It is the story of a novel dramatized with very little
labour or pretension; yet there are passages of high poetical
spirit, and of inimitable quaintness of humour, which are
undoubtedly Shakespeare's, and there is throughout the conduct of
the fable a careless grace and felicity which marks it for his. One
of the editors (we believe, Mr. Pope) remarks in a marginal note to
the TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA: 'It is observable (I know not for what
cause) that the style of this comedy is less figurative, and more
natural and unaffected than the greater part of this author's,
though supposed to be one of the first he wrote.' Yet so little does
the editor appear to have made up his mind upon this subject, that
we find the following note to the very next (the second) scene.
'This whole scene, like many others in these plays (some of which I
believe were written by Shakespeare, and others interpolated by the
players) is composed of the lowest and most trifling conceits, to be
accounted for only by the gross taste of the age he lived in: Populo
ut placerent. I wish I had authority to leave them out, but I have
done all I could, set a mark of reprobation upon them, throughout
this edition.' It is strange that our fastidious critic should fall
so soon from praising to reprobating. The style of the familiar
parts of this comedy is indeed made up of conceits--low they may be
for what we know, but then they are not poor, but rich ones.
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