ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL

He needs must go that the devil drives.

ACT I, SCENE 3

Bertram, Count of Rousillon, is about to leave home to enter the service of the King of France. In his mother's household is an orphan, Helena, whose father was a physician. She is in love with Bertram, but he scarcely notices her, regarding her as far below his station in life. Helena learns that the King is desperately ill of a malady his physicians cannot cure, and that it is one for which her father had a remedy, the secret of which is now in her possession. She decides to go to Paris, partly to cure the King, and partly because Bertram is there.

Helena's treatment is a success, and in his gratitude at his recovery the King tells Helena she may choose a husband from among all his knights. Though many are willing to espouse her, it is Bertram she chooses. He declines to marry her, until he is ordered to do so by the King. He is leaving for the war in Italy, however, and immediately after the ceremony sends Helena back to Rousillon.

Here Helena receives a message from her husband saying that he will have nothing to do with her until she shows him a certain ring she must take from his finger, and also a child she has begotten by him. In pilgrim's garb she sets out for Florence.

Bertram becomes enamored of a certain Diana, daughter of a Florentine widow, and tries to seduce her. Helena persuades the girl to pretend to consent, and then let Helena herself take her place under cover of darkness. In this way she persuades Bertram to trade rings with her, and begets a child.

Again in France, Bertram is confronted with an accusation of seduction by Diana, and when he is relieved of his predicament by Helena's explanation of what actually transpired, he has the good grace to admit his cruelty, and really seems to have fallen in love with his wife at last.