te has not been traced beyond Boccaccio, that
fountain of romance, though he himself says the tale of "Palemone and
Arcita" is "una antichissima storia." Possibly the story was taken, as much
of Boccaccio's writing must have been taken, from tradition. Palaemon is a
classical name,[8] and Arcite might be a corruption of Archytas.
Boccaccio's _Teseide_ (the story of Theseus) which was written about 1344,
and may have been first issued wholly or in part under the title of
_Amazonide_, is a poem in the vernacular consisting of twelve books and ten
thousand lines in _ottava rima_.[9]

Chaucer, in the Prologue to _The Legend of Good Women_ (which is presumably
earlier than the _Canterbury Tales_) states that he had already written

" ... al the love of Palamon and Arcyte
Of Thebes, thogh the story is knowen lyte.[10]"

Skeat says "some scraps are preserved in other poems" of Chaucer; he
instances (i) ten stanzas from this _Palamon and Arcite_ in a minor poem
_Anelida and Arcite_, where Chaucer refers to Statius, _Thebais_, xii.
519;[11] (ii) three stanzas in _Trolius and Crheyde_; and (iii) six stanzas
in _The Parlement of Foules_, where the description of the Temple of Love
is borrowed almost word for word from Boccaccio's _Teseide_.[12] Finally,
Chaucer used _Palamon and Arcite_ as the basis of _The Knightes Tale_. By
this time, while he retains what folk-lorists call the "story-radical," he
has reduced Boccaccio's epic to less than a quarter of its length, and
improved it in details. It stands as the first of _The Canterbury Tales_.

ANALYSTS OF CHAUCER'S _KNIGHTES TALE_

Old stories relate that once there was a Duke Theseus, lord of Athens, a
conqueror of many lands. His latest conquest was "Femenye" (once called
Scythia), whose queen Hippolyta he wedded and brought home, accompanied by
her young sister Emilia. Now as he drew near to Athens, a company of ladies
met him in the way, and laid before him their complaint, to the effect
that, their husbands having fallen at the siege of Thebes, Creon the tyrant
of Thebes would not let the bodies be buried or burned, but cast them on a
heap and suffered the dogs to eat them. Duke Theseus, having sworn to
avenge this wrong, sent Hippolyta and Emilia to Athens, and rode to Thebes,
where in full battle he fought and slew Creon, and razed the city. The due
obsequies were then performed.[13]

Amongst the slain were found, half-dead, two young knights named Palamon
and Arcit