Category: The Two Gentlemen of Verona

Continue reading “What’s in a Name: I Don’t Need a Proteus to Know Which Way the Wind Blows”

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?
Continue reading “Don’t Know Much ‘Bout Geography”

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
Continue reading “Title: Pure Simplicity”

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.
Continue reading “Act Five: The Premature Resolution Episode”

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.
Continue reading “Act Four: The Lords of the Merry Men and Rings, Respectively”

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

Continue reading “Act Three: The “With Friends Like That…” Edition”

Act Two of The Two Gentlemen of Verona–the longest in the play at almost twice the length of Act One–begins not in Verona, but in Milan, where Valentine has arrived to work in the royal court of the Duke (NOT the emperor).

what, you ask, Valentine in love? … yep… not that you’re surprised, I’m sure…

The first scene of the act opens with Valentine and Speed engaged in the same kind of quick-witted repartee as we witnessed Speed and Proteus in back in Act One, Scene One, with the subject of the banter much the same: the master’s folly in love.
Continue reading “Act Two: Change in Scene, Change in Gents”

Act One of The Two Gentlemen of Verona is a short one, just three scenes running a total of less than 400 lines.  But in those 400 lines, we meet our main characters, see their personalities and priorities, kick off their story, meet one Gent’s love, and get our first change in plot trajectory.
Continue reading “Act One: Setting the Scene, Meeting the Gents”