All's Well that Ends Well.

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,

neighbours and friends to the Widow.

Lords, Officers, Soldiers, etc., French and Florentine.

SCENE: Rousillon; Paris; Florence; Marseilles.

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 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;

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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,-0, that 'had'! how sad a passage 'tis !-whose 20

skill was almost as great as his honesty; had
it stretched so far, would have made nature im-
mortal, and death should have play for lack of
work. Would, for the king's sake, he were liv-
ing! 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 Nar-

bon. 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.

Laf. I would it were not notorious. Was this gentlewoman the daughter of Gerard de Narbon? Count. His sole child, my lord; and bequeathed to my overlooking. I have those hopes of her good that her education promises; her dispositions she inherits, which makes fair gifts fairer; for where an unclean mind carries virtuous qualities, there commendations go with pity; they are virtues and traitors too: in her they are the better for their simpleness; she derives her honesty and achieves her goodness.

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Laf. Your commendations, madam, get from her 50

tears.

Count. 'Tis the best brine a maiden can season her

praise in. The remembrance of her father never
approaches her heart but the tyranny of her
sorrows takes all livelihood from her cheek.
No more of this, Helena, go to, no more; lest
it be rather thought you affect a sorrow than to
have-

Hel. I do affect a sorrow, indeed, but I have it too.
Laf. Moderate lamentation is the right of the dead; 60
excessive grief the enemy to the living.

Count. If the living be enemy to the grief, the excess makes it soon mortal.

Ber. Madam, I desire your holy wishes.

Laf. How understand we that?

Count. Be thou blest, Bertram, and succeed thy father

Laf.

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In manners, as in shape! thy blood and virtue
Contend for empire in thee, and thy goodness
Share with thy birthright! Love all, trust a few,
Do wrong to none: be able for thine enemy
Rather in power than use; and keep thy friend
Under thy own life's key: be check'd for silence,
But never tax'd for speech. What heaven more will,
That thee may furnish, and my prayers pluck down,
Fall on thy head! Farewell, my lord;

'Tis an unseason'd courtier; good my lord,
Advise him.

He cannot want the best

That shall attend his love.

Count. Heaven bless him! Farewell, Bertram.

[Exit.

Ber. [To Helena] The best wishes that can be forged 80 in your thoughts be servants to you! Be comfortable to my mother, your mistress, and make much of her.