The Two Noble Kinsmen, the last Shakespeare play

The play is attributed jointly to John Fletcher and William Shakespeare. It’s believed to be Shakespeare’s last play. 

1/ The first scene after the Prologue is clearly written by Shakespeare. 

“1 QUEEN We are three queens whose sovereigns fell before 

The wrath of cruel Creon, who endure 

The beaks of ravens, talons of the kites

And pecks of crows, in the foul fields of Thebes. 

He will not suffer us to burn their bones, 

To urn their ashes, nor to take th’ offense 

Of mortal loathsomeness from the blest eye 

Of holy Phoebes, but infects the winds

With stench of our slain lords…” 

(Act 1 scene 1) 

The three queens are kneeling and begging Theseus and his new wife Hippolyta to help them against Creon. 

That is so good. 

“2 QUEEN […] dear glass of ladies: 

Bid him that we, whom flaming war doth scorch, 

Under the shadow of his sword may cool us…”

(ibid.)

The play begins with more excitement than Henry VIII. 

“3 QUEEN Oh, my petition was

Set down in ice, which by hot grief uncandied 

Melts into drops; so sorrow, wanting form, 

Is pressed with deeper matter. 

[…] 

There, through my tears, 

Like wrinkled pebbles in a glassy stream, 

You may behold ’em. Lady, lady, alack, 

He that will all the treasure know o’th’earth 

Must know the centre too; he that will fish

For my least minnow, let him lead his line

To catch one at my heart. Oh, pardon me; 

Extremity, that sharpens sundry wits, 

Makes me a fool.” 

(ibid.) 

Metaphor piles upon metaphor. 

In the scene, the three queens interrupt the wedding and beg Theseus to wage war against Creon now, when he’s chilling and unprepared, because they’re afraid that after the wedding, Theseus would be too busy enjoying sex to “think of rotten kings and blubbered queens”. Makes sense. 

2/ I like Palamon’s speech about us being masters of ourselves: 

“PALAMON ’Tis in our power, 

Unless we fear that apes can tutor’s, to 

Be masters of our manners. What need I 

After another’s gait, which is not catching 

Where there is faith, or to be fond upon 

Another’s way of speech when by mine own 

I may be reasonably conceived, saved too, 

Speaking it truly? Why am I bound 

By any generous bond to follow him 

Follows his tailor; haply so long until 

The followed make pursuit? Or let me know 

Why mine own barber is unblessed, with him 

My poor chin too, for ’tis not scissored just

To such a favourite’s glass? What canon is there

That does command my rapier from my hip

To dangle’t in my hand, or to go tiptoe 

Before the street be foul? Either I am 

The fore-horse in the team or I am none

That draw i’th’sequent trace…” 

(Act 1 scene 2) 

Are these arguments for free will? 

In the late plays, Shakespeare’s language can often be knotty, as if he doesn’t care if the audience can understand him. 

Palamon and his cousin Arcite are talking about the tyrannical government of their uncle Creon. 

“PALAMON […] I think the echoes of his shames have deafed 

The ears of heavenly Justice. Widows’ cries

Descend again into their throats and have not 

Due audience of the gods.” 

(ibid.) 

The idea of people’s grief not being heard by the gods often recurs in Shakespeare’s plays. 

3/ In Act 2 scene 1, the Jailer’s Daughter speaks like Palamon and Arcite have been confined together for some time in prison, then in the following scene, it appears that they’ve met for the first time since imprisoned.

That, ladies and gentlemen, is what happens when the play is written by two different people.

Their speeches about rotting away in prison are so good, especially Arcite’s. I don’t want to type the entire speech even though it’s so good, but here’s the final bit: 

“ARCITE […] This is all our world. 

We shall know nothing here but one another, 

Hear nothing but the clock that tells our woes. 

The vine shall grow but we shall never see it; 

Summer shall come and with her all delights, 

But dead-cold winter must inherit here still.” 

(Act 2 scene 2)

I also like Arcite’s speech about consoling themselves and thinking of the prison as a sanctuary from the pain and corruption of the world. But isn’t it against the theme I see over and over again in Shakespeare that thinking cannot change reality, that words of consolation are just empty? 

The feeling of contentment doesn’t last long. The warmth of friendship, after “Is there record of any two that loved/ Better than we do, Arcite?”, doesn’t last long. Everything changes the moment they see and both fall in love with Emilia, Hippolyta’s sister. Palamon’s even ready to kill Arcite over a woman he’s just met—isn’t that a bit… extreme?

In his (apparently) last play, Shakespeare revisits the theme of two life-long friends falling in love with the same woman, from one of his earliest plays, The Two Gentlemen of Verona. I don’t really remember the other play however, except Launce and his dog Crab. 

4/ For long stretches (at least they feel long), the play’s clearly written by Fletcher. He’s not bad—the scenes mentioned in number 3 are most likely Fletcher’s. 

One thing I’ve noted is that the play has several friendships, and they sound kinda gay.

“EMILIA How his longing 

Follows his friend! Since his depart, his sports, 

Though craving seriousness and skill, passed slightly 

His careless execution, where nor gain 

Made him regard or loss consider, but, 

Playing one business in his hand, another 

Directing in his head, his mind nurse equal 

To these so-different twins. […] 

HIPPOLYTA […] Their knot of love, 

Tied, weaved, entangled, with so true, so long, 

And with a finger of so deep a cunning, 

May be outworn, never undone…” 

(Act 1 scene 3) 

They’re talking about the friendship between Theseus (Hippolyta’s husband) and Pirithous, and Pirithous’s distraction since Theseus departed for war, then Emilia talks about “a time when I enjoyed a play-fellow” named Flavina:

“EMILIA […] The flower that I would pluck 

And put between my breasts (then but beginning 

To swell about the blossom), oh, she would long

Till she had such another, and commit it

To the like innocent cradle, where phoenix-like

They died in perfume…” 

(ibid.) 

Flavina died when they both were 11, but: 

“EMILIA […] That the true love ’tween maid and maid may be

More than in sex dividual.

HIPPOLYTA You’re out of breath! 

And this high-speeded pace is but to say 

That you shall never, like the maid Flavina, 

Love any that’s called man.

EMILIA I am sure I shall not.” 

(ibid.) 

Palamon and Arcite also talk like lovers, till they fall in love with Emilia and fall out with each other. 

Now look at the scene where Arcite, now disguised as a countryman, stands before Theseus and others after winning wrestling. 

“THESEUS You are perfect. 

PIRITHOUS [to Emilia] Upon my soul, a proper man.” 

(Act 2 scene 5) 

Do they not sound kinda gay? Both are much more enthusiastic than Emilia. 

Shakespeare plays a lot with gender (for example, Orsino and Olivia fall for Viola as Cesario), but in his plays, there are plenty of male friendships and female friendships that don’t sound gay. The friendships Fletcher writes in The Two Noble Kinsmen do. This is an observation, not a complaint.

The scene of Palamon and Arcite preparing for duel is hilarious—I’d love to see it performed. 

5/ The play’s split into 2 plots: about Palamon and Arcite and their fight over Emilia; and about the Jailer’s Daughter, who is unnamed.

The Jailer’s Daughter interests me as a character around the time she, out of love, helps Palamon escape, though not so much when she descends into madness. 

The Wooer’s description of her madness is reminiscent of Gertrude’s speech about Ophelia, but the “Willow, willow, willow” bit makes me think of Desdemona before her death. 

In Act 5, Shakespeare again takes over. The language is clearly different: better, but also knottier in long speeches.

In order to cure her insanity, the Doctor tells the Wooer to pretend to be Palamon. 

“DOCTOR […] If she entreat again, do anything. 

Lie with her if she ask you.

JAILER Whoa there, Doctor! 

DOCTOR Yes, in the way of cure. 

JAILER But first, by your leave, 

I’th’ way of honesty. 

DOCTOR That’s but a niceness. 

Ne’er cast your child away for honesty. 

Cure her first this way; then if she will be honest, 

She has the path before her.” 

(Act 5 scene 2) 

That’s disturbing. 

Before the characters go off, Shakespeare also adds these lines: 

“DAUGHTER And then we’ll sleep together. 

DOCTOR Take her offer. 

WOOER [to Daughter] Yes, marry, will we.

DAUGHTER But you shall not hurt me. 

WOOER I will not, sweet. 

DAUGHTER If you do, love, I’ll cry.” 

(ibid.) 

How should we feel about this? 

At the end of the play, we hear the Jailer tell someone else that she’s now cured and about to get married—but is she? 

6/ The main plot about Palamon and Arcite’s fight for Emilia is even more disturbing: what does Emilia think? Neither of them knows her, and she doesn’t know them. She cannot choose, but I think it’s less because she likes them both than because she doesn’t want either one to die because of her choice.  

“EMILIA Would I might end first! 

What sins have I committed, chaste Diana, 

That my unspotted youth must now be soiled 

With blood of princes, and my chastity 

Be made the altar where the lives of lovers—

Two greater and two better never yet

Made mothers joy—must be the sacrifice 

To my unhappy beauty?”

(Act 4 scene 2)

Almost the entire play is about the rivalry, and when we get to the end, the resolution is frankly ridiculous. Nonsensical ending. 

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Having finished The Two Noble Kinsmen, I have now read all the Shakespeare plays!