Preview: Section 11
Reading boundary
Start: The Destiny, minister general,
Stop after: To Thebes-ward, with his old walles wide.
Palamon and Arcite are fighting illegally in the grove, unaware that a royal hunting party is approaching. The encounter will place their private feud before Theseus, Hippolyta, Emily, and the courtly company.
This section shifts from combat to judgment, creating tension between strict law, pity, and Theseus’s amused experience of love. His authority will be tested not only by the cousins’ offenses but by the appeals of those around him.