This happy child, did I get any thing: To see what this child does, and praise my Maker. ye lords; Ye must all see the queen, and she must thank ye, 6 The old copy has you for your in this line. [Exeunt. M TROILUS AND CRESSIDA. PRELIMINARY REMARKS. R. STEEVENS informs us that Shakespeare received the greater part of the materials that were used in the construction of this play from the Troy Book of Lydgate. It is presumed that the learned commentator would have been nearer the fact had he substituted the Troy Book, or Recueyl, translated by Cuxton from Raoul Le Fevre; which, together with a translation of Homer, supplied the incidents of the Trojan war. Lydgate's work was becoming obsolete, whilst the other was at this time in the prime of its vigour. From its first publication, to the year 1619, it had passed through six editions, and continued to be popular even in the eighteenth century. Mr. Steevens is still less accurate in stating Le Fevre's work to be a translation from Guido of Colonna; for it is only in the latter part that he has made any use of him. Yet Guido existed in a French translation before the time of Raoul; which translation, though never printed, is remaining in MS. under the whimsical title of 'La Vie de la pitieuse Destruction de la noble et superlative Cité de Troye le grant. Translatée en François l'an MCCCLXXX.' Such part of the present play as relates to the loves of Troilus and Cressida was most probably taken from Chaucer, as no other work, accessible to Shakespeare, could have supplied him with what was necessary." This account is by MR. DOUCE, from whom also what follows on this subject is abstracted. Chaucer, in his Troilus and Creseide, asserts that he followed Lollius, and that he translated from the Latin; but we have no certain indication who Lollius was, and when he lived, though Dryden boldly asserts that he was an historiographer of Urbino, in Italy, and wrote in Latin verse. Lambecius, in his Prodromus Historiæ Literariæ, mentions Lollius Urbicus in his list of the Historici Lat. Profani, in the third century of the Christian era, but nothing more is known of him. Nothing can be more apparent than that the Filostrato of Boccaccio afforded Chaucer the fable, and characters of his poem, and even numerous passages appear to be mere literal translations; but there are large additions in Chaucer's work, so that it is possible he may have followed a free Latin version, which may have had for its author a writer named Lollius. Boccaccio does not give his poem as a translation, and we must therefore suppose him to have been the inventor of the fable, until we have more certain indications respecting Lollius. So much of it as relates to the departure of Cressida from Troy, and her subsequent amour with Diomed, is to be found in the Troy Book of Guido of Colonna, composed in 1287, and, as he states, from Dares Phrygius, and Dictys Cretensis, neither of whom mention the name of Cressida. Mr. Tyrwhitt conjectured, and Mr. Douce confirmed the conjecture, that Guido's Dares was in reality an old Norman poet, named Benoit de Saint More, who wrote in the reign of our Henry the Second, and who himself made use of Dares. Guido is said to have come into England, where he found the Metrical Romance of Benoit, and translated it into Latin prose; and, following a practice too prevalent in the middle ages, he dishonestly suppressed the mention of his real original. Benoit's work exists also in a prose French version. And there is a compilation also in French prose, by Pierre de Beauvau, from the Filostrato. Lydgate professedly followed Guido of Colonna, occasionally making use of and citing other authorities. In a short time after Raoul le Fevre compiled from various materials his Recueil des Histoires de Troye, which was translated into English and published by Caxton: but neither of these authors have given any more of the story of Troilus and Cressida than any of the other romances on the war of Troy; Lydgate contenting himself with referring to Chaucer. Chaucer having made the loves of Troilus and Cressida famous, Shakespeare was induced to try their fortunes on the stage. Lydgate's Troy Book was printed by Pynson in 1519. In the books of the Stationers' Company, anno 1581, is entered “A proper Ballad dialoguewise between Troilus and Cressida." Again, by J. Roberts, Feb. 7, 1602: "The Booke of Troilus and Cressida, as it is acted by my Lord Chamberlain's men." And in Jan. 28, 1608, entered by Richard Bonian and Hen. Whalley: "A Booke called the History of Troilus and Cressida." This last entry is made by the booksellers, who published this play in 4to. in 1609. To this edition is prefixed a preface, showing that the play was printed before it had been acted; and that it was published, without the author's knowledge, from a copy that had fallen into the booksellers' hands. This preface, as bestowing just praise on Shakespeare, and showing that the original proprietors of his plays thought it their interest to keep them unprinted, is prefixed to the play in the present edition. It appears from some entries in the accounts of Henslowe the player, that a drama on this subject, by Decker and Chettle, at first called Troyelles and Cressida, but before its production, altered in its title to The Tragedy of Agamemnon, was in existence anterior to Shakespeare's play, and that it was licensed by the Master of the Revels on the 3rd of June, 1599. Malone places the date of the composition of Shakespeare's play in 1602; Mr. Chalmers in 1600; and Dr. Drake in 1601. They have been led to this conclusion by the supposed ridicule of the circumstance of Cressid receiving the sleeve of Troilus and giving him her glove in the comedy of Histriomastix, 1610. I think that the satire may have been pointed at the older drama of Decker and Chettle; and should certainly give a later date to the play of Shakespeare than that which has been assigned to it. If we may credit the preface to the 4to. of 1609, this play had not then appeared on the stage, and could not therefore have been ridiculed in a piece written previous to the death of Queen Elizabeth (see note on Act iv. Sc. 4). Malone says, "Were it not for the entry in the Stationers' books, I should have been led, both by the colour of the style, and from this preface, to class it in the year 1608." It is however very unlikely that the entry in 1602 related to Shakespeare's drama, or it would hardly have been entered again by the actual publishers in 1608. There is no reason for concluding with Schlegel that Shakespeare intended his drama as "one continued irony of the crown of all heroic tales-the tale of Troy." The poet abandoned the classic and followed the gothic or romantic authorities; and this influenced the colour of his performance. The fact probably is, that he pursued the manner in which parts of the story had been before dramatised. There is an interlude.on the subject of Thersites*, resembling the Old Mysteries in its structure, but full of the lowest buffoonery. If the drama of Decker and Chettle were now to be found, we should probably find that the present play was in some measure founded on it. "The whole catalogue of the Dramatis Personæ in the play of Troilus and Cressida," says Mr. Godwin, "so far as they depend upon a rich and original vein of humour in the author, are drawn * This interlude, together with another not less curious called Jack Juggler, was reprinted from a unique copy by Mr. Haslewood for the Roxburghe club. These rude dramas are not mere literary curiosities, they form a prominent feature in the history of the progress of the stage, and are otherwise valuable as illustrating the state of manners and language in the reign of Henry the Eighth. I have found colloquial phrases and words explained by them, of which it would perhaps be vain to seek illustrations elsewhere. |