591. The play was first printed in the First Folio.

+Source+.--Shakespeare borrowed most of his plot from the _Menaechmi_
of Plautus. Shakespeare added to Plautus's story the second twin-slave
and the parents, together with the girl whom the elder twin meets and
loves in Syracuse. This elaboration of the plot adds much to the
attractiveness of the whole story. From the _Amphitruo_ of Plautus,
Shakespeare derived the doubling of slaves, and the scene in which the
younger twin and his slave are shut out of their own home.

+The Two Gentlemen of Verona+ is the first of the series of
Shakespeare's romantic comedies. Our interest in this play turns upon
the purely romantic characters; two friends, one true, the other
recreant; the true friend exiled to an outlaw's life in a forest, the
false in favor at court; two loving girls, one fair and radiant, the
other dark and slighted, and following her lover in boy's dress; two
clowns, Speed and Lance, one a mere word tosser, the other of rare
humor. The plot is of slighter importance; a discovered elopement, and
a maiden rescued from rude, uncivil hands, are the only incidents of
account. All ends happily as in romance, and the recreant friend is
forgiven.

_The Two Gentlemen of Verona_ was an experiment along certain
directions which were later to repay the dramatist most richly. Here
first an exquisite lyric interprets the romantic note in the play; here
first the production of a troth-plight ring confounds the faithless
lover, and here we first meet one of the charming group of loving
ladies in disguise.

But as a whole the play is disappointing. The plot is too fantastic;
Proteus too much of a cad; Julia, though brave and modest, is yet too
faithful; Valentine {149} too easy a friend. The illusion of romance
throws a transitory glamour over the scene, but, save in the
development of character, the play seems immature, when compared with
the greater comedies that followed it.

+Date+.--The first mention of the play is by Meres (1598); the first
print that in the First Folio (1623). The presence of alternate riming
sonnets and doggerel rime on the one hand, and of a number of double
endings on the other, render 1592 a reasonable date. In its
development of character it marks a great advance over the other two
comedies of this period.

+Source+.--The chief source was a story of a shepherdess, an episode in
the Spanish novel, _Diana Enamorada_, by Jorge de