Proteus Richard III in the play "Henry VI, Part Three", in which the future usurper boasts: Shakespeare also names one of the main characters of his play "The Two Gentlemen of Verona" Proteus. Inconsistent with his affections, his deceptions have unraveled at the finale of the play as he is brought face-to-face with his friend Valentine and original love Julia: In 1807, William Wordsworth finished his sonnet on the theme of a modernity deadened to Nature, which opens "The world is too much with us", with a sense of nostalgia for the lost richness of a world numinous with deities: In
The Two Gentlemen of Verona at Stratford-upon-Avon. The earliest production about which we have significant information is Michael Langham's 1957 production at The Old Vic, starring Richard Gale as Valentine, Keith Michell as Proteus, Barbara Jefford as Julia and Ingrid Hafner as Silvia. In this production, set in late nineteenth-century Italy and grounded very much in high Romanticism, Proteus threatens to kill himself with a pistol at the end of the play, prompting Valentine's hasty offer of Silvia. Perhaps the most notable 20th-century production was Peter Hall's 1960 production at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre. Set in a late medieval "milieu", the play starred Denholm Elliott