All's Well that Ends Well abbreviated

Synopsis


The play opens in Rossillion, a region in the south of France near the border of Spain and near the Mediterranean Sea. Three principals in the play are from Rossillion, and they are on stage: Bertram, Helen and the Countess. Bertram is the son of the late Count of Rossillion and heir to his father’s position. Helen is the daughter of Gerard de Narbon who was the late count’s attending physician, and he too has recently died. The Countess is Bertram’s mother. She has been charged with overseeing Helen’s well-being, the Countess saying, “Her father bequeathed her to me.” Our guess is that Bertram and Helen are both in their late teens. Helen has a crush on Bertram, a central theme in the play, and Bertram, too young to inherit his father’s position as Rossillion’s count, has been called to the king’s court in Paris. He goes to Paris to attend the king under a guardianship. And Helen is love-sick over the thought of Bertram’s going to Paris, while she has to stay there in Rossillion. (Infatuation, Act 1, Scene 1) We learn that France’s king has a medical problem. Ever resourceful Helen, whose father bequeathed her his prescriptions, conceives of a plan to aid the king, with the thought that by using the best of her late father’s medications she can restore the king to good health. Her greater plan, however, is to win Bertram, but that’s getting ahead of the story. Parolles, a rascally sort of guy and a friend of Bertram’s, has a talk with Helen. (Humor, Act 1, Scene 1)

We soon learn that a war is unfolding in northern Italy between Siena and Florence, and for whatever reasons, the French King has decided to let his soldiers to go to Italy and fight for the cause they believe in, wishing them well, saying “Go not to woo honor but to wed it.” Bertram soon arrives in Paris and is warmly greeted by the king, who immediately reminisces about the friendship he and Bertram’s father had when they were boys. (Honor, Act 1, Scene 2) The king asks, “How long since the physician at your father’s side died? Bertram responds, “Some six months since,” and the king says, “If he were living, I would try him yet, the rest have worn me out with several applications.”

Meanwhile back in Rossillion, the Countess learns from Rinaldo, her steward, that Helen “loves your son.” The relationship between the Countess and Helen has been and remains a little cool. The Countess confronts Helen, saying “Helen, I am mother to you.” Helen responds, “The Count Rossillion cannot be my brother.” The countess continues to press, saying, “Do you love my son?” (Mother to Daughter, Act 1, Scene 3) Helen answers, “Be not angry; he is not hurt by my love for him.” (Daughter to Mother, Act 1, Scene 3) Helen then tells the Countess that she plans to go to Paris and while there to aid the king with her father’s “prescriptions of rare and proved effects.”

Meanwhile, French soldiers are leaving for Italy as Helen arrives in Paris. Helen is introduced to the king by Lafew, a French lord and well connected to the king. As well, he was one of the late count’s friends. She promptly begins her presentation by making a persuasive case to the king that he let her offer him her father’s chief prescription, “the dearest of his practice,” but the king abruptly rejects her offer. (Request, Act 2, Scene 1) Not to be denied, Helen presses forward and the king relents, saying “Thy medicine I will try.” She offers a quid pro quo, saying “Not helping, death’s my fee. But if I help, what do you promise me?” He takes the bait and she tells him she wants him to help her get the husband of her choice. The king says if you help me “What husband in thy power I will command.” Helen’s “rare” prescription “restores the king to health.” Holding up her end of the bargain, she tells the king she wants Bertram for a husband, but when the king suggests to Bertram that he marry Helen, Bertram rebuffs him, saying “A poor physician’s daughter my wife? I cannot love her, nor will strive to do ’t.” (Insight, Act 2, Scene 3) The king then rather firmly suggests to Bertram that it’s in his best interest to reconsider his position. Bertram does. Bertram and Helen are married late that afternoon. But immediately after the wedding, Bertram turns to his friend Parolles and says, “They have married me! I’ll to the Tuscan wars.” He instructs Helen to pack her bags and to return to Rossillion, to be cared for by his mother. He promptly leaves for Florence.

From Italy, Bertram sends his mother a letter, meant for her and his new wife Helen, bringing them up to date with current events. Helen soon arrives in Rossillion where she and the Countess review the letter. Bertram has said in the letter: “Show me a child begotten of thy body that I am father to, then call me husband.” A dispirited Helen decides to slip away that night on a pilgrimage to the shrine at Saint Jacques. (Prayer, Act 3, Scene 2) Meanwhile in Italy, the Duke of Florence welcomes Bertram’s efforts to fight for him on behalf of his cause. Helen writes a letter to the Countess who in turn instructs Rinaldo to write to her son, with the hope that he’ll return to Rossillion once he learns that Helen has left, and if he does, the Countess believes that Helen “hearing so much, will speed her foot again, led hither by pure love.” (Grief, Act 3, Scene 4) On her way to Saint Jacques, Helen meets the Widow of Florence and her daughter, Diana. Feeling sorry for Helen, the Widow offers her room and board and Helen accepts. In their conversations, the Widow and Diana tell Helen about a Frenchman, a Count Rossillion, who “has done worthy service” for the Florentines. When asked if she knows him, Helen says, “But by the ear. His face I know not.” When they tell Helen that they’ve heard that “the king had married him against his liking,” she says only that “I know his lady.” Helen soon learns that Bertram has been expressing a serious interest in Diana. (Proposal, Act 3, Scene 7)

Meanwhile, in Italy, two French lords (introduced early in Act two) tell Bertram that Parolles is “a most notable coward, an infinite and endless liar.” No one seems to disagree. At the moment, Parolles is concerned with the loss of a drum. He says, “I’ll about it this evening.” Meanwhile, Bertram has plans to visit Diana that night. All the while, however, resourceful Helen is gaining the trust of the Widow, Diana’s mother. Helen plans to substitute herself for Diana in the dark of the night, in the dark bedroom, very early in the morning when Bertram comes to visit. During the heat and passion of the moment, Helen’s plan is to talk Bertram out of his ring, an ancestral ring that had been given to him by his father, who had received it from his father, as it had been handed down father-to-son, for generations.

Meanwhile, the French Lords wait in hiding to snare Parolles, who soon arrives, saying “What devil should move me to undertake the recovery of this drum?” He is seized, blindfolded, and led off crying “Let me live.” Separately, Diana has agreed to meet Bertram in her bedroom at midnight. The momentous transfer-of-the-rings-moment is found in Act four. (Deception, Act 4, Scene 2)

Later, the French Lords let us know that Bertram has been heard bragging about town about his night with Diana; that she has his ancestral ring; that the Italian war is ending; that it is reported that Helen died on her pilgrimage to Saint Jaques; and that Bertram has decided to return to Rossillion. The First Lord says, “The web of our life is a mingled yarn, good and ill together.” Separately, Parolles makes some unfortunate-for-himself comments while captive and blindfolded, all the while surrounded by Bertram and the two French Lords. His blindfold is removed. Bertram and the French Lords kindly let him slink away.

Meanwhile, Helen persuades the Widow and Diana to travel with her to Marseilles, where they hope to visit the French King, all believing he can help them. (Observation, Act 4, Scene 4) At Marseilles, they learn that the king has left for Rossillion. In Rossillion, the king hears the report that Helen has died; that Lafew has encouraged Bertram to marry his daughter; and that Bertram has agreed to marry her. To set things up, Shakespeare has the king forgive Bertram for his past indiscretions. (Acceptance, Act 5, Scene 3) Bertram gives Lafew a ring, Lafew having requested it “as a favor to sparkle in the spirits of my daughter.” Events move swiftly here. Lafew shows the ring to the king, who says “This ring was mine, and then I gave it Helen, I bade her if her fortunes ever stood necessitied to help, that by this token I would relieve her.” The king, Lafew and the Countess all swear the ring was Helen’s, but Bertram denies the possibility. The king has Bertram taken away under guard. The king reads a letter from Diana implicating Bertram. The king calls Bertram back, and Bertram is followed onto the stage by Diana and the Widow. Bertram’s arguments collapse when Diana shows Bertram’s ancestral ring to the king. Talking about his own ring, the king says to Diana “This ring you say was yours?” Diana agrees, but refuses to tell him how she came to have it and the king says “To prison with her.” She says to her mother: “fetch my bail,” which she does. The Widow exits and returns to the stage with a pregnant Helen. Helen then reads part of Bertram’s letter from back in Act three where he had written “Call me husband when from my finger you can get this ring and are by me with child.” Helen wins Bertram back as her husband, a dubious victory. He says, “I’ll love her dearly, ever, ever dearly.”


Principal Characters


Bertram
Bertram is heir to his father’s position as Count of Rossillion, his father having died soon before the play begins. He is too young to be count and must spend time as a member of the King’s court until he comes of proper age. He gets trapped into marrying Helen and then immediately runs off to war. His ring, “An honor ‘longing to our house, bequeathed down from many ancestors,” is central to the plot. He is really a cad, but Helen loves him and Helen is wonderful.

Countess
The Countess is Bertram’s mother and Helen’s guardian or “adopted mother” as set up in Helen’s father’s will, Helen’s father having died some six months before the play begins, having been the physician to the Count of Rossillion. The Countess struggles throughout the play, loving her “adopted daughter” Helen dearly, but with a son, who she also dearly loves, who treats his wife Helen terribly.

Diana
Her name is Diana Capilet, the daughter of the Widow of Florence. She and her mother are often together in the play. Bertram falls for her at first sight, quickly claiming “I love thee.” Helen, the Widow and Diana become fast friends and an effective team.

Helen
Helen is Helen de Narbon, Gerard de Narbon’s daughter, he having been the attending physician to the recently deceased Count of Rossillion. She has an enormous one-sided crush on Bertram. She takes her father’s best prescription and applies it to the ill King, who “is restored to health,” giving her full credit. The deal was that if she helped the king reclaim his health he would help her marry whomever she wished. She is the leading lady, central to the play, and has one of the great roles Shakespeare offered to women. Her weakness is her love for Bertram, a philanderer.

Lafew
Lafew is a French lord, close to the King and to Bertram. He handles himself well and late in the play offers his daughter in marriage to Bertram when all of them are led to believe that Helen has died. He reneges on his offer of his daughter to Bertram, once he hears Diana and the Widow tell their side of the “Bertram” story.

Parolles
Parolles is a close friend of Bertram’s, accompanies him to Paris and then on to the Florence-Siena war. His greatest skill appears to be as a front-man for Bertram. Parolles is made out to be every bit the fool, Shakespeare having a legitimate Fool in the play, who is wise, as always!

Widow
The Widow is the Widow of Florence and is Diana’s mother. Mariana is her good friend and neighbor, Mariana having a minor role. The Widow beautifully supports her daughter and Helen and helps make the play a great play.

 A portrait of William Shakespeare