Description
CAMBRIDGE Troilus and Cressida 2012 Edition by William Shakespeare, Anthony B. Dawson
Troilus and Cressida, long considered one of Shakespeare's most problematic plays, is both difficult and fascinating. Largely neglected during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries it has recently proved popular and rewarding on the stage as well as in the study. This edition questions certain received ideas about the play's text, especially the relationship between quarto and folio and offers several new readings of old problems. Dawson's textual choices are often surprising but at the same time carefully grounded. He views the play from a performance perspective - both in the commentary as well as in the detailed section on stage history in the introduction. The introduction also covers the cultural context in which the play was written, probes the controversy about its early performance and provides extensive analysis of character, language, genre and contemporary significance. Table of contents :- List of illustrations; Acknowledgements; List of abbreviations and conventions; Introduction: style and genre: heap of rubbish, salty comedy, or what?; The play in its time; Symmetrical structures; Interpreting the Language; Cressida; Literary identity; Scepticism and Speculation; The Play in performance; The Sources of the play; Note on the Text; The 1609 Epistle to the reader; List of characters; THE PLAY; Textual analysis.