ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL,

BY

WILL. SHAKSPERE:

Printed Complete from the TEXT of

SAM. JOHNSON and GEO. STEEVENS,

And revised from the last Editions.

When Learning's triumph o'er her barb'rous foes
First rear'd the Stage, immortal SHAKSPERE rose;
Each change of many-colour'd life he drew,
Exhausted worlds, and then imagin'd new:
Existence saw him spurn her bounded reign,
And panting Time toil'd after him in vain:
His pow'rful strokes presiding Truth confess'd,
And unresisted Passion storm'd the breast.

DR. SAMUEL JOHNSON.

LONDON:

Printed for, and under the direction of,

JOHN BELL, British-Library, STRAND, Bookseller to his Royal Highness the PRINCE of WALES.

M DCC LXXXVI.

OBSERVATIONS

ON THE Fable AND Composition of

ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL.

THE story of All's Well that Ends Well, or, as I

suppose it to have been sometimes called, Love's Labour Wonne, is originally indeed the property of Boccace, but it came immediately to Shakspere from Painter's Gilletta of Narbon, in the first volume of the Palace of Pleasure, 4to. 1598, p. 282. FARMER.

This play has many delightful scenes, though not sufficiently probable; and some happy characters, though not new, nar produced by any deep knowledge of human nature. Parolles is a boaster and a coward, such as has always been the sport of the stage, but perhaps never raised more laughter or contempt than in the hands of Shakspere.

:

I cannot reconcile my heart to Bertram; a man noble without generosity, and young without truth; who marries Helen as a coward, and leaves her as a profligate when she is dead by his unkindness, sneaks home to a second marriage, is accused by a woman whom he has wronged, defends himself by falsehood, and is dismissed to happiness.

The story of Bertram and Diana had been told before of Mariana and Angelo, and, to confess the truth, scarcely merited to be heard a second time. JOHNSON.

King of France.

Duke of Florence.

Dramatis Personar..::r

MEN.

BERTRAM, Count of Rousillon.
LA FEU, an old Lord.

PAROLLES, a parasitical Follower of Bertram; a Coward, but vain, and a great Pretender to Valour.

Several young French Lords, that serve with Bertram in the Florentine War.

Steward, }

Servants to the Countess of Rousillon.

WOMEN.

Countess of Rousillon, Mother to Bertram.

HELENA, Daughter to Gerard de Narbon, a famous Physi

cian, some time since dead.

An old Widow of Florence.

DIANA, Daughter to the Widow.

VIOLENTA,

MARIANA, S Neighbours

and Friends to the Widow.

Lords, attending on the King; Officers, Soldiers, &c.
SCENE lies partly in France, and partly in Tuscany.

The Persons were first enumerated by Rowe.

Enter

The Countess of Rousillon's House in France. BERTRAM, the Countess of Rousillon, HELENA, and LAFEU, all in black.

Countess.

IN delivering my son from me, I bury a second

husband..

Ber. And I, in going, madam, weep o'er my father's death anew: but I must attend his majesty's command, to whom I am now in ward, evermore in subjection.

Laf. You shall find of the king a husband, madam; you, sir, a father. He, that so generally is at all times good, must of necessity hold his virtue to you; whose worthiness would stir it up where it

wanted,