Speed: The Servant Who Always Understands First
First appears: Act 1, Scene 1
Speed is Valentine's servant and the play's quickest talker. He spots that Valentine is in love before Valentine admits it. He sees what is happening in every scene he appears in, usually faster than his master.
His exchanges with Launce (the other servant) are the play's most purely comic sequences. Their styles are completely different: Speed is rapid, verbal, full of puns; Launce is slow, physical, devoted to his dog.
He is captured by outlaws in Act 5 and disappears from the plot, which says something about how seriously the play takes its servants by the end.
Key Scenes
Famous Quotes
“O jest unseen, inscrutable, invisible, As a nose on a man's face, or a weathercock on a steeple!”
Speed — Act 2, Scene 1
“Marry, by these special marks: first, you have learned, like Sir Proteus, to wreathe your arms, like a malecontent.”
Speed — Act 2, Scene 1
Themes
Other Characters in The Two Gentlemen of Verona
Test Your Knowledge
Think you know your Shakespeare? Put it to the test with one of our free quizzes.
See all quizzes →