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The story opens in ancient Britain, where the elderly King Lear is deciding to
give up his power and divide his realm amongst his three daughters, Cordelia,
Regan, and Goneril. Lear's plan is to give the largest piece of his kingdom to
the child who professes to love him the most, certain that his favorite
daughter, Cordelia, will win the challenge. Goneril and Regan, corrupt and
deceitful, lie to their father with sappy and excessive declarations of affection.
Cordelia, however, refuses to engage in Lear's game, and replies simply that
she loves him as a daughter should. Her lackluster retort, despite its sincerity,
enrages Lear, and he disowns Cordelia completely. When Lear's dear friend,
the Earl of Kent, tries to speak on Cordelia's behalf, Lear banishes him from
the kingdom.
Gloucester arrives back at Regan's castle in time to hear that the two sisters
are planning to murder the King. He rushes away immediately to warn Kent to
send Lear to Dover, where they will find protection. Kent, Lear, and the Fool
leave at once, while Edgar remains behind in the shadows. Sadly, Regan and
Goneril discover Gloucester has warned Lear of their plot, and Cornwall,
Regan's husband, gouges out Gloucester's eyes. A servant tries to help
Gloucester and attacks Cornwall with a sword – a blow later to prove fatal.
News arrives that Cordelia has raised an army of French troops that have
landed at Dover. Regan and Goneril ready their troops to fight and they head
to Dover. Meanwhile, Kent has heard the news of Cordelia's return, and sets
off with Lear hoping that father and daughter can be reunited. Gloucester too
tries to make his way to Dover, and on the way, finds his own lost son, Edgar.
Tired from his ordeal, Lear sleeps through the battle between Cordelia and her
sisters. When Lear awakes he is told that Cordelia has been defeated. Lear
takes the news well, thinking that he will be jailed with his beloved Cordelia –
away from his evil offspring. However, the orders have come, not for
Cordelia's imprisonment, but for her death.
Despite their victory, the evil natures of Goneril and Regan soon destroy them.
Both in love with Gloucester's conniving son, Edmund (who gave the order for
Cordelia to be executed), Goneril poisons Regan. But when Goneril discovers
that Edmund has been fatally wounded by Edgar, Goneril kills herself as well.
As Edmund takes his last breath he repents and the order to execute Cordelia
is reversed. But the reversal comes too late and Cordelia is hanged. Lear
appears, carrying the body of Cordelia in his arms. Mad with grief, Lear bends
over Cordelia's body, looking for a sign of life. The strain overcomes Lear and
he falls dead on top of his daughter. Kent declares that he will follow his
master into the afterlife and the noble Edgar becomes the ruler of Britain.
Comedy
All's Well That
Ends Well
Helen saves the King's life, he gives her his son to
marry, who runs away from her, and she tricks
him into impregnating her. Everything ends
happily.
In this section
o All's Well That Ends Well
o Antony and Cleopatra
o As You Like It
o The Comedy of Errors
o Coriolanus
o Cymbeline
o Hamlet
o Henry IV Part 1
o Henry IV Part 2
o Henry V
o Henry VI Part 1
o Henry VI Part 2
o Henry VI Part 3
o Henry VIII
o Julius Caesar
o King John
o King Lear
o Love's Labour's Lost
o Macbeth
o Measure for Measure
o The Merchant of Venice
o Merry Wives of Windsor
o A Midsummer Night's Dream
o Much Ado About Nothing
o Othello: The Moor of Venice
o Pericles, Prince of Tyre
o Richard II
o Richard III
o Romeo and Juliet
o Taming of the Shrew
o The Tempest
o Timon of Athens
o Titus Andronicus
o Troilus and Cressida
o Twelfth Night
o Two Gentlemen of Verona
o The Winter's Tale
All's Well That Ends Well Summary
Helen heals the King of France, and the King grants her
permission to marry Bertram, the man she loves.
Bertram rejects her and leaves a list of tasks that she
must do to have him acknowledge their marriage. She
follows him to Italy, completes all the tasks, and
Bertram accepts her as his wife.
Act I
In the French province of Roussillon, the widowed
Countess bids farewell to her son Bertram. Bertram is
going to the court of the French King with his
swaggering friend Paroles and the Lord Lafeu. Bertram
leaves oblivious to the attentions of Helen, the orphan
daughter of the Countess's celebrated physician. Helen
has been brought up in his mother's household and has
fallen in love with Bertram.
Judi Dench in All's
Well That Ends Well, RSC, 2003
Act II
The Countess allows Helen to go to court and try her
hand at curing the King's illness. Where others have
failed, she succeeds, and as a reward, the King asks her
to choose a husband from among his wards. (Who else
would she choose but Bertram?) Bertram sees the
alliance as beneath him. After the marriage ceremony,
he runs away and plans to join the wars in Italy with
Paroles.
Act III
He writes to Helen that he will not acknowledge their
marriage until she can prove she wears his heirloom ring
and carries his child. Helen returns home to Roussillon,
but she does not give up. Instead, she soon leaves and,
disguised as a pilgrim, follows Bertram to Florence.
There, she befriends a widow and her daughter Diana.
Meanwhile, Bertram has formed an obsession with Diana
during his time in Italy. The soldiers jokingly trick
Paroles into proving he is a coward, while Bertram
makes intentions to sleep with Diana.
Act IV
Diana plots to help Helen fulfil Bertram's impossible
requests for marriage. Diana insists the meeting with
Bertram must be in the dark, and a disguised Helen
takes Diana's place. During the night, Bertram gives
Helen his ring (thinking that she is Diana), and they
conceive a child.
Act V
Back at the French court, Helen is presumed dead in
Roussillon due to her absence. Bertram returns to
France, where his mother and Lafeu have arranged for
Bertram to marry Lafeu's daughter. Bertram gives Lafeu,
as a betrothal token, a ring that he had been given on his
midnight meeting with Helen in Florence. The King and
others recognise the ring to be one that the King had
given to Helen on her marriage.
Example #3
“What ho!” I said.
“What ho!” said Motty.
“What ho! What ho!”
“What ho! What ho! What ho!”
After that it seemed rather difficult to go on with the conversation.
(“Jeeves and the Unbidden Guest” by P. G. Wodehouse)
P.G. Wodehouse is famous for his sense of of humor. The above quote shows
his sense of the ridiculous and lightly absurd social conventions. Wodehouse
has a very dry British wit in his writing.
FARCE SCRIPT
Act I[edit]
Jack Chesney and Charley Wykeham are undergraduates at Oxford University in love, respectively,
with Kitty Verdun and Amy Spettigue. Charley receives word that his aunt, Donna Lucia d'Alvadorez,
a rich widow from Brazil whom he has never met, is coming to visit him. The boys invite Amy and
Kitty to lunch to meet her, also intending to declare their love to the girls, who are being sent away to
Scotland with Amy's uncle, Stephen Spettigue, who is also Kitty's guardian. They seek out another
Oxford undergraduate, Lord Fancourt Babberley (known as "Babbs"), to distract Donna Lucia while
they romance their girls. While they are out, Babbs breaks into Jack's room to steal all his
champagne, but Jack and Charley intercept him and persuade him to stay for lunch. Babbs tells the
boys about his own love, the daughter of an English officer called Delahay, whom he met in Monte
Carlo, although he does not remember her name. Babbs also uses Jack's room to try on his
costume for an amateur play in which he is taking part.
Amy and Kitty arrive to meet Jack and Charley, but Donna Lucia has not arrived yet, and so the girls
leave to go shopping until she shows up. Annoyed, Jack orders Charley to go to the railway station
to wait for Donna Lucia. Jack soon receives an unexpected visit from his father, Sir Francis Chesney,
a retired colonel who served in India. Sir Francis reveals that he has inherited debts that have wiped
out the family's fortunes; instead of going into politics as he had intended, Jack will have to accept a
position in Bengal. Horrified, Jack suggests that Sir Francis should marry Donna Lucia, a widow and
a millionaire, in order to clear the family debts. Sir Francis is hesitant but agrees to meet Donna
Lucia before he makes a decision.
W. S. Penley as the first Charley's Aunt
Charley receives a telegram saying that Donna Lucia will not be arriving for a few days. The boys
panic: the girls are coming, and they won't stay without a chaperone. Fortunately Babbs's costume
happens to be that of an old lady. Jack and Charley introduce Babbs as Charley's aunt. His strange
appearance and unchanged voice (he had never acted before) do not raise any suspicions. Babbs
annoys the boys by accepting kisses from Amy and Kitty; the boys respond to his flirtations with
violence.
Sir Francis soon enters to meet Donna Lucia. He takes one look at Babbs and tries to leave, but
Jack retrieves him. Spettigue arrives, angered that Kitty and Amy are lunching with the boys without
his permission. However the penniless Spettigue soon learns that Charley's aunt is Donna Lucia
D'Alvadorez, the celebrated millionaire. He decides to stay for lunch to attempt to woo "Donna
Lucia".
Act II[edit]
Outside Jack's rooms, in the grounds of St Olde's College, the boys are trying to get their girls alone
so that they can confess their love. However, Babbs is in the way, charming the girls as Donna
Lucia. Jack's father, Sir Francis, has decided to propose marriage to Donna Lucia, purely for money.
Jack urgently corners Babbs and orders him to let his father down gently. Babbs does so, which Sir
Francis finds to be a relief. Spettigue still wants to marry "Donna Lucia" for her money.
Meanwhile, the real Donna Lucia, who turns out to be an attractive woman of middle age, arrives
with her adopted niece, Miss Ela Delahay, an orphan. The money left to Ela by her father is enough
to make her independent for life. Ela reveals that her father had won a lot of money at cards from
Fancourt Babberley, for whom Ela still holds a great deal of affection. Donna Lucia recounts the story
of a colonel named Frank who she once met more than twenty years ago, of whom she was similarly
fond. However, he was too shy to propose, and he left for India before he could tell her how he felt.
Sir Francis enters, Donna Lucia recognizes him, and the two rekindle their affection. However,
before she can introduce herself, she discovers that someone is impersonating her. To investigate,
she introduces herself as "Mrs Beverly-Smythe", a penniless widow.
Jack and Charley finally make their declarations of love to their girls. However, they discover that
they need Spettigue's consent to marry. The girls enlist Babbs to get the consent from the greedy
Spettigue. Spettigue invites the entire party, including the real Donna Lucia and Ela, to his house, so
that he can talk to "Donna Lucia" in private. Babbs, recognizing Ela as the girl he fell in love with in
Monte Carlo, tries to escape, but he is caught by Spettigue.
Act III[edit]
Babbs is upset by being in the same room as the girl he loves without being able to talk to her. Jack
and Charley try to calm him down. Babbs spends time with the real Donna Lucia, Ela, Amy and Kitty,
during which the real Donna Lucia embarrasses Babbs by showing how little he really knows about
Donna Lucia. Ela takes a liking to the fake Donna Lucia, who sounds like the man she loves, and
pours her heart out to Babbs, telling him of the anguish of losing her father and of the man who
cared for him in his dying days, Lord Fancourt Babberley. She admits that she loves him and longs
to see him again.
Babbs tricks Spettigue into giving the letter of consent for the marriages of Charley to Amy and Jack
to Kitty by accepting marriage to Spettigue. (Kitty's father's will specified that if she marries without
Spettigue's consent, Spettigue would inherit all of the money.) Charley can no longer keep up the lie
and admits that "Donna Lucia" is not really his aunt. Babbs, now dressed in a suit, confirms that he
had been playing the part of Charley's aunt. As he is about to return to Spettigue the letter of
consent, the real Donna Lucia reveals her identity and takes the letter, stating that it "is addressed to
and has been delivered to Donna Lucia d’Alvadorez".
Spettigue storms off, threatening to dispute the letter. Amy is upset at everyone for making a fool of
her uncle. Donna Lucia reassures her and gives the girls the letter. Sir Francis and Donna Lucia are
engaged (he made the proposal before he realized her identity); the young couples can marry;
Farce
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