DRAMATIS PERSONÆ1 KING OF FRANce. DUKE OF FLorence. BERTRAM, Count of Rousillon. LAFEU, an old lord. PAROLLES, a follower of Bertram. Steward, own,}: LAVACHE, a Clown, servants to the Countess of Rousillon. COUNTESS OF ROUSILLON, mother to Bertram. HELENA, a gentlewoman protected by the Countess. An old Widow of Florence. DIANA, daughter to the Widow. VIOLENTA, MARIANA, S neighbours and friends to the Widow. Lords, Officers, Soldiers, &c., French and Florentine. SCENE Rousillon; Paris; Florence; Marseilles 1 DRAMATIS PERSONE] "All's Well" was printed for the first time in the Folio of 1623. There the text is divided into acts, but not into scenes, although the play opens with the words Actus Primus, Scæna Prima. Rowe first supplied scenic divisions, as well as a list of "dramatis personæ," in his edition of 1709. Enter BERTRAM, the COUNTESS OF ROUSILLON, HELENA, and LA FEU, COUNTESS all in black N 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, rather than lack it where there is such abundance. 5-6 in ward] In feudal and Elizabethan England heirs of great fortunes were invariably made wards of the king; he acted as their guardian. 7-10 he that so generally... abundance] he that is so invariably kind 10 COUNT. What hope is there of his majesty's amendment? LAF. He hath abandoned his physicians, madam ; under whose practices he hath persecuted time with hope, and finds no other advantage in the process but only the losing of hope by time. COUNT. This young gentlewoman had a father, — O, that "had"! how sad a passage 't is ! - whose skill was almost as great as his honesty; had it stretched so far, would have made nature immortal, and death should have play for lack of work. Would, for the king's sake, 20 he were living! I think it would be the death of the king's disease. LAF. How called you the man you speak of, madam? COUNT. He was famous, sir, in his profession, and it was his great right to be so,-Gerard de Narbon. LAF. He was excellent indeed, madam: the king very lately spoke of him admiringly and mourningly: he was skilful enough to have lived still, if knowledge could be set up against mortality. BER. What is it, my good lord, the king languishes of? LAF. A fistula, my lord. BER. I heard not of it before. must needs extend his (virtue of) kindness towards 13 persecuted time with hope] The general meaning is: Hope of recovery, fostered by his physicians, has hampered the action of (time in developing) the disease. But the only real effect (since the disease is not arrested) is to lose hope, as time goes on. 30 |