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

and for Bertram again.
    Lines 170–255: The King voices his fear that Helen was murdered. Diana and her mother enter. Bertram admits that he knows them but that’s all. Diana asks him why he treats his wife like a stranger, but he denies that she’s his wife. When asked if he does not believe he took her virginity, he claims she’s a common prostitute. She then holds up the ring that Bertram gave her. The Countess recognizes it as a family heirloom and says it’s proof that Diana is his wife. Parolles is sent for as a witness to the truth of this. Bertram now says that everyone knows Parolles is a liar, but the King points out that Diana has Bertram’s ring. Bertram admits he had sex with her. She says she will return his ring if he will give her hers again. When asked what ring, she says it was like the one the King is wearing and she gave it to Bertram in bed.
    Lines 256–333: Bertram admits the ring was Diana’s. Parolles confirms that he acted as go-between for Bertram to Diana. The King asks Diana how she came by the ring and she says she neither bought it nor was loaned nor gave it. They cannot understand her riddling words and the King is about to send her to prison when she asks her mother to “fetch my bail.” She says that even though hethinks he did, Bertram never harmed her and she forgives him. He believes that he had sex with her but he actually made his wife pregnant. Even though she’s dead, his wife “feels her young one kick.” Her riddle is: “one that’s dead is quick,” and she invites them all to “behold the meaning” as Helen and the Widow appear.
    Lines 334–65: Everyone is amazed. Helen tells Bertram she is the “shadow of a wife” he sees, “The name and not the thing.” He replies that she is both and begs her pardon. She says that when he thought she was Diana, he was kind to her, and she shows him the letter and the ring, asking him if he will be hers now he is “doubly won.” He says if she can explain it all to him, he’ll love her forever. She says if it isn’t clear, he can have a divorce. Lafew asks Parolles for a handkerchief and promises to joke with him. The King demands to know the full story from Diana and says that if she’s a virgin, she can choose herself a husband and he’ll pay her dowry, since he guesses it was with her help that Helen was able to win Bertram. They will learn the rest in due time, meanwhile everything “seems well” and since it’s ending so fittingly, the bitterness of past experiences makes the present sweetness more welcome.
EPILOGUE
    The King speaks a short epilogue in which he says that he is now a beggar as he asks the audience, if they are pleased with the play, for applause—“Your gentle hands”—while the players offer their “hearts.”

SHAKESPEARE’S CAREER
IN THE THEATER
BEGINNINGS
    William Shakespeare was an extraordinarily intelligent man who was born and died in an ordinary market town in the English Midlands. He lived an uneventful life in an eventful age. Born in April 1564, he was the eldest son of John Shakespeare, a glove maker who was prominent on the town council until he fell into financial difficulties. Young William was educated at the local grammar in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, where he gained a thorough grounding in the Latin language, the art of rhetoric, and classical poetry. He married Ann Hathaway and had three children (Susanna, then the twins Hamnet and Judith) before his twenty-first birthday: an exceptionally young age for the period. We do not know how he supported his family in the mid-1580s.
    Like many clever country boys, he moved to the city in order to make his way in the world. Like many creative people, he found a career in the entertainment business. Public playhouses and professional full-time acting companies reliant on the market for their income were born