All’s Well That Ends Well’s Paroles and the Bisexual Miles Gloriosus: Early Modern Expectations, Modern Stagings

Abstract

ABSTRACT Productions of All’s Well That Ends Well increasingly portray Paroles as gay, bisexual or queer. This article argues that such stagings are not unjustified in that early modern audiences would expect to associate Paroles with same-sex attraction. While it is a critical commonplace that Paroles displays the traits of the classical miles gloriosus or braggart soldier, modern discussions of early modern braggart soldiers omit one trait of the classical version: an open, shame-free bisexuality. This article argues that an awareness of the classical miles gloriosus’ bisexuality established expectations and reception frameworks in early modern audiences when they encountered early modern dramatic braggart soldiers, including Paroles. It then demonstrates textual traces of this. However, if staging Paroles as gay, bisexual or queer today might be justified in terms of this reception history, the ways in which this is done are not always as progressive as they might seem. This is particularly so when evidence of same-sex attraction no longer serves primarily as pleasurable corroboration that Paroles is a miles gloriosus, but instead is framed as a psychological-realist problem, a source of shame to be overcome, and when Paroles’ humiliation scene is staged as sexualised homophobic violence not grounded in the text.