fore be no foundation for the notion that the scene has been mutilated by the actors, and Shakespeare's avoidance of the expository discourses from leading characters which some have missed stands to the credit of his consummate judgment. It may be added that the incident, impossible and offensive as it is, is quite in harmony with the recklessness and inconsequence of youth which has been noted as a leading element in "The Two Gentlemen of Verona," and that Shakespeare and his contemporaries were much more concerned about the effect of their plays upon spectators than with the judgment of readers in the closet, whose very existence they hardly contemplated. Could Shakespeare have foreseen the scrutiny which his works were to receive from the highest intellects, he might sometimes have written better, but he might perhaps not have written at all. "The Two Gentlemen of Verona" is remarkably exempt from one class of faults incident to the early works of men of genius. It is exceedingly unpretentious. It reveals none of the vague and magnificent aspirations so frequent and natural with gifted youth. The Hamlet in Shakespeare's soul remains unfolded. He announces no startling doctrines, attacks no established institutions, affords no hint of any introspective tendency. Like Goethe, who carried a Werther in him as Shakespeare a Hamlet, he begins his career with a light and lively piece, whose serious episodes are only conjured up to be conjured away. The play, besides, has more practical wisdom than might have been looked for in the work of a young inexperienced writer. It is certainly an overstate ment when Johnson says, "It abounds in yváμai beyond most of his plays," but it would have been no overstatement to have said that many of its sentences have become aphorisms. The chief intellectual token of juvenility is an occasional tendency to hyperbole and fine writing, as when Valentine says:— "Bear my lady's train, lest the bare earth Should from her vesture chance to steal a kiss, This matches well with Romeo's "Two of the fairest stars in all the heaven, But such extravagance is exceptional. As a rule, Shakespeare confines himself closely to the development of his action, and does not seek to adorn it with the flowers of poetry. When, however, a poetical thought springs up under his pen, he does it full justice, and even seems to linger lovingly upon it, as in the exquisite verses : "The current that with gentle murmur glides, Thou knowest, being stopped, impatiently doth rage; He makes sweet music with the enamelled stones, Giving a gentle kiss to every sedge He overtaketh in his pilgrimage, And so by many winding nooks he strays With willing sport to the wild ocean,” The last line must have vibrated in Shakespeare's memory when he wrote in "Henry V": "Swilled with the wide and wasteful ocean. ກ We have spoken of this comedy as essentially the comedy of youth, but it must not be forgotten that it is also a production of the youth of Shakespeare. It shows us in a considerable degree what manner of man he was while passing from adolescence to manhood. It tells us that whatever varieties of company he may have kept, and these were no doubt numerous, he was entirely on a level with the best society, for which it seems to indicate a marked preference. Except the serving folk, all the personages, down to the outlawed robbers, are ladies and gentlemen. Shakespeare evidently feels himself perfectly at ease in this society, which he could not have depicted without intimacy of knowledge. Where could he have obtained this? Certainly not at Stratford; nor entirely, we should think, in London, considering the impediments interposed by his profession. We feel well-nigh convinced that he had looked upon a wider world than England could afford; that the Continent was not unknown to him; that when he makes Valentine say, "Home-keeping youths have ever homely wits," he is repeating a lesson of experience. Whither he is most likely to have wandered is a problem for his biographers; but we feel assured that if he indeed devoted any part of his youth to the lawyer's office, or the schoolmaster's desk, such part was little to that spent in contact with the life of courts and camps. The only contemporary notice of "The Two Gentlemen of Verona" is its appearance upon Meres' list of Shakespeare's plays, which proves that it was written before 1598. It was printed for the first time in the Folio of 1623; the text is very correct. There is no record of any performance of the play in Shakespeare's time. It was revived in 1762 with alterations, and again in 1784, 1790, and 1808. In 1821 it was converted into an opera by the popular dramatist Frederick Reynolds, under the management of Charles Kemble, and notwithstanding some ludicrous miscarriages with the stage machinery, was performed with considerable success. It was one of Phelps' Shakespearian revivals at Sadler's Wells, but has not been seen since. Generally speaking, its popularity as an acting play seems to have been much below its desert, which may perhaps be accounted for by the difficulty of bringing together four youthful performers qualified to represent the four principal characters. RICHARD GARNETT. |