All's Well That Ends Well

The play was probably written later in Shakespeare's career, between 1601 and 1608.

The five acts follow the action of Helena, a lowborn beauty, who pines for the son of her guardian, Count Bertram. She is granted his hand as a reward for curing the King. Later, she tricks him into giving her his family ring and sleeping with her, by posing as Diana, the virginal daughter of a widow. These were his conditions for being her true husband and he agrees to be a good husband in the final act.

Shakespeare's source is most likely William Painter's The Palace of Pleasure, which itself was translated from Boccaccio's Decameron.

External links

• Complete text of All's Well That Ends Well at MIT (http://classics.mit.edu/Shakespeare/allswell/)