Reading boundaryStart: WHILOM*, as olde stories tellen us,Stop after: For evermore, there may no gold them quite*
Summary
Theseus returns toward Athens after conquering the Amazons and marrying their queen, Hippolyta. The Knight declines to narrate that campaign at length because his tale is already long and the other pilgrims must have their turns. Near the city, black-clad former queens and duchesses stop Theseus. Capaneus’s widow explains that their husbands died in the siege of Thebes and that Creon refuses the bodies burial or burning.
Moved by their grief, Theseus immediately sends Hippolyta and Emily to Athens and marches against Thebes. He kills Creon, takes the city, and restores the bodies for funeral rites. Afterward, pillagers find the wounded Theban cousins Palamon and Arcite among the dead. Heralds recognize them as royal kinsmen; Theseus imprisons them in Athens permanently and refuses ransom.
Who’s who
Theseus — Duke of Athens, conqueror of the Amazons and Creon.
Hippolyta — Queen of the Amazons and Theseus’s new wife.
Emily — Hippolyta’s younger sister.
Capaneus’s widow — The eldest mourner and spokeswoman for the bereaved women.
Creon — Ruler of Thebes who denies funeral rites to the slain.
Palamon and Arcite — Royal Theban cousins found wounded after the battle and imprisoned by Theseus.