From the Editor …

Why a Dog? A Late Date for The Two Gentlemen of Verona

“…iv. 1,10,21,5,15,17,19,29,24,25,28,22, and 32) group. Tobin's simple listing of Act, Scene and Line numbers without further explication disguises the fact that both these clusters are in scenes of Two Gentlemen which were probably late, or even last-minute, additions to the play, the first cluster coming in a scene involving the Outlaws, and, most significantly, the second cluster coming entirely within Lance's final soliloquy.…”

“…Although placed early, Two Gentlemen is nevertheless acknowledged to share features with Shakespeare plays thought to be later. As a result, we get the suspicious situation that Two Gentlemen has to be seen as a 'seminal' work that 'anticipates' many later works 4 (or later works are seen to 'return to' it over an over again 5 ). I shall argue in this paper that the general belief that Two Gentlemen is an early work of Shakespeare's is wrong.…”