Compare the nature of the two friends' talk; how that of Protheus gives a better impression of himself than is true, that of Valentine, a worse. Show the consistency in wile of Protheus in his conduct toward the Duke, Thurio, Silvia, and Julia. Why does it succeed? Wherein is it likely to fail? QUERIES FOR DISCUSSION Is Protheus impossibly false as a character? Or is his duplicity an exemplification of the facility toward evil of this kind that is natural to an extremely impressionable nature which lacks stability? In what does Valentine's superiority consist? Are the maxims for the treatment of women which he gives the Duke due to artificial system learned from others or a part of his own experience? ACT IV SILVIA AND JULIA Tell the story of the Act. All the main characters and one new one have their parts in the next steps in the plot? What are those parts? Valentine's fate and its result. Silvia's determination and its effect. Notice how her call upon Eglamoure for knightly service brings the action into the province of Chivalry again. Julia's office in the schemes of Protheus. Is this Act dominated in its drift by the two women? How do they put their impress upon events? Show how the villain Protheus is instrumental in bringing these two women together, and how this is equivalent to uniting against his evil policy, the good forces of the Play. The loyalty of Silvia to Julia considered as offsetting the falsity of Protheus to Valentine. QUERIES FOR DISCUSSION Is the most actively beneficial episode in this Act also the most charming. ACT V VALENTINE, SILVIA AND JULIA VERSUS PROTHEUS What are the results of Silvia's flight? Why does outlawry bring out the superiority of Valentine? Does it serve also to bring out the inferiority of Protheus? How does outlawry serve to defeat the purposes of the Duke and Thurio and bring about the conquest over them of Valentine? How does Thurio's nature inure to the credit of Valentine's with the Duke? Does outlawry here represent the injustices of civic life? To what degree? Or the natural life beneficent and innocent of Arden Forest in "As You Like It?" To what degree is this true? QUERIES FOR DISCUSSION Why did Julia swoon? Was the repentance of Protheus genuine?--and natural? What does Valentine mean by his forgiveness of Protheus and his proof of it--"All that was mine, in Silvia, I give thee?" could he give her, personally, against her will, in Chivalry? Or in true love? How could he mean anything then, but proving by this entrusting of her to his friend his belief in his loyalty and purity? Why is Silvia silent? (See Introduction to the Play in "First Folio Edition," also Selected Criticism and Notes on V, iv, 91, for hints on these latter queries). THE TAMING OF THE SHREW A Play or mask within the Play is not uncommon in Shakespeare. A Play outside the Play especially distinguishes the arrangement of this Comedy.