Original: O! were that all. I think not on my father;
Modern: Oh, if only that were everything. I don’t think about my father;

Original: And these great tears grace his remembrance more
Modern: And these heavy tears honor Bertram’s memory more

Original: Than those I shed for him. What was he like?
Modern: Than the tears I cried for my father. What was my father like?

Original: I have forgot him: my imagination
Modern: I’ve forgotten him: my mind

Original: Carries no favour in ‘t but Bertram’s.
Modern: Can only picture Bertram’s face.

Original: I am undone: there is no living, none,
Modern: I’m completely destroyed: there’s no point in living, none,

Original: If Bertram be away. It were all one
Modern: If Bertram is gone. It would be the same thing

Original: That I should love a bright particular star
Modern: As if I fell in love with a brilliant star in the sky

Original: And think to wed it, he is so above me:
Modern: And expected to marry it—he’s so far above my social level:

Original: In his bright radiance and collateral light
Modern: I must be satisfied with his reflected glory and indirect attention

Original: Must I be comforted, not in his sphere.
Modern: Rather than being in his world as an equal.

Original: The ambition in my love thus plagues itself:
Modern: The hopeless ambition of my love tortures me:

Original: The hind that would be mated by the lion
Modern: A deer that wants to be paired with a lion

Original: Must die for love. ‘Twas pretty, though a plague,
Modern: Must die from that love. It was wonderful, though painful,

Original: To see him every hour; to sit and draw
Modern: To see him every day; to sit and sketch

Original: His arched brows, his hawking eye, his curls,
Modern: His curved eyebrows, his sharp hunting gaze, his curly hair,

Original: In our heart’s table; heart too capable
Modern: In my heart’s memory; a heart too ready

Original: Of every line and trick of his sweet favour:
Modern: To memorize every detail and expression of his handsome face:

Original: But now he’s gone, and my idolatrous fancy
Modern: But now he’s gone, and my worshipful imagination

Original: Must sanctify his reliques. Who comes here?
Modern: Must treat his belongings like holy objects. Who’s coming here?

Original: One that goes with him: I love him for his sake;
Modern: Someone who’s traveling with Bertram: I like him because of Bertram;

Original: And yet I know him a notorious liar,
Modern: And yet I know he’s a famous liar,

Original: Think him a great way fool, solely a coward;
Modern: Think he’s a complete fool and nothing but a coward;

Original: Yet these fix’d evils sit so fit in him,
Modern: Yet these permanent flaws suit him so well,

Original: That they take place, when virtue’s steely bones
Modern: That they seem attractive, while true virtue’s strong foundation

Original: Look bleak in the cold wind: withal, full oft we see
Modern: Looks harsh and uninviting: besides, we often see

Original: Cold wisdom waiting on superfluous folly.
Modern: Serious wisdom serving ridiculous foolishness.

In Act I, scene i of “All’s Well That Ends Well,” the Countess of Rossillion bids farewell to her son Bertram, who is departing for the French court following his father’s recent death. The King of France has summoned Bertram to serve at court, and the Countess entrusts him to the care of the elderly lord Lafew. As they prepare to leave, Helena, the daughter of a recently deceased physician and ward of the Countess, watches silently. The Countess notices Helena’s melancholy and assumes it stems from grief over her father’s death.

After Bertram and Lafew depart, the Countess attempts to comfort Helena, praising her father’s medical skills and suggesting that time will heal her sorrow. However, Helena reveals in soliloquy that her true anguish comes not from her father’s death but from her hopeless love for Bertram, who is far above her in social station. She reflects on the impossibility of their union given their different ranks, while simultaneously revealing her determination to pursue him to the French court, where she believes her late father’s medical knowledge might prove valuable in treating the King’s mysterious illness.

“All’s Well That Ends Well” follows Helena, a physician’s daughter living in the household of the Countess of Rousillon, who is deeply in love with the Countess’s son, Bertram. When the King of France falls gravely ill, Helena travels to court and offers to cure him using remedies learned from her late father. She succeeds in healing the King, who grants her any husband of her choosing as reward. Helena selects Bertram, but he reluctantly marries her and immediately departs for the wars in Italy, declaring he will never consummate the marriage until she can obtain his ancestral ring and bear his child - conditions he believes impossible to fulfill.

Helena returns to Rousillon, where she learns of Bertram’s conditions through a letter. Disguising herself as a pilgrim, she travels to Florence, where Bertram is staying and pursuing Diana, a young woman whose mother keeps a lodging house. Helena reveals her identity to Diana and her mother, proposing a bed trick: Diana will agree to meet Bertram secretly, but Helena will take her place in the darkness. During their encounter, Helena obtains Bertram’s ring and gives him another ring that the King had previously given her.

Helena spreads word of her own death and returns to France, where Bertram has come to seek a new wife with the King’s blessing. When Bertram presents Helena’s ring to his prospective bride, the King recognizes it and suspects Bertram of murdering Helena. Diana arrives and presents Bertram’s ring as proof of their relationship, leading to confusion until Helena appears, pregnant with Bertram’s child and wearing his family ring. Faced with the fulfillment of his impossible conditions, Bertram accepts Helena as his true wife, and the King promises to arrange Diana’s marriage to a suitable husband.