title: 50 Cent: Bulletproof

text: "50 Cent: Bulletproof" received generally mixed reviews due to poor gameplay mechanics but was praised for its solid storyline and music. It received 1 out of 5 and a Golden Mullet from X-Play. In spite of this, it received a positive rating of 8/10 from "Official UK PlayStation 2 Magazine".


title: 50 Cent: Bulletproof

text: The PlayStation Portable "G Unit Edition" received mixed reviews from critics. GameSpot's Alex Navarro did, however, say that it was a better game than the PS2 or Xbox versions.


title: 50 Cent: Bulletproof

text: "50 Cent: Bulletproof" sold 1,123,000 copies, according to NPD Group (it is unclear whether this figure includes the PSP's "G-Unit Edition" release). By July 2006, the PlayStation 2 version had sold 600,000 copies and earned $27 million in the United States. "Next Generation" ranked it as the 98th-highest-selling game launched for the PlayStation 2, Xbox or GameCube between January 2000 and July 2006 in that country. Overall sales of "Bulletproof" reached 850,000 units in the United States by July 2006. Its PlayStation 2 version received a "Gold" sales award from the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA), indicating sales of at least 200,000 copies in the United Kingdom.


title: Confederación Nacional del Trabajo

text: The Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (; CNT) is a Spanish confederation of anarcho-syndicalist labor unions, which was long affiliated with the International Workers' Association (AIT). When working with the latter group it was also known as CNT-AIT. Historically, the CNT has also been affiliated with the Federación Anarquista Ibérica (); thus, it has also been referred to as the CNT-FAI. Throughout its history, it has played a major role in the Spanish labor movement.


title: Confederación Nacional del Trabajo

text: Founded in 1910 in Barcelona from groups brought together by the trade union "Solidaridad Obrera", it significantly expanded the role of anarchism in Spain, which can be traced to the creation of the Spanish chapter of the IWA in 1870 and its successor organization, the Federation of Workers of the Spanish Region.


title: Confederación Nacional del Trabajo

text: Despite several decades when the organization was illegal in Spain, today the CNT continues to participate in the Spanish worker's movement, focusing its efforts on the principles of workers' self-management, federalism, and mutual aid.


title: Confederación Nacional del Trabajo

text: The CNT says of its membership, "We make no distinction at the time of admission, we require only that you are a worker or a student, employed or unemployed. The only people who cannot join are those belonging to repressive organisations (police, military, security guards), employers or other exploiters".


title: Confederación Nacional del Trabajo

text: As a union organization, and in accordance with its bylaws, the aims of the CNT are to "develop a sense of solidarity among workers" hoping to improve their conditions under the current social system, and prepare them for future emancipation, when the


title: Confederación Nacional del Trabajo

text: means of production have been socialized, to practice mutual aid amongst CNT collectives, and maintain relationships with other like-minded groups, hoping for emancipation of the entire working class. The CNT is also concerned with issues beyond the working class, desiring a radical transformation of society through revolutionary syndicalism. To achieve their goal of social revolution, the organisation has outlined a social-economic system through the confederal concept of anarchist communism, which consists of a series of general ideas proposed for the organisation of an anarchist society. The CNT draws inspiration from anarchist ideas, and also identifies with the struggles of different social movements. The CNT is internationalist, but also supports communities' right of self-determination and their sovereignty over the state.


title: Confederación Nacional del Trabajo

text: The industrial unions (sometimes referred to as "branch unions") form the base structure of the CNT. Each industrial union groups together workers of different crafts within an industry. When there are fewer than 25 people working in one particular industry, a various posts union is formed for that industry, rather than multiple industry unions. A various posts union can include workers from different crafts and industries; it requires a minimum of five people. If this number cannot be reached, four or fewer workers can form a confederal group. Due to the small size of the CNT, a majority of its unions are various posts unions.


title: Confederación Nacional del Trabajo

text: The decision-making power of the industry and various posts unions resides in the union assembly: decisions are taken by all of the workers of the union in question via a system of direct democracy and consensus. These assemblies may address any number of issues, whether "local, provincial, regional, national or international".


title: Confederación Nacional del Trabajo

text: Union sections are assemblies of union workers who work in the same work centre or small business. The assembly of the union section chooses a delegation for the union section, which is usually rotated and which will represent the opinions of the union section in meetings with other entities, although it does not have decision-making powers.


title: Confederación Nacional del Trabajo

text: The assembly chooses a committee to carry out routine or administrative duties that do not require the discussion of all members; the committee does not have decision-making powers. Committees can organise themselves through different departments, including propaganda, culture and archives; press and information; treasury and economic affairs; legal and prisoner advocacy; union action; social action; and general secretariat. The number of secretaryships can vary, sometimes two or more overlapping on a single one if considered necessary. Delegations from the union sections of the branch businesses are also part of the committee.


title: Confederación Nacional del Trabajo

text: Unlike organizations that are organized from the top down, the CNT organises itself in an anarchistic fashion, from the bottom up, through different levels of confederations, following the Principle of Federation. The reason for favoring this structure is intended to limit homogeneity in committees, and keep them from having politics or programs. It is also intended to minimize the power of individuals who may be more active in the organization.


title: Confederación Nacional del Trabajo

text: The different industry and various posts unions of a particular municipality constitute the local federation of unions that are coordinated by means of a local committee which has the same characteristics and powers as the union committees. The local committee is selected in the local plenary assembly to which every industry and various posts union can send delegations with written agreements previously adopted in their assembly. CNT has Local Federations in Madrid, Barcelona, Granada, and Seville. In turn, the unions of neighbouring municipalities can group together into a comarcal federation.


title: Confederación Nacional del Trabajo

text: A regional confederation brings together several local unions within a geographic regional zone. The structure is the same again: a regional committee with a secretary general and the rest of the Secretariats in a regional plenary to which the local unions send delegations with written agreements previously made in the assembly. The regional division of the CNT has undergone changes through time.


title: Confederación Nacional del Trabajo

text: The regional confederations send representative delegations—again on the same basis—to the national plenary assembly, which constitutes the national confederation. The national plenary of regional confederations elects a national general secretary, who moves the CNT headquarters to his/her place of residence. Hence, the CNT has no fixed headquarters.


title: Confederación Nacional del Trabajo

text: The local plenary of the local federation chosen as headquarters gathers to designate the rest of the secretarial offices. The General Secretary and the rest of the secretaries form the Permanent Secretariat of the National Committee (SPCN, in Spanish) of the CNT, along with the General Secretariats of each of the regions. As in every committee in the CNT, their capacities are technical or administrative: they have no authority to make decisions for others.


title: Confederación Nacional del Trabajo

text: Direct representatives of the industry and various posts unions attend the CNT Congress with agreements from their own assemblies, independently from the local and regional levels. Among its duties, the Congress has to decide upon the CNT general line of action, and can appoint new National Committees. Since the foundation of the CNT in 1910 and the initial constitutional congress in September 1911, nine congresses have taken place, four prior to the Spanish Civil War, and six since the Spanish transition to democracy.


title: Confederación Nacional del Trabajo

text: The Congress is convened by the National Committee a year beforehand when there is an imperative need or there are new issues to assess. The discussion subjects are presented after being confirmed in a national plenary session, and then seven months before the Congress each member union starts its own debate which culminates with the presentation of their ideas to the Congress.


title: Confederación Nacional del Trabajo

text: The meetings of the various committees (local, regional, national) are called "plenarias". Plenarias cannot take decisions, only develop technical and administrative issues, as they are constituted by committees without decision-making powers.


title: Confederación Nacional del Trabajo

text: Another method of decision-making is through local and regional plenaries (or plenary assemblies), and congresses, in which industry and various posts unions take active part sending delegations with previously reached and written agreements. The National Plenary does not follow this rule, as in this case the delegations with the written agreements come from the regional confederations.


title: Confederación Nacional del Trabajo

text: CNT conferences are open meetings in which matters are discussed and themes proposed; they serve to take the pulse of general opinion within the organization at any given moment. The discussions are later passed on to the local unions for their perusal. Persons representing themselves or another group or trade union may attend, but they cannot pass resolutions.


title: Confederación Nacional del Trabajo

text: Industry federations are organized by branch of production, not geographically. All CNT unions in a particular branch of production form the national industry federation of that branch, differing from the structure of branch unions organized by local and regional federations and confederations. Industry federations exist on a regional level as well. Industry federations are empowered to act regarding matters lying within their area of responsibility. They send representatives that can speak, but not vote, at the national and regional confederations.


title: Confederación Nacional del Trabajo

text: The International Confederation of Labor (ICL, CIT in Spanish), founded on 2018 in Parma, Italy, is a transnational organization which consists of delegations from a number of countries. The organizations are known as the "sections" of the ICL. CNT is the Spanish section.


title: Confederación Nacional del Trabajo

text: The CNT journal "CNT", or "Periódico CNT" ("CNT Journal"), operates autonomously. Its directorship and headquarters are chosen in a congress or national plenary. The directorship manages its distribution, printing, sales, and subscriptions, as well as selecting from among articles submitted. The chosen director attends the CNT National Committee's meetings on a non-voting basis. The Secretary General of the CNT is responsible for writing "Periódico CNT's" editorial page. "Periódico CNT" is published monthly, under a Creative Commons copyleft license and it is available in printed and online format.


title: Confederación Nacional del Trabajo

text: All organs and trade unions within the CNT may have their own media. "Solidaridad Obrera" ("Workers' Solidarity") is the journal of the Regional Confederation of Labor of Catalonia. It was established in 1907, being the oldest communication medium of the CNT. Other media are "La tira de papel", the Graphic Arts, Media and Shows National Coordinator bulletin; the "Cenit", newspaper of the Regional Committee of the Exterior; and "BICEL", edited by the Anselmo Lorenzo Foundation, which was created in 1987. The foundation works autonomously, and its directorship is elected in a national plenary congress. Some of its duties are to maintain, catalogue and publicly display historic properties of the CNT, to publish books and other media, including "BICEL", the Internal Bulletin of Centers of Anarchist Studies, to prepare cultural events during CNT or AIT congresses: lectures, debates, conferences, videoforums, book presentations, etc., and to coordinate with other similar projects.


title: Confederación Nacional del Trabajo

text: The CNT generally avoids bringing matters to a vote, preferring consensus decision-making, which it considers to be more in tune with its anarchist principles. While pure consensus is plausible for individual base unions, higher levels of organizations cannot completely avoid the need for some type of vote, which is always done openly by a show of hands.


title: Confederación Nacional del Trabajo

text: The CNT attempts to minimize this problem by a system of limited proportional voting. Even so, this system has some failures and may discriminate against unions with larger memberships. As an example, "ten unions with 25 adherents would total 250 members having 10 votes. This would be more votes than a union of 2,500, which with 10 times more members would only have the right to 7 votes." Within the CNT this isn't considered a major problem, because agreements tend to reach consensus after long discussions. However, due to the nature of consensus decision-making, the final agreements consensed to may bear little resemblance to the initial proposals brought to the table.


title: Confederación Nacional del Trabajo

text: The CNT is rooted in three basic principles: workers' self-management or "autogestión", federalism and mutual aid, and considers that work conflicts must be settled between employers and employees without the action of such intermediaries as official state organisms or professional unionists. This is why the union criticizes union elections and works councils as means of control for managers, preferring workers' assemblies, union sections and direct action. Also, when possible, the CNT avoids taking legal action through the courts. Administrative positions in the union rotate and are unpaid. They prefer linear salary raises to increases that are percentage based, because the former increase equality of salaries. (That is, they prefer that all workers have their pay raised by the same absolute amount rather than the same percentage of their previous wage.)


title: Confederación Nacional del Trabajo

text: The CNT's usual methods of action include exhibiting banners in front of the headquarters of companies with which the union has a conflict, and calls for consumer boycotts of their products and for social solidarity with the aggrieved workers. During strikes, resistance funds are created to help strikers and their families economically.


title: Confederación Nacional del Trabajo

text: The CNT is organized around craft unions. This practice was adopted around 1918 in times of great class struggle under the reign of Alfonso XIII:


title: Confederación Nacional del Trabajo

text: The Spanish anarchist movement lacked a stable national organization during its early years. The anarchist Juan Gómez Casas described the evolution of the anarchist organization prior to the creation of the CNT:


title: Confederación Nacional del Trabajo

text: At the beginning of the 20th century there was a consensus among anarchists that a new national labor organization was necessary, to bring coherence and strength to the movement. During the Bourbon restoration (1874–1931), carried out by the traditional and dynastic parties represented by Cánovas del Castillo and Mateo Sagasta, a large portion of the workers' movement united around the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party as a political force, and around the Unión General de Trabajadores (UGT, "Workers' General Union") for collective bargaining purposes. There were also republican movements with a stronger parliamentary emphasis, which was supported by a portion of the new bourgeoisie.


title: Confederación Nacional del Trabajo

text: In 1910, in the middle of the restoration, the CNT was founded in Barcelona in a congress of the Catalan trade union "Solidaridad Obrera" (Workers' Solidarity) with the objective of constituting an opposing force to the then-majority trade union, the socialist UGT and "to speed up the economic emancipation of the working class through the revolutionary expropriation of the bourgeoisie". The CNT started small, counting 26,571 members represented through several trade unions and other confederations.


title: Confederación Nacional del Trabajo

text: In 1911, coinciding with its first congress, the CNT initiated a general strike that provoked a Barcelona judge to declare the union illegal until 1914. That same year of 1911, the trade union officially received its name.


title: Confederación Nacional del Trabajo

text: In 1916 the CNT changed its strategy respecting the UGT, establishing new relations that allowed the two unions to initiate the general strike of 1917 jointly. The second congress of the CNT in 1919 studied the possibility of merging both organizations to unify the Spanish labor movement. That same congress approved linking the CNT to the Third International, but after Ángel Pestaña's visit to the Soviet Union, and on his advice, they broke definitively from the Third International in 1922.


title: Confederación Nacional del Trabajo

text: From 1918 on the CNT grew stronger. Around that time, panic spread among employers, giving rise to the practice of (employing thugs to intimidate active unionists), causing a spiral of violence which significantly affected the trade union. These were known to have killed 21 union leaders in 48 hours.


title: Confederación Nacional del Trabajo

text: The CNT had an outstanding role in the events of the general strike, which paralyzed 70% of industry in Catalonia in 1919, the year the CNT reached a membership of 700,000. The Government settled the strike by granting all the striking workers demands that included an eight-hour day, union recognition, and the rehiring of fired workers.


title: Confederación Nacional del Trabajo

text: In 1922 the International Workingmen's Association (later International Workers' Association) was founded in Berlin; the CNT joined immediately. However, the following year, with the rise of Miguel Primo de Rivera's dictatorship, the labor union was outlawed, once again.


title: Confederación Nacional del Trabajo

text: In 1927 with the "moderate" positioning of some (CNT members) the (FAI), an association of anarchist affinity groups, was created in Valencia. The FAI would play an important role during the following years through the so-called (connection) with the CNT, that is, the presence of FAI elements in the CNT, encouraging the labor union not to move away from its anarchist principles, an influence that continues today.


title: Confederación Nacional del Trabajo

text: After the fall of the monarchy in 1931, the CNT offered minimal support to the Second Republic. This support decreased progressively during the years between 1931 and 1933 because of constant confrontations with the republican authorities in the successive general strikes. The end of that period was marked by so-called revolutions of January and December, both of which were swiftly suppressed by the government. In those days the CNT functioned primarily in Catalonia, but was also gaining importance in other regions, such as Andalusia and Aragon (where it had a higher membership than the UGT).


title: Confederación Nacional del Trabajo

text: In Ceuta, the CNT's organ was the weekly "Despertar", launched in December 1931, but its publication was discontinued the next year.


title: Confederación Nacional del Trabajo

text: Tensions between the radical "faístas", or FAI members, and the moderate non-"faístas" were constant and difficult to analyze because of the decentralized and sectorial nature of the organization. Finally, in 1931 a group of moderates published the "Manifesto of the Thirty", which would give rise to "Treintism" (from "treinta", thirty in Spanish), and in 1932 Ángel Pestaña split from the CNT to create the Syndicalist Party.


title: Confederación Nacional del Trabajo

text: In January 1932 a revolutionary strike organized by the CNT took place in Alt Llobregat, Catalonia. In some places the workers took control of the streets and proclaimed libertarian communism replacing the republican flags with the red and black ones. The strike was suppressed by the use of the police and the military and several leading figures of the workers' side were arrested and some deported to Spanish colonies in Africa (Spanish Morocco, Western Sahara and Guinea).


title: Confederación Nacional del Trabajo

text: In January 1933 a revolution was carried out by the CNT. The first acts of the insurrection took place in January 1st, with bombs exploding in La Fulguera, Asturias, and street riots in Seville, Lleida and Pedro Muñoz. By 8 January the revolution had spread to most of Spain reaching its greatest resonance in Andalusia. The revolution was violently suppressed: in Bugarra, where the workers had proclaimed libertarian communism after an intense combat with the police, the Guardia Civil retook control of the town and killed 10 peasants while also detaining 250 more. The most well-known case of repression was the Casas Viejas incident which discredited the government partly leading to its electoral defeat in 1933 elections. During riots in Casas Viejas, where workers had proclaimed libertarian communism, two police officers were wounded, leading the government to send larger police forces to arrest rioters and stop the rebellion. Many peasants fled the town but a group of anarchists resisted arrest and were barricaded in the house of an anarchist, Francisco Cruz Gutiérrez. When the guards under the command of Captain Rojas arrived, they set the house on fire with the anarchists and their families still inside. Everyone inside the house was killed except for Maria Silva Cruz and a little boy. The police then gathered all villagers who owned a gun, marched them to the ashes of the burned house and shot them dead.


title: Confederación Nacional del Trabajo

text: The third insurrection carried out by the CNT during the Second Spanish Republic was in December 1933 after the 1933 elections. It had its epicenter in Zaragoza and more generally in Aragon and La Rioja and it extended to parts of Extremadura, Andalusia, Catalonia and the mining basin of León. It lasted about a week before being completely dominated by law enforcement and in some places by the intervention of the army.


title: Confederación Nacional del Trabajo

text: The two years governed by the coalition of the center to center-right Partido Republicano Radical and the right to far-right CEDA were marked by mostly clandestine CNT activity, in the face of severe government repression. During the socialist Revolution of October 1934 (at which point membership in the CNT reached 1.58 million) the CNT participated only from the background. However, the CNT's Regional Confederation of Labor of Asturias, León and Palencia actively participated in the revolution because of its loyalty to workers' alliances, this time formalized through the Uníos Hermanos Proletarios (UHP; Unite Brothers of the Proletariat) in the pact with the UGT and the Asturian Socialist Federation. Thus, in La Felguera and in "El Llano" district of Gijón there were short periods when anarchist communism was put into practice:


title: Confederación Nacional del Trabajo

text: It is believed that 30,000 people were imprisoned during this period. The successful transportation strike in Zaragoza, followed by a more-than-two-week general strike, was convoked in 1935 jointly with the UGT. However, this collaboration was not to be repeated in later actions.


title: Confederación Nacional del Trabajo

text: After Lerroux's government crumbled, the 1936 elections placed the CNT at a crossroads. Opinions inside the organization were split among the supporters of abstentionism, those who wanted to allow the workers to choose whether or not to vote, or those directly advocating a vote for the Popular Front. This coalition party promised amnesty for prisoners, and part of the growth of the Front appears to have been thanks to the anarchist vote.


title: Confederación Nacional del Trabajo

text: The CNT held a congress in Saragossa on 1 May, ratifying the position that the union should make no pacts with any political party, despite UGT leader Largo Caballero's attempts to persuade the union to stand in unity with the UGT.


title: Confederación Nacional del Trabajo

text: On 1 June, the CNT joined the UGT in declaring a strike of "building workers, mechanics, and lift operators." A demonstration was held, 70,000 workers strong. Members of the Falange attacked the strikers. The strikers responded by looting shops, and the police reacted by attempting to suppress the strike. By the beginning of July, the CNT was still fighting, while the UGT had agreed to arbitration. In retaliation to the attacks by the Falangists, anarchists killed three bodyguards of the Falangist leader José Antonio Primo de Rivera. The government then closed the CNT's centers in Madrid, and arrested David Antona and Cipriano Mera, two CNT militants.


title: Confederación Nacional del Trabajo

text: After periods of clandestine operation followed by other shorter periods of legalization, in 1936 the CNT was finally legalized, and would remain legal until the end of the Civil War. During the war, the union collaborated with other republican groups opposed to the Nationalists. As the war developed, members of the CNT came to form part of the government of the Republic, holding various ministries and high positions within the administration.


title: Confederación Nacional del Trabajo

text: In Barcelona, the anarchists managed the majority of the functions of society, collectivizing a large part of the activity of the city, as George Orwell described:


title: Confederación Nacional del Trabajo

text: Across the border from Catalonia in the nominally Republican eastern portion of the divided Aragon, the republican state was similarly powerless. The Confederal militias, which occupied Lower Teruel and Huesca, established defense committees that replaced the old city councils. In zones that had more anarchist presence before the war, collectivization of the land was carried out with great success. These first collectivizations were voluntary and were established from the lands that belonged to the members and those which had been requisitioned from those who were fugitive or missing. Those property-owners who wanted to keep possession of their land were not allowed to hire outside their families, and those lands they could not farm passed under community control.


title: Confederación Nacional del Trabajo

text: Some of the most important communities in this respect were those of Alcañiz, Calanda, Alcorisa, Valderrobres, Fraga or Alcampel. Not only were the lands collectivized, but collective labours were also undertaken, like the retirement home in Fraga, the collectivization of some hospitals (such as in Barbastro or Binéfar), and the founding of schools such as the School of Anarchist Militants. These institutions would be destroyed by the Nationalist troops during the war.


title: Confederación Nacional del Trabajo

text: The committee held an extraordinary regional plenary session to protect the new rural organization, gathering all the union representatives from the supporting villages and backed by Buenaventura Durruti. Against the will of the mainly Catalan CNT National Committee, the Regional Defence Council of Aragon was created.


title: Confederación Nacional del Trabajo

text: The Civil War era also showed a spirit of sexual revolution. The anarchist women's organization "Mujeres Libres" established an equal opportunity for women in a society that traditionally had held women in lower regard. Women acquired power they had not previously had in Spanish society, fighting at the front and doing heavy jobs, things that had been forbidden to them until then. Free love became popular, although some parents' distrust produced the creation of the "revolutionary weddings", informal ceremonies in which the couples declared their status, and that could be annulled if both parties didn't want to continue their relationship.


title: Confederación Nacional del Trabajo

text: Following Largo Caballero's assumption of the position of Prime Minister of the government, he invited the CNT to join in the coalition of groups making up the national government. The CNT proposed instead that a National Defense Council should be formed, led by Largo Caballero, and containing five members each from the CNT and UGT, and four "liberal republicans". When this proposal was declined, the CNT decided not to join the government. However, in Catalonia, the CNT joined the Central Committee of the Anti-Fascist Militias, which joined the Generalitat on 26 September. For the first time, three members of the CNT were also members of the government.


title: Confederación Nacional del Trabajo

text: In November, Caballero once again asked the CNT to become part of the government. The leadership of the CNT requested the finance and war ministries, as well as three others, but were given four posts, the ministries of health, justice, industry, and commerce. With Federica Montseny became Minister of Health, the first female minister in Spain. Juan García Oliver, as minister of justice, abolished legal fees and destroyed all criminal files. Shortly afterwards, despite the disapproval of the anarchist ministers, the capital was moved from Madrid to Valencia. In Catalonia CNT was instrumental in preventing a Catalanist coup d'etat, planned in November by Estat Català.


title: Confederación Nacional del Trabajo

text: On 23 December 1936, after receiving in Madrid a retinue formed by Joaquín Ascaso, Miguel Chueca and three republican and independent leaders, the government of Largo Caballero, which by then had four anarchists as ministers (García Oliver, Juan López, Federica Montseny and Joan Peiró), approved the formation of the National Defense Committee. It was a revolutionary body which represented anarchists as much as socialists and republicans.


title: Confederación Nacional del Trabajo

text: Halfway through February 1937, a congress took place in Caspe with the purpose of creating the Regional Federation of Collectives of Aragon. 456 delegates, representing more than 141,000 collective members, attended the congress. The congress was also attended by delegates of the National Committee of the CNT.


title: Confederación Nacional del Trabajo

text: At a plenary session of the CNT in March 1937, the national committee asked for a motion of censure to suppress the Aragonese Regional Council. The Aragonese regional committee threatened to resign, which thwarted the censure effort. Though there had always been disagreements, that spring also saw a great escalation in confrontations between the CNT-FAI and the Communists. In Madrid, Melchor Rodríguez, who was then a member of the CNT, and director of prisons in Madrid, published accusations that the Communist José Cazorla, who was then overseeing public order, was maintaining secret prisons to hold anarchists, socialists, and other republicans, and either executing, or torturing them as "traitors". Soon after, on this pretext, Largo Caballero dissolved the Communist-controlled Junta de Defensa. Cazorla reacted by closing the offices of "Solidaridad Obrera".


title: Confederación Nacional del Trabajo

text: In Catalonia, the Catalan Communists in the Catalan government made several demands that provoked the ire of the anarchists, in particular the call for turning all weapons over to the control of the government. The 8 April 1937 issue of "Solidaridad Obrera" opined, "We have made too many concessions and have reached the moment of turning off the tap," while the 2 May issue urged workers to prevent the government from disarming them. On the 25th, Juan Negrín sent security forces to take over posts on the French border in the Pyrenees that had until then been controlled by the CNT, anarchists in Bellver de Cerdanya fought with Negrín's "carabineros", and Roldán Cortada, the Communist leader of the UGT was killed, allegedly by an anarchist. Cortada's funeral was used by the PSUC as an anti-CNT demonstration. Because of all the conflict, the UGT and CNT agreed with the Generalitat to cancel any celebrations on May Day. On 3 May, Assault Guards of the government attempted to take over the CNT-controlled telephone exchange building in Barcelona, but were held off by gunfire. The assault guard laid siege to the building, and fighting between the anarchists and POUM on one side, and Communists and the government forces on the other began. Leaders of the CNT attempted to acquire the resignation of the Communists they felt were responsible for the conflict, but to no avail.


title: Confederación Nacional del Trabajo

text: The next day CNT's regional committee declared a general strike. The CNT controlled the majority of the city, including the heavy artillery on the hill of Montjuïc overlooking the city. CNT militias disarmed more than 200 members of the security forces at their barricades, allowing only CNT vehicles to pass through. After unsuccessful appeals from the CNT leadership to end the fighting, the government began transferring Assault Guard from the front to Barcelona, and even destroyers from Valencia. On 5 May, the Friends of Durruti issued a pamphlet calling for "disarming of the paramilitary police… dissolution of the political parties…" and declared "Long live the social revolution! – Down with the counter-revolution!" The pamphlet was quickly denounced by the leadership of the CNT. The next day, the government agreed to a proposal by the leadership of the CNT-FAI, that called for the removal of the Assault Guards, and no reprisals against libertarians that had participated in the conflict, in exchange for the dismantling of barricades, and end of the general strike. However, neither the PSUC or the Assault Guards gave up their positions, and according to historian Antony Beevor "carried out violent reprisals against libertarians" By 8 May, the fighting was over.


title: Confederación Nacional del Trabajo

text: These events, the fall of Largo Caballero's government, and the new prime ministership of Juan Negrín soon led to the collapse of much that the CNT had achieved immediately following the rising the previous July. At the beginning of July, the Aragonese organizations of the Popular Front publicly declared their support for the alternative council in Aragon, led by their president, Joaquín Ascaso. Four weeks later the 11th Division, under Enrique Líster, entered the region. On 11 August 1937, the Republican government, now situated in Valencia, dismissed the Regional Council for the Defense of Aragon. Líster's division was prepared for an offensive on the Aragonese front, but they were also sent to subdue the collectives run by the CNT-UGT and in dismantling the collective structures created the previous twelve months. The offices of the CNT were destroyed, and all the equipment belonging to its collectives was redistributed to landowners. The CNT leadership not only refused to allow the anarchist columns on the Aragon front to leave the front to defend the collectives, but they failed to condemn the government's actions against the collectives, causing much conflict between it and the rank and file membership of the union.


title: Confederación Nacional del Trabajo

text: In April 1938, Juan Negrín was asked to form a government, and included Segundo Blanco, a member of the CNT, as minister of education, and by this point, the only CNT member left in the cabinet. At this point, many in the CNT leadership were critical of participation in the government, seeing it as dominated by the Communists. Prominent CNT leaders went so far as to refer to Blanco as "sop of the libertarian movement" and "just one more Negrínist." On the other side, Blanco was responsible for installing other CNT members into the ministry of education, and stopping the spread of "Communist propaganda" by the ministry.


title: Confederación Nacional del Trabajo

text: In March 1939, with the war nearly over, CNT leaders participated in the National Defense Council's coup overthrowing the government of the Socialist Juan Negrín. Those involved included the CNT's Eduardo Val and José Manuel González Marín serving on the council, while Cipriano Mera's 70th Division provided military support, and Melechor Rodríquez became mayor of Madrid. The council attempted to negotiate a peace with General Francisco Franco, though he granted virtually none of their demands.


title: Confederación Nacional del Trabajo

text: In 1939 the "Law of Political Responsibilities" outlawed the CNT and expropriated its assets. At that time the organization had a million members and a large infrastructure. According to one estimate, roughly 160,000–180,000 members of the CNT were killed by the Franco government.


title: Confederación Nacional del Trabajo

text: The CNT acted clandestinely inside Spain during the Franco years, as well as conducting activities from exile, and some members kept on fighting the Spanish State until 1948 through the guerrilla actions of "maquis". There was much disagreement amongst factions of the CNT during these years. There was a major split after the National Committee inside Spain chose to support members of the Republican government in exile, while members of the Libertarian Movement in Exile (MLE) (basically the CNT-in-exile) stood against further collaboration with the government. Even Federica Montseny, who had joined the Republic as Minister of Health changed her stance on collaboration, describing the "futility of...participation in the government."


title: Confederación Nacional del Trabajo

text: In January 1960, the MLE was formed by the CNT, the FAI, and the FIJL. In September of the next year, a congress was held in Limoges, at which the Sección Defensa Interior (DI) was created, to be partially funded by the CNT. By this point, a great majority of the CNT-in-exile had given up on political action as a tool, and one of the main goals of the DI was to assassinate Franco.


title: Confederación Nacional del Trabajo

text: These divergent attitudes combined with Franco's repression to weaken the organization, and the CNT lost influence among the population inside Spain. In 1961 it began to regain strength, consolidating itself during the 1960s and 1970s thanks to penetration of anarcho-syndicalist ideology into Catholic anti-Francoist workers' organizations such as the Hermandad Obrera de Acción Católica (HOAC, "Worker Brethren of Catholic Action") or Juventud Obrera Católica (JOC, "Catholic Worker Youth").


title: Confederación Nacional del Trabajo

text: After Franco's death in November 1975 and the beginning of Spain's transition to democracy, the CNT was the only social movement to refuse to sign the 1977 Moncloa Pact, an agreement amongst politicians, political parties, and trade unions to plan how to operate the economy during the transition. In 1979, the CNT held its first congress since 1936 as well as several mass meetings, the most remarkable one in Montjuïc. Views put forward in this congress would set the pattern for the CNT's line of action for the following decades: no participation in union elections, no acceptance of state subsidies, no acknowledgment of works councils, and support of union sections.


title: Confederación Nacional del Trabajo

text: In this first congress, held in Madrid, a minority sector in favor of union elections split from the CNT, initially calling themselves CNT Valencia Congress (referring to the alternative congress held in this city), and later Confederación General del Trabajo (CGT) after an April 1989 court decision determined that they could not use the CNT initials. In 1990, a group of CGT members left this union because they rejected the CGT's policy of accepting government subsidies, founding "Solidaridad Obrera".


title: Confederación Nacional del Trabajo

text: One year before, the 1978 Scala Case affected the CNT. An explosion killed three people in a Barcelona night club. The authorities alleged that striking workers "blew themselves up", and arrested surviving strikers, implicating them in the crime. CNT members declared that the prosecution sought to criminalize their organization:


title: Confederación Nacional del Trabajo

text: After its legalization, the CNT began efforts to recover the expropriations of 1939. The basis for such recovery would be established by Law 4/1986, which required the return of the seized properties, and the unions' right to use or yield the real estate. Since then the CNT has been claiming the return of these properties from the State.


title: Confederación Nacional del Trabajo

text: In 1996, the Economic and Social Council facilities in Madrid were squatted by 105 CNT militants. This body is in charge of the repatriation of the accumulated union wealth. In 2004 an agreement was reached between the CNT and the District Attorney's Office, through which all charges were dropped against the hundred prosecuted for this occupation.


title: Confederación Nacional del Trabajo

text: The number of members currently in the CNT is not known. The regions with the largest CNT membership are the Centre (Madrid and surrounding area), the North (Basque country), Andalucía, Catalonia and the Balearic Islands.


title: Confederación Nacional del Trabajo

text: The CNT opposes the model of union elections and workplace committees and is critical of labor reforms and the UGT and the CCOO, standing instead on a platform of "", that is, "return of what is due", or social revolution.


title: Confederación Nacional del Trabajo

text: The CNT, owing to its interests in the radical transformation of society, has sought to make free knowledge and culture accessible to workers, a task which has been developed through the support of the anarchist academies. The School of Anarchist Militants was an institution which, by means of anarchist pedagogy, sought to ensure that "groups of teenagers could acquire the knowledge and the personal responsibility essential to work in collectives such as those of entertainers and accountants." Through the Anselmo Lorenzo Foundation, the CNT manages its cultural heritage, edits books, and organizes conferences and colloquies. Also, some sections of the CNT have supported and promoted Esperanto.


title: Confederación Nacional del Trabajo

text: The flag of the CNT is the traditional flag of anarcho-syndicalism, which joins diagonally the red color of the labour movement and the black color of anarchism, as a negation of nationalism and reaffirmation of internationalism.


title: Confederación Nacional del Trabajo

text: The anthem of the CNT is "A las barricadas" ("To the Barricades"), written by the Polish poet Wacław Święcicki with music by Józef Pławiński in 1883. Święcicki and Pławiński's work, called "Warszawianka", was given Spanish lyrics by Valeriano Orobón Fernández and published with some musical arrangements for mixed choir by Ángel Miret in 1933.


title: Confederación Nacional del Trabajo

text: Several postage stamps were issued by the CNT during the Spanish Civil War. Other surviving artifacts of this period are posters,


title: Confederación Nacional del Trabajo

text: movie tickets, and other objects related to the companies which were collectivized during the Spanish Revolution of 1936.


title: Confederación Nacional del Trabajo

text: George Orwell fought in the Spanish Civil War in the militia of Workers' Party of Marxist Unification (POUM), a revolutionary Trotskyist party (and therefore opposed to the Soviet Union line) whose militants were allied with the CNT during the revolution and to which Andrés Nin belonged. Orwell described in his book "Homage to Catalonia" the time during which Barcelona rose up with the CNT and anarchism. In the ninth chapter of his book, Orwell commented that "As far as my purely personal preferences went I would have liked to join the Anarchists."


title: Confederación Nacional del Trabajo

text: In Ernest Hemingway's 1940 book "For Whom the Bell Tolls", Maria's fascist captors print U.H.P. on her forehead with iodine after cutting her hair.


title: Confederación Nacional del Trabajo

text: Robert Capa photographed the death of the Valencian Columna Alcoiana militiaman Federico Borrell García during the Spanish Civil War in the snapshot called ""Death of a Loyalist Soldier"". This photograph has become a famous image which shows the calamity of war.


title: Confederación Nacional del Trabajo

text: In 1936, the film industry was collectivized and produced short films such as "En la brecha" ("In the Gap", 1937). The CNT has been portrayed in recent Spanish filmmaking by the Vicente Aranda's film "Libertarias" (1996), which shows a group of militiamen (and especially militiawomen) at the Aragon front during the Spanish Civil War.


title: Backward compatibility

text: Backward compatibility (sometimes known as backwards compatibility) is a property of an operating system, product, or technology that allows for interoperability with an older legacy system, or with input designed for such a system, especially in telecommunications and computing.


title: Backward compatibility

text: Modifying a system in a way that does not allow backward compatibility is sometimes called "breaking" backward compatibility.


title: Backward compatibility

text: A complementary concept is forward compatibility. A design that is forward-compatible usually has a roadmap for compatibility with future standards and products.


title: Backward compatibility

text: A related term from programming jargon is hysterical reasons or hysterical raisins (near-homophones for "historical reasons"), as the purpose of some software features may be solely to support older hardware or software versions.


title: Backward compatibility

text: A simple example of both backward and forward compatibility is the introduction of FM radio in stereo. FM radio was initially mono, with only one audio channel represented by one signal. With the introduction of two-channel stereo FM radio, many listeners had only mono FM receivers. Forward compatibility for mono receivers with stereo signals was achieved by sending the sum of both left and right audio channels in one signal and the difference in another signal. That allows mono FM receivers to receive and decode the sum signal while ignoring the difference signal, which is necessary only for separating the audio channels. Stereo FM receivers can receive a mono signal and decode it without the need for a second signal, and they can separate a sum signal to left and right channels if both sum and difference signals are received. Without the requirement for backward compatibility, a simpler method could have been chosen.


title: Backward compatibility

text: Full backward compatibility is particularly important in computer instruction set architectures, one of the most successful being the x86 family of microprocessors. Their full backward compatibility spans back to the 16-bit Intel 8086/8088 processors introduced in 1978. (The 8086/8088, in turn, were designed with easy machine-translatability of programs written for its predecessor in mind, although they were not instruction-set compatible with the 8-bit Intel 8080 processor as of 1974. The Zilog Z80, however, was fully backward compatible with the Intel 8080.)


title: Backward compatibility

text: Fully backward compatible processors can process the same binary executable software instructions as their predecessors, allowing the use of a newer processor without having to acquire new applications or operating systems. Similarly, the success of the Wi-Fi digital communication standard is attributed to its broad forward and backward compatibility; it became more popular than other standards that were not backward compatible.


title: Backward compatibility

text: Compiler backward compatibility may refer to the ability of a compiler of a newer version of the language to accept programs or data that worked under the previous version.


title: Backward compatibility

text: A data format is said to be backward compatible with its predecessor if every message or file that is valid under the old format is still valid, retaining its meaning, under the new format.


title: Backward compatibility

text: There are several incentives for a company to implement backward compatibility. Backward compatibility can be used to preserve older software that would have otherwise been lost when a manufacturer decides to stop supporting older hardware. Classic video games are a common example used when discussing the value of supporting older software. The cultural impact of video games is a large part of their continued success, and some believe ignoring backward compatibility would cause these titles to disappear. Backward compatibility also acts as a selling point for new hardware, as an existing player base can more affordably upgrade to subsequent generations of a console. This also helps to make up for lack of content at the launch of new systems, as users can pull from the previous console's library of games while developers transition to the new hardware. Moreover, studies in the mid-1990s found that even consumers who never play older games after purchasing a new system consider backward compatibility a highly desirable feature, valuing the mere ability to continue to play an existing collection of games even if they choose never to do so. Backward compatibility with the original PlayStation (PS) is considered to have been a key selling point for the PlayStation 2 (PS2) during its early months on the market.


title: Backward compatibility

text: Despite not being included at launch, Microsoft slowly incorporated backward compatibility for select titles on the Xbox One several years into its product life cycle. Players have racked up over a billion hours with backward compatible games on Xbox, and the newest generation of consoles such as PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S also support this feature. A large part of the success and implementation of this feature is that the hardware within newer generation consoles is both powerful and similar enough to legacy systems that older titles can be broken down and re-configured to run on the Xbox One. This program has proven incredibly popular with Xbox players and goes against the recent trend of studio made remasters of classic titles, creating what some believe to be an important shift in console maker's strategies.


title: Backward compatibility

text: The monetary costs of supporting old software is considered a large drawback to the usage of backward compatibility. The associated costs of backward compatibility are a larger bill of materials if hardware is required to support the legacy systems; increased complexity of the product that may lead to longer time to market, technological hindrances, and slowing innovation; and increased expectations from users in terms of compatibility. Because of this, several console manufacturers phased out backward compatibility toward the end of the console generation in order to reduce cost and briefly reinvigorate sales before the arrival of newer hardware.


title: Backward compatibility

text: It is possible to bypass some of the hardware costs. In earlier versions of the PS2, a CPU core identical to that of the PS serves a dual purpose, either as the main CPU in PS mode, or upclocking itself to offload I/O in PS2 mode. Such an approach can backfire, however, as in the case of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (Super NES), which opted for the peculiar 65C816 over more popular 16-bit microprocessors on the basis that it would allow easy compatibility with the original NES, but NES compatibility ultimately did not prove workable once the rest of the Super NES's architecture was designed.


title: Backward compatibility

text: Backward compatibility introduces the risk that developers will favor developing games that are compatible with both the old and new systems, since this gives them a larger base of potential buyers, resulting in a dearth of software which uses the advanced features of the new system.


title: Backward compatibility

text: With the decline in physical game sales and the rise of digital storefronts and downloads, some believe backward compatibility will soon be obsolete. Many game studios are re-mastering and re-releasing their most popular titles by improving the quality of graphics and adding new content. These remasters have found success by appealing both to nostalgic players who remember enjoying the original versions, and to newcomers who may not have had the original system it was released on. For most consumers, digital remasters are more appealing than hanging on to obsolete hardware. For the manufacturers of consoles, digital re-releases of classic titles are a large benefit. It not only removes the financial drawbacks of supporting older hardware, but also shifts all of the costs of updating software to the developers. The manufacturer gets a new addition to their system with name recognition, and the studio does not have to develop a new game.


title: Karisma Kapoor filmography

text: Karisma Kapoor is an Indian actress widely known for her work in Hindi films. Kapoor made her acting debut at the age of seventeen with the romance "Prem Qaidi" in 1991, which was a box office hit. She then appeared in successful ventures, drama "Sapne Sajan Ke" (1992), and action drama "Jigar" (1992). Kapoor had her first commercial success in a leading role in romantic action drama "Anari" (1993), which was a moderate success and was one of the highest-grossing Hindi films of 1993. Between 19931996 she featured in several highly successful films, including the comedy drama "Raja Babu" (1994), action drama "Suhaag" (1994), action comedy "Andaz" (1994), the comedies "Coolie No. 1" (1995), "Saajan Chale Sasural" (1996), and "Hero No. 1" (1997), and the action thriller "Jeet" (1996). The success of these films marked a turning point in her career, establishing Kapoor as a leading actress in Hindi cinema.


title: Karisma Kapoor filmography

text: Kapoor's career prospects improved in 1996 when Dharmesh Darshan cast her in his romantic drama "Raja Hindustani". With worldwide earnings of , it emerged as the highest-grossing film of the year and the fourth highest-grossing film in India of the 1990s. The film earned her praise from critics, and Kapoor won her first Filmfare Award for Best Actress. The following year, she received widespread recognition as well as the National Film Award and Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actress for portraying a headstrong dancer in "Dil To Pagal Hai", a musical romantic drama produced by Yash Raj Films. Subsequently, she played leading roles in several blockbuster films, including the comedies "Biwi No.1" (1999), the ensemble family drama "Hum Saath-Saath Hain" (1999), and the romantic comedy "Dulhan Hum Le Jayenge" (2000). Her acclaimed performance of a disillusioned sister of Hrithik Roshan's character in the crime drama "Fiza" (2000) which earned her a second Best Actress award at Filmfare. The following year, she portrayed actress Zubeida Begum in the biographical drama "Zubeidaa" (2001), won her a Filmfare Award for Best Actress (Critics). In 2002, she portrayed a troubled daughter-in-law in the revenge-seeking war drama "".


title: Karisma Kapoor filmography

text: In 2003, Kapoor married businessman Sanjay Kapur and took a sabbatical from the films. However, she appeared in Sahara One's television series "Karishma – The Miracles of Destiny" (2003–2004) and judged various reality shows, including the celebrity dance show "Nach Baliye" (2008–2009), during this time. In 2011, she provided her voice for the role of Chhaya in the action thriller "Bodyguard", which broke many records upon its release. It became the highest opening day grosser, collecting in its first week, thus becoming the highest opening week grossing. She made her acting comeback to films with the period drama "Dangerous Ishhq" (2012) in which she played four different characters, belonging to four different past lives. It proved to be a commercial failure yet earned Kapoor appreciation for her performance. After the release of "Dangerous Ishhq", she again took a sabbatical from films. In 2020, she played a mother in the web series "Mentalhood".


title: Faran Tahir

text: Tahir was born in Los Angeles to an artistic family. His parents were actor Naeem Tahir and radio host Yasmeen Tahir and his grandparents were writers Imtiaz Ali Taj and Hijab Imtiaz Ali. Tahir went on to graduate from theatre programs at the University of California, Berkeley and the Institute for Advanced Theater Training at Harvard University.


title: Faran Tahir

text: Tahir made his television debut as a desk clerk on "Midnight Caller" in 1989. He made his film debut as Nathoo in Disney's 1994 live-action version of "The Jungle Book". He has gone on to star in a variety of roles, such as Raza in "Iron Man" (2008), Captain Robau in "Star Trek" (2009), and President Patel in "Elysium" (2013). In 2016, he played the titular role of "Othello" in a production by the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, D.C.


title: Faran Tahir

text: Faran Haroon Tahir was born on 16 February 1963 in Los Angeles to Naeem Tahir, a veteran actor and respected writer, and Yasmeen Tahir. Through his mother, "one of the most famous voices of Radio Pakistan", his grandparents are famous writers Imtiaz Ali Taj and Hijab Imtiaz Ali, also the first ever Muslim female pilot, while his younger brother Ali Tahir (b. 1972) is an actor as well, better known for starring in the comedy-drama sitcom "Teen Bata Teen". His other younger brother, Mehran Tahir (b. 1965), is a TV producer, who has for instance worked for Hum TV. Faran Tahir grew up in Pakistan and returned to the United States in 1980.


title: Faran Tahir

text: Tahir studied business economics at the University of California, Berkeley before transitioning to the performing arts, graduating with a degree in theatre. He later graduated with a MFA from the American Repertory Theater's (A.R.T.) Institute for Advanced Theater Training at Harvard University.


title: Faran Tahir

text: He made his film debut playing Nathoo in the Disney's 1994 live-action version of Rudyard Kipling's "The Jungle Book". He has since appeared in such films as "Picture Perfect" (1997), "Anywhere But Here" (1999) and "Charlie Wilson's War" (2007). He also played the male lead in the 1999 independent film "ABCD".


title: Faran Tahir

text: He played Starfleet Captain Richard Robau in the 2009 film "Star Trek". In 2013, Tahir played President Patel in the science-fiction film "Elysium".


title: Faran Tahir

text: Tahir has guest starred on many television series, including "Alias", "The Practice", "Family Law", "The Agency", "NYPD Blue", "Lost", "7th Heaven", "The West Wing", "Walker, Texas Ranger", "The D.A.", "24", "Monk", "Justice", "Cold Case", "Chuck", "Hawaii Five-0" and "Warehouse 13". He also co-starred with Robert Beltran and Chase Masterson in the 2005 Sci-Fi Channel original movie "Manticore". He also starred in the medical drama series "Grey's Anatomy" as Isaac and appeared on the CW series "Supernatural" as the Egyptian god Osiris in the seventh season's episode "Defending Your Life". Tahir starred in the ghost horror film "Jinn". The role of Frank, Cliff Barnes' right-hand man in the reboot of "Dallas". In 2015 Tahir appeared in a recurring role as the Commander on "Supergirl".


title: Faran Tahir

text: He appeared in "JAG" in the episodes "Ice Queen" and "Meltdown" which served as the two pilot episodes for the series "NCIS". Seven years later, Tahir appeared in the spin-off "".


title: Faran Tahir

text: In 2016 Tahir joined "American Crime" as Rhys Bashir, and was cast as Captain Nemo on "Once Upon a Time. "In 2017, Tahir played the role of Mallick in Syfy's TV show, "12 Monkeys"..


title: Faran Tahir

text: On his visit to Karachi, Pakistan, he appeared in a web series "Speak Your Heart With Samina Peerzada" in January 2019.


title: Faran Tahir

text: Faran will be seen in the upcoming Pakistani movie Umro Ayyar- A New Beginning, an action thriller movie produced by Azfar Jafri under the banner of VR Chili Production. Umro Ayyar- A New Beginning is expected to be released in 2022 worldwide.


title: Dan Hardy

text: Daniel Mark Hardy (born 17 May 1982) is an English former mixed martial artist who fought in the welterweight division. During his professional MMA career, which began in 2004, Hardy fought in multiple promotions, such as Cage Force and Cage Warriors, before signing a contract with the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) in 2008. In 2010, he fought Georges St-Pierre for the UFC Welterweight Championship, but lost the bout via decision.


title: Dan Hardy

text: Hardy was born in Nottingham, England, where he began martial arts training at the age of 5. Hardy's initial education was in Taekwondo, and he later began competing at the age of 7. He started practising other martial arts as a teenager, which included Karate, Jujutsu, Judo and eventually wushu. After he had finished college, he began Muay Thai and Boxing at the age of 19. He then moved to Mixed martial arts a year later. His nickname, "The Outlaw", comes from the screen name he used online when he was looking for training partners after a disagreement with a coach which led to his former training partners being forbidden to work with him.


title: Dan Hardy

text: Hardy defeated Akihiro Gono via split decision in his UFC debut at UFC 89. Gono was left swollen and bloody by several of Hardy's left hooks. Gono rocked Hardy on several occasions. In the third round, Gono pushed Hardy to the canvas and while there, landed an illegal knee to the head of the downed fighter causing the fight to be stopped for a lengthy period and a point deduction for Gono. Hardy recovered and went on to win the split decision (29–28, 28–29, and 29–28).


title: Dan Hardy

text: Hardy knocked out Rory Markham at 1:09 of the first round with a clean counter left hook on 21 February 2009 at UFC 95. In his post-fight interview, Hardy retorted to Markham's pre-fight accusation that he had weak hands by exclaiming to the ecstatic crowd, "No punching power? What do you have to say about that?"


title: Dan Hardy

text: Hardy next faced Marcus Davis at UFC 99 on 13 June 2009. The grudge between the two began with the Irish-American Davis fighting in the UK against local fighters and defeating them all. Hardy stated that the UK was his home and he did not want Davis in it, building a fan base. It started to get personal when Hardy began openly insulting Davis, calling him a 'fake Irishman' and stating that Davis's website "looked like a St. Patrick's day gift shop blew up." Afterwards, on a UK underground MMA website, Hardy encouraged fans to post photoshopped pictures of Davis in a homosexual fashion. The pictures upset Davis, causing him to confront Hardy at a UFC 99 press conference. The two continued to argue, but finally agreed to settle it in the cage. After a three-round war, the judges awarded Hardy a razor-thin split decision victory. Davis stormed out of the cage, ignoring Hardy's attempts to make peace. Davis later told reporters that he wanted a rematch with Hardy in Ireland or Boston, as well as stating how controversial he thought the decision was. Hardy insisted in his post-fight interview with Davis (and after the event to fans) that all of the controversy was an effort to get Davis off his game-plan and that it was nothing personal.


title: Dan Hardy

text: On 14 November 2009 at UFC 105, he faced Mike Swick, who replaced an injured Dong Hyun Kim. At a press conference in Manchester Hardy was the underdog coming into the fight, but managed to rock Swick early in the first round with a straight right hand, which appeared to dent the American's confidence. Hardy won the fight via unanimous decision (30–27, 30–27, and 29–28) and booked his place as the #1 contender for the UFC Welterweight Championship. In being awarded the title shot, Hardy became the first English fighter in UFC history to receive one. UFC President Dana White confirmed at the post-fight press conference that the fight would most likely be held in Las Vegas. Hardy stated in a post-fight interview with Sherdog.com that the next event in Las Vegas (UFC 109) in February was too early for him and he would rather wait.


title: Dan Hardy

text: Hardy fought Georges St-Pierre for the welterweight title on 27 March 2010 at UFC 111 in Newark, New Jersey. During the bout, St-Pierre was able to take Hardy down at will, controlling him with effective ground and pound. St. Pierre also attempted a kimura in the first and fourth rounds, but Hardy escaped. St-Pierre won the bout via unanimous decision. After the fight, St-Pierre stated his surprise that Hardy refused to tap. In the post-fight interview with Joe Rogan, Hardy stated "...tap?...I don't know the meaning of tap."


title: Dan Hardy

text: Hardy faced Carlos Condit on 16 October 2010 at UFC 120 in his home country. During an exchange late in the first round, both Hardy and Condit threw left hooks at the same time: Hardy's punch staggered Condit, although Condit's punch dropped Hardy. Condit followed up with two more punches on the ground, causing the referee to stop the fight at 4:27 of the first round, giving Hardy his first KO loss.


title: Dan Hardy

text: Hardy faced Anthony Johnson on 26 March 2011 at UFC Fight Night 24. Going into the fight, both fighters expressed a desire to stand up and trade with one another, however Johnson contradicted what he had said before the fight, and mostly utilised his wrestling to grind out a unanimous decision victory for all three rounds.


title: Dan Hardy

text: Hardy faced Chris Lytle on 14 August 2011 at UFC on Versus 5. Hardy stated that he had changed his training going into the fight, moving to Las Vegas to train at the Country Club with Roy Nelson to work on his grappling, particularly his wrestling defence/offence. He lost the fight via guillotine choke late in the third round. The bout was awarded "Fight of the Night" honours. Despite losing four fights in a row, Lorenzo Fertitta quoted he would not cut Hardy from the UFC, stating: "I ain't cutting Dan Hardy. I love guys that war!".


title: Dan Hardy

text: Hardy faced Duane Ludwig on 26 May 2012 at UFC 146. Hardy defeated Ludwig via first-round KO with a perfectly timed left hook, earning him his first victory since 2009.


title: Dan Hardy

text: He defeated Amir Sadollah via unanimous decision (29–28, 29–28, and 30–27) at UFC on Fuel TV 5 on 29 September 2012.


title: Dan Hardy

text: Hardy was expected to face Matt Brown on 20 April 2013 at UFC on Fox 7. However, Hardy was diagnosed with Wolff–Parkinson–White pattern and replaced by Jordan Mein.


title: Dan Hardy

text: In 2013, Hardy was diagnosed with Wolff–Parkinson–White syndrome. A treatment for Wolff–Parkinson–White syndrome is ablation, cauterising of heart tissue to fix the electrical pathway issue, however Hardy has refused to have this treatment on the basis that the condition has never actually given him any problems. Eventually in October 2018 Hardy said in an interview that he has been medically cleared and eligible to return to fighting.


title: Dan Hardy

text: During his hiatus, Hardy has served as a commentator for UFC's Fight Pass events, and works as an analyst on Fox Sports. In August 2017, Hardy joined Sky Sports as an analyst for Floyd Mayweather vs. Conor McGregor. On 15 August 2019 Hardy appeared as a guest on The Joe Rogan Experience, revealing he is joining USADA testing pool in order to be eligible for competition.


title: Dan Hardy

text: While on commentator duties for the second Polaris Squads event, Hardy revealed that he was planning to make his return to professional MMA for one final fight in the UFC at some point in 2021.


title: Dan Hardy

text: While working as a commentator at on 26 July 2020, Dan Hardy was involved in a verbal confrontation with referee Herb Dean after Hardy took offence to what he believed to be a late stoppage by Dean in a bout between Francisco Trinaldo and Jai Herbert. UFC president Dana White indicated afterwards that he would not take action against Hardy but that he would not tolerate any confrontations of officials in future.


title: Dan Hardy

text: In March 2021, news surfaced that Hardy was released from UFC after he had been involved in another argument with a female UFC employee. Hardy disputed that he was terminated, however, and stated "I am no longer working directly with the UFC, ‘female’ part is irrelevant. It was a disagreement over an opportunity missed, or withheld, and I’d love some answers but can’t get any."


title: Dan Hardy

text: Hardy is a fan of punk, metal and hardcore music. His favourite hardcore bands include Earth Crisis, Madball, and Blood for Blood. His opening song is "England Belongs To Me" by the British Oi! band Cock Sparrer, and he and the band have recorded a version of the song together. He has a passion for art, rarely spending a day without a sketch pad in his bag until the age of 22. He gave up his degree in art and design in his final year at Nottingham Trent University to pursue MMA full-time.


title: Dan Hardy

text: Hardy lives in England. In recent years, he has also become an outspoken critic of trophy hunting on numerous occasions, even calling Matt Hughes "bad for the sport" due to his trophy-hunting in the States and abroad. Hardy is an agnostic.


title: Dan Hardy

text: In 2015, Hardy was part of the Great Britain team for the first leg of the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race.


title: The Two Gentlemen of Verona

text: The Two Gentlemen of Verona is a comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1589 and 1593. It is considered by some to be Shakespeare's first play, and is often seen as showing his first tentative steps in laying out some of the themes and motifs with which he would later deal in more detail; for example, it is the first of his plays in which a heroine dresses as a boy. The play deals with the themes of friendship and infidelity, the conflict between friendship and love, and the foolish behaviour of people in love. The highlight of the play is considered by some to be Launce, the clownish servant of Proteus, and his dog Crab, to whom "the most scene-stealing non-speaking role in the canon" has been attributed.


title: The Two Gentlemen of Verona

text: "Two Gentlemen" is often regarded as one of Shakespeare's weakest plays. It has the smallest named cast of any play by Shakespeare.


title: The Two Gentlemen of Verona

text: As the play begins, Valentine is preparing to leave Verona for Milan so as to broaden his horizons. He begs his best friend, Proteus, to come with him, but Proteus is in love with Julia, and refuses to leave. Disappointed, Valentine bids Proteus farewell and goes on alone. Meanwhile, Julia is discussing Proteus with her maid, Lucetta, who tells Julia that she thinks Proteus is fond of her. Julia, however, acts coyly, embarrassed to admit that she likes him. Lucetta then produces a letter. She will not say who gave it to her, but teases Julia that it was Valentine's servant, Speed, who brought it from Proteus. Julia, still unwilling to reveal her love in front of Lucetta, angrily tears up the letter. She sends Lucetta away, but then, realising her own rashness, she picks up the fragments of the letter and kisses them, trying to piece them back together.


title: The Two Gentlemen of Verona

text: Meanwhile, Proteus' father has decided that Proteus should travel to Milan and join Valentine. He orders that Proteus must leave the next day, prompting a tearful farewell with Julia, to whom Proteus swears eternal love. The two exchange rings and vows and Proteus promises to return as soon as he can.


title: The Two Gentlemen of Verona

text: In Milan, Proteus finds Valentine in love with the Duke's daughter, Silvia. Despite being in love with Julia, Proteus falls instantly in love with Silvia and vows to win her. Unaware of Proteus' feelings, Valentine tells him the Duke wants Silvia to marry the foppish but wealthy Thurio, against her wishes. Because the Duke suspects that his daughter and Valentine are in love, he locks her nightly in a tower, to which he keeps the only key. However, Valentine tells Proteus that he plans to free her by means of a corded ladder, and together, they will elope. Proteus immediately informs the Duke, who subsequently captures and banishes Valentine. While wandering outside Milan, Valentine runs afoul of a band of outlaws, who claim they are also exiled gentlemen. Valentine lies, saying he was banished for killing a man in a fair fight, and the outlaws elect him their leader.


title: The Two Gentlemen of Verona

text: Meanwhile, in Verona, Julia decides to join her lover in Milan. She convinces Lucetta to dress her in boy's clothes and help her fix her hair so she will not be harmed on the journey. Once in Milan, Julia quickly discovers Proteus' love for Silvia, watching him attempt to serenade her. She contrives to become his page boy – Sebastian – until she can decide upon a course of action. Proteus sends Sebastian to Silvia with a gift of the ring that Julia gave to him before he left Verona, but Julia learns that Silvia scorns Proteus' affections and is disgusted he would forget his love back home, i.e. Julia herself. Silvia deeply mourns the loss of Valentine, who Proteus has told her is rumoured dead.


title: The Two Gentlemen of Verona

text: Not persuaded of Valentine's death, Silvia determines to flee the city with the help of Sir Eglamour. They escape into the forest but when they are confronted by the outlaws, Eglamour flees and Silvia is taken captive. The outlaws head to their leader (Valentine), but on the way, they encounter Proteus and Julia (still disguised as Sebastian). Proteus rescues Silvia, and then pursues her deeper into the forest. Secretly observed by Valentine, Proteus attempts to persuade Silvia that he loves her, but she rejects his advances.


title: The Two Gentlemen of Verona

text: Proteus insinuates that he will rape her ("I'll force thee yield to my desire"), but at this point, Valentine intervenes and denounces Proteus. Horrified at what has happened, Proteus vows that the hate Valentine feels for him is nothing compared to the hate he feels for himself. Convinced that Proteus' repentance is genuine, Valentine forgives him and seems to offer Silvia to him. At this point, overwhelmed, Julia faints, revealing her true identity. Upon seeing her, Proteus suddenly remembers his love for her and vows fidelity to her once again. The Duke and Thurio are brought as prisoners by the outlaws. Seeing Silvia, Thurio claims her as his, but Valentine warns Thurio that if he makes one move toward her, he will kill him. Terrified, Thurio renounces Silvia. The Duke, disgusted with Thurio's cowardice and impressed by Valentine's actions, approves his and Silvia's love, and consents to their marriage. The two couples are happily united, and the Duke pardons the outlaws, telling them they may return to Milan.


title: The Two Gentlemen of Verona

text: In writing "The Two Gentlemen of Verona", Shakespeare drew on the Spanish prose romance "Los Siete Libros de la Diana" ("The Seven Books of the Diana") by the Portuguese writer Jorge de Montemayor. In the second book of "Diana", Don Felix, who is in love with Felismena, sends her a letter explaining his feelings. Like Julia, Felismena pretends to reject the letter, and be annoyed with her maid for delivering it. Like Proteus, Felix is sent away by his father, and is followed by Felismena, who, disguised as a boy, becomes his page, only to subsequently learn that Felix has fallen in love with Celia. Felismena is then employed by Felix to act as his messenger in all communications with Celia, who scorns his love. Instead, Celia falls in love with the page (i.e. Felismena in disguise). Eventually, after a combat in a wood, Felix and Felismena are reunited. Upon Felismena revealing herself however, Celia, having no counterpart to Valentine, dies of grief.


title: The Two Gentlemen of Verona

text: "Diana" was published in Spanish in 1559 and translated into French by Nicholas Collin in 1578. An English translation was made by Bartholomew Young and published in 1598, though Young claims in his preface to have finished the translation sixteen years earlier (c. 1582). Shakespeare could have read a manuscript of Young's English translation, or encountered the story in French, or learned of it from an anonymous English play, "The History of Felix and Philomena", which may have been based on "Diana", and which was performed for the court at Greenwich Palace by the Queen's Men on 3 January 1585. "The History of Felix and Philiomena" is now lost.


title: The Two Gentlemen of Verona

text: Another major influence on Shakespeare was the story of the intimate friendship of Titus and Gisippus as told in Thomas Elyot's "The Boke Named the Governour" in 1531 (the same story is told in "The Decameron" by Giovanni Boccaccio, but verbal similarities between "The Two Gentlemen" and "The Governor" suggest it was Elyot's work Shakespeare used as his primary source, not Boccaccio's). In this story, Titus and Gisippus are inseparable until Gisippus falls in love with Sophronia. He introduces her to Titus, but Titus is overcome with jealousy and vows to seduce her. Upon hearing of Titus' plan, Gisippus arranges for them to change places on the wedding night, thus placing their friendship above his love.


title: The Two Gentlemen of Verona

text: Also important to Shakespeare in the composition of the play was John Lyly's "Euphues: The Anatomy of Wit", published in 1578. Like "The Governor", "Euphues" presents two close friends who are inseparable until a woman comes between them, and, like both "The Governor" and "Two Gentlemen", the story concludes with one friend sacrificing the woman so as to save the friendship. However, as Geoffrey Bullough argues "Shakespeare's debt to Lyly was probably one of technique more than matter." Lyly's "Midas" may also have influenced the scene where Launce and Speed run through the milkmaid's virtues and defects, as it contains a very similar scene between Lucio and Petulus.


title: The Two Gentlemen of Verona

text: Other minor sources include Arthur Brooke's narrative poem "The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet". Obviously Shakespeare's source for "Romeo and Juliet", it features a character called Friar Laurence, as does "Two Gentlemen", and a scene where a young man attempts to outwit his lover's father by means of a corded ladder (as Valentine does in "Two Gentlemen"). Philip Sidney's "The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia" may also have influenced Shakespeare insofar as it contains a character who follows her betrothed, dressed as his page, and later on, one of the main characters becomes captain of a group of Helots.


title: The Two Gentlemen of Verona

text: The exact date of composition of "The Two Gentlemen of Verona" is unknown, but it is generally believed to have been one of Shakespeare's earliest works. The first evidence of its existence is in a list of Shakespeare's plays in Francis Meres's "Palladis Tamia", published in 1598, but it is thought to have been written in the early 1590s. Clifford Leech, for example, argues for 1592/1593; G. Blakemore Evans places the date at 1590–1593; Gary Taylor suggests 1590–1591; Kurt Schlueter posits the late 1580s; William C. Carroll suggests 1590–1592; Roger Warren tentatively suggests 1587, but acknowledges 1590/1591 as more likely.


title: The Two Gentlemen of Verona

text: It has been argued that "Two Gentlemen" may have been Shakespeare's first work for the stage. This theory was first suggested by Edmond Malone in 1821, in the "Third Variorum" edition of Shakespeare's plays, edited by James Boswell based on Malone's notes. Malone dated the play 1591, a modification of his earlier 1595 date from the third edition of "The Plays of William Shakespeare". At this time, the dominant theory was that the "Henry VI" trilogy had been Shakespeare's first work. More recently, the play was placed first in "The Oxford Shakespeare: The Complete Works" of 1986, and again in the 2nd edition of 2005, in "The Norton Shakespeare" of 1997, and again in the 2nd edition of 2008, and in "The Complete Pelican Shakespeare" of 2002.


title: The Two Gentlemen of Verona

text: A large part of the theory that this may be Shakespeare's first play is the quality of the work itself. Writing in 1968, Norman Sanders argued "all are agreed on the play's immaturity." The argument is that the play betrays a lack of practical theatrical experience on Shakespeare's part, and as such, it must have come extremely early in his career. Stanley Wells, for example, has written the "dramatic structure is comparatively unambitious, and while some of its scenes are expertly constructed, those involving more than, at the most, four characters betray an uncertainty of technique suggestive of inexperience." This uncertainty can be seen in how Shakespeare handles the distribution of dialogue in such scenes. Whenever there are more than three characters on stage, at least one of those characters tends to fall silent. For example, Speed is silent for almost all of Act 2, Scene 4, as are Thurio, Silvia and Julia for most of the last half of the final scene. It has also been suggested that the handling of the final scene in general, in which the faithful lover seemingly offers his beloved as a token of his forgiveness to the man who has just attempted to rape her, is a sign of Shakespeare's lack of maturity as a dramatist.


title: The Two Gentlemen of Verona

text: In his 2008 edition of the play for the Oxford Shakespeare, Roger Warren argues that the play is the oldest surviving piece of Shakespearean literature, suggesting a date of composition as somewhere between 1587 and 1591. He hypothesizes that the play was perhaps written before Shakespeare came to London, with an idea towards using the famous comic actor Richard Tarlton in the role of Launce (this theory stems from the fact that Tarlton had performed several extremely popular and well known scenes with dogs). However, Tarlton died in September 1588, and Warren notes several passages in "Two Gentlemen" which seem to borrow from John Lyly's "Midas", which wasn't written until at least late-1589. As such, Warren acknowledges that 1590/1591 is most likely the correct date of composition.


title: The Two Gentlemen of Verona

text: Perhaps the most critically discussed issue in the play is the sequence, bizarre by modern Western standards, in Act 5, Scene 4 in which Valentine seems to 'give' Silvia to Proteus as a sign of his friendship. For many years, the general critical consensus on this issue was that the incident revealed an inherent misogyny in the text. For example, Hilary Spurling wrote in 1970, "Valentine is so overcome [by Proteus' apology] that he promptly offers to hand over his beloved to the man who, not three minutes before, had meant to rape her." Modern scholarship, however, is much more divided about Valentine's actions at the end of the play, with some critics arguing that he does not offer to give Silvia to Proteus at all. The ambiguity lies in the line "All that was mine in Silvia I give thee" (5.4.83). Some critics (such as Stanley Wells, for example) interpret this to mean that Valentine is indeed handing Silvia over to her would-be rapist, but another school of thought suggests that Valentine simply means "I will love you [Proteus] with as much love as I love Silvia," thus reconciling the dichotomy of friendship and love as depicted elsewhere in the play. This is certainly how Jeffrey Masten, for example, sees it, arguing that the play as a whole "reveals not the opposition of male friendship and Petrarchan love but rather their interdependence." As such, the final scene "stages the play's ultimate collaboration of male friendship and its incorporation of the plot we would label "heterosexual"."


title: The Two Gentlemen of Verona

text: This is also how Roger Warren interprets the final scene. Warren cites a number of productions of the play as evidence for this argument, including Robin Phillips' Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) production in 1970, where Valentine kisses Silvia, makes his offer and then kisses Proteus. Another staging cited by Warren is Edward Hall's 1998 Swan Theatre production. In Hall's version of the scene, after Valentine says the controversial line, Silvia approaches him and takes him by the hand. They remain holding hands for the rest of the play, clearly suggesting that Valentine has not 'given' her away. Warren also mentions Leon Rubin's 1984 Stratford Shakespeare Festival production (where the controversial line was altered to "All my love to Silvia I also give to thee"), David Thacker's 1991 Swan Theatre production, and the 1983 "BBC Television Shakespeare" adaptation as supporting the theory that Valentine is not giving Silvia away, but is simply promising to love Proteus as much as he loves Silvia. Patty S. Derrick also interprets the BBC production in this manner, arguing that "Proteus clearly perceives the offer as a noble gesture of friendship, not an actual offer, because he does not even look towards Silvia but rather falls into an embrace with Valentine" (although Derrick does raise the question that if Valentine is "not" offering Silvia to Proteus, why does Julia swoon?).


title: The Two Gentlemen of Verona

text: There are other theories regarding this final scene, however. For example, in his 1990 edition of the play for the New Cambridge Shakespeare, Kurt Schlueter suggests that Valentine is indeed handing Silvia over to Proteus, but the audience is not supposed to take it literally; the incident is farcical, and should be interpreted as such. Schlueter argues that the play provides possible evidence it was written to be performed and viewed primarily by a young audience, and as such, to be staged at university theatres, as opposed to public playhouses. Such an audience would be more predisposed to accepting the farcical nature of the scene, and more likely to find humorous the absurdity of Valentine's gift. As such, in Schlueter's theory, the scene "does" represent what it appears to represent; Valentine does give Silvia to her would-be rapist, but it is done purely for comic effect.


title: The Two Gentlemen of Verona

text: Another theory is provided by William C. Carroll in his 2004 edition for the Arden Shakespeare, Third Series. Carroll argues, like Schlueter, that Valentine is indeed giving Silvia to Proteus, but unlike Schlueter, Carroll detects no sense of farce. Instead, he sees the action as a perfectly logical one in terms of the notions of friendship which were prevalent at the time:


title: The Two Gentlemen of Verona

text: As in Schlueter, Carroll here interprets Valentine's actions as a gift to Proteus, but unlike Schlueter, and more in line with traditional criticism of the play, Carroll also argues that such a gift, as unacceptable as it is to modern eyes, is perfectly understandable when one considers the cultural and social "milieu" of the play itself.


title: The Two Gentlemen of Verona

text: Language is of primary importance in the play insofar as Valentine and Proteus speak in blank verse, but Launce and Speed speak (for the most part) in prose. More specifically, the actual content of many of the speeches serve to illustrate the pompousness of Valentine and Proteus' exalted outlook, and the more realistic and practical outlook of the servants. This is most apparent in Act 3, Scene 1. Valentine has just given a lengthy speech lamenting his banishment and musing on how he cannot possibly survive without Silvia; "Except I be by Silvia in the night/There is no music in the nightingale./Unless I look on Silvia in the day/There is no day for me to look upon" (ll.178–181). However, when Launce enters only a few lines later, he announces that he too is in love, and proceeds to outline, along with Speed, all of his betrothed's positives ("She brews good ale"; "She can knit"; "She can wash and scour"), and negatives ("She hath a sweet mouth"; "She doth talk in her sleep"; "She is slow in words"). After weighing his options, Launce decides that the woman's most important quality is that "she hath more hair than wit, and more faults than hairs, and more wealth than faults" (ll.343–344). He announces that her wealth "makes the faults gracious" (l.356), and chooses for that reason to wed her. This purely materialistic reasoning, as revealed in the form of language, is in stark contrast to the more spiritual and idealised love espoused by Valentine earlier in the scene.


title: The Two Gentlemen of Verona

text: One of the dominant theories as regards the value of "Two Gentlemen" is that thematically, it represents a 'trial run' of sorts, in which Shakespeare deals briefly with themes which he would examine in more detail in later works. E.K. Chambers, for example, believed that the play represents something of a gestation of Shakespeare's great thematic concerns. Writing in 1905, Chambers stated that "Two Gentlemen"


title: The Two Gentlemen of Verona

text: As such, the play's primary interest for critics has tended to lie in relation to what it reveals about Shakespeare's conception of certain themes before he became the accomplished playwright of later years. Writing in 1879, A.C. Swinburne, for example, states "here is the first dawn of that higher and more tender humour that was never given in such perfection to any man as ultimately to Shakespeare." Similarly, in 1906, Warwick R. Bond writes "Shakespeare first opens the vein he worked so richly afterwards – the vein of crossed love, of flight and exile under the escort of the generous sentiments; of disguised heroines, and sufferings endured and virtues exhibited under their disguise; and of the Providence, kinder than life, that annuls the errors and forgives the sin." More recently, Stanley Wells has referred to the play as a "dramatic laboratory in which Shakespeare first experimented with the conventions of romantic comedy which he would later treat with a more subtle complexity, but it has its own charm."


title: The Two Gentlemen of Verona

text: Other critics have been less kind however, arguing that if the later plays show a skilled and confident writer exploring serious issues of the human heart, "Two Gentlemen" represents the initial, primarily unsuccessful attempt to do likewise. In 1921, for example, J. Dover Wilson and Arthur Quiller-Couch, in their edition of the play for the Cambridge Shakespeare, famously stated that after hearing Valentine offer Silvia to Proteus "one's impulse, upon this declaration, is to remark that there are, by this time, "no" gentlemen in Verona." H.B. Charlton, writing in 1938, argues that "clearly, Shakespeare's first attempt to make romantic comedy had only succeeded so far as it had unexpectedly and inadvertently made romance comic." Another such argument is provided by Norman Sanders in 1968; "because the play reveals a relatively unsure dramatist and many effects managed with a tiro's lack of expertise, it offers us an opportunity to see more clearly than anywhere else in the canon what were to become characteristic techniques. It stands as an 'anatomie' or show-through version, as it were, of Shakespeare's comic art." Kurt Schlueter, on the other hand, argues that critics have been too harsh on the play precisely because the later plays are so much superior. He suggests that when looking at Shakespeare's earlier works, scholars put too much emphasis on how they fail to measure up to the later works, rather than looking at them for their own intrinsic merits; "we should not continue the practice of holding his later achievements against him when dealing with his early beginnings."


title: The Two Gentlemen of Verona

text: Norman Sanders calls the play "almost a complete anthology of the practices of the doctrine of romantic love which inspired the poetic and prose Romances of the period." At the very centre of this is the contest between love and friendship; "an essential part of the comicality of "The Two Gentlemen of Verona" is created by the necessary conflict between highly stylised concepts of love and friendship." This is manifested in the question of whether the relationship between two male friends is more important than that between lovers, encapsulated by Proteus' rhetorical question at 5.4.54; "In love/Who respects friend?" This question "exposes the raw nerve at the heart of the central relationships, the dark reality lurking beneath the wit and lyricism with which the play has in general presented lovers' behaviour." In the program notes for John Barton's 1981 RSC production at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Anne Barton, his wife, wrote that the central theme of the play was "how to bring love and friendship into a constructive and mutually enhancing relationship." As William C. Carroll points out, this is a common theme in Renaissance literature, which often celebrates friendship as the more important relationship (because it is pure and unconcerned with sexual attraction), and contends that love and friendship cannot co-exist. As actor Alex Avery argues, "The love between two men is a greater love for some reason. There seems to be a sense that the function of a male/female relationship is purely for the family and to procreate, to have a family. But a love between two men is something that you choose. You have arranged marriages, [but] a friendship between two men is created by the desires and wills of those two men, whereas a relationship between a man and a girl is actually constructed completely peripheral to whatever the feelings of the said boy and girl are."


title: The Two Gentlemen of Verona

text: Carroll sees this societal belief as vital in interpreting the final scene of the play, arguing that Valentine does give Silvia to Proteus, and in so doing, he is merely acting in accordance with the practices of the day. However, if one accepts that Valentine does "not" give Silvia to Proteus, as critics such as Jeffrey Masten argue, but instead offers to love Proteus as much as he loves Silvia, then the conclusion of the play can be read as a final triumphant reconciliation between friendship and love; Valentine intends to love his friend as much as he does his betrothed. Love and friendship are shown to be co-existent, not exclusive.


title: The Two Gentlemen of Verona

text: Another major theme is the foolishness of lovers, what Roger Warren refers to as "mockery of the absurdity of conventional lovers' behaviour." Valentine for example, is introduced into the play mocking the excesses of love; "To be in love, where scorn is bought with groans/Coy looks with heart-sore sighs, one fading moment's mirth/With twenty watchful, weary, tedious nights" (1.1.29–31). Later, however, he becomes as much a prisoner of love as Proteus, exclaiming, "For in revenge of my contempt for love/Love hath chased sleep from my enthrall'd eyes/And made them watchers of my own heart's sorrow" (2.4.131–133).


title: The Two Gentlemen of Verona

text: The majority of the cynicism and mockery as regards conventional lovers, however, comes from Launce and Speed, who serve as foils for the two protagonists, and "supply a mundane view of the idealistic flights of fancy indulged in by Proteus and Valentine." Several times in the play, after either Valentine or Proteus has made an eloquent speech about love, Shakespeare introduces either Launce or Speed (or both), whose more mundane concerns serve to undercut what has just been said, thus exposing Proteus and Valentine to mockery. For example, in Act 2, Scene 1, as Valentine and Silvia engage in a game of flirtation, hinting at their love for one another, Speed provides constant asides which serve to directly mock the couple;


title: The Two Gentlemen of Verona

text: A third major theme is inconstancy, particularly as manifested in Proteus, whose very name hints at his changeable mind (in Ovid's "Metamorphoses", Proteus is a sea-god forever changing its shape). At the start of the play, Proteus has only eyes for Julia. However, upon meeting Silvia, he immediately falls in love with her (although he has no idea why). He then finds himself drawn to the page Sebastian (Julia in disguise) whilst still trying to woo Silvia, and at the end of the play, he announces that Silvia is no better than Julia and vows he now loves Julia again. Indeed, Proteus himself seems to be aware of this mutability, pointing out towards the end of the play; "O heaven, were man/But constant, he were perfect. That one error/Fills him with faults, makes him run through all th'sins;/Inconstancy falls off ere it begins" (5.4.109–112).


title: The Two Gentlemen of Verona

text: There is no record of a performance during Shakespeare's lifetime, although due to its inclusion in Francis Meres' "Palladis Tamia", we know the play had definitely been performed by 1598. The earliest known performance was at Drury Lane in 1762. However, this production was of a version of the play rewritten by Benjamin Victor. The earliest known performance of the straight Shakespearean text was at Covent Garden in 1784, advertised as "Shaxespeare's with alterations." Although the play was supposed to run for several weeks, it closed after the first night.