Notes For All Chapters English Literature Class 10
Introduction
‘Two Gentlemen of Verona’ is all about the two teenage brothers who prove that they are more than their age in gentlemanliness and humanism. Despite their boyish nature they act like adults and brave the struggles of life. How they look after their sister is just rare. It shows great human values.
The narrator’s meeting the two brothers
The narrator says that as they drove through the foothills of the Alps two boys stopped them on the outskirts of Verona (Italy). They were selling wild strawberries. The narrator’s driver asked him not to buy these.
All about them
Nicola and Jacopo, 13 and 12 respectively, were real brothers. They wore shabby clothes. Their appearance strangely attracted the narrator as they approached the car. Next morning they saw them shoe-shining.
Two brothers’ doing things
The narrator asked them that he thought they picked fruit for a living. Nicola said that they did many jobs. These were like shining shoes, hawking newspapers, conducting tourists and running errands. It was all for earning money.
Meeting Nicola and Jacopo again
One night the narrator and his driver met Nicola and Jacopo in a windy and deserted square. It was midnight and Jacopo was asleep resting upon Nicola’s shoulder. The narrator asked them if they needed to work hard. But they declined.
Meeting again in the square
Next morning the narrator met them again in the square. He asked Nicola that the way they worked they could be earning a lot. But they ate little. He asked what they did with their money. He suggested that they must be saving up to emigrate to America. Nicola replied they would love to go there but they had other plans. The narrator told them that he was going on next Monday and asked if he could do anything for them.
Going to Poleta in the countryside
Jacopo replied that every Sunday they went to Poleta, 30 km from there. He asked if they could go in his car. The narrator drove them in the car on Sunday. Nicola told him that he didn’t want to trouble him.
On reaching Poleta
They reached Poleta in the afternoon. The narrator thought that there would be their humble dwelling place. But it was a villa where they stopped which amazed the narrator. He was told to go to the cafe in the village for a drink. They would take only an hour to reach there.
Narrator’s seeing Lucia, sister of Nicola and Jacopo
The narrator went inside it and saw a nurse there. She took him to the lobby. The villa was a hospital. The narrator was amazed to see Nicola and Jacopo seated at the bedside of a young girl. The girl resembled them. The nurse told the narrator that the girl was Lucia, sister of Nicola and Jacopo. The nurse told the narrator everything about them.
The past miseries of Nicola and Jacopo
The nurse told the narrator that their father was a well-known singer. He had been killed in war. They had always known a comfortable and cultured life. Lucia had been training as a singer. They suffered from starvation and cold winter due to war. For three months they had kept themselves alive in a shelter. The boys grew to hate the Germans. After the war was over they came back to their sister. Before that they had joined the resistance movement against the Germans. They found their sister suffering from TB. They got her admitted there for treatment.
Greatness of the boys for humanity
The nurse further told that both the boys worked very hard and earned money. They made regular payments to the hospital. Since work was hard in Verona they had to go to other places for work. Their devotion touched the narrator.
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