The Two Noble Kinsmen

William Shakespeare

• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Year: 2015
• eBook ISBN: 9780486790145
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: British Drama
• Index: Literature

The king of Thebes is a tyrant but his young relatives, Palamon and Arcite, defend him anyway. The two noble kinsmen find their loyalty rewarded with imprisonment when they end up on the losing side of a battle with the great hero, Theseus of Athens. From the window of their jail they observe Emilia, the sister-in-law of their conqueror, whose stunning beauty shatters their vow of eternal brotherhood. Now the former friends must find a way to evade their captors and pursue the alluring princess, an undertaking that will conclude with a fight to the death.
First published in 1634, this Jacobean tragicomedy features a plot derived from "The Knight's Tale" in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. The play was originally attributed to both John Fletcher and William Shakespeare; its association with the latter is a longstanding source of controversy that is now generally accepted by scholarly consensus.

ACT III.

SCENE I. A Forest near Athens. Cornets in sundry places: noise and hallooing as of People a-Maying.

Enter ARCITE.

ARC. The Duke has lost Hippolyta; each took

A several laund.¹ This is a solemn rite

They owe bloom’d May, and the Athenians pay it

To th’ heart of ceremony.²—

O Queen Emilia, fresher than May, sweeter

Than her gold buttons on the boughs, or all

Th’ enamell’d knacks³ o’ the mead or garden! yea,

We challenge too the bank of any nymph,

That makes the stream seem flowers; thou, O jewel

O’ the wood, o’ the world, hast likewise bless’d a place [10]

With thy sole presence! In thy rumination

That I, poor man, might eftsoons come between,

And chop on some cold thought?⁴ thrice-blessèd chance,

To drop on such a mistress, expectation

Most guiltless on ’t. Tell me, O Lady Fortune,—

Next after Emily my sovereign,—how far

I may be proud. She takes strong note of me,

Hath made me near her, and this beauteous morn,

The primest of all the year, presents me with

A brace of horses: two such steeds might well [20]

Be by a pair of kings back’d, in a field

That their crowns’ titles tried.⁵ Alas, alas,

Poor cousin Palamon, poor prisoner! thou

So little dream’st upon my fortune, that

Thou think’st thyself the happier thing, to be

So near Emilia; me thou deem’st at Thebes,

And therein wretched although free: but, if

Thou knew’st my mistress breathed on me, and that

I ear’d her language, lived in her eye, O coz,

What passion would enclose thee!

Enter PALAMON out of a bush, with his shackles: he bends his fist at ARCITE.

PAL. Traitor kinsman! [30]

Thou shouldst perceive my passion, if these signs

Of prisonment were off me, and this hand

But owner of a sword. By all oaths in one,

I, and the justice of my love, would make thee

A confess’d traitor! O thou most perfidious

That ever gently look’d! the void’st of honour

That e’er bore gentle token! falsest cousin

That ever blood made kin! call’st thou her thine?

I’ll prove it in my shackles, with these hands

Void of appointment,⁶ that thou liest, and art [40]

A very thief in love, a chaffy lord,

Not worth the name of villain! Had I a sword,

And these house-clogs away,—

ARC. Dear cousin Palamon,—

PAL. Cozener Arcite, give me language such

As thou hast show’d me feat!⁷

ARC. Not finding in

The circuit of my breast any gross stuff

To form me like your blazon, holds me to

This gentleness of answer: ’Tis your passion

That thus mista...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Note
• Dramatis Personæ
• Prologue
• Contents
• Act I
• Act II
• Act III
• Act IV
• Act V
• Epilogue