ABSTRACT
The Two Gentlemen of Verona is a dramatic laboratory in which Shakespeare experimented with many of the ideas and devices which were to be his stock-in-trade and delight for years to come. Thus we have the story of betrayal in love, of an intriguing villain and a trusting friend, of a woman forlorn but pursuing; the sex-disguise; the movement of major characters from court to country. We see the heroine with her confidante, with a parent, young men discussing love together, the disguised lady describing herself to her rival; the villain soliloquizing in moral conflict; scenes of parting, despair, forgiveness. Moreover in this play Shakespeare carries forward the development of the servant as a comic character in relation to his fellows and his master begun in The Comet[y of Errors and The Shrew. We must not overlook some weaknesses, the hasty ending during which Silvia never speaks despite Valentine's astonishing offer to give her up; the disappearance of Sir Eglamour, who is anything but 'a valiant knight'. Did Shakespeare name him in jest?
