Finally, there are two or three
minor indications; Lysander and Demetrius fight, or attempt to fight, for
Helena, in the "wood near Athens," just as Palamon and Arcite fight for
Emilia in the grove[18]; Theseus is a keen huntsman both in the poem and in
the play[19]; and he refers[20] to his conquest of Thebes, which, as we
have seen, is described in _The Knightes Tale_.
Apart from these details, I do not think Shakespeare is indebted to
Chaucer. It is conceivable that the story of Palamon and Arcite affected,
but did not supply, the plot of the four lovers in _A Midsummer-Night's
Dream_; but Shakespeare has added a second woman. This completion of the
antithesis is characteristic of his early work; with a happy ending in
view, the characters must fall into pairs, whereas with Palamon, Arcite,
and Emilia, one of the men must be removed. There is nothing to prevent the
supposition that Shakespeare was acquainted from boyhood with Chaucer's
story--either in Chaucerian form or possibly in the shape of a
chap-book--and that he constructed a first draft of _The Two Noble Kinsmen_
quite early in his career as a playwright, subsequently laying it aside as
unsatisfactory, and, in his declining years, collaborating with another or
others to produce the play on that theme.
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