All's Well That Ends Well

one of Shakespeare's comedies. It was first played in 1601. The plot was derived from a story in Painter's Palace of Pleasure, taken in turn from the Decameron of Boccaccio. Shakespeare follows the original tale closely, although several comic characters are introduced which are his own creation.

The heroine, Helena, whose "pangs of despised love" are expressed with touching tenderness, ranks, despite her defiance of the dictates of maidenly modesty, with the greatest of Shakespeare's female creations.--Sidney Lee.

See Shakespeare