Troilus and Cressida is a prime example of that most unique category, Shakespeare’s “problem plays”. Originally shoehorned into the 1623 Folio between the histories and tragedies, it is of course neither. The Trojan War as told by Homer and Virgil might have qualified as history to the scholars of Elizabethan England, but the aborted love story here was a later invention popularized by Geoffrey Chaucer. Nor does it count as tragedy, since both the lovers are still alive at the end, although considerably less in love. The Riverside Shakespeare calls it “The History of Troilus and Cressida” but actually groups it among the comedies! I prefer to lump it in with Pericles, Cymbeline and The Winter’s Tale as a Romance. Shakespeare and his contemporaries never included that category, but I consider it so much more generous than calling it a “Problem”.

Another unique aspect of the play is the mystery of whether it was ever performed by Shakespeare’s company. In several printings during the Bard’s life, it was described as “acted by” one of the companies associated with Shakespeare, but in others, it was proudly advertised as a new work, never yet performed! In any case, no record exists of a performance, at least prior to 1898. It is entirely possible that the rarefied nature of the story made it inappropriate for the usual audiences, and other than a private showing for an educated elite, perhaps at the lawyers’ club Inns of the Court, the play was never performed in public.

If one word were to sum up the play, it would be “anti-climax”. Again and again, major conflicts are set up, but never resolved. Much fuss is devoted to the duel between Hector and Ajax, but once they actually begin fighting, they decide their hearts aren’t in it and throw a party instead. Likewise we are promised an epic battle between Hector and Achilles, the two armies’ greatest champions, but when the moment arrives, Achilles instead murders an outnumbered and defenseless Hector.

Indeed, the romance between the two title characters is treated as practically an afterthought. After one night of passion, they split up and never see each other again, and Cressida quickly finds herself in the arms of another (later directors have rewritten the part to make her stay true to Troilus.) Even the subsequent rivalry between Troilus and Diomedes, which creates much of the tension in Act Four and Five, is unresolved at the end. We simply have no idea whether Troilus killed Diomedes and got back the love token he had given to Cressida. While Shakespeare was certainly restricted by his choice of story, he almost seems to be thumbing his nose at the conventions of storytelling by leaving all of these threads untied as the play ends.

In addition to Chaucer’s epic poem Troilus and Criseyde, there were several other versions of the story available to Shakespeare, including some in play form. Other influences are of course the original story of Troy as told by Homer, a literary landmark for the entire Western world. Actually, Virgil’s Aeneid is probably a more direct source for Shakespeare, since it was Virgil who portrayed the Trojans as heroes and the Greeks as brutal thugs. The play as we have it was probably written in 1602. 

Whether his sympathies were with the Greeks or the Trojans, neither come out in a positive light, and no one in the entire play attracts much sympathy or admiration. Most of the warriors who spend the majority of time on stage come off as either preening peacocks or muscle-bound oafs. The de facto narrator, a slave named Thersites, was a foul-mouthed nag in both Homer and Shakespeare.

Even the two titular characters appear to be little more than lovestruck kids desperate to lose their virginity. Cressida in particular is presented as the epitome of promiscuity, for example allowing the Greek generals to take liberties as soon as she is out of the sight of Troilus, and that label has stuck throughout the centuries. Her creepy uncle Pandarus likewise has come to represent the quintessential pimp.

The vocabulary in this play represents such a challenge, both in uncommon words and references to ancient myths and literature, that I’m forced to separate them by section.

Vocabulary

Act I, Scenes i-ii

• addle – rotten, spoiled
• Argus – mythical hundred-eyed watchman. He kept fifty of them awake while the others slept, so no one could ever sneak past him.
• blench – flinch
• Briareus – mythical hundred-handed giant
• cousin – Pandarus calls Cressida his cousin, although she’s really his niece
• cygnet – baby swan
• Dardan – another name for Trojan
• fadom – fathom (about two meters)
• humours – body fluids, which were once believed to change people’s emotions
• Ilium – another name for Troy
• orgulous – proud
• sperr up – lock up 

Act I

scene i

Brief Prologue setting up the scene, about seven years into the Trojan War. Paris has seduced the beautiful Helen and taken her to Troy. Her husband King Menelaus is fighting to get her back, along with his fellow Greek kings Agamemnon, Nestor, Diomedes and Ulysses (better known by his Homeric name Odysseus.)

Troilus, younger brother of the Trojan hero Hector, has been unable to participate in the fighting because of his infatuation with Cressida. Her father Calchas had gone over to the Greeks, but Troilus continues to ply her uncle Pandarus (or Pandar) for the opportunity to woo her.

scene ii

Pandarus speaks highly of Troilus to Cressida. While she already is smitten with Troilus, she continues to play hard to get because she enjoys the attention.

Vocabulary

Act I, Scene iii

• beaver – the face mask on a helmet
• Boreas – the North Wind god
• jar – discord
• jaundies – jaundice
• Jove – another name for Jupiter, king of the gods
• Myrmidons – another name for the soldiers in Achilles’ army
• Neptune – god of the sea
• pageants – makes a mockery of
• Perseus – Greek hero. Shakespeare seems to have confused him with Bellerephon, who rode the winged horse Pegasus.
• Phoebus – another name for Apollo, god of the sun
• primogenity – right of the eldest son to inherit his father’s estate
• Thetis – divine mother of Achilles. Shakespeare might have confused her with Tethys, an ocean goddess.
• Typhon – a sea monster
• Vulcan – god of metal-working and volcanoes. He was married to Venus, goddess of beauty, who cheated on him with Mars, god of war.

Act I

scene iii

Agamemnon laments that morale is so bad in the Greek camp, mainly because their champion Achilles refuses to fight, merely mocking the kings with his best friend Patroclus. Ulysses warns that any society which fails to respect the rank and degree of superiors cannot succeed.

The Trojan commander Aeneas issues a challenge: Hector will take on the finest Greek warrior in single combat. Ulysses slyly recommends the brutish Ajax for the job, reasoning that Achilles will be stung by the snub and be chastened to return to the fighting.

Vocabulary

Act II, Scenes i-ii

• asinico – donkey (Spanish)
• brach – female dog (very derogatory term)
• Cerberus – three-headed dog of the underworld
• impress – draft into the army
• Mercury – the messenger god. He had actual wings on his heels, making him the fastest runner. 
• pia mater – brain
• Prosperpina – daughter of the goddess of the harvest, she was kidnapped by the god of the underworld and forced to marry him

Act II scene i

Ajax learns of the challenge from Achilles, who naturally assumes that he will be the choice. Throughout the scene Thersites, the slave of Ajax, insults and berates them both.

scene ii

The Trojan royalty debate whether the war is worthwhile. Hector argues at first that Helen is not important enough to fight for, but after an impassioned speech by his brother Troilus, changes his mind and agrees to meet the champion of the Greeks in single combat.

 Vocabulary

Act II Scene iii

• caduceus – the staff with intertwined snakes, carried by Mercury (see above)
• “elephant hath joints, but none for flexure” – Shakespeare mistakenly believed that elephants could not bend their legs.
• Hyperion – the sun
• Jupiter – king of the gods
• lazar – leper
• Neapolitan bone-ache – venereal disease
• pheese – settle (business, for example)
• “raven chides blackness” – same as “The pot calling the kettle black”
• ‘sfoot – God’s foot, a minor curse
• shent – abused 

Act II scene iii

Achilles again refuses to join the war councils, pretending to be ill. Instead Ulysses encourages the others to pump up the vanity of Ajax, and they leave Achilles in his tent, calling Ajax their new champion.

 Vocabulary

Act III

• catlings – strings of a harp, etc. Historically, such strings were made from cat innards.
• Charon – (see Styx below)
• gauds – toys, trifles
• hind – deer
• how they sped – how did they do (for example, in the battle)
• jerkin – jacket
• pard – leopard
• Pyrrhus – the son of Achilles
• speculation – vision
• Styx (adjective form, Stygian) – the river separating the land of the living from the land of the dead. Dead people had to cross over on a boat piloted by Charon, paying him with the coins that were placed on their eyes before the funeral. If they were buried without coins on their eyes, they are doomed to wander the banks of the river forever.
• tercel – male falcon (the female being simply “falcon”)
• turtle – turtledove, which was believed to mate for life
• waftage – river passage
• witty – alert, paying attention 

Act III scene i

Pandarus asks Paris and Helen to make excuses for the absence of Troilus at the dinner table that night. They agree, knowing that Troilus will be meeting with Cressida instead.

scene ii

Troilus and Cressida meet, with a leering Pandarus always hovering nearby. After protestations of love, Pandarus leads them away to a bedchamber. 

scene iii

Cressida’s father, who had joined the Greek effort, demands compensation for his assistance: he wants the Greeks to exchange a Trojan hostage for his daughter. Agamemnon agrees. When Achilles enters, all the other Greeks ignore him. Ulysses takes the occasion to work on Achilles’ hurt pride, suggesting that his achievements have been eclipsed by those of Ajax.

 Vocabulary

Act IV, Scenes i-iv

• bugbear – hobgoblin
• capocchia – simpleton
• dross – impure substances
• flat tamed piece – old wine that has lost its flavor. Here, it is symbolic of a loose woman who is no longer sexually appealing.
• genius – soul
• great morning – broad daylight
• lees and dregs – the unappetizing wine in the bottom of the barrel
• maculation – blemish, stain
• pregnant – ready
• scruple – small unit of weight
• violenteth – causes violence

Act IV scene i

Under a truce, Diomedes enters Troy to exchange his hostage for Cressida.

scene ii

After their night of lovemaking, Troilus and Cressida learn the sad news: that Cressida must be returned to her father in the enemy camp.

scene iii

(very short scene) Paris consoles Troilus on the loss of Cressida.

scene iv

Troilus and Cressida say goodbye. Troilus threatens Diomedes to treat her well, but Diomedes dismisses the threat.

Vocabulary

Act IV Scene v

• Aquilon – the North Wind
• daughters of the game – prostitutes
• dexter – right
• extant – present
• issue – result
• odd – unmarried; Cressida makes an elaborate pun on Menalaus’ offer of giving her odds and on his wife running away with Paris, as well as the regular meaning of “unusual”
• quondam – former
• sinister – left

Act IV scene v

Upon arrival in the Greek camp, Cressida is kissed by almost all of the Greek generals, then sent to the tent of her father Calchas.

Hector arrives for his duel with Ajax, who is his cousin. After sparring lightly, they decide not to kill each other after all.

A truce is declared, they throw a party together, and the two sides seem to forget there’s a war going on. Only Achilles and Hector speak belligerently to each other.

Troilus asks to be led to the tent of Calchas to catch a glimpse of Cressida.

Vocabulary

Act V

• Arachne’s broken woof – Arachne was a skilled weaver who was changed into a spider. “Woof” refers to the parallel threads in a tapestry.
• bodements – evil omens
• bruit – rumor
• burning devil – venereal disease
• cliff – musical clef; but there is also a sexual pun on “cleft” (see “noted”)
• concupy – lust
• diseases of the south – venereal disease
• esperance – hope
• goose of Winchester – prostitute
• hold-door trade – prostitution
• noted – considered to be a slut (with a pun on musical notes)
• orifex – opening
• orts – scraps of food
• quails – prostitutes
• ruth – pity 
• ta’en – taken 

Act V scene i

Achilles first boasts that he will kill Hector in the next day’s fighting, but then confesses to Patroclus that he is in love with a Trojan princess, and she has made him promise that he will not join that day’s battle.

Diomedes walks to the tent where Cressida is staying. Troilus and Ulysses follow.

scene ii

Cressida alternately flirts with Diomedes and rebuffs him. She promises him a love token she had received from Troilus, then takes it back, then gives it again. Poor Troilus, hiding in the shadows, is witness to all this. He swears that he will kill Diomedes in battle and get his love token back.

scene iii

Hector’s father, sister and wife all have premonitions that he will be killed in battle, but none can talk him out of fighting that day. Troilus receives a letter from Cressida, but rips it up and again vows to kill Diomedes.

scene iv

In the battle, Thersites is so pathetic in his cowardice that Hector lets him live.

scene v

(very complicated scene) Diomedes has somehow captured the horse of Troilus without killing him. Hector killed Patroclus, and Troilus killed a friend of Ajax — ALL OF THIS HAPPENED OFFSTAGE.

Ajax vows to kill Troilus in revenge, and Achilles goes back on his promise to stay out of the day’s fighting, because now he wants to kill Hector in revenge.

scene vi

Ajax and Diomedes compete over which of them will get to kill Troilus, but Troilus fights both of them.

Achilles fights Hector, but he’s so out of shape after sitting out the battle so long, he gets tired and has to leave and rest. Hector lets him go, and instead pursues a Greek dressed in beautiful armor.

scene vii

Achilles orders his men to help him find and kill Hector.

Thersites again takes the coward’s way out of a battle.

scene viii

Hector kills the man in beautiful armor, and takes off his own to try on the new set. While he is vulnerable, Achilles and his men attack and kill him.

scene ix

Agamemnon hopes (incorrectly) that if Hector really is dead, then the war is over.

scene x

The Trojans wonder how to break the news that Hector has been killed.

We never find out if Troilus killed Diomedes, or got his love token back. He merely curses Pandarus, who then turns and directs a curse of his own at the audience as the final curtain falls.