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    The Story Of Shakespeare's Two Gentlemen Of Verona
    The Story Of Shakespeare's Two Gentlemen Of Verona
    The Story Of Shakespeare's Two Gentlemen Of Verona
    Audiobook28 minutes

    The Story Of Shakespeare's Two Gentlemen Of Verona

    Written by William Shakespeare, Mary Ellen Lamb and Charles Lamb

    Narrated by Ghizela Rowe

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    The Two Gentlemen of Verona is believed to be one of Shakespeare's early comedies and as a result provides us with the first examples of a number of themes and devices that are further explored in many of his plays. These include loyalty, friendship and the nature of love. Also women dressing up as men is introduced by one of the central characters, Julia, dressing up as the page, Sebastian, to serve her loved one, Proteus, who has betrayed her. Although fewer characters than most of Shakespeare's other plays, they are interesting ones and Ghizela Rowe in her reading, captures the story of this intriguing play with clarity.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherThe Copyright Group
    Release dateJan 1, 2014
    ISBN9781780001548
    The Story Of Shakespeare's Two Gentlemen Of Verona
    Author

    William Shakespeare

    William Shakespeare was an English poet, playwright, and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest dramatist in the English language. Shakespeare is often called England’s national poet and the “Bard of Avon.”  

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    Reviews for The Story Of Shakespeare's Two Gentlemen Of Verona

    3.5/5

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    • 4/5
      Essential scholarly edition of this early Shakespeare play.
    • 4/5
      HE WAS HAVING A LARFSecurely placed in the Shakespeare cannon being the second play included in the first folio of 1623 this comedy was probably written early in the playwrights career probably before the closure of the theatres in January 1593. The theatres were closed due to an outbreak of the plague in London and would not be re-opened until spring 1594: (any similarities between those years and the Covid-19 virus today when many of us have restrictions is purely coincidental). The Two Gentlemen of Verona is considered by many critiques and readers to be an inferior play because it is thought to be an immature work. Admittedly it has no great drama and does not grapple with "life meaning" issues as some of the later plays do, but it is one of the most consistently funny of the Bards plays and never fails to entertain, it also contains Shakespeares most celebrated song (thanks to Schubert amongst others). I read the Arden Shakespeare edition with its copious notes and modern English spelling, but it is not a difficult play to follow and might serve as a gentle introduction to Shakespeare's oeuvre.Although the play contains some of the Elizabethan tropes expected of comedies: disguise, trickery and banter between masters and servants, its main feature is the ludicrous natures of some of the characters. One would probably never meet a bunch of outlaws so ridiculous or a central character (Proteus) who changes his attitudes on the turn of a pin (not once but twice) or male characters who are so easily deceived. The females are much more resolute, but the reason for much of this behaviour is of course love sickness or one could say lust.The story: Proteus and Valentine are very close friends, but it is time for them to seek their place in the world. Proteus is in love with Julia and they exchange rings just before he leaves Verona to go to the big city of Milan. Valentine has made the same journey some time before. Proteus is joined by his servant Lance and his dog Crab. At the court of Milan he discovers that his friend Valentine has fallen in love with Sylvia and as soon as Proteus meets SyIvia he becomes love stricken as well. He stitches up his lifelong friend Valentine with the Duke; Silvia's father causing Valentine to be banished, so he has a chance to woo Sylvia. Meanwhile Julia missing Proteus disguises herself as a man (Sebastian) so that she can travel to Milan in safety to find her beloved. Proteus is making no headway with Sylvia and is not helped when the dog Crab whom he gives as a present to Sylvia pisses all over her petticoats. Valentine is captured by outlaws who are so impressed with his demeanour they make him their general. Proteus does not recognise Julia disguised as Sebastian and employs her to act as a go between with Sylvia. Sylvia now engages Sir Eglamour to go with her to find her true love Valentine. The Duke and Proteus are in pursuit and they all meet up in the woods with Valentine and the outlaws. Proteus attempts to take Sylvia by force, but is prevented by Valentine, Proteus immediately realises he has been acting foolishly and asks to be forgiven. Julia still in disguise faints and when she comes to throws off her disguise and once again claims Proteus. The outlaws are all pardoned by the Duke and a wedding day is arranged for the two couples. My usual method of approaching a Shakespeare play especially one that is new to me, is to read the play through first, before reading any criticism, so that I can gain my own first impression. The introduction to the Arden edition written by William C Carroll concentrates on Shakespeares dramatic strategies and its links with previous sixteenth century drama and also recent critical and theoretical work on the early modern theatre. There is a discussion of male friendship which is undoubtedly a feature of the play. The question it poses is can a male friendship be more important than love between a woman and a man and there are plenty of examples from the text, especially the controversial ending to the play where some interpretations of Valentines reconciliation speech with Proteus see him offering to share Sylvia with him. This supposed offer comes a very short time after Proteus has attempted to rape Sylvia, however I think that the offer of sharing Sylvia is a misinterpretation of the text and it is surprising that Carrol's introduction makes so much of it. The links backwards to the plays of John Lily and further back to Ovid as sources for the ideas of friendship in previous drama are explored. Another theme explored at some length is that of the prodigal son. Both Proteus and Valentine are away from their home in Verona, but we never see them return to their families. There is also a section on women disguised as men (this could have been the first time that Shakespeare used this trope) and how it would look to an audience who would see men playing all the female roles and then see them playing females disguised as males. This sounds very complicated to an audience today who might have trouble getting their heads around the fact that there were no female actors in Shakespeare's companies. Reading this scholarly introduction seemed like it was avoiding the elephant in the room. The play is a comedy, throughout the play there are comic interludes, nearly all the characters indulge in word play, there are malapropisms galore and plenty of good jokes and there is Lance and his dog Crab. In my opinion much could have been gained by writing more on the tradition of comedy rather than giving an impression that the play was essentially a serious examination of renaissance themes. The comedy is mainly verbal, there is no slapstick, we are only told about Crabs indiscretions in Julias house. Speed is the name given to Valentine's page and he is well named for his quick repartee whether it is outperforming Valentino or making fun of Lance. There is also plenty of wit and repartee between Julia and her waiting maid Lucetta and then there is Lance with his hilarious soliloquies with his dog Crab. Even at the plays most dramatic moments there is time for some comedy, for example when Julia is disguising herself as a man there is the question of the codpiece:Lucetta says:A round hose, madam, now's not worth a pinUnless you have a codpiece to stick pins on.Then Julia makes a speech about Proteus who at that moment is betraying her love in order to woo Sylvia:Base men that use them to so base effect!But truer stars did govern Proteus' birth;His words are bonds, his oaths are oracles,His love sincere, his thoughts immaculate,His tears pure messengers sent from his heart,His heart as far from fraud as heaven from earth.I could imagine an Elizabethan audience laughing out loud through much of this play and waiting for the next joke to come along.There are other scenes that could be played to garner laughs: for example when the Duke accosts Valentine who is about to elope with his daughter and is hiding a ladder under his cloak; the Duke asks him for his advice on how to gain access to a lady who lives in an upstairs apartment. I agree with William Rossky who maintains that the play is first and foremost a burlesque and should be judged on those terms. He goes on to say;"If it is myopic to read Shakespeare only in terms of our own time and convenience, it is just as blind to read him as inevitably illustrating any single Renaissance convention. The result of unscrutinised assumptions about Elizabethan acceptance of a particular idea or convention has sometimes been to make Shakespeare appear inaccessible to our time and to dehumanise the drama"Although the idea of a burlesque is never far away, the second half of the play has enough dialogue to enable the actors to move the audience as the lovers stories unfold. Julia and Sylvia have some particularly touching scenes. There are very few long speeches, but plenty of one liners. Proteus gets the longest speech in a scene all to himself when he convinces himself that his love for Sylvia is worth forsaking Julia and his friend Valentine. The speech contains some word play, but it is straight forward with no imagery. Why waste time on metaphors and similes when you are going all out to make people laugh, however be it in a more sophisticated non physical way. I enjoyed reading the versification which flows well and I enjoyed figuring out the puns. I am sure I did not get them all. Looking forward to seeing a production of the play - hope it makes me laugh.The BBC film of the play shown in 1983 certainly did make me laugh and I thought the two main stage settings: The court in Milan and the Forest of Mantua were brilliantly set up. The first half of the play with all its wit and repartee had an innocence about it, especially as the actors were mainly young people. It was frothy, light and just right. The second part of the play which has all the drama of the lovers betrayals was darker, but still with some lighter touches, there was a lovely setting of the song "Who is Sylvia" Overall a very good film of the play and proof positive that it can be made to work and to entertain.The play has been performed sporadically during the last century, but the Royal Shakespeare company has three productions to its credit, the last in 2014. Any production must come to terms with the comedy elements, how much of the play should be played to amuse the audience, to keep it laughing, without stopping the drama unfolding of the lovers betrayals and eventual conciliation. At the end of the day it is a fantasy, a lovers fantasy and a play that can make its audience laugh and cry - 4 stars.
    • 4/5
      One of my favorite comedies.
    • 3/5
      While "The Two Gentlemen of Verona" is not considered one of William Shakespeare's greatest works, I still found it to be a pretty enjoyable play. It was one of the bard's earlier comedies so much of it is used again later in this other, stronger works.The story follows Proteus and Valentine, two gentlemen who fall in love with ladies and troubles ensue. There is the typical Shakespeare disguise thrown in for good measure too.This play is pretty readable and was fairly amusing. The ending was kind of forced and wrapped everything up a little too prettily, but other wise I liked this one.
    • 3/5
      One rates Shakespeare plays to acknowledge that in art, there are varying responses to the same work. For the drama, "Is this the right director and cast, are the costumes correct, did the spirit of the author's original intent come through?" there's a different set of criteria for single poems, or paintings. Some modest thoughts follow. This is early Shakespeare, and quite readable, but a test bed for a lot of better stuff that came later. Not many famous quotes/clichés in this one, but a workable script.Read seven times.
    • 4/5
      This is an interesting play in the world of Shakespeare, though not one of his strongest. It is assumed to be one of his first plays. It has one of his smallest casts and it contains one of the biggest jerks in the whole of Shakespearean literature. The two gentlemen of the title are Valentine and Proteus, best friends living in Verona. One of the two, Proteus, is deeply in love with a woman named Julia. The other, Valentine, is sent to Milan at his father’s bidding, where he falls in love with the Duke’s daughter, Silvia. The horrid Proteus follows Valentine and despite swearing his undying love to Julia, he quickly falls in love with Silvia. Not only is he betraying Julia with this infatuation, he is betrays his best friend. He is a selfish and horrible man and it’s hard to understand why Julia would remain true to him. My favorite scene in the play is between Julia and Silvia. The women find common ground where Silvia expresses her disgust with Proteus for abandoning the woman he swore to love. She had no idea that she was telling this to that same woman and it touches Julia deeply. The play shares a dozen similarities with Shakespeare’s later work. It has a woman following the man she loves and meeting him in disguise when he falls for someone new from All’s Well That Ends Well. It has Thurio, a useless lover picked by the girl’s family ala Paris from Romeo and Juliet. It also has a bit from Twelfth Night with a woman pretending to be the male servant of the man she loves. These elements don’t work well together to make a great play, but each bit is an interesting plot point that is used more successfully in a later play. BOTTOM LINE: This play is definitely a precursor to some of the great work that came later, but it doesn’t have the strongest plot. It contains hilarious puns and beautiful lines. Unfortunately the flip-flopping Proteus’ happy ending is not satisfying to audiences and the play is rarely preformed live. “She is mine own, And I as rich in having such a jewel As twenty seas, if all their sand were pearl, The water nectar, and the rocks pure gold.” 
    • 4/5
      Not your usual Shakespeare play, but worthy.
    • 4/5
      When I taught Shakespeare, I would often start with TGV, on the second class myself doingLaunce and his dog Crab, along with removable shoes, a cane--and for a couple years, our English Sheepdog Ugo. The first year he did okay, the second year he headed fro the classroom door, to leavefor a treat from my wife who drove him there. The Launce scenes really take a pro with the props and the stage business: taking off one's shoes,demonstrating the sad scene of parting by designating one of the shoes for each parent etc, meanwhile reprimanding the dog fro being unsentimental. An added tincture of interest for me was the play's MIlan references: Ugo came from Milan,where my daughter has lived for many years.
    • 3/5
      Though it seems rather presumptuous to criticize Shakespeare, The Two Gentlemen of Verona is not one of the Bard's greatest works. Though an enjoyable read with some truly humorous moments and one particularly beautiful bit of verse (III.i.170-187), the end is hastily tied together and the characters very unbelievable. Still, as one of Shakespeare's earliest works, it is an interesting look at his development as a playwright.
    • 4/5
      It’s easy to see it’s one of Shakespeare’s earliest. The prose and poetry aren’t as polished, and it prefigured many of his later, better plays in some of the phrasing, and the cross-dressing of a female character in love. Its ending is neatly tied up, though surprising in some of the particulars, like a threat of rape and an overquick, overgenerous forgiveness. For completists, or in anticipation of a production, which is why I read it.