The "Beautiful" Two Gentlemen

Next on the Shakespeare Readers' schedule is Two Gentlemen of Verona, which scholar David Bevington has described as "the most neglected of Shakespeare's comedies in the theater." Luckily, it is coming soon to a theater near us, The Shakespeare Theatre's beautiful Lansburgh Theatre, January 7-March 4, 2012.

So if this "neglected" piece needs an introduction, a sweet place to start is the rendering of the story by Edith Nesbit in her collection of Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare.

Written a bit over a century ago and intended for an audience of 9- to 12-year-olds, the Beautiful Stories have a quaintness not typically found in the average plot summary. Of Valentine and Proteus, Nesbit warns us, "only one of them was really a gentleman, as you will discover later."

Valentine was happy in his name because it was that of the patron saint of lovers; it is hard for a Valentine to be fickle or mean. Proteus was unhappy in his name, because it was that of a famous shape-changer, and therefore it encouraged him to be a lover at one time and a traitor at another.

Two Gentlemen is also the source of one of Shakespeare's better known songs:

Who is Silvia? what is she,
That all our swains commend her?
Holy, fair, and wise is she;
The heaven such grace did lend her
That she might admired be.

So, get ready to use your voice!

In Bard We Trust.