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Foreshadowing
Epilogue
Explanation and Analysis—Prologue and Epilogue :
The Two Noble Kinsmen begins and ends with a framing device: a spoken prologue and epilogue that comments directly upon the performance of the play. In the prologue, the speaker of the prologue asks the audience to forgive the play for failing to live up to the high poetic standards of Chaucer, poet of The Canterbury Tales, from which the plot of this play is lifted. In the Epilogue, the speaker of the epilogue likewise addressed the audience directly:
Now what say
you?
And yet mistake me not: I am not bold.
We have no such cause. If the tale we have told—
For ’tis no other—any way content you—
For to that honest purpose it was meant you—
We have our end; and you shall have ere long,
I dare say, many a better, to prolong
Your old loves to us. We, and all our might,
Rest at your service. Gentlemen, good night.
The speaker of the prologue asks the audience for its opinion on the play, but admits that he is not confident that the play has been a success. Again addressing the audience, he states that if the play has in “any way content you” or in other words, left you feeling content, then the play has succeeded in its one “end,” or goal. Next, he insists that the audience might enjoy other plays produced by the theater, and bids the audience good night. Through this framing device, Shakespeare and Fletcher are able to explain their goals and motivations to the audience.
