CRITICISM

Beadle, Richard. “Crab's Pedigree.” In English Comedy, edited by Michael Cordner, Peter Holland, and John Kerrigan, pp. 12-35. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994.

Examines the role of the dog, Crab, in The Two Gentlemen of Verona, and discusses the influence of the “clown-and-dog” tradition on Shakespeare's use of Crab in the play.

Berryman, John. “The Two Gentlemen of Verona.” In Berryman's Shakespeare, edited by John Haffenden, pp. 314-17. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1999.

A brief overview of The Two Gentlemen of Verona, including comments on the sources and dating of the play.

Brooks, Harold F. “Two Clowns in a Comedy (to say nothing of the Dog): Speed and Launce (and Crab) in The Two Gentlemen of Verona.” Essays and Studies, n.s. 16 (1963): 91-100.

Suggests that the comic characters in the play are paralleled in the major themes.

Jaarsma, Richard J. “The ‘Lear Complex’ in The Two Gentlemen of Verona.” Literature and Psychology 22, No. 4 (1972): 199-202.

Explores the similarities between the way father-daughter relationships are portrayed in King Lear and The Two Gentlemen of Verona.

Rossky, William. “The Two Gentlemen of Verona as Burlesque.” English Literary Renaissance 12, No. 2 (Spring 1982): 210-19.

Suggests that the play is actually a satirical study of love and romance, especially in regards to its controversial ending.

Schleiner, Louise. “Voice, Ideology, and Gendered Subjects: The Case of As You Like It and Two Gentlemen.” Shakespeare Quarterly 50, No. 3 (Fall 1999): 285-309.

A comparative analysis of the ideology and subjects addressed in As You Like It and The Two Gentlemen of Verona.

Slights, Camille Wells. “Common Courtesy in The Two Gentlemen of Verona.” In Shakespeare's Comic Commonwealths, pp. 57-73. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1993.

Examines the play as a study of the manners of courtly society, and studies the way in which that society valued both love and friendship.

Weimann, Robert. “Laughing with the Audience: The Two Gentlemen of Verona and the Popular Tradition of Comedy.” Shakespeare Survey 22 (1969): 35-42.

Maintains that audience participation serves a central dramatic function, structuring and controlling the play's comic vision.

Wells, Stanley. “The Failure of The Two Gentlemen of Verona.” Shakespeare Jahrbuch 99 (1963): 161-73.

Interpretation of The Two Gentlemen of Verona informed by H. B. Charlton's reading of the play, which contends that Shakespeare failed to make successful use of the conventions of romantic love in this work.