Confounds thy fame, as whirlwinds shake fair buds; A woman moved is like a fountain troubled, To offer war where they should kneel for peace; ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL. Helena, a favoured attendant on the Countess of Roussillon, is secretly in love with Bertram, son of the countess, he being ignorant of her attachment to him. The play opens with the departure of Bertram for France, the king of which country is suffering from a malady, which is pronounced by his physicians to be incurable. Helena's father, who has been dead six months, was a physician of eminence; and she, possessing a knowledge of the virtues of some of his prescriptions, follows Bertram to the Court of France, anxious to try the effect of her father's prescriptions on the king. She obtains his majesty's consent to make the trial and restores him to health, claiming as her reward the hand of Bertram, who is commanded by the French king to marry Helena forthwith. Much against his inclination, Bertram assents to the marriage, and immediately after the ceremony orders his newly-wedded wife to return to his mother at Roussillon, whilst he himself departs for the wars, and, attended by Parolles, a vain and empty braggart, who figures conspicuously in the play, he joins the army of the Duke of Florence. Helena, in disguise, proceeds to Florence in search of Bertram ; without making herself known to him, she follows him home to Roussillon, where, to the great satisfaction of his mother and the King of France, he accepts her as his wife. Dr. Johnson says—“This play has many delightful scenes, though not sufficiently probable, and some happy characters, though not new, nor produced by any deep knowledge of human nature." ACT I. Advice. Be thou blest, Bertram! and succeed thy father Rather in power, than use; and keep thy friend Too ambitious Love. I am undone; there is no living, none, Helena's description of Parolles. I know him a notorious liar, Think him a great way fool, solely a coward: That they take place, when virtue's steely bones The remedy of Evils exists in Ourselves. Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie, Which we ascribe to heaven: the fated sky * The tablet or surface on which a picture is painted, used here for the picture itself. † Peculiarity of feature. ↑ Countenance Gives us free scope; only doth backward pull, In his youth He had the wit, which I can well observe And bow'd his eminent top to their low ranks, Making them proud of his humility, In their poor praise he humbled; such a man Humility. The Count Rousillon cannot be my brother: : Helena's Hopeless Love for Bertram. Then, I confess, Here on my knee, before high heaven and you, That before you, and next unto high heaven, * Hand of a clock; the word clock in a previous line being used metaphorically. I love your son :— My friends were poor, but honest; so's my love. Be not offended; for it hurts not him, That he is lov'd of me: I follow him not Nor would I have him, till I do deserve him; The sun, that looks upon his worshipper, ACT II. Honour due to Personal Virtue, not to Birth. From lowest place when virtuous things proceed, And is not like the sire: Honours best thrive, * Captious and intenible sieve-able to receive, but not to retain. + Titles. Good is good in itself, and so is vileness vile, without reference to worldly considerations. |