William Shakespeare, The Two Gentlemen of Verona

Rachel Willie (Liverpool John Moores)

Ed. by William M. Hamlin, Washington State University
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.03: English Writing and Culture: Renaissance (Elizabethan and Jacobean periods) , 1485-1625.
Vol. editors: William M. Hamlin (Washington State University), J A Roe (University of York), Virginia Mason Vaughan (Clark University), Ema Vyroubalova (Trinity College Dublin)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1594

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Play

Resources

Save to Bookshelf

Recommended Reading

One of Shakespeare’s earliest plays,

The Two Gentlemen of Verona

is a merry conceited comedy comprising clownish antics with a dog, outlaws, exile, an attempted rape, and betrayal of the bonds of love and friendship. Critics usually view its contrived and perhaps clunky handling of material as evidence of Shakespeare’s early style and of a writer beginning to understand the complexities of composing for the stage. Certainly, the play has been dated to c. 1590, but the first printed reference to it would seem to belie the idea that the play lacks compositional maturity:

Plautus

and Seneca are accounted the best for Comedy and Tragedy among the Latines: so Shakespeare among ye English is the most excellent in both kinds for the stage; for Comedy, witness his Gentlemen of Verona, his

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

3018 words

Citation: Willie, Rachel. "The Two Gentlemen of Verona". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 24 August 2014 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=8000, accessed 21 November 2024.]

View recommended reading for this article

William Shakespeare, The Two Gentlemen of Verona

Dates

Places

Genres and Modes

Resources

Save this article

Leave Feedback