Troilus and Cressida Read online

  But that is not what happened. Whenever Quartos were used, playhouse “promptbooks” were also consulted and stage directions copied in from them. And in the case of several major plays where a reasonably well-printed Quarto was available, Troilus notable among them, the Folio printers were instructed to work from an alternative, playhouse-derived manuscript. This meant that the whole process of producing the first complete Shakespeare took months, even years, longer than it might have done. But for the men overseeing the project, John Hemings and Henry Condell, friends and fellow actors who had been remembered in Shakespeare’s will, the additional labor and cost were worth the effort for the sake of producing an edition that was close to the practice of the theater. They wanted all the plays in print so that people could, as they wrote in their prefatory address to the reader, “read him and again and again,” but they also wanted “the great variety of readers” to work from texts that were close to the theater-life for which Shakespeare originally intended them. For this reason, the RSC Shakespeare, in both Complete Works and individual volumes, uses the Folio as its base text wherever possible. Significant Quarto variants are, however, noted in the textual notes, and a handful of Quarto-only passages are appended after the textual notes.

  The following notes highlight various aspects of the editorial process and indicate conventions used in the text of this edition:

  Lists of Parts are supplied in the First Folio for only six plays, not including Troilus and Cressida, so the list here is editorially supplied. Capitals indicate that part of the name used for speech headings in the script (thus “PRIAM, King of Troy”).

  Locations are provided by the Folio for only two plays, of which Troilus and Cressida is not one. Eighteenth-century editors, working in an age of elaborately realistic stage sets, were the first to provide detailed locations (“another part of the Greek camp”). Given that Shakespeare wrote for a bare stage and often an imprecise sense of place, we have relegated locations to the explanatory notes at the foot of the page, where they are given at the beginning of each scene where the imaginary location is different from the one before. In the case of Troilus and Cressida, the action is set in either the city of Troy or the camp of the besieging Greek army or the battlefields between the two.

  Act and Scene Divisions were provided in the Folio in a much more thoroughgoing way than in the Quartos. Sometimes, however, they were erroneous or omitted; corrections and additions supplied by editorial tradition are indicated by square brackets. Five-act division is based on a classical model, and act breaks provided the opportunity to replace the candles in the indoor Blackfriars playhouse which the King’s Men used after 1608, but Shakespeare did not necessarily think in terms of a five-part structure of dramatic composition. The Folio convention is that a scene ends when the stage is empty. Nowadays, partly under the influence of film, we tend to consider a scene to be a dramatic unit that ends with either a change of imaginary location or a significant passage of time within the narrative. Shakespeare’s fluidity of composition accords well with this convention, so in addition to act and scene numbers we provide a running scene count in the right margin at the beginning of each new scene, in the typeface used for editorial directions. Where there is a scene break caused by a momentarily bare stage, but the location does not change and extra time does not pass, we use the convention running scene continues. There is inevitably a degree of editorial judgment in making such calls, but the system is very valuable in suggesting the pace of the plays.

  Speakers’ Names are often inconsistent in Folio. We have regularized speech headings, but retained an element of deliberate inconsistency in entry directions, in order to give the flavor of Folio.

  Verse is indicated by lines that do not run to the right margin and by capitalization of each line. The Folio printers sometimes set verse as prose, and vice versa (either out of misunderstanding or for reasons of space). We have silently corrected in such cases, although in some instances there is ambiguity, in which case we have leaned toward the preservation of Folio layout. Folio sometimes uses contraction (“turnd” rather than “turned”) to indicate whether or not the final “-ed” of a past participle is sounded, an area where there is variation for the sake of the five-beat iambic pentameter rhythm. We use the convention of a grave accent to indicate sounding (thus “turnèd” would be two syllables), but would urge actors not to overstress. In cases where one speaker ends with a verse half line and the next begins with the other half of the pentameter, editors since the late eighteenth century have indented the second line. We have abandoned this convention, since the Folio does not use it, nor did actors’ cues in the Shakespearean theater. An exception is made when the second speaker actively interrupts or completes the first speaker’s sentence.

  Spelling is modernized, but older forms are very occasionally maintained where necessary for rhythm or aural effect.

  Punctuation in Shakespeare’s time was as much rhetorical as grammatical. “Colon” was originally a term for a unit of thought in an argument. The semicolon was a new unit of punctuation (some of the Quartos lack them altogether). We have modernized punctuation throughout, but have given more weight to Folio punctuation than many editors, since, though not Shakespearean, it reflects the usage of his period. In particular, we have used the colon far more than many editors: it is exceptionally useful as a way of indicating how many Shakespearean speeches unfold clause by clause in a developing argument that gives the illusion of enacting the process of thinking in the moment. We have also kept in mind the origin of punctuation in classical times as a way of assisting the actor and orator: the comma suggests the briefest of pauses for breath, the colon a middling one, and a full stop or period a longer pause. Semicolons, by contrast, belong to an era of punctuation that was only just coming in during Shakespeare’s time and that is coming to an end now: we have accordingly only used them where they occur in our copy texts (and not always then). Dashes are sometimes used for parenthetical interjections where the Folio has brackets. They are also used for interruptions and changes in train of thought. Where a change of addressee occurs within a speech, we have used a dash preceded by a period (or occasionally another form of punctuation). Often the identity of the respective addressees is obvious from the context. When it is not, this has been indicated in a marginal stage direction.

  Entrances and Exits are fairly thorough in Folio, which has accordingly been followed as faithfully as possible. Where characters are omitted or corrections are necessary, this is indicated by square brackets (e.g. “[and Attendants]”). Exit is sometimes silently normalized to Exeunt and Manet anglicized to “remains.” We trust Folio positioning of entrances and exits to a greater degree than most editors.

  Editorial Stage Directions such as stage business, asides, indications of addressee and of characters’ position on the gallery stage are only used sparingly in Folio. Other editions mingle directions of this kind with original Folio and Quarto directions, sometimes marking them by means of square brackets. We have sought to distinguish what could be described as directorial interventions of this kind from Folio-style directions (either original or supplied) by placing them in the right margin in a different typeface. There is a degree of subjectivity about which directions are of which kind, but the procedure is intended as a reminder to the reader and the actor that Shakespearean stage directions are often dependent upon editorial inference alone and are not set in stone. We also depart from editorial tradition in sometimes admitting uncertainty and thus printing permissive stage directions, such as an Aside? (often a line may be equally effective as an aside or as a direct address—it is for each production or reading to make its own decision) or a may exit or a piece of business placed between arrows to indicate that it may occur at various different moments within a scene.

  Explanatory Notes explain allusions and gloss obsolete and difficult words, confusing phraseology, occasional major textual cruces, and so on. Particular attention is given to non-standard usage, bawdy
innuendo, and technical terms (e.g. legal and military language). Where more than one sense is given, commas indicate shades of related meaning, slashes alternative or double meanings.

  Textual Notes at the end of the play indicate major departures from the Folio. They take the following form: the reading of our text is given in bold and its source given after an equals sign, “Q” signifies a reading from the First Quarto of 1609, “F” a reading from the First Folio of 1623, with “F2” indicating a correction that derives from the Second Folio of 1632, “F3” a correction introduced in the Third Folio of 1664, “F4” from the Fourth Folio of 1685, and “Ed” one that derives from the subsequent editorial tradition. The rejected Folio (“F”) reading is then given. Thus for Act 1 Scene 2 line 216: “1.2.216 note = Q. F = not.” This means that the Quarto reading “note” has been preferred to Folio’s “not” in Pandarus’ line “Mark him, note him,” since we judge that “not him” is likely a printer’s error in the Folio (though it could conceivably be argued that Cressida is looking at another warrior and Pandarus is saying “mark him [Troilus], not him [the other one]”).

  KEY FACTS

  MAJOR PARTS: (with percentage of lines/number of speeches/scenes on stage) Troilus (15%/131/13), Ulysses (14%/80/7), Pandarus (11%/153/8), Cressida (8%/152/6), Thersites (8%/90/7), Achilles (6%/74/9), Hector (6%/57/7), Agamemnon (6%/52/7), Nestor (5%/38/6), Aeneas (4%/44/8), Diomedes (3%/54/11), Paris (3%/27/5), Ajax (2%/55/8), Patroclus (2%/37/5).

  LINGUISTIC MEDIUM: 70% verse, 30% prose.

  DATE: 1601–02. Registered for publication 7 February 1603 (“as yt is acted by my lo: Chamberlens Men”). Not mentioned by Meres in 1598; influenced by Chapman’s Homer translation of the same year. The armed prologue (Folio only) seems to parody that of Ben Jonson’s Poetaster (performed summer 1601). There are apparent allusions to the play in Thomas Lord Cromwell (Chamberlain’s Men, registered for publication in August 1602) and Thomas Middleton’s The Family of Love (?1602–03).

  SOURCES: Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde (perhaps in Speght’s 1598 edition) for the love plot; George Chapman’s translation of seven books of Homer’s Iliad (1598) and William Caxton’s Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye (1474, the first printed book in English) for the war. Perhaps also John Lydgate’s Troy Book (1513) and Robert Henryson’s The Testament of Cresseid (1532).

  TEXT: Quarto, 1609, in two separate states: one with title page The Historie of Troylus and Cresseida. As it was acted by the Kings Maiesties seruants at the Globe. Written by William Shakespeare, the other with title page omitting reference to the stage (The Famous Historie of Troylus and Cresseid. Excellently expressing the beginning of their loues, with the conceited wooing of Pandarus Prince of Licia. Written by William Shakespeare) and a prefatory epistle that makes claims for the readerly as opposed to the theatrical text. The nature of the printer’s copy for both the Quarto and Folio’s The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida is fiercely debated by scholars, as is the relationship between the texts. The original intention of the Folio editors was to print Troilus after Romeo and Juliet, using the Quarto as copy text (a few early copies of the Folio survive with a canceled last page of Romeo and first page of Troilus). But printing was broken off after three pages, perhaps due to a copyright dispute, and Troilus was eventually squeezed in between the Histories and Tragedies (after the setting of the “Catalogue” of plays in the Folio’s preliminary matter). When printing was resumed, a manuscript that had many differences from the Quarto text was used, though the influence of Quarto can still be strongly detected. Some scholars suppose that Folio was printed from an annotated Quarto, but this does not square with the superiority of many individual Quarto readings: why annotate a sound reading in a printed text with an alteration that makes less good sense? It is therefore probable that an independent scribal copy, perhaps based on the theater promptbook, and perhaps reflecting playhouse revision, also lies behind the Folio. In accordance with our editorial policy, we follow Folio where it is viable, but, in light of the demonstrable presence of Quarto in the editing or printing of the Folio, we adopt Quarto readings where Folio cannot be defended.

  On two occasions the text includes passages that seem to be authorial “first thoughts” intended for deletion. Most modern editors relegate such lines to an appendix. Our fidelity to Folio means that we have not done so, though we have indicated the lines in question by enclosing them within double solidi (// //): they should almost certainly be cut in performance, but are of great interest in apparently revealing Shakespeare in the process of composition.

  TROILUS AND CRESSIDA

  LIST OF PARTS

  PROLOGUE, in armour

  Trojans

  PRIAM, King of Troy

  his sons

  HECTOR

  DEIPHOBUS

  HELENUS, a priest

  PARIS

  TROILUS

  MARGARELON, a bastard

  CASSANDRA, Priam’s daughter, a prophetess

  ANDROMACHE, wife of Hector

  HELEN, wife of Paris, previously wife of Menelaus

  PANDARUS, a lord

  CRESSIDA, his niece

  CALCHAS, her father who has joined the Greeks

  ALEXANDER, her servant

  military commanders

  AENEAS

  ANTENOR

  BOY, servant to Troilus

  Greeks

  AGAMEMNON, Commander-in-Chief

  MENELAUS, his brother

  ULYSSES

  NESTOR

  ACHILLES

  PATROCLUS, his friend

  AJAX

  DIOMEDES

  THERSITES

  MYRMIDONS, Achilles’ soldiers

  Servants, Attendants

  The Prologue

  [Enter the Prologue, in armour]

  In Troy there lies the scene. From isles of Greece

  The princes orgulous2, their high blood chafed,

  Have to the port of Athens sent their ships

  Fraught4 with the ministers and instruments

  Of cruel war: sixty and nine, that wore

  Their crownets6 regal, from th’Athenian bay

  Put forth toward Phrygia7, and their vow is made

  To ransack Troy, within whose strong immures8

  The ravished9 Helen, Menelaus’ queen,

  With wanton10 Paris sleeps, and that’s the quarrel.

  To Tenedos11 they come,

  And the deep-drawing barks12 do there disgorge

  Their warlike fraughtage13: now on Dardan plains

  The fresh and yet unbruisèd Greeks do pitch

  Their brave pavilions15: Priam’s six-gated city,

  Dardan, and Tymbria, Helias, Chetas, Troien,

  And Antenorides16, with massy staples

  And corresponsive and fulfilling bolts17,

  Stir up the sons of Troy.

  Now expectation, tickling20 skittish spirits,

  On one and other side, Trojan and Greek,

  Sets all on hazard22. And hither am I come,

  A prologue armed23, but not in confidence

  Of author’s pen or actor’s voice, but suited

  In like conditions as our24 argument25,

  To tell you, fair beholders, that our play

  Leaps o’er the vaunt and firstlings27 of those broils,

  Beginning in the middle28, starting thence away

  To what may be digested29 in a play.

  Like or find fault, do as your pleasures are:

  Now good or bad, ’tis but the chance of war.

  [Exit]

  Act 1 Scene 1

  running scene 1

  Location: Troy

  Enter Pandarus and Troilus

  TROILUS Call here my varlet1, I’ll unarm again:

  Why should I war without2 the walls of Troy

  That find such cruel battle here within?

  Each Trojan that is master of his heart,

  Let him to field5: Troilus, alas, hath none.

  PANDARUS Will this gear6 ne’er
be mended?

  TROILUS The Greeks are strong and skilful to7 their strength,

  Fierce to their skill and to their fierceness valiant,

  But I am weaker than a woman’s tear,

  Tamer10 than sleep, fonder than ignorance,

  Less valiant than the virgin in the night,

  And skilless12 as unpractised infancy.

  PANDARUS Well, I have told you enough of this: for my part, I’ll

  not meddle nor make14 no further. He that will have a cake out

  of the wheat must needs tarry15 the grinding.

  TROILUS Have I not tarried?

  PANDARUS Ay, the grinding, but you must tarry the bolting17.

  TROILUS Have I not tarried?

  PANDARUS Ay, the bolting, but you must tarry the leav’ning19.

  TROILUS Still have I tarried.

  PANDARUS Ay, to the leavening, but here’s yet in the word

  ‘hereafter’ the kneading, the making of22 the cake, the heating

  of the oven and the baking; nay, you must stay23 the cooling

  too, or you may chance to burn your lips24.

  TROILUS Patience herself, what goddess e’er she be,

  Doth lesser blench at suff’rance26 than I do.

  At Priam’s royal table do I sit;

  And when fair Cressid comes into my thoughts —

  So, traitor29, when she comes? When is she thence?

  PANDARUS Well, she looked yesternight fairer than ever I saw

  her look, or any woman else.

  TROILUS I was about to tell thee — when my heart,

  As wedgèd33 with a sigh, would rive in twain,

  Lest Hector or my father should perceive me —

  I have, as when the sun doth light a-scorn35,

  Buried this sigh in wrinkle of a smile: