The Two Gentlemen of Verona Society and Class Quotes Page 3

Page (3 of 4) Quotes: 1 2 3 4

How we cite the quotes:
Citations follow this format: (Act.Scene.Line). Line numbers correspond to the Norton edition.

Quote #7

I am but a fool, look you; and yet I have the wit to
think my master is a kind of a knave: but that's
all one, if he be but one knave. He lives not now
that knows me to be in love; (3.1.6)

Lance takes a lot of pleasure in the fact that he keeps secrets from his master. Here, he calls Proteus a "knave" (an idiot) and reveals that he's fallen in love with an unnamed woman.

Quote #8

Third Outlaw
By the bare scalp of Robin Hood's fat friar,
This fellow were a king for our wild faction!
First Outlaw
We'll have him. Sirs, a word.
SPEED
Master, be one of them; it's an honourable kind of thievery. (4.1.5)

This reference to Robin Hood hints that the outlaws might be spending their time stealing from the rich and giving to the poor, especially when Speed says their crimes are an "honourable kind of thievery."

Quote #9

Second Outlaw
Tell us this: have you any thing to take to?
VALENTINE
Nothing but my fortune.
Third Outlaw
Know, then, that some of us are gentlemen,
Such as the fury of ungovern'd youth
Thrust from the company of awful men:
Myself was from Verona banished
For practising to steal away a lady,
An heir, and near allied unto the duke. (4.1.6)

The Third Outlaw goes out of his way to point out that the forest dwelling gang is made up of noblemen. What's up with that?

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