Who wrote The Two Noble Kinsmen?
The Two Noble Kinsmen is credited jointly to John Fletcher and William Shakespeare. The dual attribution was once a point of controversy but is now generally accepted by scholarly consensus.
Questions about The Two Noble Kinsmen
Short answers, pulled from the story.
What is The Two Noble Kinsmen about?
The Two Noble Kinsmen follows the Theban cousins Palamon and Arcite, who both fall in love with Princess Emilia after seeing her from their prison window. Their rivalry leads to a duel, a public tournament, Arcite's death, and Palamon's marriage to Emilia.
When was The Two Noble Kinsmen written and first performed?
The Two Noble Kinsmen is believed to have been written and first performed in 1613-1614, making it William Shakespeare's final play before his retirement to Stratford-upon-Avon. It was first published in 1634.
Where did the plot of The Two Noble Kinsmen come from?
The plot of The Two Noble Kinsmen derives from Geoffrey Chaucer's The Knight's Tale in The Canterbury Tales, written between 1387 and 1400. Chaucer's tale was itself a shortened version of Giovanni Boccaccio's epic poem Teseida.
How much of The Two Noble Kinsmen did Shakespeare write compared to Fletcher?
A 1974 study by a scholar named Smith assigns Shakespeare Act One's scenes 1-3, Act Two's scene 1, Act Three's scene 1, and parts of Act Five. Fletcher is credited with the Prologue, most of Acts Two through Four, and the Epilogue, while two scenes remain unassigned to either writer.
Where was a rare early copy of The Two Noble Kinsmen discovered?
A 1634 copy of The Two Noble Kinsmen was found in the library of the Royal Scots College in Salamanca, Spain, reported in September 2020 by researcher John Stone of the University of Barcelona. It may be the oldest surviving copy of any Shakespeare work in the country and the first of his plays known to have circulated in the Spanish-speaking world.