ABSTRACT
There are two rings which circulate among the characters of All’s Well, That Ends Well. One of these originally belongs to the King, the other to Bertram. In the course of the play, both objects come temporarily into Helena’s possession. The first is directly given her as a gift by its owner; the second passes to her by way of Diana Capilet, for whose “honour” Bertram thinks he gives it in exchange. The rings have, of course, a functional purpose with respect to the plot: they act as the material evidence on which the apparent truth of Bertram’s recent exploits in Italy can be reconstructed by the King and others (including Bertram himself) in Act 5. They are required, that is, in order for the play to “end well.”
