Lecture Notes, Thursday, May 29: All's Well part deux

29 May 2008
English 3I06 / The Age of Elizabeth I

All’s Well the Ends Well part deux

Lecture Outline
* the “problem” plays
* themes:
~Helena climbs the great chain of being (upward social mobility)
~Langue et Parolles (language)
~Bertram’s challenge
~The performance of masculinity
~The performance of virginity and pregnancy

Problem Plays
* All’s Well, Measure for Measure, Troilus and Cressida
* Term coined by F. S. Boas in 1896’s Shakespeare and His Predecessors
* a play that tackles a moral issue of its day
* the “problem” also lies in the play’s incomplete resolution / mixed tone

ACT 1
*Helena’s first long speech, 1.1.84-110 reveals her situation
*1.1.222-35 expresses her intention to climb the chain of being
* 1.3.130-270 The Countess sides with Helena, see esp. end of scene and 130-138
*140 Countess’s declaration: “You know, Helen, I am a mother to you.”
*173 “God shield you not mean it.”
* Helen’s confession 201
* Helen’s medical inheritance from her father 233-243
* Her less-than-detailed rationale as to why the king would accept Helen as a healer, 256-265

ACT 2
*The King’s warning against the girls of Italy, 2.1.21-24
*2.1.80 + LaFew’s introduction of Helen, esp. 110-114: “I am Cressid’s uncle”
* 2.1.190-94 Helen’s promise to the King
*2.1.214-221 Helen sets her terms
*The healing of the French king – how does it happen?
*2.3.114-116 Bertram protests
*2.3.128-155 The king’s redefinition of honour
*Parolles 2.3.201-280 – his fight with LaFew – note his downward trajectory in the play

Definition of “parole” in Saussure’s language theory:

The actual linguistic behaviour or performance of individuals on specific occasions, in contrast to language viewed as an abstract system (cf. LANGUE n. 3); the practice of using a language; spoken (or written) utterance.
*2.3.282-308 Bertram’s soldierly sexuality
*2.3.314 “A young man married is a man that’s marred.”
*2.5 LaFew warns Bertram against Parolles
*44-5 “The soul of this man is his clothes.”
*2.5.24-7 “tonight [I’ll] end ere I begin.”

ACT 3
*Bertram’s letter to his mom 3.2.19-26
*56-62 His challenge to Helen
*3.4.4-17 Helen leaves on pilgrimage
*3.5 Diana – see also Helen’s invocation to Diana 1.3.115 (in Steward’s speech 107-
121) Is Diana’s name evidence of Helen’s virginity?
*3.5 Ladies’ reaction to Parolles 105-109, and 110, hint of Helena’s plan
*3.6 the plot to embarrass Parolles
3.7 Helen plans while Diana is silent

ACT 4
*4.2 Diana’s deconstruction of Bertram 36-7 “your oaths / Are words”
*4.3.49-55 the report of the death of Helen
4.3.52-62 Parolles’s undoing and humilation
4.5.34-40 “All’s well that ends well.”

ACT 5
5.2 Parolles stripped
5.3 The end – is it well? Bertram’s sudden change (clip)
*the two rings, 5.3.85 and forward