1606–07 The Tragedy of Antony and Cleopatra

  1608 The Tragedy of Coriolanus

  1608 Pericles, Prince of Tyre, with George Wilkins

  1610 The Tragedy of Cymbeline

  1611 The Winter’s Tale

  1611 The Tempest

  1612–13 Cardenio, with John Fletcher (survives only in later adaptation called Double Falsehood by Lewis Theobald)

  1613 Henry VIII (All Is True), with John Fletcher

  1613–14 The Two Noble Kinsmen, with John Fletcher

  THE HISTORY BEHIND THE TRAGEDIES: A CHRONOLOGY

  FURTHER READING AND VIEWING

  CRITICAL APPROACHES

  Adamson, Jane, Troilus and Cressida, Harvester New Critical Introductions to Shakespeare Series (1987). Useful guide to text, characters, and context.

  Bowen, Barbara E., Gender in the Theater of War: Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida (1993). Feminist account of play’s politics and gender.

  Bradshaw, Graham, Shakespeare’s Scepticism (1987). Highly intelligent, acute critical reading.

  Charnes, Linda, “ ‘So Unsecret to Ourselves’: Notorious Identity and the Material Subject in Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida,” Shakespeare Quarterly 40 (1989), pp. 413–40. Dense investigation of questions of identity.

  Colie, Rosalie L., “Forms and Their Meanings: ‘Monumental Mock’ry,’ ” in Shakespeare’s Living Art (1974), pp. 317–49. Lucid and compelling.

  Elton, W. R. Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida and the Inns of Court Revels (2000). Fascinating, detailed study which argues that the play was written for an audience of law students and lawyers.

  Girard, René, “The Politics of Desire in Troilus and Cressida,” in Shakespeare and the Question of Theory, ed. Patricia Parker and Geoffrey Hartman (1985), pp. 188–209. Critically sophisticated.

  Grady, Hugh, Shakespeare’s Universal Wolf: Studies in Early Modern Reification (1996). Striking mix of historical and Marxist thinking.

  Greene, Gayle, “Shakespeare’s Cressida: ‘A Kind of Self,’ ” in The Woman’s Part: Feminist Criticism of Shakespeare, ed. Carolyn Ruth Swift Lenz, Gayle Greene, and Carol Thomas Neely (1983), pp. 133–49. Good example of a feminist approach.

  Martin, Priscilla, ed., Shakespeare: Troilus and Cressida: A Casebook (1976). Selection of important early criticism and influential twentieth-century criticism up to 1975.

  Rossiter, A. P., Angel with Horns and Other Shakespeare Lectures (1961). One of the first modern readings of the play.

  Vaughan, Virginia Mason, “Daughters of the Game: Troilus and Cressida and the Sexual Discourse of Sixteenth-Century England,” Women’s Studies International Forum, No. 3 (1990), pp. 209–20. Historical placing of attitudes to women and sex.

  THE PLAY IN PERFORMANCE

  Apfelbaum, Roger, Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida: Textual Problems and Performance Solutions (2004). Detailed exploration of stage history.

  Jackson, Russell, and Robert Smallwood, eds., Players of Shakespeare 3 (1993). Simon Russell Beale discusses playing Thersites in Sam Mendes’ RSC production.

  Loggins, Vernon P. The Life of Our Design: Organization and Related Strategies in Troilus and Cressida (1992). Detailed discussion of the play’s structure and problems/possibilities in performance.

  McCandless, David, Gender and Performance in Shakespeare’s Problem Comedies (1997). Marries theory and performance: chapter 3 on Troilus and Cressida.

  Shirley, Frances A., ed., Troilus and Cressida, Shakespeare in Production Series (2005). Introduction to the play’s history with annotated play text including stage directions of important productions.

  AVAILABLE ON DVD

  Troilus and Cressida, directed by Jonathan Miller (1981, DVD 2006). Part of the BBC Shakespeare. Strong performances from Anton Lesser, Suzanne Burden, Charles Gray, and Benjamin Whitrow.

  REFERENCES

  1. Mark van Doren, Shakespeare (1939), p. 202.

  2. W. R. Elton, Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida and the Inns of Court Revels (2000), p. 7.

  3. Rosalie Colie, Shakespeare’s Living Art (1974), pp. 320–21.

  4. Alvin Kernan, “The Satiric Character of Thersites” (1959), in Priscilla Martin, ed., Troilus and Cressida: A Casebook (1976), p. 98.

  5. A. P. Rossiter, Angel with Horns and Other Shakespeare Lectures (1961), pp. 133–34.

  6. Jan Kott, Shakespeare Our Contemporary (1965), p. 65.

  7. Northrop Frye, The Myth of Deliverance: Reflections on Shakespeare’s Problem Comedies (1983), p. 63.

  8. Frank Kermode, Shakespeare’s Language (2000), p. 134.

  9. Gayle Greene, “Shakespeare’s Cressida: ‘A Kind of Self,’ ” in Carolyn Ruth Swift Lenz, Gayle Greene, and Carol Thomas Neely, eds., The Woman’s Part: Feminist Criticism of Shakespeare (1983), pp. 133–49 (pp. 136–37).

  10. Elizabeth Freund, “ ‘Ariachne’s Broken Woof’: The Rhetoric of Citation in Troilus and Cressida,” in Patricia Parker and Geoffrey Hartman, Shakespeare and the Question of Theory (1985), pp. 19–36 (p. 21).

  11. R. A. Foakes, Shakespeare, the Dark Comedies to the Last Plays: From Satire to Celebration (1971), pp. 44–45.

  12. Bruce R. Smith, Homosexual Desire in Shakespeare’s England (1991), p. 198.

  13. G. Wilson Knight, The Wheel of Fire (1930), pp. 47, 62.

  14. Kott, Shakespeare Our Contemporary, p. 64.

  15. Smith, Homosexual Desire in Shakespeare’s England, p. 59.

  16. Hugh Grady, Shakespeare’s Universal Wolf: Studies in Early Modern Reification (1996), p. 59.

  17. Qa (1609), title page.

  18. Qb, (1609), p. 2.

  19. John Dryden, Troilus and Cressida; or, Truth Found Too Late (1679), Prologue.

  20. Troilus and Cressida (1852), p. 7.

  21. Birmingham Gazette, 13 May 1913.

  22. Birmingham Gazette, 13 May 1913.

  23. Morning Post, 14 May 1913.

  24. Evening Standard, 3 June 1907.

  25. Morning Post, 8 November 1923.

  26. Frances A. Shirley, Troilus and Cressida (2005), p. 18.

  27. Stratford-on-Avon Herald, 24 April 1936.

  28. Harold N. Hillebrand, ed., Troilus and Cressida (1953), p. 512.

  29. The Times, London, quoted in Wilhelm Hortmann, Shakespeare on the German Stage: The Twentieth Century (1998), p. 108.

  30. Birmingham Post, 25 April 1936.

  31. The Times, London, 25 April 1936.

  32. Birmingham Mail, 25 April 1936.

  33. The Times, London, 24 September 1938.

  34. Birmingham Gazette, 9 July 1948.

  35. Birmingham Mail, 3 July 1948.

  36. Financial Times, 14 July 1954.

  37. Daily Mail, 14 July 1954.

  38. Daily Express, 4 April 1956.

  39. Shirley, Troilus and Cressida, p. 33.

  40. Daily Express, 27 July 1960.

  41. Star Ledger, 19 April 2001.

  42. John Pettigrew and Jamie Portman, Stratford: The First Thirty Years (1985), Vol. 1, p. 168.

  43. Daily Telegraph, 19 June 1976.

  44. The Times, London, 19 June 1976.

  45. Henry Fenwick, The BBC TV Shakespeare: Troilus and Cressida (1981), p. 27.

  46. Wilhelm Hortmann, “The Scenography of Recent German Productions,” in Foreign Shakespeare (1993), pp. 241–42.

  47. Sunday Telegraph, 21 March 1999.

  48. Independent on Sunday, 21 March 1999.

  49. John Golder and Richard Madelaine, eds., O Brave New World (2001), p. 263.

  50. Guardian, 16 August 2006.

  51. Sunday Times, London, 16 February 2003.

  52. Birmingham Mail, 14 July 1954.

  53. Shirley, Troilus and Cressida, p. 82.

  54. Telegraph, 30 May 2008.

  55. Guardian, 29 May 2008.

  56. Quoted in Fenwick, Troilus and Cressida, p. 24.

  57. The Times, London, 24 July 2009.

  58. W. H. W., Birmingham Mail, 27 July 1960.

  59. J. C. Trewin, Birmingham Post, 27 July 1960.

  60. Edmund Gardner, Stratford-upon-Avon Herald, 29 July 1960.

  61. Sunday Times, London, 31 July 1960.

  62. John Barton, “Company Notes,” RSC theater program, 1968.

  63. Benedict Nightingale, New Statesman, 16 August 1968.

  64. Irving Wardle, The Times, London, 9 August 1968.

  65. Nightingale, New Statesman, 16 August 1968.

  66. B. A. Young, Financial Times, 9 August 1968.

  67. Herbert Kretzmer, Daily Express, 9 August 1968.

  68. Barton, “Company notes.”

  69. Robert Cushman, Observer, 22 August 1976.

  70. Michael Billington, Guardian, 19 August 1976.

  71. Billington, Guardian, 19 August 1976.

  72. B. A. Young, Financial Times, 18 August 1976.

  73. Roger Warren, Shakespeare Survey, 30 (1977), p. 174.

  74. J. W. Lambert, Sunday Times, 22 August 1976.

  75. Warren, Shakespeare Survey, 30, p. 176.

  76. Irving Wardle, The Times, London, 8 July 1981.

  77. Shakespeare Survey, 35 (1982), p. 149.

  78. Michael Billington, Guardian, 9 July 1981.

  79. Nicholas Shrimpton, Shakespeare Survey, 39 (1986), p. 203.

  80. John Peter, Sunday Times, London, 30 June 1985.

  81. Irving Wardle, The Times, London, 27 June 1985.

  82. Peter Holland, Shakespeare Survey, 44 (1992), p. 175.

  83. Paul Taylor, Independent, 30 June 1990.

  84. Robert Smallwood, Shakespeare Quarterly, 42 (1991), p. 357.

  85. Smallwood, Shakespeare Quarterly, 42, p. 357.

  86. Holland, Shakespeare Survey, 44, p. 175.

  87. Simon Russell Beale, Players of Shakespeare 3, p. 160.

  88. Charles Spencer, Daily Telegraph, 28 April 1990.

  89. Russell Jackson, Shakespeare Quarterly, 48 (1997), p. 212.

  90. Ian Judge, Troilus and Cressida RSC Programme Notes, 1976.

  91. Michael Billington, Guardian, 25 July 1996.

  92. Charles Spencer, Daily Telegraph, 9 November 1998.

  93. Paul Taylor, Independent, 7 November 1998.

  94. Joyce McMillan, Scotsman, 16 August 2006.

  95. Edmund Gardner, Stratford-upon-Avon Herald, 29 July 1960.

  96. Nightingale, New Statesman, 16 August 1968.

  97. W. A. Darlington, Daily Telegraph, 9 August 1968.

  98. Warren, Shakespeare Survey, 30, p. 175.

  99. Daily Mail, 8 July 1981.

  100. Carol Royle, in an interview with Linda Christmas, Guardian, July 1981.

  101. Juliet Stevenson in Carol Rutter, Clamorous Voices (1988), p. xviii.

  102. Nicholas Shrimpton, Shakespeare Survey, 39 (1987), p. 203.

  103. Roger Warren, Shakespeare Quarterly, 37 (1986), p. 117.

  104. Benedict Nightingale, Guardian, 28 April 1990.

  105. Martin Hoyle, The Times, London, 28 April 1990.

  106. Nicholas de Jongh, Evening Standard, 25 July 1996.

  107. Daily Telegraph, 26 July 1996.

  108. Spencer, Daily Telegraph, 9 November 1998.

  109. Alistair MacAulay, Financial Times, 10 November 1998.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS AND PICTURE CREDITS

  Preparation of “Troilus and Cressida in Performance” was assisted by a generous grant from the CAPITAL Centre (Creativity and Performance in Teaching and Learning) of the University of Warwick for research in the RSC archive at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust.

  Thanks as always to our indefatigable and eagle-eyed copy editor Tracey Day and to Ray Addicott for overseeing the production process with rigor and calmness.

  The second half of the introduction (“The Critics Debate”) draws extensively on a longer overview of the play’s critical history prepared for us by Sarah Carter.

  Picture research by Michelle Morton. Grateful acknowledgment is made to the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust for assistance with picture research (special thanks to Helen Hargest) and reproduction fees.

  Images of RSC productions are supplied by the Shakespeare Centre Library and Archive, Stratford-upon-Avon. This Library, maintained by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, holds the most important collection of Shakespeare material in the UK, including the Royal Shakespeare Company’s official archive. It is open to the public free of charge.

  For more information see www.shakespeare.org.uk.

  1. Directed by Anthony Quayle (1948) Angus McBean © Royal Shakespeare Company

  2. Directed by John Barton (1976) Joe Cocks Studio Collection © Shakespeare Birthplace Trust

  3. Directed by Sam Mendes (1990) Joe Cocks Studio Collection © Shakespeare Birthplace Trust

  4. Directed by Peter Hall and John Barton (1960) Angus McBean © Royal Shakespeare Company

  5. Directed by Howard Davies (1985) Joe Cocks Studio Collection © Shakespeare Birthplace Trust

  6. Directed by Michael Boyd (1998) Joe Cocks Studio Collection © Shakespeare Birthplace Trust

  7. Directed by Trevor Nunn (1999) © Donald Cooper/photostage.co.uk

  8. Reconstructed Elizabethan Playhouse © Charcoalblue

  THE MODERN LIBRARY EDITORIAL BOARD

  Maya Angelou

  •

  A. S. Byatt

  •

  Caleb Carr

  •

  Christopher Cerf

  •

  Harold Evans

  •

  Charles Frazier

  •

  Vartan Gregorian

  •

  Jessica Hagedorn

  •

  Richard Howard

  •

  Charles Johnson

  •

  Jon Krakauer

  •

  Edmund Morris

  •

  Azar Nafisi

  •

  Joyce Carol Oates

  •

  Elaine Pagels

  •

  John Richardson

  •

  Salman Rushdie

  •

  Oliver Sacks

  •

  Carolyn See

  •

  Gore Vidal

  2 orgulous proud, haughty high noble/proud chafed heated, roused

  4 Fraught laden ministers agents, i.e. soldiers instruments weapons

  6 crownets coronets, small crowns

  7 Phrygia region of Asia Minor (now Turkey), location of Troy

  8 immures walls

  9 ravished abducted/raped

  10 wanton lustful/willful, uncontrolled

  11 Tenedos island near Troy

  12 deep-drawing barks heavily laden ships lying low in the water disgorge empty out (literally “vomit up”)

  13 fraughtage cargo Dardan Trojan (from Dardanus, son of Zeus and the great ancestor of the Trojan rulers)

  15 brave pavilions splendid tents (brave plays on the sense of “boastful, insolent”)

  16 Dardan … Antenorides the names of the six gates of Troy

  17 massy … bolts massive metal hoops and the correspondingly sized bolts that fit into them

  20 tickling toying with/vexing, provoking skittish lively, readily roused

  22 on hazard at risk

  23 armed equipped with weapons/wearing armor/prepared in confidence Of overconfident about

  24 suited … argument costumed to suit the theme

  25 argument plot/quarrel

  27 vaunt and firstlings beginnings (vaunt plays on sense of “boast”) broils battles, turmoil

  28 in the middle a translation of the Latin in medias res; the Roman writer Horace advised the aspiring epic poet to go straight to the heart of a story

  29 digested understood/condensed within

  Pandarus his name came to signify the function of a “pander” or go-between

  1 varlet personal servant unarm disarm, remove armor

  2 without outside

  5 field the battlefield none i.e. no heart to be master of, no urge to fight

  6 gear business (perhaps with connotations of “sexual organs”)

  7 to in addition to/in proportion to

  10 Tamer more docile/more dull, spiritless fonder more foolish

  12 skilless ignorant, unaware unpractised inexperienced/guileless

  14 meddle nor make interfere, get involved (perhaps suggestive; both words could mean “have sex”)

  15 tarry await grinding plays on the sense of “sexual intercourse”

  17 bolting sifting of flour (plays on the slang sense of “bolt,” i.e. “penis”)

  19 leav’ning fermenting of the dough with leaven

  22 making of plays on the sense of “having sex with” heating … oven plays on the sense of “sexual arousal of the woman” (oven was a slang term for “vagina”)

  23 stay wait for cooling of the cake/of lust

  24 burn your lips also suggestive of the effects of venereal disease

  26 Doth … suff’rance flinches less at suffering suff’rance suffering/patient endurance

  29 traitor i.e. to love (Troilus berates himself for suggesting that he might sometimes forget Cressida) thence out of my thoughts

  33 wedgèd split with a wedge (possibly plays on the slang sense of “wedge,” i.e. penis) would seemed about to/wanted to rive in twain split in two

  35 a-scorn in scorn, mockingly (Troilus compares his feigned jollity to the falsely cheerful glare of the sun)

  37 couched concealed/expressed

  39 An if

  40 go to expression of dismissive impatience were would be

  42 would wish

  43 dispraise disparage

  44 wit intelligence

  47 fathoms a measure of depth; a fathom is about six feet

  48 indrenched drowned, submerged

  49 In Cressid’s love for love of Cressida

  52 Handlest you handle (anticipates hand) that her hand that hand of hers

  53 In whose comparison in comparison to which

  54 to compared to soft seizure gentle grasp

  55 cygnet baby swan spirit of sense i.e. the most delicate touch (literally, the invisible essence thought to transmit sensation to the mind)

  58 oil and balm soothing, healing ointments (both words may play on the sense of “semen”; i.e. only sexual climax will heal Troilus’s lovesickness)