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Troilus and Cressida was first printed, so far as we know, in 1609, when two quarto editions appeared. The title-page of one of these is as follows:

The Historie of Troylus and Cresseida. As it was acted by the Kings Maiesties | seruants at the Globe. | Written by William Shakespeare. | LONDON | Imprinted by G. Eld for R. Bonian and H. Walley, and | are to be sold at the spred Eagle in Paules | Church-yeard, ouer against the great North doore. | 1609.

The other quarto was printed from the same type, with the first lines of the title modified thus:

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 | [the rest exactly as above].

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This edition also differs from the other in having a preface, apparently from the publisher, with the heading: "A neuer writer, to an euer reader. Newes." The play is called a new one, neuer stal'd with the Stage, neuer clapper-clawd with the palmes of the vulger." It has hence been inferred that this edition was earlier than the other; but the Cambridge editors are perhaps right in their conclusion that the title we have given first was the original one, and that after some copies had been issued this was cancelled, and the second title with the preface inserted instead. They say: "The title-page of the edition with the preface is printed from the same form as the other title-page, as is evident from a comparison of the parts in each, from 'Written by William Shakespeare' to the end, which are absolutely identical. the running title, 'The history of Troylus and Cresseida,' corresponds with the first-quoted title-page, we believe that the copies with this title-page were first issued for the theatre, and afterwards those with the new title-page and preface for general readers. In this case the expression, 'neuer stal'd with the Stage, neuer clapper-clawd with the palmes of the vulger' must refer to the first appearance of the play in type, unless we suppose that the publisher was more careful to say what would recommend his book than to state what was literally true."

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As the text of the two quartos is the same, they are virtually one edition, and it does not matter much which was the earlier.

The play does not appear to have been reprinted until the publication of the folio of 1623. There it stands between

the "Histories and Tragedies;" and it is not mentioned at all in the "Catalogue," or table of contents, at the beginning of the volume. The editors seem to have been puzzled to classify it. The "Tragedies" at first began with Coriolanus, followed by Titus Andronicus and Romeo and Juliet. Troilus and Cressida was evidently intended to come next, and was put in type and paged for that place; but it was afterwards transferred to its present position, and Timon of Athens (see our edition, p. 10 fol.) used instead. The numbers of the pages were cancelled, with the exception of the second and third, which were accidentally left with the 79 and So of the original pagination. The only reason that we can imagine for this change is that the editors were in doubt whether the play was a "tragedy" or a "history," and therefore decided to put it between the two, and to evade the responsibility of cataloguing it in the table of contents.* It may be noted that the heading of the play and the running title of the second and third pages were carelessly left to read "The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida," while the running title of the remaining twenty-five pages was made simply "Troylus and Cressida."

There are sundry discrepancies between the quarto and folio texts, which are well described by the Cambridge editors: "We find in the folio several passages essential to the sense of the context which do not exist in the quarto, and which therefore must have been omitted by the negligence of a copyist or printer. On the other hand, we find some passages in the quarto, not absolutely essential to the sense,

*It will be seen that the writer of the prologue, whoever he may have been, treats it as a comedy. Dowden, in the preface from which we have quoted below (p. 31), after referring to the fact that in his first edition he had not attempted an interpretation of T. and C., remarks: "I now believe this strange and difficult play was a last attempt to continue comedy, made when Shakspere had ceased to be able to smile genially, and when he must be either ironical or else take a deep, passionate, and tragical view of life."

though a decided improvement to it and quite in the author's manner, which either do not appear in the folio at all, or appear in a mutilated form. Sometimes the lines which are wrongly divided in the quarto are divided properly in the folio, and vice versa: in this point, however, the former is generally more correct than the latter. The two texts differ in many single words: sometimes the difference is clearly owing to a clerical or typographical error, but in other cases it appears to result from deliberate correction, first by the author himself, and secondly by some less skilful hand." The same critics express the opinion that "the quarto was printed from a transcript of the author's original MS.; that this MS. was afterwards revised and slightly altered by the author himself; and that before the folio was printed from it, it had been tampered with by another hand."

As to the date of the play there is considerable uncertainty. In 1599 Dekker and Chettle were preparing a play on the same subject, and an entry in the Stationers' Registers, dated February 7, 1602-3, proves that a Troilus and Cressida had been acted by Shakespeare's company, the Lord Chamberlain's Servants. This may possibly have been an early draught of Shakespeare's play. Internal evidence is partly in favour of a date as early as this, and partly of one some five or six years later. Some critics have therefore decided that the play was written as early as 1602 or 1603, while others put it as late as 1608 or 1609. More likely, as Verplanck, White, and others believe, it was first written as early as 1602, and revised and enlarged somewhere between 1606 and 1609. Fleay at first (Manual, pp. 49, 332 fol.) made the dates 1594 (for the love-story), 1595 for the story of Ajax and Hector, and 1607 for that of Thersites, Patroclus, etc.; but in the later Introd. to Shakespearian Study (p. 27) he limits himself to saying that the play was "originally acted by the Chamberlain's men about 1601," and was rewritten (except the love-story, which remains nearly unchanged) be

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fore 1606." Stokes (Chron. Order of Shakespeare's Plays, p. 104) suggests the following theory: "that about 1599 S. composed a Troilus and Cressida, and that about 1602 'the camp story' was added to this, forming the long play we now have." He thinks that metrical evidence proves conclusively that "the camp story cannot be so late as 1608, or even as 1607."*

That the first form of the play must be dated as early as 1602 is evident from an allusion to an incident in v. 2, as well as to the name of the poet (unless the latter is a curious coincidence merely) in the old play of Histriomastix, which was certainly written before the death of Elizabeth in March, 1603:

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It has been suspected that much of act v. is by another hand than Shakespeare's. As the rhyming couplet in v. 10. 33, 34 is repeated in the folio at the end of v. 3, Stokes suggests that scenes 6-10 are a later addition. Furnivall remarks: "As Dyce says, it is unquestionable that parts of the play as we have it, 'particularly towards the end, are from the pen of a very inferior dramatist:' see specially Ulysses' speech in v. 5. 30-42, Hector's in v. 6, all v. 7 and 8. Whether they belong to Dekker and Chettle's old play (as Dyce suggests),

* On the other hand Furnivall, in the revised edition of his introduction to the Leopold Shakspere, gives up the theory of two dates, which he had before favoured.

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