The Two Gentlemen of Verona: a preview

As I dive for the first time into the pool that is The Two Gentlemen of Verona, a couple of quick notes/observations:

It’s a short one.  Not nearly as short as The Comedy of Errors (but then again, what is?  uh, nothing).  Shorter than last month’s “comedy” Love’s Labor’s Lost or the other comedy (note the lack of quotes on that one) The Taming of the Shrew.  Under two-thirds the length of Richard the Third.

Finding a nice bit of prose in the first scene (not to the extent of last month’s play, but last month was pretty atypical).  Also finding a lot less rhyme as well (compared to both last month and The Comedy of Errors… but I have a hunch that it will be around the same ratio as Taming).

The language is much less showy.  Now this might be because of the speakers, but I’m thinking that this might be indicative of the play as a whole.  And if that’s the case, we may need to revisit this later in the month to discuss my error in placing the play this deep in the Project.

And I find myself chuckling already, particularly at the clown Speed… I’ve read, however, that he’s just the hors d’oeuvres before the scene-stealing clown Launce later in the play… I’ll have to wait and see.

Oh, and I don’t think we’re going to have to fret too much over the title… both Valentine and Proteus, our two gentlemen, are in Verona.

Looks like a reasonably quiet month ahead (though I hear there’s a final scene incident that ranks up there with Kate’s speech in Taming and the news of the King’s death in Love’s Labor’s Lost, in terms of throwing a wrench in the works of an “easy” denouement)… but again, we’ll just have to wait and see…

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