SOURCE: Introduction to The Two Noble Kinsmen, by John Fletcher and William Shakespeare, edited by Lois Potter, The Arden Shakespeare, 3^rd edition, Thomas Nelson and Sons, Ltd., 1997, pp. 40-59.

In the following excerpt, Potter reviews the sources from which Shakespeare and Fletcher drew in penning The Two Noble Kinsmen, focusing on the use the dramatists made of Chaucer's The Knight's Tale. Additionally, Potter comments on Chaucer's source material.

The Theban Story Before Chaucer

The history of Thebes is mythical. Its walls rose to the sound of music; its people sprang up from the ground when its founder Cadmus sowed the teeth of a dragon. The dragon-offspring immediately began killing each other, and fratricide and incest continued to dominate Theban history to the point where it became an archetype of the evil city. The story of Oedipus, which combines virtually all the great tragic themes, was the gods' revenge...