The Two Gentlemen of Verona, which appears as the
second comedy in the First Folio, was probably first performed about 1594.
Shakespeare’s first attempt at romantic comedy, it concerns two friends,
Proteus and Valentine, and two women, Julia and Sylvia. The play traces the
relations of the four, until the two sets of lovers are happily paired off:
Proteus with Julia, and Valentine with Sylvia. Much of the humor in the play
comes from a clownish servant, Launce, and his dog, Crab, described as “the
sourest-natured dog that lives.” Shakespeare probably wrote the part of Launce
for comic actor Will Kemp.
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