Troilus and Cressida

Summary (Reading Notes)

The orgulous, proud princes of Greece have come to Troy to retrieve Helen. We meet them already encamped.

Troilus sees himself as unfit for war. Baking metaphor (transformative practice) as interlude: heating and cooling foreshadow events for T/C. Troilus loves Cressida and extols her beauty. Pandarus compares her beauty and Helen's, often. Pandarus says she ought to have followed Calchas to the Greek side. Troilus asks the gods, "What Cressid is, what Pandar, and what we?" ["we" must include the gods, here!]. Aeneas enters and remarks that Menelaus has injured Paris. Aeneas and Troilus are called out to the battlefield by an alarm.

Cressida sees Helen for the first time, at a distance. Alexander tells her that Hector is angry and ashamed that Ajax had hit him in battle, and that Ajax is prideful. Cressida slyly resists Pandarus's extolling of Troilus. Pandarus retells (to Cressida) Troilus's joke (to Helen) about his one white beard hair. A retreat sounds and C & P watch the soldiers return; P can think of none but Troilus at first, but goes wild over Hector. Paris turns out not to be hurt. Pandarus is called to Troilus; meanwhile Cressida pledges to herself to be secretive about her real love for Troilus.

Grecian camp. The commanders are despairing, but Agamemnon reminds them that their struggles are divine tests, and Nestor agrees (their images of wind and waves parallel Mt 7:24-27; image taken up in 2.3.264). Ulysses discourses on degree, claiming that Troy stands because of Greece's breakdown of good order. He attributes this to Achilles' pride. Nestor agrees that Ajax and others are prideful. Ulysses notes that brute force has been praised over careful reason. Aeneas visits from Troy, praises the Trojans, and relays Hector's challenge (Hector is out of practice because of the stalemate) to any prideful "Grecian that is true in love" (cf. Troilus) to fight him. The challenge is accepted in good humor and Agamemnon promises to give Aeneas "the welcome of a noble foe." Ulysses asks Nestor to help him determine how to crop Achilles' pride via this challenge, and Nestor convinces him in a roundabout way that Ajax should be sent (to show Achilles that he is not so important as he thinks).

Thersites complains of Agamemnon's inaction (cf. I.iii), and riles Ajax to blows via many insults, especially to Ajax's (stereotypically low (cf. 2.3.215)) intelligence. Achilles and Patroclus join them and hear more of it; Achilles separates the two and Thersites turns on Achilles, too. Achilles apprises Ajax of Hector's challenge, labeling its purported substance (love) as trash (the challenge itself is what's important). Ajax recognizes that Hector had sought to fight Achilles, but sees a chance to fight and win glory himself.

Troy. Troilus argues with the others over Helen's value and over the usefulness of reason in the battle. Cassandra prophesies evil because of Helen. Paris emphasizes the unity of Troy as in favor of Helen's kidnapping. Hector and Troilus eventually come clean: what they are really after is glory in war, Helen or no Helen.

Achilles spurs on Thersites to play the fool and they exchange witty repartee. The commanders visit Achilles but he spurns them. Agamemnon rails against Achilles' pride and Ajax joins in (prideful himself). Ajax claims not to know what pride is. Continued instigation of Ajax's pride by the commanders via arguing that Ajax is too good to visit Achilles on behalf of the commanders; Ajax is set up as above Achilles. Asides by all help the audience know Ajax's flowering pride. Once Ajax is thoroughly baited, the commanders go off to council to prepare for war.

Troy. Even the servant is witty, and Pandarus is witty enough to keep up. Helen and Paris enter; she implores Pandarus to sing a song of love, which he later sings bawdily. Helen is warily jealous of Cressida. Everyone is at war except Troilus and Paris. Helen will help Hector unarm.

Patroclus procures Cressida to meet Troilus in Pandarus' orchard. Troilus is giddy with expectation and anxious love; Pandarus reports the same about Cressida. The two meet and Pandarus leaves; they share some repartee (and Cressida wins); Troilus professes his trueness. Pandarus returns and praises Cressida's trueness. In response, perhaps, Cressida claims falseness to herself and professes her love for Troilus (part serious, part of her still holding back). Cressida confronts her own complexity. Troilus professes his undying trueness, almost forcing Cressida to wax eloquent against [her potential] falseness. T, C, and P pact into their stereotyped roles, and P sends them to the bedroom.

Grecian camp. Calchas encourages the Greeks to trade Antenor for Cressida, and they agree. The commanders pass by Achilles disdainfully, wounding his pride. Ulysses suggests to Achilles that he has been prideful, though Achilles does not pick up on it. Ulysses shows Achilles how Ajax is supposedly the commanders' new favorite. Ulysses generalizes about the ravages and fickleness of time. He tells Achilles that everyone knows about his love life "with one of Priam's daughters" and encourages Achilles to return to arms. Patroclus urges the same anti-romantic action. Achilles seems to relent and, as a first step, wants to bring the Trojans to the Greeks, all unarmed, in order to check out each other's muscle (in the context of domestic conversation). (The few who see eroticism here are completely, except in their own mind, wrong.) Thersites brings a report of Ajax's pride as he prepares for Hector. Achilles wants Thersites to carry a message to Ajax, but Thersites resists--instead, he plays "the pageant of Ajax" while Patroclus acts as Thersites (the messenger of Achilles), to show the stupidity and pride of Ajax. Thersites gets the last word: both Achilles and Ajax are ignorant of their pride.

Diomedes is in Troy to retrieve Cressida. Diomedes and Aeneas talk of their amity for each other during the truce, and say that they mean to kill each other once the war continues. Paris remarks that Troilus is known to be at Cressida's place (Calchas's house [think about implications for Cressida that Calchas's house is still thought of being in Troy]). Paris asks Diomedes whether Menelaus or Paris deserves Helen more, and Diomedes claims that they have equal merit. Diomedes eloquently scorns Helen as a great cost to Greek and Trojan life. But Paris notes that Diomedes is acting like the chapman who does "dispraise the thing that you desire to buy."

Pandarus' house (same as Calchas's?). Troilus and Cressida in bed. They sadly note that their night has been too short. Pandarus makes fun of Cressida. Aeneas knocks at the door and Troilus and Cressida hide; Aeneas gets to speak with Troilus anyway; Troilus and Pandarus hear that Cressida is to be taken away. Pandarus tells Cressida, who professes her love for Troilus (even with Troilus gone!) and says she won't go.

Paris tells Troilus that he ought to tell Cressida to go (we assume the details have been made better known to Troilus now). Troilus says that he will take Cressida to Diomedes ("the Grecian") himself.

Cressida says she cannot moderate her passion with reason. Troilus comes and again breaks the news to Cressida, and starts his goodbye. He asks her to be true to him, which she pledges. They exchange tokens: Cressida is to wear a sleeve. He says he will come to her in Greece every night. He again, fearing the wily Greeks, asks her to be true, which Cressida takes as mistrust. She only says yes (to be true) the first time. She asks him if he will be true, and Troilus confesses it. Diomedes enters to take her away, and he and Troilus compete to best praise Cressida's beauty (Troilus overstating the case, Diomedes judging her on the merits). Hector's horn sounds for the challenge and so T must let Diomedes take C off to the port (where the Greeks are).

The Trojans are late for the challenge because of the procurement of Cressida. Ajax blows his trumpet, but all the Greeks see is Diomedes with Cressida. Most of the Greek commanders kiss her, with no assent or protestation from Cressida at first. Once she sees that they are having fun being witty about it (maybe with some instigation from her)--or perhaps once she has caught her breath and decided enough is enough--she joins in with her own wit and prevents the others from kissing her. Diomedes takes her to Calchas. Ulysses sees her as wanton and opportunistically sluttish.

The challenge match begins after the terms are decided. Ulysses compares Hector and Troilus. Hector and Ajax fight awhile, until a truce is called. Hector recognizes Ajax as a kinsman and they decide to leave the field peacefully rather than continue to fight. Ajax invites Hector to the Greek camp. Hector agrees and brings Troilus along, and sends the other Trojans home. Agamemnon and other Greeks bless Hector and Troilus (though Hector speaks for the both of them in return). Achilles and Hector compare their muscles. They agree to be friends for the evening, before they return to trying to kill each other on the next day. Hector and Troilus will be entertained all around, starting at Agamemnon's tent, then Achilles', etc.

Troilus' mind has been on Cressida. He gets Ulysses to agree to take him to Menelaus' tent where she is.

True to his word, but in betrayal, Achilles plans to get Hector drunk overnight in order to kill him the next day. Thersites enters with expletives and a letter. The other Greeks enter and deliver Hector to Achilles. As Diomedes leaves toward Calchas's tent, Ulysses and Troilus follow. After everyone else leaves, Thersites correctly if prematurely identifies Diomedes as an untrustworthy lecher.

Diomedes comes to Cressida, who comes out to him. Troilus and Ulysses are watching. Thersites watches the scene. (We see Th watching T & U watching D & C watching each other.) She presumably had pledged love for Diomedes, but will not show it openly; they probably agree to meet the next night. Diomedes seems to be angry with this limitation of their actions, and he tries to leave, but Cressida will not let him leave angry. Cressida promises to meet him the next night, and Diomedes asks for a token of her truth; she brings the sleeve (which she wasn't wearing). She immediately realizes how true Troilus had been (and the sleeve was supposed to be a symbol of her own trueness to him), and she repents of giving the sleeve, and takes it back. In fact she tells him she no longer wants him to visit her. Diomedes asks for the sleeve back, and when Cressida resists, he asks whose it is--but she will not admit that it is a token of love from Troilus. She finally relents and lets him take it, realizing that his love is less than Troilus's, and still saying that she will not come to meet Diomedes. This again angers him, and he moves to leave--but Cressida, afraid to lose even what she has, agrees that they will meet again. She deplores her descent into falseness. Troilus cannot believe that this is his same loving Cressida--there must be a true one underneath the false one.

Aeneas reports that Hector is arming in Troy already (the party with Achilles must not have gone so well), i.e., that the war is on again. Ajax will conduct Troilus home. Thersites again gets the last (mean) word.

Hector's wife and sister implore him not to go to battle (his wife had foreseen danger in her dreams), but he goes anyway. Pandarus brings Troilus a letter, which he reads but tears up--she has written just "Words, words, mere words, no matter from the heart;/Th'effect doth operate another way.--"

Thersites is an onlooker in the battle. Diomedes and Troilus pass, fighting. Hector approaches Thersites but lets him live.

Diomedes calls his servant to take Troilus' horse, as a show of power to Cressida. Agamemnon reports a routing of his forces, especially by Hector. This rouses Ajax and especially Achilles to arm. Ajax seeks to kill Troilus and Achilles seeks to kill Hector.

Diomedes' servant has taken Troilus' horse. Troilus seeks Diomedes' life, while Diomedes and Ajax seek his. They argue to fight him, but he is happy to fight both together. Achilles meets Hector, but they agree that neither is in top fighting condition, and so they agree to put off the fight. Hector returns in full armor. Aeneas is reported captured and Troilus vows to retrieve him.

Achilles gets his Myrmidons to go with him to kill Hector. Thersites and Margarelon meet; they both announce they are bastards and so they don't fight.

Hector is tired from a long fight, and partly disarms. Achilles and his men take advantage of the situation. He wants Achilles to forbear, but Achilles' men kill him anyway. Both sides sound their retreats for the evening. Achilles will tie Hector's body to his horse and drag it through the fields.

News of Achilles' slaying of Hector reaches the Greeks. Agamemnon notes that if this killing had been orchestrated by the gods, then the rest of the war will go to the Greeks too.

Troilus has rescued Aeneas (if there was rescuing to do). Troilus announces to the Trojan commanders that "Hector is slain." He laments the death, wondering who will tell the parents: the news will freeze his parents cold, and "Scare Troy out of itself." As they leave the camps for Troy, he meets Pandarus, who he snubs. Pandarus gets the last word: speaking out to the panderers in the audience, he warns them of the ills of the trade; in other words, he will write a will and bequeath them his same diseases.