The Two Noble Kinsmen Study Guide

The Two Noble Kinsmen is a Jacobean tragicomedy, now generally believed to have been written in 1613 or 1614 by William Shakespeare and John Fletcher.

Act I

• Maiden pinks, of odour faint,Daisies smell-less, yet most quaint,

  And sweet thyme true.

  Primrose, first-born child of Ver,

  Merry springtime's harbinger,

  With harebells dim.

  • Boy , scene i

• Come all sad, and solemn shows,That are quick-eyed Pleasure's foes;

  We convent nought else but woes.

  We convent nought else but woes.

  • Three Queens , scene v

Act II

• Emilia: Of all flowers,Methinks a rose is best.

  Woman: Why, gentle madam? Emilia: It is the very emblem of a maid.For when the west wind courts her gently

  How modestly she blows, and paints the sun

  With her chaste blushes! When the north comes near her,

  Rude and impatient, then, like chastity,

  She locks her beauties in her bud again,

  And leaves him to base briars.

  • scene ii

• To marry him is hopeless;To be his whore is witless. Out upon't!

  What pushes are we wenches driven to

  When fifteen once has found us?

  • Daughter , scene iv

• Once, he kissed me.I loved my lips the better ten days after:

  Would he would do so every day!

  • Daughter , scene iv

• By him, like a shadowI'l ever dwell.
  • Daughter , scene vi

Act IV

• Tis pitty Love should be so tyrannous.
  • Hipolita , scene ii

Act V

• O Great Corrector of enormous times,Of dustie, and old tytles, that healst with blood

  The earth when it is sicke, and curst the world

  O'th pluresie of people;

  • Arcite , scene i