The Two Noble Kinsmen
Two Noble Kinsmen, The,a tragi-comedy attributed to J. Fletcher and Shakespeare , published 1634 . In spite of its absence from the First folio ( 1623 ), recent studies of the play suggest that it is probably a genuine work of collaboration between Fletcher and Shakespeare, taking more or less equal shares, written in about 1613 .
The play is closely based on Chaucer's ‘Knight's Tale’ (see Canterbury Tales , 1), which Shakespeare had drawn on before in A Midsummer Night's Dream . The main addition to the plot is the jailer's daughter who falls in love with Palamon, runs melancholy mad, and is cured by a lower-class wooer pretending to be Palamon. The overall tone is considerably lighter than in Chaucer's poem, the play being diversified with songs and lyrical passages such as Emilia's reminiscence of her friendship with Flavina (i. iii. 55–82); there is also a country festival with morris dancing, presided over...
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