All's Well That Ends Well (21 page)

Lines 47–86:
Bertram says he can't give her the ring since it's a family heirloom and it would be shameful to lose it. Diana counters his argument, saying that her honor's “such a ring,” that her “chastity's the jewel of our house,” and that it would be equally shameful to lose that. He is persuaded and gives her the ring and vows his “house,” “honour,” and “life” are all hers and he'll do what she asks. She tells him to come to her at midnight. After giving him her virginity, he can only remain one hour and he must not speak to her. She will explain her reasons when his ring is returned to him and she will give him a ring which will be a token of past deeds in the future. She ambiguously claims that he has “won / A wife of me.” He believes he has won “A heaven on earth” and leaves. Diana reflects that her mother told her just what he'd say and do and for herself she'd rather stay single; however, she doesn't think it's a sin to deceive him in this way since he would cheat her.

Lines 1–68:
The French lords are discussing Bertram and his reaction to a letter from his mother. They say he is blamed for his treatment
of Helen which has displeased the king. The first lord confides how Bertram has seduced “a young gentlewoman” in Florence and given her his ring. He will be back after midnight and they decide to postpone their interrogation of Parolles till then so that Bertram can see for himself how poor his judgment has been. In the meanwhile, peace has been concluded between the combatants. They question what Bertram will do now, whether he will continue his travels or return to France. He has been told of Helen's flight and pilgrimage to Saint Jaques and that she is now dead. They think it a pity that he will be glad of such news and reflect on the paradox that his valor as a soldier is countermanded by his domestic shame, reflecting further that “The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together.”

Lines 69–106:
Bertram's servant appears and they ask where his master is. He replies that he is saying farewell to the Duke of Florence since he is going to France in the morning. Bertram then enters and explains that he has been busy saying farewell to the Duke and his friends, burying and mourning a wife, writing to his mother, organizing his return, and “many nicer deeds,” concluding that the last was the “greatest” but isn't yet finished. He's now ready for the “dialogue between the fool and the soldier.” Parolles, who has been in the stocks all night, is sent for. He has been weeping like a woman and has confessed everything right up to the present. Bertram is concerned about what Parolles has said of him.

Lines 107–309:
They interrogate the still-blindfolded Parolles in a comic nonsense language with one soldier interpreting throughout. Parolles immediately betrays all the secrets of the army. Bertram is shocked and disgusted by his former friend and mentor's performance. They search him for letters and find a “sonnet” from Parolles to Diana about Bertram, calling him a “dangerous and lascivious boy” and advising her not to trust him. They threaten him with hanging and Parolles begs for his life, to live under any conditions. They ask him about the characters of the French lords and of Bertram and he betrays and insults them all. They finally remove his blindfold and Parolles sees that he has been duped and asks plaintively, “Who cannot be crushed with a plot?” They leave him promising to reveal his impudence in France. Parolles is undaunted, claiming he doesn't
care. He's glad and won't be a captain any longer. He'll just be himself: “Simply the thing I am / Shall make me live.”

Helen assures the Widow and Diana that she has not wronged them and says that they must go and kneel before the King who is at Marseille. They willingly agree to do as she asks. Helen reflects on the strangeness of men who can “such sweet use make of what they hate.” She regrets that Diana will have more to suffer for her sake but believes that her end is justified.

Lafew and the Countess are discussing recent events with Lavatch present. Lafew claims that Bertram was led astray by Parolles. The Countess says her grief is for the death of Helen whom she could not have loved more if she'd been Helen's real mother. Lafew and Lavatch continue a conversation full of the Clown's witty banter until Lafew sends him away. The Countess says that Bertram is amused by him and he's allowed to stay but gets carried away with his wit. Lafew then says that since Helen's dead, he suggested to the King that Bertram should marry his daughter. The King agreed to his proposition and he wondered what the Countess thought of it. She too is content. The King is to arrive from Marseille the next day. Lavatch returns to say that Bertram has arrived, wearing a velvet patch on his left cheek.

Helen, the Widow, and Diana have arrived at Marseille and Helen asks the gentleman keeper of the King's hawks (the Astringer) to present the King with a petition, only to be told that the King has already left for Rossillion. Since he's going to Rossillion himself, she asks the Astringer again to present the petition to the King for her; he'll be well rewarded and they will follow.

Parolles asks Lavatch to deliver a letter from him to Lafew. Lavatch complains that he smells and tells him to deliver it himself since Lafew is here. Parolles asks Lafew to help him since it was he who first “found” him out. Lafew says he will see him after; he can hear the King's trumpets, but even though he's “a fool and a knave” he shall still eat.

Lines 1–64:
The King is discussing Helen with the Countess. He regrets her death and Bertram's folly. The Countess puts it down to his youth and asks for him to be forgiven. Lafew adds that he wronged everyone, especially himself, through the loss of such a wife. The King sends for Bertram and asks what his response was to the proposed match with Lafew's daughter. Lafew says Bertram was content to do as the King wished. Bertram enters and the King tells him that he is “not a day of season,” meaning that his moods are changeable and now his anger has passed. Bertram begs his pardon and the King says he is forgiven. He then reminds him of Lafew's daughter. Bertram says that he always admired her before his judgment was warped by contempt. Understanding how he has misjudged things, he has finally come to love the woman everyone praised and he, since he has lost her, has learned to love.

Lines 65–116:
The King is pleased to hear of Bertram's love for Helen, even though it comes too late. He reflects how often we fail to value what we have until we've lost it. And now he advises Bertram to forget Helen and think of Maudlin (Lafew's daughter). Lafew asks for a token to give his daughter from Bertram and Bertram gives him a ring. Lafew says he last saw it on Helen's hand, but Bertram denies it belonged to Helen. The King then says that he gave it to her himself, adding that if she was ever in need, by this token he would help her. The King wonders how Bertram acquired it. Bertram assures the King it didn't belong to Helen. Both the Countess and Lafew assure Bertram that they saw her wear it, but Bertram explains it was
thrown to him wrapped in paper from a casement window in Florence by a lady who refused to have it back.

Lines 117–69:
The King intervenes to say that he knows the ring; it was his, he gave it to Helen, and she swore that she would never take it from her finger except to give it to Bertram in her bed or to send it to the King. Bertram says she never saw it, but the King says he is lying, and the King is now full of doubt and fear about Helen's fate. He orders Bertram to be detained; he will investigate the matter further. As he is led away Bertram says the King can as easily prove the ring was Helen's as that he had sex with her in Florence, where she'd never been. The King is full of anxiety. The Gentleman hawk-keeper arrives and gives him the petition from Diana which claims that she has been seduced by Bertram. Lafew says he no longer wants Bertram for a son-in-law after this—he'd rather buy himself one “in a fair.” The King sends for the Widow and Diana and for Bertram again.

Lines 170–255:
The King voices his fear that Helen was murdered. Diana and her mother enter. Bertram admits that he knows them but that's all. Diana asks him why he treats his wife like a stranger, but he denies that she's his wife. When asked if he does not believe he took her virginity, he claims she's a common prostitute. She then holds up the ring that Bertram gave her. The Countess recognizes it as a family heirloom and says it's proof that Diana is his wife. Parolles is sent for as a witness to the truth of this. Bertram now says that everyone knows Parolles is a liar, but the King points out that Diana has Bertram's ring. Bertram admits he had sex with her. She says she will return his ring if he will give her hers again. When asked what ring, she says it was like the one the King is wearing and she gave it to Bertram in bed.

Lines 256–333:
Bertram admits the ring was Diana's. Parolles confirms that he acted as go-between for Bertram to Diana. The King asks Diana how she came by the ring and she says she neither bought it nor was loaned nor gave it. They cannot understand her riddling words and the King is about to send her to prison when she asks her mother to “fetch my bail.” She says that even though he
thinks he did, Bertram never harmed her and she forgives him. He believes that he had sex with her but he actually made his wife pregnant. Even though she's dead, his wife “feels her young one kick.” Her riddle is: “one that's dead is quick,” and she invites them all to “behold the meaning” as Helen and the Widow appear.

Lines 334–65:
Everyone is amazed. Helen tells Bertram she is the “shadow of a wife” he sees, “The name and not the thing.” He replies that she is both and begs her pardon. She says that when he thought she was Diana, he was kind to her, and she shows him the letter and the ring, asking him if he will be hers now he is “doubly won.” He says if she can explain it all to him, he'll love her forever. She says if it isn't clear, he can have a divorce. Lafew asks Parolles for a handkerchief and promises to joke with him. The King demands to know the full story from Diana and says that if she's a virgin, she can choose herself a husband and he'll pay her dowry, since he guesses it was with her help that Helen was able to win Bertram. They will learn the rest in due time, meanwhile everything “seems well” and since it's ending so fittingly, the bitterness of past experiences makes the present sweetness more welcome.

The King speaks a short epilogue in which he says that he is now a beggar as he asks the audience, if they are pleased with the play, for applause—“Your gentle hands”—while the players offer their “hearts.”

The best way to understand a Shakespeare play is to see it or ideally to participate in it. By examining a range of productions, we may gain a sense of the extraordinary variety of approaches and interpretations that are possible—a variety that gives Shakespeare his unique capacity to be reinvented and made “our contemporary” four centuries after his death.

We begin with a brief overview of the play's theatrical and cinematic life, offering historical perspectives on how it has been performed. We then analyze in more detail a series of productions staged over the last half-century by the Royal Shakespeare Company. The sense of dialogue between productions that can only occur when a company is dedicated to the revival and investigation of the Shakespeare canon over a long period, together with the uniquely comprehensive archival resource of promptbooks, program notes, reviews, and interviews held on behalf of the RSC at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust in Stratford-upon-Avon, allows an “RSC stage history” to become a crucible in which the chemistry of the play can be explored.

Finally, we go to the horse's mouth. Modern theater is dominated by the figure of the director, who must hold together the whole play, whereas the actor must concentrate on his or her part. The director's viewpoint is therefore especially valuable. Shakespeare's plasticity is wonderfully revealed when we hear directors of highly successful productions answering the same questions in very different ways. We also hear from an actor about his experience of playing Parolles in a much praised performance.

Despite its catchy, proverbial title, the unconventional characters and plot of
All's Well That Ends Well
have won it few admirers and often evoked negative responses to the play from the time it was written in the early seventeenth century until at least the middle of the twentieth. There is no evidence of any performance before the closure of the theaters in 1642 and, although it was assigned to Thomas Killigrew's King's Company in 1660 after the Restoration, it wasn't staged until Henry Giffard's production at Goodman's Fields Theatre in 1741 when Shakespeare's comedies were becoming popular once more. Giffard played Bertram with his wife as Helen and Joseph Petersen as Parolles. The braggart soldier became a favorite part with actors thereafter and the focus on which many subsequent revivals and adaptations were based.

The following year the play acquired a reputation as “the unfortunate comedy” when it was put on at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, for the first time. Milward playing the King caught cold and died shortly after, while Peg Woffington as Helen was taken ill and fainted onstage. Theophilus Cibber played Parolles to great acclaim, although the part had originally been assigned to Charles Macklin which caused further ill-feeling in the company. Henry Woodward, who took over as Parolles in Giffard's Covent Garden production of 1746, was so successful that he continued to play the part for the next thirty years. He reprised the role in David Garrick's 1756 adaptation, which was built around his performance and emphasized the play's farcical elements. John Bannister's 1785 revival at the Haymarket went even further, virtually eliminating Helen and the first three acts. Neither were well received, though, and John Philip Kemble's 1793 adaptation shifted the focus back to Helen, played by Dorothy Jordan, with himself as Bertram and Bannister again playing Parolles.