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T
he title of Shakespeare’s
comedy All’s Well That
Ends Well could arguably
end with a question mark. As
American author John Jay Chapman
wrote in 1915: “Melancholy
moulders in the very title of it; for
we feel that all is not well, nor ever
has been nor can be well again.”
The play’s “mingled yarn” is one
reason for the uncertain reactions
it has provoked. Although it makes
use of a number of fairytale and
folkloric conventions, including
the hero who is set a series of
impossible tasks and the bedtrick
(where one woman substitutes for
another to secure a husband), the
psychological insight with which
the characters are written, and the
realistic setting in which they
are placed make these elements
highly problematic. Indeed, All’s
Well has often been labeled one ofALL’S WELL THAT ENDS WELL
Shakespeare’s “problem plays,”
along with Measure for Measure,
Troilus and Cressida, and even
sometimes Hamlet. This is not
a term that Shakespeare would
have recognized, as it was
invented in the 19th century to
describe Norwegian playwright
Henrik Ibsen’s plays, but it is still
a useful way of thinking about
All’s Well. The features of a problem
play include the interweaving
of fantastic plots with realisticIN CONTEXT
THEMES
Love, betrayal,
bereavement, and deathSETTING
Roussillon and Paris,
France, and Florence, ItalySOURCES
1353 Italian poet Giovanni
Boccaccio’s Decameron is the
main source of the play.1566–67 Shakespeare
probably read Boccaccio’s
story in English translator
William Painter’s Palace
of Pleasure.LEGACY
1741 The first recorded
performance of the play opens
at Drury Lane, London, with
Peg Woffington as Helen.1981 US playwright Don Nigro
writes Loves Labours Wonne,
a play about Shakespeare’s
life. In the play, Anne
Hathaway resembles
Helen, in that she wins
Shakespeare in marriage
by curing his father, John.2000 In US children’s author
Gary Blackwood’s novel
Shakespeare’s Scribe, an
apprentice, Widge, helps
Shakespeare to write
All’s Well.2012 All’s Well That Ends
Well, translated into Gujarati,
is performed by the Mumbai-
based company Arpana at
Shakespeare’s Globe in
London. The action is
relocated to northwest
India in 1900.On learning of Helen’s passion
for her son, the countess (Janie Dee,
right, at the Globe, 2011) supports
Helen’s (Ellie Piercy) plan to prove
her worthiness by curing the King.T’were all one
That I should love a bright
particular star
And think to wed it, he
is so above me.
Helen
Act 1, Scene 1