Two Gentlemen of Verona

Introduction

This is Shakespeare’s earliest comedy and likely his second play, following the tragedy of Titus Andronicus. Next Up will be the Henry VI trilogy of history plays. So Shakespeare starts off his career experimenting with all three categories of playwriting: tragedy, comedy and history. Collectively, these plays comprise the whole of his ‘apprentice’ period.

The Two Gentlemen are the closest of friends.  One, Valentine, pines to see the world, while Proteus is a hopeless romantic, too in love with Julia to leave Verona.  When Valentine gets shipped off to the royal court in Milan he falls in love with Sylvia and Proteus is sent against his will to join him, leaving behind his great love, Julia.   However, when he arrives in Milan he feels compelled to steal Silvia from his friend, Valentine, and that drives the remainder of the story. There is ample verbal sparring between all involved, as young Shakespeare spreads his linguistic wings, in this, his first attempt at comedy.  Julia misses Proteus so badly that she disguises herself as a young boy in order to travel safely to Milan, where she is shocked to discover her love, Proteus, in love with Sylvia.  Proteus informs the Duke that Valentine intends to steal away with his daughter, Sylvia, who is intended, against her will, for the dull but wealthy Thurio.  The Duke angrily banishes Valentine and Proteus next sets to discredit Thurio, so that he can have Sylvia.  Julia, remaining in disguise as a young male page, witnesses it all.  But Sylvia will have nothing to do with Proteus, even when he ironically uses Julia to woo her.  Sylvia steals away toward Padua where she believes Valentine is and everyone meets in the forest.  Just as desperate Proteus is about to force himself on Sylvia, Valentine shows up and the two gentlemen are reconciled, as Proteus apologizes to Valentine and the entire calamity is straightened out with the promise of a double marriage: Valentine to Sylvia and Proteus to Julia.

Act I (three scenes)

Scene i

Verona, an open place

Enter Valentine and Proteus

Valentine: “Cease to persuade, my loving Proteus: home keeping youth have ever homely wits. I would rather entreat your company to see the wonders of the world abroad, than, living dully sluggardized at home, wear out thy youth with shapeless idleness.”

Proteus: “Wilt thou be gone? Sweet Valentine, adieu! Think on thy Proteus when thou happily sees some rare noteworthy object in thy travel. Upon some book I love I’ll pray for thee.”

Valentine: “It boots thee not 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.”

Proteus: “So, by your circumstance, you call me fool.”

Valentine: “So, by your circumstance, I fear you’ll prove. By love the young and tender wit is turned to folly. Once more, adieu. To Milan. Let me hear from thee by letters of thy success in love and I will likewise visit thee with mine.”

Exits Valentine

Poteus: “He after honour hunts, I after love. He leaves his friends to dignity them more, I leave myself, my friends, and all for love. Julia, thou hast metamorphised me, made me neglect my studies, lose my time, war with good counsel, see the world at naught; heart sick with thought.”

Enter Speed (Valentine’s servant)

Speed: “Saw you my master?”

Proteus: “He parted hence to embark for Milan.”

Speed: “He is shipped already, and I have played the sheep for losing him.”

Proteus: “Indeed, a sheep doth very often stray, if the shepherd be awhile away.”

Speed: “You conclude that my master is a shepherd then, and I a sheep?”

Proteus: “I do.”

Speed: “The shepherd seeks the sheep, and not the sheep the shepherd; but I seek my master, and my master seeks not me; therefore I am no sheep.”

Proteus: “The sheep for fodder follow the shepherd; the shepherd for food follows not the sheep; thou for wages followest thy master; thy master for wages follows not thee. Therefore, thou art a sheep.”

Speed: “Such another proof will make me cry ‘baa’.”

Proteus: “Gavest thou my letter to Julia?”

Speed: “Ay, sir.”

Proteus: “Come, come, open the matter in brief, what said she?”

Speed: “Open your purse, that the money and the matter be both at once delivered.”

Proteus: “Well sir, here is for your pains. What said she? Nothing?”

Speed: “No, not so much as ‘take this for thy pains’.”

Proteus: “Go, go, be gone.”

Exit Speed

Proteus: “I must go send some better messenger.”

Summary and Analysis

We meet both Gentlemen in the opening lines.  One loves to travel and one loves to love. Valentine wants to leave Verona and see the world and appeals to his friend Proteus to join him.  But Proteus is in love with Julia and will not leave Verona.  Valentine dismisses Proteus’ love interest and Proteus bids his friend adieu: “He after honour hunts, I after love.”  The wordplay is fast and furious between Valentine and Proteus and between Proteus and Valentine’s servant, Speed. Soon the roles of the two gentlemen will reverse as the one in love is made to travel away from his love while the traveler, as we shall see in act two, falls hopelessly in love.  Outrageous wit and wordplay pepper the entire play.  Ultimately this is a work examining the relationship between friendship and love. Shakespeare’s second play could not possibly be more different from his first. Titus Andronicus was the most graphically violent tragedy he will ever pen and Two Gentlemen is so much lighter fare, a play of linguistic excess and the foundation for his many romantic comedies to come.

Act I

Scene ii

Verona, the gardens of Julia’s house

Enter Julia and Lucetta (Julia’s servant)

Julia: “Lucetta, would thou counsel me to fall in love?”

Lucetta: “Ay, madam, so you stumble not unheedfully.”

Julia: “Of all the fair resort of gentlemen, in thy opinion, which is worthiest love? What think’st thou of the gentle Proteus?”

Lucetta: “Of many good, I think him best.”

Julia: “Your reason?”

Lucetta: “I have no other but a woman’s reason: I think him so, because I think him so.”

Julia: “And wouldst thou have me cast my love on him?”

Lucetta: “Ay… he, of all the rest, I think, best loves thee.”

Julia: “I would I knew his mind.”

Lucetta: “Peruse this paper, madam.”

Julia: Who gave it thee?”

Lucetta: “Sir Valentine’s page, sent from Proteus.”

Julia: “Take this paper and see it returned.”

Lucetta withholds the letter

Julia tears up the letter

Julia: “Go, get you gone; and let the papers lie.”

Exit Lucetta

Julia: “O hateful hands, to tear such loving words! Injurious wasps, to feed on such sweet honey and kill the bees that yield it with your stings! I’ll kiss each several paper for amends. Look, here is writ ‘kind Julia’ and here is writ ‘love-wounded Proteus’. Poor wounded name! My bosom, as a bed, shall lodge thee till thy wound be thoroughly healed.”

Summary and Analysis

Shakespeare always attempts to appeal to both the upper and the lower classes who fill his theatres. In these first two scenes we witness dialogue between masters and their underlings. Although at opposite ends of the social stratus they often tangle as equals in wit and wisdom. We see that Speed holds his own with Proteus and likewise does Lucetta with Julia. A third such pair awaits us in the following scene as well. The role of men and women was clearly defined in the Renaissance depicted in this play. Men can be reckless in travel and in love, but women must be more careful and cautious. Hence Julia rips up the forward letter from Proteus with Lucetta present, but then pieces it back together with great care and interest once she dismisses her servant.

Act I

Scene iii

Verona, at Antonio’s house

Enter Antonio (Proteus’ father) and Panthino (Antonio’s servant)

Antonio: “Tell me, Panthino, what sad talk was that where my brother held you in the cloister?”

Panthino: “Twas of your son.”

Antonio: “What of him?”

Panthino: “He wondered that your lordship would suffer him to spend his youth at home while other men put forth their sons to seek preferment out: some to the wars, some to discover islands far away, and some to study at universities. He did request me to importune you to let him spend his time no more at home, having known no travel in his youth.”

Antonio: “Tell me whither were I best to send him.”

Panthini: “His companion, youthful Valentine, attends the Emperor in his royal court. ‘Twer good, I think, your lordship sent him thither; there shall he practice tournaments, hear sweet discourse and converse with noblemen.”

Antonio: “I like thy counsel; well hast thou advised. I will dispatch him to the Emperor’s court.”

Enter Proteus

Proteus: “Sweet love! Here is her hand, the agent of her heart; here is her oath for love. O that our fathers would applaud our loves, to seal our happiness with their consent.”

Antonio: “How now, what letter are you reading there?”

Proteus: “Commendations sent from Valentine. How happily he lives, how well beloved and daily graced by the Emperor; wishing me with him, partner of his fortune.”

Antonio: “I am resolved that you shalt spend some time with Valentine in the Emperor’s court. Tomorrow be in readiness to go.”

Proteus: “Please, deliberate a day or two.”

Antonio: “Tomorrow thou must go.”

Exit Antonio and Panthino

Proteus: “Thus have I shunned the fire for fear of burning and drenched me in the sea, where I am drowned. I feared to show my father Julia’s letter, lest he should take exceptions to my love; and with the vantage of mine own excuse has he excepted most against my love.”

Re-enters Panthino

Panthino: “Sir Proteus, haste, I pray you, go.”

Proteus: “Why, this it is: my heart accords and yet a thousand times it answers ‘No'”

Summary and Analysis

Act one initiates and advances the plot. That is its principle role. We now know that Proteus, who wishes to remain in Verona and be in love with Julia, is about to be sent off to the Emperor’s court in Milan against his will, because his father believes it is in his best interest to do so. We also know that Milan is where Valentine is, who went off on a great travel adventure. But Julia will be left behind… or will she?

Act II (seven scenes)

Scene i

Milan, the Duke’s palace

Enter Valentine and Speed

Valentine: “Ah, Silvia! Silvia! Do you know Madam Silvia?”

Speed: “She that your worship loves?”

Valentine: “How know you that I am in love?”

Speed: “Marry, by these special marks: first, you have learned, like Sir Proteus, to wreath your arms like a malcontent; to relish a love song; to walk alone, like one that had the pestilence; to sigh, like a school boy; to weep; to fast; how you are metamorphized with a mistress, that, when I look on you, I can hardly think you my master.”

Valentine: “But tell me, dost thou know my lady Silvia?”

Speed: “I know her not.”

Valentine: “Her beauty is exquisite, her favour intimate.”

Speed: “If you love her, you cannot see her.”

Valentine: “Why?”

Spee: “Because love is blind.”

Valentine: “What should I see then?”

Speed: “Your own present folly.”

Valentine: “Last night she enjoined me to write some lines to one she loves.”

Enter Silvia

Valentine: “I have written your letter unto the secret nameless friend of yours.”

Silvia: “I thank you, gentle servant.”

Silvia reads the letter

Valentine: “Do you not like it?”

Silvia: “The lines are very quaintly written. Nay, take them back.”

Valentine: “They are for you.”

Silvia: “I would have had them written more movingly.”

Valentine: “I’ll write your ladyship another one.”

Silvia: “And when it’s written, for my sake, read it over. And so good morrow, servant.”

Exit Silvia

Speed: “O jest unseen, inscrutable, invisible, as a nose on a man’s face. My master sues to her; and she hath taught her suitor, he being her pupil, to become her tutor. O excellent device! Was there ever heard a better, that my master, being scribe, to himself should write the letter?“

Valentine: “How now, sir! What are you reasoning with yourself?”

Speed: “She woos you, by a letter.”

Valentine: “Why, she hath not written to me.”

Speed: “What need she, when she hath made you write to yourself? Why, do you not perceive the jest?”

Valentine: “No, believe me.”

Speed: “No believing you indeed, sir. Why, she hath given you a letter.”

Valentine: “That’s the letter I wrote to her friend.”

Speed: “And that letter hath she delivered, and there an end.” (aside) “Herself hath taught her love himself to write unto her lover.”

Summary and Analysis

Often the servants know more than their masters and one can only imagine how much the groundlings must have loved this in Shakespeare’s day. Sylvia seems to be toying with Valentine and Speed picks up on it immediately and relishes it. Mistaken identity is a device used extensively in Shakespeare’s plays. We saw it in Titus Andronicus, when Tamora and her sons show up as Revenge, Rape and Murder and we see it here as Silvia has Valentine write his own love letters to her.

Act II

Scene ii

Verona, at Julia’s house

Enter Julia and Proteus

Proteus: “Have patience, gentle Julia.”

Julia: “I must, where there is no remedy.”

Proteus: “When I possibly can, I will return.”

Julia: “Keep this remembrance for thy Julia’s sake.” (she gives him a ring)

Proteus: “Why, then, we’ll make exchange. Here, take you this.”

Julia: “And seal the bargain with a holy kiss.”

Proteus: “Here is my hand for my true constancy; and when that hour overslips me in the day wherein I sigh not, Julia, for thy sake, the next ensuing hour some foul mischance torment me for my love’s forgetfulness.”

Exit Julia

Proteus: “What, gone without a word? Ay, so true love should do: it cannot speak; for truth hath better deeds than words to grace it. Alas! This parting strikes poor lovers dumb.”

Summary and Analysis

Proteus must leave Verona but not before he and his Julia declare their commitment to one another until he returns. He is very convincing… hmmm.

Act II

Scene iii

Verona, a street

Enter Launce (servant to Proteus) with his dog

Launce: “Nay, ’twill be this hour ere I have done weeping. I am going with Sir Proteus to the Imperial Court. I think Crab my dog be the sourest-natured dog that lives; my mother weeping, my father wailing, my sister crying, our maid howling, our cat wringing her hands, and all our house in a great perplexity; yet did not this cruel-hearted cur shed one tear. He is a stone and has no more pity in him than does a dog. Why, my grandam, having no eyes, look you, wept herself blind at my parting. I’ll show you the manner of it. This left shoe is my mother. It hath the worser sole. And this is my father. Now, sir, this staff is my sister, for, look you, she is as white as a lily. I am the dog; no, the dog is himself and I am the dog – O, the dog is me , and I am myself, ay, so, so. Now come I to my father: ‘Father, your blessing’. Now should not the shoe speak a word for weeping; he weeps on. Now come I to my mother. O that she could speak. Now I come to my sister; mark the moan she makes. Now the dog sheds not a tear, nor speaks a word.

Enter Panthino

Panthino: “Launce, away, away, aboard. Why weepest thou? Away, ass! You’ll lose the tide.”

Launce: “It is no matter if the tide were lost; it is the unkindest tide that ever any man tied.”

Panthino: “What’s the unkindest tide?”

Launce: “Why, he that’s tied here, Crab, my dog.”

Panthino: “Tut, man, I mean thou will lose the flood, and, in losing the flood, lose thy voyage, and, in losing thy voyage, lose thy master, and, in losing thy master, lose thy service, and, in losing thy service – Why dost thou stop my tongue?”

Launce: “For fear thou should’st lose thy tongue.”

Panthino: “Where should I lose my tongue?”

Launce: “In thy tale. Lose the tide, and the voyage, and the master, and the service, and the tide! Why, man, if the river were dry, I am able to fill it with my tears; if the wind were down, I could drive the boat with my sighs.”

Panthino: “Come away, man; I was sent to call thee.”

Launce: “Sir, call me what thou dar’st.

Summary and Analysis

Launce’s light play on words about his dog is often overlooked as mere silliness. Shakespeare is writing for everyone in his diverse audience and does create scenes that are pure exuberant wit. However, Launce’s emotion is genuine, even if his diction and pantomime is indicative of the lower classes. He is certainly as sad to leave Verona as is his master Proteus. This is already the fourth such master-servant relationship of the play.

Act II

Scene iv

Milan, the Duke’s Palace

Enter Silvia, Valentine, Thurio (a foolish rival to Valentine) and Speed

Speed: “Master, Sir Thurio frowns on you.”

Silvia: “Servant, you are sad.”

Valentine: “Indeed, madam, I seem so.”

Thurio: “Seem you that you are not?”

Valentine: “Happily I do.”

Thurio: “So do counterfeits.”

Valentine: “So do you.”

Thurio: “What seem I that I am not?”

Valentine: “Wise.”

Thurio: “What instance of the contrary?”

Valentine: “Your folly.”

Thurio: “And how quote you my folly?”

Valentine: “I quote it in your jerkin.”

Turio: “My jerkin is a doublet.”

Valentine: “Well, then, I’ll double your folly.”

Silvia: “What, angry, Sir Thurio! Do you change colour?”

Valentine: “Give him leave, madam; he is a kind of chameleon.”

Thurio: “That hath more mind to feed on your blood than live in your air.”

Silvia: “A fine volley of words, gentlemen.”

Thurio: “Sir, if you spend word for word with me, I shall make your wit bankrupt.”

Enter the Duke

Silvia: “No more, gentlemen, no more.”

Duke: “Now, daughter Silvia, you are hard beset. Sir Valentine, your father is in good health. What say you to a letter from your friends of much good news?”

Valentine: “My lord, I will be thankful.”

Duke: “Know ye Don Antonio, your countryman?”

Valentine: “Ay, my good lord.”

Duke: “Hath he not a son?”

Valentine: “Ay, my good lord; a son that well deserves the honour and regard of such a father.”

Duke: “You know him well?”

Valentine: “I know him as myself; for from our infancy we have conversed and spent our hours together. Proteus, for that’s his name, is complete in feature and in mind, with all good grace, to grace a gentleman.”

Duke: “Well sir, this gentleman is come, and here he means to spend his time awhile. Welcome him, then – Silvia, I speak to you, and you, Sir Thurio.”

Exit the Duke

Valentine: “This is the gentleman I told your ladyship had come along with me but that his mistress did hold his eyes locked in her crystal looks.”

Silvia: “How could he see his way to seek out you?”

Valentine: “Why, lady, love hath twenty pair of eyes.”

Thurio: “They say that love hath not an eye at all.”

Valentine: “To see such lovers, Thurio, as yourself; upon a homely object love can wink.”

Enter Proteus

Valentine: “Welcome, dear Proteus! Mistress, I beseech you confirm his welcome with some special favour. Entertain him to be my fellow-servant to your ladyship.”

Silvia: “Too low a mistress for so high a servant. Servant, you are welcome to a worthless mistress.”

Proteus: “I’ll die on him that says so but yourself.”

Exit Sylvia and Thurio

Valentine: “Now, tell me, how do all from whence you came.”

Proteus: “Your friends are well.”

Valentine: “How does your lady, and how thrives your love?”

Proteus: “My tales of love were wont to weary you; I know you joy not in a love-discourse.”

Valentine: “Ay, Proteus, but that life is altered now; love, whose thoughts have punished me with bitter fasts, with penitential groans, with nightly tears, and daily heart-sore sighs; for, in revenge of my contempt of love, love hath chased sleep from my entrapped eyes and made them watchers of mine own heart’s sorrow. O gentle Proteus, love’s a mighty lord, and hath so humbled me as I confess there is no woe to his correction, nor to his service no such joy on earth. Now no discourse, except it be of love.“

Proteus: “Was this the idol that you worship so?”

Valentine: “Even she; and is she not a heavenly saint? Call her divine.”

Proteus: “I will not flatter her.”

Valentine: “O, flatter me.”

Proteus: “Have I not reason to prefer my own? Why, Valentine, what braggardism is this?”

Valentine: “Pardon me, Proteus; all I can is nothing to her, whose worth makes other worthies nothing; she is alone.”

Proteus: “Then let her alone.”

Valentine: “Not for the world! Why, man, she is mine own. Forgive me that I do not dream on thee, because thou seest me dote upon my love.”

Proteus: “She loves you?”

Valentine: “Ay, and we are betrothed.”

Exit Valentine

Proteus: “As one nail by strength drives out another, so the remembrance of my former love is by a newer object quite forgotten. Is it my mind, Valentine’s praise, her true perfection or my false transgression that makes me reasonless to reason thus? She is fair; and so is Julia that I love – that I did love, for now my love is thawed; which like a waxen image against a fire bears no impression of the thing it was. Me thinks my zeal to Valentine is cold, and that I love him not as I was wont. Oh, but I love his lady too too much, and that’s the reason I love him so little. To compass her I’ll use my skill.”

Summary and Analysis

In Milan Valentine trades verbal blows with his underling of a rival to Silvia, Sir Thurio. When the Duke announces the arrival of Proteus in Milan, the plot develops significantly as Proteus almost immediately falls in love with Valentine’s great love, despite their deep friendship and his professed love of Julia, back home in Verona. Now three men vie for Silvia’s hand! Proteus is willing to risk everything, including his romance with Julia and his intimate friendship with Valentine, based upon his first encounter with Silvia. This scene contrasts nicely with the previous one with Launce and his dog. Launce may not be well bred but his commitment to the people around him is fixed compared to that of Proteus and Valentine, who speak in grand platitudes but lack the sincerity of servant Launce’s genuine feelings. The main conflict has been established but Shakespeare has some hearty surprises up his sleeve still to come. After all, this is merely Act II.

Act II

Scene v

Milan. A street.

Enter Speed and Launce.

Speed: “Sirrah, How did thy master part with Madam Julia?”

Launce: “They parted very fairly in jest.”

Speed:” But shall she marry him?”

Launce: “No.”

Speed: “Shall he marry her?”

Launce: “No, neither.”

Speed: “Why then, how stands the matter with them?”

Launce: “When it stands well with him, it stands well with her.”

Speed: “What an ass art thou! I understand thee not.”

Launce: “What a block art thou that thou can not! My staff understands me. I’ll but lean, and my staff understands me.”

Speed: “It stands under thee, indeed.”

Launce: “Why, stand-under and understand is all one.”

Speed: “But tell me true, will it be a match?”

Launce: “Ask my dog. If he say ay, it will; if he say no, it will; if he shakes his tail and say nothing, it will.”

Speed: “The conclusion is, then, that it will.”

Launce: “If thou will, go with me to the alehouse.”

Speed: “At thy serice.”

Summary and Analysis

Here lies this comedic interlude between Speed and Launce, servants to the two gentlemen. Speed enquires of Proteus and Julia and cannot get a straight answer out of Launce, who prefers to banter his vulgar and obtuse wit about until they decide to go to a bar together. These ‘interlude’ scenes pepper Shakespeare’s comedies and provide relief when things get a bit too heavy or potentially tragic.

Act II

Scene vi

Milan, the Duke’s palace

Enter Proteus

Proteus: “To leave my Julia, shall I be foresworn; to love fair Sylvia, shall I be foresworn;  to wrong my friend, I shall be much foresworn;  Love bade me swear, and love bids me foreswear. Oh sweet-suggesting love. At first I did adore a twinkling star, but now I worship a celestial sun. Unheedful vows may heedfully be broken… Julia I lose, and Valentine I lose;  If I keep them, I needs must lose myself; if I lose them, thus find I by their loss: for Valentine, myself; for Julia, Sylvia. I to myself am dearer than a friend. I will forget that Julia is alive and Valentine I’ll hold an enemy. I cannot now prove constant to myself without some treachery used to Valentine. Presently I’ll give her father notice of their disguising and pretended flight, who all enraged, will banish Valentine. Valentine being gone, I’ll quickly cross by some sly trick blunt Thurio’s dull proceeding. Love, lend me wings to make my purpose swift, as thou hast lent me wit to plot this drift.”

Summary and Analysis

Proteus clearly emerges as the villain in act II. He is willing to immediately betray his Julia and his Valentine upon first glimpse of Sylvia. The issue of friendship vs love was well debated in Shakespeare’s day and this is precisely where he wades in with The Two Gentlemen of Verona. The conflict is well determined at this point and we wait to see what Shakespeare will do with it in the three remaining acts.

Act II

Scene vii

Verona, Julia’s house

Enter Julia and Lucetta

Julia: “How, with my honour, may I undertake a journey to my loving Proteus?”

Lucetta: “Better forbear till Proteus make return.”

Julia: “Knowest thou not his looks are my soul’s food?”

Lucetta: “I do not seek to quench your love’s hot fire, but qualify the fire’s extreme rage, lest it should burn above the bounds of reason.“

Julia: “The more thou dams it up, the more it burns. Let me go and hinder not my course till the last step have brought me to my love; and there I’ll rest a blessed soul.”

Lucetta: “In what habit will you go along?”

Julia: “Not like a woman, for I would prevent the loose encounters of lascivious men. Fit me as may beseem some well-reputed page.”

Lucetta: “Proteus, I fear me he will scarce be pleased withal.”

Julia: “That is the least, Lucetta, of my fear: a thousand oaths, an ocean of his tears, and instances of infinite love, warrant me welcome to my Proteus.”

Lucetta: “All these are servants to deceitful men.”

Julia: “Proteus, his words are bonds, his oaths are oracles, his love sincere, his thoughts immaculate, his tears pure messengers sent from his heart, his heart as far from fraud as heaven from earth.”

Lucetta: “Pray heaven he prove so.”

Julia: “Dispatch me hence.”

Summary and Analysis

The plot seriously thickens when Julia determines she must see her Proteus and travels to Milan in disguise as a young page boy.  “His words are bonds, his oaths are oracles, his love sincere, his thoughts immaculate.”  Lucetta’s responds is prophetic: “Pray heaven he prove so.”

So the lover is travelling to see his friend the traveler in love, which will drive the play.  Witty plot and character development does a great story make and young Will Shakespeare, in just his second play, shows himself an astounding apprentice in these methods.  In Launce and Crab Shakespeare is demonstrating an early tendency he will maintain throughout his plays.  These are comedic, curious and at times insightful figures who, while they may not advance the plot, certainly widen and deepen the depth and breathe of the entire entertainment performance.  Many such characters will follow Launce and Crab.  Shakespeare was also striving to appeal to both the upper and lower classes with his master-servant relationships.  

Quite often Shakespeare lets us in on vital information that is unbeknownst to certain characters.  For instance, Proteus is unawares that Julia is arriving in the personage of a young male page and Valentine has no idea that he is being woo’d by she he woos.  Often, we the audience learn much by way of character asides, which will soon, in plays to come, evolve into brilliant soliloquys, making us part and parcel insiders of the unfolding plots.  Disguises and mistaken identity will liberally sprinkle Shakespeare plays, and in the first two plays we have such examples with Tamora disguised as Rumour in Titus Andronicus and Julia as a page boy in Two Gentlemen from Verona.  A fatal flaw in certain characters drives these plays.  They are often well aware of their flaw and express it to us with pointed articulation.  Aaron and Proteus are excellent examples in these two earliest plays.

Act 3 (2 scenes)

Scene i

Milan, the Duke’s palace

Enter the Duke, Proteus and Thurio

Proteus: “My gracious lord… Sir Valentine, my friend, this night intends to steal away your daughter; myself am one made privy to the plot. I know you have determined to bestow her on Thurio, whom your gentle daughter hates. Thus, for my duty’s sake, I rather chose to cross my friend in his intended drift than, by concealing it, heap on your head a pack of sorrows that would press you down to your timeless grave.”

Duke: “Proteus, I thank thee for thine honest care. This love of theirs myself have often seen, haply when they have judged me fast asleep. I nightly lodge her in an upper tower the key whereof myself have ever kept; thence she cannot be conveyed away.”

Proteus: “Know, noble lord, they have devised a mean how he her chamber window will ascend and with a corded ladder fetch her down; and this way comes he with it presently; you may intercept him, but do it so cunningly that my discovery be not aimed at.”

Duke: “He shall never know that I had any light of thee in this.”

Exit Proteus / Enter Valentine

Duke: “Tis not unknown to thee that I have sought to match my friend Sir Thurio to my daughter.”

Valentine: “I know it well, my lord. The gentleman is full of virtue. Cannot your grace win her to fancy him?”

Duke: “No, trust me: she is peevish, sullen, forward, proud, disobedient, stubborn, lacking duty; this pride of hers hath drawn my love from her. I now am full resolved to take a wife and turn her out to who will take her in. Then let her beauty be her wedding dowry; for me and my possessions she esteems not. There is a lady, in Verona here, whom I affect. Therefore, would I have thee to my tutor.”

Valentine: “Win her with gifts. Dumb jewels more than quick words do move a woman’s mind.”

Duke: “But she did scorn a present that I sent her.”

Valentine: “Send her another; for scorn at first makes after-love the more. Take no repulse. Flatter and praise, commend, extol her graces; That man that hath a tongue, I say, is no man, if with his tongue he cannot win a woman.”

Duke: “But she is promised unto a youthful gentleman of worth and kept secretly from the resort of men, that no man hath access by day to her.”

Valentine: “Why then I would resort to her by night.”

Duke: “Ay, but the doors be locked and the key kept safe and her chamber is aloft, far from the ground.”

Valentine: “Why then a ladder, quaintly made of cords, to cast up with a pair of anchoring hooks.”

Duke: “Advise me where I may have such a ladder this very night.”

Valentine: “By seven o’clock I will get you such a ladder. You may bear it under a cloak.”

Duke: “A cloak as long as thine will serve the turn? Let me see thy cloak and feel it upon me. What letter is this? What’s here? To Sylvia! I’ll be so bold to break the seal.”

The Duke reads the letter

Duke: “‘My thoughts do harbour with my Sylvia nightly'”… What’s here? ‘Silvia, this night I will enfranchise thee and here is the ladder for the purpose.’ Go, base intruder, over-weening slave. Thank me for this more than for all the favours which, all too much, I have bestowed on thee. If thou linger in my territories longer than swiftest expedition will give thee time to leave our royal court my wrath shall far exceed the love I ever bore my daughter or thyself. Be gone; as thou lovest thy life, make speed from hence.”

Exit the Duke

Valentine: “And why not death rather than living torment? To die is to be banished from myself, and Sylvia is myself; banished from her is self from self, a deadly banishment. She is my essence. Tarry I here, I but attend on death; but fly I hence, I fly away from life.”

Enter Proteus and Launce

Proteus: “Friend Valentine, a word.”

Valentine: “My ears are stopped and cannot hear good news, so much of bad already hath possessed them.”

Launce: “Sir, there is a proclamation that you are banished.”

Proteus: “That thou art banished from hence, from Sylvia, and from me thy friend.”

Valentine: “Doth Sylvia know that I am banished?”

Proteus: “Ay, ay; but neither bended knees… sad sighs, deep groans could penetrate her uncompassionate sire – but Valentine, if he be taken, must die. Thy staying will abridge thy life. Come, I’ll convey thee through the city gate.”

Exit Valentine and Proteus

Launce: “I am a fool, look you, and yet I have the wit to think my master is a kind of knave. He lives, not now that knows me to be in love; yet I am in love; but a team of horses shall not pluck that from me; nor who tis I love; and yet tis a woman; and yet tis a milkmaid; She hath more qualities than a water-spaniel. She can fetch and carry.”

Analysis

Proteus’ underhandedness proceeds unchecked, as he betrays Valentine to the Duke in order to have him banished so that he can pursue Sylvia. The Duke tricks Valentine into disclosing his plan to use a ladder to free Sylvia from her lofty chamber in order to run off with her. Valentine is banished and ironically it is Proteus who accompanies him to his departure at the city gates. Proteus gets himself into deeper and deeper questionable behaviour in act three by aligning himself with the duke against his friend, Valentine.  He has all but ruptured that friendship by now and his wreckless momentum also leads him toward a rupture with his beloved Julia and his new love interest, Sylvia.  This is Proteus’ act to advance his ill-advised intentions.  He has no idea what it means to behave responsibly, alienates and disrespects those he had previously cared deeply about and seems oblivious to his very own fate.  Act three sets up the downfall of Proteus in act four, as neither of the two women will fall for his scheming, which will seal his fate.

Act III

Scene ii

Milan. The Duke’s palace

Enter the Duke and Thurio

Duke: “Sir Thurio, fear not but that she will love you now that Valentine is banished from her sight.”

Thurio: “Since his exile she hath despised me most.”

Duke: “A little time will melt her frozen thoughts, and worthless Valentine shall be forgot.”

Enter Proteus

Duke: “How now, Sir Proteus! Is your countryman, according to our proclamation, gone?”

Proteus: “Gone, my good lord.”

Duke: “My daughter takes his going grievously.”

Proteus: “A little time, my lord, will kill that grief.”

Duke: “So I believe, but Thurio thinks not so. What might we do to make the girl forget the love of Valentine, and love Sir Thurio?

Proteus: “The best way is to slander Valentine.”

Duke: “Then you must undertake to slander him.”

Proteus: “You have prevailed, my lord. She shall not long continue love to him, but it follows not that she will love Sir Thurio.”

Thurio: “It must be done by praising me as much as you in worth dispraise Sir Valentine.”

Duke: “And, Proteus, we dare trust you in this. You shall have access where you with Sylvia may confer at large – for she is melancholy, and, for your friend’s sake, will be glad of you – where you may temper her by your persuasion to hate young Valentine and love my friend.”

Proteus: “As much as I can do I will effect. But you, Sir Thurio, must tangle her desires by wailful sonnets, whose composed rhymes should be full-fraught with serviceable vows.”

Duke: “Ay”

Proteus: “Say that upon the altar of her beauty you sacrifice your tears, your sighs, your heart; write till your ink be dry, and with your tears moist it again. After your dire-lamenting elegies, visit by night your lady’s chamber window with some sweet consort. This, or nothing else, will inherit her.”

Duke: “This discipline shows thou hast been in love.”

Thurio: “And thy advice this night I will put in practice. I have a sonnet that will serve the turn.”

Analysis

Proteus digs a deeper and deeper hole for himself. Having betrayed his best friend and Julia, his lover, he now has duped the Duke into believing that he is going to advance the cause of Thurio, who the Duke wants his daughter, Sylvia, to marry. But Thurio is a dullard and Proteus advises that he write her heart wrenching sonnets, a feat he is surely doomed to be ridiculed for. Proteus feels that if he can discredit Thurio then he may finally successfully woo Sylvia. But Act IV will not be kind to Proteus. Just desserts tend to follow Shakespearean characters like a shadow.

Act IV (4 scenes)

Scene i

The frontiers of Mantua. A forest

Enter outlaws

1 Outlaw: “Fellow, stand fast; I see a passenger.”

Enter Valentine and Speed

3 Outlaw: “Stand, sir, and throw us that you have about ye; if not, we’ll make you sit, and rifle you.”

Speed: “Sir, we are undone; these are the villains that all travellers do fear so much.”

Valentine: “My friends -“

1 Outlaw: “That’s not so, sir; we are your enemies.”

2 Outlaw: “Peace! We’ll hear him.”

3 Outlaw: “Ay, we will; for he is a proper man.”

Valentine: “Then know that I have little wealth.”

2 Outlaw: “Whither travel you?”

Valentine: “To Verona.”

1 Outlaw: “Whence came you?”

Valentine: “From Milan.”

3 Outlaw: “Have you long sojourned there?”

Valentine: “Some sixteen months, and longer might have stayed, if crocked fortune had not thwarted me.”

1 Outlaw: “Were you banished hence?”

Valentine: “I was.”

2 Outlaw: “For what offence?”

Valentine: “I killed a man, whose death I much repent; but yet I slew him manfully in fight, without false vantage or base treachery.”

1 Outlaw: “Why, never never repent it, if it were done so.”

3 Outlaw: “By the bare scalp of Robin Hood’s fat friar, this fellow were a king for our wild faction!”

1 Outlaw: “We’ll have him. Sirs, a word.”

3 Outlaw: “Know that some of us are gentlemen, such as the fury of ungoverned youth thrust from the company of awful men; myself was from Verona banished for practicing to steal away a lady, an heir, and near allied unto the Duke.”

2 Outlaw: “We parlay to you. Are you content to be our general – to make a virtue of necessity, and live as we do in this wilderness?”

3 Outlaw: “What say’st thou? Wilt thou be of our consort? Say ‘ay’ and be the captain of us all. We’ll do thee homage, and be ruled by thee, love thee as our commander and our king.”

1 Outlaw: “But if thou scorn our courtesy, thou diest.”

2 Outlaw: “Thou shalt not live to brag what we have offered.”

Valentine: “I take your offer, and will live with you, provided that you do not outrages on silly women or poor passengers.”

3 Outlaw: “No, we detest such vile base practices. Come, go with us; we’ll bring thee to our crews, and show thee all the treasure we have got.”

Analysis

A curious little scene in this apprentice play by Shakespeare. What is its purpose? Valentine has been banished from civilized society, as have others, who gather beyond the reaches of the law to survive as honourably as possible. Valentine presents himself as an educated, intelligent, honourable and brave killer and the outlaws make him their leader. The suggestion is that there may be more honour here with these outlaws than back with the Duke and Proteus scheming and controlling events in Milan. Indeed, the most honourable characters in this play are those on the margins of society: Launce, Speed, the outlaws, Valentine and the women, both Sylvia and Julia.

Act IV

Scene ii

Milan, outside the Duke’s palace

Enter Proteus

Proteus: “Already have I been false to Valentine, and now I must be as unjust to Thurio. But Sylvia is too fair, too true, too holy to be corrupted. When I protest true loyalty to her , she twits me with my falsehood to my friend. When to her beauty I commend my vows, she bids me think how I have been forsworn in breaking faith with Julia whom I loved.”

Enter Thurio and musicians

Proteus: “But here comes Thurio. Now must we to her window, and give some evening music to her ear.”

At a distance, a host and Julia in boy’s clothes.

Julia: “I cannot be merry.”

Host: “I’ll bring you where you will hear music.”

Julia: “But shall I hear him speak?”

Host: “Ay, that you shall.”

Julia: “That will be music.”

Musicians play love songs to Sylvia; Julia observes

Exit Thurio and musicians

Proteus: “Madam, good evening.”

Sylvia: “I thank you for your music. What is your will?”

Proteus: “That I may encompass yours.”

Sylvia: “Thou subtle, perjured, false, disloyal man, think’st that I am so shallow to be seduced by thy flattery that hast deceived so many with thy vows? I am so far from granting thy request that I despise thee for thy wrongful suit.”

Proteus: “I grant, sweet love, that I did love a lady; but she is dead.”

Julia: (aside) “Twere false if I should speak it.”

Sylvia: “Say that she be; yet Valentine, thy friend, survives, to whom, thyself art witness, I am betrothed.”

Proteus: “I likewise hear that Valentine is dead.”

Sylvia: “Then in his grave assure thyself my love is buried.”

Proteus: “Madam, if your heart be so obdurate, vouchsafe me yet your picture for my love.”

Sylvia: “I am very loath to be your idol, sir; but since your falsehood shall become you well to worship shadows and adore false shapes, send to me in the morning, and I’ll send it.”

Julia: “Host, will you go? It hath been the longest night that ever I watched, and the most heaviest.”

Analysis

Proteus acknowledges that he has betrayed both Valentine and Julia and also admits that Sylvia sees him as a faithless betrayer. Nonetheless, he next tries to have Thurio diminished in Sylvia’s eyes with his bad poetry and singing. In the midst of his further wooing of Sylvia, Julia arrives disguised as a young boy and she sees and overhears Proteus tell Sylvia that Julia herself is, in fact, dead. Julia remains silent but listens on as Proteus also claims that Valentine is dead and requests a picture of Sylvia, which she agrees to give him, as it is but a false shadow of who she really is. By this time Proteus has alienated all but the Duke with his deceit. Yet the worst of him has still yet to be revealed.

Act IV

Scene iii

Under Sylvia’s window

Enter Eglamour, Sylvia’s servant

Sylvia: “Eglamour, thou art not ignorant what dear good will I bear unto the banished Valentine; nor how my father would enforce me marry vain Thurio, whom my very soul abhors. Sir Eglamour, I would to Valentine, to Mantua, where I hear he makes abode; and, for the ways are dangerous to pass, I do desire thy worthy company.”

Eglamour: “Madam, I pity much your grievances and give consent to go along with you.”

Analysis

Sylvia is so in love with banished Valentine that she is prepared to slip away from her father, the Duke, and enter the dangerous forest to find Valentine. Her loyal servant will come along to protect her.

Act IV

Scene iv

Under Sylvia’s window

Enter Launce with his dog

Launce: “When a man’s servant shall play the cur with him, look you, it goes hard – one that I brought up as a puppy; one that I saved from drowning. I was sent by my master Proteus to deliver him as a present to Mistress Sylvia. But he thrust himself into the company of three or four gentlemen and pissed himself. ‘Out with the dog’, says one; ‘What cur is that’, says another. ‘Whip him’, says the third; ‘Hang him’, says the Duke. Goes me to the fellow that whips the dogs: ‘Friend’, quote I, ‘you mean to whip the dog?’ ‘Ah, merry do I’, quote he. ‘You do him the more wrong’, quote I. ‘Twas I did the thing’. He whips me out of the chamber. How many masters would do this for their servant? I have sat in the stocks for puddings he has stolen, otherwise he had been executed; I have stood on the pillory for geese he hath killed, otherwise he had suffered for it.”

Enter Proteus and Julia (disguised as Sebastian)

Proteus: “Sebastian is thy name? I like thee well, and will employ thee in some service presently.”

Julia: “In what you please; I’ll do what I can.”

Proteus: “Go presently and take this ring with thee, deliver it to madam Sylvia. She loved me well, who delivered it to me.”

Julia: “It seems you loved her not, to leave her token. She is dead?”

Proteus: “Not so; I think she lives.”

Julia: “Alas!”

Proteus: “Why dost thou cry ‘Alas'”?

Julia: “I cannot choose but pity her.”

Proteus: “Wherefore shoud’st thou pity her?”

Julia: “Because me thinks that she loved you as well as you do love your lady Sylvia. She dreams on him that has forgot her love; you dote on her that cares not for your love. Tis pity love should be so contrary. And thinking on it makes me cry ‘Alas’!”

Proteus: “Well, give her that ring and this letter. Tell my lady I claim her promise for her heavenly picture.”

Exit Proteus

Julia: “How many women would do such a message. Alas, poor Proteus, thou hast entertained a fox to be the shepherd of of thy lambs. Alas, poor fool, why do I pity him that with his very heart despiseth me? Because he loves her, he despiseth me; Because I love him, I must pity him. This ring I gave him, when he parted from me, now am I unhappy messenger, to plead for that which I would not obtain. I am my master’s true confined love, but cannot be true servant to my master unless I prove false traitor to myself. Yet will I woo him, but yet so coldly.”

Enter Sylvia

Julia: “I do entreat your patience to hear me speak the message I am sent on.”

Sylvia: “From whom?”

Julia: “From my master, Sir Proteus.”

Sylvia: “Oh, he sends you for a picture? Tell him from me, one Julia, that his changing thoughts forget, would better fit his chamber than this shadow.”

Julia: “This is the letter to your ladyship.”

Sylvia: “I will not look upon your master’s lines, full of new-found oaths, which he will break as easily as I tear his paper.”

Julia: “Madam, he sends your ladyship this ring.”

Sylvia: “The more shame for him, for I have heard him say a thousand times his Julia gave it him at his departure. Though his false finger have profaned the ring, mine shall not do his Julia so much wrong.”

Julia: “She thanks you.”

Sylvia: “What say’st thou?”

Julia: “I thank you, madam that you tender her.”

Sylvia: “Dost thou know her?”

Julia: “Almost as well as I do know myself. To think upon her woes, I do protest that I have wept a hundred several times. When she did think my master loved her well, she was as fair as you.”

Sylvia: “How tall was she?”

Julia: “About my stature.”

Sylvia: “Here, youth; there is my purse. I give thee this for thy sweet mistress’ sake, because thou loves her. farewell.”

Exit Sylvia

Julia: “And she shall thank you for it, if ever you know her. A virtuous gentlewoman, mind and beautiful! Alas, how love can trifle with itself!”

Analysis

This is a pivotal scene in the play, as Launce displays such loyalty to Crab, his dog, that he claims to the gentlemen with the Duke that it was he and not Crab who pissed all around them, just as they are about to whip the dog. Launce is more loyal to his dog than Proteus is toward Valentine and Julia. The contrast is vivid. Just then Julia arrives for Proteus, disguised as a boy in order to have travelled safely to Milan. Her disguise allows her to watch Proteus deny her very life itself to his new love interest, Sylvia. Julia watches as Proteus woos Sylvia with the very ring he received from Julia. Julia remains in disguise as Proteus’ messenger to Sylvia, and this scene of the two women, albeit Julia mistaken as a young boy, is touching and sincere, compared to Proteus’ shameful display. Launce and the two women are ever honourable as they surround the despicable character that Proteus has become. Act V is up next. A degree of reckoning approaches hard.

We generally bear detailed and vivid witness to the plan as well as the motivation of the villainous characters in Shakespeare’s plays and Proteus is no exception, as we hear him rationalize and justify his unscrupulous behaviour.  We also witness his being called out by both women, the one he is pursuing and the one he has abandoned.  And once again, we are privy to information concealed from someone intimate to the situation, when Proteus believes he is speaking confidentially to Sebastian, who we know to be Julia.  Shakespeare early on becomes a master at creating confusion and chaos within his character driven plots, which always make his act fives a revelation of disentanglement and resolution.

Act 5 (4 scenes)

Scene i

Milan. An abbey

Enter Eglamour

Eglamour: “Now it is about the very hour that Sylvia at Friar Patrick’s cell should meet me. She will not fail, for lovers break not hours unless it be to come before their time, so much they spur their expedition.”

Enter Sylvia

Sylvia: “Amen, good Eglamour, I fear I am attended by some spies.”

Eglamour: “Fear not. The forest is not three leagues off.”

Analysis

Sylvia is running off to find her Valentine, under the supposed protection of her man-servant, Sir Eglamour. Apparently, her departure has been noticed…

Act 5

Scene ii

Milan. The Duke’s palace

Enter Thurio, Proteus and Julia disguised as Sebastian

Thurio: “Sir Proteus, what says Sylvia to my suit?”

Proteus: She takes exceptions at your person.”

Julia: (aside) “Love will not be spurred to what it loathes.“

Thurio: “How likes she my discourse?”

Proteus: “Ill, when you talk of war.”

Julia: (aside) “But better, indeed, when you hold your peace.”

Thurio: “What says she of my valour?”

Proteus: “She makes no doubt of that.”

Julia: (aside) “She needs not, when she knows it is cowardice.”

Thurio: “What says she of my birth?”

Proteus: “That you are well derived.”

Julia: (aside) “True; from a gentleman to a fool.”

Enter the Duke

Duke: “Which of you saw Sir Eglamour of late?”

Thurio: “Not I.”

Proteus: Not I.”

Duke: “Saw you my daughter?”

Proteus: “Neither.”

Duke: “Why then, she’s fled unto that peasant Valentine; and Eglamour is in her company. Therefore, I pray you, stand not to discourse, but mount you presently and meet with me upon the rising of the mountain foot that leads toward Mantua, whither they are fled. Dispatch, sweet gentlemen, and follow me.”

Exit Duke

Thurio: “I’ll after, more to be revenged on Eglamour than for the love of reckless Sylvia.”

Proteus: “And I will follow, more for Sylvia’s love than hate of Eglamour.”

Julia: “And I will follow, more to cross that love than hate for Sylvia, that is gone for love.”

Analysis

The act V plot thickens as we know Valentine has fled to the forest as king of the outlaws and is being followed now by Sylvia and Eglamour, who in turn are being pursued by Thurio, Proteus and her father, the Duke. Only two scenes remain and there is still so much to be settled…

Act V

Scene iii

The Mantua forests

Enter outlaws with Sylvia

1 Outlaw: “Come, come. We must bring you to our captain.”

2 Outlaw: “Come, bring her away.”

1 Outlaw: “Where is the gentleman that was with her?”

2 Outlaw: “Being nimble-footed, he hath outrun us. We will follow him. He cannot escape.”

1 Outlaw: “I must bring you to our captain’s cave. Fear not, he bears an honourable mind and will not use a woman lawlessly.”

Sylvia: “O Valentine, this I endure for thee.”

Analysis

Sylvia has been captured by the outlaws and Eglamour has run off, proving a poor escort. Of course, we know who the king of the outlaws is. The last scene certainly has a tangled web to unravel, and it ain’t all pretty. Let’s go!

Act V

Scene iv

Another part of the forest.

Enter Valentine

Valentine: “This shadowy desert, unfrequented woods, I better brook than flourishing peopled towns. here can I sit alone, unseen of any, and to the nightingale’s complaining notes tune my distresses and record my woes. Repair me with thy presence, Sylvia; thou gentle nymph, these are my mates. They love me well; yet I have much to do to keep them from uncivil outrages. Withdraw thee, Valentine. Who’s this comes here?”

Valentine steps aside

Enter Proteus, Sylvia and Julia, disguised as Sebastian

Proteus: “Madam, this service I have done for you, to hazard life, and rescue you from him that would have forced your honour and your love.”

Valentine: (aside) “How like a dream is this I see and hear! Love, lend me patience to forbear a while.”

Sylvia: “O miserable unhappy that I am.”

Proteus: “Unhappy were you, madam, ere I came; but by my coming I have made you happy.”

Sylvia: “By thy approach thou mak’st me most unhappy.”

Julia: (aside) “And me, when he approaches to your presence.”

Sylvia: “Had I been seized by a hungry lion, I would have been a breakfast to the beast rather than have false Proteus rescue me. How I love Valentine, whose life is as tender to me as my soul! I do detest false, perjured Proteus. Therefore be gone; solicit me no more.”

Proteus: “O, tis the curse in love, when women cannot love where they are beloved!

Sylvia: “When Proteus cannot love where he’s beloved! Read over Julia’s heart, thy first best love, for whose dear sake, thou didst rend thy faith into a thousand oaths; and all those oaths descended into perjury, to love me. Thou hast no faith left now, thou counterfeit to thy true friend.”

Proteus: “In love, who respects friends?”

Sylvia: “All men but Proteus.”

Proteus: If the gentle spirit of moving words can no way change you to a milder form, I’ll woo you like a soldier, at arms end, and love you against the nature of love – force ye.”

Sylvia: “O heaven!”

Proteus: “I’ll force thee yield to my desire.”

Valentine: “Ruffian! Let go that rude uncivil touch.”

Proteus: “Valentine!”

Valentine: “Thou common friend, that’s without faith or love – for such is a friend now: treacherous man. Now I dare not say I have one friend alive. Proteus, I am sorry I must never trust thee more. The private wound is deepest. O time most accursed! Amongst all foes that a friend should be the worst!”

Proteus: “My shame and guilt confounds me. Forgive me, Valentine; if hearty sorrow be a sufficient ransom for offence I tender it here. I do as truly suffer as ever I did commit.“

Valentine: “Then I am paid and once again I do receive thee honest. By penitence the eternal wrath’s appeased. And all that was mine in Sylvia I give thee.”

Julia: “O unhappy me!” (she swoons)

Proteus: “Look to the boy.”

Valentine: “Why, boy! What’s the matter? Look up and speak.”

Julia: “O good sir, my master charged me to deliver a ring to madam Sylvia, which, out of my neglect, was never done.”

Proteus: “Where is that ring, boy?”

Julia: “Here it is. This is it.”

Proteus: “How! Let me see. Why, this is the ring I gave to Julia.”

Julia: “O, cry you mercy, sir, I have mistook; this is the ring you sent to Sylvia.”

Proteus: “But how cam’st thou by this ring? At my depart I gave this unto Julia.

Julia: “And Julia herself did give it me and Julia herself has brought it hither.”

Proteus: “How! Julia!”

Julia: “Behold her that gave aim to all thy oaths. How often hast thou with perjury cleft the root! O Proteus, let this habit make thee blush. It is the lesser blot, modesty finds, women to change their shapes than men their minds.”

Proteus: “O heaven, were men but constant, he were perfect. What is in Sylvia’s face but I may spy more fresh in Julia’s with a constant eye?”

Valentine: “Twer pity two such friends should be long foes.”

Proteus: “Bear witness, heaven, I have my wish forever.”

Julia: “And I mine.”

Enter outlaws with the Duke and Thurio

Valentine: “Forbear, forbear, I say; it is my lord the Duke. Your grace is welcome to a man disgraced, banished Valentine.”

Duke: “Sir Valentine!”

Thurio: “Yonder is Sylvia and Sylvia is mine.”

Valentine: “Thurio, give back, or else embrace thy death; come not within the measure of my wrath; do not name Sylvia thine. I dare thee but to breathe upon my love.”

Thurio: “Sir Valentine, I care not for her. 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.”

Duke: “I do applaud thy spirit, Valentine, and think thee worthy of an empress’ love. Know then, I here forget all former griefs, cancel all grudge, repeal thee home again. Sir Valentine, thou art a gentleman, and well derived; take thou thy Sylvia, for thou hast deserved her.”

Valentine: “I now beseech you to grant one boon that I will ask of you.”

Duke: “I grant it for thine own, whatever it be.”

Valentine: “These banished men, that I have kept withal, are men endued with worthy qualities. Forgive them what they have committed here, and let them be recalled from their exile. They are reformed, civil and full of good, and fit for great employment, worthy lord.”

Duke: “Thou hast prevailed; I pardon them and thee.”

Valentine: “What think you of this page, my lord?”

Duke: “I think the boy hath grace in him.”

Valentine: “I warrant you, my lord – more grace than boy.”

Duke: “What mean you by that saying?”

Valentine: “I’ll tell you as we pass along. Come, Proteus, our day of marriage shall be yours; one feast, one house, one mutual happiness!”

Analysis

Act fives are generally action packed, as so much must be unraveled and appropriately rectified. Things can change in a hurry in Shakespeare plays.  Note how quickly Romeo falls in love with Juliet, how fast Lear banishes Cordelia or how instantaneously Macbeth is seduced by the Weird Sisters. Many further examples abound. Valentine’s immediate forgiveness of Proteus after he tries to rape Sylvia seems an incredulous unlikelihood, but not as much as the most shocking line of all in this still apprentice work of the Bard’s, as Valentine speaks to Proteus, with both Sylvia and still disguised Julia present: “All that was mine in Sylvia I give thee.”  One must wonder how that line survived and yet be relieved that no more awkward a scene will ever again besmirch the pages of his future works. It’s a happy ending, but a disturbing scene nonetheless. Amen to that!

Final Thoughts:

The source for Two Gentlemen of Verona is an Italian romance, Titus and Gissippus, by Giovanni Bocaccio.  Launce and Speed are Shakespeare’s invention.  This earliest of comedies (1590) will be overshadowed by Shakespeare’s soon to be further comedic creations of the 1590s: The Comedy of Errors, The Taming of the Shrew, Love’s Labor’s Lost, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Merchant of Venice, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Much Ado About Nothing and As You Like It.  Nonetheless, The Two Gentlemen of Verona excels in demonstrating Shakespeare’s characteristic humanity and wit, as each of the four lovers are affected uniquely by their aroused passions and the forest becomes a familiar Shakespearean refuge from the constraints of city life. 

We are unaware of any production of Two Gentlemen until 1762.  It has frequently been revised throughout the 20^thcentury and was the very first play performed at the new Globe Theatre in 1997.  Youtube has two very interesting full-length stage productions of Two Gentlemen of Verona (Hofstra University, 1:56:49 and a Texas Shakespeare Festival production, 2:20.37), a few full audio versions and a whole lot of shorter examinations of its characters, themes and content.