''All's Well That Ends Well'' is a play by
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
, published in the
First Folio
''Mr. William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies'' is a collection of plays by William Shakespeare, commonly referred to by modern scholars as the First Folio, published in 1623, about seven years after Shakespeare's death. It is cons ...
in 1623, where it is listed among the
comedies. There is a debate about the date of its composition, with possible dates ranging from 1598 to 1608.
[ also a]
Centre for Early Modern Studies
, University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...
accessed 22 April 2012: "The recent redating of All’s Well from 1602–03 to 1606–07 (or later) has gone some way to resolving some of the play’s stylistic anomalies" ... " ylistically it is striking how many of the widely acknowledged textual and tonal problems of All’s Well can be understood differently when we postulate dual authorship."
The play is considered one of Shakespeare's "
problem plays", a play that poses complex ethical dilemmas that require more than typically simple solutions.
Characters
*
King of France
France was ruled by monarchs from the establishment of the kingdom of West Francia in 843 until the end of the Second French Empire in 1870, with several interruptions.
Classical French historiography usually regards Clovis I, king of the Fra ...
* Duke of
Florence
Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025.
Florence ...
* Bertram,
Count of Roussillon
* Countess of Roussillon, Mother of Bertram
* Lavatch, a
Clown
A clown is a person who performs physical comedy and arts in an Improvisational theatre#Comedy, open-ended fashion, typically while wearing distinct cosmetics, makeup or costume, costuming and reversing social norm, folkway-norms. The art of ...
in her household
* Helena, a
Gentlewoman
A gentlewoman (from the Latin ''gentilis'', belonging to a ''gens'', and English 'woman') in the original and strict sense is a woman of good family, analogous to the Latin ''generosus'' and ''generosa''. The closely related English word "gentr ...
protected by the Countess
* Lafew, an old Lord
* Parolles, a follower of Bertram
* An Old Widow of Florence, surnamed Capilet
* Diana, Daughter of the Widow
* Steward of the Countess of Roussillon
* Violenta (
ghost character) and Mariana, Neighbours and Friends of the Widow
* A
Page
Page most commonly refers to:
* Page (paper), one side of a leaf of paper, as in a book
Page, PAGE, pages, or paging may also refer to:
Roles
* Page (assistance occupation), a professional occupation
* Page (servant), traditionally a young m ...
* Soldiers, Servants, Gentlemen, and Courtiers
Synopsis
Helena, the low-born
ward of a French-Spanish countess, is in love with the countess's son Bertram, who is indifferent to her. Bertram goes to Paris to replace his late father as attendant to the ailing King of France. Helena, the daughter of a recently deceased
physician
A physician, medical practitioner (British English), medical doctor, or simply doctor is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through the Medical education, study, Med ...
, follows Bertram, ostensibly to offer the King her services as a healer. The King is skeptical, and she guarantees the cure with her life: if he dies, she will be put to death, but if he lives, she may choose a husband from the court.
The King is cured and Helena chooses Bertram, who rejects her, owing to her poverty and low status. The King forces him to marry her, but after the ceremony Bertram immediately goes to war in Italy without so much as a goodbye kiss. He says that he will only marry her after she has carried his child and got his family ring from him. Helena returns home to the countess, who is horrified at what her son has done, and claims Helena as her child in Bertram's place.
In Italy, Bertram is a successful warrior and becomes infatuated with Diana, the virgin daughter of an impoverished local noblewoman. Helena follows Bertram to Italy, befriends Diana, and arranges to take Diana's place in bed with him. Diana obtains Bertram's ring in exchange for one of Helena's. In this way Helena, without Bertram's knowledge,
consummates their marriage and is given his ring.
Helena fakes her own death. Bertram, thinking he is free of her, comes home. He tries to marry a French lord's daughter with whom he had previously fallen in love, but Diana shows up and breaks up the engagement. Helena appears and explains the ring swap, announcing that she has fulfilled Bertram's challenge; Bertram, impressed by all she has done to win him, swears his love to her. Thus all ends well.
There is a subplot about Parolles, a disloyal friend of Bertram's. Helena, Lafew, the Countess, her fool Lavatch and the two Lords Dumaine have all realised that Parolles is a
boastful coward, but Bertram still takes him to war with him. The two Lords convince Parolles to cross into enemy territory to fetch a drum lost in battle. While he is on his way, they pose as enemy soldiers, kidnap him, blindfold him, and, with Bertram observing, get him both to betray his friends and to surrender a letter warning Diana about Bertram's lascivious character.
Sources

The play is based on the
tale of Giletta di Narbona (tale nine of day three) of
Boccaccio's ''
The Decameron''.
F. E. Halliday speculated that Shakespeare may have read a French translation of the tale in
William Painter's ''Palace of Pleasure''.
Analysis and criticism
There is no evidence that ''All's Well That Ends Well'' was popular in Shakespeare's time and it has remained one of his lesser-known plays ever since, in part due to its unorthodox mixture of
fairy tale
A fairy tale (alternative names include fairytale, fairy story, household tale, magic tale, or wonder tale) is a short story that belongs to the folklore genre. Such stories typically feature magic, enchantments, and mythical or fanciful bei ...
logic,
gender role
A gender role, or sex role, is a social norm deemed appropriate or desirable for individuals based on their gender or sex.
Gender roles are usually centered on conceptions of masculinity and femininity. The specifics regarding these gendered ...
reversals and
cynical realism. Helena's love for the seemingly unlovable Bertram is difficult to explain on the page, but in performance, it can be made acceptable by casting an extremely attractive actor and emphasising the possibility of a homosexual relationship between Bertram and the "clothes horse" fop Parolles: "A filthy officer he is in those suggestions for the young earl" (Act III, scene 5). This interpretation also assists at the point in the final scene when Bertram suddenly switches from hatred to love in just one line. This is considered a particular problem for actors trained to admire psychological realism. Some alternative readings emphasise the "if" in his equivocal promise: "If she, my liege, can make me know this clearly, I'll love her dearly, ever, ever dearly." Here, there has been no change of heart at all.
Productions like London's
National Theatre in 2009 have Bertram make his promise seemingly normally, but then end the play hand in hand with Helena, staring out at the audience with a look of "aghast bewilderment" suggesting he relented only to save face in front of the King.
A 2018 interpretation by director
Caroline Byrne at the
Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, London, effects Bertram's reconciliation with Helena by having him make good his vow (Act 2 Scene 2) of taking her as his wife only when she bears his child; as well as Bertram's ring, Helena brings their infant child to their final confrontation before the king.
Many critics consider the truncated ending a drawback, with Bertram's conversion so sudden. Speculative explanations have been given for this. There is (as always) possibly missing text. Some suggest that Bertram's conversion is meant to be sudden and magical in keeping with the play's 'clever wench performing tasks to win an unwilling higher-born husband' theme. Some think that Bertram is not meant to be contemptible but merely a callow youth learning valuable lessons about values. Andrew Hadfield of the
University of Sussex
The University of Sussex is a public university, public research university, research university located in Falmer, East Sussex, England. It lies mostly within the city boundaries of Brighton and Hove. Its large campus site is surrounded by the ...
argues that contemporary audiences would readily have recognised Bertram's enforced marriage as a metaphor for the new requirement (1606) for Catholics to swear an
Oath of Allegiance to Protestant
King James.
One character who has been admired is the Countess of Roussillon, whom
Shaw thought "the most beautiful old woman's part ever written".
Modern productions are often promoted as vehicles for great mature actresses; recent examples have starred
Judi Dench and
Peggy Ashcroft, who delivered a performance of "entranc
ng..worldly wisdom and compassion" in
Trevor Nunn's sympathetic, "
Chekhovian" staging at
Stratford in 1982.
In the
BBC Television Shakespeare
The ''BBC Television Shakespeare'' is a series of British television adaptations of Shakespeare's plays, the plays of William Shakespeare, created by Cedric Messina and broadcast by BBC Television. Transmitted in the UK from 3 December 1978 to ...
production she was played by
Celia Johnson
Dame Celia Elizabeth Johnson (18 December 1908 – 26 April 1982) was an English actress, whose career included stage, television and film. She is especially known for her roles in the films ''In Which We Serve'' (1942), ''This Happy Breed ...
, dressed and posed as
Rembrandt
Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (; ; 15 July 1606 – 4 October 1669), mononymously known as Rembrandt was a Dutch Golden Age painter, printmaker, and Drawing, draughtsman. He is generally considered one of the greatest visual artists in ...
's portrait of Margaretha de Geer.
It has recently been argued that
Thomas Middleton either collaborated with Shakespeare on the play or revised it at a later time,
but the proposed revisions are not universally accepted.
Performance history
No records of early performances of ''All's Well That Ends Well'' have been found. In 1741, the work was played at
Goodman's Fields, with a later transfer to
Drury Lane
Drury Lane is a street on the boundary between the Covent Garden and Holborn areas of London, running between Aldwych and High Holborn. The northern part is in the borough of London Borough of Camden, Camden and the southern part in the City o ...
.
Rehearsals at Drury Lane started in October 1741 but
William Milward (1702–1742), playing the king, fell ill, and the opening was delayed until 22 January.
Peg Woffington, playing Helena, fainted on the first night and her part was read. Milward fell ill again on 2 February and died on 6 February. This, together with unsubstantiated tales of more illnesses befalling other actresses during the run, gave the play an "unlucky" reputation, similar to that attached to ''
Macbeth
''The Tragedy of Macbeth'', often shortened to ''Macbeth'' (), is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, estimated to have been first performed in 1606. It dramatises the physically violent and damaging psychological effects of political ambiti ...
'', which may have curtailed the number of revivals.
Henry Woodward (1714–1777) popularised the part of Parolles in the era of
David Garrick. Sporadic performances followed in the ensuing decades, with an operatic version at
Covent Garden in 1832.
The play, with plot elements drawn from
romance and the
ribald tale, depends on gender role conventions, both as expressed (Bertram) and challenged (Helena). With evolving conventions of gender roles, Victorian objections centred on the character of Helena, who was variously deemed predatory, immodest and both "really despicable" and a "doormat" by
Ellen Terry, who also—and rather contradictorily—accused her of "hunt
ngmen down in the most undignified way". Terry's friend
George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from the 188 ...
greatly admired Helena's character, comparing her with the
New Woman figures such as Nora in
Henrik Ibsen
Henrik Johan Ibsen (; ; 20 March 1828 – 23 May 1906) was a Norwegian playwright, poet and actor. Ibsen is considered the world's pre-eminent dramatist of the 19th century and is often referred to as "the father of modern drama." He pioneered ...
's ''
A Doll's House
''A Doll's House'' (Danish language, Danish and ; also translated as ''A Doll House'') is a three-act Play (theatre), play written by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. It premiered at the Royal Danish Theatre in Copenhagen, Denmark, on 21 De ...
''.
The editor of the Arden Shakespeare volume summed up 19th-century repugnance: "everyone who reads this play is at first shocked and perplexed by the revolting idea that underlies the plot."
In 1896,
Frederick S. Boas coined the term "problem play" to include the unpopular work, grouping it with ''
Hamlet
''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play. Set in Denmark, the play (the ...
'', ''
Troilus and Cressida'' and ''
Measure for Measure
''Measure for Measure'' is a play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1603 or 1604 and first performed in 1604. It was published in the First Folio of 1623.
The play centers on the despotic and puritan Angelo (Measure for ...
''.
See also
*
List of idioms attributed to Shakespeare
References
Bibliography
* Evans, G. Blakemore, ''The Riverside Shakespeare'', 1974.
*
* Lawrence, W. W., ''Shakespeare's Problem Comedies'', 1931.
* Price, Joseph G., ''The Unfortunate Comedy'', 1968.
* Schoff, Francis G., "Claudio, Bertram, and a Note on Interpretation", ''Shakespeare Quarterly'', 1959.
* Styan, J. L., ''Shakespeare in Performance series'': All's Well That Ends Well, 1985.
External links
*
*
Folger Shakespeare Library: ''All's Well That Ends Well''– searchable scene-indexed version of the play.
*
{{authority control
1600s plays
Plays based on works by Giovanni Boccaccio
English proverbs
English Renaissance plays
British plays adapted into films
Plays by Thomas Middleton
Plays set in France
Shakespearean comedies
Shakespearean problem plays