The Two Gentlemen of Verona
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A facsimile of the first page of The Two Gentlemen of Verona
from the First Folio, published in 1623.
The
Two Gentlemen of Verona is a comedy by William Shakespeare,
believed to have been written in 1590 or 1591. It is considered by
some to be Shakespeare's first play,[1] and is often seen as his
first tentative steps in laying out some of the themes and tropes
with which he would later deal in more detail; for example, it is
the first of his plays in which a heroine dresses as a boy. The
play also deals with the themes of friendship and infidelity, the
conflict between friendship and love, and the foolish behaviour of
people in love. The highlight of the play is
considered by some to be Launce, the clownish servant of Proteus,
and his dog Crab, to whom "the most scene-stealing non-speaking
role in the canon" has been attributed.[2]
Two
Gentlemen has the smallest cast of any play by Shakespeare and has
traditionally been seen as one of his weakest plays.[3]
Characters
Valentine and Proteus – the Two Gentlemen of Verona
Silvia – beloved of Valentine
Julia – beloved of Proteus
Duke of Milan – father to Silvia
Lucetta – waiting woman to Julia
Antonio – father to Proteus
Thurio – a foolish rival to Valentine
Eglamour – agent for Silvia in her escape
Speed – a clownish servant to Valentine
Launce[4]— the like to Proteus
Panthino – servant to Antonio
Host – of the inn where Julia lodges in Milan
Outlaws
Crab – Launce's dog
Servants
Musicians
Synopsis
In the
beginning of the play, Valentine is getting ready to leave Verona
to visit Milan so as to broaden his horizons. He begs his best
friend, Proteus, to come with him, but Proteus is in love with a
girl named Julia, and refuses to leave. As such, after bidding
Proteus farewell, Valentine goes on alone. Meanwhile, Julia is
discussing Proteus with her maid, Lucetta. She tells Julia that she
thinks Proteus is fond of her, but Julia acts coyly, embarrassed to
admit she likes him. Lucetta then produces a letter. She will not
say who gave it to her, but teases Julia that it was Valentine's
servant, Speed, who brought it from Proteus. Julia, still unwilling
to reveal her love in front of Lucetta, angrily tears up the
letter, and then, having sent Lucetta away, kisses the fragments,
and tries to piece them together.
Meanwhile, Proteus' father, Antonio, has decided
that like Valentine, Proteus should also travel, and has thus
decided to send him to Milan to join Valentine. Antonio informs the
dismayed Proteus that he must leave the next day, prompting a
tearful farewell with Julia, to whom Proteus swears eternal love.
The two exchange rings and vows and Proteus promises to return as
soon as he can.
As soon
as he arrives in Milan, Proteus finds Valentine in love with
Silvia, the daughter of the Duke. Despite his love for Julia,
Proteus falls instantly in love with Silvia and vows to do
everything he can to ensure he win her, even to the point of
betraying Valentine. Unaware of Proteus' feelings, Valentine takes
him into his confidence, explaining to him that the Duke wants
Silvia to marry the foppish but wealthy Thurio, against her wishes.
To ensure that Silvia and Valentine cannot be together, the Duke
has locked her in a tower. Valentine however, plans to go free her,
and together they plan to flee Milan. Proteus immediately goes to
the Duke, telling him that his daughter and Valentine plan to
elope. The Duke then catches and banishes Valentine. While
wandering outside of Milan, Valentine runs afoul of a band of
outlaws. They tell him that they, too, were once gentlemen and were
banished from the city. Valentine lies to them, saying he was
banished because he killed a man in a fair fight, and the outlaws
decide to make him their leader.
Back in
Verona, Julia decides to join her lover in Milan. She convinces
Lucetta to dress her in boy's clothes and help her fix her hair so
she will not be harmed on the journey. Once in Milan, Julia quickly
discovers Proteus' love for Silvia, watching him attempt to
serenade her. She then becomes his page - a youth named Sebastian -
until she can decide upon a course of action. Proteus sends
Sebastian to Silvia with a gift of the same ring that Julia gave to
him before he left Verona, but Julia discovers that Silvia scorns
Proteus' affections and is disgusted that he would forget about his
love back home i.e. Julia herself. Instead, Silvia is deeply
mourning the loss of Valentine (whom Proteus has told her is
rumoured dead).
Meanwhile, not convinced that Valentine is dead,
Silvia has decided to flee the city with the help of Eglamour, a
former suitor to Julia. They escape into the forest, but they are
confronted by the outlaws. Eglamour flees and Silvia is taken
captive. The outlaws head to their leader (Valentine), but on the
way, they encounter Proteus and Julia (still disguised as
Sebastian). Proteus rescues Silvia, and then pursues her deeper
into the forest. Secretly observed by Valentine, Proteus attempts
to convince Silvia that he loves her, but she refuses to return his
affections, and, furious and mad with desire, he insinuates that he
will rape her ("I'll force thee yield to my desire").
At this
point, Valentine intervenes, and denounces Proteus. Horrified at
what has happened, Proteus vows that the hate Valentine feels for
him is nothing compared to the hate he feels for himself. Convinced
that Proteus' repentance is genuine, Valentine forgives him and
seems to offer Silvia to him. At this point, overwhelmed, Julia
faints, revealing her true identity. Upon seeing her, Proteus
suddenly remembers his love for her and vows fidelity to her once
again. The Duke and Thurio then arrive, and Thurio reminds
Valentine that Silvia is his. Valentine warns Thurio that if he
makes one move towards her, he will kill him, and terrified, Thurio
quickly denounces Silvia. The Duke, impressed by Valentine's
actions, approves his and Silvia's love, and vows to allow them to
marry. The play ends with the two couples happily unified, and the
Duke pardons the outlaws, telling them they may return to
Milan.
Sources
In
writing The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Shakespeare drew on the
Spanish prose romance Diana Enamorada by the Portuguese
writer Jorge de Montemayor. In the second book of
Diana, Don Felix, who is in love with Felismena, sends her a
letter explaining his feelings. Like Julia, Felismena pretends to
reject the letter, and to be annoyed with her maid for delivering
it. Like Proteus, Felix is sent away by his father, and is followed
by Felismena, who, disguised as a boy, becomes his page, only to
subsequently learn that Felix has fallen in love with Celia.
Felismena is then employed by Felix to act as his messenger in all
communications with Celia, who scorns his love. Instead, Celia
falls in love with the page (i.e. Felismena in disguise).
Eventually, after a combat in a wood, Felix and Felismena are
reunited. Upon Felismena revealing herself however, Celia, having
no counterpart to Valentine, dies of grief.
Diana was published in Spanish in 1542,
translated into French in 1578, and published in English in 1598,
although the translation by Nicholas Collin was made some
years earlier, probably in 1582.[5] It is believed that Shakespeare
could have read the story in French, or in an unpublished English
version, or he could have learned of it from an anonymous English
play, The History of Felix and Philiomena, which may have
been based on Diana, and which was performed for the court
at Greenwich Palace by the Queen's Men on 3 January 1585.
The History of Felix and Philiomena is now lost.[6]
Another
major influence on Shakespeare was the story of the intimate
friendship of Titus and Gisippus as told in Thomas Elyot's
The Boke named the Governour in 1531 (the same story is told
in The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio, but verbal
similarities between The Two Gentlemen and The
Governor suggest it was Elyot's work Shakespeare used as
his primary source, not Boccaccio's).[7] In this story,
Titus and Gisippus are inseparable until Gisippus falls in love. He
introduces the woman to Titus, but Titus is overcome with jealousy,
and vows to seduce her. Upon hearing of Titus' plan, Gisippus
arranges for them to change places on the wedding night, thus
placing their friendship above his love for the woman.
Also
important to Shakespeare in the composition of the play was John
Lyly's Euphues, The Anatomy of Wit, published in 1578.
Like The Governor, Euphues presents two close friends who
are inseparable until a woman comes between them, and, like both
The Governor and Two Gentlemen, the story concludes
with one friend sacrificing the woman so as to save the friendship.
However, as Geoffrey Bullough argues "Shakespeare's debt to
Lyly was probably one of technique more than matter."[8]
Lyly's Midas may also have influenced the scene where Launce
and Speed run through the milkmaid's virtues and defects, as it
contains a very similar scene between Lucio and Petulus.
Other
minor sources include Arthur Brooke's narrative poem The
Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet. Obviously
Shakespeare's source for Romeo and Juliet, it
features a character called Friar Laurence, as does Two
Gentlemen, and a scene where a young man attempts to outwit his
lover's father by means of a corded ladder (as Valentine does in
Two Gentlemen). Philip Sidney's The Countess of
Pembroke's Arcadia may also have influenced Shakespeare insofar
as it contains a character who follows her betrothed, dressed as
his page, and later on, one of the main characters becomes captain
of a group of Helots.
Date and text
The
exact date of the creation of The Two Gentlemen of Verona is
unknown, but it is generally believed to have been one of
Shakespeare's earliest works. The first evidence of its
existence is in a list of Shakespeare's plays in Francis
Meres's Palladis Tamia, published in 1598, but it is
thought to have been written in the early 1590s. Norman
Sanders (1968), for example, suggests 1590-1594; Clifford
Leech (1969) argues for 1591; The Riverside Shakespeare
(1974 and 1996) places the date at 1590-1593; The Oxford
Shakespeare: The Complete Works (1986 and 200) suggests
1589-1591; Kurt Schlueter (1990) posits 1593; The Norton
Shakespeare: Based on the Oxford Shakespeare (1997 and 2008)
suggests 1591; Mary Beth Rose (2000) suggests 1590;
William C. Carroll (2004) posits 1590-1593; Roger
Warren (2008) tentatively suggests 1587, but acknowledges
1590/1591 as more likely.
It has
been argued that Two Gentlemen may have been
Shakespeare's first work for the stage. This theory was
first suggested by Edmond Malone in 1778, at which time the
dominant theory was that the Henry VI trilogy had been
Shakespeare's first work.[9] More recently, the play was placed
first in both The Oxford Shakespeare: The Complete Works of
1986, and again in the 2nd edition of 2005, and in The Norton
Shakespeare of 1997, and again in the 2nd edition of
2008.
A large
part of the theory that this may be Shakespeare's first play is the
quality of the work itself. Writing in 1968, Norman Sanders
argued "All are agreed on the play's immaturity".[10] The argument
is that the play betrays a lack of practical theatrical experience
on Shakespeare's part, and as such, it must have come extremely
early in his career. Stanley Wells, for example, has written
that any scenes involving more than, at most, four characters,
"betray an uncertainty of technique suggestive of
inexperience."[11] This uncertainty can be seen in how Shakespeare
handles the distribution of dialogue in such scenes. Whenever there are more than three characters on stage,
at least one of those characters tends to fall silent. For example,
Speed is silent for almost all of Act 2, Scene 4, as is Thurio,
Silvia and Julia for most of the last half of the final scene. It
has also been suggested that the handling of this final scene in
general, in which the faithful lover seemingly offers his beloved
to the man who has just attempted to rape her as a token of his
forgiveness, is a sign of Shakespeare's lack of maturity as a
dramatist.[12]
In his
2008 edition of the play for the Oxford Shakespeare,
Roger Warren argues that the play is the oldest surviving
piece of Shakespearean literature, suggesting a date of composition
as somewhere between 1587 and 1591. He hypothesises that the play
was perhaps written before Shakespeare came to London, with an idea
towards using the famous comic actor Richard Tarlton in the
role of Launce (this theory stems from the fact that Tarlton had
performed several extremely popular and well known scenes with
dogs). However, Tarlton died in September 1588, and Warren notes
several passages in Two Gentlemen which seem to borrow from
John Lyly's Midas, which wasn't written until at
least late-1589. As such, Warren acknowledges that 1590/1591
is most likely the correct date of composition.[13]
The play was not printed
until 1623, when it appeared in the First Folio of Shakespeare's
plays.
Criticism and analysis
Critical history
Perhaps
the most critically discussed issue in the play is the sequence,
bizarre by modern Western European standards, in Act 5, Scene 4 in
which Valentine seems to 'give' Silvia to Proteus as a sign of his
friendship. For many years, the general critical consensus on this
issue was that the incident revealed an inherent misogyny in the
text. For example, Hilary Spurling wrote in 1970, "Valentine is so
overcome [by Proteus' apology] that he promptly offers to hand over
his beloved to the man who, not three minutes before, had meant to
rape her".[14] Modern scholarship however is much more divided
about Valentine's actions at the end of the play, with some critics
arguing that he does not give Silvia to Proteus at all. The
ambiguity lies in the line "All that was mine in Silvia I give to
thee" (5.4.83). Many critics (such as Stanley Wells for example)
interpret this to mean that Valentine is indeed handing Silvia over
to her would-be rapist, but another school of thought suggests that
Valentine simply means "I will love you [Proteus] with as much love
as I love Silvia," thus reconciling the dichotomy of friendship and
love as depicted elsewhere in the play. This is certainly how
Jeffrey Masten, for example, sees it, arguing that the play as a
whole "reveals not the opposition of male friendship and Petrarchan
love but rather their interdependence." As such, the final scene
"stages the play's ultimate collaboration of male friendship and
its incorporation of the plot we would label
"heterosexual"."[15]
This is
also how Roger Warren interprets the final scene. Warren cites a
number of productions of the play as evidence for this argument,
including Robin Phillips' Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC)
production at the Aldwych Theatre in 1970, where Valentine kisses
Silvia, makes his offer and then kisses Proteus. Another production
cited by Warren is Edward Hall's in 1998, at the Swan Theatre. In
Hall's version of the scene, after Valentine says the controversial
line, Silvia approaches him and takes him by the hand. They remain
holding hands for the rest of the play, clearly suggesting that
Valentine has not 'given' her away. Warren also mentions Leon
Rubin's 1984 Ontario production (where the controversial line was
altered to "All my love to Silvia I also give to thee"), David
Thacker's 1991 Swan Theatre production, and the 1983 BBC
Shakespeare television adaptation as supporting the theory that
Valentine is not giving Silvia away, but is simply promising to
love Proteus as much as he loves Silvia.
There
are other theories regarding this final scene however. For example,
in his 1990 edition of the play for the Cambridge Shakespeare, Kurt
Schlueter suggests that Valentine is indeed handing Silvia over to
Proteus, but the audience is not supposed to take it literally; the
incident is farcical, and should be interpreted as such. Schlueter
argues that the play provides possible evidence it was written to
be performed and viewed primarily by a young audience, and as such,
to be staged at university theatres, as opposed to public
playhouses. Such an audience would be more predisposed to accepting
the farcical nature of the scene, and more likely to find humorous
the absurdity of Valentine's gift. As such, in Schlueter's theory,
the scene does represent what it appears to represent, Valentine
does give Silvia to her would-be rapist, but it is done purely for
comic effect.[16]
Another
theory is provided by William C. Carroll in his 2004 edition for
the Arden Shakespeare, 3rd Series. Carroll argues, like Schlueter,
that Valentine is indeed giving Silvia to Proteus, but unlike
Schlueter, Carroll detects no sense of farce. Instead, he sees the
action as a perfectly logical one in terms of the notions of
friendship which were prevalent at the time; "the idealisation of
male friendship as superior to male-female love (which was
considered not romantic or compassionate but merely lustful, hence
inferior) performs a project of cultural nostalgia, a stepping back
from potentially more threatening social arrangements to a world of
order, a world based on a 'gift' economy of personal relations
among male social equals rather than one based on a newer, less
stable economy of emotional and economic risk. The offer of the
woman from one male friend to another would therefore be the
highest expression of friendship from one point of view, a low
point of psycho-sexual regression from another." As in Schlueter,
Carroll here interprets Valentine's actions as a gift to Proteus,
but unlike Schlueter, and more in line with traditional criticism
of the play, Carroll also argues that such a gift, as ridiculous as
it is, is perfectly understandable when one considers the cultural
and social milieu of the play itself.[17]
Language
Language is of primary importance in the play
insofar as Valentine and Proteus speak in blank verse, but Launce and Speed
speak (for the most part) in prose. More specifically, the actual
content of many of the speeches serve to illustrate the pompousness
of Valentine and Proteus' exalted outlook, and the more realistic
and practical outlook of the servants. This is most apparent in
Act 3, Scene 1. Valentine has
just given a lengthy speech lamenting his banishment and musing on
how he can possibly survive without Silvia; "Except I be by Silvia
in the night/There is no music in the nightingale./Unless I look on
Silvia in the day/There is no day for me to look upon" (ll.178-181). However, when Launce enters only a few lines later, he announces
that he too is in love, and proceeds to outline, along with Speed,
all of his betrothed's positives; "She brews good ale"; "She can
knit"; "She can wash and scour", and negatives; "She hath a sweet
mouth"; "She doth talk in her sleep"; "She is slow in words". After
weighing his options, Launce decides
that the woman's most important quality is that "she hath more hair
than wit, and more faults than hairs, and more wealth than faults"
(ll.343-344). He announces that her
wealth "makes the faults gracious" (l.356), and chooses for that reason to wed her.
This purely materialistic reasoning, as revealed in the form of
language, is in stark contrast to the more spiritual and idealised
love espoused by Valentine earlier in the scene.
Themes
One of
the dominant theories as regards the value or importance of Two
Gentlemen is that thematically, it represents a 'trial run' of
sorts, in which Shakespeare deals briefly with themes which he
would examine in more detail in later works. E.K. Chambers, for
example, argued that the play represents something of a gestation
of Shakespeare's great thematic concerns. In 1905, he wrote that
Two Gentlemen "was Shakespeare's first essay at originality, at
fashioning for himself the outlines of that romantic or tragicomic
formula in which so many of his most characteristic dramas were
afterwards to be cast. Something which is neither quite tragedy nor
quite comedy, something which touches the heights and depths of
sentiment and reveals the dark places of the human heart without
lingering long enough there to crystallise the painful impression,
a love story broken for a moment into passionate chords by absence
and inconstancy and intrigue, and then reunited to the music of
wedding bells".[18] As such, the play's primary interest for
critics has tended to lie in relation to what it reveals about
Shakespeare's conception of certain themes before he became an
accomplished playwright. A.C. Swinburne, for example, wrote "here
is the first dawn of that higher and more tender humour that was
never given in such perfection to any man as ultimately to
Shakespeare."[19] Similarly, Warwick R. Bond writes "Shakespeare
first opens the vein he worked so richly afterwards - the vein of
crossed love, of flight and exile under the escort of the generous
sentiments; of disguised heroines, and sufferings endured and
virtues exhibited under their disguise; and of the Providence,
kinder than life, that annuls the errors and forgives the
sin."[20]
Other
critics have been less kind however, arguing that if the later
plays show a skilled and confident writer exploring issues of the
human heart, Two Gentlemen represents the initial, primarily
unsuccessful attempt to do likewise. H.B. Charlton, for example,
writing in 1938, argues that "clearly, Shakespeare's first attempt
to make romantic comedy had only succeeded so far as it had
unexpectedly and inadvertenly made romance comic."[21] Another such
argument is provided by Norman Sanders; "because the play reveals a
relatively unsure dramatist and many effects managed with a tiro's
lack of expertise, it offers us an opportunity to see more clearly
than anywhere else in the canon what were to become characteristic
techniques. It stands as an 'anatomie' or show-through version, as
it were, of Shakespeare's comic art."[22] Not all critics agree
with this however, arguing that the play does stand on its own,
that it deals successfully with its themes, and that it possesses
its own unique merits, irrespective of what it tells us about
Shakespeare's artistic development.[23]
Love and friendship
Norman
Sanders calls the play "almost a complete anthology of the
practices of the doctrine of romantic love which inspired the
poetic and prose Romances of the period".[24] At the very centre of
this is the contest between love and friendship; "an essential part
of the comicality of The Two Gentlemen of Verona is created by the
necessary conflict between highly stylised concepts of love and
friendship"[25] This is manifested in the question of whether the
relationship between two male friends is more important than that
between lovers, encapsulated by Proteus' rhetorical question at
5.4.54; "In love/Who respects friend?". This question "exposes the
raw nerve at the heart of the central relationships, the dark
reality lurking beneath the wit and lyricism with which the play
has in general presented lovers' behaviour".[26] In the program
notes for John Barton's 1981 RSC production at the Royal
Shakespeare Theatre, Anne Barton, his wife, wrote that the central
theme of the play was "how to bring love and friendship into a
constructive and mutually enhancing relationship." This is a common
theme in Renaissance literature, since some aspects of the culture
of the time celebrated friendship as the more important
relationship (because it is pure and unconcerned with sexual
attraction), and contended that they could not co-exist. As actor
Alex Avery argues, "The love between two men is a greater love for
some reason. There seems to be a sense that the function of a
male/female relationship is purely for the family and to procreate,
to have a family. But a love between two men is something that you
choose. You have arranged marriages, [but] a friendship between two
men is created by the desires and wills of those two men, whereas a
relationship between a man and a girl is actually constructed
completely peripheral to whatever the feelings of the said boy and
girl are."[27]
William
C. Carroll sees this societal belief as vital in interpreting the
final scene of the play, arguing that Valentine does give Silvia to
Proteus, and in so doing, he is merely acting in accordance with
the practices of the day. However, if one accepts that Valentine
does not give Silvia to Proteus, as critics such as Roger Warren
argue, but instead offers to love Proteus as much as he loves
Silvia, then the conclusion of the play can be read as a final
triumphant reconciliation between friendship and love; Valentine
intends to love his friend as much as he does his betrothed. Love
and friendship are shown to be co-existent, not exclusive.
Foolishness of lovers
Another
major theme is the foolishness of lovers, what Roger Warren refers
to as "mockery of the absurdity of conventional lovers'
behaviour".[28] Valentine for example, is introduced into the play
mocking the excesses of love; "To be in love, where scorn is bought
with groans/Coy looks with heart-sore sighs, one fading moment's
mirth/With twenty watchful, weary, tedious nights" (1.1.29-31).
Later, however, he becomes as much a prisoner of love as Proteus,
exclaiming, "For in revenge of my contempt for love/Love hath
chased sleep from my enthrall'd eyes/And made them watchers of my
own heart's sorrow" (2.4.131-133).
The
majority of the cynicism as regards conventional lovers however
comes from Launce and Speed, who serve as foils for Proteus and
Valentine and "supply a mundane view of the idealistic flights of
fancy indulged in by Proteus and Valentine."[29] Several times in
the play, after either Valentine or Proteus has made a grandiose
speech about love, Shakespeare introduces either Launce or Speed
(or sometimes both), whose speeches undercut what has just been
heard, exposing Proteus and Valentine to mockery. A good example is
found in Act 2, Scene 1. As Valentine and Silvia engage in a game
of flirtation, hinting at their love for one another, Speed
provides constant asides which serve to directly mock the couple.
For example,
VALENTINE
Peace, here she comes.
Enter Silvia
SPEED (aside)
O excellent motion! O exceeding puppet! Now he will interpret
her.
VALENTINE
Madame and mistress, a thousand good-morrows.
SPEED (aside)
O, give ye good e'en. Here's a million of manners.
SILVIA
Sir Valentine and servant, to you two thousand.
SPEED (aside)
He should give her interest, and she gives it him
(2.1.85-94)
Inconstancy
A third
major theme is inconstancy, particularly as manifested in Proteus,
whose very name hints at his changeable mind (in Ovid's
Metamorphoses, Proteus is a sea-god forever changing its shape). At
the start of the play, Proteus has only eyes for Julia. However
upon meeting Silvia, he immediately falls in love with her
(although he has no idea why). He then finds himself drawn to the
page Sebastian (Julia in disguise) whilst still trying to woo
Silvia, and at the end of the play, he announces that Silvia is no
better than Julia and vows he now loves Julia again. As Silvia says
of Proteus, "O heaven, were man/But constant, he were perfect. That
one error/Fills him with faults, makes him run through all
th'sins;/Inconstancy falls off ere it begins" (5.4.109-112).
Performance
There
is no record of a performance in Shakespeare's era, down to the
closing of the theatres in 1642, although due to its inclusion in
Francis Meres's Palladis Tamia in 1598, we know it was certainly
performed during Shakespeare's lifetime. The earliest known
performance occurred at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in 1762.
However, this production was of a version of the play rewritten by
Benjamin Victor. The earliest known performance of the straight
Shakespearean text was at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden in
1784, advertised as "Shaxespeare's with alterations." Although the
play was supposed to run for several weeks, it closed after the
first night.[30]
From the middle of the eighteenth century, even if staging
Shakespeare's original play (as opposed to Victor's rewrite) it was
common for directors to cut the lines in the final scene where
Valentine seems to offer Silvia to Proteus, who has just attempted
to rape her, as a sign of his forgiveness and friendship. This
practice prevailed until William Charles Macready reintroduced the
lines in 1841 in a production at Drury Lane, although they were
still being removed as late as 1952, in Denis Carey's production at
the Bristol Old Vic.[31] Other eighteenth century performances
include Charles Kean's in 1848 at the Haymarket Theatre, Samuel
Phelps' in 1857 at the Sadler's Wells Theatre and William Poel's in
1892 and 1896.[32]
During
the twentieth century, the play has been produced sporadically,
often with little success, in the English-speaking world; although
it has proved more popular in Europe.[33] Indeed, there have been
only a handful of major English speaking productions worth noting.
Little is known, for example, about Harley Granville-Barker's 1904
production at the Royal Court Theatre, F.R. Benson's at the
Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in 1910, Robert Atkins' 1926
production at the Apollo Theatre, starring John Gielgud, or Ben
Iden Payne's 1938 production at Stratford-upon-Avon. Indeed, most
critics now agree that the first major 20th century production
didn't take place until 1956, at the Old Vic, directed by Michael
Langham and starring Keith Mitchell as Proteus and Barbara Jefford
as Julia. In this production, set in late nineteenth century Italy
and grounded very much in high Romanticism, Proteus threatens to
kill himself with a pistol at the end of the play, prompting
Valentine's hasty offer of Silvia.
Perhaps
the most notable 20th century production was Peter Hall's 1960
presentation at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford,
starring Denholm Elliott as Valentine, Derek Godfrey as Proteus,
Susan Maryott as Silvia, Frances Cuka as Julia, and featuring a
much lauded performance by Patrick Wymark as Launce. Hall had only
recently been appointed as Artistic Director of the RSC, and,
somewhat unexpectedly, he chose Two Gentlemen as his inaugural
production, relocating the play to a late medieval
milieu.[34]
Ten
years later, in 1970, Robin Phillips' RSC production at the Aldwych
Theatre, starred Peter Egan as Valentine, Ian Richardson as
Proteus, Helen Mirren as Julia, Estelle Kohler as Silvia, and
Patrick Stewart as Launce. This production concentrated on the
issues of friendship and treachery, and set the play in a decadent
world of social elitism. Valentine and Proteus were presented as
aristocratic students, the Duke was a Don, and Eglamour an old
scout master. On the other hand, the poverty stricken outlaws were
dressed in animal skins.
The RSC
again staged the play at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in 1981,
under the direction of John Barton, with Peter Land as Proteus,
Peter Chelsom as Valentine, Julia Swift as Julia and Diana
Hardcastle as Silvia. This production saw the actors not involved
in the current on-stage scene sit at the front of the stage and
watch the performance. Leon Rubin directed another major
performance at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Ontario,
Canada in 1984, where the actors were dressed in modern clothes and
contemporary pop music was featured within the play (for example,
the outlaws are portrayed as an anarchic rock group).
A 1991
RSC production at the Swan Theatre saw director David Thacker use
an on-stage live band for the duration of the play, playing music
from the 1930s, such as Cole Porter and George Gershwin. Thacker's
production featured Barry Lynch as Proteus, Richard Bonneville as
Valentine, Clare Holman as Julia and Saskia Reeves as Silvia. In
1992, Thacker's production moved to the Barbican Centre in London,
and in 1993 went on regional tour. In 1996, Jack Shepherd directed
a modern dress version at the Globe Theatre starring Lenny James as
Valentine, Mark Rylance as Proteus, Stephanie Roth Haberle as Julia
and Anastasia Hille as Silvia. Another RSC production took place at
the Swan in 1998, under the direction of Edward Hall, and starring
Tom Goodman-Hill as Valentine, Dominic Rowan as Proteus, Lesley
Vickerage as Julia and Poppy Miller as Silvia. This production set
the play in a grimy unnamed contemporary city where material
obsession was all-encompassing. Another performance took place in
1999 at the Cottesloe Theatre, directed by Julie Anne
Robinson.
In
2001, Douglas C. Wager directed a version of the play set in the
1950s and featuring the music of Bill Haley and Connie Francis,
with Gregory Wooddell as Valentine, Paul Whitthorne as Proteus,
Julia Dion as Julia and Louise Zachry as Silvia. In 2004, Fiona
Buffini directed a regional touring production for the RSC.
Premiering at the Swan, the production starred Alex Avery as
Valentine, Laurence Mitchell as Proteus, Vanessa Ackerman as Julia
and Rachel Pickup as Silvia, and was performed under the title The
Two Gents. Buffini set the play in a swinging 1930s milieu, and
featuring numerous dance numbers. Additionally, London and New York
replaced Verona and Milan; initially, Valentine and Proteus are
shown as living in the English countryside, in a rural paradise
devoid of any real vitality, the sons of wealthy families who have
retired from the city. When Valentine leaves, he heads to New York
to pursue the American Dream and falls in love with Silvia, the
famous actress daughter of a powerful media magnate. Another change
to the play was that the roles of the outlaws (represented here as
a group of paparazzi) were increased considerably. Scenes added to
the play show them arriving in New York and going about their daily
business, although none of the new scenes featured any
dialogue.
Another
performance worth noting occurred at the Courtyard Theatre in
Stratford in 2006. A non-professional acting company from Brazil,
named Nós do Morro ('We of the hillside'), in collaboration with a
Gallery 37 group from Birmingham, gave a single performance of the
play during the RSC's presentation of the Complete Works, directed
by Guti Fraga. This production was spoken in Portuguese, with the
original English text projected as surtitles onto the back of the
stage. It also featured two 17 years olds in the roles of Valentine
and Proteus (usually, actors in their 20s are cast), and Crab was
played not by a dog, but by a human actor. In 2009, Joe Dowling
directed the play at the Guthrie Theater as a 1955 live television
production, with large black-and-white monitors set on either side
of the stage, and cameras feeding the action to them. Additionally,
period advertisements appeared both before the show and during the
intermission. The actors spoke the original dialogue, but wore
1950s clothing and used 1950s-era sets. Rock and roll music and
dance sequences were occasionally mixed with the action.
Taken
together, these various productions, with their frequent use of
music, their geographical and temporal relocations, and their
general modifications of the original serve to lend credence to
Stanley Wells' claim that the play "has succeeded best when
subjected to adaptation, increasing its musical content, adjusting
the emphasis of the last scene so as to reduce the shock of
Valentine's donation of Silvia to Proteus, and updating the
setting."[35]
Adaptations
Theatrical
Henry
Roberts' engraving of Richard Yates as Launce in the 1762 Drury
Lane adaptation.
Benjamin Victor rewrote the play some time prior to 1762, when
it was performed at the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane. Directed by
David Garrick, and starring Richard Yates as Launce, and his wife,
Mary Anne Yates as Julia, Victor brought all the Verona scenes
together, removed Valentine's 'gift' of Silvia to Proteus and
increased the roles of Launce and Crab (especially during the
outlaw scenes, where both characters are intimately involved in the
action). He also switched the emphasis of the play away from the
love-friendship divide and instead focused on the issues of
fidelity, with the last line of the play altered to, "Lovers must
be faithful to be bless'd." This necessitated rewriting Valentine
as a near flawless protagonist who represents such faithfulness,
and Proteus as a traditional villain, who doesn't care for such
notions. The two are not presented as old friends, but simply as
acquaintances. Thurio was also rewritten as a harmless, but lovable
fool, not unlike Launce and Speed. Although not a major success
(the play initially ran for only six performances), it was still
being performed as late as 1895. In 1790, John Philip Kemble staged
his own production of the play at Drury Lane, maintaining many of
Victor's alterations, and again at Covent Garden in 1808. In the
1808 production, Kemble, who was fifty years old at the time,
played Valentine.[36]
Frederic Reynolds staged an operatic version in
1821 at Covent Garden as part of his series of adaptations of the
works of Shakespeare. Reynolds wrote the lyrics, and Henry Bishop
wrote the music. The production ran for twenty-nine performances,
and included some of Shakespeare's sonnets set to music. Augustin
Daly revived the opera in 1895 at Daly's Theatre, in a production
which George Bernard Shaw argued was much better than Shakespeare's
original text.[37]
In
1971, Galt MacDermot, John Guare and Mel Shapiro adapted the show
into a rock musical under the same name as the play. Guare and
Shapiro wrote the book, Guare the lyrics, and MacDermot the music.
Opening at the St. James Theatre on 1 December 1971, with Shapiro
directing and Jean Erdman as choreographer, it ran for 614
performances, closing on 20 May 1973.[38] During its initial run,
the play won two Tony Awards; Best Musical and Best Book. The
original cast included Clifton Davis as Valentine, Raúl Juliá as
Proteus, Jonelle Allen as Silvia and Diana Dávila as Julia. The
play moved to the West End in 1973, playing at the Phoenix Theatre
from 26 April, and running for 237 performances. It was revived in
1996 at the New Jersey Shakespeare Festival, directed by Robert
Duke, and again in 2005, directed and choreographed by Kathleen
Marshall as part of the Shakespeare in the Park festival.
Marshall's production was performed at the Delacorte Theater in
Central Park, and starred Norm Lewis as Valentine, Oscar Isaac as
Proteus, Renee Elise Goldsberry as Silvia and Rosario Dawson as
Julia
Stuart Draper adapted the play into a gay version called Two
Gentlemen of Verona which played at the Greenwich Playhouse in New
York City from 20 April to 18 May 2004.[39] In this version of the
play, Valentine is in love with Proteus, but Proteus' father would
rather see him marry the wealthy Julia. Valentine leaves to seek
his fortune in Milan, where he meets and falls in love with Silvia,
daughter of the Duke. Leaving Julia behind, Proteus follows
Valentine to Milan determined to win him over. Proteus is in turn
followed by Julia (disguised as a boy), determined to woo him away
from Valentine.
Film
The
only cinematic adaptation of the play is Yī jiǎn méi (more commonly
known by its English title A Spray of Plum Blossoms), a 1931 silent
film from China, directed by Bu Wancang and written by Huang Yicuo.
A loose adaptation of the play, the film tells the story of Bai
Lede (Wang Chilong) and Hu Luting (Jin Yan), two military cadets
who have been friends since they were children. After graduating,
Hu, a playboy uninterested in love, is appointed as a captain in
Guangdong and leaves his home town in Shanghai. Bai however, deeply
in love with Hu's sister, Hu Zhuli (Ruan Lingyu) stays behind. At
Guangdong, Hu falls in love with the local general's daughter, Shi
Luohua (Lam Cho-Cho), although the general, Shi (Wang Guilin), is
unaware of the relationship, and instead wants his daughter to
marry the foolish Liao Di'ao (Kao Chien Fei). Meanwhile, Bai's
father uses his influence to get Bai posted to Guangdong, and after
a sorrowful farewell between himself and Zhuli, he arrives at his
new post and instantly falls in love with Luohua. In an effort to
have her for himself, Bai betrays his friend, by informing General
Shi of his daughter's plans to elope with Hu, leading to Shi
dishonourably discharging Hu. Bai tries to win Luohua over, but she
is uninterested, only concerned with lamenting the loss of Hu. In
the meantime, Hu encounters a group of bandits who ask him to be
their leader, to which he agrees, planning on returning for Luohua
at some point in the future. Some time passes, and one day, as
Luohua, Bai and Liao are passing through the forest, they are
attacked. Luohua manages to flee, and Bai pursues her into the
forest. They engage in an argument, but just as Bai seems about to
lose his temper, Hu intervenes, and he and Luohua are reunited.
General Shi arrives in time to see Liao flee the scene, and he now
realises that he was wrong to get in the way of the relationship
between Hu and his daughter. Hu then forgives Bai his betrayal, and
Bai reveals that he has discovered that his only true love is in
fact Zhuli back in Shanghai.
The
film is notable for being one of many Chinese films of the period
which, although performed in Mandarin when filming, used English
intertitles upon its original release. In the English intertitles
and credits, the characters are named after their counterparts in
the play; Hu is Valentine, Bai is Proteus, Zhuli is Julia and
Luohua is Silvia. Liao is named Tiburio rather than Thurio.
Television
The
first television adaptation was in 1952, when BBC One broadcast Act
1 of the play live from the Bristol Old Vic. Directed by Denis
Carey, the production starred John Neville as Valentine, Laurence
Payne as Proteus, Gudrun Ure as Silvia and Pamela Ann as
Julia.
In
1956, the entire play was broadcast on German TV channel Das Erste
from a performance at the Munich Kammerspiele, under the title Zwei
herren aus Verona. The theatrical production was directed by Hans
Schalla, with the TV adaptation directed by Ernst Markwardt. The
cast included Rolf Schult as Valentine, Hannes Riesenberger as
Proteus, Helga Siemers as Julia and Isolde Chlapek as Silvia.
In
1964, the play was made into a TV movie in Germany, under the title
Die zwei herren aus Verona, directed by Hans Dieter Schwarze and
starring Norbert Hansing as Valentine, Rolf Becker as Proteus,
Katinka Hoffman as Julia and Heidelinde Weis as Silvia.
Proteus
(Tyler Butterworth) and Valentine (John Hudson) in the 1983 BBC
Shakespeare adaptation.
The play was adapted for the BBC Shakespeare series in 1983.
Directed by Don Taylor, it starred Tyler Butterworth as Proteus,
John Hudson as Valentine, Tessa Peake-Jones as Julia and Joanne
Pearce as Silvia. For the most part, the BBC Shakespeare adaptation
is word-for-word taken from the First Folio, with only some very
minor and inconsequential differences. For example, omitted lines
include the Duke's "Knowing that tender youth is soon suggested"
(3.1.34), and Julia's "Her eyes are grey as glass, and so are mine"
(4.4.189). Other differences include a slightly different opening
scene to that indicated in the text. Whereas the play seems to open
with Valentine and Proteus in mid-conversation, the adaptation
begins with Mercatio and Eglamour attempting to formally woo Julia;
Mercatio by showing her a coffer overflowing with gold coins,
Eglamour by displaying a parchment detailing his family history.
However, there is no dialogue in this scene, and the first words
spoken are the same as in the text ("Cease to persuade my loving
Proteus"). Eglamour is also present in the final scene, albeit once
again without any dialogue, and, additionally, the capture of
Silvia and the flight of Eglamour is seen, as opposed to merely
being described.
In
1995, a production of the play aired on Polish TV channel TVP1
under the title Dwaj panowie z Werony, directed by Roland Rowinski
and starring Marek Bukowski as Proteus and Rafal Krolikowski as
Valentine.
In
2000, a Season 4 episode of Dawson's Creek entitled "Two Gentlemen
of Capeside" loosely adapted the plot of the play. Written by Chris
Levinson and directed by Sandy Smolan, the episode depicted how
Dawson and Pacey, formally best friends, have been driven apart
over their love for the same woman. The play is referenced early in
the episode as the characters are reading it for their English
class.
Radio
In
1923, extracts from the play were broadcast on BBC Radio 1,
performed by the Cardiff Station Repertory Company as the first
episode of a series of programs showcasing Shakespeare's plays,
entitled Shakespeare Night.[40] In 1924, the entire play was
broadcast by the BBC, directed by Joyce Tremayne and R.E. Jeffrey.
Treymane played Silvia and Jeffrey played Valentine, along with
G.R. Harvey as Proteus and Daisy Moncur as Julia. In 1927, the
scenes between Julia and Lucetta were broadcast on BBC Radio 1 as
part of the Echoes from Greenwich Theatre series. Betty Rayner
played Julia and Joan Rayner played Lucetta. BBC National Programme
broadcast the full play in 1934, adapted for radio by Barbara
Burnham and produced by Lance Sieveking. Ion Swinley played
Valentine, Robert Craven was Proteus, Helen Horsey was Silvia and
Lydia Sherwood played Julia.
In 1958, the entire play was broadcast on BBC Third Programme.
Produced and directed for radio by Raymond Raikes, the play starred
John Westbrook as Valentine, Charles Hodgson as Proteus, Caroline
Leigh as Silvia and Perlita Neilson as Julia. It also featured
Frankie Howerd as Launce.
BBC Third Programme aired another full production of the play
in 1968, produced and directed by R.D. Smith and starring Denys
Hawthorne as Valentine, Michael N. Harbour as Proteus and Judi
Dench as Julia.
In
2007, producer Roger Elsgood and director Willi Richards adapted
the play into a radio play called The Two Gentlemen of Valasna,
setting it in two fictional Indian princely states called Malpur
and Valasna, in the weeks leading up to the Indian Mutiny of 1857.
The play was first broadcast on BBC Radio 3 on 29 July 2007.[41] It
was recorded on location in Maharashtra, India earlier in 2007 with
a cast drawn from Bollywood, Indian television and the Mumbai
English-speaking theatre traditions; actors included Nadir Khan as
Vishvadev (i.e. Valentine), Arghya Lahiri as Parminder (Proteus),
Anu Menon as Syoni (Silvia), Avantika Akerkar as Jumaana/Servi
(Julia/Sebastian), Sohrab Ardishir as The Maharaja (Duke of Milan)
and Zafar Karachiwala as Thaqib (Thurio). Besides the new character
names, some other substitutions suitable to the new setting (e.g.
"by Ran" for "by Jove", "Vishnu's shrine for "the north gate", "the
mighty gods' wrath's appeased" for "the Eternal's wrath's
appeas'd", sahiba for lady, sahib for sir, and sari for robe), and
the addition of some Indian dialogue, the production used
Shakespeare's text.
[edit]References
Notes
All references to The Two Gentlemen of Verona, unless
otherwise specified, are taken from the Oxford Shakespeare
(Warren), based on the First Folio text of 1623. Under its
referencing system, 2.3.14 means act 2, scene 3, line 14.
^ It is placed first in both The Oxford Shakespeare: The
Complete Works (1986 and 2005) and The Norton Shakespeare: Based on
the Oxford Shakespeare (1997 and 2008); see also Leech (1969: xxx),
Wells et al. (1987: 3), Carroll (2004: 130) and Warren (2008:
26-27)
^ Wells et al. (1986: 4)
^ Carroll (2004: 110)
^ Most modern editors of the play tend to rename this
character 'Lance', on the basis that 'Lance' represents a
modernisation of 'Launce'. See, for example, Kurt Schlueter
(Cambridge Shakespeare - 1990), William C. Carroll (Arden
Shakespeare - 2004) and Roger Warren (Oxford Shakespeare -
2008)
^ Schlueter (1990: 1)
^ Greenblatt et al (1997: 80)
^ Warren (2008: 15-16)
^ Bullough (1975: 204)
^ Edmund Malone, Plays and Poems, (1821), 7
^ Sanders (1968: 7)
^ Wells et al. (1986: 3)
^ Greenblatt et al (1997: 79)
^ Warren (2008: 26-27)
^ Program notes for 1970 RSC production of The Two Gentlemen
of Verona
^ Masten (1997: 41, 46-47)
^ Schlueter (1990: 3)
^ Carroll (2004: 15-16)
^ E.K. Chambers, Introduction to The Two Gentlemen of Verona,
Red Letter Shakespeare, 1905
^ Quoted in Carroll (2004: 115)
^ Bond (1906: xxxiv)
^ H.B. Charlton, Shakesperean Comedy (London: Routledge,
1938), 43
^ Sanders (1968: 15)
^ See, for example, Schlueter (1990), Carroll (2004) and
Warren (2008)
^ Sanders (1968: 8)
^ Schlueter (1990: 17)
^ Warren (2008: 53)
^ The Two Gentlemen of Verona Study Guide
^ Warren (2008: 44)
^ Sanders (1968: 10)
^ Schlueter (1990: 23)
^ Greenblatt et al (1997: 79)
^ Carroll (2004: 85)
^ Halliday (1964: 506)
^ The Two Gentlemen of Verona Study Guide
^ Wells et al. (1986: 3)
^ Schlueter (1990: 23-25)
^ The Two Gentlemen of Verona Study Guide
^ Green (1980: 350)
^ Two Gentlemen of Verona homepage
^ Unless otherwise noted, all information in this section
comes from the British Universities Film and Video Council
^ BBC - Radio 3 - Drama on 3
[edit]Editions of The Two Gentlemen of Verona
Bate, Jonathan and Rasmussen, Eric (eds.) The RSC Shakespeare:
The Complete Works (London: Macmillan, 2007)
Bond, R. Warwick (ed.) The Two Gentlemen of Verona (The Arden
Shakespeare, 1st Series; London: Arden, 1906)
Carroll, William C. (ed.) The Two Gentlemen of Verona (The
Arden Shakespeare, 3rd Series; London: Arden, 2004)
Evans, Bertrand (ed.) The Two Gentlemen of Verona (Signet
Classic Shakespeare; New York: Signet, 1964; revised edition, 1988;
2nd revised edition 2007)
Evans, G. Blakemore (ed.) The Riverside Shakespeare (Boston:
Houghton Mifflin, 1974; 2nd edn., 1997)
Greenblatt, Stephen; Cohen, Walter; Howard, Jean E. and Maus,
Katharine Eisaman (eds.) The Norton Shakespeare: Based on the
Oxford Shakespeare (London: Norton, 1997; 2nd edn., 2008)
Jackson, Berners A.W. The Two Gentlemen of Verona (The Pelican
Shakespeare; London: Penguin, 1964; revised edition 1980)
Jackson, Russell (ed.) The Two Gentlemen of Verona (The New
Penguin Shakespeare 2nd edition; London: Penguin, 2005)
Leech, Clifford (ed.) The Two Gentlemen of Verona (The Arden
Shakespeare, 2nd Series; London: Arden, 1969)
Quiller-Couch, Arthur and Wilson, John Dover (eds.) The Two
Gentlemen of Verona (The New Shakespeare; Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1921; 2nd edn. edited by only Dover Wilson,
1955)
Rose, Mary Beth (ed.) The Two Gentlemen of Verona (The Pelican
Shakespeare, 2nd edition; London: Penguin, 2000)
Sanders, Norman (ed.) The Two Gentlemen of Verona (The New
Penguin Shakespeare; London: Penguin, 1968; revised edition
1997)
Schlueter, Kurt (ed.) The Two Gentlemen of Verona (The New
Cambridge Shakespeare; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1990)
Warren, Roger (ed.) The Two Gentlemen of Verona (The Oxford
Shakespeare; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008)
Wells, Stanley; Taylor, Gary; Jowett, John and Montgomery,
William (eds.) The Oxford Shakespeare: The Complete Works (Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 1986; 2nd edn., 2005)
Werstine, Paul and Mowat, Barbara A. (eds.) The Two Gentlemen
of Verona (Folger Shakespeare Library; Washington: Simon
& Schuster, 1999)
Secondary Sources
Bullough, Geoffrey. Narrative and Dramatic Sources of
Shakespeare (Volume 1): Early Comedies, Poems, Romeo and Juliet
(Columbia: Columbia University Press, 1957)
Carlisle, Carol J. and Derrick, Patty S. "The Two Gentlemen of
Verona on Stage: Protean Problems and Protean Solutions" in M.J.
Collins (editor), Shakespeare's Sweet Thunder: Essays on the Early
Comedies (Newark: Associated University Presses, 1997),
126-154
Duthie, G.I. Shakespeare (London: Hutchinson, 1951)
Ewbank, Inga-Stina. ""Were man but constant, he were perfect":
Constancy and Consistency in The Two Gentlemen of Verona",
Stratford-Upon-Avon Studies, 14 (1972), 31-57
Godshalk, William L. "The Structural Unity of The Two
Gentlemen of Verona", Studies in Philology 66 (1969), 168-181
Green, Stanley. The World of Musical Comedy (San Diego: Da
Capo Press, 1974; 4th edn., 1980)
Halliday, F.E. A Shakespeare Companion, 1564-1964 (Baltimore:
Penguin, 1964)
Holmberg, Arthur. "The Two Gentlemen of Verona: Shakesperean
Comedy as a Rite of Passage", Queen's Quarterly, 90:1 (Spring,
1983), 33-44
Masten, Jeffrey. Textual Intercourse: Collaboration,
Authorship and Sexualities in Renaissance Drama (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1997)
Morozov, Mikhail M. Shakespeare on the Soviet Stage (London:
Open Library, 1947)
Morse, Ruth. "Two Gentlemen and the Cult of Friendship",
Neuphilologische Mitteilungen, 84:2 (Summer, 1983), 214-224
Muir, Kenneth. The Sources of Shakespeare's Plays (London:
Routledge, 1977; rpt 2005)
Onions, C.T. A Shakespeare Glossary (Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 1953; 2nd edn. edited by Robert D. Eagleson, 1986)
Rackin, Phyllis. Shakespeare and Women (Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 2005)
Schlueter, June (ed.) The Two Gentlemen of Verona: Critical
Essays (New York: Routledge, 1996)
Speaight, Robert. Shakespeare on the Stage: An Illustrated
History of Shakespearean Performance (London: Collins, 1973)
Tillyard, E.M.W. Shakespeare's Early Comedies (London: The
Athlone Press, 1965; rpt. 1992)
Wells, Stanley. "The Failure of The Two Gentlemen of Verona",
Shakespeare Jahrbüch West, 99 (1963), 161-173
Wells, Stanley; Taylor, Gary; Jowett, John and Montgomery,
William. William Shakespeare: A Textual Companion (Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 1987)
Williams, Gordon. A Glossary of Shakespeare's Sexual Language
(London: The Athlone Press, 1997)
The Two Gentlemen of Verona
Type of Work
The
Two Gentlemen of Verona is a stage play in the form of a
comedy. It centers on the friendship of two young men and the women
they love. It is an early attempt by Shakespeare at high comedy, a
type of comedy focusing on the life of upper classes. The dialogue
in high comedy contains an abundance of witty
dialogue.
Key Dates
Date Written: Probably 1592 and 1593.
Date Published: 1623 in the First Folio, the first authorized
collection of Shakespeare's plays.
Sources
Shakespeare based The Two Gentlemen of
Verona on Bartholomew Young’s translation of Los Siete Libros
de la Diana (The Seven Books of the Diana), by Jorge de Montemayor
(1520-1561) and possibly on tales in Renaissance
literature.
Settings
The
action takes place in Italy, including Verona, Milan, and a forest
near Mantua. Milan and Mantua are in Lombardy, a province in
north-central Italy. Verona is in Veneto, a province in
northeastern Italy.
Characters
Protagonist: Valentine
Antagonist: Adversity in the Form of Characters and
Circumstances
Valentine, Proteus: Two young gentlemen of Verona who are best
friends. But love for the same woman comes between
them.
Silvia: Beloved of Valentine. She rebuffs the advances of
Proteus.
Julia: Young woman who loves Proteus. She remains loyal to him
even though he becomes infatuated with
Silvia.
Duke of Milan: Father of Silvia. He attempts to force her to
marry the vain Thurio.
Antonio: Father of Proteus.
Thurio: A foolish rival of Valentine.
Eglamour: Agent for Silvia in her
escape.
Host: Host of the establishment where Julia lodges after she
goes to Milan.
Outlaws: Three men who capture Valentine in a forest outside
Milan.
Speed: Clownish servant of Valentine.
Launce: Clownish servant of Proteus.
Crab: Launce's dog.
Panthino: Servant of Antonio.
Lucetta: Waiting-woman of Julia.
Minor Characters: Servants, musicians.
Plot Summary
By Michael J. Cummings
Valentine and Proteus, two young gentlemen of
Verona, have always been the best of friends. But Valentine says it
is time to bid his pal farewell and, with a servant named Speed,
goes off to seek his place in the world at the court of the Duke of
Milan. Proteus, however, is quite satisfied to
remain in Verona, for he loves the city’s fairest lady, Julia. When
Julia receives a love letter from Proteus, she pretends to her maid
that it means nothing to her. Secretly, though, she loves Proteus
as much as he loves her, and she sends a letter of her own back to
him. While Proteus reads it, his father, Antonio, informs his son
that he, too, must go to Milan to educate and improve himself.
Antonio, believing that the letter Proteus holds is from Valentine,
is unaware of his son’s love for Julia.
In
Milan, meanwhile, Valentine has also found love. The object of his
affection is the duke’s daughter, the beautiful Silvia. Although
her father wishes her to marry an asinine fellow named Thurio,
Silvia turns her attentions toward Valentine, asking him to act as
a kind of secretary. Valentine’s servant Speed teases him about his
crush on Silvia, saying he mopes around as if he had a disease.
Speed provides additional advice:
SPEED If you love her, you cannot see
her.
VALENTINE Why?
SPEED Because love is blind. O, that you
had mine eyes; or your own eyes had the lights they were wont to
have when you chid at1 Sir Proteus for going
ungartered!2
VALENTINE What should I see
then?
SPEED Your own present folly and her
passing deformity: for he [Proteus], being in love, could not see
to garter his hose3, and you, being in love, cannot see to put on
your hose. (2.1.44-48)
Valentine's job as Silvia’s secretary is to write
love letters for a friend of Silvia, but it soon becomes obvious
that the letters are a ploy that she is using to tell Valentine, in
a roundabout way, that she loves him.
When
Proteus arrives at the court with his servant Launce, Valentine
introduces Proteus to Silvia, and Proteus falls immediately in love
with her—or so he thinks. All thoughts of Julia vanish from his
mind. Valentine then shares with him his plan to elope with Silvia
by using a rope ladder to effect Silvia’s escape from her room in a
tower.
Back in
Verona, Julia pines for Proteus. Unable to endure separation from
him any longer, she disguises herself as a page and leaves for
Milan to be with him. While Julia is en route, Proteus—desperate to
have Silvia for himself—betrays Valentine and informs the duke of
the planned elopement. The duke then discovers the evidence, the
rope ladder, and banishes Valentine from
Milan.
Proteus
accompanies Valentine to the city gate to bid farewell, all the
while pretending innocence. Proteus then tries another trick. To
worm his way into Silvia’s presence, he pretends to help the
hapless Thurio in his suit. But when the moment is right, he takes
over and woos Sylvia himself. However, Sylvia spurns him with
insults, for she loves only Valentine. Moreover, she is well aware
that it was Proteus who betrayed Valentine.
In the
meantime, Valentine is captured by outlaws in a forest outside
Mantua. But so impressed are they with his manner and bearing that
they offer to make him their chief. He accepts on condition that
they do not victimize women or the poor.
Back in
Milan, Julia, who has been spooking around in her page disguise,
learns of her beloved’s unfaithfulness. Her heart nearly breaks.
Calling herself Sebastian, she then gets herself hired by Proteus
as a page. Proteus, still hoping to win Silvia, tells “Sebastian”
his first job is to carry to Silvia a token of affection. It is a
ring—the same ring Julia had given to Proteus as a going-away
present. Silvia, of course, refuses to accept the ring. Then,
determined to be with Valentine, she escapes the city with the help
of Sir Eglamour to look for him. Eglamour, a wise and valiant
gentleman, sympathizes with Silvia, for he knows well the pangs of
love. As Silvia observes:
Thyself hast lov’d; and I have heard thee say
No grief did ever come so near thy heart
As when thy lady and thy true love
died,
Upon whose grave thou vow’dst pure chastity.4
(4.3.23-26)
Proteus
follows Silvia, and the page (Julia) follows him. In the forest,
the outlaws capture Silvia, but Proteus rescues her and resumes his
wooing. He threatens to force himself upon her if she does not
yield. Hidden nearby, Valentine hears everything and shows himself,
then orders Proteus to unhand Silvia. Shame and guilt overwhelm
Proteus, and he begs forgiveness. Valentine not only absolves him
but, as proof of his good will, reverses himself and says he will
allow Proteus to woo Silvia.
Upon
hearing Valentine offer Silvia to Proteus, Julia, still in disguise
as the page of Proteus, faints. When she comes to, she reveals her
true identity, and Proteus decides that it is she he loves after
all. Julia then forgives him. How will the Duke of Milan receive
all of this news? Everyone soon finds out; for the duke, too, has
been searching for Silvia and, with Thurio in tow, comes upon
Valentine and the others. When Thurio attempts to claim Silvia as
his, Valentine challenges him: “Thurio, give back, or else embrace
thy death” (5.4.137). Thurio cowers and backs off,
saying,
Sir Valentine, I care not for her, I;
I hold him but a fool that will endanger
His body for a girl that loves him not:
I claim her not, and therefore she is thine. (5
4.143-146)
The duke strongly rebukes Thurio, then turns to the brave
Valentine and says,
Now, by the honour of my ancestry,
I do applaud thy spirit, Valentine,
And think thee worthy of an empress’ love:
Know then, I here forget all former griefs,5
Cancel all grudge, repeal thee home again,
Plead a new state in6 thy unrivall’d merit,
To which I thus subscribe: Sir Valentine,
Thou art a gentleman and well deriv’d;
Take thou thy Silvia, for thou hast deserv’d her.
(5.4.150-158)
The
play ends happily as Valentine and Proteus prepare for a double
wedding followed by “one feast, one house, one mutual happiness”
(5. 4. 184)..
Climax
The
climax of a play or another narrative work, such as a short story
or a novel, can be defined as (1) the turning point at which the
conflict begins to resolve itself for better or worse, or as (2)
the final and most exciting event in a series of events. The climax
of The Two Gentlemen of Verona occurs, according to the first
definition, in Act 5, when Valentine defends Silvia against the
advances of Proteus, shames him, and causes him to repent his
untoward behavior, both to Silvia and to Julia. Consequently,
Valentine is reunited with Silvia and Proteus with Julia.
According to the second definition, the climax
occurs later in the same act and scene when Valentine faces down
Thurio, saying:
Thurio, give back, or else embrace thy death;
Come not within the measure of my wrath;
Do not name Silvia thine . . . .
(5.4.137-139)
When Thurio backs off, the Duke—impressed with Valentine’s
bold defense of his daughter—has a change of
heart:
I do applaud thy spirit, Valentine,
And think thee worthy of an empress’ love:
Know then, I here forget all former griefs,7
Cancel all grudge, repeal thee home again.
(5.4.151-154).
Themes
True
love is steadfast and strong while infatuation is fickle and weak.
Valentine and Silvia never waver in their love for one another. Nor
does Julia in her love for Proteus. But Proteus, who is infatuated
with Silvia, hardly blinks when he abandons his suit for her to
return to Julia.
Disloyalty and perfidy cannot defeat constancy.
Proteus (whose very name—that of a Greek god who could change his
appearance at will—symbolizes caprice and inconstancy) betrays both
Valentine and Julia when he woos Silvia on a whim. But he discovers
his flighty, immature behavior is no match for true
fidelity.
Father
does not always know best. Silvia's father, the Duke of Milan,
attempts to force her to marry Thurio, a haughty buffoon. Silvia
refuses—and rightly so—for her heart and soul are with
Valentine.
Forgive
and forget. Valentine and Julia forgive Proteus for his
reprehensible behavior, and the Duke of Milan pardons the outlaws.
Lovers
exhibit irrational, unpredictable, or silly behavior. Proteus first
loves Julia, then Silvia, then Julia. Julia wears a disguise to be
close to Proteus. Silvia dictates loves letters to Valentine,
pretending they are for someone else when they are really for
Valentine.
Nature
heals. Notice that everyone who enters the forest becomes better
for the experience. Shakespeare used the "nature heals" theme in
other plays as well, including A Midsummer Night's Dream, Love's
Labour's Lost, As You Like It, and The Tempest. But nature does not
always behave well in Shakespeare. King Lear found that out during
a raging storm, and Macbeth fell victim to the trees of Birnham
Wood.
Use of Disguises
Time
and again, Shakespeare disguises women as men to further a plot.
For example, In All's Well That Ends Well, Helena wears the attire
of a pilgrim to get close to Bertram. In Cymbeline, Imogen becomes
a page boy to win back Posthumous. Julia also becomes a page boy in
The Two Gentlemen of Verona, as does Viola in Twelfth Night. In The
Merchant of Venice, Portia disguises herself as a male judge to
save the friend of her lover in a court of law. Rosalind, in As You
Like It, dons the garb of a man to become a shepherd as she seeks
out her love, Orlando. In each of these plays, the women disguised
as men eventually reveal their true female identities All of this
could have been quite confusing to playgoers in Shakespeare's day,
for only men played women's roles. Thus, in the above-mentioned
plays, men played women disguised as men who at some point doffed
their male identities to reveal themselves as
females.
Characterization Blunder?
Shakespeare appears to commit a serious
characterization blunder in the fourth scene of Act 5, when
Valentine confronts Proteus after the latter attempts to force
himself on Silvia. Valentine first declares that he will never
again trust Proteus, a declaration that is entirely understandable.
A moment later, he forgives Proteus his transgressions after
Proteus expresses remorse. That change of heart, too, is
understandable. After all, Proteus had been his best friend.
Moreover, Proteus's contrition seems genuine, and it may signal a
rejection of his fickle ways and the beginning of his maturation.
What is
not understandable, however, is that Valentine—in reconciling with
Proteus—actually offers him Silvia as a goodwill token. Here is the
dialogue that takes place:
PROTEUS My
shame and guilt confounds me.
Forgive me, Valentine: if
hearty sorrow
Be a sufficient ransom8 for
offence,
I tender9 't here; I do as
truly suffer
As e'er I did
commit.
VALENTINE
Then I am paid;
And once again I do receive
thee honest.
Who by repentance is not
satisfied
Is nor of heaven nor earth,
for these are pleased.
By penitence the Eternal's
wrath's appeased:
And, that my love may appear
plain and free,
All that was mine in Silvia I
give thee. (5. 4. 80-91)
Here,
Shakespeare seems to go too far in asking his audience to believe
this surprising reversal. Would Valentine—deeply in love with
Silvia and, just moments before, ready to cancel his friendship
with Proteus—really surrender her to Proteus as a kind of peace
offering? Common sense says no. However, at least one Shakespeare
scholar says Valentine's gesture is not at all surprising: "It was
a common belief in Shakespeare's time that the love of a man for
his friend, especially his 'sworn brother,' was stronger and nobler
than the love of man for woman" (Harrison, G.B., ed. Shakespeare:
The Complete Works. New York: Harcourt, 1952, Page 366). Other
scholars maintain that the last line of the passage—All that was
mine in Silvia I give thee—actually means this: I love you as a
friend in the same way that I love Sylvia as my future
wife.
Verbal Razzle-Dazzle
Shakespeare wrote The Two Gentlemen of Verona
very early in his career, about 1592 or 1593, when he was still in
his twenties and his writing was in its formative stage. In this
period of his development, he relied primarily on the flash and
panache of clever wordplay—rather than character growth and subtle
language—to impress audiences and critics. Consequently, The Two
Gentlemen of Verona contains many puns, quips, and other forms of
verbal razzle-dazzle.
The
following exchange in the second scene of Act 1, between Julia and
her servant, Lucetta, is an example of the repartee in the
dialogue. Here is the context: When Julia asks which gentleman of
Verona would be best for her, Lucetta selects
Proteus.
JULIA...And wouldst thou have me cast my love on
him?
LUCETTA...Ay, if you thought your love not cast
away.
JULIA...Why he, of all the rest, hath never moved
me.
LUCETTA Yet he, of all the rest, I think, best loves
ye.
JULIA...His little speaking shows his love but
small.
LUCETTA...Fire that's closest kept burns most of
all.
JULIA...They do not love that do not show their
love.
LUCETTA...O, they love least that let men know their love. (1.
2. 27-34)
Epigrams
In the
dialogue of The Two Gentlemen of Verona and other Shakespeare
plays, characters sometimes speak wise or witty sayings couched in
memorable figurative language. Although these sayings are brief,
they often express a profound universal truth or make a
thought-provoking observation. Such sayings are called epigrams or
aphorisms. Because many of Shakespeare’s epigrams are so memorable,
writers and speakers use them again and again.
Many of
Shakespeare's epigrams have become part of our everyday language;
often we use them without realizing that it was Shakespeare who
coined them. Examples of phrases Shakespeare originated in his
plays include “all’s well that ends well,” “[every] dog will have
its day,” “give the devil his due,” “green-eyed monster,” “my own
flesh and blood,” “neither rhyme nor reason,” “one fell swoop,”
“primrose path,” “spotless reputation,” and “too much of a good
thing.”
Among
some of the more memorable sayings in The Two Gentlemen of Verona
are the following:
Home-keeping youth have ever homely wits.
(1.1.4)
Valentine, eager to leave home and see the world, uses a play
on words (home-keeping, homely) and alliteration (home, have, and
homely) to express a truth: confining oneself to the same
environment day in and day out dulls the wits (intelligence,
perception, ability to think).
O! they love least that let men know their love.
(1.2.34)
Paradox and alliteration help make this line memorable. The
paradox occurs when Lucetta tells Julia that the women who love
least are the women who express their love. Alliteration occurs in
love, least, let, and love.
His years but young, but his experience old;
His head unmellow’d, but his judgment ripe.
(2.4.60-61)
Valentine praises Proteus to the Duke of Milan, using
antithesis and paradox to make his point.
How use doth breed a habit in a man.
(5.4.3)
Valentine observes that repeated use of—or exposure
to—anything can result in a habit. He speaks these words when he
becomes used to living in the peace and solitude of the forest. He
realizes, however, that he needs to break his “habit” and rejoin
the company of people—in particular Silvia—who can fill a void
within him.
Symptoms of Love
What
does it feel like to be in love? Speed, Valentine's servant,
observes that Valentine is in love with Silvia. When Valentine asks
Speed how he came to that conclusion, Speed uses a series of
similes to describe the symptoms of love (all of which afflict
Valentine). Here is what Speed tells Valentine:
Marry,10 by these special marks:11 first, you
have
learned, like Sir Proteus, to wreathe12 your
arms,
like a malecontent;13 to relish a love-song, like a
robin-redbreast; to walk alone, like one that
had
the pestilence; to sigh, like a school-boy that
had
buried her grandam; to fast, like one that
takes
diet; to watch like one that fears robbing;
to
speak puling,14 like a beggar at Hallowmas.15
(2.1.18-28)
Notes
1.....chid at: Scolded.
2.....ungargerted: Without garters (devices that keep
stockings from drooping).
3.....hose: Stockings.
4.....Upon . . . chastity: Eglamour took a vow of celibacy
after his beloved died.
5.....griefs: Grievances, complaints.
6.....Plead . . . in: Have a new insight into.
7.....griefs: Grievances, complaints.
8.....ransom: Reparation, atonement.
9.....tender: Give.
10...Marry: By the Virgin Mary.
11...marks: Signs, symptoms.
12...wreathe: Fold.
13...malecontent: Play on words (like a malcontent or like a
male who is content).
14...puling: Whimpering, whining.
15...Hallowmas: All Saints' Day (November 1).
Study Questions and Essay Topics
The name Valentine comes from a Latin word, valentia, meaning
worth, capacity, or value. Is this an appropriate name for the
young man in love with Silvia?
Which character in the play do you most admire? Which
character do you least admire?
In Greek mythology, Proteus was a minor sea god who could
change his shape at will. Why is Proteus an apt name for
Valentine’s friend? Suggestion: Look up the noun Proteus and the
adjective protean in a good dictionary.
After Valentine goes to the duke’s court at Milan to better
himself, Antonio orders his son, Proteus, to do the same. Antonio’s
servant, Panthino, had advised Antonio to send him there. Does
Proteus, in fact, "better himself" at the court? Explain your
answer.
Write an essay centering on the differences between true love
and infatuation in Shakespeare’s plays.
Is Proteus truly in love with Julia at the end of the
play?
Which characters in the play consistently exhibit good
judgment? Which characters exhibit bad
judgment?
In an essay, explain how the presence of minor characters—such
as servants and outlaws—helps to expose and develop the major
characters.
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