[ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL.]
In the dramatis personæ of this play the "gentle astringer" is omitted, who, though he says but little, has a better claim to be inserted than Violenta, who says nothing. Mr. Steevens remarks that her name was borrowed from an old metrical history entitled Didaco and Violenta; but Shakspeare more probably saw it in the running title of Painter's Palace of pleasure, whence he got his plot of this play, and where the above history occurs in prose. The title is borrowed from a proverbial saying much older than the time of Shakspeare. Knyghton has preserved some of the speeches of Jack Straw and his brother insurgents; and in that of Jack Carter we have this expression: for if the ende be wele than is alle wele. The orations of these heroes were made up of proverbial saws, a proof of the great influence they must have had with the common people. See the Decem scriptores by Twysden, col. 2637.
ACT I.
Scene 1. Page 187.
Laf. A fistula, my Lord.
What Mr. Steevens calls the inelegance of the king's disorder is not to be placed to Shakspeare's account; for it is specifically mentioned both in Painter's story of Giletta, and in Boccaccio himself. It is singular that the learned critic should not have remembered this.
Scene 1. Page 188.
Count. Where an unclean mind carries virtuous qualities, there commendations go with pity; they are virtues and traitors too.
The explanations of this speech appear to be too refined; and Dr. Warburton's, as usual, particularly so. The meaning is simply this:—where strong and useful talents are combined with an evil disposition, we feel regret even in commending them; because, in such a mind, however good in themselves, their use and application are always to be suspected.