3 - Theseus and Ariadne (and her Sister)

Summary

In Act 4, scene 4 of Shakespeare's Two Gentlemen of Verona, Julia – here cross-dressed as Proteus’ emissary ‘Sebastian’ – famously fabricates an account of a dramatic production. S/he regales an unwitting romantic rival (Silvia) with details of a purely fictitious entertainment that was allegedly staged alongside other ‘pageants of delight’ for the Veronese court at Pentecost. Claiming to have personally performed a female part in this drama, Julia-as-Sebastian informs Silvia that s/he ‘was trimmed in Madam Julia's gown’ for the role, a garment which, naturally, fit ‘As if … made for’ the actor. Further expounding upon the precise nature of the ‘lamentable part’ s/he played in this fanciful piece, Julia-as-Sebastian relates: ‘’twas Ariadne, passioning / For Theseus’ perjury and unjust flight; / Which I so lively acted with my tears’.

As audiences of The Two Gentlemen of Verona have often noted, the implications of Julia-as-Sebastian and Silvia's Act 4, scene 4 exchange are dizzying, and recent scholarship has delighted in the tangled web of gender and identity politics suggested by this imaginary Pentecost play. After all, this verbal report was originally written for delivery by a boy actor playing a female character (Julia) cross-dressed as a male youth (Sebastian) who is providing an account of a non-existent theatrical event in which ‘he’ played a female role (Ariadne) and during which ‘he’ was supposedly costumed in Julia's own garments. What is more, speaking in the third person, Julia-as- Sebastian also describes watching ‘Julia’, as she took in this imaginary play: the Veronese gentlewoman was reportedly ‘moved therewithal’ and ‘Wept bitterly’ when she saw Ariadne's tragedy staged. The emotional responses attributed to ‘Julia’ and ‘Sebastian’ here are vertiginously reciprocal. Just as ‘Julia’ is supposed to have been brought to tears while watching ‘Sebastian’ animate the well-known amatory distress of a mythological heroine, ‘Sebastian’ correspondingly claims ‘To think upon [Julia's] woes I do protest / That I have wept a hundred several times’ and emphatically insists ‘would I might be dead / If I in thought felt not [Julia's] very sorrow’.