The Two Noble Kinsmen — Edition Insights

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In Category - Fantasy Juvenile Worlds

Authors: Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 Digital Source: Project Gutenberg Gutenberg Release Year: 1998 First Publication Year: Not confirmed

Key Word: Knights and knighthood -- Drama; Athens (Greece); Tragicomedy Target Reader: Readers of public-domain and historical texts

Book Edition: Project Gutenberg digital edition Book Language: en

Edition facts

Words 29,621

Reading time 129 min

Text sections 9

This digital edition of The Two Noble Kinsmen — Edition Insights is described by source-level measurements including 29,621 words, 2 hr 9 min estimated reading time, and 9 detected text sections.

The text analysis averages about 14.6 words per sentence, while the detected sections provide another way to judge how the source is divided.

Project Gutenberg metadata also associates the work with “Knights and knighthood -- Drama,” connecting these edition facts with the source record’s subject description.

Source: Project Gutenberg record #1506

This editorial note examines the collaborative authorship of Shakespeare and Fletcher in The Two Noble Kinsmen, focusing on the play's diction, dialogue, and descriptive choices as seen in the arming scene and the Prologue's self-conscious framing.

Editorial Edition Score 4.6/5

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Description quality20 pts
Title & short description10 pts
Source metadata20 pts
Text length15 pts
Chapters / structure15 pts
EPUB file integrity20 pts

Total of 100 points, scaled to a 2.5-5.0 range. Editions with an empty description or a missing EPUB file are not scored.

Edition quality

File: pg1506

Read the Text

h to do must make some work with Creon.

FIRST QUEEN. And that work presents itself to th’ doing. Now ’twill take form; the heats are gone tomorrow. Then, bootless toil must recompense itself With its own sweat. Now he’s secure, Not dreams we stand before your puissance, Rinsing our holy begging in our eyes To make petition clear.

SECOND QUEEN. Now you may take him, drunk with his victory.

THIRD QUEEN. And his army full of bread and sloth.

THESEUS. Artesius, that best knowest How to draw out fit to this enterprise The prim’st for this proceeding, and the number To carry such a business: forth and levy Our worthiest instruments, whilst we dispatch This grand act of our life, this daring deed Of fate in wedlock.

FIRST QUEEN. Dowagers, take hands. Let us be widows to our woes; delay Commends us to a famishing hope.

ALL THE QUEENS. Farewell!

SECOND QUEEN. We come unseasonably; but when could grief Cull forth, as unpanged judgement can, fitt’st time For best solicitation?

THESEUS. Why, good ladies, This is a service, whereto I am going, Greater than any war; it more imports me Than all the actions that I have foregone, Or futurely can cope.

FIRST QUEEN. The more proclaiming Our suit shall be neglected when her arms, Able to lock Jove from a synod, shall By warranting moonlight corselet thee. O, when Her twinning cherries shall their sweetness fall Upon thy tasteful lips, what wilt thou think Of rotten kings or blubbered queens? What care For what thou feel’st not, what thou feel’st being able To make Mars spurn his drum? O, if thou couch But one night with her, every hour in ’t will Take hostage of thee for a hundred, and Thou shalt remember nothing more than what That banquet bids thee to.

HIPPOLYTA. Though much unlike You should be so transported, as much sorry I should be such a suitor, yet I think, Did I not, by th’ abstaining of my joy, Which breeds a deeper longing, cure their surfeit That craves a present med’cine, I should pluck All ladies’ scandal on me. Therefore, sir,

As I shall here make trial of my prayers, Either presuming them to have some force, Or sentencing for aye their vigor dumb, Prorogue this business we are going about, and hang Your shield afore your heart, about that neck Which is my fee, and which I freely lend To do these poor queens service.

ALL QUEENS. [_To Emilia_.] O, help now! Our cause cries for your knee.

EMILIA. [_To Theseus, kneeling_.] If you grant not My sister her petition in that force, With that celerity and nature, which She makes it in, from henceforth I’ll not dare To ask you anything, nor be so hardy Ever to take a husband.

THESEUS. Pray stand up. I am entreating of myself to do

That which you kneel to have me.—Pirithous, Lead on the bride; get you and pray the gods For success and return; omit not anything In the pretended celebration.—Queens, Follow your soldier. [_To Artesius._] As before, hence you, And at the banks of Aulis meet us with The forces you can raise, where we shall find The moiety of a number for a business More bigger looked.

[_To Hippolyta._] Since that our theme is haste, I stamp this kiss upon thy currant lip; Sweet, keep it as my token. Set you forward, For I will see you gone.

[_The wedding procession moves towards the temple._]

Farewell, my beauteous sister.—Pirithous, Keep the feast full; bate not an hour on ’t.

PIRITHOUS. Sir, I’ll follow you at heels. The feast’s solemnity Shall want till your return.

THESEUS. Cousin, I charge you, Budge not from Athens. We shall be returning Ere you can end this feast, of which I pray you Make no abatement. Once more, farewell all.

[_Exeunt all but Theseus and the Queens._]

FIRST QUEEN. Thus dost thou still make good the tongue o’ th’ world.

SECOND QUEEN. And earn’st a deity equal with Mars.

THIRD QUEEN. If not above him, for Thou, being but mortal, mak’st affections bend To godlike honours; they themselves, some say, Groan under such a mast’ry.

THESEUS. As we are men, Thus should we do; being sensually subdued, We lose our human title. Good cheer, ladies. Now turn we towards your comforts.

[_Flourish. Exeunt._]

SCENE II. Thebes. The Court of the Palace

Enter Palamon and Arcite.

Continue Reading →

The Two Noble Kinsmen opens with a Prologue that compares a new play to a maidenhead, a metaphor that immediately signals the work's self-awareness about its own reception. The speaker worries that the play, like a bride, might lose its honor if poorly received, and invokes Chaucer as the story's source. This framing device establishes a tone of anxious ambition, as the authors—Shakespeare and Fletcher—present themselves as inheritors of a noble literary tradition. The play's language oscillates between formal verse and colloquial exchanges, as seen in the arming scene where Palamon and Arcite discuss armor and past battles with a mixture of chivalric courtesy and intimate familiarity.

The Prologue's Rhetorical Strategy

The Prologue uses a sustained analogy between a new play and a virgin bride, emphasizing the financial and reputational stakes of theatrical performance. The speaker claims the play has a “noble breeder and a pure, / A learned, and a poet never went / More famous yet ’twixt Po and silver Trent.” This geographical reference to the Po River in Italy and the Trent in England situates the play within a European literary landscape, while the mention of Chaucer as the source grounds it in English tradition. The Prologue's anxiety about failure—imagining a hiss from the audience that would make Chaucer “cry from underground”—reveals a concern for legacy that recurs throughout the play.

Dialogue as a Mirror of Kinship

The arming scene between Palamon and Arcite demonstrates how dialogue conveys both rivalry and affection. Their exchange is filled with practical instructions—“thrust the buckle through far enough”—and reminiscences of past battles. Arcite recalls Palamon's charge on the left wing, noting “I never saw such valour,” while Palamon deflects praise. The physical act of arming each other becomes a ritual of trust, even as they prepare to fight to the death. The repeated use of “cousin” and “sweet cousin” maintains a tone of intimacy that contrasts with the violence they are about to commit. This duality is central to the play's exploration of bonds tested by love and honor.

Descriptive Economy in Setting and Action

The play's stage directions and descriptive passages are notably sparse, relying on dialogue to establish setting and action. For example, the arming scene contains no external description of the armor; instead, the audience learns through conversation that Arcite's armor is stolen from the Duke, and that Palamon prefers to fight bare-armed for nimbleness. The forest setting in Act III is similarly evoked through characters' movements and offstage sounds, such as the hunting horns that interrupt the duel. This economy of description places the burden on the actors and the audience's imagination, a technique that aligns with the collaborative authors' focus on character interaction over spectacle.

The Play's Self-Consciousness About Genre

The Two Noble Kinsmen is categorized as a tragicomedy, and the excerpts reflect a deliberate blending of tones. The Prologue's metaphor of the play as a maidenhead suggests a concern with purity and genre expectations, while the arming scene's blend of courtly language and practical detail undercuts heroic conventions. The characters' awareness of their own folly—Arcite's exclamation “our folly has undone us” when the Duke approaches—adds a layer of irony. This self-consciousness extends to the play's structure, which alternates between high-stakes combat and moments of domestic intimacy, as seen in the jailer's daughter subplot (not fully excerpted here). The authors seem to question whether noble actions can survive the messiness of human emotion.

Readers approaching The Two Noble Kinsmen should attend to the interplay between the two authors' voices, particularly in scenes where formal verse gives way to naturalistic dialogue. The play rewards attention to small gestures—a buckle tightened, a memory shared—that reveal character more than grand speeches. Because the excerpts are incomplete, the full arc of the jailer's daughter subplot and the resolution of the duel remain outside this analysis, but the patterns of diction and dialogue visible here offer a starting point for understanding the play's unique texture.

This note on shared authorship brought me back to a rainy afternoon, puzzling over which lines in Two Noble Kinsmen felt like Fletcher’s breath and which like Shakespeare’s. I remembered the same gentle detective work with old plays in A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 09 — Reading Companion—that sense of hearing two voices through one page, almost like eavesdropping on friends finishing each other’s sentences.