By Dave
Link: https://www.patreon.com/shakesceneshakespeare
Available until: Unknown
The Two Gentlemen
of Verona is one of the ‘problem plays’. It’s
probably Shakespeare’s first play (it’s difficult to be completely sure about
dates), though it might be his fourth. So it was probably his second or third,
simply because that’s how life tends to work sometimes!
But as it was an early play, I think
we can be understanding if things don’t quite work. After all, Shakespeare more
than makes up for it later. It’s really interesting to see the aspects of this
play which become such a feature of his other plays – two or more men in love
with the same girl; rings being given to the wrong people; comedy characters
who don’t strictly need to be there but the play wouldn’t be as good without
them.
