THE TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA. THIS play, indisputably one of the earliest complete productions of Shakespeare's mind, was first printed in the folio of 1623, where, owing to the arbitrary manner in which the dramas are disposed, it is preceded by The Tempest, assuredly one of the poet's latest creations. Some of the incidents in The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Steevens conjectures, were taken from Sidney's Arcadia (Book I. Chapter vi.), where Pyrocles consents to lead the Helots; but the amount of Shakespeare's obligations to this source does not appear to be considerable. For a portion of the plot he was unquestionably indebted to the episode of Felismena, in the Diana of George of Montemayor, a work very popular in Spain towards the end of the seventeenth century, and which exhibits several incidents, and even some expressions, in common with that part of the present play, which treats of the loves of Proteus and Julia. Of this work there were two translations, one by Bartholomew Yong, the other by Thomas Wilson.* There is a strong probability, however, that Shakespeare derived his knowledge of Felismena's story from another source, namely: "The History of Felix and Philiomena,” which was played before the Queen at Greenwich in 1584.† Be this as it may, the story of Proteus and Julia so closely corresponds with that of Felix and Felismena, that no one who has read the two can doubt his familiarity with that portion of the Spanish romance. Mr. Malone, in his " Attempt to ascertain the Order in which The Plays of Shakespeare were Written," originally assigned The Two Gentlemen of Verona to the year 1595; but he subsequently fixed the date of its production as 1591; a change which he has thus explained: "The following lines in Act I. Scene 3, had formerly induced me to ascribe this play to the year 1595: He wonder'd that your lordship Would suffer him to spend his youth at home; While other men, of slender reputation, Shakespeare, as has been often observed, gives to almost every country the manners of his own; and though the speaker is here a Veronese, the poet, when he wrote the last two lines, The translation by Yong was not published until 1598; but from his "Preface to divers learned gentlemen," we learn that it was written many years before. "It hath lyen by me finished," he remarks, "Horace's ten, and six yeeres more." He further observes:-"Well might I have excused these paines, if onely Edward Paston, Esquier, who heere and there for his own pleasure, as I understood, hath aptly turned out of Spanish into English some leaves that liked him best, had also made an absolute and complete translation of all the parts of Diana; the which, for his travell in that countrey, and great knowledge in that language, accompanied with other learned and good parts in him, had of all others that ever I heard translate these Bookes, prooved the rarest and worthiest to be embraced." Thomas Wilson's version, Dr. Farmer informs us, was published two or three years before that of Yong. "But," he adds, "this work, I am persuaded, was never published entirely." + See Cunningham's "Revels at Court," p. 189. was thinking of England, where voyages, for the purpose of discovering islands far away, were at this time much prosecuted. In 1595, Sir Walter Raleigh undertook a voyage to the island of Trinidado, from which he made an expedition up the river Oronoque to discover Guiana. Sir Humphry Gilbert had gone on a similar voyage of discovery the preceding year. "The particular situation of England in 1595, I had supposed, might have suggested the line above quoted-Some, to the wars,' &c. In that year it was generally believed that the Spaniards meditated a second invasion of England with a much more powerful and betterappointed Armada than that which had been defeated in 1588. Soldiers were levied with great diligence and placed on the seacoasts, and two great fleets were equipped-one to encounter the enemy in the British seas; the other to sail to the West Indies, under the command of Hawkins and Drake, to attack the Spaniards in their own territories. About the same time, also, Elizabeth sent a considerable body of troops to the assistance of King Henry IV. of France, who had entered into an offensive and defensive alliance with the English queen, and had newly declared war against Spain. Our author, therefore, we see, had abundant reason for both the lines before us: 'Some, to the wars, to try their fortune there; "Among the marks of love, Speed in this play (Act II. Scene 1) enumerates the walking alone, 'like one that had the pestilence.' In the year 1593, there had been a great plague, which carried off near eleven thousand persons in London. Shakespeare was undoubtedly there at that time, and his own recollection might, I thought, have furnished him with this image. But since my former edition, I have been convinced that these circumstances by no means establish the date I had assigned to this play. When Lord Essex went in 1591, with 4,000 men, to assist Henry IV. of France, we learn from Sir Robert Carey's Memoirs, p. 59, that he was attended by many volunteers; and several voyages of discovery were undertaken about that very time by Raleigh, Cavendish, and others. There was a considerable plague in London in 1583." Mr. Knight surmises that this play, Love's Labour's Lost, The Comedy of Errors, Midsummer-Night's Dream, Pericles, and Titus Andronicus, were written between 1585 and 1591; and we agree with him that this is a more probable division of the poet's labours, than ascribing to him the power of producing seventeen plays,—and such plays!—in seven years. SCENE. Sometimes in VERONA; sometimes in MILAN; and on the frontiers of MANTUA. |