ACT III

SCENE i

This first scene is sometimes considered Shakespeare's (Bloom 694), but Van Doren considers it "imitation" (esp. III.i.4-11):

The lines are charming in their oddity rather than beautiful in their strength; the syntax is wrenched, the syllables are curled, for no discoverable reason. The quaint series of little triumphs grows tiresomely long. (Van Doren 292) During the "a-Maying," Arcite wonders if he's tempting Fortune to be so pleased at the turn of events. Palamon emerges and challenges him, but he's still in chains. Arcite promises to bring him files, food, clothes, cologne (because of the prison stink), and weapons later, so they can duke it out once and for all. "Shakespeare juxtaposes their high rhetoric of chivalry with their mutually insane, regretful need to immolate one another" (Bloom 706).

SCENE ii

The Jailer's daughter could not find Palamon. "I reak not if the wolves would jaw me, so / He had this file.... If I whoop'd, what then?" (III.ii.7-9). (Pretty poor stuff, Fletch.)

SCENE iii

"Enter Arcite with meat, wine, and files." The kinsmen agree not to mention Emilia for the moment. As Palmon eats, they engage in jolly locker-room banter about former conquests. But at the mention of Emila they are contentious again. Arcite will return soon with arms.

SCENE iv

The Jailer's daughter has gone all Ophelia on us, and she rants about arbitrary matters amphibious, nautical, and bawdy. She sings a "Hey nonny nonny" song too. The mention of the nightingale (III.iv.25-26) refers to the belief that it leaned against a thorn at night so that the pain would keep it awake and singing (Asimov 64).

SCENE v

Gerrold, a pedantic schoolmaster, heads up a morris-dancing entertainment with inappropriately learned allusions, such as to Meleager. They encounter the Jailer's daughter, note her insanity, and perform before Theseus' court. The dance contains characters who also appear in Beaumont's Masque of the Inner Temple and Gray's Inn -- an entertainment presented to an enthusiastic King James in 1613: "and it seems likely that his players -- some of whom probably took part in the masque -- decided to exploit its success by incorporating part of it in a play" (Wells 382).

SCENE vi

Arcite brings arms for Palamon and the two prepare to fight, nostalgically recalling past joint military exploits. They politely fight until Theseus and court arrive and Palamon tattles on Arcite. Since the two will obviously never stop and banishment therefore won't work, Theseus considers having them both killed. But after more discussion, the resolution emerges that they return within the month with three knights each for a tournament. This then is "a second broken ceremony" after that of the first scene of Act I (Garber 900). The swearing by the name of Castor is peculiar (III.vi.137) since he is one of a set of twins -- Castor and Pollux -- and would have been a contemporary of Theseus anyway: he's still alive (Asimov 66-67).

Wells uses a passage from this scene, Arcite refusing to ask mercy from Theseus (III.vi.160-171) to illustrate Fletcher's "evenness of style, its relatively greater ease of comprehension, and its unforced eloquence" (Wells 384). He also acknowledges Charles Lamb's assessment, though, that Fletcher's "ideas moved slow; his versification, though sweet, is tedious, it stops every moment; he lays line upon line, making up one after the other, adding image to image so deliberately that we see where they join" (qtd. in Wells 382-383).