Wednesday, April 24, 2013

The Triangle and the "Servants"

Act two of The Two Gentlemen of Verona makes it quite clear that this is an early work of Shakespeare's. The wordplay flashes, and the comedy is quite rich. But the plot of it has none of the complications of his later works.

Proteus has come to Milan, and meets with Valentine and Sylvia. He becomes smitten with Sylvia and resolves himself to be Valentine's rival for her affections. There is a third man, the one Sylvia's father favours, named Thurio, but so far he's just been something of a pin cushion for Valentine's jokes (as well as some of Sylvia's).

The edition that I'm reading doesn't have any on-page glosses, so I'm not sure if there's a varied meaning to Sylvia's use of "servant" here, but I do wonder what's going on class-wise within this love triangle. She especially refers to Valentine and Proteus as servants, and that is indeed what they came to court to be. Yet, at least Proteus is from a distinguished family, so "servant" could just be a term for someone newly come to court.

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