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Exeunt

ACT V. SCENE 10. Another part of the plain

Enter AENEAS, PARIS, ANTENOR, and DEIPHOBUS

AENEAS.

Stand, ho! yet are we masters of the field.

Never go home; here starve we out the night.

Enter TROILUS

TROILUS.

Hector is slain.

ALL.

Hector! The gods forbid!

TROILUS.

He's dead, and at the murderer's horse's tail,

In beastly sort, dragg'd through the shameful field.

Frown on, you heavens, effect your rage with speed.

Sit, gods, upon your thrones, and smile at Troy.

I say at once let your brief plagues be mercy,

And linger not our sure destructions on.

AENEAS.

My lord, you do discomfort all the host.

TROILUS.

You understand me not that tell me so.

I do not speak of flight, of fear of death,

But dare all imminence that gods and men

Address their dangers in. Hector is gone.

Who shall tell Priam so, or Hecuba?

Let him that will a screech-owl aye be call'd

Go in to Troy, and say there 'Hector's dead.'

There is a word will Priam turn to stone;

Make wells and Niobes of the maids and wives,

Cold statues of the youth; and, in a word,

Scare Troy out of itself. But, march away;

Hector is dead; there is no more to say.

Stay yet. You vile abominable tents,

Thus proudly pight upon our Phrygian plains,

Let Titan rise as early as he dare,

I'll through and through you. And, thou great-siz'd coward,

No space of earth shall sunder our two hates;

I'll haunt thee like a wicked conscience still,

That mouldeth goblins swift as frenzy's thoughts.

Strike a free march to Troy. With comfort go;

Hope of revenge shall hide our inward woe.

Enter PANDARUS

PANDARUS.

But hear you, hear you!

TROILUS.

Hence, broker-lackey. Ignominy and shame

Pursue thy life and live aye with thy name!

Exeunt all but

PANDARUS

PANDARUS.

A goodly medicine for my aching bones! world! world! thus

is the poor agent despis'd! traitors and bawds, how earnestly are

you set a work, and how ill requited! Why should our endeavour be

so lov'd, and the performance so loathed? What verse for it?

What

instance for it? Let me see-

Full merrily the humble-bee doth sing

Till he hath lost his honey and his sting;

And being once subdu'd in armed trail,

Sweet honey and sweet notes together fail.

Good traders in the flesh, set this in your painted

cloths. As many as be here of pander's hall,

Your eyes, half out, weep out at Pandar's fall;

Or, if you cannot weep, yet give some groans,

Though not for me, yet for your aching bones.

Brethren and sisters of the hold-door trade,

Some two months hence my will shall here be made.

It should be now, but that my fear is this,

Some galled goose of Winchester would hiss.

Till then I'll sweat and seek about for eases,

And at that time bequeath you my diseases.

Exit

ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL

This comedy is believed to have been written between 1604 and 1605 and tells the story of Helena, the orphan daughter of a famous physician, who is the ward of the Countess of Rousillon. Helena is hopelessly in love with the son of the Countess, Count Bertram, who has been sent to the court of the King of France. Despite her beauty and worth, Helena has no hope of attracting Bertram, since she is of low birth and he is a nobleman. However, when word comes that the King is ill, she goes to Paris and, using her father's arts, cures the fistula from which he suffers. In return, she is given the hand of any man in the realm; she chooses Bertram. Her new husband is appalled at the match, however, and shortly after their marriage flees France, accompanied only by a scoundrel named Parolles, to fight in the army of the Duke of Florence.

The play is based on a tale of Boccaccio's The Decameron and Shakespeare was likely to have read an English translation of the tale in William Painter's Palace of Pleasure. The name of the play comes from a well known English proverb.

Shakespeare's main source text for this play is available via this link.

The First Folio, 1623

CONTENTS

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

ACT I. SCENE 1. Rousillon. The COUNT'S palace

ACT I.