Thésée entrant en triomphe dans Athènes

The Two Noble Kinsmen

William Shakespearec. 1613
ShakespeareGruelingRomanceEnglishMedium · 102 pages
Influence9th pct
Popularity15th pct
Where it ranks
#175of 194Overall#34of 38Shakespeare

Read this if you…

  • like the canterbury tales and want to see Shakespeare adapt Chaucer
  • want to read shakespeare's final play

Skip this if you…

  • haven't already read ALL the classic shakespeare plays
  • aren't willing to go slow, read notes, look up analyses of famous passages (only way to "get" shakespeare)
  • foolishly think shakespeare is overrated

Why It Matters

Shakespeare's last collaboration, written with John Fletcher, is a romance about love, rivalry, and the random cruelty of fate, pulled from Chaucer's "Knight's Tale." It's one of the least-staged Shakespeare plays, but it has a surprisingly modern read on a friendship wrecked by desire. The play sits between Shakespeare's late style and the drama that came after him.

The Groblé Take

The scene when they were first in jail was funny but the play as a whole dragged on awhile without memorable characters.

Connections

Where to go next

Built Onwhat came beforeThe Two Noble Kinsm…The Canterbury…

  • The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer. The Two Noble Kinsmen built on it. - This is Shakespeare's most direct and unquestionable use of a Chaucerian source — the plot is the *Knight's Tale*, dramatized - The Prologue tips its hand: "Chaucer, of all admir'd, the story gives" — the play knows exactly whose shoulders it stands on - Read the *Knight's Tale* first and you watch two writers, two centuries apart, hand the same story of rival cousins back and forth
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Gallery

Depicted in Art

The Knight, bearded and armored, rides a draped horse in profile, lance held upright; gold-and-blue marginal portrait from the manuscript.

1405

Theseus enthroned presides over the assembled knights and lords gathered for the tournament that will decide Emilia's marriage.

Barthélemy d'Eyck, 1460

Theseus rides in triumph into Athens with Hippolyta beside him after defeating the Amazons — the wedding-procession opening tableau of the play.

Barthélemy d'Eyck, 1460

Three black-veiled queens process in mourning behind the bier of their slain husbands, pleading with Theseus on his wedding morning to make war on Creon of Thebes.

Edwin Austin Abbey, 1895

Stipple engraving of the two cousins in heroic poses — a Pushkin Museum impression of Bartolozzi's neoclassical reading.

Francesco Bartolozzi, 1790

Arcite is released from prison and led out of Athens by guards, banished on pain of death — the act that splits the cousins' rivalry.

Barthélemy d'Eyck, 1460

Editions

Recommended Editions

#1Top Pick

Folger Shakespeare Library

2015

Folger's the readable one. Text on one page, notes on the facing page, written in plain English instead of textbook-speak. Catches every word and reference you'd otherwise google, without breaking the scene to do it.

Buy on Bookshop
#2

SparkNotes (No Fear Shakespeare)

2003

#3

Arden Shakespeare

2015

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Deep Dive

What It's About

Spoiler warning

This summary gives away plot details.

Notable Quotes

“This world's a city full of straying streets, / And death's the market-place where each one meets.”

— Third Queen, Act 1 Scene 5

“This world's a city full of straying streets, and death's the market-place where each one meets.”

— The Two Noble Kinsmen

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