Summary
On the streets of Verona, best friends Valentine and Proteus bid farewell to one another.
Valentine plans to travel to Milan in order to expand his worldliness, but Proteus will stay behind in Verona due to his love for a woman named Julia. Valentine chides Proteus, saying that he, too, should travel rather than remain a slave to love. Proteus thinks Valentine is doing enough adventuring for the both of them.
After Valentine leaves, Proteus explains how he has been completely consumed by his love for Julia, transforming him into a rather useless person.
Proteus's page, Speed, arrives, and after a silly debate, admits that he delivered the love letter that Proteus had written for Julia. He notes that Julie gave no indication of how she felt about the letter, and Proteus becomes anxious.
Meanwhile, Julia discovers that it was her maid, Lucetta, who received the letter and who had been pretending to be Julia. Julia is angry with Lucetta for having the letter at all, as she considers it a scandal to accept something so lascivious. Julia tears up the letter from Proteus but regrets it just moments later.
Meanwhile, Proteus's father, Antonio, has decided that Proteus will join Valentine in Milan. When he approaches Proteus about his decision, he finds Proteus reading a letter. The letter is from Julia, who has written to express her mutual love for Proteus.
Proteus, however, tells his father that the letter is from Valentine, who wants him to come to Milan. Antonio tells Proteus that he desires the same thing, and Proteus resolves that he cannot challenge his father's wishes.
Analysis
The first act of the play is dedicated largely to exposition – introducing the audience to the central characters, their motivations, and gesturing toward what will become the play's main conflict.
From the very first scene of the play, it becomes clear that the friendship between Proteus and Valentine will continue to play an integral role in the development of the plot, despite the fact that they are in the middle of saying goodbye when the play opens. Proteus and Valentine share a goodbye that is similar to that typically shared between lovers who must part (and indeed, this same type of farewell occurs in Act Two, when Proteus says goodbye to Julia). Despite their intimacy and dependence on one another, however, Proteus remains firm that he is not joining Valentine in Milan, as he is too in love with Julia to leave her.
Already, then, the play showcases the subtle tension arising between the two best friends as it introduces audiences to the central theme of friendship and, by extension, threats to that friendship: Proteus's love for Julia is what prevents the friends from traveling together, and the play therefore suggests early on that heterosexual love and homosocial bonds are often not compatible.
Act One of the play also presents audiences with a glimpse into how the play will treat social class. Through the relationship between Julia and her maid, Lucetta, the play dramatizes a master-servant relationship that goes beyond simple service of the lower classes to the upper classes. Instead, Julia relies heavily on her maid as her confidant, friend, and source of advice; she point-blank asks Lucetta whom she thinks Julia should marry, and ultimately follows Lucetta's advice in her choice of Proteus as a suitor. Furthermore, Lucetta's impersonation of Julia is treated lightheartedly rather than with punishment or disdain – that Lucetta can successfully pretend to be Julia suggests the closeness of the two women, while Julia's amusement over Lucetta's deceit suggests the deep trust she has in her maid.
Many critics have compared the relationship between Julia and Lucetta to that of Juliet and her nurse in Romeo and Juliet, suggesting that "Julia" is a precursor to the more famous young lover.
