Sympathy for Bertram

Coleridge, on the other hand, stood up for Bertram: “I cannot agree with the solemn abuse which the critics have poured out upon Bertram in All’s Well that ends Well . He was a young nobleman in feudal times, just bursting into manhood, with all the feelings of pride of birth and appetite for pleasure and liberty natural to such a character so circumstanced. Of course he had never regarded Helena otherwise than as a dependant in the family; and of all that which she possessed of goodness and fidelity and courage, which might atone for her inferiority in other respects, Bertram was necessarily in a great measure ignorant. And after all, her prima facie merit was the having inherited a prescription from her old father the Doctor, by which she cures the King, — a merit, which supposes an extravagance of personal loyalty in Bertram to make conclusive to him in such a matter as that of taking a wife. Bertram had surely good reason to look upon the king’s forcing him to marry Helena as a very tyrannical act.”