The Two Noble Kinsmen

The Two Noble Kinsmen, written with John Fletcher, is a late tragicomedy about two cousins and close friends, Palamon and Arcite, who both fall in love with the same woman while in prison.

Main characters

• Palamon and Arcite, cousins from Thebes
• Emilia, sister of Hippolyta
• Theseus, Duke of Athens, and Hippolyta
• The Jailer and his Daughter

Plot summary

This summary gives away the ending.

Taken prisoner by Theseus, the Theban cousins Palamon and Arcite swear eternal friendship, until they both see Emilia from their prison window and become bitter rivals. Arcite is released and banished but returns in disguise to serve Emilia; the Jailer's Daughter, in love with Palamon, frees him. The cousins meet in the woods and are about to fight when Theseus discovers them.

Theseus decrees a formal tournament: the winner will marry Emilia and the loser will be executed. Arcite wins, but is thrown from his horse and dies, and Palamon marries Emilia. In the subplot, the Jailer's Daughter, abandoned by Palamon, goes mad in scenes that recall Ophelia.

Themes

• Friendship against desire
• Chance and the gods
• Madness and love

Sources

Chaucer's The Knight's Tale, the first of The Canterbury Tales.

On stage and screen

It was not included in the First Folio. The 1634 quarto's title page names both Fletcher and Shakespeare, and scholars generally assign the opening and closing scenes to Shakespeare. The Royal Shakespeare Company opened its Swan Theatre in Stratford with it in 1986.

See where The Two Noble Kinsmen sits in Shakespeare's career on the timeline, or read about the playhouses it was written for.