The Two Noble Kinsmen

PROLOGUE

The character of the Prologue enters the scene and explains that the play the audience is about to see is based on Chaucer’s famous Canterbury Tales. He apologizes in advance for their inferiority to the great writer, saying that they “are too ambitious to aspire to him.”

ACT ONE

SCENE ONE

In Athens, Duke Theseus has just been married to an Amazonian queen, Hippolyta. Their joyful wedding procession is interrupted by a trio of queens whose husbands have died on the field of battle. They tell Hippolyta that their husbands bodies have gone unburied - a great insult. The queens, Hippolyta and Hippolyta’s sister, Emilia, convince Theseus to declare war against King Creon in Thebes to avenge this injustice.

SCENE TWO

In Thebes, two nephews of King Creon - Palamon and Arcite - discuss the ways in which their uncle’s rule has corrupted the kingdom of Thebes. Although neither of the cousins like their uncle, and consider him to be an illegitimate king, they are nonetheless bound to