SOURCE: "Finding a Part for Parolles," in Essays in Criticism, Vol. XXXIX, No. 4, October, 1989, pp. 289-304.

In the following essay, Ellis marks Parolles' progress from knave to fool in Shakespeare's All's Well That Ends Well.

Shakespeare's plays often include characters ready to save us the bother of seeing for ourselves. Generally speaking, the higher their social status, the more chance they have of being listened to. Maria's character-sketch of Malvolio in Act II, Scene iii of Twelfth Night would not have enjoyed so much success if her mistress hadn't already pronounced him 'sick of self-love'. When in Act III, Scene ii of All's Well That Ends Well the two French lords deliver Bertram's unpleasant letters to Rossillion, the Countess asks who is with him in Florence and, on hearing that it is Parolles, complains, 'A very tainted fellow, and full of wickedness; / My son corrupts a well-derived nature...