The Two Gentlemen of Verona

a sheep doth often stray if the shepherd be awhile away

Another contender for his first play, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, is an early comedy which shows many themes which Shakespeare will take on throughout his career. Friendship, secret lovers, betrayal, a father’s forbidding of love, banishment and exile, villainy, letters, and spies. Only, while this play includes many seeds that will mature and flower throughout his career, the play somehow doesn’t pack the weight of his later plays. And yet, it does have lyrical beauty and shows not only promise but moments of genius for the budding Catholic playwright.

The Catholic-ness of the play is found early. Two friends conversing, one of his upcoming journeys, one doting on his love, as he notes, “he after honor hunts, I after love.”  The lover promises, “for I will be thy beadsman, Valentine.” Seemingly innocuous lines until one realizes the rosary is illegal in England. For Catholic audiences — struggling to maintain the faith in Anglican England where the old, ancestral faith is outlawed — Shakespeare is clearly establishing Catholic characteristics illegal in Elizabeth’s Anglican England where the Catholic church is banished and the State church propped up in its place, governed by the royals of England.

Spoiler alert, but as the story progresses, both friends find themselves in the imperial court, a stand in for the royal courts of England. Sadly, Proteus betrays his friend after plotting to woo his friend’s object of affection. As part of the betrayal, the Duke banishes Valentine who is exiled into the forest. Again, the early seeds of important Catholic themes that resound throughout his canon in plays like King Lear, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Romeo & Juliet, As You Like It, Othello, and Richard III are all present and seen in this short and powerful play. Catholic themes are all here — of banishment, of slander, of disguised heroes, of betrayal and spies, of oaths and forswearing of them, and, of course, of love. Only, this is a comedy.

And as a comedy it ends with forgiveness, wedded bliss, and hope. As this one is an early play, Shakespeare’s cousin has yet to be arrested, tortured, and martyred, and so the later even more intense suffering he is about to experience has yet to forge the gut-wrenching genius and artistry that is to come. That takes place between 1592 and 1595 when his cousin, Saint Robert Southwell, is imprisoned, tortured, tormented, martyred, and impaled. That’s the crucible that forges the greatness of Romeo & Juliet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and his later canon. Once his cousin gave all unto death, Shakespeare transformed into the poet for all ages and all times. His cousin’s martyrdom forged Shakespeare’s destiny. But that is yet to come.

And this play is a comedy. And as a comedy, ends on a note of hope, with these words, as the restored Proteus listens to his friend Valentine tell the Duke about the hope of a united England, no longer separated by sacraments, liturgies, or even churches, but once again whole, holy, and one, like the forgotten times of old.

Come, Proteus, ‘tis your penance but to hear
The story of your loves discovered
That done, our day of marriage shall be yours:
One feast, one house, one mutual happiness.

Two Gentlemen of Verona by Salvador Dali