ABSTRACT
This chapter suggests that attention to William Shakespeare's departures from his primary sources in Two Gentlemen of Verona, and his use of other sources besides "Titus and Gisippus" and Diana allow audiences, authors to revise critical commonplaces. It also suggests that there are many more sorts of material in a Shakespearean play and more ways of using it than traditional source study suggested. The chapter stresses that even a seemingly minor prior text needs to be considered carefully. It emphasizes "omission" as a vital part of what an author can do to a main source. The chapter argues that Shakespeare's changes to his main sources in Two Gentlemen leave odd gaps and juxtapositions that have been misunderstood in the play. Shakespeare alters Arthur Brooke's Romeus to increase the generational conflict in his own play. In Shakespeare's generically promiscuous play, everyone escapes to an alternative society of outlaws where they can redeem themselves.
