Parolles

Play

All's Well That Ends Well

Summary

Bertram's swaggering companion and self-styled military man whose hollow bravado is systematically exposed when the lords stage a mock capture and he unhesitatingly betrays every secret and colleague to his supposed captors. Unlike Falstaff, Parolles lacks genuine wit or warmth — his unmasking is thorough and somewhat pitiless — yet his final determination to keep living despite disgrace has a bleak dignity of its own.

Notable Quotations

"Simply the thing I am / Shall make me live." *(IV.iii)*

"Who cannot be crushed with a plot?" *(IV.iii)*

Cross-references

• All's Well That Ends Well — the play
• Comedies
• character_bertram — the young count he flatters and corrupts
• character_lafew — the lord who sees through him from the start