Why then tonight let us assay our plot
Helena:
"Why then tonight let us assay our plot."
Helena's plot is growing darker by the end of the third act in this unusual Shakespearean comedy. The central action of the play concerns the beautiful Helena and her pursuit of Bertram, a man of high social position in the French court who has rejected her love. The king of France has ordered Bertram to marry Helena because, as a physician's daughter, she was able to cure the king of what was considered a terminal illness. As a reward, she is told that she may marry the man of her choice. Her choice, of course, is Bertram. He refuses, stating that until she gets a wedding ring onto his finger and shows him a child of hers which he has fathered, she cannot call him Husband. Helena is now about to embark on her plot and pave the way to true happiness by employing what has come to be known as the Bed Trick.