*ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL.] The ftory of All's Well that ends Well, or, as I fuppofe it to have been fometimes called, Love's Labour Wonne, is originally indeed the property of Boccace, but it came immediately to Shakspeare from Painter's Giletta of Narbon, in the First Vol. of the Palace of Pleasure, 4to. 1566, p. 88. FARMER. Shakspeare is indebted to the novel only for a few leading circumftances in the graver parts of the piece. The comic business appears to be entirely of his own formation. STEEVENS. This comedy, I imagine, was written in 1598. See An Attempt to afcertain the Order of Shakspeare's Plays, Vol. I. MALONE. PERSONS represented.* King of France. Bertram, Count of Roufillon. Lafeu,' an old Lord. Parolles, a follower of Bertram. Several young French Lords, that ferve with Bertram in the Florentine war. Steward,} Servants to the Countess of Roufillon. A Page. Countess of Roufillon, mother to Bertram. Diana, daughter to the widow. Violenta,} Neighbours and friends to the widow. Mariana, Lords, attending on the King; Officers, Soldiers, &c. French and Florentine. SCENE, partly in France, and partly in Tuscany. 2 The perfons were first enumerated by Mr. Rowe. 3 Lafeu,] We fhould read-Lefeu. STEEVENS. Parolles,] I fuppofe we fhould write this name-Paroles, i. c. a creature made up of empty words. STEEVENS. 5 Violenta only enters once, and then the neither speaks, nor is fpoken to. This name appears to be borrowed from an old metrical history, entitled Didaco and Violenta, 1576. STEEVENS. Enter BERTRAM, the Countess of Roufillon, HELENA, and LAFEU, in mourning. COUNT. In delivering my fon from me, I bury a fecond 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 fubjection. in ward,] Under his particular care, as my guardian, till I come to age. It is now almost forgotten in England, that the heirs of great fortunes were the King's wards. Whether the fame practice prevailed in France, it is of no great ufe to enquire, for Shakspeare gives to all nations the manners of England, JOHNSON. Howell's fifteenth letter acquaints us that the province of Normandy was fubject to wardships, and no other part of France befides; but the fuppofition of the contrary furnished Shakspeare with a reason why the King compelled Roufillon to marry Helen. TOLLET. LAF. You shall find of the king a husband, madam ;—you, fir, a father: He that fo generally is at all times good, muft of neceffity hold his virtue to you; whofe worthinefs would ftir it up where it wanted, rather than lack it where there is fuch abundance. COUNT. What hope is there of his majesty's amendment? LAF. He hath abandon'd his physicians, madam; under whofe practices he hath perfecuted time with hope; and finds no other advantage in the process, but only the lofing of hope by time. COUNT. This young gentlewoman had a father, (O, that bad! how fad a paffage 'tis !') whose skill The prerogative of a wardship is a branch of the feudal law, and may as well be fuppofed to be incorporated with the conftitution of France, as it was with that of England, till the reign of Charles II. SIR J. HAWKINS. 30, that had! how fad a paffage 'tis !] Imitated from the Heautontimorumenos of Terence, (then tranflated,) where Menedemus fays: - Filium unicum adolefcentulum "Habeo. Ah, quid dixi? habere me? imo "Nunc habeam necne incertum eft." BLACKSTONE. So, in Spenfer's Shepheard's Calender: "Shee, while the was, (that was a woeful word to faine,) "For beauties praise and pleasaunce had no peere." Again, in Wily Beguil'd, 1606: "She is not mine, I have no daughter now; MALONE. Paffage is any thing that passes. So we now fay, a passage of an author, and we faid about a century ago, the paffages of a reign. When the countefs mentions Helena's lofs of a father, fhe recollects her own lofs of a husband, and ftops to obferve how heavily that word had paffes through her mind. JOHNSON. Thus Shakspeare himself. See The Comedy of Errors, A& III. fc. i: "Now in the ftirring passage of the day.” |