Troilus and Cressida

A tragedy by William Shakespeare about the doomed love of the Trojan prince Troilus and Cressida during the Trojan War. Its bitter treatment of heroism and honor unsettles the conventions of both tragedy and comedy.

Troilus: A Trojan prince in Greek and medieval accounts of the Trojan War, portrayed by Shakespeare as Cressida’s lover. His romance with Cressida gives the play its personal tragedy.
Geoffrey Chaucer: A fourteenth-century English poet whose works include Troilus and Criseyde, a major source for Shakespeare’s lovers. Shakespeare inherited much of the romance’s story and characters from Chaucer.
Dramatic irony: A theatrical or literary effect in which the audience knows more than one or more characters. The audience sees the gap between reputations for honor and characters’ conduct.
Shakespearean tragedy: A dramatic form associated with Shakespeare in which conflict leads to the downfall or death of central figures. The play borrows tragic conventions but resists a settled tragic resolution.
Problem play: A label for plays that combine comic and tragic elements while leaving moral or social conflicts unsettled. The play is a leading example of a work that resists clear genre classification.
Cressida: A woman in medieval and Shakespearean stories of Troy whose separation from Troilus becomes a tale of betrayal. Her transfer to the Greek camp drives the lovers apart.
Troilus and Criseyde: Geoffrey Chaucer’s long poem about Troilus and Criseyde, their love, and its betrayal during the Trojan War. It supplies Shakespeare with a principal narrative model while leaving room for sharp changes.
Satire: A mode of criticism that exposes folly or corruption through ridicule, irony, or exaggeration. The play’s mockery of warriors and lovers gives its conflicts a satirical edge.
Shakespearean comedy: A Shakespearean dramatic form commonly involving romantic complications and ending in marriage or reconciliation. The lovers’ separation reverses the comic expectation of romantic union.
First Folio: The 1623 collected edition of Shakespeare’s plays, published after his death by John Heminges and Henry Condell. Its placement among the tragedies records one early editorial classification of the play.

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