The Two Noble Kinsmen

Last updated

Title page of the 1634 quarto The Two Noble Kinsmen by John Fletcher William Shakespeare 1634.jpg
Title page of the 1634 quarto

The Two Noble Kinsmen is a Jacobean tragicomedy, first published in 1634 and attributed jointly to John Fletcher and William Shakespeare. Its plot derives from "The Knight's Tale" in Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales , which had already been dramatised at least twice before. This play is believed to have been originally performed in 1613–1614, making it William Shakespeare's final play before he retired to Stratford-upon-Avon, where he died in 1616.

Contents

Formerly a point of controversy, the dual attribution is now generally accepted by scholarly consensus. [1]

Characters

Synopsis

A prologue informs the audience that the play is based on a story from Chaucer.

Three queens come to plead with Theseus and Hippolyta, rulers of Athens, to avenge the deaths of their husbands by the hand of the tyrant Creon of Thebes. Creon has killed the three kings and refuses to allow them proper burial. Theseus agrees to wage war on Creon.

In Thebes, Palamon and Arcite, cousins and close friends, are bound by duty to fight for Creon, though they are appalled by his tyranny. In a hard-fought battle Palamon and Arcite enact prodigies of courage, but the Thebans are defeated by Theseus. Palamon and Arcite are imprisoned but philosophically resign themselves to their fate. Their stoicism is instantly destroyed when from their prison window they see Princess Emilia, Hippolyta's sister. Both fall in love with her, and their friendship turns to bitter rivalry. Arcite is released after a relative intercedes on his behalf. He is banished from Athens, but he disguises himself, wins a local wrestling match, and is appointed as Emilia's bodyguard.

Meanwhile, the jailer's daughter has fallen in love with Palamon and helps him escape. She follows him, but he ignores her since he is still obsessed with Emilia. He lives in the forest half-starved, where he meets Arcite. The two argue, but Arcite offers to bring Palamon food, drink and armaments so that they can meet in an equal fight over Emilia.

The jailer's daughter, forsaken, has gone mad. She sings and babbles in the forest. She meets a troupe of local countrymen who want to perform a Morris dance before the king and queen. The local schoolmaster Gerald invites the mad daughter to join the performance. Theseus and Hippolyta appear hunting. Gerald hails them, and they agree to watch the yokels perform a bizarre act for them, with the jailer's mad daughter dancing. The royal couple reward them.

Arcite returns with the food and weapons. After a convivial dinner with reminiscences, the two fight. Theseus and his entourage arrive on the scene. He orders for Palamon and Arcite to be arrested and executed. Hippolyta and Emilia intervene and so Theseus agrees to a public tournament between the two for Emilia's hand. Each warrior will be allowed three companions to assist them. The loser and his companion knights will be executed.

The jailer finds his daughter with the help of friends. He tries to restore her mental health. On the advice of a doctor, he encourages her former suitor to pretend to be Palamon so that she will be gradually accustomed to see him as her true love. His devotion slowly wins her over.

Before the tournament, Arcite prays to Mars that he win the battle, Palamon prays to Venus that he marry Emilia and Emilia prays to Diana that she be wed to the one who loves her best. Each prayer is granted: Arcite wins the combat but is then thrown from his horse and dies, leaving Palamon to wed Emilia.

Sources

Before the composition of The Two Noble Kinsmen, Chaucer's "Knight's Tale"—itself based on Giovanni Boccaccio's Teseida —had been adapted for the stage twice before, although both versions are now lost. The first was by Richard Edwardes in Palamon and Arcite (1566). This play was commissioned for a one-off performance before Queen Elizabeth in Oxford. It was never published, and it is unlikely to have served as a basis for The Two Noble Kinsmen.

Another play on the topic, the authorship of which is not known, would certainly have been known to Shakespeare and Fletcher. It was performed by the Admiral's Men in September 1594, which had then recently been formed after a split in Shakespeare's own company. Philip Henslowe commissioned the play, which may have influenced Shakespeare's own A Midsummer Night's Dream , which is usually considered to have been written around this time. [2]

The comic sub-plot involving the jailer's daughter has no direct source, but is similar to scenes in The Masque of the Inner Temple and Gray's Inn (1613), by Francis Beaumont, from which the performance by the yokels is derived. The Schoolmaster who organises it recalls Rombus in Sir Philip Sidney's one-act play The Lady of May (1579?). In other respects, he resembles Peter Quince in A Midsummer Night's Dream. [3]

Date and text

Links between The Two Noble Kinsmen and contemporaneous works point to 1613–1614 as its date of composition and first performance. A reference to Palamon, one of the protagonists of Kinsmen, is contained in Ben Jonson's play Bartholomew Fair (1614). In Jonson's work, a passage in Act IV, scene iii, appears to indicate that Kinsmen was known and familiar to audiences at that time.

In Francis Beaumont's The Masque of the Inner Temple and Gray's Inn (1613), the second anti-masque features this cast of rural characters: pedant, May Lord and Lady, servingman and chambermaid, tavern host and hostess, shepherd and his wench, and two "bavians" (male and female baboon). The same cast slightly simplified (minus wench and one "bavian") enacts the Morris dance in Kinsmen,II, v, 120–138. A successful "special effect" in Beaumont's masque, designed for a single performance, appears to have been adopted and adapted into Kinsmen, indicating that the play followed soon after the masque. [4] : 53–54, 306 

The play was entered into the Stationers' Register on 8 April 1634; the quarto was published later that year by the bookseller John Waterson, printed by Thomas Cotes. The play was not included in the First Folio (1623) or any of the subsequent Folios of Shakespeare's works, though it was included in the second Beaumont and Fletcher folio of 1679. [4] : 507 

In September 2020, media reported that early seventeenth-century editions of several English plays, including a 1634 Two Noble Kinsmen had been discovered by John Stone of the University of Barcelona at the Royal Scots College's library in Salamanca, Spain. [5] The inclusion of The Two Noble Kinsmen in one of these two volumes makes it perhaps the oldest copy of any of Shakespeare's works in the country and the first to circulate in the Spanish-speaking world. [6]

Shakespeare and Fletcher contributions

Researchers have applied a range of tests and techniques to determine the relative shares of Shakespeare and Fletcher in the play in their attempts to distinguish the shares of Shakespeare and Fletcher. For example, Smith (1974) [7] cites "metrical characteristics, vocabulary and word-compounding, incidence of certain contractions, kinds and uses of imagery, and characteristic lines of certain types", [7] and offers a breakdown that agrees, in general if not in all details, with those of other scholars: [7]

Shakespeare
Act I, scenes 1–3; Act II, scene 1; Act III, scene 1; Act V, scene 1, lines 34–173, and scenes 3 and 4.
Fletcher
Prologue; Act II, scenes 2–6; Act III, scenes 2–6; Act IV, scenes 1 and 3; Act V, scene 1, lines 1–33, and scene 2; Epilogue.
Uncertain
Act I, scenes 4 and 5; Act IV, scene 2.

Performance history

In addition to whatever public performances there were around 1613–1614, evidence suggests a performance of The Two Noble Kinsmen at Court in 1619. In 1664, after theatres had re-opened after Charles II returned to the throne at the beginning of the English Restoration period, Sir William Davenant produced an adaptation of The Two Noble Kinsmen for the Duke's Company titled The Rivals . Thomas Betterton played the role of Philander, Davenant's version of Palamon. Samuel Pepys saw Davenant's production, and judged it "no excellent play, but good acting in it" (10 September 1664). [4] : 416, 507 

Modern revivals

In July 2007, the Hudson Shakespeare Company of New Jersey staged a version of the play as part of its annual Shakespeare in the Parks series. Director David Sewell set the production in ancient Greece with an ethnically diverse cast reflective of its Mediterranean setting. [8] [9]

A production opened on 9 June 2015 at the White Bear Theatre in Vauxhall, London—the first London production of the play since 2000. [10] In 2016, Royal Shakespeare Company staged a version of the play at the Swan Theatre, and the play was part of the 2018 summer season at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in London. [11] [12] An earlier production was staged by the Royal Shakespeare Company at the Swan Theatre's inaugural season in 1986. [13]

In 2019, The Porters of Hellsgate in Los Angeles staged a production in a rep with Double Falsehood . [14] The production, directed by Will Block, re-purposed the Morris Dance as a hallucination featuring major characters from the Jailer's Daughter's life. It also excised Palamon and Arcite's prayers, focusing the scene instead on Emilia's dilemma.

January 25th February 4th 2024 the Toronto based Shakespeare Bash'd Theatre Company staged this play in Toronto at The Theatre Centre Incubator (1115 Queen St West) with Kate Martin as Princess Emilia, Emilio Vieira as Palamon and Michael Man as Arcite.

Related Research Articles

<i>A Midsummer Nights Dream</i> Play by William Shakespeare

A Midsummer Night's Dream is a comedy play written by William Shakespeare in about 1595 or 1596. The play is set in Athens, and consists of several subplots that revolve around the marriage of Theseus and Hippolyta. One subplot involves a conflict among four Athenian lovers. Another follows a group of six amateur actors rehearsing the play which they are to perform before the wedding. Both groups find themselves in a forest inhabited by fairies who manipulate the humans and are engaged in their own domestic intrigue. The play is one of Shakespeare's most popular and is widely performed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hippolyta</span> Queen of the Amazons in Greek mythology

In Greek mythology, Hippolyta, or Hippolyte, was a daughter of Ares and Otrera, queen of the Amazons, and a sister of Antiope and Melanippe. She wore her father Ares' zoster, the Greek word found in the Iliad and elsewhere meaning "war belt". Some English translations prefer "girdle". Hippolyta figures prominently in the myths of both Heracles and Theseus. The myths about her are so varied it is thought that they may be about different women. The name Hippolyta translates as "she who unleashes the horses", deriving from two Greek roots meaning "horse" and "let loose".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Creon (king of Thebes)</span> Figure in Greek mythology

Creon, is a figure in Greek mythology best known as the ruler of Thebes in the legend of Oedipus.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Davenant</span> English poet and playwright (1606–1668)

Sir William Davenant, also spelled D'Avenant, was an English poet and playwright. Along with Thomas Killigrew, Davenant was one of the rare figures in English Renaissance theatre whose career spanned both the Caroline and Restoration eras and who was active both before and after the English Civil War and during the Interregnum.

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1634.

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1613.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Knight's Tale</span> Part of the Canterbury Tales

"The Knight's Tale" is the first tale from Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales.

<i>Henry VIII</i> (play) Play by Shakespeare

Henry VIII is a collaborative history play, written by William Shakespeare and John Fletcher, based on the life of Henry VIII. An alternative title, All Is True, is recorded in contemporary documents, with the title Henry VIII not appearing until the play's publication in the First Folio of 1623. Stylistic evidence indicates that individual scenes were written by either Shakespeare or his collaborator and successor, John Fletcher. It is also somewhat characteristic of the late romances in its structure. It is noted for having more stage directions than any of Shakespeare's other plays.

The Birth of Merlin, or, The Child Hath Found his Father is a Jacobean play, probably written in whole or part by William Rowley. It was first performed in 1622 at the Curtain Theatre in Shoreditch. It contains a comic depiction of the birth of the fully grown Merlin to a country girl, and also features figures from Arthurian legend, including Uther Pendragon, Vortigern, and Aurelius Ambrosius.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Francis Beaumont</span> English playwright (1584–1616)

Francis Beaumont was a dramatist in the English Renaissance theatre, most famous for his collaborations with John Fletcher.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Fletcher (playwright)</span> English playwright (1579–1625)

John Fletcher was an English playwright. Following William Shakespeare as house playwright for the King's Men, he was among the most prolific and influential dramatists of his day; during his lifetime and in the Stuart Restoration, his fame rivalled Shakespeare's. Fletcher collaborated in writing plays, chiefly with Francis Beaumont or Philip Massinger, but also with Shakespeare and others. Although his reputation has subsequently declined, he remains an important transitional figure between the Elizabethan popular tradition and the popular drama of the Restoration.

Philostrate is a fictional character in a number of literary works, including William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream (1596). In that play, he is the Master of the Revels at Theseus' court, meaning he is in charge of his lord's entertainments, making recommendations to Theseus, as well as altering the text of some of the plays performed in his court. Shakespeare may have used this character to poke fun at play censorship in London at the time. In early performances of the play, the actor who played this character probably also played the part of Egeus, Hermia's strict father. There is only one scene in act V where both Egeus and Philostrate are present, and in this scene Egeus' character would have taken all of Philostrate's lines as his own.

Like most playwrights of his period, William Shakespeare did not always write alone. A number of his surviving plays are collaborative, or were revised by others after their original composition, although the exact number is open to debate. Some of the following attributions, such as The Two Noble Kinsmen, have well-attested contemporary documentation; others, such as Titus Andronicus, are dependent on linguistic analysis by modern scholars; recent work on computer analysis of textual style has given reason to believe that parts of some of the plays ascribed to Shakespeare are actually by other writers.

The Lady Elizabeth's Men, or Princess Elizabeth's Men, was a company of actors in Jacobean London, formed under the patronage of King James I's daughter Princess Elizabeth. From 1618 on, the company was called The Queen of Bohemia's Men, after Elizabeth and her husband the Elector Palatine had their brief and disastrous flirtation with the crown of Bohemia.

The Masque of the Inner Temple and Gray's Inn, also known as, The Masque of the Olympic Knights, is an English masque created in the Jacobean period. It was written by Francis Beaumont and is known to have been performed on 20 February 1613 in the Banqueting House at Whitehall Palace, as part of the elaborate wedding festivities surrounding the marriage of Princess Elizabeth, the daughter of King James I, to Frederick V, Elector Palatine.

The bed trick is a plot device in traditional literature and folklore; it involves a substitution of one partner in the sex act with a third person. In the standard and most common form of the bed trick, a man goes to a sexual assignation with a certain woman, and without his knowledge that woman's place is taken by a substitute.

<i>Teseida</i> Epic poem written by Giovanni Boccaccio

Teseida is a long epic poem written by Giovanni Boccaccio c.1340–41. Running to almost 10,000 lines divided into twelve books, its notional subject is the career and rule of the ancient Greek hero Theseus (Teseo), although the majority of the epic tells the story of the rivalry of Palemone and Arcita for the love of Emilia. It is the main source of "The Knight's Tale" in Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, and therefore is the original source of The Two Noble Kinsmen, a collaboration by William Shakespeare and John Fletcher. The exact sources of Boccaccio's knowledge about the ancient Greek world are unknown, but is likely that he gained the knowledge through his close friendship with Paolo de Perugia, a medieval collector of ancient myths and tales.

Palamon and Arcite (1566) is a play by Richard Edwardes, which was performed before Elizabeth I at Oxford. It is based on Chaucer's The Knight's Tale. Though the text of the play is lost, there is a detailed record of its structure and plot.

The Rivals is a 1664 comedy play by the English writer William Davenant. It is a reworking of The Two Noble Kinsmen by William Shakespeare and John Fletcher.

References

  1. ↑ Erdman, David V.; Fogel, Ephim G., eds. (1966). Evidence for Authorship: Essays on Problems of Attribution . Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press. pp. 486–494, 433–435, 467–469. OCLC   1149030432.
  2. ↑ Krier, Theresa M., ed. (1998). Refiguring Chaucer in the Renaissance . Gainesville: University Press of Florida. p. 190. ISBN   9780813015521. OCLC   48138140.
  3. ↑ Waith, Eugene M., ed. (1989). The Two Noble Kinsmen . Oxford; New York: Clarendon Press. p. 28. ISBN   9780198129394. OCLC   1151836112.
  4. 1 2 3 Halliday, F. E. (1964). A Shakespeare Companion 1564–1964 (Revised ed.). Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin Books.
  5. ↑ Stone, John (September 2020). "The Two Noble Kinsmen and Eighteen Other Newly Discovered Early Modern English Quartos in an Hispano-Scottish Collection". Notes and Queries. 67 (3): 367–374. doi:10.1093/notesj/gjaa089.
  6. ↑ Alderson, Reevel (19 September 2020). "Edition of Shakespeare's last play found in Scots college in Spain". BBC News. Archived from the original on 1 January 2021.
  7. 1 2 3 Smith, Hallet (1974). Evans, G. Blakemore (ed.). The Riverside Shakespeare . Boston: Houghton Mifflin. p. 1640. ISBN   0395044022.
  8. ↑ Meyers, Joe (11 July 2007). "Latest Stratford staging a 'Noble' endeavor". Connecticut Post . Archived from the original on 6 October 2014 – via Hudson Shakespeare Company.
  9. ↑ Turner, Robert Kean; Tatspaugh, Patricia, eds. (2012). The Two Noble Kinsmen. The New Cambridge Shakespeare. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 225.
  10. ↑ Lewis, Barbara (18 June 2015). "Shakespeare's 'lost child' makes rare appearance in London". Reuters. Archived from the original on 8 February 2021.
  11. ↑ Billington, Michael (25 August 2016). "The Two Noble Kinsmen review – rarely staged bromance returns to the RSC". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 30 December 2020.
  12. ↑ Minamore, Bridget (31 May 2018). "The Two Noble Kinsmen review – fun but slight outing for a Shakespeare rarity". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 26 August 2020.
  13. ↑ Gussow, Mel (6 July 1986). "At Stratford, Shakespeare And Those in His Shadow" . The New York Times. Archived from the original on 8 February 2021.
  14. ↑ Brandes, Philip (5 July 2019). "L.A. theater: An American pioneer tale reframed by a female and nonbinary cast" . Los Angeles Times. 'Two Noble Kinsmen' in NoHo. Archived from the original on 28 November 2020.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.