| Troilus and Cressida |
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The ultimate source of this play is in the Iliad of Homer as the play is set towards the end of the Greek siege of ancient Troy.
Cressida's uncle, Pandarus, assists the lovers to consumate their union but on the same night Cressida falls victim to an exchange of prisoners and despite her protests she is sent away to join her father, swearing eternal loyalty to Troilus. A challenge from Hector is answered by the Greek Ajax, but Hector withdraws as Ajax is related to his family. Achilles' slave, Thersites, rails against all mankind and the stupidity of war and conflict. In the Greek camp Cressida is befriended by Diomedes. She is confused amidst this male world and not knowing that Troilus has secretly left Troy to seek her, she responds to Diomedes' friendship. Troilus and Ulysses overhear their encounter and Troilus realises that his love has turned against her vows of faithfulness and he returns to the city to fight more determinedly against the Greeks. In the final battle Patroclus is killed by Hector and Achilles is finally roused by this death to join the fighting. At first overcome briefly by Hector, but spared, Achilles succeeds in trapping the great champion and Hector, unarmed, is slaughtered by Achilles' troop of prime soldiers, the Myrmidons. Troilus swears revenge for his brother's death, and also, inwardly, for the end of his innocent youth with the loss of his beloved Cressida, while Pandarus cynically ends the play seeing no hope for a world where politics overrule the desires and needs of the individual. Troilus and Cressida was probably written in 1601-1602 and may have been performed in 1603. It was published in 1609. © Marian J. Pringle
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The Greek encampment outside the city walls is presided over by King Agamemnon and his brother Menelaus, with their counsellors, Ulysses and the aged Nestor. Their great soldier Achilles is refusing to fight and spends his time with his friend Patroclus. In Troy there are arguments between King Priam and his sons, the general Hector and his brother Paris, whose theft of Menelaus' wife, Helen, had started the war seven years before. Their priestess sister, Cassandra, prophesies destruction for all while their younger brother Troilus is increasingly distracted from the conflict as he has met and fallen in love with Cressida, whose father, Calchas, has joined the Greek camp. 
