Troilus and Cressida
William Shakespeare, David M. Bevington (Editor)
The introduction to this edition of "Troilus and Cressida" places it in its late Elizabethan context, examines and assimilates the wide variety of critical responses the play has elicited, and argues its importance in the context of late 20th-century culture as an experimental and open-ended work.
Print Book, English, 1998
Thomas Nelson and Sons, Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, UK, 1998
Tragicomedy
xxi, 469 pages : illustrations ; 21 cm
9780174435709, 9780174435372, 9780174434733, 9781903436691, 0174435703, 0174435371, 0174434731, 1903436699
39882515
Introduction
'A new play, never staled with the stage': genre and the question of original performance
'An envious fever of pale and bloodless emulation': historical context in the last years of Elizabeth's reign
'Wars and lechery': demystification of the heroes of ancient Greece
'Tis but the chance of war'" sceptical deflation of Trojan honour and chivalry
'The gods have heard me swear': tragic irony and the death of Hector
'As true as Troilus': male obsessions about honour and sexuality
'As false as Cressid': women as objects of desire
'Call them all panders': voyeurism and male bonding
'What's aught but as 'tis valued?': commercial and subjective valuation of identity and worth
'Divides more wider than the sky and earth': the fragmentation of the divided self
'Stuff to make paradoxes': performance history of Troilus and Cressida
TROILUS AND CRESSIDA
Longer notes
'Instructed by the antiquary times': Shakespeare's sources
'Words, words, mere words': The text of Troilus and Cressida