THIS comedy was first printed in the folio collection of 1623. In the original copy the play is divided into acts, but not into scenes. There are several examples of corruption in the text; but, upon the whole, it is very accurately printed, both with regard to the metrical arrangement and to punctuation. In Dr. Farmer's 'Essay on the Learning of Shakspeare,' we find this passage:-" The story of All's Well that Ends Well,' or, as I suppose it to have been sometimes called, 'Love's Labour Wonne'" (and here Farmer inserts a reference to Meres' Wits' Treasury,' where 'Love's Labour Wonne' is mentioned amongst plays by Shakspere,) "is originally indeed the property of Boccace, but it came immediately to Shakspeare from Painter's Giletta of Narbon.'" Mr. Hunter, in his Disquisition on the Tempest,' repudiates the notion that Love's Labour Won' and 'All's Well that Ends Well' are identical. Mr. Hunter states that a passing remark of Dr. Farmer, in the Essay on the Learning of Shakspeare,' first pointed out this supposed identity; and he adds, "the remark has since been caught up and repeated by a thousand voices." Malone, in the first edition of his Chronological Order of Shakspeare's Plays,' assigns the date of this comedy to 1598, upon the authority of the passage in Meres. He says, "No other of our author's plays could have borne that title ('Love's Labour Won') with so much propriety as that before us." This is the real argument in the matter; and Coleridge, therefore, describes this play as "originally intended as the counterpart of 'Love's Labour's Lost."" Shakspere's titles, in the judgment of that philosophical critic, always exhibit "great significancy." The Labour of Love which is Lost is not a very earnest labour. The King and his courtiers are fantastical lovers. They would win their mistresses by "bootless rhymes" and "speeches penn'd," and their most sincere declarations are thus only received as "mocking merriment." What would naturally be the counterpart of such a story? One of passionate, enduring, all-pervading love,-of a love that shrinks from no difficulty, resents no unkindness, fears no disgrace, but perseveres, under the most adverse circumstances, to vindicate its own claims by its own energy, and to achieve success by the strength of its own will. This is the Labour of Love which is Won. Is not this the story of All's Well that Ends Well'? Of the characters we may say a few words. Mrs. Jameson quotes a passage from Foster's Essays' to explain the general idea of the character of Helena: "To be tremblingly alive to gentle impressions, and yet be able to preserve, when the prosecution of a design requires it, an immoveable heart amidst even the most imperious causes of subduing emotion, is perhaps not an impossible constitution of mind, but it is the utmost and rarest endowment of humanity." This ". stitution of mind" has been created by Shakspere in his Helena, and who can doubt the truth and nature of the conception? con Bertram, like all mixed characters, whether in the drama or in real life, is a great puzzle to those who look without tolerance on human motives and actions. In a onesided view he has no redeeming qualities. Johnson says, "I cannot reconcile my heart to Bertram; a man noble without generosity, and young without truth; who marries Helena as a coward, and leaves her as a profligate when she is dead by his unkindness sneaks home to a second marriage is accused by a woman whom he has wronged, defends himself by falsehood, and is dismissed to happiness." We have no desire to reconcile our hearts to Bertram; all that we demand is, that he should not move our indignation beyond the point in which his qualities shall consist with our sympathy for Helena in her love for him. And in this view the poet, as it appears to us, has drawn Bertram's character most skilfully. Without his defects the dramatic action could not have proceeded; without his merits the dramatic sentiment could not have been maintained. "In this piece," says Schlegel, "age is exhibited to singular advantage: the plain honesty of the King, the good-natured impetuosity of old Lafeu, the maternal indulgence of the Countess to Helena's love of her son, seem all, as it were, to vie with each other in endeavours to conquer the arrogance of the young Count." The general benevolence of these characters, and their particular kindness towards Helena, are the counterpoises to Bertram's pride of birth, and his disdain of virtue unaccompanied by adventitious distinctions. The love of the Countess towards Helena is habit, that of the King is gratitude: in Lafeu the admiration which he perseveringly holds towards her is the result of his honest sagacity. He admires what is direct and unpretending, and he therefore loves Helena: he hates what is evasive and boastful, and he therefore despises Parolles. "Parolles has many of the lineaments of Falstaff." We think that this opinion of Johnson exhibits a singular want of discrimination in one who relished Falstaff so highly. Parolles is literally what he is described by Helena : "I know him a notorious liar, Is this crawling, empty, vapouring, cowardly representative of the off-scourings of social life, to be compared for a moment with the inimitable Falstaff? The comparison will not bear examining with patience, and much less with painstaking. But Parolles in his own way is infinitely comic. "The scene of the drum," according to a French critic, "is worthy of Molière." This is the highest praise which a French writer could bestow; and here it is just. The character belongs to the school of which Molière is the head, rather than to the school of Shakspere. And what shall we say of the Clown? He is the "artificial fool;" and we do not like him, therefore, quite so much as dear Launce and dearer Touchstone. To the Fool in Lear' he can no more be compared than Parolles to Falstaff; but he is, nevertheless, great--something that no other artist but Shakspere could have produced. Our poet has used him as a vehicle for some biting satire. There can be no doubt that he is "a witty fool," a shrewd knave, and an unhappy." 66 PERSONS REPRESENTED. KING OF FRANCE. Appears, Act I. sc. 2. Act II. sc. 1; sc. 3. Act V. sc. 3. DUKE OF FLORENCE. BERTRAM, Count of Rousillon. Appears, Act I. sc. 1; sc. 2. Act II. sc. 1; sc. 3; sc. 5. Act III. sc. 3; sc. 5; sc. 6. Act IV. sc. 2; sc. 3. Act V. sc. 3. LAFEU, an old Lord. Appears, Act I. sc. 1; sc. 2. Act II. sc. 1; sc. 3; sc. 5. Act IV. sc. 5. Act V. sc. 2; sc. 3. PAROLLES, a follower of Bertram. Appears, Act I. sc. 1; sc. 2. Act II. sc. 1; sc. 3; sc. 4; sc. 5. Act III. sc. 5; sc. 6. Act IV. sc. 1; sc. 3. Act V. sc. 2; sc. 3. Several young French Lords that serve with Appear, Act II. sc. 1; sc. 3. Act III. sc. 1; sc. 6. Steward, servant to the Countess of Rousillon. Clown, servant to the Countess of Rousillon. Appears, Act I. sc. 3. Act II. sc. 2; sc. 4. Act III. sc. 2. Act IV. sc. 5. Act V. sc. 2. Astringer. Appears, Act V. sc. 1. A Page. Appears, Act I. sc. 1. COUNTESS OF ROUSILLON, mother to Appears, Act I. sc. 1; sc. 3. Act II. sc. 2. HELENA, a gentlewoman, protected by the Appears, Act I. sc. 1; sc.3. Act II. sc. 1; sc. 3; sc. 4; sc. 5. An old Widow of Florence. DIANA, daughter to the Widow. VIOLENTA, neighbour and friend to the Appears, Act III. sc. 5. MARIANA, neighbour and friend to the Widow. Appears, Act III. sc. 5. Lords attending on the King; Officers, Soldiers, &c., French and Florentine. |