THERE is no external evidence that will enable us to ascertain the date of composition of All's Well, that Ends Well within positive limits: in the well-known list of Meres in his Palladis Tamia of 1598 there is mention of a play called 'Love's Labour's Won,' and there are passages in All's Well which, as well as the general theme of the play, support the conclusion that it is possibly the one referred to. Various critics at different times have tried to identify 'Love's Labour's Won' with the Taming of the Shrew, the Tempest and Much Ado about Nothing respectively: but there are grave objections to each of these, and it is now generally admitted that either 'Love's Labour's Won' has been lost, or that it was the original title of the present play. If the latter alternative is taken, we should be able to assume not only that the play was written before 1598, but also that it followed Love's Labour's Lost at no very great interval.

On examining the question by the light of internal evidence fresh difficulties present themselves: for, while in some places there are long passages of rhyme in which the thoughts are of the simplest, and where the characters are allowed to express the most practical ideas by 'three-piled hyperboles,' the majority of the play is written in a style that incontestably proves that Shakespeare composed it at a time when he had left such puerilities far behind him. It has therefore been conjectured with comparative certainty, that the play as we have it represents a remodelling of an earlier one, which was probably treated in a distinctly comedy spirit, and may well have borne the title 'Love's Labour's Won," and that the rhymed passages are remains of this early version which have been retained for dramatic purposes. The similarity of the subject to that of Measure for Measure, and the number of parallels that might be drawn from this play with Julius Cæsar and Hamlet, as well as the metrical evidence, the humour, and thr prose style favour the supposition that 1602 was the probable date of composition.

There was no quarto edition of this play, and it first appeared in the Folio edition of 1623. It is one of the worst printed in the volume, and the emendator has had the fullest scope for his powers; and this opportunity has been eagerly taken advantage of.

The primary source of All's Well is the ninth novel of the third book of Boccaccio's Decameron. An English version of this had appeared in Paynter's Palace of Pleasure, and to this, no doubt, Shakespeare was directly indebted. The story in Paynter deals with the history of the love of Giletta for the young and handsome Beltramo. She proceeds to Paris and cures the king; and as a reward is allowed choice of husband. Needless to say she selects Beltramo, who immediately deserts her for the wars between Florence and Sienna. He leaves her a letter saying he will not acknowledge her as his wife till she has a son by him and has obtained his ring. She follows him to Florence, and by the help of an honest lady whom he has importuned in love, manages to fulfil both conditions. After the birth of two sons she proceeds to the count's abode, where he is holding a great feast, and is accepted as his beloved wife. This, then, is the crude story which formed the base of All's Well. Shakespeare, however, has, as usual, given free play to his invention. Thus the whole of the development of the story is entirely different: in the story the lady simply presents herself to her husband and all is ended, while in the play the catastrophe is brought about by a series of dramatic and moving scenes. Parolles, the clown, the Countess Lafeu are independent creations of the poet. In the story, in fact, the characters are mere wax figures.

Parolles is a masterly sketch of the affected courtier, vicious in his tastes, and a cowardly braggart with sufficient craft to pass among the more simple of the frequenters of the court as a valiant soldier and a wit. His exposure recalls an incident in Nash's Jack Wilton; but the two portraits are so entirely different that it would be absolutely unwarrantable to suggest that either author was indebted to the other. His existence is thoroughly justified by the intrinsic excellence of the conception, but he is also used by Shakespere to exemplify the fickle and unmatured judgment of Bertram, and to modify, by the influence that his personality exerts, the responsibility of the hero. Bertram himself, it must be confessed, however, can hardly be defended. Shakespeare insists on his courage and bravery, which is not done in the novel: the influence of Parolles is mentioned by Lafeu, but this trait is not strongly developed. His first speech in the fifth act exerts some small claims on the sympathy of the reader; but this is speedily dispelled by his unmanly conduct in the remainder of the scene.

The king is a perfect little character-sketch: strongly and easily moved both to sympathy and anger, he is, in his own words, 'not a day of season, for thou mayst see a sunshine and hail in me at once.'

The Countess Lafeu is perhaps the most delightfulof all Shakespeare's old ladies; and her presence imbues every scene in which she appears with grace and poetry.

Helena, however, is the crowning beauty of the play. The wonderful spirit with which she sets about her task, first of winning and then of reclaiming her love, makes her one of themost attractive of heroines. The extraordinary interest of the creation lies, perhaps, in the skill with which the author, when putting her in the most trying of situations, has averted anything that might form a blur on the modesty and grace of her personality. Beautiful as the play is from a poetical standpoint, it is when considered from a dramatic point of view, wofully deficient. There is a conspicuous lack of unity about the whole; the relation of the Countess and Lafeu, striking and charming as the former's characterisation is, to the plot is infinitesimal.

The conclusion, too, is unsatisfactory, for the reader feels that the real problem is only now to begin. These weaknesses, combined with the unpleasantness of the general theme, amply account for the comparative neglect that All's Well has suffered among Shakespeare's plays.