DUKE OF FLORENCE. BERTRAM, Count of Rousillon[6]. LAFEU[7], an old lord. PAROLLES[8], a follower of Bertram. Steward, } } servants to the Countess of Rousillon. LAVACHE, a Clown } A Page. COUNTESS OF ROUSILLON, mother to Bertram. HELENA, a gentlewoman protected by the Countess. An old Widow of Florence. DIANA, daughter to the Widow. VIOLENTA, } } neighbours and friends to the Widow. MARIANA, } Lords, Officers, Soldiers, &c., French and Florentine. SCENE: _Rousillon_; _Paris_; _Florence_; _Marseilles_. FOOTNOTES: [5] DRAMATIS PERSONÆ] First given by Rowe. See note (I). [6] _Rousillon_] Pope. _Rossilion._ Rowe. _Rosillion_ Capell. [7] LAFEU] LEFEU Steevens conj. [8] PAROLLES] PAROLES Steevens conj. ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL. ACT I. SCENE I. _Rousillon._ _The_ Count's _palace_. _Enter_ BERTRAM, _the_ COUNTESS of ROUSILLON, HELENA, _and_ LAFEU, _all in black_. _Count._ In delivering my son from me, I bury a second husband. _Ber._ And I in going, madam, weep o'er my father's death anew: but I must attend his majesty's command, to whom I am now in ward, evermore in subjection. 5 _Laf._ You shall find of the king a husband, madam; you, sir, a father: he that so generally is at all times good, must of necessity hold his virtue to you; whose worthiness would stir it up where it wanted, rather than lack it where there is such abundance. 10 _Count._ What hope is there of his majesty's amendment? _Laf._ He hath abandoned his physicians, madam; under whose practices he hath persecuted time with hope, and finds no other advantage in the process but only the losing of hope by time. 15 _Count._ This young gentlewoman had a father,--O, that 'had'! how sad a passage 'tis!--whose skill was almost as great as his honesty; had it stretched so far, would have made nature immortal, and death should have play for lack of work. Would, for the king's sake, he were living! I 20 think it would be the death of the king's disease. _Laf._ How called you the man you speak of, madam? _Count._ He was famous, sir, in his profession, and it was his great right to be so,--Gerard de Narbon. _Laf._ He was excellent indeed madam: the king very 25 lately spoke of him admiringly and mourningly: he was skilful enough to have lived still, if knowledge could be set up against mortality. _Ber._ What is it, my good lord, the king languishes of? _Laf._ A fistula, my lord. 30 _Ber._ I heard not of it before. _Laf._ I would it were not notorious. Was this gentlewoman the daughter of Gerard de Narbon?