The Two Noble Kinsmen: Shakespeare and Fletcher in Collaboration
In around 1613, late in Shakespeare’s career and towards the end of his life, he co-wrote with John Fletcher The Two Noble Kinsmen: a play omitted from the Shakespeare First Folio and first published in 1634. As a team project between the outgoing and incoming principal playwrights for the King’s Men, Two Noble Kinsmen offers an interesting but far from unusual study of practices of collaborative writing in Shakespeare’s day. This course will be a deep dive into Two Noble Kinsmen and the culture of early modern authorship. In addition to performing a careful and thorough close reading of Shakespeare and Fletcher’s Two Noble Kinsmen, we will also read Shakespeare’s Two Gentlemen of Verona and Fletcher and Massinger’s Rollo to gain perspective on the style, stagecraft, creative insights, and writing habits of Shakespeare and Fletcher. What difference does it make to know that Two Noble Kinsmen is collaboratively authored? And how does a knowledge of collaborative writing practices expand our understanding and engagement with the play?
Prerequisites
- Registration in an English Major or Joint Honours plan
