SOURCE: “Love Letters in The Two Gentlemen of Verona,” in Shakespeare Studies, Vol. 18, 1986, pp. 65-85.

In the following essay, Kiefer asserts that in The Two Gentlemen of Verona love is linked to reading and writing, and characterizes the play's love letters as effective theatrical props used to propel the action forward and to display character.

The two gentlemen of Verona are what their youth and courtly upbringing predispose them to be—bookish. Appropriately, the word book appears in their opening conversation when Proteus, contemplating the dangers his friend may encounter on a journey, pledges, “I will be thy beadsman,” and Valentine replies, “And on a love-book pray for my success?” (I.i.18-19).¹ The expression love-book anticipates the conjunction of love with reading and writing that characterizes the entire play. This conjunction is apparent in the first scene when, the conversation having turned to love, both Proteus and...