Act I

A Prologue precedes the start of the dramatic action. It praises the literary source of The Two Noble Kinsmen: Chaucer's "The Knight's Tale," a narrative poem set in legendary Greece. The play itself begins with an elaborate procession accompanying Theseus, duke of Athens, and Hippolyta, the Amazon queen, to their wedding. The ritual is interrupted by the sudden appearance of three queens, dressed in mourning clothes, who fall on their knees and beg Theseus to help them. They report that their husbands were slain in battle by Creon, king of Thebes, and that Creon has refused to allow their bodies to be buried. The queens ask Theseus to delay his marriage to Hippolyta and go to war against Creon at once. As Theseus considers whether to proceed with the wedding or postpone it, the queens appeal to Hippolyta and her younger sister Emilia to intercede on...