Based on Chaucers The Knights Tale in Canterbury Tales, The Two Noble Kinsmen takes as a motif the rules of courtly love endorsed by both Arcite and Palamon who, unfortunately, are nearly indistinguishable. As Mowat and Werstine assert, So fraught are the human relations of the play that only the gods can eventually bring them to their resolution (xv). Credit William Shakespeare and John Fletcher (as given on the title page of the 1634 printing) with the storys rich philosophical and moral potential (Mehl, 288).