All's Well That Ends Well by William Shakespeare Read Free Book Online Page A

says that Bertram is amused by him and he’s allowed to stay but gets carried away with his wit. Lafew then says that since Helen’s dead, he suggested to the King that Bertram should marry his daughter. The King agreed to his proposition and he wondered what the Countess thought of it. She too is content. The King is to arrive from Marseille the next day. Lavatch returns to say that Bertram has arrived, wearing a velvet patch on his left cheek.
ACT 5 SCENE 1
    Helen, the Widow, and Diana have arrived at Marseille and Helen asks the gentleman keeper of the King’s hawks (the Astringer) to present the King with a petition, only to be told that the King has already left for Rossillion. Since he’s going to Rossillion himself, she asks the Astringer again to present the petition to the King for her; he’ll be well rewarded and they will follow.
ACT 5 SCENE 2
    Parolles asks Lavatch to deliver a letter from him to Lafew. Lavatch complains that he smells and tells him to deliver it himself since Lafew is here. Parolles asks Lafew to help him since it was he who first “found” him out. Lafew says he will see him after; he can hear the King’s trumpets, but even though he’s “a fool and a knave” he shall still eat.
ACT 5 SCENE 3
    Lines 1–64: The King is discussing Helen with the Countess. He regrets her death and Bertram’s folly. The Countess puts it down to his youth and asks for him to be forgiven. Lafew adds that he wronged everyone, especially himself, through the loss of such a wife. The King sends for Bertram and asks what his response was to the proposed match with Lafew’s daughter. Lafew says Bertram was content to do as the King wished. Bertram enters and the King tells him that he is “not a day of season,” meaning that his moods are changeable and now his anger has passed. Bertram begs his pardon and the King says he is forgiven. He then reminds him of Lafew’s daughter. Bertram says that he always admired her before his judgment was warped by contempt. Understanding how he has misjudged things, he has finally come to love the woman everyone praised and he, since he has lost her, has learned to love.
    Lines 65–116: The King is pleased to hear of Bertram’s love for Helen, even though it comes too late. He reflects how often we fail to value what we have until we’ve lost it. And now he advises Bertram to forget Helen and think of Maudlin (Lafew’s daughter). Lafew asks for a token to give his daughter from Bertram and Bertram gives him a ring. Lafew says he last saw it on Helen’s hand, but Bertram denies it belonged to Helen. The King then says that he gave it to her himself, adding that if she was ever in need, by this token he would help her. The King wonders how Bertram acquired it. Bertram assures the King it didn’t belong to Helen. Both the Countess and Lafew assure Bertram that they saw her wear it, but Bertram explains it wasthrown to him wrapped in paper from a casement window in Florence by a lady who refused to have it back.
    Lines 117–69: The King intervenes to say that he knows the ring; it was his, he gave it to Helen, and she swore that she would never take it from her finger except to give it to Bertram in her bed or to send it to the King. Bertram says she never saw it, but the King says he is lying, and the King is now full of doubt and fear about Helen’s fate. He orders Bertram to be detained; he will investigate the matter further. As he is led away Bertram says the King can as easily prove the ring was Helen’s as that he had sex with her in Florence, where she’d never been. The King is full of anxiety. The Gentleman hawk-keeper arrives and gives him the petition from Diana which claims that she has been seduced by Bertram. Lafew says he no longer wants Bertram for a son-in-law after this—he’d rather buy himself one “in a fair.” The King sends for the Widow and Diana