ABSTRACT
Scenes of trial abound in Renaissance drama, and they have received a good deal of critical attention. Dramatic plots presented as trials, however, often call into question the ostensible certainty of the knowledge arrived at through legal means. Shakespeare's All's Well that Ends Well is such a plot. After Shakespeare, false trials appear in a range of jacobean and Caroline plays and harden into a recognizable dramatic pattern. Typically in the drama of the period, it is tragicomedies that use the formula 'I was but trying thee'. According to Guarini, the Renaissance theorist of tragicomedy, the pain caused by tragicomic plotting is justified by the fact that it is all about the danger, not the death. The Iachimo-impulse of a relishing protraction of tragicomic anguish does find schematic expression in the playwright's own indulgence at certain odd moments.
