And seek for grace. What a thrice-double ass And worship this dull fool! Pros. Go to; away! Alon. Hence, and bestow your luggage where you found it. Seb. Or stole it, rather. [Exeunt Cal., Ste., and Trin Pros. Sir, I invite your highness and your train Since I came to this isle: and in the morn Alon. I long Pros. I'll deliver all; And promise you calm seas, auspicious gales And sail so expeditious that shall catch Your royal fleet far off. [Aside to Ari.] My Ariel, chick, Be free, and fare thou well! Please you, draw near. 300 310 [Exeunt EPILOGUE. SPOKEN BY PROSPERO. Now my charms are all o'erthrown, 38 nuptial. 8. always uses this word in the singular. 309 solemnized. A word of four syllables, accented on the second. Epilogue. This epilogue was not written by S., but by some fellow playwright, of much inferior powers; perhaps Ben Jonson. But release me from my bands 10. 20 THE TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA. INTRODUCTION. We know nothing of this play before its appearance in the folio, 1623, except that it is mentioned as Shakespeare's by Francis Meres in his Palladis Tamia, which was published in 1598, and written, probably, a year or two before. But The Two Gentlemen of Verona is very surely some years older than the Palladis Tamia. Its structure, its tone of thought and feeling, and its versification all point to a very early period in Shakespeare's play-writing as the time of its production. In default of any other than internal evidence, we can only infer that it was among the very first of its author's individual works, - that is, of those which he planned and wrote single-handed, -and that it was produced at some time between 1587 and 1591, probably nearer the latter than the former year. No play or tale which could have been the origin of The Two Gentlemen of Verona has yet been discovered. None the less, however, may we be sure that we have in it some Italian story which Shakespeare dramatized or adapted, or some old play which he worked over for the stage of the Globe Theatre. There is hardly a scene which does not bear the stamp of this rewriting, except those in which Launce and his dog and Speed appear. The latter seem to have been of Shakespeare's own invention. In the plot he probably varied very little from his original; and it is to such a conformity to some old story that we must attribute the strange behavior of Silvia, of Valentine, and of Thurio. Some likeness has been discovered between certain parts of this play and a tale told about herself by the shepherdess Felismena, in the Diana of George de Montemajor; but the likeness is of small significance,— too small to be worth particular mention. The period of the action is the second quarter of the sixteenth century. THE TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA. ACT I. SCENE I. Verona. An open place. Enter VALENTINE and PROTEUS. Val. Cease to persuade, my loving Proteus: But since thou lov'st, love still and thrive therein, Even as I would when I to love begin. Pro. 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, Commend thy grievance to my holy prayers, Val. And on a love-book pray for my success? Pro. That's a deep story of a deeper love; For he was more than over shoes in love. Val. 'Tis true; for you are over boots in love, And yet you never swum the Hellespont. Pro. Over the boots? nay, give me not the boots. Pro. What? 10 2C Val. To be in love, where scorn is bought with groans; 18 beadsman one who prays, and tells beads, for another. |