All's Well That Ends Well
1623
All's Well That Ends Well refuses to give us the easy love story we want. Helena, brilliant and unapologetically ambitious, cures a dying King of France and claims her reward: the man she loves, Bertram, Count of Rossillon. But Bertram is repulsed by her 'base' birth and flees to war, leaving her with impossible conditions for consummation. What follows is a darkly clever game of pursuit, deception, and sexual manipulation that challenges every romantic convention of its era and ours. Shakespeare doesn't let us off easy: the 'bed trick' that resolves everything is genuinely troubling, and Bertram's reformation feels more coerced than earned. This is a play that asks uncomfortable questions about love, agency, and whether happy endings are earned or simply endured. For readers who prefer their comedies with teeth and their romances complicated, All's Well remains one of Shakespeare's most provocative and unfairly neglected works.
Editions
X-Ray
“Love all, trust a few,Do wrong to none: be able for thine enemyRather in power than use; and keep thy friendUnder thy own life's key: be check'd for silence,But never tax'd for speech.””
— William Shakespeare
“All's well that ends well.””
— William Shakespeare
“No legacy is so rich as honesty.””
— William Shakespeare
“The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together: our virtues would be proud,if our faults whipped them not; and our crimes would despair, if they were not cherished by our virtues.””
— William Shakespeare
“Good with out evil is like light with out darkness which in turn is like righteousness whith out hope.””
— William Shakespeare
“Love is holy.””
— William Shakespeare
“My friends were poor, but honest; so's my love:””
— William Shakespeare
“Now I see the mystery of your loneliness .””
— William Shakespeare
“They say miracles are past; and we have our philosophical persons, to make modern and familiar, things supernatural and causeless. Hence is it that we make trifles of terrors, ensconcing ourselves into seeming knowledge, when we should submit ourselves to an unknown fear.””
— William Shakespeare
Link to this book
Add a free, dofollow link to Lex on your blog, forum, syllabus, or reading list.
<a href="https://lex-books.com/book/all-s-well-that-ends-well-1df19ba1-d68e-456a-a541-0be776ca67b3"><img src="https://lex-books.com/badges/read-on-lex.svg" alt="Read All's Well That Ends Well by William Shakespeare free on Lex" width="160" height="40"></a>[](https://lex-books.com/book/all-s-well-that-ends-well-1df19ba1-d68e-456a-a541-0be776ca67b3)[url=https://lex-books.com/book/all-s-well-that-ends-well-1df19ba1-d68e-456a-a541-0be776ca67b3][img]https://lex-books.com/badges/read-on-lex.svg[/img][/url]Read All's Well That Ends Well by William Shakespeare free on Lex: https://lex-books.com/book/all-s-well-that-ends-well-1df19ba1-d68e-456a-a541-0be776ca67b3Cite this book
Reading this edition for a paper or guide? Copy a citation.
Shakespeare, William. All's Well That Ends Well. Lex, lex-books.com/book/all-s-well-that-ends-well-1df19ba1-d68e-456a-a541-0be776ca67b3.Shakespeare, W. (1623). All's Well That Ends Well. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/all-s-well-that-ends-well-1df19ba1-d68e-456a-a541-0be776ca67b3Shakespeare, William. All's Well That Ends Well. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/all-s-well-that-ends-well-1df19ba1-d68e-456a-a541-0be776ca67b3.
