All's Well That Ends Well

All’s Well That Ends Well is a comedy by William Shakespeare that saw the light in 1601–05. A tale in Giovanni Boccaccio’s Decameron was the principal source of its plot. The play was published in the First Folio of 1623.  All’s Well That Ends Well was written supposedly from a theatrical playbook that has still kept certain authorial features. According to another version it was written from a literary transcript of the playbook or an authorial manuscript.

There are no records of the early performances of All's Well That Ends Well. It has been found that the work was played in 1741 at location Goodman's Fields, and further transferred to Drury Lane. Here in October 1741 the first rehearsals started but owing to the death of William Milward, playing the king and unconfirmed facts of more illnesses befalling actresses during the run, the play got ‘unlucky’ reputation, likewise that attached to Macbeth.

Entire play in one page

Act 1, Scene 1: Rousillon. The COUNT's palace.
Act 1, Scene 2: Paris. The KING's palace.
Act 1, Scene 3: Rousillon. The COUNT's palace.

Act 2, Scene 1: Paris. The KING's palace.
Act 2, Scene 2: Rousillon. The COUNT's palace.
Act 2, Scene 3: Paris. The KING's palace.
Act 2, Scene 4: Paris. The KING's palace.
Act 2, Scene 5: Paris. The KING's palace.

Act 3, Scene 1: Florence. The DUKE's palace.
Act 3, Scene 2: Rousillon. The COUNT's palace.
Act 3, Scene 3: Florence. Before the DUKE's palace.
Act 3, Scene 4: Rousillon. The COUNT's palace.
Act 3, Scene 5: Florence. Without the walls. A tucket afar off.
Act 3, Scene 6: Camp before Florence.
Act 3, Scene 7: Florence. The Widow's house.

Act 4, Scene 1: Without the Florentine camp.
Act 4, Scene 2: Florence. The Widow's house.
Act 4, Scene 3: The Florentine camp.
Act 4, Scene 4: Florence. The Widow's house.
Act 4, Scene 5: Rousillon. The COUNT's palace.

Act 5, Scene 1: Marseilles. A street.
Act 5, Scene 2: Rousillon. Before the COUNT's palace.
Act 5, Scene 3: Rousillon. The COUNT's palace.

This comedy stands apart from other comedies of Shakespeare through its originality. It is classified as a "problem play" and is often called a "dark comedy", as despite a happy ending it is dominated by a gloomy atmosphere. There are five acts in All’s Well That Ends Well. Each act includes 2 to 7 scenes. Character list is presented in the beginning of the play:

• King of France
• Duke of Florence
• Bertram, Count of Roussillon
• Countess of Roussillon, Mother of Bertram
• Lavatch, a Clown in her household
• Helena, a Gentlewoman protected by the Countess
• Lafew, an old Lord
• Parolles, a follower of Bertram
• An Old Widow of Florence, surnamed Capilet
• Diana, Daughter of the Widow
• Steward of the Countess of Roussillon
• Violenta (ghost character) and Mariana, Neighbours and Friends of the Widow
• A Page
• Soldiers, Servants, Gentlemen, and Courtiers.

The comedy of Shakespeare is about the feelings of the intelligent commoner Elena, the daughter of a doctor, to the noble Count Bertram. The noble experiences at the same time love and fear of an unequal marriage. As the plot develops, the king of France reads the right instruction to the count, proving the equality of all people by blood, and proves this by the possibility of assigning the nobility to Elena with one stroke of the pen, without changing anything in her nature. At the end of the storyline, Elena defeats the confused aristocrat through her cunning.

The editor of the Arden Shakespeare volume wrote about 19th century repugnance the following: "everyone who reads this play is at first shocked and perplexed by the revolting idea that underlies the plot."