The Complete Works of William Shakespeare. William Shakespeare

THOMAS OF WOODSTOCK

       POETRY

       THE SONNETS

       VENUS AND ADONIS

       THE RAPE OF LUCRECE

       THE PASSIONATE PILGRIM

       THE PHOENIX AND THE TURTLE

       A LOVER’S COMPLAINT

       LIFE OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

       PREFACE

       I—PARENTAGE AND BIRTH

       II—CHILDHOOD, EDUCATION, AND MARRIAGE

       III—THE FAREWELL TO STRATFORD

       IV—ON THE LONDON STAGE

       V.—EARLY DRAMATIC EFFORTS

       VI—THE FIRST APPEAL TO THE READING PUBLIC

       VII—THE SONNETS AND THEIR LITERARY HISTORY

       VIII—THE BORROWED CONCEITS OF THE SONNETS

       IX—THE PATRONAGE OF THE EARL OF SOUTHAMPTON

       X—THE SUPPOSED STORY OF INTRIGUE IN THE SONNETS

       XI—THE DEVELOPMENT OF DRAMATIC POWER

       XII—THE PRACTICAL AFFAIRS OF LIFE

       XIII—MATURITY OF GENIUS

       XIV—THE HIGHEST THEMES OF TRAGEDY

       XV—THE LATEST PLAYS

       XVI—THE CLOSE OF LIFE

       XVII—SURVIVORS AND DESCENDANTS

       XVIII—AUTOGRAPHS, PORTRAITS, AND MEMORIALS

       XIX—BIBLIOGRAPHY

       XX—POSTHUMOUS REPUTATION

       XXI—GENERAL ESTIMATE

       APPENDIX

      COMEDIES

      ALL’S WELL THAT ENDS WELL

       Table of Contents

      By William Shakespeare

       PERSONS REPRESENTED.

       KING OF FRANCE.

       THE DUKE OF FLORENCE.

       BERTRAM, Count of Rousillon.

       LAFEU, an old Lord.

       PAROLLES, a follower of Bertram.

       Several young French Lords, that serve with Bertram in the

       Florentine War.

       Steward, Servant to the Countess of Rousillon.

       Clown, Servant to the Countess of Rousillon.

       A Page, Servant to the Countess of Rousillon.

       COUNTESS OF ROUSILLON, Mother to Bertram.

       HELENA, a Gentlewoman protected by the Countess.

       An old Widow of Florence.

       DIANA, daughter to the Widow.

       VIOLENTA, neighbour and friend to the Widow.

       MARIANA, neighbour and friend to the Widow.

       Lords attending on the KING; Officers; Soldiers, &c., French and

       Florentine.

       SCENE: Partly in France, and partly in Tuscany.

       ACT I.

      SCENE 1. Rousillon. A room in the COUNTESS’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 practices 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 liv’d still, if knowledge could be set up against mortality.