ASF Study Materials for

The Two Gentlemen of Verona by William Shakespeare

Director Greta Lambert Study materials written by Set Design Rob Wolin Susan Willis, ASF Dramaturg Costume Design Elizabeth Novak [email protected] Lighting Design Tom Rodman Contact ASF at: www.asf.net Sound Design Will Burns 1.800.841-4273 1 The Two Gentlemen of Verona by William Shakespeare Welcome to The Two Gentlemen of Verona — a Tale of Friendship and Love

Shakespeare knows young love—we immediately think of Romeo and Juliet and the host of romantic comedies he penned. The Characters in the Tour truism is that "the course of true love never did in Verona: run smooth," for the Bard rarely gives any of his Valentine, a young gentleman young lovers an easy time on their way to the altar. Speed, Valentine's page Challenges and hardships season the lovers— Proteus, a young gentleman, their affections are mangled, their friendships Valentine's best friend tested, their self-knowledge questioned, and Launce, his servant their behavior turned unrecognizable even to Crab, Launce's dog, a mutt themselves. Why? Because they are young Julia, the girl Proteus loves and in love, so both inside and out things seem Lucetta, her maid confusing, uncertain, and unsettling. Antonio, Proteus's father In this play, Shakespeare sets his scene in fair Verona, or at least starts it there. Verona in Milan: is home to the two gents who now must leave The Duke, Silvia's father and make their way in the larger outside world Silvia, Valentine's beloved of the Milanese court, where ambition and love Sir Thurio, a wealthy nobleman will entangle and complicate their lives—and in love with Silvia the lives of the young women who love them. After all, what's the worst thing that could in the forest: happen when a guy introduces his best friend Proteus's servant Launce scolding Crab, Outlaws to his new fiancée? Yes, indeed. The friend his dog (Sir John Gilbert) behaves like a cur and tries to steal the girl. That Place: Verona, Milan, and a is the crux of this play—friendship, young love, forest on the way to Mantua an elopement plot, betrayal by one, loyalty in Time: 1960s others, and a high stakes ending that manages … and Welcome to Our Tour! to test all the lovers and still get them to the altar. Shakespeare not only knows young love; Our love of Shakespeare runs deep at ASF, Cover: Valentine introducing Silvia he knows good theatre, too. and we are happy to share it with schools across to Proteus (Walter Crane) Alabama and our neighboring states, because there is just nothing like the powerful effect of seeing Shakespeare live. This version of Shakespeare's play trims The Two Gentlemen of Verona to fit a one-hour class period while keeping the great characters, the verse, and the compelling comic action. Directed by ASF's Greta Lambert, herself a renowned Shakespeare actress, the touring show features eight actors chosen from New York auditions who join the ASF company for the 2016-17 season. These eight will perform all the roles in the play, doubling or tripling roles just as Shakespeare's own company did. They bring you a complete theatre with set, costumes, props, and actors in a van and a trailer. In addition, we offer your students a series of workshops following the play, so they can work with the actors on theatre skills and Shakespeare's Your acting company: L to R seated, Ann Flanigan, Kate language. We're excited to be headed your way Owens, Joshua Sottile, and Andre Revels; standing, Tirosh Schneider, Joe O'Malley, Javon Q. Minter, and Justy Kosek with the Bard! 2 The Two Gentlemen of Verona by William Shakespeare The Two Gentlemen of Verona Fact Sheet

Genre: Usually called a romantic comedy, Plot: Valentine heads to the court in Milan, though it may more nearly be a comic while his best friend Proteus stays home romance in Verona, secretly wooing Julia. He just wins her love when his father sends him Date of composition: The first mention of to Milan. the play is in Francis Meres's 1598 list of At court, Valentine has fallen in love with the Shakespeare's comedies. Many 20th- Duke's daughter, Silvia, who returns his Milan Verona • • century critics dated the play as 1594-5, love although she has a rich suitor, Thurio, Mantua• but more recent scholars studying the text whom the Duke prefers. When Valentine with computers have argued for a date introduces the newly-arrived Proteus to nearer to the closing of the theatres in Silvia, he is instantly smitten. He debates 1592-3 due to plague, which would make his loyalties, but decides to betray his Two Gents one of Shakespeare's earliest friend's elopement plans to the Duke in comedies. order to woo Silvia for himself. His betrayal works, and Valentine is banished, then Length: 2294 lines in 20 scenes. The text is captured by outlaws and made their chief. 82% verse and 18% prose. Missing her beloved, Julia follows Proteus to Map of northern Italy— Milan disguised as a page only to discover Verona to Milan is 90 miles Setting: Verona, Milan, and a forest him wooing Silvia. Because his own servant Launce has lost the gift Proteus Longest roles in the play: Proteus, Valentine, sent Silvia—a small dog, for which Launce Julia substituted his own mangy mutt—Proteus hires the new page to take a letter to Silvia Sources: The play combines two common and get her picture. When the women types of tales: those of inconstancy in love meet, loyal Silvia tells the page she pities and those of friendship triumphant. the woman Proteus is abandoning. Silvia The play's inconstant lover theme likely then decides follow Valentine, leaving in comes from Jorge de Montemayor's the protection of Sir Eglamour. Spanish pastoral Diana Enamorada The outlaws capture Silvia, but she is (c. 1559), which parallels the Julia and rescued by Proteus, who is pursuing her Proteus plot. along with his page (Julia), the Duke, and The perfect friendship tradition appears in Thurio. When Proteus tries to assault Damon and Pythias in the ancient world, Silvia, Valentine intervenes and rejects his and in Chaucer's "Knight's Tale," in which friend, who realizes his many wrongs and cousins fight over love of a woman, but asks pardon. Just as the young men begin many scholars point to Sir Thomas Elyot's to pledge new fidelity, the disguised Julia tale of Titus and Gisippus (taken from faints and her identity is revealed. Proteus Boccaccio), in which Titus so loves his recognizes his true love for her and begs friend's fiancée that Gisippus allows him her forgiveness, too, and the Duke finally to consummate the marriage and take his allows both sets of lovers to marry. wife. Thurio stems from the braggart soldier and Things to look for: the Duke from the blocking father of the • Whether Proteus is forgiveable—is he a ancient and commedia dell'arte traditions. confused teen or a villain? • How the women negotiate the last scene, Words and Contexts That Have Changed: which offers these characters large • In our world, when a male refers to his challenges with few lines in key places. "What, didst thou offer her this "mistress," we assume he is having an • How the dog is played (what kind of from me?" Proteus exclaims. illicit sexual relationship. In the courtly love dog, how like Launce it looks, how like Sweets from the sweet, in rhetoric of the Renaissance, however, the Proteus's behavior its behavior is)—and Shakespeare's terms? (Sir term comes from chivalry via Petrarch—it whether it's a biological dog at all, or, like John Gilbert) is "mistress/servant." The lover admires Julia disguised as a page, someone in and serves his lady (seen on a social/ "canine clothing." spiritual pedestal), who challenges and inspires him to become a worthier man. 3 The Two Gentlemen of Verona by William Shakespeare Genre Issues: Comedy or Romance?

Comedy and romance share an essential ROMANCE pattern of separation and reunion, and that The Norton Anthology of English Literature pattern accurately describes the action of The describes romances as "narratives of separation, Two Gentlemen of Verona. The details of each errancy, and loss" that "satisfy our deepest genre, however, offer us quite different journeys imaginative desires" as they "therapeutically to that reunion. deliver endings of reintegration, recovery, and COMEDY return. That which was lost is found." This Unlike tragedy, which focuses on the description fits Two Gents well and highlights individual, comedy emphasizes the group, different aspects of the story than does the often a family. Two Gents almost immediately standard definition of comedy. separates its gentlemen from their families, Comedy focuses on the lovers and however, so the "group" more nearly seems to marriage; romance focuses on identity, tests, be the duo of friends headed to Milan, along with and learning from expulsion so that one can their attendants. This small group also becomes be reintegrated. As well as Valentine, romance attached to the women each loves, women who might privilege Proteus, for ultimately it is not might join or alter the friendship group. the women who shatter the friendship bond The classical tradition of comedy that flows but one of the friends. Proteus falls into the into the Renaissance pits young lovers against very rivalry and selfishness ("errancy") that the father—it is a battle over who picks the friendship is supposed to transcend, and as spouse. There are often several suitors for the a result he becomes a liar, a backstabber, a daughter's hand, and she sees all but one as false advisor, a self-interested flatterer, and a Mr. Wrongs. Daddy, however, uses different total jerk, not to mention a potential rapist. Yet criteria and says "no" to the beloved, picking in romance someone who makes himself a Mr. his own version of Mr. Right, so the melée is Wrong can learn to be a Mr. Right, as rarely, if on to help love triumph.The major actors in that ever, happens in comedy. effort in classical and Italianate comedy are the Romances combine adventure and love; The play in the First Folio (1623) servants—witty, perceptive schemers who can they move from civilization into the wild both under Comedies; the romances make things happen and steer events in the geographically and psychologically, and the are also in Comedies in the Folio right direction. emphasis is on the young. In the wild the (except for Cymbeline, which is in young hero or heroine is tested—a test that Tragedies).. Many commentators on Two Gents note that the attendants in the play do not function as can often ultimately lead to marriage. Getting classical servants do; Speed and Launce do not lost is essential to the process—and all four scheme so much as crack jokes at each other's young protagonists of Two Gents qualify as lost and their masters' expense. They truly are a at different times and in different ways during comic subplot. the play. Some feel the Shakespeare ends his formal playwriting juxtaposition career with four plays that are labelled of their romances—Pericles, Cymbeline, The Winter's dialogue Tale, and The Tempest (which is in ASF's with their repertory this season). These plays all adhere to masters' may the principles of romance, but Shakespeare also even satirize explores these elements early in his career as the love well, most notably in Two Gents and the frame and loyalty story of The Comedy of Errors. proclaimed in the main plot, and that aspect should be assessed.

Silvia and the substitute dog (Augustus Egg, 1849) 4 The Two Gentlemen of Verona by William Shakespeare The Play's Structure: Upstairs/Downstairs Parallels

Shakespeare builds plays by thematically 2.6/2.7 Proteus's decision to betray both interweaving plot lines, usually a main plot love and friendship is followed by Julia's with a subplot or higher status characters with decision to visit him in Milan, travelling in lower status servants. In The Two Gentlemen disguise as a page, a point about which of Verona, Shakespeare often follows a piece Lucetta teases her. of major action with attendants' banter. Does Note: These are juxtapositions this juxtaposition highlight and contrast issues 3.1 Proteus betrays Valentine's elopement in Shakespeare's text, and and values, or, as some scholars wonder, does plot to the Duke, so that the Duke then since the script for the touring it satirize the lovers' feelings? Analyze some of exposes Valentine's letter and rope ladder production rearranges some the juxtapositions and decide what do you think. and banishes him. Launce jokes briefly scenes, not all of these about the banishment when he and juxtapositions may appear in Places to Consider Scene Juxtapositions: Proteus enter, and after they leave, he the play as performed. 1.1/1.2 Proteus says farewell to Valentine, produces his own letter or list of qualities then banters with Speed about his love about the milkmaid he loves, which Speed letter, a passage that links directly to the discovers and banters about—the crisis banter in 1.2 between Julia and Lucetta about Silvia is followed by banter about the about receipt of that letter. Both attendants attractions of a milkmaid. are way ahead of their master or mistress. 4.4 This scene reverses the usual pattern, 2.1 Finding Silvia's glove at the top of for here Launce begins the scene with the scene leads to Speed's comic his soliloquy about his dog's misbehavior anatomizing of Valentine as and his willingness to take the blame. a lover. Valentine is clueless Following this, Proteus enters, charging in both halves of the scene, his new "page" (Julia in disguise) to go even when Silvia returns, get the portrait from Silvia, which Julia and Speed must do all the does, finding an ally rather than a rival in explaining. Silvia. Julia's soliloquy ends the scene, and it is worthwhile to compare Launce's 2.2/2.3/2.4 Proteus's and Julia's soliloquies here. Misbehavior leavetaking from Julia by both Crab and Proteus is apparent and is followed by Launce's parallel. description of his family and Things to Consider or Compare their tearful farewell, with • Proteus's soliloquies—how good a much focus on his seemingly fight does he put up to remain loyal in unweeping dog. Launce friendship and love? What proves stronger apparently loves the dog more for him? Why? than the dog loves him. • Loyal love (Silvia, Valentine, Julia) versus Also watch how 2.3 sets up disloyal love (Proteus). But how loyal are issues of affection and loyalty In 2.1, Valentine is not interested the "loyal lovers" to their other obligations/ that will begin to arise in 2.4. in the glove Speed hands him until loyalties—such as to parents, who at their he realizes it is Silvia's; then Speed social station in the Renaissance should 2.4/2.5 Proteus's arrival in Milan and meeting catalogues Valentine as a lover— arrange their marriages? Are they entirely something Valentine thought was Valentine and Silvia is followed by Launce different from Proteus? secret. (Sir John Gilbert) and Crab's arrival in Milan and meeting • Launce's and Julia's soliloquies in 4.4 with Speed. • Valentine betrayed by Proteus in Milan and then captured by outlaws in the forest • Are the outlaws threatening or comic? What are the implications of each choice? Are Valentine and Proteus also "outlaws" in some sense? • The urban setting vs. the forest setting with its outlaws—what kind of values rule each environment? 5 The Two Gentlemen of Verona by William Shakespeare Verona's Two Young Gentlemen: An Overview

The title of the play invites us to compare Honor versus Love? Gentleman—a man of good the title characters and to assess their gentility. • Silvia provokes a crisis of loyalty for each breeding and social standing, The Basis for Judgment young man. Though not the Duke's such as a noble; a well-bred, • So what is the standard by which we judge? favored suitor for his daughter, Valentine well-educated, well-mannered In the Renaissance, to be a gentleman plans to elope with Silvia, despite his man; a man with an independent was to have high social status; one was pledged loyalty to the Duke. He plans income who does not work for "genteel," an untitled aristocrat. to rob the Duke of his daughter and his a living. Such a one was educated to be able to paternal right to choose. advise the monarch or serve the state, to Proteus meets Silvia and is a goner. She is be a magistrate, and also to master the aristocratic, sophisticated, and gorgeous; "He after honor hunts; military arts, chivalry, and the fine arts—to Julia suddenly seems a bit gauche, still pretty but not this cover girl. I after love.…" be a Renaissance man; that was the ideal. So Proteus plunges into a double crisis —Proteus, 1.1 • In point of fact, the "gentlemen" at Queen Elizabeth's court often behaved with a of fidelity—to friend and beloved—and ruthlessness and self-interest equal to any chooses to betray them both, becoming a political establishment now in existence. self-interested manipulator, a machiavel in The variable nature of the court's values the making. For Discussion was a frequent subject for the pens of Valentine trusts Proteus with his elopement • Given the quotation above, Renaissance poets. Under Henry VIII, plan, then Proteus slyly reveals this plan can one legitimately pursue Sir Thomas Wyatt's "Mine Own John to the Duke, his "advice" being selfish. love without also pursuing Poins" describes a court where flattery Valentine is duly banished, and Proteus honor in the Renaissance and role-playing too often cover vice and begins to woo Silvia. or today? Does/should love greed. So while the ideal of the court is to • Silvia is our first in-play evaluator of the two preclude or supplant honor? be educated and honorably fulfilled, the gentlemen—she is faithful to her beloved actuality can be corrupting, in real life and and scorns Proteus's duplicity to both his in drama, either because of the court or friend and his hometown beloved. because of the nature of the courtiers • So each of the young gentlemen fails in his who attend there. loyalty to the prince he ostensibly serves— The Play's Case Study because he is actually dedicated to • Our play's gentlemen are young and serving a "princess," Silvia. Love overrides are about to take the next step in their their other expected loyalties, princely or gentlemanly education, going to the court. paternal, and we must decide if this is valid They avow their firm friendship as or if passion and self-interest guide them. Valentine leaves for Milan to begin his Proteus also fails Julia, his first love; he is career as a courtier, to earn a "place," unfaithful on all counts. gaining that first valuable opportunity to Valentine grows and evolves during the play, win friends and influence people. Later, gaining leadership and clarity of purpose Proteus's father also sends him to Milan as he begins to reform the outlaws who to curry the gentlemanly arts. capture him, finally gaining ducal acclaim. • Both young men also get a second Proteus devolves, following his baser, more (and, ideally, complementary) education selfish and lustful impulses, and shows by falling in love, Proteus with Julia in himself to be disloyal and undeserving— Verona, whom he leaves with a vow of an "outlaw" in spirit. Being discovered earnest fidelity, and Valentine with the and his assault on Silvia prevented by his Duke's daughter Silvia in Milan. friend reminds him of the ideal, for Silvia Once in love, each young man also gets a could not chide him into recognition or scene with Speed, whose spry wit shows shame, nor Julia's efforts get him to think. up their love-blindness. His comment, Only Valentine's strong presence and Walter Crane's 1857 version "You are metamorphosed with a mistress" sharp judgment finally clarify Proteus's of the leavetaking between Proteus describes both young men's state; love is emotions and allow a double forgiveness. and Valentine. Note that Proteus is changing each in unpredicable ways. Gentlemen, courtiers, lovers, outlaws, (suggestively?) the darker clad figure, husbands—the route to maturity becomes wearing striped/bicolor tights—he the route to happiness as the two suffer shows more than one "color"—and their way through to win faithful wives. he's bent. Good character drawing? 6 The Two Gentlemen of Verona by William Shakespeare Defining "Gentleman" in the Text

Watch how the play defines the idea and • When asked about Proteus in 2.4, Valentine values of being called a gentleman: praises him to the Duke: Valentine: I know him as myself… [He hath] • in 1.1, Valentine cites travel as education Made use and fair advantage of his days; and experience: His years but young, but his experience old; "I rather would entreat thy company His head unmellowed, but his judgment ripe. "He cannot be a perfect To see the wonders of the world abroad" And in a word… He is complete in feature and in mind man, • in 1.3 Proteus's father Antonio and his With all good grace to grace a gentleman. Not being tried and attendant Panthino discuss Proteus's Duke: Beshrew me, sir, but if he make this tutored in the world." future possibilities: good, —Proteus's father, 1.3 Panthino: [You] suffer him to spend his youth He is as worthy for an empress' love at home, As meet to be an emperor's counselor. While other men, of slender reputation, Put forth their sons to seek preferment out: The qualities Valentine mentions which Some to the wars, to try their fortune there, in Proteus seem to belie his youth Some to discover islands far away, are experience and judgment, and Some to the studious universities…. his completeness and grace seem Antonio: … I have considered well his loss of commendable. The Duke sees such traits time, as worthy both of state service and of a And how he cannot be a perfect man, noble marriage (the very kind of woman Not being tried and tutored in the world.… Valentine now loves and longs for). Panthino: …[at the court] shall he practice tilts and tournaments, ­• Compare the Duke's comment above with Hear sweet discourse, converse with noble his view of Valentine at the play's end: men, I do applaud thy spirit, Valentine, And be the eye of every exercise And think thee worthy of an empress' love. Worthy his youth and nobleness of birth. Know then I here forget all former griefs, These comments give us some sense of what Cancel all grudge, repeal thee home again, adults perceive the proper experience for Plead a new state in thy unrivaled merit, young nobles to have in gaining favor. To which I thus subscribe: Sir Valentine, Thou art a gentleman and well derived. Take thou thy Silvia, for thou hast deserved her.

So Valentine's shortcomings of loyalty toward the Duke are forgiven and he is found wothy of place and marriage by being called a gentleman.

• The subplot shifts from the adventures of Crab the dog paralleling Proteus to a different comparison—to outlaws in the forest. When Valentine invents a wild deed to bluff the outlaws, they proclaim: "This fellow were a king for our wild faction!" and Speed advises Valentine: "be one of them. / It's an honorable kind of thievery."

The oxymoron of "honorable thievery" includes Valentine's proposed elopement "Gentlemanly" outlaws in the and Proteus's upcoming seizure of forest—ready for reformation? Silvia. At the end, Valentine asks that the (Sir John Gilbert) gentlemen/outlaws be forgiven because they (too?) are reformed. How? 7 The Two Gentlemen of Verona by William Shakespeare The Ideal of Friendship in the Renaissance and in the Play As in many cultures today, in Renaissance Betrayal and Forgiveness England the standard route to the altar for most Where Valentine is inclusive with his A good fellowship (or middle-class and all aristocratic youth was an relationships in Milan, Proteus is selfish. He society) is one that fosters arranged marriage, that is, a business alliance re-casts his friend as a rival (despite Silvia's 'friendship' in all of its between families agreed on by the fathers—not insistence that she loves only Valentine) and by the spouses to be. (Only Puritans and the changes from friend to an adolescent version senses. lower class had companionate marriage.) A of Iago. How can a romantic comedy sustain —Aristotle, marriage, thus, was a business deal, and love, such a character? He calls himself a lover, but Nicomachean Ethics if it occurred—which was not expected—would that term does not describe the emotions he be a bonus. Erotic love was considered unstable feels. He betrays his friend, putting himself and fickle, no fit basis for so important a bond first; the ideal crashes and burns in him—and as marriage. so, ultimately, will he, for his protest is: "In love / "You cannot compare with Who respects friend?" (5.4)—a question he and friendship the passion men feel So where did one find a soul mate if not in marriage? In friendship—the only close personal Valentine will answer differently. Thus he fails for women.… I must admit the others and he fails himself; he is lost. flames of passion are more relationship one could choose for oneself. In active, sharp and keen. But that the Renaissance, friendship was considered a His failure becomes the challenge for fire is a rash one.… higher form of human affection than erotic love; others. How does one respond to a friend's it was disinterested, platonically pure, capable betrayal? Valentine tongue-lashes him: Friendship "is a matter of teaching selflessness. As it was considered Thou common friend, that's without faith or love, of the mind, with our souls "a supreme achievement of the human spirit, For such is a friend now. Treacherous man, being purified by practising it must transcend humanity's all-too-common Thou hast beguil'd my hopes; nought but mine it.… [our] souls are mingled penchant for rivalry and ingratitude." eye and confounded in so universal Could have persuaded me: now I dare not a blending that they efface "Friendship is … seen as an institution that say the seam which joins them enables man to develop his mental and moral I have one friend alive; thou wouldst disprove together.… Not only did I know his potential to the highest possible degree" and me. thus offers an example for ordering all human Who should be trusted now, when one's right mind as well as I knew my own but relationships. In the Renaissance the word lover hand I would have entrusted myself was often used non-sexually as a synonym for Is perjured to the bosom? Proteus, to him with greater assurance friend, and Shakespeare so uses it in several I am sorry I must never trust thee more, than to myself." But count the world a stranger for thy sake. of his plays. —Montaigne, Essays The private wound is deepest: O time most Today's popular culture values friendship in accurst, a similar way—consider the mass of buddy films 'Mongst all foes that a friend should be the involving soldiers, worst! (5.4) cops, cowboys, or Valentine shows him what he has become vagabonds and and rescinds his trust, the deepest bond they the tight bond that have. Now Proteus is truly alone, lost. To whom forms when men should he turn? Who will help him? Shamed grow up or face crisis and guilty, he repents and asks his friend to together. Two Gents forgive him. In this reverse test, what should is a buddy play, and Valentine do? Can he or should he embrace the crisis is not war the snake who betrayed him and his beloved? but love, though Living up to the ideal, Valentine finds he can Proteus seems to credit repentance, follow the divine model, and turn it into a guerrilla accept a changed Proteus, a Proteus now, we conflict. hope, in his "true nature." Valentine's last line in this sequence is The forgiveness moment in 5.4 by the kicker for scholars and directors, though: William Holman "All that was mine in Silvia I give thee." What? Hunt (1851). Is this After all this? But that is, in fact, the classical Valentine giving model of the friendship bond, to give one's life Silvia away? or beloved for one's friend. Silvia has no line, Quotations from David Bevington's introduction to the play in The but Julia seizes the moment by swooning, thus Complete Works of William Shakespeare, 4th ed. (HarperCollins, instigating the final revelation and reintegration 1992) and Kurt Schleuter's introduction to the New Cambridge edition of the play (1990). of Proteus. Good timing! 8 The Two Gentlemen of Verona by William Shakespeare Metamorphosis: The Power of Love—and Desire

Ovid's Metamorphoses, tales of the mythic transformations wrought by love (Daphne into a laurel tree; Pygmalion's statue brought to life) was one of Shakespeare's favorite sources, but he didn't need Ovid to tell him that love changes "In love a man or woman or to acknowledge that love itself is changeable, for such insights are the Who respects friend?" basis of most of his romantic comedies. —Proteus, 5.4 In Two Gents, the idea of metamorphosis is introduced early in each gentleman's experience Proteus with love. In 1.1, after much teasing from reading Julia's Valentine, Proteus admits: declaration of love (Sir John He leaves his friends, to dignify them more; Gilbert). Is I leave myself, my friends, and all, for love: Proteus always Thou, Julia, thou hast metamorphos'd me… secretive? and in so saying speaks more prophetically than he knows, though the changes that Julia has Likewise, in 2.1 Speed describes how Valentine has changed, concluding, "now you Shakespeare's Proteus wrought are incidental to those that love—or desire—will wreak in him. He will, indeed, leave are metamorphosed with a mistress, that when • Young Proteus certainly takes himself, his friend, and all for what he calls love. I look on you, I can hardly think you my master." a number of emotional shapes Proteus's name itself suggests his Through the play Valentine grows from the love- in the course of the action. metamorphic proclivity, for Proteus is the name sick courtier of 2.1 to a thwarted eloper, then to Does Julia, by her love and of a minor Greek sea god (Homer describes the kind of man the outlaws immediately want loyalty, "hold him until he takes him as a servant of Poseidon) who is able to follow and the hero who saves his beloved his true shape," a man loyal to to take many shapes, but if held until he took from harm and confronts Sir Thurio's claim, beloved and friend again? Or his true shape, he would answer questions. impressing the Duke. Proteus's arc is less do we see him as an immature We are meant to expect changeability from this heroic, though he may learn as much the hard and irresponsible jerk, and is character—his name immediately alerts us to his way: "O heaven, were man / But constant, he that his true shape? nature. If this "Proteus" is a lover, we might well were perfect. That one error / Fills him with faults expect the worst, and Shakespeare complies. …./ What is in Silvia's face but I may spy / More fresh in Julia's, with a constant eye." Indeed.

(above) The outlaws ask newly captured Valentine to lead them; (right) Valentine saves Silvia from Proteus's advances (note the parallel sword angles Sir John Gilbert chooses; given the sword, notice how Valentine uses it—might for right) 9 The Two Gentlemen of Verona by William Shakespeare Evaluation and Choice: Proteus's Soliloquies

Analyzing Proteus • Soliloquy #1 / 1.1.64-70 Once alone, Proteus confesses Silvia • Would Proteus behave the Proteus compares his love pursuits to has made him forget Julia. He asks why—my way he does if he had Valentine's apparently more honorable, courtly eye, Valentine's praise, Silvia's perfection, "or stayed at home? Is this like pursuits in Milan—love versus honor. He feels my false transgression"? Look at the order; his "freshman freedom" diminished by the contrast: "I leave myself, my on some level he knows where this is going. at college? Is it "the real friends, and all, for love." The loss of self in He compares the women, but his former love Proteus," or is it influences? love can be enriching or depleting; Proteus at is melted (note all the heat imagery here and • Is love part of his gentlemanly the moment feels the latter, for he says he has love as waxen/meltable) and so is his loyalty to honor, a noble pursuit in neglected his studies, lost his time, warred with his friend. He also plays with the "love is blind" Proteus's eyes, or do his counsel, set his future at naught, weakened his concept, ending, "If I can check my erring love, "eyes" lead his choice, wit, and become heartsick, a series of negative I will; / If not, to compass her I'll use my skill." changing with each new diction choices. What should we conclude Given that couplet, how hard is he going to beauty he spies? Or does from this wording? try to check his new feelings? he want Silvia because Yet he pursues Julia, and when Speed Valentine has her? What complains of not getting his anticipated payoff • Soliloquy #4 / top of 2.6 percent of his love is for delivering the letter, Proteus also feels he is One short scene later, Proteus is back desire/lust, what percent not getting his anticipated payoff for his love (a realizing he will be forsworn and considering admiration of virtue, what feeling he sustains throughout the play). his various oaths to Valentine and Julia. He percent rivalry? explains or excuses his feeling with "Love bade • In courtly love the lady's • me swear, and Love bids me forswear." For 26 spiritual perfection inspires Soliloquy #2 / end of 1.3 This brief speech reacts to the thwarting lines he weighs and debates, but by line 27 he the knight/lover to do great of his new joy, for he reads Julia's love letter has decided and chooses a course of action, deeds. What great deeds just as his father decides to send him to Milan. betrayal of his friend. In facing a "threefold does Proteus's "love" inspire His fear of expressing his love and having it perjury," he "reasons" that Julia was a star him to? Do his deeds show dismissed—and his consequent lie about the but Silvia the sun (a stronger Petrarchan love the nature of his "love"? letter—has only destroyed his love another image), though he cannot quite sanction his • How carefully and virtuously way, not by burning, he says, but by drowning. urge to call Julia "bad" in calling Silvia "better." does Proteus consider his Knowing "I leave [cease] to love where I conflicting emotions and His love will, indeed, drown, but is that should love," he weighs the cost: "Julia I lose, loyalties? Does he put a deluge of his own making? and Valentine I lose," but "If I keep them, I up a good fight? mount needs must lose myself." This is the crux for a reasoned debate? • Soliloquy #3 / end of 2.4 Proteus—he will not sacrifice himself nor his What values underpin his Having met Silvia in Milan and learned of desires for another; he betrays the core value "reasoning"? Are those the Valentine's requited love, his betrothal to her, of friendship and loyal love, instead proclaiming, values of nobility, friendship, and their planned elopement, Proteus expresses "I to myself am dearer than a friend." Thus he and love? his confllicted reaction. The only hint we might chooses to think Julia dead and Valentine an • How emotionally mature is pick up in the preceding dialogue is, after calling enemy as he proceeds to "treachery." Proteus? Why do you think Silvia a "worthy mistress" (standard courtly love so? rhetoric), we get: He knows the result of betraying his friend will be Valentine's banishment, but Valentine Silvia: Servant, you are welcome to is his major rival for Silvia; he is confident he a worthless mistress. can thwart Thurio. So he invokes Love in an Proteus: I'll die on him that says so unholy prayer: "Love, lend me wings to make but yourself. my purpose swift, / As thou hast lent me wit to Silvia: That you are welcome? plot this drift." Is it really Love's fault, not his? Proteus: That you are worthless. Still courtly love rhetoric, but modern video might underscore it with "uh oh, • Soliloquy #5 / top of 4.2 trouble brewing" music. Would you? The plan isn't working out as he intended. He has access to Silvia, but she, "too fair, too true, too holy," rejects his false vows. Yet, he Launce lists his beloved's says, engaging the dog parallel in the plot, virtues and faults in practical "spaniel-like, the more she spurns my love, / terms, almost a spoof of Proteus's decision-making about love The more it grows and fawneth on her still." His (Sir John Gilbert) plot has succeeded in betraying love but not in winning love—what's a dog to do? 10 The Two Gentlemen of Verona by William Shakespeare Identity and Love: Valentine's Soliloquies

The Courtly Love Ideal The Duke's parting word upon banishing In the Renaissance courtly love tradition, Valentine is "as thou lov'st thy life, make speed which based its values on the image of chivalry, from hence" (3.1). Stunned Valentine begins to the beloved lady is a spiritual ideal, virtuous process this cataclysmic change: and pure, and by faithfully serving her without And why not death rather than living the corrupting force of sexual desire, the man torment? himself can grow toward the ideal, become a To die is to be banished from myself, better man. And Silvia is myself. Banished from her The beloved is the "guiding star" to the Is self from self—a deadly banishment! lover's "wand'ring bark [ship]," the deer/dear He will die physically, be put to death, if he Valentine vs. Romeo when that he hunts or pursues, her eyes the sun that stays, but he realizes he will die emotionally if Banished illuminates his life. Much of the love imagery in he leaves.He tries to fathom life without Silvia: • Compare 3.1 of Two Gents the play is related to or plays off of the courtly What light is light, if Silvia be not seen? from the Duke's banishment love tradition, just as Launce's list describing What joy is joy, if Silvia be not by? speech through Valentine's his beloved milkmaid's traits is also a comic Unless it be to think that she is by exit after talking with Proteus commentary on the courtly love attributes given And feed upon the shadow of perfection. to 3.3 of Romeo and Juliet women (he would appreciate "Sonnet 130"). Except I be by Silvia in the night, between Friar Laurence, Valentine is the primary voice of courtly love There is no music in the nightingale; Romeo, and the Nurse. How values and imagery in the play, though Proteus Unless I look on Silvia in the day, is the sentence described, tries to match him when he woos Silvia in his There is no day for me to look upon. how does the young man desperate rhetoric as the unrequited lover, the She is my essence, and I leave to be respond, what counsel is he usual plight of the courtly love speaker in poetry. If I be not by her fair influence given? Fostered, illumined, cherished, kept alive. • The Banishment Soliloquy, 3.1 He recognizes that his life is joined and While Proteus's secret betrayal emerges wedded to Silvia's now, whether or not they are in his soliloquies, Valentine's officially married, a union he sought in the now secret—or not-so-secret— thwarted elopement. While we may uncharitably love for Silvia comes out in hear the echo of adolescent hormones and dialogue with both Silvia and reactive extremity in his words, he is speaking Speed. Requited love is not a the ideal language of courtly love, the spiritual spiritual crisis but a fulfillment bond—"she is my essence." She is the influence for Valentine; his crisis doesn't that makes him the man he wants to be, a man occur until he is banished, until he does not believe he can be without her. At he is separated from Silvia this moment he sees the situation completely and his love seemingly denied opposite to the Duke's parting view, for Valentine forever. Now he registers how knows that "fly I hence, I fly away from life." his sense of himself and his soul have been changed by • Valentine's Forest Soliloquy, top of 5.4 love and how much of his very Courtly love rhetoric is more than words for being Silvia is. Valentine, for he actually considers Silvia to be his inspiration and guide. As an "outlaw" in the forest without her, he calls himself a tenantless mansion, "growing ruinous" (a shell and not a being), and beseeches her unseen, "Repair me Valentine being given back with thy presence, Silvia." the love letter he Her virtue and purity continue to call forth wrote for Silvia— his better self, values which now he uses to curb the moment just his "mates [the gentleman/outlaws], that make before he learns their wills their law" so as to "keep them from his love is requited uncivil outrages"—which is the perfect cue for (Louis Rhead). Proteus's entry with rescued Silvia, for Proteus now wants to make his will his law with an uncivil outrage center stage, an impulse Valentine will thwart and "curb" on the spot. 11 The Two Gentlemen of Verona by William Shakespeare Renaissance Sonnets on Love, Desire, and Friendship

• Notice the theme of "Sonnet LOVE Sonnet 110 by William Shakespeare 116," that love does not Sonnet 116 by William Shakespeare change—the opposite of Alas, 'tis true I have gone here and there Proteus and his protean Let me not to the marriage of true minds And made myself a motley to the view, "love," which is more likely Admit impediments; love is not love Gored mine own thoughts, sold cheap what is desire—part lust and part Which alters when it alteration finds, most dear, competitiveness. On the Or bends with the remover to remove: Made old offenses of affections new. other hand, "Sonnet 110" O, no, it is an ever-fixèd mark, Most true it is that I have looked on truth could be Proteus's Act 5 That looks on tempests and is never shaken; Askance and strangely; but, by all above, apologia sonnet to Julia. It is the star to every wand'ring bark, Whose worth's unknown, although his height These blenches gave my heart another youth, Renaissance Definitions: be taken. And worse essays proved thee my best of love. Shakespeare 116: Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and Now all is done, have what shall have no end: l. 5—mark = lighthouse or beacon cheeks Mine appetite I never more will grind l. 8—height taken = sextant image Within his bending sickle's compass come; On newer proof, to try an older friend, l. 9— Fool = plaything Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, A god in love, to whom I am confined. l. 12—doom = Judgment Day But bears it out even to the edge of doom. Then give me welcome, next my heaven the best, Shakespeare 110: If this be error and upon me proved, l. 2.—motley = jester I never writ, nor no man ever loved. Even to thy pure and most most loving breast. l. 4—affections = passions l. 5—truth = fidelity DESIRE Thou Blind Man's Mark by Sir Philip Sidney l. 6—strangely = coldly Sonnet 37 by Edmund Spenser l. 7—blenches = turnings Thou blind man's mark, thou fool's self-chosen l. 8—worst essays = trying lesser What guile is this, that those her golden snare, loves l. 10—grind = whet tresses, Fond fancy's scum, and dregs of scattered l. 11—try = test She doth attire under a net of gold: thought, And with sly skills so cunningly them dresses, Band of all evils, cradle of causeless care, That which is gold or hair, may scarce be told? Thou web of will, whose end is never wrought— Spenser: (spelling modernized) Is it that men's frail eyes, which gaze too bold, l. 3—sly = clever She may entangle in that golden snare: Desire, desire! I have too dearly bought, l. 13— fondness = foolishness And being caught may craftily enfold With price of mangled mind, thy worthless ware; Their weaker hearts, which are not well Too long, too long asleep thou hast me brought, Sidney: aware? Who should my mind to higher things prepare. l. 1—mark = target l. 3—band = swaddling band (links Take heed therefore, mine eyes, how ye do to cradle) stare But yet in vain thou hadst my ruin sought; l. 13—hire = reward Henceforth too rashly on that guileful net, In vain thou madest me to vain things aspire; In which if ever ye entrappèd are, In vain thou kindlest all thy smoky fire; Out of her bands ye by no means shall get. For virtue hath this better lesson taught— Fondness it were for any being free, Within myself to seek my only hire, To covet fetters, though they golden be. Desiring nought but how to kill desire.

FRIENDSHIP Shakespeare: Sonnet 29 by William Shakespeare Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising, l. 1—disgrace = disfavor Haply I think on thee, and then my state l. 3—bootless = futile When, in disgrace with Fortune and men's (Like to the lark at break of day arising l. 7—art/ scope = skill/ ability eyes, From sullen earth) sings hymns at heaven's l. 10—state = state of mind I all alone beweep my outcast state, gate; (l. 14 includes political sense) And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless For thy sweet love remembered such wealth cries, brings And look upon myself and curse my fate, That then I scorn to change my state with kings. Also see Shakespeare's Wishing me like to one more rich in hope, sonnets 29, 30, 34-36, 42, Featured like him, like him with friends Sonnet 30, parallel to 29, states the addressee 62, 87, 96, 108, 109, 111 possessed, in the couplet: Desiring this man's art and that man's scope, But if the while I think on thee, dear friend, With what I most enjoy contented least; All losses are restored and sorrows end. 12 The Two Gentlemen of Verona by William Shakespeare Julia and Silvia: The Loyal Ladies Who Love

In Shakespeare's romantic comedies, women often drive the action—Portia, the Song (4.2) French princess and her ladies, the merry wives, Who is Silvia? What is she Rosalind, and Olivia and Viola. Others who find That all our swains commend themselves driven—Katherina, Adriana, Titania, her? Beatrice—are the spice of the action. It's hard Holy, fair, and wise is she, to have a romantic comedy without some smart The heaven such grace did and witty girls with hearts! lend her, In Two Gents, Julia considers her options, That she might admired be. asking Lucetta, "Wouldst thou then counsel me to fall in love?" (One wonders how she Is she kind as she is fair? might answer that question near the end of the For beauty lives with kindness. play.) The lady and her maid then engage in Love doth to her eyes repair, one of Shakespeare's favorite comic games To help him of his blindness; for women—evaluating the list of suitors— And, being help'd, inhabits which shows that the women are aware of the there. mating game and its consequences. Julia asks Lucetta to assess the suitors, "In thy opinion Then to Silvia let us sing, which is worthiest love?" Given the criterion That Silvia is excelling; of worthiness, one suitor she calls "fair," one She excels each mortal thing "rich," Lucetta yet finding both unworthy. Proteus Upon the dull earth dwelling. is called "gentle," which can mean tender or To her let us garlands bring. genteel, well-born, and Lucetta favors him. But he has not yet declared himself as the others The song matches have, so Julia wonders if few words mean little Lucetta delivers Proteus's love letter to Julia Valentine's earlier praise that (Walter Crane, 1857) love: "I would I knew his mind" (and she's still Silvia is "divine." Here Silvia is wondering near the end of the play), just as praised for beauty and for virtue Lucetta delivers his love letter. (which some sonneteers call "true her father, outlaws, and Proteus, in that order, in beauty"). In fact, both Julia and Silvia are introduced an effort to find and marry banished Valentine. by means of a love letter in this play—Julia is These two loyal, loving women are teased until she shreds Proteus's letter tormented by their situations: Silvia by a lover and then has to read the gratifying denied and banished while she is beset by scraps, while Silvia, trying to get unwanted wooers; Julia eagerly seeking her Valentine to declare himself, requires love via a disguise and then trapped as a him to write a letter proclaiming her love. page serving Proteus's love for Silvia. When Confused, he complies, becoming more challenged, both women put on a cloak and hit confused when she delivers the letter the road to pursue their loves. back to him, to Speed's vast amusement. Yet in Silvia Julia finds a true friend because Both women have other wooers, but they a faithful lover; Silvia rejects Proteus, leaving want one of the gentlemen from Verona. Julia to look at Silvia's picture and wonder what While Proteus fears parental Proteus sees in her. Like a faithful dog (the problems about a match with Julia image appears everywhere in the play, thanks to for reasons that are never explained, Crab), she follows Proteus even into the forest. Silvia knows all too well what she faces. Love can cost us our dignity as well as our Her father, the Duke, has already said emotional stability and self-respect at times, he favors, the dull, rich Sir Thurio—a but Silvia and Julia remain true, loyal, and classic Mr. Wrong among comic wooers. committed, and at the end are rewarded with the Valentine is not as rich, but also not as men they love and, we hope, a happy ever after. conceited or foolish. She chooses the "Silvia" by Edwin Austin Abbey one she considers to be the better man (1899) and stays true to him, first braving elopement, and when that falls through, fleeing the court, 13 The Two Gentlemen of Verona by William Shakespeare Girls Disguised as Boys—Then and Now

In Shakespeare's time, Engish acting Julia is the first in this line, just as Two companies were all-male—boys and men Gents may be the first in Shakespeare’s long played all the roles. A young boy in the line of romantic comedies. After these plays, 1590s who was an apprentice with the Shakespeare's comedy moves to tragicomedy Lord Chamberlain’s Men not only got to and eventually to the adventure-and-reunion study the art and craft of acting by living plays known as romances, where again in and working with a professional actor, but Cymbeline Imogen disguises herself as a boy. also got to perform some of the greatest In the modern theatre, these roles are female roles ever written. The irony that played by women, so the page disguise is often these roles were written for and played by transparent (we can see it's a girl) as it would pre-pubescent boys is not lost on modern not have been in the Renaissance, undermining actresses or scholars. Shakespeare's metatheatrical joke. In several comedies, Shakespeare Julia’s Experience used the male-actor identity of his female Julia's disguise protects her as she travels characters as an “in” joke with his audience, alone to another city. Travel, as Valentine and shifting the "girls" into male disguise and Silvia also both learn in the play, is fraught with out again as necessity demanded. To dangers. Julia no sooner puts on the disguise, have a boy actor disguised as a "boy" however, than it traps her, as it does all of was perfect; no one on stage or off could Shakespeare’s cross-dressing heroines, for tell he wasn't a boy. The actual "disguise" she finds her beloved desperately in love with was his role as a young woman. Julia in another woman. He doesn’t even look at his Two Gentlemen of Verona, Jessica, Portia, new page closely enough to realize who it is. and Nerissa in The Merchant of Venice, Her love is challenged by betrayal—should she Rosalind in As You Like It, and Viola in just tell him off and go home, or should she Walter Crane's illustration of Twelfth Night all adopt a male disguise. trust her commitment and stay true to it? the page (Julia) meeting Silvia Renaissance Identity and Clothes Far more even than in our world of utero made theirs external and visible, while "It is the lesser blot modesty conspicuous display, Renaissance society women's inferior, "less hot" nature kept theirs finds, considered one's clothing as the key to one's internal and invisible. Women were considered Women to change their identity. Only a lord might wear silk, only royalty to be "imperfectly formed" men (male being shapes, than men their could wear purple or ermine, only the privileged the ideal for the Renaissance—have things minds." —Julia, 5.4 might wear spurs or jewels, servants wore changed?). So if the sexes were structured blue—England's sumptuary [clothing] laws analogously, the clothes make a huge difference were specific and clear.One need look only at in stating one's gender. Male dress equals the garment, the surface, to learn the essential a male; female dress equals a female. To truth of birth, status, and degree. transgress this code off stage caused ructions Seen but not Regarded Whereas in our world someone can choose and prompted sermons from the pulpit or • Proteus looks right at Julia to dress up or dress down, to dress goth or pillorying and imprisonment—especially if the wearing page's garb and preppy or grunge or jock whatever one's social person transgressed by dressing in the more does not recognize her. Is status, in the Renaissance one was supposed to privileged status of the male and took on that that possible? dress "properly," according to social station—so authority. Well, how often do we need of course everyone tried to dress better than attention at a restaurant and However, many of Shakespeare's disguised his or her actual status. As a result, Philip ask, "what does our waitress heroines, such as Julia and Viola (as Jean Stubbes protested in 1583 that when "every look like?" How often is the Howard argues of Viola), are not transgressive; one is permitted to flaunt it out, in what apparell person at the checkout ter- they wear masculine apparel not to act out (or he lust [chooses] himselfe … it is verie hard to minal a function rather than "up") but for temporary safety. They know they knowe, who is noble, who is worshipfull, who a face? Do we always "see" are female, which is what they want to be; we is a gentleman, who is not." other people? Who do we meet them first in female apparel. They want see and who don't we "see" Regarding gender, the Renaissance Proteus's or Orsino's love, but each disguised during a day? Why? viewed human biology as more or less unisex, page confronts a beloved female, Silvia or Olivia, all having the same analogously shaped sexual and must negotiate the fact that her beloved equipment, but men's superior "heat" even in loves this other woman. 14 The Two Gentlemen of Verona by William Shakespeare Julia's Soliloquies

Soliloquies 1 and 2 / 1.2 Julia first asks the key question, "How many Analyzing Julia Having just heard Speed's witplay about women would do such a message?" Yes, and • Julia starts off giddy and girly, delivering Proteus's love letter to Julia, we now how many would just claw out his eyes on the but she toughens up as the get the flip side of the relationship and Julia's spot? She first calls herself "a fox" in addressing play proceeds. When she receipt of the letter. Because Lucetta took the the task, but cannot maintain the role, because decides to set out for Milan, letter in Julia's name, Julia momentarily feels she pities him—and "Because I love him, I must she calls herself a "pilgrim." misused and conspired against and so refuses pity him." What does that image Proteus's letter. We may want to spell "co-dependent" at suggest about her love? Left alone, truth and honesty emerge—she this point, but the values of friendship and love • When Julia arrives in Milan wants to read the letter. Caught between trying in the play make self-sacrifice a virtue, and she sees Proteus wooing to maintain modesty while feeling "inward joy," throughout this soliloquy Julia debates self and Silvia with a song. We watch she talk herself into calling Lucetta back. The love, sense and Proteus: her heart break as she sprightly monologue is a more innocent, comic I am my master's true-confirmèd love, realizes he doesn't love her version of Proteus's later, more sinister inner But cannot be true servant to my master any more, and we watch negotiations to convince himself to pursue his Unless I prove false traitor to myself. Proteus hurt when Silvia desires. Yet will I woo for him… rejects him. How should Having gotten the letter, Lucetta teases so every time she debates, love and Proteus Julia respond when Proteus her and she shreds it Then she must try win—as vows and Julia never do in Proteus's tells Silvia his former love is to piece it together from the fragments (an soliloquies. The contrast is telling. dead? interesting parallel to Proteus's actions in the As she approaches her task, she • Valentine and Proteus play—Shakespeare is quite skilled at giving us acknowledges its contradictory nature: call themselves Silvia's early, simple cognates for later, more weighty To plead for that which I would not obtain, "servants"; Julia calls herself issues and actions). Here she punishes her own To carry that which I would have refused, Sebastian and actually name when she finds it written and embraces To praise his faith which I would have serves Proteus. What does any instance of Proteus's name, kissing it and dispraised…. this "service" mean? holding it to her heart. These may seem giddy unaware that she will get her wish (even though • She confuses letters when responses, but in fact she does hold the idea she apparently heard Silvia tell off this "subtle, with Silvia and then of Proteus near her heart throughout the play. perjured, false, disloyal man" at her window). confuses rings at the end of the play with Proteus. Is she Silvia tears the love letter (women are hard Soliloquies 3 and 4 / 4.4 on Proteus's love letters in this play) and refuses just ditzy or is more going on By 4.4 Julia is in Milan disguised as in these exchanges? the ring. Then, when Sebastian confesses to Sebastian, having arrived just in time to observe knowing Julia, Silvia questions him about Julia's Proteus wooing Silvia at her window. Now beauty, and Julia bravely answers, "She, in my Proteus has hired this new page to serve judgment, was as fair as you," though disdainful him, his first task being to take a ring (the love has left her now "as black as I." very ring Julia gave him when they parted) In her final soliloquy, Julia affirms that and a love letter to Silvia and return with Silvia is "a virtuous gentlewoman, mild and her picture. Proteus does have enough beautiful," then compares her own looks with memory as he parts with the ring to say, Silvia's picture, trying to discover why Proteus "She loved me well delivered it to me." loves this other woman. Silvia wears a fancy headdress in the painting, and has auburn rather than blonde hair, but there's no major difference—"What should it be that he respects in her / But I can make respective in myself, / If this fond Love were not a blinded god?" She wants to be jealous, but cannot because Silvia was kind to her. Julia emerges as human but just and loving, trapped but true.

Julia in disguise, newly arrived in Milan, watches Proteus woo Siliva at her window (Louis Rhead) 15 The Two Gentlemen of Verona by William Shakespeare The Play's "Help": Speed, Launce, Lucetta, "Sebastian" Attendants such as pages and servants Proteus's Page in Milan have an important role in the history of romantic In meeting Speed, the audience sees comedy. Traditionally, they are often the the Renaissance witty page in action. It is schemers who get things done, and while that impossible for them to consider Launce a page; scarcely seems likely with a servant such as he is a servant, and the contrast between these Let's Not Forget Lucetta… Launce, only by acknowledging the classical attendants tells us much about the difference In a play called Two Gents, pattern can we fully appreciate the new pattern between the masters. Valentine has a "proper" it's easy to overlook the females, Shakespeare is creating here. attendant, a gentleman's page. Proteus has a but even among the help there's Verona's Male Attendants rustic, one who is loyal enough to offer his own a witty woman. Lucetta is the To be a servant in a comedy is to find misbehaving dog when Proteus's canine present female complement of Speed opportunities for banter and byplay. In Two for Silvia is stolen, but nonetheless a yokel (although her role can be played Gents, each leading man has an attendant, compared to Speed, who is himself well-born. young or older). She is knowing, but these are very different comic types. Yet Proteus does gain a proper page during wise, witty, and perceptive— Valentine has a page, Speed, whose name the action, one "Sebastian," who is actually she's on to Julia's games and alone describes his mental and verbal abilities. Shakespeare's first use of the girl-disguised-as- teasing her for playing hard to get. Being a page was part of the upbringing of a-boy gambit, and the disguise is naturally that of Julia's sudden tearing up of that an aristocratic child, so Speed is genteel and a page—the disguise easiest for a girl and much love letter may seem harsh, but played by a boy actor. He's a quick thinker, a the easiest for the Renaissance boy actor playing it is the quickest route to fun for quick talker, and a quick jokester. This kind of that girl, for now he's playing a boy again. Julia the scene and the most clarifying saucy page was made popular by John Lyly, as Sebastian proves to be a remarkably loyal for Julia's true feelings. who wrote for the boys' companies in the 1580s servant, though a bit preoccupied at times—she and whose comedies immediately preceded gives Silvia the wrong love letter (accidentally or Shakespeare's. Shakespeare clearly adopts on purpose?), she gives Proteus the wrong ring the witty page character in this and other plays. (accidentally or on purpose?), and yet she also On the other hand, Shakespeare also uses proves able to banter and observe her master the skills of one of the Elizabethan stage's great with a perception comparable to Speed's. comic actors, Will Kempe, to write another kind Julia's loyalty is tested to the limit in the of comic role, the slower-witted rustic known as forest when Proteus re-captures Silvia; the faint the clown (and in many of the original printings of and the confusion are not impossible for a boy the plays, the speech headings for Kempe's roles but more appropriate for the girl who has found simply read "Clown"). Kempe also apparently her love again betrayed. Just how good is that played such self-satisfied types as Bottom, disguise, and how close are the roles of page Launcelot Gobbo, and Dogberry. and girl in love? Launce is an adult, not a boy. Wit and intelligence are not beyond such a character, but they come at a different rate and from a different angle than Speed's do. The word play between Speed and Launce shows what an Richard Yates as Launce with Crab, as played at Drury Lane in effective comic team they 1762 (by Henry Roberts) are, the slower one often scoring at the expense of the quicker—here again the tortoise can best the hare. Compare Proteus's opening exchange with Speed to any dialogue between Speed and Launce to see this contrast. Henry James Haley's early 20th century illustration of Speed watching Valentine's confusion about the letter he wrote for Silvia 16 The Two Gentlemen of Verona by William Shakespeare The Comedy with the Cur

W. C. Fields himself decreed that an actor Panthino: Launce, away, away, should never perform with children or dogs. Any aboard.… you'll lose the actor playing Launce in Two Gents can tell us tide, if you tarry any longer. why, because he appears with Crab, the only Launce: It is no matter if the dog Shakespeare scripted into a play. Perhaps tied were lost, for it is the Will Kempe owned a dog which he trained for unkindest tied that ever any stage; perhaps there was another trained dog man tied. available—we do not know. But we do know Panthino: What's the unkindest that every director must decide what breed of tide? dog will best serve her production of Two Gents. Launce: Why, he that's tied Some breeds are more tractable on stage than here, Crab my dog. others, but most often shows seem to look for (2.3) a dog that in some way or another looks like In 2.2, Proteus has just "tied" Launce—a particularly long-faced Launce may himself with oaths to Julia, but have a wolfhound; a short, squat Launce a bull proves "unkind" himself in that terrier. (Or, as in the ASF tour, breed is incidental regard once he arrives in Milan— because the role is played by an actor.) he quickly "unties" himself and The relationship between Launce and Crab gets "lost." is intimate; in Launce's first scene Crab's lack Launce's homonymic of response to their leavetaking is the subject punning is standard clown of his narrative—everyone at home is sobbing, technique in Shakespeare; but not "cruel-hearted" Crab. Rodney Clark (Launce) with Pebbles Ann (Crab) in Launce is also given a number of Crab's real usefulness ASF's 2003 Two Gentlemen of Verona malapropisms—he likes words, if to the play, in addition to he only knew what they all meant. stealing every scene in which Behavior we can excuse in a dog we may he appears, is manifest have more trouble excusing in a human. Launce later in the action when will offer to be beaten in Crab's place, has stood in ASF Productions' Dog Tales Launce tells us that Crab the stocks for his dog's misdoings, and still loves • After extensive dog has misbehaved. Here is the cur. So we should not be surprised in the last auditions, which are a trip in the essential parallel, for the scene if Valentine and Julia also find a way to themselves, Kent Thompson only other misbehaving character is Proteus, forgive Proteus for his misdeeds. He's a cur, but had not found a Crab for who is apparently behaving like a dog—in they love him. Thus Launce and Crab provide the 1991 production of modern slang, like a "hound." Crab has grabbed a powerful and perhaps essential emotional Two Gents. A staff member a piece of meat off someone's plate and then cognate for the more difficult negotiation of happened to tie her new urinated under the table; he is also said to have audience response to Proteus and the responses pound-mutt briefly in urinated on Silvia's dress. All of those actions of Julia and Valentine—as Shakespeare knew, the hall, and after a cold are suggestive in terms of how Proteus behaves. we need another "dog" in this play. reading, a head scratch and Proteus tries to grab Valentine's girlfriend and bark check, Huckleberry then tries to molest her in the forest. The parallels was cast. He proved to be a are unmistakable. natural on stage, playing to the audience and stealing A Question every scene from his for the Ladies: Launce, once even dragging Does it matter the bench he was tied to how cute the across stage—ensuring all dog is if it pees eyes were on him. on your dress? • If the owner of Pebbles Ann, the 2003 Crab, was in the house, the dog could smell her owner's perfume and paid no attention at all to her Launce; she just tried to get to "mama." 17 The Two Gentlemen of Verona by William Shakespeare The Challenges of the Play's Last Scene

Shakespeare often makes his endings Proteus: O 'tis the curse in love, and still worth the wait, with a pile of newly dead bodies in approv'd, tragedy and a rush of recognition and matrimony When women cannot love where they're …Were man in comedy. But Two Gents torments readers belov'd. But constant, he were perfect. and producers alike because of silence. In the Silvia: When Proteus cannot love where he's —Proteus, 5.4 end, we expect a response from Silvia, and belov'd…. Shakespeare scripts nothing, not a word. How Thou counterfeit to thy true friend! does Silvia respond? With gesture, we suppose, Proteus: In love, but what gesture is not specified in the script. Who respects friend? In Two Gents, the last scene is away from Silvia: All men but Proteus. the civilities of the court and in the wilds of the Proteus: Nay, if the gentle spirit of moving forest, where outlaws prey on passersby and words baser instincts emerge. Valentine has agreed, Can no way change you to a milder form, under threat, to become the outlaws' leader and I'll woo you like a soldier, at arm's end, is in the process of reforming them. Proteus, And love you 'gainst the nature of love: once he enters the forest, also seems to behave force ye. like an outlaw or to let the idea of "outlawry" Silvia: O Heaven! define his actions. The outlaws use threat of Proteus: I'll force thee yield to my desire. violence and weaponry to gain their "prizes"; Valentine: Ruffian! Let go that rude uncivil Proteus, it seems, touch…. (5.4) in pursuing Silvia is also now willing to use Scholars often refer to this sequence as a violence to get what he "rape," and that is accurate if one remembers wants. Exactly what that rape originally meant "forcible seizure" happens Shakespeare rather than "sexual violation," although Proteus's leaves vague, after a ultimate goal is clearly sexual, as his allusion to telling exchange: soldiers shows. He has become, as Valentine calls him, a "ruffian." What does he do to Silvia and for how long? Why does Julia not intervene? Two versions of Valentine's rescue of These are the challenges a production must Siliva: top—by Angelina explain in the acting. Kaufmann (1789); below— Another, perhaps even larger challenge by Gordon Browne in awaits Silvia, if being forcibly seized by Proteus a much more dynamic rendition. were not challenge enough. In accepting Proteus's apology, presumably heartfelt, Valentine ends with "All that was mine in Silvia I give thee," which cues Julia's swoon. But Silvia says nothing; she has no more lines for the rest of the play. Any woman might be struck dumb by such a line—is Valentine really giving her away, as it sounds, or is he simply avowing the depth of his friendship for Proteus, as an honorable man might? Is she, like Julia, betrayed at the end? If so, there must be a double reconciliation; if she is not betrayed, only the stage action can make that clear, so look sharp! In all his romances,Shakespeare promotes the redemptive power of forgiveness—mortal forgiveness—as the unlooked-for second chance, the gift that grants a new future. All of the young lovers in The Two Gentlemen of Verona carry lessons and a few scars but look for a better future thanks to their ability to negotiate the final moments in the forest with forgiveness. 18 The Two Gentlemen of Verona by William Shakespeare Comparing Shakespeare's Two Verona Plays: R&J/Two Gents Two Gents and Romeo and Juliet share Secrets complicate the young lovers' lives a source, a city, and also many of the same and worsen their plights. We see Lord patterns in building their action. The parallels Capulet rage at Juliet when he thinks to the more familiar play can illuminate the himself disobeyed, and we see the Duke's relationships and issues in Two Gents. comparable temper revealed in Two Those parallels are more noticeable since Gents when he banishes Valentine after the first half of Romeo and Juliet is essentially learning of his elopement plot. Thus both a comic, bawdy commentary on love. Only with plays share a banishment; Romeo goes the outbreak of deadly violence does the action to Mantua, where banished Valentine also turn toward tragedy. Two Gents, while comic, has intends to sojourn, although he is waylaid its serious turns, for whatever Proteus intends in the forest by outlaws. for Silvia in the forest seems neither tender nor • Yet at the end, the fathers accept their consensual but an act of desperation. daughters' choice, Capulet grieving Juliet's Young Lovers death anew and the Duke of Milan off to • Both plays center on young love. At first celebrate the promised wedding. Romeo proclaims his deep, futile love for Male Friendships Rosaline, yet later that night he sees Juliet • A strong male friendship bond grounds and forgets Rosaline. We usually see this both plays and anchors the young men's as his discovery of true love, for Juliet relationship to themselves as individuals requites his love as Rosaline did not. and to their world. Proteus and Valentine Both young women have In Two Gents, we meet Proteus, a young are good friends, just as Romeo, Benvolio, balconies/windows, so both plays man in an agony of love for Julia, who and Mercutio are. In each group, one has have balcony scenes. In Two fallen in love, leaving the other(s) to tease Gents, Valentine, like Romeo, has at first also seems unresponsive. Soon, him. Valentine is not as cynical or sexually a cord ladder, but never gets to use however, Julia answers his letter and it. Proteus stands below Silvia's pledges her love. Attendant confidants bawdy as Mercutio, and it doesn't take balcony, wooing in song while being help both women. long for us to see this gentleman of Verona observed by Julia. (Above: Zeffirelli's Just then, of course, the play separates join Proteus in being a lover. 1968 film; below, Walter Crane, 1857) them, as Romeo and Juliet quickly does its • Both plays also depend on male rivalries. young lovers. When he gets to the court, In Romeo and Juliet the feud feeds such Proteus, like Romeo at the party, sees rivalries and sparks outbreaks of violence. another young woman and falls instantly Tybalt confronts Romeo and Mercutio, and in love with her. In his case, though, we Romeo, without knowing it, has a rival in do not respond as positively as we do to Paris. In much the same way, Valentine, Romeo. We see Proteus as betraying his too, has an unknown rival in Proteus as first love and his closest friend to follow his well as a known rival, Sir Thurio. hormones. Same action; different contexts • In the tragedy, the only breakdown or and audience response. accusation of disloyalty in the male • In Two Gents we have another young friendships is when Romeo steps between couple, Valentine and Silvia, who meet the fighting Tybalt and Mercutio, allowing and fall instantly in love, just as Romeo Tybalt to wound Mercutio. This is a good and Juliet do. It is first love for them both, deed gone wrong. In Two Gents, however, a deep and abiding affection. While the Proteus chooses to betray his friendship father of each wealthy young woman has with Valentine so secretly that Valentine already chosen her prospective husband, does not realize it until the end. He is neither woman agrees. Instead, she wounded emotionally but recovers. prefers another young man, one less Young Women's Loyalty wealthy, but more emotionally honest. • The young women in these two plays have Parents and Banishment great passion, great strength of mind, and • Parents in both plays are blocking figures. great loyalty to their beloveds. Juliet dares Proteus fears their fathers' response to to "die" by potion if it will reunite her with his love for Julia and so does not tell his her love and later dares death itself to father, much as Juliet, fearing her father's accomplish that desire. Julia follows her response, never tells him of her marriage love to Milan, and Silvia dares to follow her to Romeo. Likewise, Valentine dares not love into banishment only to find herself tell the Duke of his love for Silvia. prey to outlaws and finally to the ultimate social "outlaw," the betraying Proteus. 19 The Two Gentlemen of Verona by William Shakespeare Activities for The Two Gentlemen of Verona For Discussion While Reading the Play or 10) At what point in the action does Proteus Post-Performance: himself become an "outlaw"? R&J and Two Gents— Points to Compare/Consider: 1) How does the title establish both our 11) If romantic comedies usually have • role of power figure (Prince/ focus for the play and a set of values to scheming servants who serve the Duke) consider? lovers'cause, how is it comic when a major • role of families character is a manipulative schemer about • who loves whom when, and 2) What are the settings for the action? What love, friendship, and loyalty? what is real love (and why) is the import of each (especially in terms • scheming to get what the of the values being considered)? Does Comparison/Contrast within Two Gents lovers want and its result setting affect character or actions? • compare the two gentlemen—values, • cause and effect of attitudes, awareness, actions banishment 3) What are the conflicts? External? Internal? • compare the two young women they love— • male friendship values, attitudes, awareness, actions • women's response to various 4) What is the arc of development for the • compare their attendants—values, attitudes, suitors/loyalty to beloved play's major characters, the four young awareness, actions lovers? What do they want and why do • compare behavior at court to behavior in the they want it? Who changes; how and why? forest and what we learn from that shift Is anyone unchanged? Why? (in Shakespeare's comedies, clarification often occurs in nature; is that true here?) 5) How is the play built or structured? • compare what love is to each young lover How do the main plot and subplot and what effect it has on each scenes interweave? How does the • compare the use of love letters, their subplot comment on or help us delivery, and comments on them interpret aspects of the main plot? • compare the use of evaluative lists in the How does the attendants' friendship play compare to the two gentlemen's? Advice to Friends 6) What is the implication of • If you were Proteus's good friend and heard juxtaposing Julia's decision to go his soliloquies, what feedback would you to Milan with Proteus's decision to give him? Is he thinking clearly? What pursue Silvia? would you say as he persists in wooing Silvia despite her rejections of him? What 7) How does the play use courtly love would you say when he pursues her to the rhetoric or Petrarchan imagery in its forest? love talk? Do Valentine and Proteus • If you were Silvia's good friend (since she woo the same way with the same has no confidant in the play), what would words? If there is a difference, what you say to her about her wooers, her does it suggest? father, and her elopement plans? What would you say about her decision to run 8) How and why does Shakespeare away? Is she being impulsive or prudent? use soliloquies in this play? What • If you were Julia's good friend and ended up do these moments of private truth in Milan with her, hearing her soliloquies, Proteus betraying Valentine's reveal? How many characters soliloquize? what would you say to her? When Proteus elopement plan to the Duke (Walter Crane, 1857; is Proteus's holding his asks her to take him back, what would you hat "behind his back" significant?) 9) The last setting is the forest, filled with advise? What are the issues? the last subplot characters—the former What would you say to Proteus if you were gentlemen who are now outlaws. Should Julia? they be threatening or comic? What are • If you were another good friend (perhaps a the implications of each choice for the better friend…) of Valentine, how would action and play? What is the value and you respond to his elopement plan? To idea of outlawry in the play? Proteus's support (does Valentine miss something or is Proteus's facade that good?)? When he's banished? Is it a good idea to lead outlaws? 20 The Two Gentlemen of Verona by William Shakespeare Activities for The Two Gentlemen of Verona / 2

Post-Production Discussion Thinking about Shakespeare and Genre As with any literary label, the way we evaluate and describe a work can help us appreciate its workings and values but also can privilege some elements to the exclusion of others. We need to assess labels—to peel them back and ask questions about them—in literature as in life to see how well they actually fit. So is the play more accurately described as a romantic comedy or as a comic romance? Which term better describes your sense of The Two Gentlemen of Verona? Which better describes your experience of the play in performance? Is the play all about outsmarting Daddy and getting what you want? Or is it a learning curve, a maturational story about the challenges of life and love? How and why? What are the implications of your choice?

Quick List for Genre Comedy— Romance— • group focus • often focuses on young protagonists • divides and then reunites learning their place in the world • often family focused • a tripartite structure: integration, • romantic comedy focuses on young lovers disintegration, reintegration, a process that and their efforts to marry as they choose involves being expelled from civilization • blocking fathers make that difficult and entering the wild (an external and an • scheming servants help the lovers achieve internal state) their goal • the protagonists are tested; they must face • usually ends with a wedding, a feast, or a their fears and meet their challenges; dance learning is essential before they re-enter civilization, often through marriage • they must get lost before they find themselves • conventional elements of romance: —inconstancy in love or friendship —disguise of heroine —banishment, elopement, capture

Refer to the more detailed discussion of comedy and romance on page 3 for additional Left: Thurio tries to assert his superiority as information. Valentine puts him down verbally (J. C. Selous); above: The "page" Julia and Proteus embrace as Valentine, Silvia, and the cast look on in a non-forest setting on J. C. Selous's title page for Two Gents. Even Crab seems to have a lady friend. 21 The Two Gentlemen of Verona by William Shakespeare Activities for The Two Gentlemen of Verona / 3 What Is Love? • Lysander: Images for Love in Two Gents 1) Renaissance poets—poets of all eras— Ay me! For aught that I could ever read, • "Fie, fie; how wayward is this write poems defining love. Here are some Could ever hear by tale or history, foolish love, passages from Shakespeare's plays that The course of true love never did run That like a testy babe will describe love. How apt are they? Write smooth; scratch the nurse, your own paragraph or poem describing But either it was different in blood— And presently all humbled kiss love. Hermia: the rod! O cross! Too high to be enthralled to low. —Julia on her responses • O mistress mine, where are you roaming? Lysander: to the love letter, 1.2 O stay and hear, your true love's coming, Or else misgrafted in respect of years— That can sing both high and low. Hermia: • "for Love is like a child, Trip no further, pretty sweeting; O spite! Too old to be engaged to young. That longs for every thing that Journeys end in lovers' meeting, Lysander: he can come by" Every wise man's son doth know. Or else it stood upon the choice of friends— —the Duke, in setting Hermia: up Valentine's exposure, 3.1 What is love? 'Tis not hereafter; O hell, to choose love by another's eyes! Present mirth hath present laughter; Lysander: • "Love's a mighty lord, What's to come is still unsure. Or if there were a sympathy in choice, And hath so humbled me, as I In delay there lies no plenty. War, death, or sickness did lay siege to it, confess Then come kiss me, sweet and twenty; Making it momentary as a sound, There is no woe to his Youth's a stuff will not endure. Swift as a shadow, short as any dream, correction, (Feste's song, 2.3, Twelfth Night, Brief as the lightning in the collied night Nor, to his service, no such joy using the carpe diem theme) That in a spleen unfolds both heaven and on earth." earth, —Valentine, 2.4 • Love is merely a madness, and, I tell you, And ere a man hath power to say "Behold!" deserves as well a dark house and a whip The jaws of darkness do devour it up. as madmen do; and the reason why So quick bright things come to confusion. they are not so punished and cured is (1.1, A Midsummer Night's that the lunacy is so ordinary that the Dream) whippers are in love too. (Rosalind, disguised as 2) Write the paragraph or poem in today's Ganymede, 3.2, As You Like It) language that one of the main characters in Two Gents would write to define love. • How all the other passions fleet to air, How accurately does the song "Who is As doubtful thoughts, and rash- Siliva?" express the feeling? embraced despair, And shuddering fear, and green-eyed 3) What is the best expression of love today? jealousy! The best song, the best film, the best O love, be moderate, allay thy ecstasy, example? Why? What are the essential In measure rain thy joy, scant this truths of love? excess! I feel too much thy blessing. Make it 4) How many different things and less, relationships do we use the word love For fear I surfeit. for? Family? Girl- or boyfriend? Friends? (Portia—whose wooers must pass Pets? A sport? A tv show? A song or a test her dead father devised—as singer/group? A vehicle? A food? An the man she loves passes the test, activity? "I love my dog," "I love football," 3.2, The Merchant of Venice) "I love Adele," "I love my truck," "I love ice cream," "I love shopping"? True love, a man and his dog— What common thread or aspect makes all of here, Launce with Crab (Walter these love? Crane, 1857) 5) The Renaissance thought love (erotic love) was impermanent and fickle. Were they right or wrong? The Two Gentlemen of Verona by William Shakespeare 2016-2017 SchoolFest Sponsors

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