"All Is Well That Ends Well"
Context: The author is telling a story of a wife who, at his suggestion, went back to her uncle and aunt. There she discovered that her presence was not altogether welcome. The aunt recounts how the wife married in haste and in a fool's paradise. This proverbial saying was used, of course, as the title of one of Shakespeare's Plays. It was also quoted in the Gesta Romanorum (1472): "If the end is good, all will be good." The quotation is widely used in American literature. In Heywood, the wife says:
Tush! (quoth mine aunt), these lovers in dotage
Think the ground bear them not, but wed of courage
They must in all haste; though a leaf of borage
Might buy all the substance that they can sell.
Well, aunt, (quoth Alice), all is well that ends well.
Yea, Alice, of a good beginning cometh a good end;
Not so good to borrow, as be able to lend.
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