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    Two Gentlemen of Verona
    Two Gentlemen of Verona
    Two Gentlemen of Verona
    Ebook131 pages1 hour

    Two Gentlemen of Verona

    By William Shakespeare

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    Believed to have been written between 1589 and 1592, "Two Gentlemen of Verona" is a comedy by William Shakespeare and it is considered by some to be his first play,  showing his first tentative steps in laying out some of the themes and motifs with which he would later deal in more detail. The play deals with the themes of friendship and infidelity, the conflict between friendship and love, and the foolish behaviour of people in love.

    The two "gentlemen" of the title are friends Proteus and Valentine, who are taking leave of one another as the play opens. Valentine travels to Milan, where he falls in love with Silvia, daughter of the Duke. Proteus, meanwhile, hunts after love and remains in Verona, pledged to faithfulness to his beloved Julia.

    When Proteus travels to Milan, however, he too falls in love with Silvia and proceeds to undermine his friend by denouncing him to the Duke. Valentine is banished to the forest, where he joins a band of thieves. Proteus pursues Silvia more and more fervently, even to the point of threatening to take her violently...
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherE-BOOKARAMA
    Release dateFeb 13, 2023
    ISBN9791220226059
    Author

    William Shakespeare

    William Shakespeare was born in April 1564 in the town of Stratford-upon-Avon, on England’s Avon River. When he was eighteen, he married Anne Hathaway. The couple had three children—an older daughter Susanna and twins, Judith and Hamnet. Hamnet, Shakespeare’s only son, died in childhood. The bulk of Shakespeare’s working life was spent in the theater world of London, where he established himself professionally by the early 1590s. He enjoyed success not only as a playwright and poet, but also as an actor and shareholder in an acting company. Although some think that sometime between 1610 and 1613 Shakespeare retired from the theater and returned home to Stratford, where he died in 1616, others believe that he may have continued to work in London until close to his death.

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      Book preview

      Two Gentlemen of Verona - William Shakespeare

      TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA

      William Shakespeare

      Characters of the Play

      Duke Of Milan, Father to Silvia.

      Valentine and Proteus, two Gentlemen.

      Antonio, Father to Proteus.

      Thurio, a foolish rival to Valentine.

      Eglamour, agent for Silvia in her escape.

      Host, where Julia lodges.

      Outlaws with Valentine.

      Speed, a clownish servant to Valentine.

      Launce, the like to Proteus.

      Panthino, servant to Antonio.

      Julia, beloved of Proteus.

      Silvia, beloved of Valentine.

      Lucetta, waiting-woman to Julia.

      Servants, Musicians.

      Scene: Verona; Milan; the frontiers of Mantua.

      ACT 1

      Scene 1

      Verona. An open place.

      Enter VALENTINE and PROTEUS

      VALENTINE

      Cease to persuade, my loving Proteus:

      Home-keeping youth have ever homely wits.

      Were't not affection chains thy tender days

      To the sweet glances of thy honour'd love,

      I rather would entreat thy company

      To see the wonders of the world abroad,

      Than, living dully sluggardized at home,

      Wear out thy youth with shapeless idleness.

      But since thou lovest, love still and thrive therein,

      Even as I would when I to love begin.

      PROTEUS

      Wilt thou be gone? Sweet Valentine, adieu!

      Think on thy Proteus, when thou haply seest

      Some rare note-worthy object in thy travel:

      Wish me partaker in thy happiness

      When thou dost meet good hap; and in thy danger,

      If ever danger do environ thee,

      Commend thy grievance to my holy prayers,

      For I will be thy beadsman, Valentine.

      VALENTINE

      And on a love-book pray for my success?

      PROTEUS

      Upon some book I love I'll pray for thee.

      VALENTINE

      That's on some shallow story of deep love:

      How young Leander cross'd the Hellespont.

      PROTEUS

      That's a deep story of a deeper love:

      For he was more than over shoes in love.

      VALENTINE

      'Tis true; for you are over boots in love,

      And yet you never swum the Hellespont.

      PROTEUS

      Over the boots? nay, give me not the boots.

      VALENTINE

      No, I will not, for it boots thee not.

      PROTEUS

      What?

      VALENTINE

      To be in love, where scorn is bought with groans;

      Coy looks with heart-sore sighs; one fading moment's mirth

      With twenty watchful, weary, tedious nights:

      If haply won, perhaps a hapless gain;

      If lost, why then a grievous labour won;

      However, but a folly bought with wit,

      Or else a wit by folly vanquished.

      PROTEUS

      So, by your circumstance, you call me fool.

      VALENTINE

      So, by your circumstance, I fear you'll prove.

      PROTEUS

      'Tis love you cavil at: I am not Love.

      VALENTINE

      Love is your master, for he masters you:

      And he that is so yoked by a fool,

      Methinks, should not be chronicled for wise.

      PROTEUS

      Yet writers say, as in the sweetest bud

      The eating canker dwells, so eating love

      Inhabits in the finest wits of all.

      VALENTINE

      And writers say, as the most forward bud

      Is eaten by the canker ere it blow,

      Even so by love the young and tender wit

      Is turn'd to folly, blasting in the bud,

      Losing his verdure even in the prime

      And all the fair effects of future hopes.

      But wherefore waste I time to counsel thee,

      That art a votary to fond desire?

      Once more adieu! my father at the road

      Expects my coming, there to see me shipp'd.

      PROTEUS

      And thither will I bring thee, Valentine.

      VALENTINE

      Sweet Proteus, no; now let us take our leave.

      To Milan let me hear from thee by letters

      Of thy success in love, and what news else

      Betideth here in absence of thy friend;

      And likewise will visit thee with mine.

      PROTEUS

      All happiness bechance to thee in Milan!

      VALENTINE

      As much to you at home! and so, farewell.

      Exit

      PROTEUS

      He after honour hunts, I after love:

      He leaves his friends to dignify them more,

      I leave myself, my friends and all, for love.

      Thou, Julia, thou hast metamorphosed me,

      Made me neglect my studies, lose my time,

      War with good counsel, set the world at nought;

      Made wit with musing weak, heart sick with thought.

      Enter SPEED

      SPEED

      Sir Proteus, save you! Saw you my master?

      PROTEUS

      But now he parted hence, to embark for Milan.

      SPEED

      Twenty to one then he is shipp'd already,

      And I have play'd the sheep in losing him.

      PROTEUS

      Indeed, a sheep doth very often stray,

      An if the shepherd be a while away.

      SPEED

      You conclude that my master is a shepherd, then,

      and I a sheep?

      PROTEUS

      I do.

      SPEED

      Why then, my horns are his horns, whether I wake or sleep.

      PROTEUS

      A silly answer and fitting well a sheep.

      SPEED

      This proves me still a sheep.

      PROTEUS

      True; and thy master a shepherd.

      SPEED

      Nay, that I can deny by a circumstance.

      PROTEUS

      It shall go hard but I'll prove it by another.

      SPEED

      The shepherd seeks the sheep, and not the sheep the

      shepherd; but I seek my master, and my master seeks

      not me: therefore I am no sheep.

      PROTEUS

      The sheep for fodder follow the shepherd; the

      shepherd for food follows not the sheep: thou for

      wages followest thy master; thy master for wages

      follows not thee: therefore thou art a sheep.

      SPEED

      Such another proof will make me cry 'baa.'

      PROTEUS

      But, dost thou hear? gavest thou my letter to Julia?

      SPEED

      Ay sir: I, a lost mutton, gave your letter to her,

      a laced mutton, and she, a laced mutton, gave me, a

      lost mutton, nothing for my labour.

      PROTEUS

      Here's too small a pasture for such store of muttons.

      SPEED

      If the ground be overcharged, you were best stick her.

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