All's Well That Ends Well Read online

  49 of due to

  51 If ... mortal i.e. if resisted, overabundant grief quickly dies 53 holy sacred/respected

  54 How ... that? What does that mean? (some editors suppose the line is displaced and that it may be a response to Helen or the Countess, not Bertram) 56 manners good conduct

  56 shape physical appearance

  56 Thy may thy

  56 blood nobility/parentage

  57 empire rule

  58 birthright inherited qualities

  59 able ready/powerful enough

  60 power ability, potential

  60 keep ... key value your friend's life as dearly as your own 61 checked rebuked

  62 taxed censured

  62 What whatever

  62 more will wishes to give you in addition

  63 pluck draw

  65 unseasoned inexperienced

  67 want lack

  67 best i.e. best advice

  68 his love my love for him

  70 forged created, imagined

  71 comfortable comforting, supportive

  72 make much of be attentive to

  73 hold maintain

  73 credit reputation/honor

  76 these ... him i.e. the floods of tears she is shedding because of her unrequited love for Bertram do more honor to her father's memory than did the (fewer) tears wept at his death 79 favour image, face (puns on the sense of "love token") 80 undone ruined

  81 'Twere ... That it is the same as if

  84 collateral parallel but distant

  85 sphere orbit (heavenly bodies were thought to be surrounded by hollow spheres that produced beautiful music as they rotated) 87 hind female deer (puns on sense of "servant")

  88 pretty pleasing

  90 hawking sharp, keen

  91 table notebook, drawing tablet

  91 capable appreciative, sensitive

  92 trick distinguishing feature

  92 favour face

  93 fancy love/infatuation

  94 relics i.e. memory

  94 Parolles i.e. "words," from French paroles

  95 his i.e. Bertram's

  97 great way complete

  97 solely wholly

  98 fixed certain, established

  98 fit suitably

  99 take place take precedence/are accepted

  99 steely i.e. hard, uncompromising

  100 Looks ... wind are left out in the cold/look pale, unappealing 100 Withal therefore

  100 full oft very often

  101 waiting on attending, deferring to

  101 superfluous extravagant, overabundant

  102 Save God save

  102 queen may play on "quean" (i.e. prostitute)

  107 stain hint/taint

  109 barricado barricade

  110 Keep ensure he stays (plays on the sense of "build a fortified tower") 112 Unfold reveal

  113 setting ... you besieging you (with sexual connotations) 114 undermine overthrow/dig underneath to lay mines/burrow into sexually 114 blow you up cause an explosion/make you pregnant 115 Bless (may God) protect

  116 policy stratagem

  118 be blown up gain an erection/have an orgasm

  119 Marry by the Virgin Mary

  119 blowing him down inducing his orgasm, and subsequent loss of erection 120 breach vagina/hole in defenses

  120 city i.e. virginity

  120 politic prudent/strategic

  122 rational increase logical profit-making/an increase in rational beings through reproduction 122 got begotten, conceived

  123 That that which

  123 mettle substance/coinage (indistinguishable from "metal" in Shakespearean usage) 125 found i.e. duplicated in reproduction (by producing ten virgins) 125 cold chaste

  127 stand for't defend it

  129 in't in its defense

  130 part behalf (puns on the sense of "genitals")

  131 infallible certain

  131 He ... virgin i.e. like a virgin who refuses to reproduce, a crime likened to suicide 133 highways ... limit traditionally suicides were buried at crossroads, in unconsecrated ground 134 desperate reckless/dangerous

  134 offendress female offender

  135 paring rind

  136 his its

  136 stomach appetite/pride

  137 peevish stubborn, perverse

  138 inhibited prohibited

  138 canon list of Church laws

  139 lose fail to profit (puns on the idea of "losing" one's virginity) 139 Out with't! Away with it!/put it out to interest 139 make itself two double in value (by increasing at rate of 10 percent per year) 140 principal initial investment

  142 How what

  143 it i.e. virginity

  144 gloss freshness/shine

  144 lying remaining unused (may play on the sense of "lying down") 145 vendible salable, marketable

  145 Answer ... request respond to current consumer demand 147 suited dressed

  147 unsuitable unfashionable

  148 toothpick ornate toothpicks were fashionable for a period 148 wear not are not in fashion

  148 date fruit/age/penis

  149 pie with vaginal connotations

  149 porridge stew (with vaginal connotations)

  149 in your cheek i.e. as sign of increasing age 151 pears with vaginal connotations

  151 eats dryly tastes dry

  155 There i.e. at court

  156 mother here begins a list of names and relationships found in love poetry 157 phoenix i.e. paragon, wonder (literally, mythical Arabian bird that was consumed by fire every five hundred years, then resurrected from the ashes; only one existed at a time) 161 concord harmony

  161 dulcet sweet

  162 disaster unlucky star

  163 fond affectionate/foolish

  163 adoptious adopted

  163 christendoms baptismal (Christian) names

  164 blinking blind

  164 gossips is godparent to

  165 well fortune

  170 body i.e. something tangible

  172 baser stars lesser fortunes

  172 shut ... in confine us to

  173 effects of them i.e. fulfilled wishes

  174 alone must think must only think (not do)

  175 Returns us thanks give us gratitude, reward 180 Mars Roman god of war

  180 ay "I" in Folio, but likely to be heard by the audience as an ironic "yes" (Mars not being not known for charity) 183 under down/in a lowly position

  185 predominant in the ascendant, dominant

  186 retrograde moving in a contrary direction, backward 188 backward i.e. in retreat, fleeing the enemy 189 advantage tactical gain (Helen shifts the sense to "personal interest") 191 composition mixture/constitution (plays on the sense of "truce") 192 wing ability to fly swiftly/jacket's shoulder flap (may pun on the sense of "flank of troops") 192 wear fashion

  194 perfect (the) complete

  194 in the which i.e. in which manner

  195 naturalize accustom

  196 capable of receptive to/have (sexual) capacity for 197 thrust with sexual connotations

  198 makes thee away sees you off

  199 leisure opportunity

  201 use treat/employ sexually

  203 fated fateful/with power over destiny

  205 designs undertakings/plans

  205 dull sluggish

  207 feed satisfy (my longing)

  208 The across the

  208 space in fortune gap in social status/difference in fortunes 209 like likes kindred affections

  209 native closely related/of similar rank/natural 210 strange attempts extraordinary endeavors (to be united) 211 weigh ... sense evaluate their efforts according to common sense 213 miss fail to achieve

  Act 1 Scene 2

  1.2 Location: Paris

  1.2 Flourish fanfare, usually accompanying a person in authority 1.2 divers various

  1 Florentines people from Florence (northern Italian city, capital of Tuscany) 1 Senoys people from Siena

  1 by th'e
ars at odds, fighting

  3 braving defiant

  6 cousin fellow monarch of

  7 move urge, appeal to

  8 dearest friend i.e. Austria

  9 Prejudicates prejudges

  10 make denial i.e. deny aid to the Florentines 12 Approved established, proved

  13 credence trust

  14 armed fortified (against entreaties)

  15 Florence ruler of Florence

  16 for as for

  16 see i.e. take part in

  17 service military service

  18 stand serve, fight

  18 part side

  20 nursery training ground

  20 sick longing

  21 breathing and exploit active military employment

  26 Frank generous

  26 rather ... haste more fastidious than hasty

  27 parts qualities

  30 corporal soundess good physical health

  32 tried tested

  32 did ... service had deep knowledge of military matters 33 was Discipled of taught/was taught by

  34 bravest boldest/finest/noblest

  35 haggish haglike, repulsive/frosty

  36 out of act down beyond action

  36 repairs restores, revives

  40 scorn mockery

  40 return ... unnoted goes unheeded/is visited back upon them 41 Ere before

  41 levity in honour lightheartedness in honorable action 42 contempt neither contempt

  44 equal i.e. social equal

  44 awaked provoked

  45 Clock to itself true to itself, reliable, self-governing 45 true exact

  46 Exception grievance/disapproval

  47 hand hand of action/hand of his honor's clock, showing the appropriate time 47 Who those who

  48 used treated

  48 another place different (higher) rank

  49 top head

  51 humbled humbled himself

  52 copy example/model

  53 them ... backward men of today to be merely inferior 57 So ... epitaph his epitaph is nowhere so profoundly confirmed 57 approof proof, experience/approbation

  60 plausive praising

  61 scattered not did not disperse randomly

  61 grafted cultivated deliberately

  62 bear i.e. bear fruit

  64 On ... heel at the conclusion and end

  64 pastime entertainment, leisure activity

  65 out over

  66 snuff burnt-out wick/hindrance

  67 apprehensive perceptive/quick-witted

  69 Mere ... garments only capable of inventing new fashions 69 constancies loyalties

  71 I ... too I, surviving him, also wish (plays on idea of following into death) 72 nor neither

  73 were would be

  73 dissolved released

  74 labourers productive worker bees

  76 lend show, give

  76 it i.e. love

  76 lack miss

  82 the rest i.e. other physicians

  83 several various

  83 applications treatments

  84 Debate contend over

  84 it i.e. his health

  Act 1 Scene 3

  1.3 Location: Rossillion Lavatch probably from the French la vache ("the cow") 1 gentlewoman i.e. Helen

  2 even your content please you

  3 calendar record

  4 clearness purity

  5 of ... them we speak openly of our own merits

  5 deservings merits, deserts

  6 sirrah sir (used to a social inferior)

  11 poor wretched, humble (sense then shifts to "impoverished") 12 Well i.e. go on (Lavatch shifts the sense to "satisfactory") 15 go ... world i.e. get married

  15 Isbel typical name for a whore

  15 woman female servant/whore

  16 do act/have sex

  17 needs of necessity

  20 case puns on the sense of "vagina"

  20 Service employment as a servant (plays on the sense of "sex") 20 heritage inheritance (for children)

  22 issue ... body i.e. children

  22 bairns children

  25 go puns on the sense of "have sex"

  26 your worship title of mock respect

  27 holy i.e. sanctioned by marriage (puns on "holey," i.e. vaginal) 29 world mankind, i.e. secular people

  32 repent regret marrying/atone for sex out of wedlock 35 for ... sake to keep my wife company (with suggestion of sexual activity) 37 shallow lacking in judgment

  37 in of

  38 do with sexual connotations

  39 ears plows/has sex with/impregnates

  39 land i.e. wife

  39 spares my team takes the load off my sexual organs 39 gives me leave allows/enables

  39 in harvest/bring in

  40 crop i.e. of children

  40 cuckold man with an unfaithful wife

  40 drudge slave/menial worker

  40 comforts pleasures (sexually)

  41 cherisher nourisher/sustainer (in procreative sense) 43 ergo "therefore" (Latin)

  44 what they are i.e. cuckolds

  45 Charbon the Puritan meat-eating puritan (from French chair bonne: "good flesh," eaten on fast-days) 46 Poysam the Papist fish-eating Catholic (from French poisson: "fish," eaten on fast-days) 46 howsome'er howsoever/although

  47 both one alike (in being cuckolds)

  47 jowl dash, knock

  49 ever always

  49 calumnious slanderous

  52 next nearest/most direct

  56 kind nature, i.e. to be a cuckold (which sounds like "cuckoo") is natural 57 anon at another time

  62 fair face i.e. of Helen of Troy, the most beautiful woman in the world, whose abduction by Paris caused the Trojan war 62 she perhaps Hecuba, wife of Priam

  63 sacked plundered

  63 Troy ancient city of West Turkey, besieged for ten years during the Trojan war 64 Fond foolishly

  65 King Priam King of Troy, killed during the conflict 68 sentence maxim, wise saying

  69 Among along with

  72 corrupt the song presumably Lavatch has inverted the words of a well-known song; it may have originally read "Among nine good if one be bad, / There's yet nine good in ten"

  75 purifying cleansing, improving

  75 serve the world i.e. by consistently providing one good woman in ten 76 tithe-woman tenth woman (i.e. one in ten); the tithe was the tenth of one's farm produce able to be claimed by the parson 77 An if

  78 but ... earthquake i.e. rarely

  78 blazing star comet

  79 mend ... well improve the odds

  79 draw pull

  80 one i.e. a good woman

  82 That to think that

  83 honesty truth/virtue

  84 wear ... heart i.e. conform by hiding pride beneath an outward appearance of obedience, just as Puritans wore the prescribed Anglican surplice over the more extreme Calvinist black gown 85 forsooth in truth

  89 bequeathed left (by will)/entrusted

  90 advantage financial interest/additional personal benefits 90 make title lay claim

  93 late recently

  96 stranger sense other person's or stranger's hearing 96 matter subject, theme

  98 estates stations in life

  99 no i.e. unworthy of being a

  99 only where qualities except where ranks

  100 Dian Diana, Roman goddess of chastity, the moon, and hunting 100 suffer allow

  101 surprised to be captured/attacked

  102 touch feeling/expression/note

  104 withal with

  104 sithence since

  104 loss harm

  105 something somewhat

  106 discharged performed

  107 likelihoods indications

  109 misdoubt disbelieve

  109 Stall confine, lodge, hide

  113 these difficulties/pangs of love

  115 blood passion

  116 show appearance/display

  116 seal sign/confirmation

  117 impressed imprinted
, stamped

  119 or or rather/but

  120 observe see through/note

  125 Methought it seemed to me

  126 start flinch

  128 enwombed mine carried in my womb

  129 Adoption i.e. (love for) adopted children 129 strives competes

  129 nature i.e. (love for) one's own children 129 choice ... seeds we choose to graft a cutting from another plant onto our stock, and thus make it into our own 131 mother's groan i.e. in labor

  133 curd curdle

  135 distempered distressed/unseasonal, inclement

  136 iris Greek goddess of the rainbow

  136 rounds encircles

  138 not i.e. not your daughter-in-law

  143 note mark of distinction

  143 parents ancestors

  145 vassal subject/servant

  149 So provided that

  150 both our mothers mother of us both

  151 no ... than as much as

  152 can't no other can it be no other way

  155 shield ensure/forbid

  157 catched caught

  157 fondness foolishness/affection

  158 loveliness many editors emend to "loneliness" (solitary melancholy) 159 head source

  159 sense perception

  159 gross obvious

  160 Invention (your) devising of excuse

  161 Against in the face of

  166 kind natural way (i.e. by weeping)

  168 That ... suspected for fear that truth will be regarded with suspicion/to ensure that truth will not be guessed at 169 clew ball (of thread)

  170 forswear't deny it (under oath)

  170 howe'er in any case

  170 charge command

  171 avail benefit

  178 Go not about don't be roundabout (in answering) 178 bond i.e. maternal bond

  179 takes note recognizes

  181 appeached informed against (you)

  184 before more than

  186 friends relatives

  189 token sign, evidence, indication (plays on the sense of "love token") 189 presumptuous suit unwarranted aim/expectant courtship 193 captious capacious/eager to take in/deceptive

  193 intenible incapable of holding

  194 still continually

  195 lack ... still yet do not run out of more to pour in and waste/do not run out of more to keep continuously pouring in and losing 196 Religious ardent/worshipful

  198 no more nothing other (than to look on him)

  199 encounter with contest, fight

  201 cites confirms, acknowledges

  204 herself i.e. chastity

  206 lend ... lose i.e. bestow affection where it is sure of no success 207 that what

  207 implies involves, seeks

  208 lives ... dies i.e. in loving Bertram, Helen is doomed to eternal disappointment 212 Wherefore? Why?

  213 grace God's grace

  214 prescriptions ancient customs/instructions/doctor's prescriptions 216 manifest evident

  217 sovereignty efficacy/healing

  218 In ... them to reserve them for use with the greatest care 219 notes instructions/doctor's prescriptions

  219 faculties inclusive comprehensive capabilities 220 in note recognized to be

  221 approved tested, proven

  222 desp'rate despairing, hopeless

  223 rendered lost deemed incurable

  227 conversation processes, reflections

  228 Haply perhaps

  230 tender offer

  232 a mind the same opinion