Among the many unaccountable and incomprehensible blunders
of the critics of the last century, with regard to Shakespeare
and his works, was the denial by two of them, — Hanmer
and Upton — and the doubt by more, that he wrote The Two Gentlemen of Verona.
An important and often quoted passage in
the Palladis Tamia, of Francis Meres, published in 1598, mentions
this play first among the twelve which the author cites in support
of his opinion, that "Shakespeare among the English is the most
excellent in both kinds [comedy and tragedy] for the stage." But
this uncontradicted testimony, and that of Shakespeare's friends
and fellow- actors, who superintended the publication of the folio
of 1623, is hardly needed; for so unmistakably does Shakespeare's
hand appear in the play, from Valentine's first speech to his last,
that were a copy of it found without a name upon its title-page, or
a claimant in the literature or the memorandum books of its day,
it would be attributed to Shakespeare by general acclamation.
Who but he could then have written the first ten lines of it,
where Valentirie says to Proteus, —
" affection chains thy tender davs
To the sweet glances of thy honour'd love,"
and gently reproves him for living “sluggardiz'd at home," wearing
out his youth "in shapeless idleness"? There has been but
one man in the world whose daring fancies were so fraught with
meaning. Who but he could have created Launce or Launce's
dog? Indeed, it is safe to say that, however inferior it may be to
the productions of his maturer years, even The Tempest and King
Lear are not more unmistakably Shakespearian in character than
The Two Gentlemen of Verona.