Troilus and Cressida
Troilus and Cressida,a tragedy by Shakespeare probably written 1602 , perhaps with a performance at one of the Inns of Court in mind. It was first printed 1609 , in a quarto of which there are two issues, with different title-pages, one of which has a prefatory epistle, ‘A never writer, to an ever reader. News.’ This was not included in the First folio , where Troilus and Cressida is the first play in the section of tragedies. As well as Homer 's and Chaucer 's handling of material concerning the lovers and the siege of Troy, Shakespeare knew of Henryson's Testament of Cresseid , Caxton 's Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye, and Lydgate 's Troy Book, and drew on Ovid 's Metamorphoses Books 11 and 12, R. Greene 's Euphues His Censure to Philautus ( 1587 ) and Chapman 's Seven Books of the Iliads ( 1598 ).
Shakespeare's treatment of the...
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