SOURCE: "The Problem Plays: Social Regulation of Desire," in The Patriarchy of Shakespeare's Comedies, Wayne State University Press, 1986, pp. 55-110.

In the following excerpt, Williamson explores All's Well that Ends Well in light of the social and legal conventions used to control desire in the younger generations of the seventeenth century.

In 1603 Shakespeare's most important audience changed with the death of the old queen and the accession of James I. By May 1603 Shakespeare's company, The Chamberlain's Men, became The King's Servants and Grooms of the Chamber. In 1604-5, the year of Measure for Measure, the company performed eleven times at court, and seven of the plays they presented, including Measure, were Shakespeare's.¹ Representations of the patriarchal ruler were natural subjects to interest the new king, who came to the throne with a theory of kingship about which he had published The Basilicon Doron. So All's Well that Ends...