Episode 211:

Through the last few episodes on Shakespeare’s plays, we seem to have seen a playwright in a serious mood, even when he was writing comedies. ‘Twelfth Night’ and ‘Measure For Measure’ are often referred to as having an autumnal tone, something serious underlying the comedy and of course we also have the even darker worlds of the tragedies of ‘Hamlet’ and ‘Othello’. The next play we come to from Shakespeare fits well into this group, but I choose my words carefully there because I can’t say for sure that ‘All’s Well That Ends Well’ was his ‘next’ play after ‘Measure For Measure’ as the dating of this comedy is difficult.

The dating of the play

The sources for the play

A brief summary of the plot

How Shakespeare subverts the original folk tale into a comedy

Irony in the play

The two sides of the character of Helen

What does Helen see in Bertram?

The role reversal between Helen and Bertram

The character of Bertram

The bed trick

The character of Parolas

Some examples of criticism of the play

The performance history of the play

Support the podcast at:

www.thehistoryofeuropeantheatre.com

www.patreon.com/thoetp

www.ko-fi.com/thoetp

You can find an advertisement free version of the latest podcast episodes by joining on Patreon at the lowest paid tier level – that’s for just £1 per month.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.