Pirithous

Play

The Two Noble Kinsmen

Summary

Theseus's intimate friend and companion, whose legendary bond with the Duke is invoked at the play's opening as a model of male friendship against which the kinsmen's rivalry and the lovers' passion are measured. He plays no decisive role in the main plot but serves as Theseus's confidant, reporter of events (including Arcite's final accident), and an embodiment of the male friendship ideal the play interrogates.

Notable Quotations

"Their knot of love, / Tied, weaved, entangled, with so true, so long, / And with a finger of so deep a cunning, / May be outworn, never undone." *(I.iii)*

Cross-references

• The Two Noble Kinsmen — the play
• Romances (Late Plays)
• character_theseus_2nk — his inseparable friend and Duke
• character_arcite — whose death he reports