brow;

And dart not scornful glances from those eyes,
To wound thy lord, thy king, thy governor :
It blots thy beauty, as frosts do bite the meads;
Confounds thy fame, as whirlwinds shake fair
buds;

And in no sense is meet or amiable.

A woman mov'd is like a fountain troubled,
Muddy, ill-seeming, thick, bereft of beauty;
And while it is so, none so dry or thirsty
Will deign to sip, or touch one drop of it.
Thy husband is thy lord, thy life, thy keeper,
Thy head, thy sov'reign; one that cares for thee
And for thy maintenance; commits his body
To painful labour both by sea and land,

To watch the night in storms, the day in cold,
Whilst thou liest warm at home, secure and safe;
And craves no other tribute at thy hands
But love, fair looks, and true obedience,-
Too little payment for so great a debt.
Such duty as the subject owes the prince,
Even such a woman oweth to her husband;
And, when she is froward, peevish, sullen, sour,
And not obedient to his honest will,
What is she but a foul contending rebel,
And graceless traitor to her loving lord?
I am asham'd that women are so simple
To offer war, where they should kneel for peace ;
Or seek for rule, supremacy, and sway,
When they are bound to serve, love, and obey.
Why are our bodies soft and weak and smooth,
Unapt to toil and trouble in the world,

36. Old lad. Instance of Shakespeare's using the adjective "old" without reference to age. See Note 21, Act iv.

37. Sped. Idiomatically used for despatched, destroyed,

ruined. To speed well or ill, is still an idiom in use; and well may Petruchio say that his two fellow-bridegrooms have sped ill, or "are sped" (injured for life) in the wives they have chosen apparently meek and loving, but really self-willed and disobedient.

38. Hit the white. A term borrowed from archery; meaning to win by hitting the centre of the target, generally painted white. It is figuratively used for winning Bianca, the Italian for "white."

39. Shrew. Here pronounced shrow, for the sake of the rhyme. See Note 19 of this Act. It is so pronounced also at the close of Act iv., sc. 1.

40. 'Tis a wonder, &c. This is the line alluded to in Note 1 of the play. It contains, so to say, the essence of its moral: to superficial observers (and Lucentio is notably superficial in judgment; witness his choice of Bianca) it is "a wonder" that a woman like Katharine should be brought from her first violence and wilfulness into the good sense and sweet wisdom of her ultimate wifely submission and knowledge of feminine duty. But to those who read Shakespeare's teaching attentively, the underlying means of influence and monition are discernible beneath the ostensible means of mere out-blustering and outdomineering. Petruchio's hectoring and ordering have that humorous exaggeration which serves to show his wife how ludicrous is such habitual and unreasonable waywardness; he shows her the folly and absurdity as well as the hatefulness of violent temper; and, withal, he keeps throughout the personal fondness for her which wins a woman's heart while it convinces her understanding. It is thus that Katharine is reformed; it is "so" that the Shrew is "tamed."

SCENE 1.-ROUSILLON. A Hall in the Mansion of the Countess.

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,2 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

1. The earliest printed copy of "ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL" known to be in existence, is that of the 1623 Folio. It is supposed to be the same play as one mentioned by Meres in his "Palladis Tamia," 1598; there called "Love Labors Wonne." Probably it may have been a youthful composition of the poet, originally named by him "Love's Labour's Won, or All's Well that Ends Well;" and that when, at a subsequent period, he re-touched it for production on the stage, its second title only was retained. There are several reasons that sway us to this belief: first, there are variations of style visible in the course of the play, that bear trace of Shakespeare's younger manner, and of his more mature manner; the story seems to be that which, of all Shakespeare's known dramas, best consists with the title of "Love's Labour's Won," and that title forms a sort of counterpart to "Love's Labour's Lost," which hears internal evidence of being written at an early period of Shakespeare's authorship; while in after years, when bringing forward "All's Well that Ends Well" for public performance, it may have been thought not only that that title was most taking and most pertinent, but that there no longer existed any advantage in allusion to the counterpartly-named play. The pertinence of the title of "All's Well that Ends Well" is manifest from three passages occurring in it, which will be duly notified in their proper places. We find the source of the plot in Boccaccio's "Giletta of Narbona," which forms the ninth novel of the third day in his “Decamerone." There is a translation of this tale in the first volume of Painter's "Palace of Pleasure," 4to, 1566; and it is probable that hence Shakespeare became acquainted with what furnished him with the groundwork for this interesting drama. The conduct of the whole, the moulding of the incidents with effect, the moral force

to you; whose worthiness 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?

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, -oh, that "had!" how sad a passage 'tis !—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

evolved from the plot and characters, the fine development of the main of these characters themselves, with the introduction and originating such life-like personages as Countess Rousillon, Lord Lafeu, Parolles, and Lavatch the clown-jester, belong entirely to Shakespeare; so that, while borrowing a spirited plot from a great Italian author, our great English dramatist constructed a work which Boccaccio himself would have been the first to appreciate in its entirety of excellence.

2. In ward. The heirs of great fortunes, under the feudal law, were wards to the king. This custom prevailed in England, and in some parts of France; and although it has been objected that Shakespeare is here guilty of mistake in ascribing it to a French province where it did not exist, yet he is not to blame in this matter, since this point is found in the original Italian novel of Boccaccio, whence the plot of the play is taken.

3. Rather than lack it, &c. Warburton proposed to alter "lack" to 'slack,' which, to our minds, would render the passage inexplicable. As it stands, it seems to us to be e'liptically expressed, but thoroughly intelligible. It may be thus interpreted Your worthiness would stir it (that is, the king's "virtue," favour, or kindness) up where it did not exist, rather than be without it where it exists in such abundance.'

one of those passages where Shakespeare has an understood nominative in a sentence. See Note 45, Act v., << Midsummer Night's Dream;" and Note 17, Act i., Merchant of Venice." Here "it" is understood as repeated before "would;" and some editors print the latter word thus-twould.'

6. A fistula. In Painter's version of Boccaccio's novel, the king's malady is described as "a swelling upon his breast, which, by reason of ill cure, was grown to be a fistula.”

7. Achieves her goodness. This description of Helena's character has the effect of being obscure, from the poet's having used expressions in a somewhat peculiar sense. "Dispositions he here employs for native tendencies; while fair gifts" and "virtuous qualities" he employs for acquired excellencies-the result of educational culture and breeding. Commendations go with pity, they are virtues and traitors too," is equivalent to We commend such excellencies with regret that they should be good in themselves, yet treacherous in their combination and effects; and then the Countess goes on to say that Helena's merits are the better for their pure source, since she derives her integrity of nature from her father, and achieves her excellence herself.

8. 'Tis the best brine a maiden can season her praise in. This is a metaphor which Shakespeare is fond of; for he knew far better than his commentators (one of whom attests his own vulgarity by asserting it to be "coarse and vulgar ") that it is a wholesomely genuine one. Brine seasons by rendering that which it preserves sweet, fresh, and lasting; and all this beautifully applies to the subjects our poet thus metaphorises.

9. Affect a sorrow than to have. This speech is elliptically expressed, but it is perfectly intelligible, and may be thus paraphrased -Lest you be believed rather to affect a sorrow than to have it.' In the Folio, the speech is printed with a concluding dash; but it is not a broken or unfinished speech. We believe that here the Countess leaves Helena, and goes over to her son Bertram. Thus, the following speeches-crossing-mark the speakers' relative positions; the mother and son engaged with each other, while Lafeu remains near Helena, addressing her.

10. I do affect a sorrow, &c. In these, the first words she utters, Helena uses the veiled language which marks her diction throughout this opening scene. She is brooding over her secret thoughts, letting them but so indistinctly be seen as to be undivined by those around her, and only so far perceived by the reader as to enable him to gather what the dramatist intends to indicate. The "sorrow" Helena "affects" is that for her father's death; the sorrow she says "I have" is for the in auspiciousness of her love, and for Bertram's approaching departure.

11. Makes it soon mortal. Ludwig Tieck was the first to point out that this speech belongs to Helena, and not to the Countess; to the latter of whom it is assigned in the Folio, where prefixes are often manifestly misappropriated. It is precisely in the veiled and enigmatical style that characterises all Helena's speeches throughout this scene in the presence of others; a style so wonderfully true to the condition of a young girl engaged in ceaseless struggle with an absorbing and hopeless passion. Her every word is self-betrayal, to those who are aware of her secret; but wholly incomprehensible to those who are unconscious of its existence. Lafeu's comment, "How understand we that?" shows this effect, as produced upon unconscious hearers. The old lord is interested in Helena and her obviously "excessive grief," but is at a loss to interpret her words. To our minds, they mean- If the living (and to ker Bertram represents the whole living world) dislike me and my grief, its excess will soon kill me.'

12. Madam, I desire your holy wishes. It was this speech, addressed to the Countess, which probably led the printers of the Folio into the mistake of assigning the previous speech to her. Some commentators have proposed that this speech of Bertram's, and Lafeu's next, should be transposed; but Shakespeare often has these intervolved dialogues with crossing speeches not immediately responding to the last-uttered ones, where several persons are engaged in speaking; and most natural is the effect thus produced. See Note 13, Act ii., "Merchant of Venice."