All's Well That Ends Well

By William Shakespeare and Paul Werstine

The authoritative edition of All’s Well That Ends Well from The Folger Shakespeare Library, the trusted and widely used Shakespeare series for students and general readers.

Shakespeare’s All’s Well That Ends Well is the story of its heroine, Helen, more so than the story of Bertram, for whose love she yearns. Helen wins Bertram as her husband despite his lack of interest and higher social standing, but she finds little happiness in the victory as he shuns, deserts, and attempts to betray her.

The play suggests some sympathy for Bertram. As a ward to the French king, he must remain at court while his friends go off to war and glory. When Helen cures the King, he makes Bertram available to her. To exert any control over his life, Bertram goes to war in Italy.

Helen then takes the initiative in furthering their marriage, undertaking an arduous journey and a daring trick. Few today, however, see a fairy-tale ending.

This edition includes:
-Freshly edited text based on the best early printed version of the play
-Full explanatory notes conveniently placed on pages facing the text of the play
-Scene-by-scene plot summaries
-A key to the play’s famous lines and phrases
-An introduction to reading Shakespeare’s language
-An essay by a leading Shakespeare scholar providing a modern perspective on the play
-Fresh images from the Folger Shakespeare Library’s vast holdings of rare books
-An annotated guide to further reading

Essay by David McCandless

The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC, is home to the world’s largest collection of Shakespeare’s printed works, and a magnet for Shakespeare scholars from around the globe. In addition to exhibitions open to the public throughout the year, the Folger offers a full calendar of performances and programs. For more information, visit Folger.edu.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Release date: Mar 15, 2016
• ISBN: 9781501136856

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.

Book preview

About this eBook

This eBook contains special symbols that are important for reading and understanding the text. In order to view them correctly, please activate your device’s Publisher Font or Original font setting; use of optional fonts on your device may result in missing, or incorrect, special symbols.

Also, please keep in mind that Shakespeare wrote his plays and poems over four hundred years ago, during a time when the English language was in many ways different than it is today. Because the built-in dictionary on many devices is designed for modern English, be advised that the definitions it provides may not apply to the words as Shakespeare uses them. Whenever available, always check the glosses linked to the text for a proper definition before consulting the built-in dictionary.

THE NEW FOLGER LIBRARY

SHAKESPEARE

Designed to make Shakespeare’s great plays available to all readers, the New Folger Library edition of Shakespeare’s plays provides accurate texts in modern spelling and punctuation, as well as scene-by-scene action summaries, full explanatory notes, many pictures clarifying Shakespeare’s language, and notes recording all significant departures from the early printed versions. Each play is prefaced by a brief introduction, by a guide to reading Shakespeare’s language, and by accounts of his life and theater. Each play is followed by an annotated list of further readings and by a Modern Perspective written by an expert on that particular play.

Barbara A. Mowat is Director of Research emerita at the Folger Shakespeare Library, Consulting Editor of Shakespeare Quarterly, and author of The Dramaturgy of Shakespeare’s Romances and of essays on Shakespeare’s plays and their editing.

Paul Werstine is Professor of English at the Graduate School and at King’s University College at Western University. He is a general editor of the New Variorum Shakespeare and author of Early Modern Playhouse Manuscripts and the Editing of Shakespeare and of many papers and articles on the printing and editing of Shakespeare’s plays.

Folger Shakespeare Library

The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., is a privately funded research library dedicated to Shakespeare and the civilization of early modern Europe. It was founded in 1932 by Henry Clay and Emily Jordan Folger, and incorporated as part of Amherst College in Amherst, Massachusetts, one of the nation’s oldest liberal arts colleges, from which Henry Folger had graduated in 1879. In addition to its role as the world’s preeminent Shakespeare collection and its emergence as a leading center for Renaissance studies, the Folger Shakespeare Library offers a wide array of cultural and educational programs and services for the general public.

EDITORS

BARBARA A. MOWAT

Director of Research emerita

Folger Shakespeare Library

PAUL WERSTINE

Professor of English

King’s University College at Western University, Canada

From the Director of the Folger Shakespeare Library

It is hard to imagine a world without Shakespeare. Since their composition more than four hundred years ago, Shakespeare’s plays and poems have traveled the globe, inviting those who see and read his works to make them their own.

Readers of the New Folger Editions are part of this ongoing process of taking up Shakespeare, finding our own thoughts and feelings in language that strikes us as old or unusual and, for that very reason, new. We still struggle to keep up with a writer who could think a mile a minute, whose words paint pictures that shift like clouds. These expertly edited texts are presented as a resource for study, artistic exploration, and enjoyment. As a new generation of readers engages Shakespeare in eBook form, they will encounter the classic texts of the New Folger Editions, with trusted notes and up-to-date critical essays available at their fingertips. Now readers can enjoy expertly edited, modern editions of Shakespeare anywhere they bring their e-reading devices, allowing readers not simply to keep up, but to engage deeply with a writer whose works invite us to think, and think again.

The New Folger Editions of Shakespeare’s plays, which are the basis for the texts realized here in digital form, are special because of their origin. The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., is the single greatest documentary source of Shakespeare’s works. An unparalleled collection of early modern books, manuscripts, and artwork connected to Shakespeare, the Folger’s holdings have been consulted extensively in the preparation of these texts. The Editions also reflect the expertise gained through the regular performance of Shakespeare’s works in the Folger’s Elizabethan Theater.

I want to express my deep thanks to editors Barbara Mowat and Paul Werstine for creating these indispensable editions of Shakespeare’s works, which incorporate the best of textual scholarship with a richness of commentary that is both inspired and engaging. Readers who want to know more about Shakespeare and his plays can follow the paths these distinguished scholars have tread by visiting the Folger either in person or online, where a range of physical and digital resources exist to supplement the material in these texts. I commend to you these words, and hope that they inspire.

Michael Witmore

Director, Folger Shakespeare Library

Contents

Editors’ Preface

Shakespeare’s All’s Well That Ends Well

Reading Shakespeare’s Language: All’s Well That Ends Well

Shakespeare’s Life

Shakespeare’s Theater

The Publication of Shakespeare’s Plays

An Introduction to This Text

Characters in the Play

All’s Well That Ends Well

Text of the Play with Commentary

Act 1

Scene 1

Scene 2

Scene 3

Act 2

Scene 1

Scene 2

Scene 3

Scene 4

Scene 5

Act 3

Scene 1

Scene 2

Scene 3

Scene 4

Scene 5

Scene 6

Scene 7

Act 4

Scene 1

Scene 2

Scene 3

Scene 4

Scene 5

Act 5

Scene 1

Scene 2

Scene 3

Epilogue

Longer Notes

Textual Notes

All’s Well That Ends Well: A Modern Perspective

Further Reading

Key to Famous Lines and Phrases

Commentary

Act 1

Scene 1

Scene 2

Scene 3

Act 2

Scene 1

Scene 2

Scene 3

Scene 4

Scene 5

Act 3

Scene 1

Scene 2

Scene 3

Scene 4

Scene 5

Scene 6

Scene 7

Act 4

Scene 1

Scene 2

Scene 3

Scene 4

Scene 5

Act 5

Scene 1

Scene 2

Scene 3

Epilogue

Editors’ Preface

In recent years, ways of dealing with Shakespeare’s texts and with the interpretation of his plays have been undergoing significant change. This edition, while retaining many of the features that have always made the Folger Shakespeare so attractive to the general reader, at the same time reflects these current ways of thinking about Shakespeare. For example, modern readers, actors, and teachers have become interested in the differences between, on the one hand, the early forms in which Shakespeare’s plays were first published and, on the other hand, the forms in which editors through the centuries have presented them. In response to this interest, we have based our edition on what we consider the best early printed version of a particular play (explaining our rationale in a section called An Introduction to This Text) and have marked our changes in the text—unobtrusively, we hope, but in such a way that the curious reader can be aware that a change has been made and can consult the Textual Notes to discover what appeared in the early printed version.

Current ways of looking at the plays are reflected in our brief introductions, in many of the commentary notes, in the annotated lists of Further Reading, and especially in each play’s Modern Perspective, an essay written by an outstanding scholar who brings to the reader his or her fresh assessment of the play in the light of today’s interests and concerns.

As in the Folger Library General Reader’s Shakespeare, which the New Folger Library Shakespeare replaces, we include explanatory notes designed to help make Shakespeare’s language clearer to a modern reader, and we hyperlink notes to the lines that they explain. We also follow the earlier edition in including illustrations—of objects, of clothing, of mythological figures—from books and manuscripts in the Folger Shakespeare Library collection. We provide fresh accounts of the life of Shakespeare, of the publishing of his plays, and of the theaters in which his plays were performed, as well as an introduction to the text itself. We also include a section called Reading Shakespeare’s Language, in which we try to help readers learn to break the code of Elizabethan poetic language.

For each section of each volume, we are indebted to a host of generous experts and fellow scholars. The Reading Shakespeare’s Language sections, for example, could not have been written had not Arthur King, of Brigham Young University, and Randal Robinson, author of Unlocking Shakespeare’s Language, led the way in untangling Shakespearean language puzzles and shared their insights and methodologies generously with us. Shakespeare’s Life profited by the careful reading given it by the late S. Schoenbaum; Shakespeare’s Theater was read and strengthened by Andrew Gurr, John Astington, and William Ingram; and The Publication of Shakespeare’s Plays is indebted to the comments of Peter W. M. Blayney. Among the texts we consulted, we found Susan Snyder’s 1993 Oxford edition of the play especially helpful. We, as editors, take sole responsibility for any errors in our editions.

We are grateful to the authors of the Modern Perspectives; to Leeds Barroll and David Bevington for their generous encouragement; to the Huntington and Newberry Libraries for fellowship support; to King’s College for the grants it has provided to Paul Werstine; to the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, which provided him with a Research Time Stipend for 1990–91; to R. J. Shroyer of the University of Western Ontario for essential computer support; to the Folger Institute’s Center for Shakespeare Studies for its fortuitous sponsorship of a workshop on Shakespeare’s Texts for Students and Teachers (funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities and led by Richard Knowles of the University of Wisconsin), a workshop from which we learned an enormous amount about what is wanted by college and high-school teachers of Shakespeare today; to Alice Falk for her expert copyediting; and especially to Steve Llano, our production editor at Pocket Books, whose expertise and attention to detail are essential to this project.

Our biggest debt is to the Folger Shakespeare Library: to Michael Witmore, Director of the Folger Shakespeare Library, who brings to our work a gratifying enthusiasm and vision; to Gail Kern Paster, Director of the Library from 2002 until July 2011, whose interest and support have been unfailing and whose scholarly expertise continues to be an invaluable resource; and to Werner Gundersheimer, the Library’s Director from 1984 to 2002, who made possible our edition; to Jean Miller, the Library’s Art Curator, who combed the Library holdings for illustrations, and to Julie Ainsworth, Head of the Photography Department, who carefully photographed them; to Peggy O’Brien, Director of Education, who gave us expert advice about the needs being expressed by Shakespeare teachers and students (and to Martha Christian and other master teachers who used our texts in manuscript in their classrooms); to Allan Shnerson and Mary Bloodworth for expert computer support; to the staff of the Academic Programs Division, especially Rachel Kunkle (whose help is crucial), Mary Tonkinson, Kathleen Lynch, Carol Brobeck, Toni Krieger, Liz Pohland, Owen Williams, and Lisa Meyers; and, finally, to the generously supportive staff of the Library’s Reading Room.

Barbara A. Mowat and Paul Werstine

Shakespeare’s All’s Well That Ends Well

All’s Well That Ends Well is, like so many of Shakespeare’s comedies, about a young woman and a young man. Yet All’s Well is in many ways Helen’s story. Helen bears the name of the mythological, incredibly beautiful Helen of Troy, the object of all male desire, but the plot of All’s Well turns on the fact that its heroine is not desired by Bertram, the man whose love she yearns for. In the face of his lack of interest and the wide gap in social standing that separates them, she sets out to win him as a husband. Having technically won him, she finds little happiness in the victory. Before they are married, he ignores her; after they are married, he shuns, deserts, and attempts to betray her. She is the one who takes all the initiative in furthering their union. Such a task is a hard one in a culture that, like Shakespeare’s, consigned women to the passive role of yielding to male desire. Only by providing a spectacular, apparently miraculous, cure for the French king does she win the reward of choosing Bertram as a husband from among the young men whose fates are in the control of the King. Only through an arduous and lonely pilgrimage and a daring trick does she establish her marriage with Bertram.

In a comedy like All’s Well, which centers on courtship and marriage, Bertram’s part is largely an unsympathetic one, for, in fleeing Helen, he impedes the advancement of the plot. However, the play provides points of view from which Bertram may be perceived with some sympathy. As the play opens, Bertram’s father, like Helen’s, has just died. Yet Bertram does not, as we might expect in a comedy, come into his inheritance and assume the rights and responsibilities of an autonomous male. Instead, he becomes a ward to the French king, who severely restricts Bertram’s opportunities to find his own way in the world. When his young friends go off to war to seek fame, Bertram is obliged to maintain his attendance at the King’s court. When Helen cures the King, the King makes Bertram available to her quite against Bertram’s will. When Helen selects him, he is powerless to resist openly. To exert any control over the course of his life, he must flee the King and his native land and go to war in Italy, thereby incurring the displeasure not only of the King but also of his mother the Countess and the rest of the older generation, all of whom disapprove of his treatment of Helen and his flagrant disobedience of the King.

While Bertram finds fulfillment in his transgression, winning glory in battle and also finding sexual satisfaction, and while the play gives us reasons to understand his behavior, he continues to strike us more as an obstacle for Helen to overcome than as a sympathetic hero. The play tells Helen’s fairy-tale story of incredible challenges met and overcome—though few today see a fairy-tale ending at the conclusion of her journey.

After you have read the play, we invite you to turn to the essay "All’s Well That Ends Well: A Modern Perspective," by Professor David McCandless of Carleton College, contained within this eBook.

Reading Shakespeare’s Language: All’s Well That Ends Well

For many people today, reading Shakespeare’s language can be a problem—but it is a problem that can be solved. Those who have studied Latin (or even French or German or Spanish), and those who are used to reading poetry, will have little difficulty understanding the language of Shakespeare’s poetic drama. Others, though, need to develop the skills of untangling unusual sentence structures and of recognizing and understanding poetic compressions, omissions, and wordplay. And even those skilled in reading unusual sentence structures may have occasional trouble with Shakespeare’s words. More than four hundred years of static intervene between his speaking and our hearing. Most of his immense vocabulary is still in use, but a few of his words are not, and, worse, some of his words now have meanings quite different from those they had in the sixteenth century. In the theater, most of these difficulties are solved for us by actors who study the language and articulate it for us so that the essential meaning is heard—or, when combined with stage action, is at least felt. When reading on one’s own, one must do what each actor does: go over the lines (often with a dictionary close at hand) until the puzzles are solved and the lines yield up their poetry and the characters speak in words and phrases that are, suddenly, rewarding and wonderfully memorable.

Shakespeare’s Words

As you begin to read the opening scenes of a play by Shakespeare, you may notice occasional unfamiliar words. Some are unfamiliar simply because we no longer use them. In the opening scenes of All’s Well That Ends Well, for example, you will find the words prejudicates (i.e., condemns in advance), discipled (i.e., trained), approof (i.e., proof), and sithence (i.e., since). Words of this kind are explained in notes to the text and will become familiar the more of Shakespeare’s plays you read.

In All’s Well That Ends Well, as in all of Shakespeare’s writing, more problematic are the words that we still use but that we use with a different meaning. In the opening scenes of All’s Well That Ends Well, for example, the word want has the meaning of lack, simpleness is used where we would say innocence, livelihood is used where we would say liveliness, and taxed where we would say reproved or reprimanded. Such words will be explained in the notes to the text, but they, too, will become familiar as you continue to read Shakespeare’s language.

Some words are strange not because of the static introduced by changes in language over the past centuries but because these are words that Shakespeare is using to build dramatic worlds that have their own space, time, and history. In the first two acts of All’s Well That Ends Well, for example, Shakespeare conjures up a number of different worlds—those of the court, the military, and the medical profession. The first and principal setting is that of the court, both the provincial court of Rossillion and the royal court of the King of France. Power relations within these courts are determined by the accidents of birth (i.e., lineage or blood) and death. Because of his father’s death, Bertram, an unseasoned courtier, is in ward, evermore in subjection to the King of France. Yet to Helen, by birth a gentlewoman to an honorable mistress and therefore below Bertram in social hierarchy, he is a bright particular star. Helen laments the difference betwixt their two estates—between her humble and his honored name—and wishes that their qualities were level. For Bertram, the adventure of a foreign war offers the promise of deliverance from subjection. The Florentines and Senoys are by th’ ears, and Bertram and other young courtiers who are sick for breathing and exploit and who desire to wear themselves in the cap of the time will compete to be the bravest questant and to survive as well-entered soldiers. In the Tuscan service, they will risk being forever disfigured by a cicatrice but will also be thrilled by the bound and high curvet / Of Mars’s fiery steed. Helen will attempt to change the fate of her birth and find the luckiest star in heaven through her practice of medicine or physic, using the applications, prescriptions, receipts, appliance, and empirics that she has inherited from her father against the malignant cause from which the French king suffers. In so doing she will best the schools or congregated college of the artists . . . both of Galen and Paracelsus, learned and authentic fellows.

Shakespeare’s Sentences

In an English sentence, meaning is quite dependent on the place given each word. The dog bit the boy and The boy bit the dog mean very different things, even though the individual words are the same. Because English places such importance on the positions of words in sentences, on the way words are arranged, unusual arrangements can puzzle a reader. Shakespeare frequently shifts his sentences away from normal English arrangements—often to create the rhythm he seeks, sometimes to use a line’s poetic rhythm to emphasize a particular word, sometimes to give a character his or her own speech patterns or to allow the character to speak in a special way. When we attend a good performance of the play, the actors will have worked out the sentence structures and will articulate the sentences so that the meaning is clear. In reading for ourselves, we can do as the actor does. That is, when we become puzzled by a character’s speech, we can check to see if words are being presented in an unusual sequence.

Shakespeare often, for example, rearranges subjects and verbs (e.g., instead of He goes we find Goes he). In All’s Well That Ends Well, when Bertram says of his dead father So in approof lives not his epitaph (1.2.57), he is using such a construction. So is Parolles when he says simply say I (2.3.15). The normal order would be His epitaph lives not so in approof and I say. Shakespeare also frequently places the object before the subject and verb (e.g., instead of I hit him, we might find Him I hit). The Countess’s statement Her dispositions she inherits (1.1.41–42) is an example of such an inversion, as is the French king’s his plausive words / He scattered not in ears (1.2.60–61). The normal order would be She inherits her dispositions and He scattered not his plausive words in ears.

Inversions are not the only unusual sentence structures in Shakespeare’s language. Often in his sentences words that would

Reviews for All's Well That Ends Well

[antiquary_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Although I agree with critics who ask why would the heroine bother to win this unpleasant young man, I do enjoy it overall

[nmhale_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Sometimes designated as a problem play, because it handles social issues with conflicting points of view, this comedy ends with the typical marriage and reconciliation, but the resolution feels far from happy. The story concerns Helena and Bertram as the main couple, with a host of other characters that are much more interesting than Bertram. Bertram is a Count, and his mother took in Helena, the daughter of a famous doctor, after her parents died. The play opens with Bertram heading to court to serve under the king, and Helena grieving because she secretly loves him and can't stand to see him leave. Helena is a complex character. Her love for Bertram is almost incomprehensible, but she is unquestionably clever. She knows the king is dying from an illness no one has been able to cure. She also believes that her father knew the solution, and she concocts a plan. She meets with the king, who is unwilling to trust a woman, and they make a bargain: if she heals him, he will grant her the chance to choose her own husband; if she fails, he will kill her. Helena does heal the king, and when her request is granted, she chooses Bertram as her husband. Unfortunately, Bertram the evil has no interest in his mother's ward, and prefers running off to war over heading to the marriage bed. Even though the reader already loves Helena, Bertram's anger at a forced marriage is sympathetic, perhaps, if it weren't for his cowardly way of handling it. But Bertram's later actions quickly reveal a shallow and dark nature. With evil influence Parrolles by his side, he whores around France and takes pleasure in seducing virgins, drinking and carousing when not involved in battles. Bertram's only redeeming virtue is that he actually is a good solider. Despite his abandonment, and cruel and cowardly letter that accuses Helena with words he wouldn't use in person, Helena is still in love with Bertram. In fact, she feels responsible for his going off to war, and decides that she should take a pilgrimage and leave the country, so that he can feel free to return home.Her voyage coincidentally takes her to the same place where Bertram's troop is stationed - although as Helena's cunning is more and more apparent, coincidentally may not be accurate. She meets the young lady that Bertram is currently trying to seduce, and tells Diana and her mother her story of woe. They agree to assist her in an unorthodox plan, where Helena hides in Diana's darkened room and sleeps with her husband while he thinks she is someone else. That sounds like the course to disaster, but everything technically works out in the end, when Helena reveals herself and Bertram declares that he now will love her forever and ever. Not only that, but Parrolles faces retribution for his evil actions, is taken on as a fool, and Diana is promised the king's aid.The plot is clever, with a fast pace and compelling side characters. There are two deceptions pulled off to great effect - both Bertram's and Parrolles are revealed through trickery - and the dialogue shines with Shakespeare's wit. Bertram ruins this play for me, though, casting it far down on the list of comedies I would like to read or see staged. He is a arrogant and self-loving cad; at the end, the others exonerate him as being influenced by Parrolles, but I don't see any evidence of that in the play. Rather, he chose Parrolles as a match to his own dark nature.

[astrologerjenny · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Bertram! You're such an idiot! It's a good thing your mother and your sweetheart are so wise and forbearing. By rights, you should be thrown to the dogs at the end of this play for acting like a total jackass, but since you're the hero, you get to be redeemed. And Helena still loves you, imagine that, even after you accidentally impregnated her while thinking you were sleeping with a French virgin!

[amerynth · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I found "All's Well that Ends Well" to be really uneven. Helena is in love with Bertram, who apparently hates her for no reason and treats her shabbily... apparently that's incredibly attractive. Of course, with the title the play has, you can guess it's all going to go swimmingly well for Helena even if she has to trick her way into it.Actually, Helena was a pretty interesting character as far as Shakespeare's women go. However, there seemed to be a lot of filler conversations (mostly by a clown in a bunch a dialog that perhaps just hasn't aged well.Overall, I just found this one kind of bland.

[caseybp · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

One of Shakespeare's "problem plays". It is contrived and a little confusing at times. I however loved the play. I think it is funny and clever despite it's problems.

[glennbell_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Witty, clever but difficult to understand the meaning of some discussion due to the use of obsolete or obscure wording. Mildly recommended for the historical value of a classical author.

[coach_of_alva · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

An unsatisfying romantic comedy about a scorned and abandoned wife's efforts to reclaim her husband. To compare this to Shakespeare's romantic comedies is like comparing a Katherine Heigl romcom to one of the great 1930s screwball films.

[jhudsui_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

This title of this comedy refers to the marriage that ensues as a result of its climactic rape so uh yeah this is another one that is up there with Taming Of The Shrew in failing to satisfy modern sensibilities.Also it just me or is Parolles not only fairly okay but even one of the most morally sound characters in this mess? His letter to Diana sounds like he's giving her decent honest advice.

[cmbohn · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Well, it does end with Helena and Bertram married and living together, but he's a big jerk so I'm not sure why she wants him.Helena is the daughter of a gifted physician, recently deceased. Bertram is a Count, newly become ward of the King of France. She heals the king and asks for Bertram as her husband for her reward. He (Bertram) is disgusted by her low rank and runs off to fight a war in Italy. For some totally unknown reason, she thinks it's her fault and sets off on a pilgrimage. Which just happens to take her to Italy.I read the preface in this edition, which suggests that Shakespeare was adapting earlier stories, so the lame plot may not be entirely his fault.I also hated the "clown" parts in this which just weren't funny at all. Then there are all these completely extraneous scenes and dialogues that just slow the action down and make my eyes gloss over. In the theater, that would be the time to run to the restroom.There are a few good lines in here though. Most of them are at the beginning, so you could just stop there. Shakespeare seems to give the best lines to Helena and the King. He must have been playing favorites.Absolutely not his best. I know that seeing the play is always better, but it just couldn't save this play. Don't bother!

[bookworm12_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Helena, a physician's daughter, falls in love with a nobleman, Bertram. She cures the king with the stipulation that he will give her Bertram as her husband. They marry, but Bertram can't stand her and leaves before they even spend one night together. He gives her a brush off and says she isn't his real wife until she bears him a child... but he won't sleep with her. He then tries to court another woman. Helena is a witty and resourceful woman and comes up with a way to trick him into impregnating her. All's Well That Ends Well... I guess. So Helena wins over her husband, who doesn't like her, by tricking him. In my opinion Helena's love and efforts are completely wasted on a selfish jerk. Even Bertram's mother thinks that Helena is a wonderful wife for her son. I wish Helena would have wised up and picked a different guy from the get-go. The play has Shakespeare classic puns and double entendres, but it's not one of my favorites of his.

[therebelprince · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A very good everyman edition, although it still struggles with the issues that this play raises (not that I have the answers either!)