ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL is one of Shakespeare's best comedies. and one of the plays in which he has kept closest to the original from which he derived his plot and yet has given the freest rein to his creative fancy. In the first volume of William Paynter's 'Pal ace of Pleasure,' a collection of short stories in the assembling of which the author has laid under contribution ancient and modern story tellers, is the short tale 'Giletta of Narbona,' borrowed bodily from Boccaccio's Wecam eron,> somewhat to the disfigurement of the story itself, for Paynter was anything but a master of English prose. This tale Shakes peare took for the basis of 'All's Well that Ends Well,' which was probably written be tween 1590 and 1600. It was included in the folio edition of 1623; but it is supposed, how ever, to have originally appeared under the title of 'Love's Labor Won,' as a companion piece to 'Love's Labor Lost' ; for a Shakes peare play under this title is listed by Meres in 1598, with accompanying description that fits only 'All's Well That Ends Well.' To its meagre incidents Shakespeare added others that give the plot a more dramatic cast; and he created additional characters that lend it greater vivacity and interest. Some of these characters are altogether the work of his own imagination, while others were developed from suggestions in the original story. For the Countess Rousillon, the Clown Lavatch, Parol lcs, the braggart and coward, Lord Lafeu, talkative but clear-headed, Shakespeare is in no way indebted to Paynter; and these are natu rally the best characters in the play, with the one exception of the heroine, Helena. They stand apart from the others as special crea tions; are active, convincing, pleasing and life-like.
The outline of the plot of 'All's Well that Ends Well) is more like Boccaccio than Shakes pare. Helena, a young gentlewoman of great beauty, intelligence and wit, who is protected by the Countess Rousillon, mother of Bertram, Count of Rousillon, hero of the play, is deeply in love with Bertram, who, as a ward of the King, is summoned to the court of France, where his mother and Helena follow him.
Helena cures the King of a supposedly incur able malady by means of a receipt of her dead father, a famous physician. The King offers her the hand of any of his young unmarried courtiers; and she chooses Bertram, who mar ries her at his sovereign's command but promptly disowns her after the marriage, tell mg her that he will never see her again until she secures possession of a ring he wears and has a child by him. Helena leaves his home, disguises herself as a young Florentine girl and is invited by her husband to his room, where she gets possession of the ring and complies with the requirements laid down by Bertram, who, finally realizing her cleverness and beauty, falls in love with her; and so 'All's Well that Ends Well.' This comedy, though well constructed, ex cellently written and filled with well-drawn personae, is seldom presented in modern times on account of the objectionable character of the main incidents of the plot. It is, in fact, superior to some other Shakespeare plays which are not infrequently seen upon the boards. It is rich in comedy and characteriza tion and sparkles with wit and humor not inferior to Shakespeare's best; the dialogue is sprightly; the invention and plot excellent and the interest well sustained. The philosophical, sick old King, the amiable, good-hearted count ess, the clever heroine, the strong-headed young hero, whose chief asset is his ability to fight; the comic knave Parolles; old Lord Lafeu, jovial yet scoffing, and Lavatch, the clown, with his ever-ready wit, together form a galaxy of star characters sufficient for several modern comedies. And they are presented to us framed with a bewildering richness of fine rhetorical passages.