ACT V SCENE IV

The Two Gentlemen of Verona

Return to: The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Scenes
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Explanatory notes for Act 5, Scene 4
From The Two Gentlemen of Verona. Ed. Israel Gollancz. New York: University Society.

6. record:– Commonly used as meaning to sing. So in Drayton’s Eclogues:-

“Fair Philomel, night-music of the spring,
Sweetly records her tuneful harmony.”

Cotgrave and others speak of the birds recording, that is, warbling.

88. All that was mine, etc.:- This is a strange passage. Many commentators have tried hard, in different ways, to make it look reasonable; but there is an extravagance about it that will not yield to editorial skill. Here is a remark upon it in Charles and Mary Lamb’s Tales from the Plays of Shakespeare: “Proteus expressed such a lively sorrow for the injuries he had done to Valentine, that Valentine, whose nature was noble and generous even to a romantic degree, not only forgave and restored him to his former place in his friendship, but in a sudden flight of heroism he said, ‘I freely do forgive you; and all the interest I have in Silvia I give it up to you!” Dyce, speaking of “this over-strained and too generous act of friendship,” no doubt more correctly says: “Nor would Shakespeare probably, if the play had been written in his maturer years, have made Valentine give way to such ‘a sudden flight of heroism’: but was undoubtedly an early production of the Poet; and in stories popular during his youth he may have found similar instances of romantic generosity.” White’s remark is: “Much of little worth has been written upon this singular passage. But it appears to be uncorrupted, and it has a plain meaning. Comment upon it, therefore, seems to be the function, not of the editor of Shakespeare’s works, but of the philosophical critic upon his poetry and dramatic art. It is proper to remark, however, that Valentine displays a similar overstrained generosity when, on the arrival of Proteus (II. iv.) he twice earnestly entreats Silvia to receive his friend as her lover, on equal terms with him – as his ‘fellow-servant’ to her.”

99. cry you mercy:– That is, ask your pardon.

106-108. gave aim, etc.:- Allusion to archery. That which gave aim was the mark at which the archer shot. The root means the pin, to cleave which was to hit the centre of the mark.

111, 112. if shame live, etc.:– That is, if it be any shame to wear a disguise in such a cause.

136. Verona shall not hold thee:– “To Valentine’s apprehension,” says White, “the whole party were on their way from Milan to Verona, as he was when the Outlaws stayed him; and therefore his threat to Thurio that he shall never reach his destination. Theobald, not perceiving this, and seeing only that ‘Thurio is a Milanese, and has no concern, as it appears, with Verona,’ in his perplexity reads ‘ Milan shall not behold thee.’ This is cutting the knot, with a vengeance.’ But the difficulty and the solution have, with too little thought, been accepted by succeeding editors. Mr. Singer even adds that ‘the Scene, too, is between the confines of Milan and Mantua,’ as support for the rejection of any allusion to Verona. This, however, is not the case, as appears from the fact that Silvia takes flight before sunset in Sc. i. of this Act, is pursued immediately, as we see by the Duke’s speech in Sc. ii., is seized by the Outlaws in the next scene, and is rescued in the next. The events evidently pass with great rapidity; and the same safety from pursuit which Sir Eglamour promised Silvia in the forest ‘not three leagues’ from Milan, had been previously found there by the Outlaws.

159. men that I have kept withal:– That is, that I have been living with. Shakespeare often uses kept for lived or dwelt.

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How to cite the explanatory notes:
Shakespeare, William. The Two Gentlemen of Verona. Ed. Israel Gollancz. New York: University Society, 1901.