. That you were made of is

    metal to make virgins. Virginity by being once lost

    may be ten times found; by being ever kept, it is

    ever lost: 'tis too cold a companion; away with 't!

    HELENA

    I will stand for 't a little, though therefore I die a virgin.

    PAROLLES

    There's little can be said in 't; 'tis against the

    rule of nature. To speak on the part of virginity,

    is to accuse your mothers; which is most infallible

    disobedience. He that hangs himself is a virgin:

    virginity murders itself and should be buried in

    highways

    Enjoying the preview?
    Page 1 of 1