Read Act I.
Content Summary for Teachers
Act I, Scene 1
As the play begins, the Countess of Rossillion, along with a lord, Lafew, and a woman named Helen (sometimes called Helena), are bidding goodbye to the Countess's son, Bertram. All of the members of the group seem to be grieving. Bertram's father has recently died, and he is going to the court of the King of France. The King has been ill—suffering, Lafew says, from a fistula that no doctors have been able to cure. The Countess wishes that Helen's father, Gerard de Narbon, were still alive, because he was a marvellous physician.
The Countess bids her son a formal goodbye and leaves, and then Bertram departs with Lafew, leaving Helen...
