Precious little
in
The Two Gentlemen of Verona
The first text I wrote about this play was
about the friendship of the women (pp 16-22 in Shakespeare calling – the
book). I made the astute observation that this, possibly his first, play
set ‘the stage for comedies that are based on true tragedy and realism.’ Clever
me. Unfortunately, I’m not clever enough to come up with anything astute or
even vaguely interesting this time because frankly, women’s friendship aside,
there is precious little to like in this play unless you like dogs, which I
don’t. Yes, Lance and his dog are amusing but not enough to write about.
So once again I will cop out by giving a
brief report of what others have written.
The introduction to the RSC edition points
out that the play deals with conflicts between generations, genders and classes
(p. 52). Ture. I could have analysed that I suppose since I always find it
relevant and interesting.
The Oxford edition introduces the play by
writing: ‘If the whole is not greater than its parts, some of the parts – such
as Lance’s brilliant monologues, and the delightful scene (4.2) in which
Proteus serenades his love with “Who is Silvia?” while his disguised old love
Julia looks wistfully on – are wholly successful (p. 1). Also true.
Jean E. Howard is always intelligently
analytical and so she is in her introduction to the Norton Edition. Among much
else she write: ‘…at what cost to women are the bonds between men to be privileged?
By the way he creates the characters of Julia and Silvia, Shakespeare invites
his audience to take them and their emotions seriously and makes it difficult
to overlook the men’s irresponsible and callous treatment of them’ (p. 106).
True, again. I probably used this quote the first time.
Finally I will look at Harold Bloom, my
sometimes nemesis, sometimes friend. Well, he doesn’t like it. He finds no
merit in it other than Lance and the dog. He claims that Shakespeare could not
have cared less ‘that everything is amiss’ in the play (p.40). Do I agree?
Well, maybe. But I agree with Howard more.
Are there any conclusions to be drawn from
all this? Probably not, but never mind. There are other plays to read. What
shall we choose next?
Works cited:
- RSC William Shakespeare Complete Works. Editors: Jonathan Bate and Eric Rasmussen. 2007.
- Oxford Shakespeare Complete Works, second edition. General editors: Stanley Wells et al. 2005
- The Norton Shakespeare. Bases on the Oxford
edition. General editors: Stephen Greenblatt et al. 2008.
- Bloom, Harold. Shakespeare – The Invention of the Human. 1998.
Film seen this
time:
- None
Read ‘Friendship between women’ (page 16-
22) in Shakespeare calling – the book
available here:
No comments:
Post a Comment