![Cover of Two Gentlemen of Verona The Works of William Shakespeare [Cambridge Edition] [9 vols.]](/covers/23043.jpg)
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This volume presents William Shakespeare’s early comedy The Two Gentlemen of Verona, rendered in a scholarly Cambridge edition from 1863. The text begins with the customary front matter, general and text‑critical notes, line numbers, and editorial conventions, followed by the dramatis personæ and a detailed listing of characters and settings. The play opens in Verona, where friends Valentine and Proteus exchange witty banter about love, travel, and the folly of youthful affection, before departing for Milan and the frontier of Mantua. Their dialogue, peppered with wordplay and philosophical musings, sets the stage for the tangled relationships that will unfold, while the surrounding notes preserve the original punctuation, brackets, and footnote references for the diligent reader.
Shakespeare’s language here is unmistakably Elizabethan, marked by rhythmic iambic prose, elaborate metaphor, and a lively repartee that oscillates between earnest sentiment and comic exaggeration. The play’s themes of friendship, romantic rivalry, and exile will appeal to readers who enjoy the energetic verbal sparring of early modern drama, as well as scholars interested in textual fidelity and historical staging. Those drawn to witty exchanges, intricate character dynamics, and the vibrant spirit of Renaissance comedy will find this edition a rewarding encounter.
The opening · free to read
Pro. Wilt thou be gone? Sweet Valentine, adieu! Think on thy Proteus, when thou haply seest Some rare note-worthy object in thy travel: Wish me partaker in thy happiness, When thou dost meet good hap; and in thy danger, 15 If ever danger do environ thee, Commend thy grievance to my holy prayers, For I will be thy beadsman, Valentine.
Val. And on a love-book pray for my success?
Pro. Upon some book I love I'll pray for thee. 20
Val. That's on some shallow story of deep love: How young Leander cross'd the Hellespont.
Pro. That's a deep story of a deeper love; For he was more than over shoes in love.
Val. 'Tis true; for you are over boots in love, 25 And yet you never swum the Hellespont.
Pro. Over the boots? nay, give me not the boots.
Val. No, I will not, for it boots thee not.
Pro. What?
Val. To be in love, where scorn is bought with groans; Coy looks with heart-sore sighs; one fading moment's mirth 30 With twenty watchful, weary, tedious nights: If haply won, perhaps a hapless gain; If lost, why then a grievous labour won; However, but a folly bought with wit, Or else a wit by folly vanquished. 35
Pro. So, by your circumstance, you call me fool.
Val. So, by your circumstance, I fear you'll prove.
Pro. 'Tis love you cavil at: I am not Love.
Val. Love is your master, for he masters you: And he that is so yoked by a fool, 40 Methinks, should not be chronicled for wise.
Pro. Yet writers say, as in the sweetest bud The eating canker dwells, so eating love Inhabits in the finest wits of all.
Val. And writers say, as the most forward bud 45 Is eaten by the canker ere it blow, Even so by love the young and tender wit Is turn'd to folly; blasting in the bud, Losing his verdure even in the prime, And all the fair effects of future hopes. 50 But wherefore waste I time to counsel thee, That art a votary to fond desire? Once more adieu! my father at the road Expects my coming, there to see me shipp'd.
Pro. And thither will I bring thee, Valentine. 55
Val. Sweet Proteus, no; now let us take our leave. To Milan let me hear from thee by letters Of thy success in love, and what news else Betideth here in absence of thy friend; And I likewise will visit thee with mine. 60
Pro. All happiness bechance to thee in Milan!
Val. As much to you at home! and so, farewell. [_Exit._
Pro. He after honour hunts, I after love: He leaves his friends to dignify them more; I leave myself, my friends, and all, for love. 65 Thou, Julia, thou hast metamorphosed me, Made me neglect my studies, lose my time, War with good counsel, set the world at nought; Made wit with musing weak, heart sick with thought.
Enter SPEED.
Speed. Sir Proteus, save you! Saw you my master? 70
Pro. But now he parted hence, to embark for Milan.
Speed. Twenty to one, then, he is shipp'd already, And I have play'd the sheep in losing him.
Pro. Indeed, a sheep doth very often stray, An if the shepherd be awhile away. 75
Speed. You conclude that my master is a shepherd, then, and I a sheep?
Pro. I do.
Speed. Why then, my horns are his horns, whether I wake or sleep. 80
Pro. A silly answer, and fitting well a sheep.
Speed. This proves me still a sheep.
Pro. True; and thy master a shepherd.
Speed. Nay, that I can deny by a circumstance.
Pro. It shall go hard but I'll prove it by another. 85
Speed. The shepherd seeks the sheep, and not the sheep the shepherd; but I seek my master, and my master seeks not me: therefore I am no sheep.
Pro. The sheep for fodder follow the shepherd; the shepherd for food follows not the sheep: thou for wages 90 followest thy master; thy master for wages follows not thee: therefore thou art a sheep.
Speed. Such another proof will make me cry 'baa.'
Pro. But, dost thou hear? gavest thou my letter to Julia? 95
Speed. Ay, sir: I, a lost mutton, gave your letter to her, a laced mutton, and she, a laced mutton, gave me, a lost mutton, nothing for my labour.
Pro. Here's too small a pasture for such store of muttons.
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