This week's podcast is a continuation of our month-long discussion of The Two Gentlemen of Verona, including DVD reviews of both the BBC Complete Works production and the 1998 romantic comedy Shakespeare in Love, and a review of the soundtrack to the 1971 stage musical version; plus, we'll do our usual recap of this week's blog entries.  

The Bill / Shakespeare Project YouTube page, with selections from the 2005 revival of the musical Two Gentlemen of Verona.

Download | Duration: 00:15:25

Errata:
5:09 -- Text should be "familiar to" instead of "familiar with"



Podcast Credits

This podcast was recorded using a Blue Snowball microphone onto a Dell XPS 400 computer, using Adobe Soundbooth recording and editing software.

The movie sound clips are from the film Shakespeare in Love, released on December 3, 1998, by Miramax Films and Universal Pictures, available at Amazon.com.

The clips from the songs "Summer, Summer",  "I'd Like to Be a Rose", "Bring All the Boys Back Home", "Night Letter", "Love Me", and "Exit Music" are from the album "Two Gentlemen of Verona [Cast Recording][Original Recording Remastered][Soundtrack]" by the 1971 Original Broadway Cast, released on CD on May 14, 2002, by Decca Broadway, available at the iTunes store and Amazon.com.
http://www.deccabroadway.com/

The bumper music (Loop 90) and the segue music (Morning Show Segue) are courtesy of Royalty Free Music.com, which offers a comprehensive music library of production music for your various royalty free music needs including full albums, tracks and free music clips, loops, and beats available for download.

        

In The Two Gentlemen of Verona, we have two clowns of note, Speed and Launce, the servants of Valentine and Proteus, respectively. These two characters, besides having different "masters," also have very different types of clownish behavior.

Speed (whose name not only means the modern "quickness," but also "abundance", "power, might", and "success, prosperity" [Oxford English Dictionary Second Edition on CD-ROM (v. 4.0)]), is the kind of clown for whom interaction is crucial; his comedy comes from witty asides and banter.  

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Proteus

In mythology, Proteus is "A sea-god, the son of Oceanus and Tethys, fabled to assume various shapes" (Oxford English Dictionary Second Edition on CD-ROM [v. 4.0]).  This is the perfect name for The Two Gentlemen of Verona's Proteus, as his feelings, loyalties and affections are infinitely changeable.

Julia

The name "Julia" is the feminine of Julius.  More importantly, however, is the reference to Saint Julia, who was a noble virgin of Carthage, who was sold into slavery when the city was captured.  Julia in this play is the (possibly) noble love of Proteus (virgin? ... not sure... need to look for that in the text during the second read-through); she later travels to Milan in male disguise and becomes the servant (slave) of Proteus.

Lucetta

The name "Lucetta" is short for Lucia, which is the feminine of Lucius, which means "light."  Saint Lucia was the patron saint of the blind, ironically enough (given Lucius' meaning) and yet fitting (on numerous occasions Love is referred as "blind").  Lucetta provides for Julia the light of "reason" (II.vii.23).

Valentine

Valentine comes from the Greek, meaning "strong, vigorous, healthy."  Saint Valentine was Roman martyr, whose feast day was on the same day as Lupercalia (February 15), a fertility festival; this led to Valentine's Day being February 14.  A Valentine is also defined as "A person of the opposite sex chosen, drawn by lot, or otherwise determined, on St. Valentine's day, as a sweetheart, lover, or special friend for the ensuing year" (OED).  Our play's Valentine is a sweetheart and a lover... and also a "special friend" to Proteus.

Silvia

In mythology, Sylvia was the mother of Romulus and Remus. The name "Silvia" is the feminine of Silvius, meaning "woods" or "forest" ... which is fitting as that is where our play's Silvia is escaping.

Eglamour

He's Silvia partner in escape from Milan in Acts Four and Five.  He's also mentioned in Act One, referenced as a suitor of Julia (I.ii.9), but this is probably NOT the same man, and in reality -- as many critics surmise -- a mistake and missed revision by Shakespeare.  In either case, the name is of note because of its second half: "amour" meaning "love, affection, friendship" (OED).

        

My wife Lisa and I revisit the same debate time and time again: Do lyrics matter?  We're both Springsteen fans, so we tend to fall on the side of the affirmative.  But every so often, a song comes out that has such a great hook, that the words really don't matter (think Outkast's "Hey Ya" or Shakira's "Hips Don't Lie").  It would be nice if the words actually meant something, but to a certain extent, they're only sound, like another instrument in the sound mix.

[I know what you're thinking:  Ol' Bill's gone off the pier... he's lost it... he's obviously cut and pasted the wrong entry into the wrong blog... ]

So why do I bring this up?

Shakespeare uses some geography in The Two Gentlemen of Verona, but it doesn't make any sense.

Our boys Valentine and Proteus are from Verona.  They travel by "ship" (I.i.143) to Milan.


Only, if you check out the map, both Verona and Milan are landlocked cities... between them: about 90 miles of fairly easily traversable plain (the mountains are to the north and to the south, but the east-west passage is pretty peak-free).

Is it an error by Shakespeare?  Or does it not matter?  In this case, is the geography like the lyrics of "Hey Ya!"... just so much sound for the blank verse?

        

There seems to be a number of different sources from which Shakespeare pulled to create The Two Gentlemen of Verona.

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Unlike last month's title (Love's Labor's Lost), there's not a whole lot of debate or deeper meaning to this month's title, The Two Gentlemen of Verona.  Two Gentlemen (Valentine and Proteus) come from Verona (Italy).  All of the first act and about half of the second occur in Verona (though everything after Act Two occurs elsewhere, either in Milan or the forests between Milan and Mantua).

Now about that word, "gentlemen"... the Oxford English Dictionary Second Edition on CD-ROM (v. 4.0) defines "gentleman" as

• A man of gentle birth, or having the same heraldic status as those of gentle birth; properly, one who is entitled to bear arms, though not ranking among the nobility, but also applied to a person of distinction without precise definition of rank.
• A man in whom gentle birth is accompanied by appropriate qualities and behavior; hence, in general, a man of chivalrous instincts and fine feelings.

The first of these two certainly applies to both Valentine and Proteus.  The second definition applies only to Valentine (though those who read into Valentine's response to Proteus' repentance a sense of offering up Silvia to his friend may feel that he doesn’t live up to the definition, either).

What's interesting to me, though, is an additional meaning of the word, just beginning to appear in the 1580's:

• A man of superior position in society, or having the habits of life indicative of this; often, one whose means enable him to live in easy circumstances without engaging in trade, a man of money and leisure.

Maybe this is what Shakespeare really means: this is a story about two men of "easy circumstances" who have no real hardships or responsibilities in life... young men with no sense of meaning or purpose yet... boys in love and lust, who have no idea as to the consequences...

        

Act Five of The Two Gentlemen of Verona is the shortest final act in the Canon (a nice shift from last month's longest Act Five), at just over half the average number of lines in a final act of Shakespeare.

The act begins with Eglamour waiting for Silvia so that he can help her flee into the forest. She arrives, but is afraid that she is "attended by some spies" (V.i.10). Eglamour tells her that if they can make it into the forest (just "three leagues off" [V.i.11]), they'll be fine. And off they go.
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This week's podcast is the launch of our month-long discussion of The Two Gentlemen of Verona, including some introductory remarks, a plot synopsis, and we'll do our usual recap of this week's blog entries.  

Download | Duration: 00:31:10

Errata:
22:48 -- Text should be "for his pains" instead of "for his plans"
29:10 -- Text should be "of the plays" instead of "of the play"



Podcast Credits

This podcast was recorded using a Blue Snowball microphone onto a Dell XPS 400 computer, using Adobe Soundbooth recording and editing software.

The bumper music (Loop 90) and the segue music (Morning Show Segue) are courtesy of Royalty Free Music.com, which offers a comprehensive music library of production music for your various royalty free music needs including full albums, tracks and free music clips, loops, and beats available for download.

        

Act Four of The Two Gentlemen of Verona begins with Valentine and Speed on the run from Milan... only they're not alone. They have been captured by "certain Outlaws" (IV.i opening stage direction), "the villains // That all the travelers do fear so much" (IV.i.5-6). When Valentine attempts to speak, he is interrupted by the First Outlaw, but then the other outlaws interrupt the First one, demanding to "hear" (IV.i.9) Valentine. And why?  "For he is a proper man" (IV.i.10)... so Valentine is a good-lookin' guy.

Valentine tells them that he has nothing for them to take save his clothes, and they ask him where he's going, where he's from, and how long he's there. Now, if we can believe Valentine (and we'll see in a moment why that's in question), he's been in Milan for "some sixteen months" (IV.i.21)--which would probably be the gap between Act One, Scenes Two and Three--but he's been banished since. When the outlaws ask for what crime, Valentine tells them that he "killed a man, whose death (he) much repent(s)" (IV.i.27).

[uh, this would be why we can call the 16-month timeframe into question... a question I'm going to want to address at some time, just not today]

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Act Three, Scene One of The Two Gentlemen of Verona begins in the court of Milan where we find Proteus throwing his "friend" Valentine under the anachronistic bus:

My gracious lord, that which I would discover
The law of friendship bids me to conceal;
But when I call to mind your gracious favors
Done to me, undeserving as I am,
My duty pricks me on to utter that
Which else no worldly good should draw from me.
Know, worthy prince, 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;
And should she thus be stol'n away from you,
It would be much vexation to your age.

-- III.i.4-16

Check out the big irony on lil' Proteus:  "law of friendship"... "your gracious favors // Done to me... My duty" (right, after less than a day, sooooo many favors) ... "Thurio, whom your gentle daughter hates" (nothing like throwing all the competitors under the bus)... "vexation to your age" (just looking after you, OLD man). It's a pretty masterful speech... wonderful if it weren't so deceitful. The Duke is thankful--having suspected Valentine in the past, having "oftentimes... proposed to forbid // Sir Valentine ... << MORE >>