THE KING’S MAN 293
Problematic reconciliation?
The final reconciliation scene
can be read and performed in a
number of different ways. Bertram
may be transfigured by the return
of dead Helen, sometimes dressed
in white like an avenging angel
or the Virgin Mary. He may be
filled with gratitude as she
releases him from his arrest for
murder and exonerates him from
any crime against Diana.
Freed from the influence of
Paroles and his hyper-masculine
ethos, Bertram may give way to
an attraction to Helen that he
has always secretly felt. Equally,
Helen’s reaction to Bertram takes
on many different hues. A review
of the 1992 RSC production,
directed by Sir Peter Hall,
describes how, “With a pained,
dignified ‘et cetera’ (uttered after
a beautifully pointed pause), she
spares both of them a full recital,
and then determinedly rends the
paper in two.” We might interpret
this action as a fresh start for
the couple, or as a long-awaited
expression of Helen’s rage against
her husband.
Ultimately, the understanding
that life is like a “mingled yarn,
good and ill together” is reserved
for the older generation. When
she discovers Helen’s love, the
Countess reflects on her own past
lovesickness, and concludes that it
is an essential part of being young:
“this thorn / Doth to our rose of
youth rightly belong” (1.3.125–126).
She also questions the value of
young love: “Such were our faults—
or then we thought them none” (131).
However, it remains to be seen
whether Helen’s idolatrous passion
for Bertram or his “sick desires”
for Diana will be assuaged by
marriage, and indeed whether they
will be able to put these events
behind them. Can we imagine
Bertram and Helen a few years on,
teasing one another about the fact
that Bertram was once accused of
hating his wife so much he might
have killed her? Or is that part of
the weave always likely to bring
Helen sorrow because Bertram
never fulfils his promise to “love
her dearly, ever, ever dearly”
(5.3.318)? The difficulties that have
to be overcome may be too great
for the ending to feel anything
other than bittersweet. ■’Tis only title thou disdain’st
in her, the which
I can build up. Strange is
it that our bloods,
Of colour, weight, and heat,
poured all together,
Would quite confound
distinction, yet stands off
In differences so mighty.
King of France
Act 2, Scene 3A young man married is a
man that’s marred.
Paroles
Act 2, Scene 3The braggart soldier
For Shakespeare’s audience,
Paroles would have been an
instantly recognizable comic
type. The braggart soldier,
whose much vaunted courage
on the battlefield turns out
to be a sham, had been a
popular figure in classical
comedy, and appears
elsewhere in Shakespeare’s
plays in the guise of Pistol in
Henry IV Part 2 and Falstaff
in Henry IV and Henry V.
The character’s popularity
in the 17th century was
such that King Charles I
wrote “Monsieur Paroles”
next to the title in his private
copy of All’s Well That Ends
Well, and the play was
subsequently adapted to
expand his part.
For all his shocking
betrayal of his friend Bertram
and his fellow soldiers,
Paroles gains a certain amount
of sympathy from his obvious
relief at abandoning the
pretense: “Simply the thing
I am / Shall make me live”
(4.3.334–335). In the 2013
RSC production, as played
by Jonathan Slinger, Paroles
drops the Sandhurst accent
that he had used to ingratiate
himself, and finally accepts
his homosexuality.