All's Well That Ends Well

By William Shakespeare

QUOTATION: Love all, trust a few,
Do wrong to none.
ATTRIBUTION: William Shakespeare (1564–1616), British dramatist, poet. Countess of Rossillion, in All’s Well That Ends Well, act 1, sc. 1, l. 64-5.

A mother’s advice to her young son Bertram, as he is summoned by the King to Paris.

QUOTATION: Be checked for silence,
But never taxed for speech.
ATTRIBUTION: William Shakespeare (1564–1616), British dramatist, poet. Countess of Rossillion, in All’s Well That Ends Well, act 1, sc. 1, l. 67-8.

A mother’s advice to her son on how to behave at court. Do not mind being rebuked for saying nothing, but never be charged with saying too much.

QUOTATION: This thorn
Doth to our rose of youth rightly belong.
ATTRIBUTION: William Shakespeare (1564–1616), British dramatist, poet. Countess of Rossillion, in All’s Well That Ends Well, act 1, sc. 3, l. 129-30.

The “thorn” is Helena’s unrequited love.

QUOTATION: Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie,
Which we ascribe to heaven.
ATTRIBUTION: William Shakespeare (1564–1616), British dramatist, poet. Helena, in All’s Well That Ends Well, act 1, sc. 1, l. 212-3 (1623).

QUOTATION: There is no living, none,
If Bertram be away. ‘Twere all one
That I should love a bright particular star
And think to wed it, he is so above me.
ATTRIBUTION: William Shakespeare (1564–1616), British dramatist, poet. Helena, in All’s Well That Ends Well, act 1, sc. 1, l. 84-5.

Expressing her unrequited adoration for a social superior (”’Twere all one That” means it is as if).

QUOTATION: The hind that would be mated by the lion
Must die for love.
ATTRIBUTION: William Shakespeare (1564–1616), British dramatist, poet. Helena, in All’s Well That Ends Well, act 1, sc. 1, l. 85-7.

On the unbridgeable gulf between herself (hind means deer) and Count Bertram.

QUOTATION: All’s well that ends well! still the fine’s the crown;
What e’er the course, the end is the renown.
ATTRIBUTION: William Shakespeare (1564–1616), British dramatist, poet. Helena, in All’s Well That Ends Well, act 4, sc. 4, l. 35-6.

The play’s proverbial title is repeated in act 5, sc. 4, l. 35; “the end crowns all” (”fine” means end, from the Latin) is also proverbial.

QUOTATION: Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie,
Which we ascribe to heaven.
ATTRIBUTION: William Shakespeare (1564–1616), British dramatist, poet. Helena, in All’s Well That Ends Well, act 1, sc. 1, l. 212-3 (1623).

QUOTATION: There is no living, none,
If Bertram be away. ‘Twere all one
That I should love a bright particular star
And think to wed it, he is so above me.
ATTRIBUTION: William Shakespeare (1564–1616), British dramatist, poet. Helena, in All’s Well That Ends Well, act 1, sc. 1, l. 84-5.

Expressing her unrequited adoration for a social superior (”’Twere all one That” means it is as if).

QUOTATION: The hind that would be mated by the lion
Must die for love.
ATTRIBUTION: William Shakespeare (1564–1616), British dramatist, poet. Helena, in All’s Well That Ends Well, act 1, sc. 1, l. 85-7.

On the unbridgeable gulf between herself (hind means deer) and Count Bertram.

QUOTATION: War is no strife
To the dark house and the detested wife.
ATTRIBUTION: William Shakespeare (1564–1616), British dramatist, poet. Bertram, in All’s Well That Ends Well, act 2, sc. 3, l. 291-2.

QUOTATION: If the quick fire of youth light not your mind,
You are no maiden, but a monument.
When you are dead, you should be such a one
As you are now; for you are cold and stern.
ATTRIBUTION: William Shakespeare (1564–1616), British dramatist, poet. Bertram, in All’s Well That Ends Well, act 4, sc. 2, l. 5-9.