Troilus and Cressida

by William Shakespeare

Paperback

Published June 25, 1998

About the author

William Shakespeare was an English playwright, poet, and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon" (or simply "the Bard"). His extant works, including collaborations, consist of some 39 plays, 154 sonnets, three long narrative poems, and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. Shakespeare remains arguably the most influential writer in the English language, and his works continue to be studied and reinterpreted.
Shakespeare was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children: Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. Sometime between 1585 and 1592, he began a successful career in London as an actor, writer, and part-owner ("sharer") of a playing company called the Lord Chamberlain's Men, later known as the King's Men after the ascension of King James VI and I of Scotland to the English throne. At age 49 (around 1613), he appears to have retired to Stratford, where he died three years later. Few records of Shakespeare's private life survive; this has stimulated considerable speculation about such matters as his physical appearance, his sexuality, his religious beliefs, and even certain fringe theories as to whether the works attributed to him were written by others.
Shakespeare produced most of his known works between 1589 and 1613. His early plays were primarily comedies and histories and are regarded as some of the best works produced in these genres. He then wrote mainly tragedies until 1608, among them Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth, all considered to be among the finest works in the English language. In the last phase of his life, he wrote tragicomedies (also known as romances) and collaborated with other playwrights.
Many of Shakespeare's plays were published in editions of varying quality and accuracy during his lifetime. However, in 1623, John Heminge and Henry Condell, two fellow actors and friends of Shakespeare's, published a more definitive text known as the First Folio, a posthumous collected edition of Shakespeare's dramatic works that includes 36 of his plays. Its Preface was a prescient poem by Ben Jonson, a former rival of Shakespeare, that hailed Shakespeare with the now famous epithet: "not of an age, but for all time".

Reviews

[Sparrow .]

The big question is: is Troilus really in love? Is his lover betraying him, or is he fooling himself? Is Shakespeare saying that men fall in love with love, and women recognize that situation is illusiory? That men are deluded romantics and women the true realists? Or perhaps this is a special case – Cressida must pretend to love these generals to survive – and is it a sin to survive?

This is Shakespeare’s weirdest play. Did Dadaists in Zürich ever perform it? The Greek generals argue, then the Trojan generals argue, then the Greek generals argue, there’s a thwarted love story, a dyspeptic, angry dwarf, Achilles refuses to fight, for some unclear reason. (Is he a pacifist? Is he lazy? Is he too narcissistic to follow orders?) And the playwright forgot to write an ending!

Opening at random:

Renew, renew! The fierce Polydamas
Hath beat down the mountain; bastard Margarelon
Hath Doreus prisoner,
And stands colossus-wise, waving his beam,
Upon the past corses of the kings…

[That’s Agamemnon in Act V, Scene V.]

[Elodie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really liked it it is so beautiful, and even if I normally don't really hook on theater, this one was an easy and quick read !

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Way more entertaining than its reputation!!