After reading · Section 11
Section 11Theseus Judges the Rivals
Reading boundary
Start: The Destiny, minister general,
Stop after: To Thebes-ward, with his old walles wide.
Summary
Destiny brings Theseus’s May hunting party to the grove, where he stops the bloody duel. Palamon openly identifies himself and Arcite, confesses both men’s offenses, and asks that both be executed. Theseus initially condemns them on their own admission, but Hippolyta, Emily, and the other women plead on their knees for mercy.
Theseus’s anger yields to compassion and his recollection of love’s power. After pardoning the cousins and requiring their loyalty, he establishes a formal contest: in fifty weeks each man must return with one hundred knights. The side that kills or captures its opposing leader will win Emily for its champion. Palamon and Arcite gratefully accept and return to Thebes.
Who’s who
- Theseus — duke of Athens, hunter, judge, and designer of the coming contest.
- Palamon — the escaped prisoner who confesses both rivals’ identities and crimes.
- Arcite / Philostrate — the banished knight who had secretly become Theseus’s squire.
- Hippolyta and Emily — the duke’s queen and sister, who join the ladies’ plea for mercy.