All's Well That Ends Well (Bloom's Shakespeare Through the Ages)

240 Pages·2010·1.3 MB·english

by  Harold Bloom

Bloom's Shakespeare Through the Ages
All’s Well That Ends Well
Antony and Cleopatra
As You Like It
The Comedy of Errors
Hamlet
Henry IV (Part I)
Henry V
Julius Caesar
King Lear
Macbeth
The Merchant of Venice
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Much Ado about Nothing
Othello
Richard III
Romeo and Juliet
The Sonnets
The Taming of the Shrew
The Tempest
Twelfth Night
The Winter’s Tale
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Bloom's Shakespeare Through the Ages
ALL’S WELL T HAT
ENDS WELL
Edited and with an introduction by
Harold Bloom
Sterling Professor of the Humanities
Yale University
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Bloom’s Shakespeare Through the Ages: All’s Well That Ends Well
Copyright © 2010 by Infobase Publishing
Introduction © 2010 by Harold Bloom
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any
information storage or retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher.
For more information contact:
Bloom’s Literary Criticism
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
All’s well that ends well / edited and with an introduction by Harold Bloom ; volume
editor, Paul Gleed.
p. cm.—(Bloom’s Shakespeare through the ages)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-60413-708-8 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-4381-3110-8 (e-book) 1. Shakespeare, William, 1564–1616.
All’s well that ends well. I. Bloom, Harold. II. Gleed, Paul.
PR2801.A875 2010
822.3'3—dc22
2009034577
Bloom’s Literary Criticism books are available at special discounts when purchased in
bulk quantities for businesses, associations, institutions, or sales promotions. Please call
our Special Sales Department in New York at [phone] or [phone].
You can find Bloom’s Literary Criticism on the World Wide Web at
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Series design by Erika K. Arroyo
Cover design by Ben Peterson
Composition by IBT Global, Troy NY
Cover printed by IBT Global, Troy NY
Book printed and bound by IBT Global, Troy NY
Date printed: January 2010
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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C
ONTENTS
q
Series Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .vii
Volume Introduction by Harold Bloom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .ix
Biography of William Shakespeare . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Summary of All’s Well Th at Ends Well . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
List of Characters in All’s Well Th at Ends Well . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13
Key Passages in All’s Well Th at Ends Well . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15
CRITICISM THROUGH THE AGES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21
t All’s Well Th at Ends Well in the Eighteenth Century . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23
1753—Charlotte Lennox. From Shakespeare Illustrated . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .24
1765—Samuel Johnson. All’s Well Th at Ends Well (notes), from
Th e Plays of William Shakespeare . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .25
1775—Elizabeth Griffi th. From Th e Morality of
Shakespeare’s Drama . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .26
1777—Maurice Morgann. From An Essay on the Dramatic
Character of Sir John Falstaff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .26
t All’s Well Th at Ends Well in the Nineteenth Century . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .29
1817—William Hazlitt. From Characters of Shakespear’s Plays . . . . . . . . .29
1833—Samuel Taylor Coleridge. From Table-Talk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .32
1846—A. W. Schlegel. From Course of Lectures on Dramatic
Art and Literature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .33
1863—Charles Cowden Clarke. From Shakespeare-Characters,
Chiefl y Th ose Subordinate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .35
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vi Contents
1864—Th omas Kenny. From Th e Life and Genius of Shakespeare . . . . . .55
1896—Frederick S. Boas. From Shakespeare and His Predecessors . . . . .60
t All’s Well Th at Ends Well in the Twentieth Century . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .71
1911—Th omas Lounsbury. From Shakespeare as a Dramatic Artist . . .72
1913—Brander Matthews. From Shakespeare as a Playwright . . . . . . . . .73
1922—W. W. Lawrence. From “Th e Meaning of All’s Well
Th at Ends Well” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .76
1951—E.M.W. Tillyard. From Shakespeare’s Problem Plays . . . . . . . . . . 100
1958—George Wilson Knight. From Th e Sovereign Flower . . . . . . . . . 120
1994—Mary Free. From Acting Funny: Comic Th eory and
Practice in Shakespeare’s Plays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
1997—David McCandless. From Gender and Performance in
Shakespeare’s Problem Comedies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
t All’s Well Th at Ends Well in the Twenty-fi rst Century . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
2007—Helen Wilcox. From New Critical Essays on All’s Well
Th at Ends Well . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
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S I
ERIES NTRODUCTION
q
Shakespeare Through the Ages presents not the most current of Shakespeare
criticism, but the best of Shakespeare criticism, from the seventeenth century
to today. In the process, each volume also charts the flow over time of criti-
cal discussion of a particular play. Other useful and fascinating collections of
historical Shakespearean criticism exist, but no collection that we know of
contains such a range of commentary on each of Shakespeare’s greatest plays
and at the same time emphasizes the greatest critics in our literary tradition:
from John Dryden in the seventeenth century, to Samuel Johnson in the eigh-
teenth century, to William Hazlitt and Samuel Coleridge in the nineteenth
century, to A. C. Bradley and William Empson in the twentieth century, to
the most perceptive critics of our own day. This canon of Shakespearean criti-
cism emphasizes aesthetic rather than political or social analysis.
Some of the pieces included here are full-length essays; others are excerpts
designed to present a key point. Much (but not all) of the earliest criticism
consists only of brief mentions of specifi c plays. In addition to the classics of
criticism, some pieces of mainly historical importance have been included, often
to provide background for important reactions from future critics.
Th ese volumes are intended for students, particularly those just beginning
their explorations of Shakespeare. We have therefore also included basic
materials designed to provide a solid grounding in each play: a biography of
Shakespeare, a synopsis of the play, a list of characters, and an explication of
key passages. In addition, each selection of the criticism of a particular century
begins with an introductory essay discussing the general nature of that century’s
commentary and the particular issues and controversies addressed by critics
presented in the volume.
Shakespeare was “not of an age, but for all time,” but much Shakespeare
criticism is decidedly for its own age, of lasting importance only to the scholar
who wrote it. Students today read the criticism most readily available to them,
which means essays printed in recent books and journals, especially those journals
made available on the Internet. Older criticism is too often buried in out-of-print
books on forgotten shelves of libraries or in defunct periodicals. Th erefore, many
students, particularly younger students, have no way of knowing that some of the
most profound criticism of Shakespeare’s plays was written decades or centuries
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viii All’s Well Th at Ends Well
ago. We hope this series remedies that problem, and more importantly, we hope
it infuses students with the enthusiasm of the critics in these volumes for the
beauty and power of Shakespeare’s plays.
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I
NTRODUCTION BY
H B
AROLD LOOM
q
The odious Bertram is perhaps the most detestable person in all of Shakespeare’s
plays. Helena is one of the worthiest of his admirable women, but her choice
of Bertram is overdetermined and persuasive, the attachment going back—as it
does—to earliest childhood. To repeat myself after a decade, marriage—wheth-
er in Shakespeare or in life—is where we are written and not where we write.
Th e splendor of All’s Well Th at Ends Well has little to do with the cad Bertram
or with Helena’s inevitable yet lamentable fi xation. Rather it resides in the comic
villain Parolles (“Words” or “Wordy”) who talks a good fi ght but collapses under
the least pressure into the worst of cowards. Yet Shakespeare triumphs in this
wretch’s will to live:
Yet I am thankful. If my heart were great
’Twould burst at this. Captain I’ll be no more,
But I will eat and drink and sleep as soft
As captain shall. Simply the thing I am
Shall make me live. Who knows himself a braggart,
Let him fear this; for it will come to pass
Th at every braggart shall be found an ass.
Rust, sword, cool, blushes, and Parolles live
Safest in shame; being fool’d, by fool’ry thrive.
Th ere’s place and means for every man alive.
I’ll after them.
What thrills me here (and shocks also) is Shakespeare’s vision of degradation
that yet accepts our universal capacity for suffering (and bearing) humiliation.
Nothing can crush Parolles who yet is totally crushable. Nothing will redeem
Bertram, who will crush even more readily, and still Shakespeare will spare
him. There is nothing in Parolles or in Bertram worthy of survival, but reality
is so dark a void that survival is not to be despised.
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