COUNTESS OF ROUSILLON, mother to Bertram HELENA, a gentlewoman protected by the Countess DIANA, daughter to the Widow VIOLENTA, neighbors and friends to the Widow Lords, Officers, Soldiers, &c., French and Florentine SCENE: Rousillon; Paris; Florence; Marseilles SYNOPSIS By J. ELLIS BURDICK ACT I The king of France, desiring to show favor to Bertram, son of the late Count of Rousillon, summons him to court. Lafeu, an old lord, whom the king has sent to fetch the young man, tells the widowed Countess of the king's serious illness of how the physicians had pronounced his disease without cure. Living with the Countess is a young woman, Helena by name, who is the daughter of a physician who had been very famous in his lifetime. She has fallen in love with the young Count, but he is too much interested in other things to notice her particularly. The Countess discovers this state of affairs and is not displeased, for she knows Helena's worth. The latter has in her possession a prescription left her by her father for the very disease from which the king is suffering, and she obtains permission from the Countess to go to Paris and to offer it to the king. ACT II By Lafeu's aid, Helena obtains an audience with the king. She persuades him to try the medicine, promising to forfeit her life, if he should not be cured in two days, and if he should be cured the king was to give her the choice of any man in France, the princes excepted, for a husband. The medicine acted just as Helena expected and she chooses Bertram. The latter does not hesitate to declare his dislike of this gift of the king's, but is forced to marry Helena or to suffer his majesty's displeasure. Immediately following the ceremony, Bertram sends Helena home to his mother and he himself departs for the Florentine wars. ACT III Bertram sends a message to his wife that when she can get a ring which he wears upon his finger and can show him a child of hers to which he is father, then may she call him husband, and that till he have no wife he has nothing in France. Immediately Helena dresses herself as a pilgrim and departs from Rousillon, hoping that when the Count hears that she has gone he may return to his home. In the meantime the Duke of Florence has made Bertram his general of horse and in battle the young man does "most honorable service." Helena arrives in the city in her pilgrim disguise and takes lodging with a widow and her daughter. From them she learns that her husband is attempting to seduce the daughter. Helena confides her identity and troubles to her hostesses and asks their aid. ACT IV Diana, the daughter, gets from Bertram the ring he had told Helena she must obtain before he would acknowledge her and arranges for a nocturnal visit from him. But it is Helena and not Diana whom he meets. In Rousillon, the Countess mourns her daughter-in-law as dead and Bertram, hearing of Helena's death, returns home. ACT V The king goes on a visit to Rousillon. He forgives Bertram for his conduct and has given his consent to his marriage with the daughter of the old lord, Lafeu, when his attention is called to a ring Bertram is wearing and which he had given to Helena. The king, remembering Bertram's hatred of his wife, fears that he has murdered her and orders him under arrest. Helena comes to Rousillon at this moment, accompanied by the Florentine widow and her daughter. Soon all is explained. Bertram is satisfied that his conditions have been fulfilled and he gladly acknowledges his wife. ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL ACT FIRST SCENE I Rousillon. The Count's palace. Enter Bertram, the Countess of Rousillon, Helena, and Lafeu, all in black. Count. 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 10 would stir it up where it wanted, rather than lack it where there is such abundance. Count. What hope is there of his majesty's amendment? 6. "ward"; under the old feudal law of England, the heirs of great fortunes were the king's wards. The same was also the case in Normandy, and Shakespeare but extends a law of a province over the whole nation.-H. N. H. |