ABSTRACT
Despite warm appreciation of Launce as a comic character, it has often been denied that he and Speed have an organic part in the structure of The Two Gentlemen of Verona. According to Professor H.B. Charlton, for instance, “Launce has no real right within the play except that gentlemen must have servants, and Elizabethan audiences must have clowns.” 1 This is to see the dramatic structure too exclusively in terms of plot. 2 There does appear to be only a single place where the behaviour of one of the clowns contributes to the progress of events; the critical moment when Julia, disguised as “Sebastian,” seeks service with her truant Proteus. Here, Proteus is influenced by Launce’s recent misconduct: he is the readier to enlist the well-bred Sebastian because Launce has been missing for two days, and by the account he now gives of himself is proved too boorish to be entrusted with further missions to Silvia. Without question, dramatic unity is stronger when, as with Bottom or Dogberry, the clown impinges upon the romantic plot more obviously and decisively than this. There can be unity however, resulting from development of theme as well as from development of plot: when a play has a plot and themes, the action (which is what must have unity) may be regarded as comprising the development of both. 3 Side by side with the causal sequence that carries forward his romantic plot, Shakespeare, in the parts he has given to Speed and Launce, is developing his play by means of comic parallels that illustrate and extend its themes. The parallels, as well as the causal sequence, are part of the organic structure.
