"the song we had last night.
Mark it, Cesario, it is old and plain;
The spinsters and the knitters in the sun
And the free maids that weave their thread with bones
Do use to chant it: it is silly sooth,
And dallies with the innocence of love,
Like the old age."
In his best plays Shakespeare used a double construction to express by turn the twofold energy of man, the energy of the animal and of the spirit. The mind that brooded sadly in
"For women are as roses, whose fair flower
Being once display'd, doth fall that very hour,"
and in
"She never told her love,
But let concealment, like a worm i' the bud,
Feed on her damask cheek: she pined in thought,"
belonged to earth, and got a gladness from earth. Within two minutes of the talk of the woman who died of love he showed Contemplation making a rare turkey-cock of the one wise man in his play.
All's Well that Ends Well.
Written. (?)
Published. 1623.
Source of the Plot. The story of Helena's love for Bertram is found in the Decamerone of Boccaccio (giorn. 3, nov. 9). Shakespeare may have read it in the Palace of Pleasure.