- All's Well That Ends Well
- Antony and Cleopatra
- As You Like It
- The Comedy of Errors
- Coriolanus
- Cymbeline
- Hamlet
- Henry IV, Part 1
- Henry IV, Part 2
- Henry V
- Henry VI, Part 1
- Henry VI, Part 2
- Henry VI, Part 3
- Henry VIII
- Julius Caesar
- King John
- King Lear
- Love's Labor's Lost
- A Lover's Complaint
- Macbeth
- Measure for Measure
- The Merchant of Venice
- The Merry Wives of Windsor
- A Midsummer Night's Dream
- Much Ado About Nothing
- Othello
- Pericles
- The Rape of Lucrece
- Richard II
- Richard III
- Romeo and Juliet
- Shakespeare's Sonnets
- The Taming of the Shrew
- The Tempest
- Timon of Athens
- Titus Andronicus
- Troilus and Cressida
- Twelfth Night
- The Two Gentlemen of Verona
- Venus and Adonis
- The Winter's Tale
The King reemerges for the Epilogue, telling the audience once more that "All is well ended," but only if the play has pleased the audience. This meta-theatrical speech reveals the true significance of the comic resolution: it does not matter if the characters are truly "happy," so long as the audience is.
By breaking the "fourth wall" (the divide between play and audience) in this way, Shakespeare is reminding the audience of the artificiality of what they've just seen, and emphasizing that it has all taken place for their entertainment. The true meaning of "ending well" is a satisfied audience--and…