Ghost character that when Shakespeare dramatised the poem and expanded Mercutio's role, he introduced a brother for him in order to suggest a more fraternal character. Shakespeare appears to be the first dramatist to have used the name Valentine prior to "Romeo and Juliet", but he himself had actually used the name previously. In "Two Gentlemen of Verona", a play about two brothers and also set in Verona, Valentine is a true and constant lover and Proteus is a fickle one. While not primarily based on it, "Two Gentlemen of Verona" adapts several incidents from Brooke's poem, and in all these instances
The Two Gentlemen of Verona alongside "The Taming of the Shrew" and "The Comedy of Errors", it starred Kenneth Wigley as Valentine, Jonathan Horne as Proteus, Amee Vyas as Julia and Kati Grace Morton as Silvia. In 2012, P.J. Paparelli directed a Shakespeare Theatre Company production at the Lansburgh Theatre, starring Andrew Veenstra as Valentine, Nick Dillenburg as Proteus, Natalie Mitchell as Silvia and Miriam Silverman as Julia. Set in the 1990s, and featuring a contemporary soundtrack, mobile phones and guns, the production downplayed the comedy, and instead presented the play as a semi-tragic coming-of-age story. Reviews were mixed, with most critics impressed with the