Read Complete Plays, The Online
Authors: William Shakespeare
Complete Plays, The (310 page)
Richmond
God and your arms be praised, victorious friends,
The day is ours, the bloody dog is dead.
Derby
Courageous Richmond, well hast thou acquit thee.
Lo, here, this long-usurped royalty
From the dead temples of this bloody wretch
Have I pluck’d off, to grace thy brows withal:
Wear it, enjoy it, and make much of it.
Richmond
Great God of heaven, say Amen to all!
But, tell me, is young George Stanley living?
Derby
He is, my lord, and safe in Leicester town;
Whither, if it please you, we may now withdraw us.
Richmond
What men of name are slain on either side?
Derby
John Duke of Norfolk, Walter Lord Ferrers,
Sir Robert Brakenbury, and Sir William Brandon.
Richmond
Inter their bodies as becomes their births:
Proclaim a pardon to the soldiers fled
That in submission will return to us:
And then, as we have ta’en the sacrament,
We will unite the white rose and the red:
Smile heaven upon this fair conjunction,
That long have frown’d upon their enmity!
What traitor hears me, and says not amen?
England hath long been mad, and scarr’d herself;
The brother blindly shed the brother’s blood,
The father rashly slaughter’d his own son,
The son, compell’d, been butcher to the sire:
All this divided York and Lancaster,
Divided in their dire division,
O, now, let Richmond and Elizabeth,
The true succeeders of each royal house,
By God’s fair ordinance conjoin together!
And let their heirs, God, if thy will be so.
Enrich the time to come with smooth-faced peace,
With smiling plenty and fair prosperous days!
Abate the edge of traitors, gracious Lord,
That would reduce these bloody days again,
And make poor England weep in streams of blood!
Let them not live to taste this land’s increase
That would with treason wound this fair land’s peace!
Now civil wounds are stopp’d, peace lives again:
That she may long live here, God say amen!
Exeunt
The Complete Comedies
By
William Shakespeare
All’s Well That Ends Well
T
ABLE
OF
C
ONTENTS
S
CENE
I. R
OUSILLON
. T
HE
C
OUNT
’
S
PALACE
.
S
CENE
II. P
ARIS
. T
HE
K
ING
’
S
PALACE
.
S
CENE
III. R
OUSILLON
. T
HE
C
OUNT
’
S
PALACE
.
S
CENE
I. P
ARIS
. T
HE
K
ING
’
S
PALACE
.
S
CENE
II. R
OUSILLON
. T
HE
C
OUNT
’
S
PALACE
.
S
CENE
III. P
ARIS
. T
HE
K
ING
’
S
PALACE
.
S
CENE
IV. P
ARIS
. T
HE
K
ING
’
S
PALACE
.
S
CENE
V. P
ARIS
. T
HE
K
ING
’
S
PALACE
.
S
CENE
I. F
LORENCE
. T
HE
D
UKE
’
S
PALACE
.
S
CENE
II. R
OUSILLON
. T
HE
C
OUNT
’
S
PALACE
.
S
CENE
III. F
LORENCE
. B
EFORE
THE
D
UKE
’
S
PALACE
.
S
CENE
IV. R
OUSILLON
. T
HE
C
OUNT
’
S
PALACE
.
S
CENE
V. F
LORENCE
. W
ITHOUT
THE
WALLS
. A
TUCKET
AFAR
OFF
.
S
CENE
VII. F
LORENCE
. T
HE
W
IDOW
’
S
HOUSE
.
S
CENE
I. W
ITHOUT
THE
F
LORENTINE
CAMP
.
S
CENE
II. F
LORENCE
. T
HE
W
IDOW
’
S
HOUSE
.
S
CENE
IV. F
LORENCE
. T
HE
W
IDOW
’
S
HOUSE
.
S
CENE
V. R
OUSILLON
. T
HE
C
OUNT
’
S
PALACE
.
S
CENE
II. R
OUSILLON
. B
EFORE
THE
C
OUNT
’
S
PALACE
.
S
CENE
III. R
OUSILLON
. T
HE
C
OUNT
’
S
PALACE
.
T
HE
C
HARACTERS
OF
THE
P
LAY
King of France.
The Duke of Florence.
Bertram, Count of Rousillon.
Lafeu, an old Lord.
Parolles, a follower of Bertram.
Several young French Lords, that serve with Bertram in the Florentine War.
Steward, Servant to the Countess of Rousillon.
Clown, Servant to the Countess of Rousillon.
A Page, Servant to the Countess of Rousillon.
Countess of Rousillon, Mother to Bertram.
Helena, a Gentlewoman protected by the Countess.
An old Widow of Florence.
Diana, daughter to the Widow.
Violenta, neighbour and friend to the Widow.
Mariana, neighbour and friend to the Widow.
Lords attending on the King; Officers; Soldiers, &c., French and Florentine.
A
CT
I
S
CENE
I. R
OUSILLON
. T
HE
C
OUNT
’
S
PALACE
.
Enter Bertram, the Countess of Rousillon, Helena, and Lafeu, all in black
Countess
In delivering my son from me, I bury a second husband.
Bertram
And I in going, madam, weep o’er my father’s death anew: but I must attend his majesty’s command, to whom I am now in ward, evermore in subjection.
Lafeu
You shall find of the king a husband, madam; you, sir, a father: he that so generally is at all times good must of necessity hold his virtue to you; whose worthiness would stir it up where it wanted rather than lack it where there is such abundance.
Countess
What hope is there of his majesty’s amendment?
Lafeu
He hath abandoned his physicians, madam; under whose practises he hath persecuted time with hope, and finds no other advantage in the process but only the losing of hope by time.
Countess
This young gentlewoman had a father,— O, that ‘had’! how sad a passage ’tis!— whose skill was almost as great as his honesty; had it stretched so far, would have made nature immortal, and death should have play for lack of work. Would, for the king’s sake, he were living! I think it would be the death of the king’s disease.
Lafeu
How called you the man you speak of, madam?
Countess
He was famous, sir, in his profession, and it was his great right to be so: Gerard de Narbon.
Lafeu
He was excellent indeed, madam: the king very lately spoke of him admiringly and mourningly: he was skilful enough to have lived still, if knowledge could be set up against mortality.
Bertram
What is it, my good lord, the king languishes of?
Lafeu
A fistula, my lord.
Bertram
I heard not of it before.
Lafeu
I would it were not notorious. Was this gentlewoman the daughter of Gerard de Narbon?
Countess
His sole child, my lord, and bequeathed to my overlooking. I have those hopes of her good that her education promises; her dispositions she inherits, which makes fair gifts fairer; for where an unclean mind carries virtuous qualities, there commendations go with pity; they are virtues and traitors too; in her they are the better for their simpleness; she derives her honesty and achieves her goodness.