SOURCE: “The Composition of the Play,” in Shakespeare and The Two Noble Kinsmen, Rutgers University Press, 1965, pp. 264-82.

In the following excerpt, Bertram surveys the arrangement of the play and contends that contrary to common assumption, the play possesses a controlled organization and is consistently developed.

The Arrangement of the Story

The story itself has evidently given trouble to some critics, Theodore Spencer for example:

The story of Palamon and Arcite, whether told by Boccaccio, Chaucer, or Shakespeare and Fletcher, is intrinsically feeble, superficial, and undramatic. For there is no real difference between Palamon and Arcite; they are both noble individuals, and the only reasons Palamon, rather than Arcite, wins the lady whom they both love are (a) that he saw her first and (b) that he had the sense to pray for success to Venus rather than to Mars.¹

Spencer goes on to suggest that “these reasons...