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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020
In an interesting article on the ending of Shakespeare's comedies, Alwin Thaler tries to refute the opinion of the majority of critics that the last scene in The Two Gentlemen of Verona is “blind or incomprehensible.” Granted that Shakespeare purposely subordinated everything to the highly convention theme of friendship, before final judgment can be passed on the general fitness of the ending of the Two Gentlemen, one ought to consider carefully the requirements of romantic love in the play. The friendship theme, though greatly emphasised, is, after all, only a strong framework to motivate the love story.
1 “The Unhappy Happy Ending,” PMLA, xiii, 744.—Cf. Sampson in the Tudor ed.
2 Even Valentine is “a faithful lover as well as a faithful friend.” See R. W. Bond, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, in the Arden Shakespeare, (1906), p. xxviii.
3 English Comedy (1929), p. 99.
4 When O. J. Campbell speaks of the ending of the Two Gentlemen as a “complete victory of friendship in its mortal struggle with love,” he is rightly interpreting it as Italian in spirit.—Studies in Shakespeare, Milton, and Donne (1925), p. 56.—That Shakespeare's audience accepted this kind of ending as good in sentiment, is highly improbable. The English conception of strong friendships like that between Prince Edward and Lacie in Greene's Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay never wholly sacrifices the claims of romantic love to those of friendship.
5 Written about 1590.
6 v, iv, 110–115.
7 Not Silvia's silence, but Valentine's indifference to her.
8 Written about 1592.—W. W. Greg, The Scottish History of James the Fourth, in the Malone Reprints (1921), p. vi.
9 Shakespeare may have had Greene's play in mind when he was writing at this early period.—Thorndike, op. cit., 98; E. K. Chambers, William Shakespeare, i, 330.
10 v, vi, 36–37 (ed. Manly).
11 v, vi, 152–164 (ed. Manly).
12 The Comedy of Errors, Love's Labor's Lost, and The Taming of the Shrew are not dealt with in this paper, as no wrongdoing is done in these plays which would alienate the sympathy of the audience from the hero.
13 Shakespeare's Library, ed. Hazlitt (1875), ii, 118.
14 v, ii, 35–36.
15 Much Ado, v, iii, 12–15.
18 Shakespeare's Library, iii, 124.
17 Ibid., i, 410.
18 Ibid., iii, 150–151.
19 All's Well, v, iii, 309.
20 Shakespeare's Library, iii, 166.
21 v, iv.
22 Measure for Measure, v, i, 479–482.
23 v, i, 247–248.
24 v, v, 210–264.
25 v, iii, 37–38.
26 i, i, 63–65.
27 v, iv, 113–115.
28 “The Two Gentlemen of Verona,” Studies in Shakespeare, Milton, and Donne, (Michigan Studies, 1925), p. 55. Campbell is a little extravagant in another general statement. In describing what takes place in The Two Gentlemen, he says: “Then follows a generous passing back and forth of the ladies without any regard for their wishes,” (p. 56). Only one lady is involved, and she (Silvia) is passed only twice, first by Valentine to Proteus, then by her father to Valentine. We might even omit the latter case as a “passing” on the ground of paternal right. This leaves only one case of “passing” in the play.
29 Ibid., p. 55.
30 ii, iv, 191–214.
31 v, iv, 53–54.
32 v, iv, 110–115.
33 Shakespeare's Library, i, 310.
34 v, iv, 61.
35 v, iv, 118.
36 Cp. E. K. Chambers: “There is some poor writing towards the end of the play.” William Shakespeare. i 329.