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HOWARD COLLEGE BULLETIN 
 
 Vol. LXXX JUNE, 1922 ■, No. 3 
 
 %)- 
 
 Studies m History 
 and Literature 
 
 by members of tbe faculty of Howard College, under 
 the editorial supervision of Jobn C. Dawson 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 The Brochures on the Eve of the Elections to the 
 
 States General 1-20 Mitchell Bennett Garrett 
 
 The Rise of Alabama 20-41 James Albert Hendricks 
 
 Jones Very 42-60 Percy Pratt Burns 
 
 Shakespeare and the Troy Story 67-131 French- Haynes 
 
 The Little Flow^er of Encouragement m the Poetic 
 Contests of the College of Rhetoric at 
 Toulouse 132-138 John C. Dawson 
 
 PUBLISHED AT 
 
 HOWARD COLLEGE 
 
 BIRMINGHAM, ALA. 
 
 Entered as aecond-cla as j m atter December 27, 1908, at the Post Office at Blrmlns- 
 ha^^VlaJmnde^ fae, Ac t of July M^22i^ 
 
 Cornell University Library 
 PR 2836.H42 
 
 Shakespeare and the Troy story; history o 
 
 3 1924 013 142 728 
 
/\&IS«|U 
 
 EDITORIAL NOTE 
 
 The publishing of this bulletin marks the beginning of a new 
 policy with regard to Howard College publications. In addition 
 to the regular quarterly bulletins there will be issued from time 
 to time special bulletins containing studies prepared by members 
 of the faculty. In this way it is hoped that the s^urit of scholarship 
 and research in the college will be stimulated. 
 
 The college is indebted to an alumnus, Dr. Carey P. McCord, 
 of Cincinnati, Ohio, for furnishing the amount of money necessary 
 to defray the expense of printing this issue. It is expected that 
 other alumni will contribute toward the printing of special bulle- 
 tins in the future. 
 
 JOHN C. DAWSON, President. 
 
 4- 6^« ^ -l-^'Wo-O 
 
Studies in History and Literature 67 
 
 Shakespeare and The Troy Story 
 
 History of the Troy Story from the Tim,e of Homer to Shakespeare 
 
 The story of the siege of Troy has gripped the hearts and imagi- 
 nations of great poets and artists throughout the ages since Paris 
 gave his momentous decision on Mount Ida. There is no story known 
 to the human race so fraught with glamor, romance, heroism, adven- 
 ture, and love as this powerful story of a far off age when gods fought 
 with man against his enemies. For centuries the bravery of a Hector, 
 the fierceness of an Achilles, the beauty of a Helen has thrilled the 
 emotions and fired the imaginations of the world's greatest minds. It 
 has given birth to such mighty epics as Homer's Iliad, Vergil's Aeneid; 
 to such powerful dramas as Euripides' Troades, and Sophocles' Ajax; 
 to such delightful romances as Boccaccio's Filostrato, and Chaucer's 
 Troilus and Criseyde ; besides being an inexhaustible mine for smaller 
 literary outputs. It is not strange, therefore, that the greatest mind 
 of the Renaissance should be influenced by the story of Ancient Troy. 
 In an age when classical literature was studied in all the universities, 
 when the story of the Trojan heroes was on the lips of every one, 
 when the people who considered themselves the descendants of the 
 Trojan race were thronging the theatres to see the story acted again 
 and again, it would have been singular indeed if Shakespeare had 
 been untouched and unmoved by it. Just what Shakespeare knew 
 about the Troy story, just what his interest in it was, just how much 
 inspiration he received from it is a subject worthy of study. There 
 is abundant proof that' he was tremendously interested in the story, 
 but the chief result of his interest, the play of Troilus and Cressida, 
 has been the subject of many disputes among scholars. Most of 
 them admit its power. Many dislike it and condone it as unworthy 
 the great soul of Shakespeare. Some, even, are repelled by it, and 
 condemn it as a deliberate degradation of one of the world's most 
 beautiful stories. However, to judge of Shakespeare's interest in the 
 story, to understand his contribution to the vast store of literature 
 centering about the Troy legend, and his purpose in writing on the 
 subject, it is necessary to know not only Shakespeare and the Troy 
 story in its primal purity and simplicity, but also to know and under- 
 stand the changes and developments it underwent from the days of 
 Homer until the time of Shakespeare. It is necessary to study also 
 the great popularity of the subject in Shakespeare's own time. 
 
% / H ^IZ 
 
 68 Howard College Bulletin 
 
 The Homeric story in its classic grandeur was not readily acces- 
 sible to Shakespeare, because this story as no other, had received the 
 deep impress of medievalism. Though Shakespeare may have known 
 the Troy story according to the Iliad, he knew it primarily as it 
 reached -him through the many writers of the Middle Ages, and as 
 it was spoken of, written, and acted in his own day ; and this modified 
 popular version of it naturally had a powerful influence upon him. 
 In tracing the development and modifications of the Troy story, 
 it is not necessary here to discuss the treatment of it in the classical 
 literature of Greece and Rome. Homer's Iliad, and the plays of 
 Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides treat the story in its earliest 
 aspects, and are sufficiently well known to be dismissed with a word. 
 The story was extremely popular with the Roman poets, especially 
 with Vergil and Ovid. Vergil gives the story one of its noblest 
 expressions in the Aeneid; Ovid makes use of it in the Metamorphoses 
 and Heroides. The Romans, as well as the later nations of western 
 Europe and the English, believed themselves to be descendants of the 
 Trojans, hence the popularity of the story both in Roman literature 
 and in the literature of the Middle Ages. This accounts also for the 
 partiality shown to the Trojan heroes, and was one of the reasons 
 why Homer, who celebrates the Greeks, was little more than a name. 
 Those who knew him considered him unreliable. On the other hand, 
 Vergil and Ovid were much loved in the Middle Ages. 
 
 The chief sources of the Troy story from the Christian era until 
 the revival of classical literature, however, were the works of two 
 spurious writers, Dictys Cretensis, and Dares Phrygius, belonging 
 to the period of decadent Roman literature. The Bphemeris Belli 
 Troiani of Dictys dates from 150 A. D. Dictys, however, was a 
 Greek, and it was natural that the work of the Phrygian, Dares, in- 
 ferior though it was, should be preferred by a people who believed 
 they were descended from the Trojan race. Dares is mentioned by 
 Homer in the fifth book of the Iliad, and is supposed to have been an 
 eye-witness of the Trojan war. His Historia De Excidio Troiae, 
 however, belongs to the sixth century. Though it claims to be a 
 translation, from the Greek, in reality the Latin manuscript is the 
 original. (Dares and Dictys are the first writers to do away with the 
 supernatural element of the story. They leave out the gods to whom 
 Homer and Vergil had given such prominence.") Most of the later 
 versions of the Troy story, however, may be traced directly to the 
 Roman de Troie of Benoit de Sainte-More, the work of a poet of 
 
Studies in History and Literature 69 
 
 Northern France, written in 1184, and a reworking of Dares, Dictys, 
 and Ovid. Benoit's contribution to the story was the medieval atmos- 
 phere. This was the natural outcome of the times, for it was an age 
 when chivalry was at its height, when the adventures and exploits of 
 knights in the service of their fair ladies were the popular themes of 
 literature. The story of the siege of Troy lends itself admirably to 
 the ideal of chivalry. It is a story, primarily, of love and adventure, 
 one grand and long battle for a beautiful and beloved woman. So 
 Benoit makes chivalrous knights out of Achilles, Hector, Paris, and 
 Ulysses. AcbiHes refrains from battle because of love for Polyxena. 
 Troilus and Diomede contend in knightly encounters for Cressida. 
 Troilus in true knightly fashion wears the glove of his lady, and she 
 treasures a sleeve from him. The Trojan heroes shine in medieval 
 armor, and challenge the Greeks to single combats to prove their ladies 
 more beautiful than those of Troy. This impress of medieval chivalry 
 was so deeply stamped upon the Troy story by Benoit that all his 
 successors follow suit. Even in the days of the revival of the classics, 
 we meet with medieval knights in the plays of Shakespeare and 
 Heywood. 
 
 To Benoit also must be allowed the credit for the invention of the 
 Troilus-Cressida episode, one of the most popular episodes of the 
 Troy cycle of stories. Troilus is merely mentioned in Homer. Vergil 
 tells of his death as "infelix puer." In Dictys, Troilus is made promi- 
 nent as a warrior, and Briseida (or Creseyde) is given some impor- 
 tance, but there is no relation between the two. Briseida probably 
 represents the combination of two personages of Homer's Iliad, Briseis, 
 the beautiful slave whom Achilles and Agamemnon quarreled over, 
 and Chrysius, the daughter of the prophet, Chryses. In his long nar- 
 rative, Benoit makes an interesting episode of the Troilus-Cressida 
 theme. He gives more prominence, however to the Cressida-Diomede 
 theme, and the Troilus-Cressida part is merely introductory. It re- 
 mained for Boccaccio and Chaucer to develop this episode into a well- 
 rounded love story. They make the Troilus-Cressida episode the 
 main story, and the Cressida-Diomede episode is treated merely as a 
 sequel. 
 
 In 1287, Guido Delle Colonne made a prose translation of Benoit 
 in very poor Latin, called Historia Destructionis Troiae. He refers 
 repeatedly to Dares and Dictys as sources, but scholars have proved 
 his work to be no more than a translation of Benoit. The work of 
 Guido was the immediate source of many versions of the Troy story 
 
70 Howard College Bulletin- 
 
 in German, Ehitch, Icelandic, Spanish, French, and Italian. Raoul 
 Leferve translated it into French as Recuil des Histoires de Troie. 
 This became one of the most important versions for English litera- 
 ture, lairgely because of Caxton's translation. 
 
 From Guido, Boccaccio received the material for his Filostrato, 
 the first artistic treatment of the Troilus-Cressida theme, and elabo- 
 rated it into a charming Italian romance, adding much to the love 
 story, and developing the characters from wooden figures into real 
 people. The camp scenes, with their warring heroes, which are the 
 main interest in former versions, sank into the background. Italian 
 manners and customs were introduced, thus making the story a typical 
 Italian romance. He created the character of Pandarus, who plays 
 an important part in all later treatments of the Troilus-Cressida story. 
 In the Pilostrato he is a gay young Florentine gentleman, the bosom 
 friend of Troilus and cousin of Griseida. He encourages the love 
 between Troylus and Griseida, but does not have the scheming nature 
 of the old uncle in Chaucer's story. 
 
 It was from Boccaccio that Chaucer got his inspiration for Troilus 
 and Criseyde, the first English treatment of the Troy story of any im- 
 : portance. There had been a Middle English poem. The Siege of Troye, 
 I by an unknown writer, and a Latin work, De Bella Troiano, by an 
 ; English monk, Joshep of Exeter, but these had no influence on later 
 1 English writers. /Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde is one of the most 
 I beautiful narrative poems of its kind in the English languages It is 
 j the story of a great love betrayed, the history of a passion that is deep 
 i and permanent in Troilus, but light and transient in Criseyde. It is 
 I not a picture of Trojan life in a heroic age, but the courtly love of a 
 i gallant and chivalric time. The Italian influence is noticeable in the 
 j amorous atmosphere of the poem. Like Boccaccio, Chaucer made the 
 j love story all important. The other events of the Trojan siege are 
 I mere incidents in the plot, and do not have a vital relation to the 
 main story. Though Chaucer followed the general outline of Boc- 
 caccio's plot, two-thirds of the poem is his original contribution. He 
 elaborated and enlarged his material. Boccaccio simply relates how 
 Griseida after much urging, yields of her own accord to the love of 
 Troylus. She is represented as little more than a fickle beauty, yet 
 she is made attractive by the delicate way Boccaccio handles the theme. 
 He tells the story as a sentimentalist; Chaucer makes his Criseyde 
 more ideal. She is the weak but almost innocent victim of circum- 
 stance. The events leading to her surrender to Troilus' love are more 
 
Studies in History and Literature 71 
 
 elaborate and less capable of being controlled by herself than in 
 Boccaccio. She is trapped by the plotting and intrigue of her uncle, 
 and is herself more or less blameless. She scarcely consents of her 
 own will, but is apparently a chaste and modest woman betrayed by 
 circumstances. The Griseida of Boccaccio is. more amorous than the 
 Criseyde of Chaucer, yet she is not a wanton, for her life until she 
 knew Troilus had been decorous and blameless. She is more con- 
 sistent than Criseyde. Boccaccio has made her of the passionate and 
 amorous type, hence her later amour with Diomede is more easily 
 comprehended than the greater falseness of Criseyde. 
 
 Chaucer made another important inovation in the character of 
 Pandarus. He changes him from the gallant young cousin of Griseida 
 and friend of Troilus' own age to the half humorous and loose-prin- 
 cipled old uncle of Criseyde. He is still a fervent friend of Troilus, 
 and the dubious part he plays in bringing the lovers together gives ade- 
 quate room for his later development into the low comedy character 
 pf Shakespeare's play. In Chaucer he is an old sentimental proverb- 
 quoting go-between. He has all the questionable traits of his office 
 and is far from being the "trusty, true-hearted old uncle" which Miss 
 Porter' calls him. 
 
 The next important version of the Troy story in English was the 
 Troy-Book of John Lydgate. In 1414 he began the laborious task of 
 translating Guido's Historia Destructionis Troiae, finishing it in 1420. 
 Lydgate's is perhaps the best and most artistic treatment of the story 
 as a whole in the English language. It is written in decasyllabic 
 couplets, and is exceedingly beautiful in places. Lydgate professedly 
 translated Guido, but he dealt with his subject with true sympathy 
 and clear poetic insight, and ornamented and enlarged the story. The 
 finished poem is an immense work. It is divided into five books, and 
 contains over 30,000 lines. The first book deals with the expedition 
 of the Argonauts, and the first destruction of Troy by Hercules; the 
 last book deals with the various adventures of the Greek heroes aftei 
 the final destruction of Troy at the close of the ten years' seige. 
 The poem gives a detailed description of Troy, Priam and his illus- 
 trious family, the causes of the war, the long siege, and the final 
 triumph of the Greeks. Lydgate, however, adds nothing to the 
 Troilus-Cressida story, but refers his readers to Chaucer for authorita- 
 tive details on this subject. The originality, and essentially English 
 genius of Lydgate is apparent throughout the poem. There is a de- 
 
 ' Charlotte Porter, Sources of Troilus and Cressida in First FoKo Edition. 
 
72 Howard College Bulletin 
 
 cided tendency to add to the story moral reflections and criticisms 
 which lead to later development of characters in a direction entirely 
 different from the original classical conception. Lydgate continues the 
 medieval atmosphere contributed by Benoit. The classical features 
 have been replaced by medieval chivalry. Knights in armor usurp 
 the places of the Trojan and Greek heroes. Knightly adventure takes 
 the place of heroic exploits. Gradually the story loses its awe-inspir- 
 ing grandeur, and its godlike men become mere human beings. We 
 no longer stand aloof in awful admiration of them, but approach them 
 as mortals. A certain reverence is lost for classical antiquity. The 
 story is no longer the magnificent conception of Homer, but is a 
 medieval tale of romance and adventure. The story under Lydgate's 
 hands even takes on English characteristics. English ideals of moral- 
 ity creep in which lead to severe reprimands of Helen and Cressida. 
 Lydgate, however, is not original in this. Guido is extremely fond of 
 condemning women in general because of the fickleness and incon- 
 stancy of Helen and Cressida. Lydgate translates Guido's long dis- 
 courses on the general worthlessness of women, yet he adds that he 
 does not agree with Guido, and proceeds to give a warm defense of 
 women, for, says he, they are not all like Helen and Cressida, and he 
 does not hate women as Guido does. Accordingly he condemns Helen 
 and Cressida from a sense of moral duty, and not as a woman-hater. 
 These naive digressions from the main story are very frequent and 
 interesting. The tendency, however, to moralize and sermonize on the 
 moral issues of the story is one of the reasons why the story of the 
 Trojan war was treated with such lack of reverence by later writers. 
 The plain facts apparent to the English mind are, that Helen aiid 
 Cressida are loose women wholly undeserving of the many lives lost 
 for them, and that the heroes are stupid and foolish to spend ten years 
 in such an unworthy pursuit. Thus, little by little, the beauty, the 
 glory, the romance, and the grandeur dies away from the story, and 
 cruel realism takes its place, as in Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida. 
 Ainiiis, certainly, Lydgate did not do, but, with Chaucer, he paved 
 the way for its subsequent development. 
 
 About fifty years later, William Caxton translated Raoul Leferve's 
 Recuil des Histoires de Troie into English prose. This is not nearly 
 so artistic, nor even so good a work of its kind as Lydgate's Troy- 
 Book, but it proved more popular. It went through many editions, 
 and_ became the favorite source of the Troy story for later poetg. 
 It is an extensive work, yet not so voluminous as Lydgate's. The 
 
Studies in History and Literature 73 
 
 first book deals with the reigns of Saturn and Jupiter, the beginnings 
 of Troy, and the deeds of Perseus. The second book tells of the 
 feats of Hercules and his two destructions of Troy. The third book 
 treats what is usually called the Troy legend, the last and final 
 destruction of Troy by the Greeks after a siege of ten years. The 
 story of Helen and Paris, the wonderful deeds of the Trojan and 
 Greek heroes, the fall of Troy through strategy, the death of Agam- 
 emnon, and the wanderings and death of Ulysses are related in the 
 style of history. The Troilus-Cressida story occupies little space, and 
 Caxton, as did Lydgate, refers the reader to Chaucer for details. 
 Both thus recognize Chaucer as the chief authority on the love story. 
 
 In the 1533 edition of Chaucer by Thynne, a sixth book, written 
 by Robert Henryson, was added to the poem of Troilus and Criseyde. 
 This was a most important work for the Troy story, and had more 
 influence on the later. poets and dramatists of this particular theme 
 than any other one work. Henryson takes up the story where Chaucer 
 leaves off — he calls the sixth book The Testament of Criseid. He 
 briefly relates the events following Cresseid's falseness to Troilus. 
 Diomede soon tires of her and casts her off. She, forced by cruel 
 circumstances, becomes a common woman in the Grecian camp. Her 
 father is the keeper of the temple to Venus and Cupid. Here the 
 miserable Criseid goes one day and in a secret place in the temple 
 bitterly reproaches Venus and Cupid for her misfortunes. While here 
 she falls into a deep sleep and dreams that the gods in council decide 
 to inflict punishment upon her for her falseness. She awakes to find 
 the dream a reality, for she has become a leper. Horrified and grief- 
 stricken, she calls her father. Realizing that she is incurable, he sends 
 her to the spital house. Here she spends the rest of her life among 
 the lepers, her youth gone and her beauty polluted by loathsome 
 disease. One day as she sits by the roadside begging, Troilus rides 
 by. Something about the eyes of this poor creature reminds him of 
 his lost love, Cresseid, and impulsively he gives her gold. Later find- 
 ing this generous knight to be Lord Troilus, she is overcome with 
 grief and truly repents of her unfaithfulness to him. She bewails her 
 fate, and as death is approaching she makes her testament, sending 
 to Troilus a ruby ring he had once given her, and commending her 
 spirit to Diana, the goddess of chastity. When Troilus hears of her 
 pitiable death he sorrowfully erects a beautiful tomb over her in 
 memory of his love. 
 
 This poem of Henryson is a powerful representation of the con- 
 
74 Howard College Bulletin 
 
 sequences of such an evil career as Cresseid led. It is a worthy con- 
 clusion to Chaucer's story, meting out poetic justice to Cresseid for 
 her inconstancy. Henryson, like Chaucer, artistically and sympathetic- 
 ally handles the subject, pitying Cresseid, and sorrowfully rather than 
 vindictively, portrays the inevitable end to such a character. Nothing, 
 however, could be farther from the classical treatment of such a 
 theme. The method of development is wholly English. 
 
 Though Chaucer and HenrysonThad dealFwith the story sympa- 
 thetically, and though their readers feel sorrow and pity, not hatred 
 and contempt, for Cresseid, later writers who merely told the facts 
 without the artistic and tender treatment soon brought the story down 
 to a common level. Cressida becomes the prototype of all that is 
 unlovely and unchaste in woman. Looseness and frivolity in woman 
 was characterized by "Cressid's kind." Pandar became a common 
 noun synonymous with all that is contemptible in a go-between. The 
 story thus loses its power and appeal. 
 
 Mr. Rollins considers the words of Chaucer's Criseyde as 
 prophetic : 
 
 Alias 1 for now is clene ago 
 
 My name of truth in love for ever mo"! 
 
 Alias, of me, unto the worldes ende 
 
 Shall neither been y-written nor y-songe. 
 
 No good word, for this bokes will me shende ^ 
 
 O, rolled shall I been on many a tongue! 
 
 Throughout the world my belle shall be ronge.' 
 
 This is a true foreshadowing of the fate of Criseyde. Her false- 
 ness was emphasized, and the extenuating circumstances were grad- 
 ually ignored by later writers. 
 
 In some of the early sixteenth century literature, however, Cres- 
 sida was celebrated as the highest type of sweetheart. In the lyric 
 poetry of the times she was used as a comparison of beauty and grace, 
 and exalted as a kind mistress who granted favor to her lover. Mr. 
 Rollins attributes this to the fact that most writers, tired out with the 
 long narrative of Chaucer, stopped at the climax, unaware of Criseyde's 
 later falseness to Troilus; or if they read all the poem, they chose 
 for poetic purposes to ignore the last part. 
 
 But the,^rly Elizabethans were influenced by Henryson's con- 
 ception of the story. _ jie and Chaucer had made the'romance of 
 
 ~ ' Chaiicef, ?Vot/«j and Criseyde, Book V. Stanzas 151-2. 
 
Studies in History and Literature 75 
 
 Troilus and Cressida the most popular part of the Troy legend. As 
 the latter poets took only the facts into consideration, and the facts of 
 Chaucer without his sympathetic atmosphere are brutal, the story of 
 Troilus and Cressida sank lower and lower, and gradually lost the 
 beauty and appeal that Chaucer gave to the theme. Henryson's con- 
 ception of Cressida as a common woman of the Greek camp and as 
 a loathsome leper, colored the later renderings of the story.- The 
 reputation of Cressida soon became so vile that Troilus lost much of 
 his nobility and grandeur. 
 
 John Skelton, in the early part of the sixteenth century, summariz- 
 ing Chaucer's story, expressed a poor opinion of Troilus, and refers 
 to Cressida and Pandarus as nothing less than common characters. 
 Thomas Howell advises young ladies thus : 
 
 To Vertue, therefore, do yourselves applie 
 Call Cressid's life unto your youthful minds.' 
 
 Later, following Henryson, he refers to her leprosy, speaks of 
 "Cressid's cursed steps." Tuberville in the poem. In Utter Despair of 
 his Ladie's Return, in each Respect Compares his Estate with Troilus, 
 has the same conception of Cressida as that of Henryson. He tells 
 -his love that though she has proved untrue, he prays she may never 
 meet the cruel fate of Cressida. 
 
 In his Posies (1575), George Gascoigne often makes use of the 
 Troilus-Cressida story. In his Praise of his Mistress, showing the evil 
 results of loving beauty instead of character, he cites the ill luck of 
 Paris and Troilus. His own mistress, because of her worthiness, is 
 much more beautiful than Helen, Cressida, or Dido. Another time 
 when he accuses his love of disloyalty, he says: 
 
 Some Diomede is crept into Dame Cressid's heart. 
 
 And trusty Troilus now is taught in vain to playne his part. 
 
 At this date "Cressid's kind" was a stock expression: 
 
 Not seldom seen in kits of Cressid's kind and: 
 How she claimed Cressid's heir to be. 
 
 In the poem Dan Bartholomew, his First Triumph, Gascoigne bit- 
 terly condemns Paris and Helen, and continues with one of the most 
 cruel characterizations of Cressida that can be found anywhere : 
 
 * Howell, New Sonnets and Pretty Pamphlets. 
 
7G Howard College Bulletin 
 
 rhy brother Troylus eke that gemme of gentle deeds, 
 
 To think how he abused was, alas my heart it bleeds ! 
 
 Whom crafty Cresside mockt too muche 
 
 Yet fed him still with words. 
 
 And God he knoweth, not I, who pluckt her first sprung rose 
 
 Here G^scoignejmakfisXxgssida^a^^bfira 
 relation to Troylus. Again he refers to "Cressid's kind." 
 
 I found naught else but tricks of Cressid's kind. 
 
 Whetstone, in the Rock of Regard, expresses the same opinion of 
 Cressida as Gascoigne does. Willobie, His Avisa in praise of chastity 
 has Avisa say: 
 
 Though shameless callets may be found 
 That soil themselves in common field, 
 And can carry the whore's rebound 
 To strain at first, and after yield 
 Yet here are none of Cressid's kind 
 In whom you shall such fleeting find. 
 
 Again Avisa replies to her tempter: 
 
 I come not of Dame Cressid's kind. 
 
 Thus, by the time of Shakespeare. "£ res sid's kind " was an expres- 
 sion familiar to all, and was applied to the common and unfaithful 
 women. 
 
 The Popularity of the Troy Story in Shakespeare's Time 
 
 The Troy story became exceedingly popular with the Elizabethan 
 writers. This was due not only to the beauty of the story, to the 
 prominence given it by early English writers, and to the belief that the 
 British were descendants of the Trojans, but also to the great interest 
 manifested in the study of the classics. The stories of Homer, Vergil, 
 and Ovid were becoming familiar in the original as well as through 
 translations. In 1560 Thomas Phaer translated nine books of the 
 Aeneid. The work was finished by Thomas Twyne (1573). Richard 
 Stanyhyrst translated the first four books in 1582. Arthur Golding 
 made his famous translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses in 1567. The 
 same year Tuberville translated Ovid's Heroides. In 1581 ten books 
 
Studies in History and Literature 71 
 
 of Homer's Iliad were translated from the French by Arthur Hall. 
 In 1598, Chapman translated seven books of the Iliad. The same year 
 he published Achilles' Shield, taken from the eighteenth book of the 
 Iliad. The remaining books of the Iliad were finished by him in 1613. 
 Plays of Euripides, Sophocles, and Seneca on the Troy story were also 
 being translated at the universities. Thus, the Troy story was becom- 
 ing well known to English writers, both in its original sources and in 
 its later development. Hence, a combination of influences were 
 brought to bear upon the Elizabethan treatment of it. Some of the 
 facts were taken from Homer, more from Vergil and Ovid; all were 
 permeated by the medieval ideal of chivalry, and more or less modified 
 by English ideals of morality. 
 
 The popularity of the Troy story in the Elizabethan age is attested ^'^ 
 to by the large number of treatments of the subject in both dramatic 
 and non-dramatic works. There were at least twenty-five plays, and 
 four non-dramatic works of some note, to say nothing of numerous 
 short poems dealing with some episode of the Troy cycle. I shall first 
 discuss some of the most important non-dramatic works. 
 
 In 1589 George Peele's Tale of Troy, The Beginning Accidents 
 and End of Fall of Troy was printed. He called it an "old poem of 
 mine," so it was probably written earlier, perhaps while he was still at 
 the university, for it shows the marks of an inexperienced hand. The 
 poem contains about five hundred lines written in rough ten syllable 
 couplets. The whole of the Trojan war, causes and results, is summed 
 up. The main part of the poem is taken from Caxton's Recuyell of 
 the History of Troy. The dream of Hecuba shows a familiarity with 
 Ovid's Heroides. The account of the treachery of Sinon, and the 
 fall of Troy is based on Vergil's Aeneid. The Tale of Troy is not very 
 important from a literary point of view, but it shows the general 
 interest in the Troy story. 
 
 About the same time another of the "University Wits," Robert 
 Greene, treated the story in his characteristic way in the novel, 
 Buphues His Censure to Philautus, "wherein is presented a philosophi- 
 cal combat between Hector and Achilles, discovering in four dis- 
 courses interlaced with diverse delightful tragedies, the vertues neces- 
 sary to be incident in every gentleman: had in question at the siege 
 of Troy betwixt sondry Grecian and Trojan lords : especially debated 
 to discover the perfections of a soldier." The novel is a series of 
 long tales told by Trojan and Greek cavaliers and ladies at two social 
 meetings during one of the long truces of the war. The three Trojan 
 
78 Howard College Bulletin 
 
 ladies are Andromache, Cassandra, and Polyxena. Greene had much 
 difficulty in finding three corresponding ladies among the Greeks. He 
 chooses Iphigenia, who, according to fact, was sacrificed at the begin- 
 ning of the war, Briseis, the slave whom Agamenon and Achilles quar- 
 reled over, and as the third, Cressida, who was in reality a Trojan. 
 This, however, was no stumbling block to Greene. The first banquet 
 takes place at the Grecian camp, where the courtly knights welcome 
 the Trojan party; the second banquet, on the following night, is at 
 Ilium, where Priam in state royally entertains the Greeks. The glamor 
 and enchantment Homer threw around his heroes is effectively dis- 
 pelled by the gay repartee of the dinner party. The godlike heroes 
 of Homer are replaced by gallant gentlemen discussing in euphuistic 
 fashion the topics of the day. The smoother and flattering Greeks 
 impartially distribute extravagant compliments to the Trojan ladies. 
 Ulysses elaborately blames Trojan men for seeking and keeping Helen 
 when they have such lovely and wonderful women at home. Iphigenia 
 and Andromache descend to an undignified dispute about the relative 
 merits of the Greek and Trojan women, Andromache maintaining that 
 the Trojan women are excellent housewives, and Iphigenia that the 
 Greeks are more learned and cultured. Andromache retorts that Helen 
 is an example and result of Greek culture and learning. At this point 
 the subject is deftly changed and the heroes indulge in long tales to 
 beguile the time. 
 
 The Troilus-Cressida story is only touched upon slightly. Cres- 
 sida spends the time between the first and second banquet dreaming 
 about the superior qualities of Troilus, and there is the suggestion of 
 a growing .love between them. Greene does not give a very favorable 
 impression of Cressida. She is witty and interesting, but gay and 
 flippant. She does not hesitate to interrupt the majestic flow of 
 Ulysses' oratory: 
 
 "Cressida interrupts, tickled a little with a self-conceipt 
 of her own wit, willing to let the Trojans know the phrase of 
 her speech was as fair as the form of her face, and that 
 woman's tongue pierced as deep as their eyes." 
 
 She is a mere coquette in spite of her brilliance. 
 
 Nothing could be farther from the classical conception of the 
 Troy story than this novel of Greene's. There is nothing of classical 
 simplicity and sublimity in this ornate and artificial representation of 
 the heroic age. The mere shell, the names of the heroes and the 
 
Studies in History and Literature 79 
 
 place of action may belong to ancient Troy, but otherwise the story 
 is of courtly Elizabethans discussing philosophical problems in a half 
 serious way. This novel proves the general interest in the legend of 
 Troy, also adequately illustrates to what extent medieval and renais- 
 sance conceptions had taken the place of the classical atmosphere. It 
 also shows the irreverent manner in which classical material was 
 often treated. The Elizabethans manifested much love and interest,! 
 but little veneration and awe for the lofty theme of Homer. 
 
 Thomas Heywood was particularly interested in the classics and 
 especially in the Troy legend. Besides his play, The Iron Age, he 
 wrote a comprehensive poem on the subject, Troia Britanica. He also 
 in his Nine Books of Various History Concerning Women refers to 
 many of the female personages connected with the Trojan war and 
 incidentally characterizes several of the heroes. Helen is mentioned 
 as the cause of the war. Her beauty is described (Book V, p. 216). 
 She is spoken of as the murderess of Deiphobus, whom she had mar- 
 ried after the death of Paris (Book V, p. 217). She was stolen from 
 Sparta to avenge the wrongs of Hesione, rather than because of Paris' 
 love for her (Book IX, p. 423). Cassandra is called poetess and 
 prophetess (Book VIII, p. 286). Hecuba is represented as avenging 
 the death of her young son, Polydore, (Book VII, p. 322). Electra, 
 daughter of Agamemnon, is represented as compassionate for her 
 brother, Orestes. Clytemnestra is false to Agamemnon with Aegisthus. 
 The two murder Agamemnon on his return from the fall of Troy 
 (Book VII, p. 353). Briseis, the slave, is mentioned as having won 
 the love of Achilles because of her extraordinary beauty (Book V, 
 p. 245). Penthesilia, "she that in ayd of Priam (or so some say for 
 love of Hector) came to the siege of Troy with a thousand ladies, 
 where after many deeds of chivalry by her performed, she was slain 
 by the hands of Achilles, or as most will have't by Neoptolemus." The 
 episode of Penthesilia and her amazons made a profound impression 
 upon Heywood. In the second part of the Iro'^i Age he dramatizes 
 the fierce combat of the Amazons against the Greeks and the death 
 of Penthesilia. In the Troia Britanica he again relates the same event. 
 In his work The Exemplary lives and Memorable acts of Nine of the 
 Most Worthy Women of the World, he makes Penthesilia one of the 
 immortal Nine. 
 
 Heywood^s Troia Britanica is by far the most important non- 
 dramatic work dealing with the Troy story in the Elizabethan period.; 
 The poem is "divided into XVI several Cantons intermixed with many 
 
80 Howard College Bulletin 
 
 pleasant poetical tales, concluding with an universal chronicle from 
 creation until the present times. A brief epitome of chronicle even 
 from first man unto us, this second time created Britons, with a 
 faithful register, not only of memorable things done in Troy and this 
 Island, but of many and most famous accidents happening throughout 
 the world." 
 
 Heywood's own analysis is suggestive of the scope of the poem. 
 He wishes to emphasize the tradition that the Britons were descend- 
 ants of the ancient Trojans. By loose and often far-fetched links, 
 he joins ancient and Elizabethan episodes. The poem has over thir- 
 teen thousand lines, and for the most part is written in ottava rima. 
 The interest is fairly well sustained throughout, and the verse is 
 exceptionally good for so long a poem. The author relates the mythol- 
 ogical history of Troy, traces the name of Britons from Adam to 
 Queen Elizabeth, discusses the Golden Age and the subsequent reigns 
 of the gods, describes the founding of Troy by Dardanus, praises the 
 reign of James I, compares Queen Elizabeth to the chaste Diana, cele- 
 brates the exploits of Sir Francis Drake, compares the fight of Sir 
 Richard Grenville to the battle with the centaurs, and so throughout 
 the poem, connects the modern Trojans with their ancient ancestors. 
 The siege of Troy he describes in detail. After the fall of Troy, he 
 traces the wanderings of Aeneas, the grandfather of Brutus, who 
 came to Albion and founded New Troy (London). The poem closes 
 with a list of English rulers from Brutus to Queen Elizabeth. Through- 
 out, Heywood seeks to exalt England. It is a testimonial not only 
 to his ability as a poet but also to his exultant patriotism. The poem 
 shows that Heywood was familiar with both Lydgate and Caxton, 
 and cites as his specific sources Dares and Dictys, Homer, Ovid, 
 Vergil, and Chaucer. 
 
 The Life and Death of Hector, by an anonymous writer, should 
 also be mentioned as showing the popularity of the Troy story. This 
 is a long poem of over thirty thousand lines, uninteresting, and poorly 
 written. It covers much of the same ground as The Troia Britanica. 
 Mr. J. S. P. Tatlock' characterizes it as a "big bad book," and states 
 that it is a slavish adaptation of Lydgate's Troy-Book. 
 
 The dramatic treatment of the Troy story of the Elizabethan age 
 may be considered in two groups, first plays performed by students 
 at the universities, and second, plays performed by professional actors 
 
 , JJ- ^- F--'^^^?'^^'y,'^'^^,^*"^" °f ^"5' •'" English Literature Especially in Shakespeare 
 and Heywood, in PMI.A, vol. 30. -r ^ •: 
 
Studies in History and Literature 81 
 
 in the London theatres. Most of the university plays were either 
 translations of the classic plays on the Troy theme, or plays written in 
 Latin, and following the classic versions of the story. 
 
 In 1559, Troas, translated from Seneca by Jasper Heywood, was 
 acted by the students at Oxford. The play deals with events immedi- 
 ately following the fall of Troy, the episodes of Andromache and 
 Astianax and the sacrifice of Polyxena on the tomb of Achilles. The 
 ghost of Achilles plays an important part in the play and had a great 
 influence over later imitators. 
 
 In 1564 Dido, a Latin tragedy, was acted at Cambridge for the 
 entertainment of Queen Elizabeth on her visit to the University, who 
 "about nine o'clock came, as the night before, to a play called Dido, 
 which was exhibited and played by and at the charge of the company 
 of King's College.'" 
 
 The Latin translation of Sophocles, Ajax Flagellifer, was to have 
 been acted before the Queen during this same visit to Cambridge, but 
 owing to some unexplained cause she did not hear it "to the great 
 sorrow, not only of the players, but of the whole University."" How- 
 ever, it was acted at Oxford in 1605. 
 
 In 1566, J. Studley, a student of Trinity College, Cambridge, 
 translated the eighth tragedy of Seneca, Agamemnon. The whole 
 story of the Trojan war is briefly related. The first part of the war, 
 the sailing of the Greeks to Troy, the sacrifice of Iphigenia, and the 
 story of Briseis, is told by Clytemnestra. The latter part of the war 
 and the fall of Troy are related by Cassandra, who has been brought 
 to Greece by Agamemnon. 
 
 In 1571, Iphigenia, "a tragedie was shown on the Innocent dale 
 at night by the children of Poule.'" 
 
 In 1576, a translation of Euripides' Iphigenia was made by George 
 Peele at Oxford. In 1576 or 1577 a prose translation was made by 
 Lady Lumley. 
 
 In 1583, Dido, a Latin tragedy by William Gager was acted at 
 Christ's Church, Oxford. 
 
 In 1591, another play by Gager, Ulysses Redux, a Latin tragedy 
 was acted at Christ's College. 
 
 In 1623, Orestes, a tragedy by Goffe, was acted by the students 
 of Christ Church, Oxford. The prologue was spoken by the author. 
 
 * J. Nichols, Progresses and Public Processions of Queen Blisabeth. Vol. I., p. 179 
 (2d edition). 
 ' Ibid. 
 ' Cunningham, Revels at Court in Reigns of Blisabeth and King James I, p. 13. 
 
82 Howard College Bulletin 
 
 In 1635, Fuimus Trees or The True Trojans, by Jasper Fisher, 
 was acted. "The True Trojans being a story of the Briton's valor at 
 the Roman's first invasion — pubHckley represented by the gentlemen 
 students of Magdalene College in Oxford." Though this play does 
 not deal at all with the Troy story, it emphasizes the tradition that the 
 Britons were descendants of the Trojans, and helps explain the par- 
 tiality always shown to the Trojan heroes to the disparagement of the 
 Greeks. 
 
 If the students at the Universities were interested in dramatizing 
 the Troy story, the popular dramatists were even more so. Their 
 efforts, however, followed more closely the English development of 
 the story. There was less of the classical atmosphere in their pro- 
 ductions, which of course is to be expected of the popular drama. 
 
 One of the earliest popular handlings of the story is an interlude 
 called Thersites in 1537. "This interlude following doth declare how 
 that the greatest boasters are not the greatest doers." Outside of the 
 name Thersites, and the braggart speech suggestive of Homer's 
 Thersites, with which Thersites introduces himself, the interlude is 
 wholly English. The plot has nothing to do with the Troy story. The 
 importance of the interlude is due to the fact that it foreshadows the 
 later development in the character of Thersites in Heywood and 
 Shakespeare. The writer of the interlude was evidently acquainted 
 with Homer in some form, for he has Thersites, the cowardly boaster, 
 introduce himself as follows: 
 
 Have in a ruf fler forth of the Greek land 
 
 Called Thersites, if you will me know : 
 
 Aback, give me room, in my way ye do not stand. 
 
 For if ye do I'll soon lay you low. 
 
 In Homer of my acts, ye have read I trow : 
 
 Neither Agamemnon nor Ulysses I spared to check. 
 
 They could not bring me to be at their beck. 
 
 Of late from the siege of Troy I returned, 
 
 Where all my harness, except this club, I lost. 
 
 In 1563, The History of Dido and Aeneas was acted at Chester 
 upon the Sunday after Midsummer's day. 
 
 In 1573, Ajax and Ulysses, one of the most popular episodes of 
 the Troy story, was "showen on New Year's dale at night by the 
 children of Wynsor.'" 
 
 Another favorite theme was made use of in The Masque of the 
 Amazons, "in all armor compleate,'" given at court in 1579. 
 
 * Cunningham, Revels at Court, p. 13. 
 ^ Ibid., p. 125. 
 
Studies in History and Literature 83 
 
 In 1583, The Arraignment of Paris, "was presented before the 
 Queen's Majestie by the children of her chappell." This is a beautiful 
 pastoral by George Peele, dealing with the story of Paris and CEnone, 
 the decision in favor of Venus as the fairest of the goddesses, and his 
 subsequent arraignment before the gods, who decree that as punish- 
 ment he shall bring ruin upon himself and his people, thus foretelling 
 the Trojan war. 
 
 In 1584, The History of Agamemnon and Ulysses was "presented 
 and enacted before her Majestie by the Earl of Oxenford's, his boys, 
 on St. John's Daie at Night at Greenwiche.'" 
 
 In 1591, Dido Queen of Carthage, a tragedy by Marlowe and Nash 
 was played by the children of her Majestie's chappell. The plot fol- 
 lows Aeneas's story to Dido of the fall of Troy, the episode of the 
 cave, Aeneas's desertion of Dido and her tragic death. The play is 
 based on the Aeneid, and is a work of no little importance and power. 
 
 In 1596, a play called Troy was acted by the Lord Admiral's Men. 
 It is mentioned in Henslowe's Diary. Greg thinks it was probably 
 an earlier and shorter version of Heywood's The Iron Age, which was 
 later expanded into a two-part play. 
 
 In 1598, Dido and Aeneas, a play belonging to the Admiral's Men, 
 was acted at the Rose. Greg offers the suggestion that it may have 
 been the play referred to in Hamlet that was "caviare to the general." 
 
 In 1599, Agamemnon, a tragedy by Dekker and Chettle, Orestes 
 Furies, and Troilus and Cressida, also by Dekker and Chettle, were 
 acted by the Admiral's Men. These plays are all mentioned in Hens- 
 lowe's Diary. 
 
 In the period between 1596 and 1602, the Troy story seems to 
 have been at the height of its popularity on the stage. It was at this 
 time that Shakespeare made his contribution to the stage versions of 
 the Troy legend. Heywood's Iron Age seems to have been later. 
 These two plays I shall discuss further on. 
 
 In 1615, the masque, Ulysses and Circe, by William Brown was 
 acted at the Inner Temple. 
 
 In 1618, The Amazonian Masque was to have been presented 
 before the King and Queen, but for some reason the King did not 
 allow it to be given. 
 
 The Death of Dido, a masque, is mentioned in Halliwell-Phillip's 
 Dictionary of Old Plays. Nothing is known concerning it. 
 
 The Contention of Ajax and Ulysses, by Shirley, was "nobly rep- 
 
 ^lUd., p. 1 88. 
 
84 Howard College Bulletin 
 
 resented by young gentlemen of quality at a private entertainment of 
 some persons of honor." This play deals with the famous contention 
 over Achilles' noted armor. 
 
 Edmund Gayton, in Festivious Notes on Don Quixote, mentions 
 a play called Greeks and Trojans (acted c. 1625-43).' 
 
 "A poor butcher, seeing Hector overpowered by Myrmadons, 
 leaped upon the stage and with his bludgeon took the Trojan part 
 so valiantly, that he routed the Greeks, and then took such a fancy to 
 Hector that for a long time he could not obtain leave to be killed, that 
 the play might go in, for the vanquished Myrmadons would not ven- 
 ture to enter again until Hector prevailed on his unexpected second 
 to quit the stage.'" 
 
 This account illustrates the fact that the Troy story on the stage 
 was always partial to the Trojan heroes. Even the ignorant butcher 
 showed his preference for his ancient ancestor. Hector. 
 ,• I have already shown to some extent the marked interest Thomas 
 
 ! Heywood had in the story of Troy. His Troia Britanica was the 
 I greatest non-dramatic contribution to the story in the Elizabethan 
 , period, and his play. The Iron Age, was the greatest dramatic repre- 
 sentation of it, if we omit Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida. The 
 Iron Age in two parts, was an ambitious work, concerning the whole 
 Troy story from the council of the Trojans in which they decide that 
 Paris may carry Helen from Sparta to avenge the wrongs of Hesione, 
 to the fates of the Greek heroes after the fall of Troy. In his dedica- 
 tion to Mr. Thomas Hammon, Heywood explains why he undertook 
 such a great task. He was sure that the subject was worthy of 
 dramatic treatment. "The history whereon it is grounded having been 
 the selected argument of many exquisite poets. For what pen of note 
 in one page or other hath not remembered Troy, and bewayl'd the 
 sack and subversion of so illustrious a city; which although it were 
 scituate in Asia, yet out of her Ashes, hath arisen two of the rarest 
 • phoenixes in Europe, namely London and Rome." 
 1 Heywood thus had two reasons for writing. It was a subject that 
 
 , the greatest poets of the world had written about, and it was also a 
 ■ subject that every Englishman should be interested in. 
 
 The Iron Age was the sequel to three other plays. The Golden Age, 
 The Silver Age, and The Brazen Age, all dealing with classical mythol- 
 ogy. The first three plays give the events from the birth of Jupiter 
 
 'The Festivious Notes was published in 1554. Scllelling, in The Elizabethan Drama, 
 places the date between 1625-42. 
 
 ^Edmund Gayton, Festivious Notes (1768), p. 4. 
 
Studies in History and Literature 85 
 
 to the death of Hercules. The Iron Age begins where The Brazen Age 
 leaves off. In his preface to the reader Heywood states that these 
 plays had been very popular on the stage and were "publickely acted 
 by two companies upon one stage at once and have at sundry times 
 thronged three severall theatres with numerous and mighty auditories." 
 
 Prof. J. Q. Adams" shows the efforts of Shakespeare and Hey- 
 wood to familiarize the middle classes of London with the Greek 
 classics. As to The Iron Age having been acted by two companies in 
 three different theatres, Prof. Adams points out that this could only 
 have been accomplished by the combination of Heywood's and Shakes- 
 peare's companies. Shakespeare's company, The King's Men, had at 
 their disposal the two theatres, The Globe, and The Black Friars, while 
 Heywood's company. The Queen's Men, occupied the Red Bull, hence 
 the two companies together could make use of three theatres, and no 
 other combination of two companies could do so. These companies, 
 we know, haM combined for the presentation of The Silver Age, and 
 it is most likely they cooperated in giving The Iron Age. The large 
 number of major characters in the play, and the need for many stage 
 properties, would make this desirable. If this is true, then Heywood 
 and Shakespeare were associated in popularizing the classical stories. 
 The combination of these two greatest troupes of actors in London 
 shows the importance and success of the plays. Heywood states that 
 they were often performed, and were well received by the public. 
 
 The Iron Age, in two parts, opens with a war council in Troy. 
 Paris is granted permission by King Priam and his lords to seize some 
 noble lady of Greece to avenge the wrongs done to Hesione, the sister 
 of Priam. Cassandra warns the Trojans against this, but is ignored. 
 Paris, after repulsing QEnon, sails to Greece, wins the love of Hellen, 
 wife of Menelaus, King of Sparta, and in the absence of her husband, 
 carries her back to Troy with him. 
 
 Act II opens with a love scene between Troilus and Cressida, 
 followed by the welcoming of Hellen and Paris to Troy. The first 
 encounter of the Trojans and Greeks takes place. Hector gives his 
 famous challenge and is met by Ajax. The combat takes a chivalric 
 turn and the act closes with the invitation of Priam to the Greek lords 
 to banquet in Troy. 
 
 The first part of the third act is taken up with the banquet. 
 Cressida decides to desert Troilus and death in Troy for Diomed and 
 life at the Grecian camp. Menelaus and Paris contend for the love of 
 
 * J. Q. Adams, Shakespeare, Heywood, and the Classics. In MLN, vol. XXXIV., p. 336. 
 
86 Howard College Bulletin 
 
 Hellen. Paris is a second time successful, and the Greeks leave the 
 banquet swearing vengeance upon the Trojans. The rest of the act 
 deals with the numerous encounters on the battlefield. Achilles re- 
 frains from battle because of his love for Polixena; but at last the 
 death of his friend, Patroclus, and the many bold deeds of Hector 
 arouse him to action. 
 
 The fourth act deals with the death of Hector, Troilus and 
 Achilles. The fifth, with the contention of Ajax and Ulysses for the 
 armor of Achilles. The play closes with the suicide of Ajax because 
 of the awarding of the armor to Ulysses. 
 
 Part II of The Iron Age contains the deaths of Penthesilia, who 
 had come to the aid of Troy with her Amazons, Paris, Priam, and 
 Hecuba; the burning of Troy; the deaths of Agamemnon, Menelaus, 
 Clytemnestra, Hellen, Orestes, Aegisthus, Pilades, King Diomed, 
 Pyrhus, Cethus, Synon, Thersites, and others. This shows the exten- 
 sive scope of the play. There is a vast amount of material woven into 
 dramatic form. The time covers over ten years. Because of the 
 many episodes treated, the play lacks unity. Former dramatists had 
 chosen some one dramatic incident, like the contention of Ajax and 
 Ulysses, or the sacrifice of Iphigenia. On the other hand, Heywood 
 tried to dramatize the whole Troy story, and considering his material, 
 he succeeded admirably, though there are many weak places. 
 
 The Troilus-Cressida love story is just one of the many episodes 
 in the plot. The development of it is not clearly worked out. Cres- 
 sida's actions are not well motivated. The first appearance of the 
 lovers occurs in the second act of Part I, where they swear eternal 
 love and loyalty. They next appear at the banquet scene, where with 
 little hesitation Cressida, at her father's advice, decides to desert 
 Troilus for Diomed. Later on, Troilus and Diomed quarrel, and we 
 find from this that there had been a previous engagement between 
 them, and that Troilus had been unhorsed by Diomed, and his horse 
 had been sent to Cressida. In the present fight, Troilus is successful, 
 and captures Diomed's helmet, which he sends to Cressida. In the 
 fourth act, Troilus is killed. Nothing more is heard of Cressida until 
 the first act of Part II. Here she forsakes Diomed for Synon, and 
 consequently is deserted by both of them. She makes her last appear- 
 ance in the third act, stricken with leprosy. This comes as a great 
 surprise, for there has been nothing to prepare one for this develop- 
 
Studies in History and Literature 87 
 
 ment. Heywood is merely following the historical treatment of the 
 story. 
 
 Heywood's use of the Troy story shows a great variety of sources. 
 The banquet scene is reminiscent of Greene's Euphues, His Censure 
 to Philau-tus. The contest of Paris with Menelaus for Hellen goes 
 even farther than Greene in dispelling the classical atmosphere. 
 Thersites is taken from Homer, the burning of Troy and flight of ; 
 Aeneas, from Vergil. Heywood relates practically the same events 
 that he handled in The Troia Britania, in which he quotes as sources, ( 
 Homer, Vergil, Ovid, Chaucer, Dares and EHctys. There is also no 
 doubt that he made use of Lydgate's Troy-Book, for the medieval 
 atmosphere clings to all the characters. 
 
 PART I 
 Shakespeare's Use of the Troy Story 
 
 After tracing in its general outline the Troy story from Homer 
 to the Elizabethan period, and after studying to some extent the 
 great popularity of the story in Shakespeare's time, we can now turn 
 with some degree of confidence to Shakespeare's treatment of it. The 
 fact that most of the references to the Troy story occur in his earlier 
 plays, and that Troilus and Cressida was written at the time when 
 the story was at its height of favor with the Elizabethans, shows that 
 Shakespeare was not uninfluenced by its popularity. Our purpose is 
 to discover if possible whether Shakespeare was vitally interested in 
 the Troy legend, or whether his contribution was merely the result of 
 popular enthusiasm for the story. What did he know about it ? What 
 use did he make of it? How did the story appeal to him? Did il 
 occupy an important place in his poetic imagination? What was his 
 conception of the story? What were the sources of his information? 
 In order to determine all this I shall first take up the episodes of the 
 Troy story which seem to stand out most prominently in his mind, 
 secondly, I shall discuss some of his more important allusions to the 
 Greek and Trojan heroes, and then analyze the play of Troilus and 
 Cressida. From these references to the story, and from the play, I 
 shall attempt to determine Shakespeare's conception of it as a whole. 
 In conclusion, I shall endeavor to determine the sources he made 
 use of. 
 
 The episodes of the Troy story which appealed most to Shakes- 
 
88 Howard College Bulletin 
 
 peare, and those which he portrays with truest feeling and tenderest 
 sympathy, are those dealing with the misfortunes of the Trojans at 
 the final overthrow of Troy by the Greeks. The contemptible treach- 
 ery of Sinon, which gave the city into the hands of the Greeks; the 
 burning of the magnificent city; the death of King Priam; the sorrow 
 of Hecuba; the flight of Aeneas with old Anchises on his shoulders 
 from the flaming city, form in the mind of Shakespeare a complete 
 picture of one of the world's most tragic stories. It is not so much 
 the number of references to these events as it is the vividness in 
 painting them that shows Shakespeare's sympathetic interest in the 
 fate of Troy. 
 
 Sinon's treachery made a vivid impression on Shakespeare's 
 mind. In the wall painting of the Trojan war so effectively described 
 in the Rape of Lucrece, Sin6n stands out as the important figure. 
 Lucrece, in contemplating the "painted woes" of Troy, characterizes 
 Sinon as the most despicable of all the Greeks when she compares him 
 to the cruel and treacherous Tarquin, who had betrayed both friend- 
 ship and hospitality. He, like Tarquin, was not a villain in appear- 
 ance but was a consummate master of subtlety and deceit. 
 
 In him the painter labour'd with his skill 
 To hide deceit and give the harmless show 
 An humble gait, calm looks, eyes waiting still, 
 A brow unbent that seemed to welcome woe. 
 Cheeks neither red nor pale, but mingled so 
 That blushing red no guilty instance gave, 
 Nor ashly pale the fear that false hearts have. 
 
 But like a constant and confirmed devil 
 He entertain'd a show so seeming- just. 
 And therein so ensconc'd his secret evil. 
 That jealousy itself could not mistrust 
 False-creeping craft and perjury should thrust 
 Into so bright a day such black-faced storms 
 Or blot with hell-born sin such saint-like forms.* 
 
 Sinon is iiothing short of a magician to be able to cloak so vile a heart 
 with so honest an outward appearance. 
 
 With outward honesty, but yet defil'd 
 With inward vice.^ 
 
 ' Luc. lines 1506-19. 
 'Ibid, lines 1544-45. 
 
Studies in History and Literature 89 
 
 His wit, his cleverness, and his art as an actor are contrasted with the 
 unsuspecting and guileless character of good old Priam. 
 
 Look, look, how listening Priam wets his eyes, 
 To see those borrowed tears that Sinon sheds ! 
 Priam, why art thou old and yet not wise? 
 For every tear he falls a Trojan bleeds; 
 His eyes drop fire, no water thence proceeds: 
 Those round clear pearls of his that move thy pity. 
 Are balls of quenchless fire to bum thy city/ 
 
 No wonder the credulous old Priam was captured. Sinon's tale 
 is enchanting. He is a master of wise deceit. This same character- 
 istic of Sinon is brought out in the reference in Titus Andronicus. 
 After Titus has killed his daughter and Tamora, and in turn has been 
 killed by Saturninus, Marcus turns to Lucius and asks him to explain 
 to the people the cause for all the slaughter : 
 
 Tell us what Sinon hath bevyitch'd our ears.' 
 
 In Cymbeline, Imogen, when falsely accused of unfaithfulness, 
 charges her husband with having covered his true purpose in wishing 
 her death. He has succeeded so well in deceit that hereafter : 
 
 All good seeming 
 By thy revolt, O husband ! shall be thought 
 Put on for villany.' 
 
 She compares the evil result of such an action with that of the false 
 Greek : 
 
 Sinon's weeping 
 Did scandal many a holy tear.* 
 
 Gloucester, in his soliloquy on the possibility of obtaining the 
 crown, states his treacherous aims thus: 
 
 I'll play the orator as well as Nestor, 
 Deceive more slyly then Ulysses could, 
 And like a Sinon take another Troy.° 
 
 > Luc. lines 1548-54. 
 = T. A. V. 3.85. 
 ' Cym. iii. 4. 54. 
 * Ibid. iii. 4. 59. 
 '3H6 iii. 2. 188. 
 
90 Harvard College Bulletin 
 
 Through the treachery of Sinon Troy was finally betrayed and 
 burned : 
 
 For perjur'd Sinon, whose enchanting story 
 
 The credulous old Priam after slew; 
 
 Whose words like wildfire burnt the shining glory 
 
 Of rich-built Ilion, that the skies were sorry, 
 
 And little stars shot from their fixed places, 
 
 When their glass fell wherein they viewed their faces/ 
 
 Shakespeare thought of Troy as a magnificent city, beautiful and 
 strong, "Priam's six-gated city," shut up "with massy staples and 
 corresponsive and fulfilling bolts." The burning of this wonderful 
 city in the stillness of the night greatly appealed to his imagination. 
 After Sinon had been received in full faith by the Trojans, and the 
 huge wooden horse "stuff'd within with bloody veins," had been haled 
 into the city amid the shouts of the rejoicing and unsuspecting popu- 
 lace after the celebration of the supposed departure of the Greeks, 
 all Troy for the first time in ten years sank care-free into rest. The 
 whole city lay quiet, shrouded in darkness. Upon this scene the 
 flames burst forth. Shakespeare describes the night in the second 
 part of Henry VI — when Bolingbroke, the conjurer, calls up the spirit 
 "^or theTDuchess, he wants a night as dark as that when Troy was 
 captured : 
 
 Deep night, dark night, the silent of the night 
 The time of night when Troy was set on fire."" 
 
 The solemn atmosphere of woe of that fatal night as pictured 
 in the second part of Henry IV. Morton enters, trembling and grief- 
 stricken, to announce to the Earl of Northumberland the death of 
 his son: 
 
 Even such a man, so faint, so spiritless. 
 
 So dull, so dead in look, so woe-begon. 
 
 Drew Priam's curtain in the dead of night. 
 
 And would have told him half his Troy was burn'd ; 
 
 But Priam found the fire ere he his tongue." 
 
 '■Luc. lines 1521-26. 
 ^zH6. i, 4. 17. 
 82H4. i. 1. 10. 
 
Studies in History and Literature 91 
 
 Shakespeare emphasizes the darkness of the night, and the fact 
 that the Greeks treacherously took Troy by surprise: 
 
 The story of that baleful burning night 
 
 When subtle Greeks surprised King Priam's Troy/ 
 
 Titus Andronicus exclaims in agony to his son who reminds him 
 of his daughter's loss of her hands : 
 
 Ah ! wherefore dost thou urge the name of hands, 
 
 To bid Aeneas tell the tale twice o'er 
 
 How Troy was burnt, and he made miserable T 
 
 In Hamlet, Hecuba is mentioned as running barefoot up and down 
 among the flames. Ascanius is represented as telling to Dido: 
 
 His father's acts commenced in burning Troy.' 
 
 Titus Andronicus in the excess of his grief seemingly could hear 
 no more, but when Lavinia appears handless, crys out: 
 
 What fool hath added water to the sea 
 
 Or brought a faggot to bright burning Troy?* 
 
 In Lucrece, the burning of Troy is referred to several times : 
 
 This load of wrath that burning Troy doth bear.' 
 
 Had doting Priam check'd his son's desire 
 
 Troy had been bright with fame and not with fire." 
 
 Two other events of this baleful night when Troy was sacked 
 by the Greeks, are sympathetically treated by Shakespeare. One is 
 the murder of old Priam and the other is the overwhelming sorrow 
 of Hecuba. The murder of Priam, venerable with age, by the cruel 
 and hot youth Pyrrhus is told in detail in Hamlet. The young prince 
 of Denmark tells the actor that in a certain play there was one speech 
 he chiefly loved, " 'twas Aeneas' tale to Dido." He asks the player 
 to begin at the line about Priam's slaughter. Hamlet himself begins 
 the speech: 
 
 ir. A. V. 3. 82. 
 
 ^T. A. iii. 2. 26. 
 ^2//. iii. 2. 118. 
 *r. A. i. 1. 69. 
 ''Luc. lines 1474-76. 
 *'Z.«c. lines 1490-92. 
 
93 Howard College Bulletin 
 
 The rugged Pyrrhus, he, whose sable arm, 
 
 Black as his purpose, did the night resemble, 
 
 When he lay couched in the ominous horse. 
 
 Hath now this dread and black complexion smear'd 
 
 With heraldry more dismal; head to foot 
 
 Now is he total gules; horridly trick'd 
 
 With blood of fathers, mothers, daughters, sons, 
 
 Bak'd and imparted with the parching streets 
 
 That lend a tyrannous and damned light 
 
 To their vile murders : roasted in wrath and fire. 
 
 And thus o'er-sized with coagulate gore 
 
 With eyes like carbuncles, the hellish Pyrrhus 
 
 Old grandsire Priam seeks. 
 
 The player then takes up the story and finishes the description of 
 Priam's death: 
 
 Anon he finds him 
 Striking too short at Greeks : his antique sword 
 Rebellious to his arm, lies where it falls. 
 Repugnant to command, unequal match'd, 
 Pyrrhus at Priam drives : in rage strikes wide : 
 But with the whiff and wind of his fell sword 
 The unnerved father falls. Then senseless Ilium, 
 Seeming to feel this blow, with flaming top 
 Stoops to his base, and with a hideous crash 
 Takes prisoner Pyrrhus' ear : for lo ! his sword. 
 Which was declining on the milky head 
 Of reverend Priam seem'd i' the air to stick : 
 So, as a painted tyrant, Pyrrhus stood. 
 And like a neutral to his will and matter, 
 Did nothing. 
 
 But, as we often see, against some storm, 
 A silence in the heavens, the rack stand still. 
 The bold winds speechless and the orb below 
 As hush as death, anon the dreadful thunder 
 Doth rend the region ; so, after Pyrrhus' pause, 
 Aroused vengeance sets him new awork; 
 And never did the Cyclops' hammers fall 
 On Mar's armour, forg'd for proof eteme. 
 With less remorse than Pyrrhus' bleeding sword 
 Now falls on Priam.' 
 
 Then follows a wonderful description of Hecuba: 
 
 ' Ham. ii. i. 450 ff. 
 
Studies in History and Literature 93 
 
 But who, O ! who had seen the mobled queen . . . 
 Run barefoot up and down threatening the flames 
 With bisson rheum: a clout upon that head 
 Where late the diadem stood; and for a robe, 
 About her lank and all o'er teemed loins, 
 A blanket, in the alarm of fear caught up ; 
 Who this had seen with tongue in venom steep'd, 
 'Gainst Fortune's state would treason have pronounc'd: 
 But if the gods themselves did see her then. 
 Where she saw Pyrrhus make malicious sport 
 In mincing with his sword her husband's limbs, 
 The instant burst of clamor that she made — 
 Unless things mortal move them not at all — 
 Would have made milch the burning eyes of heaven, 
 And passion in the gods/ 
 
 Here the player breaks off in his recital, overcome by grief at the 
 picture he has drawn. It was in such a way that the story of the 
 grief-stricken old Hecuba affected Shakespeare himself. Every time 
 he mentions Hecuba her age and her grief stand out as her chief 
 characteristics. In the Rape of Lucrece, he represents Lucrece look- 
 ing at the painting for some face where distress and grief alone are 
 painted : 
 
 But none where all distress and dolor dwell'd 
 Till she despairing Hecuba beheld. 
 Staring on Priam's wounds with her old eyes, 
 Which bleeding under Pyrrhus' proud foot lies. 
 
 In her the painter had anatomized 
 
 Times ruin, beauty's wrack and grim care's reign: 
 
 Her cheeks with chaps and wrinkles were disgus'd; 
 
 Of what she was no semblance did remain : 
 
 Her blue blood chang'd to black in every vein. 
 
 Wanting the spring that those shrunk pipes had fed, 
 
 Show'd life imprison'd in a body dead.' 
 
 She is painted with a countenance so expressive of woe, that 
 Lucrece feels that the painter has done her a wrong not to have given 
 her a tongue with which to express so much grief. In Titus Androni- 
 cuSj Hecuba is spoken of as having run mad because of sorrow. Again 
 in Cymbeline she is characterized as "madded Hecuba." 
 
 In all the turmoil of that last night of Troy, another picture 
 stands out conspicuously in Shakespeare's mind — that of Aeneas car- 
 
 1 Ham. ii. 2. 505. 
 ^Luc. lines 1444-56. 
 
94 Howard College Bulletin 
 
 rying out on his shoulders the aged Anchises. Cassius, in relating to 
 Brutus the rescue of Caesar, says : 
 
 I, as Aeneas, our great ancestor. 
 Did from the flames of Troy upon his shoulder 
 The old Anchises bear, so from the waves of Tiber 
 Did I the tired Caesar/ 
 
 Young Clifford, bearing out the dead body of his father, sees in 
 the act a resemblance to that of Aeneas: 
 
 As did Aeneas old Anchises bear 
 So bear I thee upon my manly shoulders 
 But then Aeneas bore a living load, 
 Nothing so heavy as these woes of mine.' 
 
 The story of the fall of Troy as told by Aeneas to Dido is often 
 referred to. Hamlet says that there was "one speech in it I chiefly 
 loved; 'twas Aeneas' tale to Dido." 
 
 When with his solemn tongue he did discourse 
 To love-sick Dido's sad attending ear 
 The story of that baleful burning night.' 
 
 The d esertion of Dido by Aeneas aroused Shakespeare's sympa- 
 thy for the unfortunate queen. In this connection he speaks of the 
 'l iaise Aeneas^ " In Cymbeline^ Imogen p uts Aeneas i n the same_cjass 
 wjth Sino n as synonymous with treachery an d deceit Queen Mar- 
 garet, feeling that she has been deceived as Uido was, asks — 
 
 Am I not witch'd like her? Or thou 
 Not false like him?' 
 
 In A Midsummer-Night's Dream, Hermia promises to meet Ly- 
 sander at the appointed time, and swears many an oath by way of 
 emphasis. She refers thus to the "false Aeneas" : 
 
 And by that fire which burned the Carthage Queen, 
 When the false Trojan under sail was seen.° 
 
 V. C. i. 2. 112. 
 
 ''.H6. V. 2. 62. 
 sr. A. V. 3. 80. 
 *2H6. iii. 2. 119. 
 "Vf. N. D. i. 1. 173. 
 
Studies in History and Literature 95 
 
 A most beautiful and tender picture of Dido's love for Aeneas 
 is given in the Merchant of Venice: 
 
 In such a night 
 Stood Dido with a willow in her hand 
 Upon the wild sea-banks and waft her love 
 To come again to Carthage." 
 
 In the Tempest, there are several humorous allusions to "widow 
 Dido" and "widower Aeneas." In Romeo and Juliet Dido is men- 
 tioned as beautiful but in comparison with Romeo's love is a "mere 
 dowdy" ! 
 
 Besides these important episodes of the Troy story that stand 
 out conspicuously in Shakespeare's works, there are many definite 
 references, and several vague allusions to various heroes and events 
 of the war. 
 
 Strangely enough, the greatest hero of the Greek side, Achilles, is : 
 only mentioned three times outside of Troilus and Cressida, and these 
 are rather indefinite allusions. In Love's Labour's Lost, the comic 
 characters are presenting the nine worthies before the King, the 
 princess and their attendants. When Hector makes his appearance 
 as one of the worthies, Berowne exclaims: 
 
 Hide thy head Achilles, here comes 
 Hector in arms."" 
 
 This merely conveys the idea that Hector is a foe whom Achilles 
 should fear. In the second part of King Henry VI, Achilles, spear 
 is spoken of as having magic power: 
 
 Whose smile and frown like to Achilles' spear, 
 Is able with the change to kill and cure.' 
 
 The famous spear is again mentioned in The Rape of Lucrece: 
 
 That for Achilles' image stood his spear, 
 Griped in an armed hand, himself behind 
 Was left unseen, save to the eye of mind." /~ 
 
 Agamemnon, the Grecian commander-in-chief, is almost ignored 
 
 W. of V. V. 1. 10. 
 'L. L. L. V. 2. 6^5. 
 ^zHS. V. i. roi. 
 *Luc. line 1424. 
 
96 Howard College Bulletin 
 
 by Shakespeare. He is little more than a figure-head in Troilus and 
 Cressida, for he is not fully characterized. In the third part of 
 Henry VI, he is spoken of as Menelaus' brother. The term 'magnani- 
 mous' is applied to him in Henry V. 
 
 The Duke of Exeter is as magnanimous as Agamemnon.' 
 This characterization means nothing at all, for magnanimity was no 
 special trait of the classical or medieval Agamemnon.__Menelaus did not 
 interest Shakespeare either. '7LlLLt!2^_.g.':f^l;_l2ri9-^'' '" T'rmlux and^ 
 Cressida, he p lays_the... smallest part. 
 
 Ajax, however, made a deep impression upon Shakespeare. 
 Stupidity and madness are his main traits. In The Rape of Lucrece, 
 he is contrasted with the mild and clever Ulysses : 
 
 In Ajax' eyes blunt rage and rigour roll'd.'" 
 
 In Love's Labour's Lost, Ajax is to be presented as the ninth 
 worthy. Kent, in King Lear, when out-argued by Cornwall and 
 Oswald, sees himself in the same position Ajax was in when outwitted 
 by the unscrupulous and crafty Greek heroes: — 
 
 None of these rogues and cowards 
 But Ajax is their fool.^ 
 
 When the famous armor of Achilles was given to Ulysses instead 
 of to Ajax, Ajax became enraged, went mad, and finally committed 
 suicide. Shakespeare alludes to this episode several times. His 
 slaughter of the cattle in his madness is humorously made use of by 
 Berowne in Love's Labour's Lost: — 
 
 By the Lord, this love is as mad as 
 Ajax: it kills sheep: it kills me, 
 I a sheep.* 
 
 In the second part of King' Henry VI York, leading a rebellion 
 against the King, exclaims in his anger: — 
 
 Scarce can I speak, my choler is so great 
 
 O ! I could hew up rocks and fight with flint, 
 
 I am so angry at these abject terms 
 
 And now, like Ajax Telamonius, 
 
 On sheep and oxen could I spend my fury.° 
 
 'H. V. iii. 6. 7. 
 'Luc. line 1398. 
 ^Lear, ii. 2, 123. 
 «i. L. L. iv. 3. 7. 
 »2H6. >r. 1. 23. 
 
Studies in History and Literature 97 
 
 Ajax's suicide is referred to in Titus Andronicus : 
 
 The Greeks upon advice did bury Ajax 
 That slew himself.' 
 
 Ulysses who plays such an important part in Troilus and Cressida, 
 is scarcely mentioned outside of this play. In the third part of King 
 Henry VI, Warwick and his followers plan to capture King Edward 
 in the night : 
 
 As Ulysses, and stout Diomed 
 
 With sleight and manhood stole to Rhesus' tents, 
 
 And brought from thence the Thracian fatal steeds.'' 
 
 An indirect reference is made to Ulysses in Coriolanus. Vergilia, 
 who refused to go out in the absence of her husband, is compared 
 with Penelope, who stayed at home and spun in Ulysses' absence. 
 A more direct characterization is given in The Rape of Lucrece : 
 
 But the mild glance that sly Ulysses lent 
 Show'd deep regard and smiling government.' 
 
 Nestor, in Shakespeare, has two prominent characteristics, age 
 and eloquence. Gloucester says: 
 
 Til play the orator as well as Nestor.* 
 
 His age is emphasized in the speech of Mortimer, who compares his 
 advanced age with that of Nestor : 
 
 And these grey locks, the pursuivants of death 
 Nestor-like aged, in an age of care 
 Argue the death of Edward Mortimer.' 
 
 His wisdom and authority as a judge is attested in The Merchant of 
 Venice. Salarino, in describing the strange fellows framed by Nature, 
 says that there are some of such sour dispositions — 
 
 That they'll not show their teeth in a smile 
 Though Nestor swear the jest be laughable." 
 
 T. A. i. 1. 378. 
 ^3H6. iv. 2. 19. 
 ^Luc. lines 1398-1400. 
 *3H6. iii. 2. 188. 
 ^iH6. ii. 5- 5- 
 'M. of V. i. I. 54. 
 
&8 Howard College Bulletin 
 
 The King, in Love's Labour's Lost, who has fallen in love con- 
 trary to his vow, and who had made himself ridiculous in condemning 
 others for the same offense, is laughed at by Berowne who tells him 
 his action is as undignified as Nestor's would be if he should "play 
 at push-pin with the boys." Nothing could be more ludicrous for the 
 venerable old counselor to do. 
 
 His age, his wisdom and power of persuasion are forcefully 
 described in The Rape of Lucrece : 
 
 There pleading might you see grave Nestor stand. 
 As 'twere encouraging the Greeks to fight. 
 Making such sober action with his hand, 
 That it beguil'd attention, charmed the sight; 
 In speech, it seemed, his head, all silver white, 
 . Wagged up and down, and from his lips did fly 
 Thin winding breath, which purl'd up to the sky. 
 About him a press of gaping faces 
 Which seemed to swallow up his sound advice; 
 All jointly listening, but with several graces. 
 As if some mermaid did their ears entice.'' 
 
 Hector,, the most valiant of all the Trojan heroes, is referred to 
 many times, but his sole characteristic seems to be bravery. He is a 
 bold_warrior^a_type of heroism. Antony commends his soldiers — 
 "You have shown all Hectors." King Henry VI calls Warwick "My 
 Hector, My Troy's true hope." In Much Ado About Nothing, Don 
 Pedro speaks of Benedick as being as "valiant as Hector." Doll Tear- 
 sheet tells Falstaff that he is as "valorous as Hector, worth five of 
 Agamemnon." The Host calls Caius "Hector of Greece, my boy." 
 The countess on seeing Talbot the first time, exclaims in disappoint- 
 ment that she had expected to see a "second Hector." The last stand 
 of the Duke of York against his foes is compared to the stand Hector 
 made against the Greeks when they would have entered Troy. The 
 boldness and courage of Hector is emphasized in Anfidius' , challenge 
 to Marcius to fight: 
 
 Wert thou the Hector 
 That was the whig of your bragg'd progeny. 
 Thou shouldst not 'scape me here.'' 
 
 Volumnia chides Valeria for her horror of blood and battle. To 
 
 ^ Luc. lines 1401-11. 
 ^Cor. i. 8. 12. 
 
Studies in History and Literature 99 
 
 show that blood spilt in a righteous cause is beautiful, she cites Hec- 
 tor's brave deeds: 
 
 the breasts of Hecuba 
 When she did suckle Hector, looked not lovlier 
 Than Hector's forehead when it spit forth blood 
 At Grecian swords, contemning.' 
 
 In The Rape of Lucrece, Hector is called "Manly Hector'' and 
 "brave hope, bold Hector." In Love's Labour's Lost, he is presented 
 as one of the worthies. Armada armed as Hector, calls forth many 
 humorous remarks from his audience. Hector is characterized as 
 "heir of Ilion," "worthy knight of Troy," and "brave Hector." 
 
 Troilus is named as one of the patterns of love by Rosalind: c 
 
 Troilus had his brains dashed out by a Grecian club: 
 yet he did what he could to die before, and he is one of the 
 patterns of love.'' 
 
 The romance of the Troilus-Cressida story is beautifully inter- 
 preted in the Love scene of Jessica and Lorenza : 
 
 The moon shines bright: in such a night as this, 
 
 When the sweet wind did gently kiss the trees, 
 And they did make no noise ; in such a night ' 
 
 Troilus, methinks, mounted the Trojan walls, ' 
 
 And sigh'd his soul toward the Grecian tents. 
 Where Cressid lay that night.' 
 
 A less romantic allusion is made to Cressida in Twelfth Night. 
 The clown calls her a beggar. A reference to her as a leper is made 
 by Pistol in King Henry V : 
 
 No: to the spital go, 
 
 And from the powdering tub of infamy 
 
 Fetch forth the lazar kite of Cressid's kind.* 
 
 There are only three direct references to Pandarus outside of 
 Troilus and Cressida. In Twelfth Night, the clown makes use of 
 the popular conception of Pandarus: 
 
 ^Cor. i. 3. 40. 
 
 ^As. iv. 1. 93. 
 
 ^M. of V. V. ]. 1. 
 
 *Hs. ii. 1. 76- 
 
100 Howard College Bulletin 
 
 I would play Lord Pandarus of Phrygia, sir, to bring a 
 Cressida to this Troilus.' 
 
 Pandarus' office is again spoken of in All's Well that Ends Well : 
 
 I am Cress-id's uricle 
 That dare leave two together/ 
 
 Pistol in The Merry Wives of Windsor exclaims : 
 
 Shall I Sir Pandarus of Troy become, 
 And by my side wear steel?' 
 
 Paris is merely mentioned as the lover of Helen. Neither.he nor 
 Helen appealed deeply to Shakespeare. They are both mentioned in 
 The Rape of Lucrece as the cause of the Trojan War : 
 
 Show me the strumpet that began this stir, 
 That with my nails her beauty I may tear 
 Thy heart of lust, fond Paris, did incur 
 This load of wrath that burning Troy doth bear : 
 Thy eye kindled the fire that burneth here. 
 And here in Troy, for trespass of thine eye, 
 The sire, the son, the dame and daughter die.' 
 
 In All's Well That Ends Well, Helen is again spoken of as cause 
 of the war: 
 
 Was this fair face the cause, quoth she, 
 Why the Grecians sacked Troy?' 
 
 Shakespeare, however, often makes use of Helen as a type of 
 beauty : 
 
 On Helen's cheek all art of beauty set." 
 
 The lover all as frantic 
 Sees Helen's beauty in a brow of Egypt.' 
 
 Nature presently distill'd 
 Helen's cheek but not her heart.' 
 
 Helen of Greece was fairer far then thou.' 
 
 '^Tw. N. iii. 1. 52, 
 M. W. ii. 1. 99. 
 'M. W. i. 3. 76. 
 *Luc. lines 1470-78. 
 M. W. i. 3. 71. 
 "Sonnett 53, line 7. 
 'iW. N. D. V. 2. n 
 ^As. iii. 2. 144. 
 »3H6. ii. 2. 146. 
 
Studies in History and Literature 101 
 
 Shakespeare makes use of these references to the Troy story to 
 heighten the effect of his verse. He embellishes his poetry with 
 pleasing illustration, similes, and metaphors. He seldom makes an 
 inappropriate application of the story. If he wished an example of 
 bravery, Hector immediately arose in his mind. If he wanted a pas- 
 sionate lover, Troilus was chosen. If he wished to describe the most 
 perfect feminine beauty, he used Helen as a comparison. If he 
 wanted an illustration of unscrupulousness and slyness, he made use 
 of Ulysses. If he wished an example of anger or madness, he took 
 Ajax; if falseness, Aeneas; if perjury, Sinon; if old age and wisdom, 
 Nestor; if kingly digmtyT^riam ; if extreme sorrow, Hecuba; if loose- 
 neSs^nd fickleness in womaiiTT^ressida. His most elaborate use of 
 the story is the famous painting mTTiS' Rape of Lucrece. 
 
 In_.thejgl ay, Troi lus and Cressida, ShakespeaT&^_mterest_Jn_th.e 
 siege of Troy finds its fullest expression. When the play was first 
 prmted it was stated on the title page that it had been acted by the 
 King's Men at the Globe. In later printings of this title page the 
 statement was struck out and a preface to the reader was added, in 
 which the play is described as new, "never slated with the stage, never 
 clapper-clawed with the palms of the vulgar." This last is most 
 likely correct, for it is a play more suitable for reading than for acting. 
 It is an experiment of Shakespeare at dramatizing a story that was 
 peculiarly fascinating to him, and was probably never intended for 
 stage performance. 
 
 In the prologue, Shakespeare gives a brief history of the Trojan 
 war, and points out that his play is to deal with only a brief period ^ 
 of the siege: 
 
 Our play / 
 
 Leaps o'er the vaunt and firstlings of those broils. 
 Beginning in the middle; starting thence away 
 To what may be digested in a play. 
 
 This shows Shakespeare's skill in choice of material. For 
 dramatic purposes he chooses the four most thrilling days of the 
 Trojan siege. He takes the most critical and interesting point in the 
 war, the events leading up to the death of Hector, the hope of Troy. 
 This is the most tragic episode of the war for the Trojans. They had 
 just been given the opportunity to return Helen and make peace, and 
 their unwise decision makes inevitable their final doom. The love 
 
103 Howard College Bulletin 
 
 story of Troilus and Cressida which Boccaccio and Chaucer had made 
 so famous is the main theme, but it does not have the all-important 
 place in Shakespeare that it does in his predecessors. Of almost equal 
 interest is the scheme of Ulysses and Nestor to stir the proud Achilles 
 out of his inactivity, and the challenge of Hector and his encounter 
 with Ajax. The logical way these various themes are woven together, 
 testifies to Shakespeare's power of unifying an intractable and un- 
 wieldy subject. He tells us in the prologue that we can like it or 
 leave it alone : 
 
 Like or find fault; do as your pleasures are: 
 Now good or bad, 'tis but the chance of war. 
 
 Shakespeare seems to have realized that it would not appeal to 
 all, but this does not trouble him. He has chosen from a mass of war 
 material, episodic in nature, the events suitable for dramatic repre- 
 sentation, and has unified and enlivened it by the introduction of the 
 Troilus-Cressida love theme. He selected "what may be digested in 
 a play," the combination of love and war. Troilus, the young hero, 
 is defeated in both, but emerges from the experience a sadder, but 
 a much wiser man. 
 
 II 
 
 Shakespeare's Conception of the Troy Story 
 
 Shakespeare's conception of the Troy story was more or less 
 governed by the sources of his knowledge. He could not possibly 
 have had the same conception of it that Homer had. Any story as 
 powerful, as interesting, and as appealing as the siege of Troy could 
 not have come down through the ages without great changes. Nothing 
 is more unreasonable than to read Homer's Iliad, and then Shakes- 
 peare's Troilus and Cressida, and then say that Shakespeare, in a 
 cynical mood, satirized the Greek heroes, made ridiculous a great epic, 
 and maliciously poked fun at Homer himself. This might be a just 
 criticism, if the Iliad and Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida were the 
 only expressions of the story, but even then, Shakespeare should have 
 the right of interpretation and originality. But these are not the only 
 treatments of the famous legend, and the vast number of versions 
 must be taken into consideration. No cross-section of any period of 
 
Studies in History and Literature 103 
 
 the story is the real story. The continuous development must be 
 considered. The siege of Troy, as understood in Shakespeare's time, 
 was the result of the growth of the Middle Ages, and of the Renais- 
 sance. A story that is the result of such growth can be truly inter- 
 preted only by the historical method. This is the only way that 
 Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida can be understood and appre- 
 ciated. This does not necessarily mean that Shakespeare slavishly 
 followed his sources, but it cannot be denied that he is indebted to 
 others for the facts, and thereby in an indirect way, for his notion 
 of them. His references to the Troy legend are more often than not, 
 mere adaptations of sources, or apt phrasing of the current popular 
 conceptions of some Trojan hero or event. In his play, however, 
 Shakespeare goes beyond and deeper than any of his sources. Here 
 he has wider scope for originality in character portrayal. But behind 
 and through it all there is the Medieval and Renaissance conception 
 of the siege of Troy. 
 
 I have already given the main outline of the history of the Troy 
 story, but I wish to sum up here some of the most important results 
 of Medieval and Renaissance treatments, in order to give a clear idea 
 of the literary and historical traditions back of Shakespeare. There 
 are two very prominent features in his portrayal of the story, one, the 
 atmosphere of chivalry in the play Troilus and Cressida, and the other, _ 
 his partiality to the Trojans. The explanation of both these features 
 is found in the historical development of the story. ' The preference 
 for the Trojans was started by Vergil. The hero of the Aeneid is 
 the Trojan who founded the Roman race. Vergil, whose patriotism 
 and pride in the great Roman Empire inspired him to write his epic, 
 on all . occasions enlists our sympathy for the Trojans. Vergil was 
 the favorite author of the Middle Ages, and all his successors fol- 
 lowed suit in praise of the unfortunate race. The nations of Western 
 Europe claimed descent from the Trojans. The French chose Hector 
 for their ancestor, the English chose Aeneas; and even the Turks 
 claimed descent from Troilus. The English regarded their descent^ 
 from the Trojans quite seriously in the sixteenth and seventeenth | 
 centuries. Heywood many times refers to London as New Troy, and 
 in his Troia Britanica takes great pains to trace the descent of the 
 English Kings from Aeneas down to Elizabeth. All the literature of 
 the Middle Ages and of the Renaissance, consequently, showed great 
 favor to the Trojans, and in so doing, changed or colored the story of 
 
104 V Howard College Bulletin 
 
 the Trojan war to suit this purpose^ The Trojans were no longer 
 to blame for the war. Priam's sister, Hesione, had been made a 
 slave by a Greek. Priam sends two embassies demanding her return, 
 but the Greeks refuse. Finally, Paris, who has had a vision on Mt. 
 Ida of a wonderful adventure for himself, suggests that some noble 
 Greek lady be stolen by the Trojans to avenge the wrongs of Hesione. 
 Priam and his war council consent, and Paris sails for Greece, and 
 returns with Helen. In this way the cause of the war is laid at the 
 door of the Greeks. This war council of Priam and the story of 
 Hesione are related by Guido, Benoit, Leferve, Lydgate, and Caxton. 
 f There were many little turns of events introduced in the Middle Ages 
 I that were unfavorable to the Greeks; for instance, truces were de- 
 manded more often by the Greeks than by the Trojans. Achilles, 
 who in Homer is a fierce warrior, but always manly and noble, be- 
 comes a coward and a traitor; he falls in love with Polyxena, daugh- 
 ter of Priam, refuses to join battle, sacrifices his patriotism to his 
 love for his enemy's daughter, and kills Hector in a most cowardly 
 and brutal way. Ulysses' characteristics of slyness and deceit are 
 emphasized. On the contrary, the Trojan heroes are extolled for 
 their superior qualities. Hector becomes the flower of chivalry. He 
 is glorified as the most courteous, modest, and also the most valiant 
 of all the Trojans or Greeks. Troilus grows from a mere name in 
 Homer to an equal sharer of glory with Hector. He even steals some 
 of his brother's laurels. He is younger than Hector, more passionate 
 and headstrong. Ajax is made the cousin of Hector. Calchas, the 
 Greek priest of Homer, is made a Trojan deserter and father of 
 Cressida, who is also a creation of the Middle Ages. Many other addi- 
 tions and changes were made. Hector's visit to the Greek camp was 
 added, and the circumstances of his death altered from those related 
 by Homer. The removal of the gods was another important change 
 of the Middle Ages. That, and the introduction of chivalry, dispelled 
 the classical atmosphere entirely. That intangible something that 
 makes for grandeur and sublimity was eliminated. The war became 
 a game, an exercise in knightly adventures. We shall later see how 
 these changes and additions made by Medieval and Renaissance writers 
 are used by Shakespeare. 
 
 We have already stated that the legend of Troy was at its height 
 of popularity on the English stage between 1592 and 1602. It is in 
 this period that Shakespeare uses the story most in his plays, and at 
 
Studies in History and Literature 105 
 
 the close of this period he wrote Troilus and Cressida. It is prob- 
 able that Shakespeare's interest in the story was aroused by its popu- 
 larity on the stage at this time. We know that he wrote sonnets be- 
 because the sonnet was a popular form of literature. He began writing 
 plays because that was what most literary men were turning their 
 attention to. He began writing historical plays, because a historical 
 play of a rival company had taken London by storm. It seems most 
 natural, then, that one reason why Shakespeare wrote Troilus and 
 Cressida was that the general public at this time was extremely inter- 
 ested in anything relating to the siege of Troy. 
 
 The Troy story was not only available to Shakespeare through 
 the Rennaissance treatment of it and as it was acted on the stage in 
 his day, but the original sources were also open to him. There had 
 been two English translations of Homer that he could have used. 
 Golding's translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses was one of his favorite 
 books. Then there is no doubt that Shakespeare read Ovid and Vergil 
 in the original. Thus there was a combination of influences brought 
 to bear upon Shakespeare's conception of the story. Some of his 
 references to the siege of Troy have a purely classical atmosphere; 
 some express merely the popular notion of it, and others the medieval 
 conception. At times there is a combination of all three colored by 
 Shakespeare's own ethical ideals and original interpretation. 
 
 Shakespeare gives the truest classical atmosphere in the refer- 
 ences to the death of Priam and the sorrow of Hecuba in Hamlet, and 
 in the picture of the final overthrow of Troy as found in The Rape 
 of Lucrece. Both these are adaptations of the second book of Vergil's 
 Aeneid, which accounts, for the lack of the chivalric inflvienc_e which 
 is found to be so prevalent in Troife and Cressida. Vergil wins our 
 entire sympathy for the i^uined city and conquered race, and* Shakes- 
 peare preserves this fea^re. In Hamlet, the story is told with love 
 and pity for the unfortunate house of Priam, and with scorn for the 
 cruel Pyrrhus, who represents all the fierceness and cruel-heartedness 
 of the Greeks. In The Rape of Lucrece the same feeling of over- 
 whelming pity for Priam and the Trojans is aroused. Priam in his 
 simple credulity is representative of the idealism of the Trojan race, 
 just as Sinon is an example of Greek craftiness, subtlety and treachery. 
 The trusting, kind-hearted old Priam and his soldiers are taken in by 
 the more clever but deceitful Greeks. Shakespeare's conception of 
 the whole Greek race is summed up in the words of Gloucester, who 
 
106 Howard College Bulletin 
 
 characterizes three of their representatives as clever artificers : 
 
 I'll play the orator as well as Nestor, 
 Deceive more slyly than Ulysses could, 
 And like a Sinon, take another Troy.' 
 
 Shakespeare conceived of this final night as a great tragedy, a 
 highly civilized race, of which the venerable Priam and noble Hector 
 are representative, overthrown in the moment of seeming victory by 
 the crafty means of a deceitful Greek. Sinon plays the part of the 
 villain in this powerful drama. He is a most subtle and contemptible 
 villain, who with tears and lamentations, tells a most pitiable tale, 
 which destroys a city. The nation is overthrown by strategy, not 
 conquered. Shakespeare has complete sympathy for this sad event. 
 The Trojans are represented as the nobler, better race, but they are 
 by no means perfect. Here Shakespeare makes his own comment on 
 the war. It is magnificent in its result, but extremely foolish in its 
 beginning. Priam's tragic death was the immediate result of Sinon's 
 treachery, but it was none the less caused by Priam himself. He 
 brought ruin on himself and his people by not checking the cause 
 of the war : 
 
 Had doting Priam check'd his son's desire, 
 
 Troy had been bright with fame and not with fire.^ 
 
 Shakespeare felt deeply the tragic force of the last days of Troy, 
 but the story of Helen and Paris had no allurement for him. Helen, 
 outside of the two characteristics of beauty and falseness, has no 
 interest for him. Paris is condemned as weak, selfish, sensual, and 
 ignoble. Many people have puzzled their brains over the question 
 why Shakespeare did not make a great tragedy out of the Helen- 
 Paris story as he did of the Antony and Cleopatra plot. Shakespeare 
 would probably have answered that he could have done so had he 
 desired to re-create Paris and Helen, transform them into personages 
 entirely , different. Helen, as Shakespeare pictured her to himself, 
 was physically beautiful but shallow and frivolous, and Paris had none 
 of the stuff in him that tragic heroes are made of. In Antony and 
 Cleopatra, on the contrary, he had great, powerful, and highly intel- 
 ligent personages to deal with. 
 
 ^ 3H6. iii. 2. 188-90. 
 ^Luc. lines 1490-92. 
 
Studies in History and Literature 107 
 
 In the Rape of Lucrece, Shakespeare sums up the cause of the war 
 as lust — the same conception he gives of it in Troilus and Cressida. ' 
 This idea of the fooHshness and futility of such a war necessarily 
 destroys some of its gripping power as a story. A certain amount of 
 dignity and grandeur is taken away from the heroes. Shakespeare's 
 ethical ideals here lead him to depart to some extent from the Vergilian 
 conception of the majesty of the war. The moral wrong of Helen // 
 and Paris has led to the senseless waste of innocent lives. . 
 
 Show me the strumpet that began this stir, 
 That with my nails her beauty I may tear. 
 Thy heart of lust, fond Paris, did incur 
 This load of wrath that burning Troy doth bear : 
 Thy eye kindled the fire that burneth here; 
 And here in Troy for trespass of thine eye, 
 The sire, the son, the dame and daughter die. 
 
 Why should the private pleasure of some one 
 Become the public plague of many more? 
 Let sin, alone committed, light alone 
 Upon his head that hath transgressed so : 
 Let guiltless souls be freed from guilty woe: 
 For one offence why should so many fall, 
 To plague a private sin in general? 
 
 Lo! here weeps Hecuba, here Priam dies, 
 Here manly Hector faints, here Troilus swounds, 
 Here friend by friend in bloody channel lies, 
 And fiend to fiend gives unadvised wounds. 
 And one man's lust these many lives confounds.' 
 
 Shakespeare's conception of Aeneas has more of the classical 
 notion in the references outside of Troilus and Cressida, but in the 
 play he is a cross between an Elizabethan courtier and a medieval 
 kiught.^„ Vergil is the source of the allusions. All hope is not lost 
 for the survival of the Trojan race. Aeneas with old Anchises on 
 his shoulder steals out of the burning city and flees to foreign lands 
 to establish anew the race of Priam. His desertion of Dido in Vergil 
 takes none of the nobility of character from him, for he leaves her 
 at the will of the gods; but under Shakespeare's pen Aeneas loses 
 some of his nobler qualities. Shakespeare introduces the "false 
 Aeneas" who deserted a constant and loving woman, and thus turns 
 all our sympathy to Dido. 
 
 To explain Shakespeare's conception of Troilus and Cressida is 
 
 ' Luc. lines 1471-89. 
 
108 Howard College Bulletin 
 
 difficult. There have been more different interpretations of the play 
 than of any other of Shakespeare's. Some scholars call it his most 
 brilliant masterpiece, others find it the least worthy, and there are 
 various other opinions ranging between these two extremes. Either 
 interpretation finds much plausibility, depending upon the viewpoint 
 of the reader. Every one agrees that it is baffling to the understand- 
 ing. This is a testimony to the greatness and complexity of the play. 
 To some it is as puzzling as the riddle of the Sphinx, and as insoluble 
 as the smile of Mona Lisa. Coleridge' says there is no one of Shakes- 
 peare's plays that is harder to characterize, while Swinburne'' speaks 
 of the "insolubly enigmatic History of Troilus and Cressida." Others 
 find no difficulty in fitting it into a theory, even while admitting its 
 perplexing nature. Perhaps one_way^ of fmding_outjsdiat Troilus jind 
 C're^^ida^saeaxis^s to f ind jout_what it does notmean. According to 
 the most noted critics, it may have different and entirely antagonistic 
 meanings. All these interpretations of it can not be correct. By a 
 process of elimination, the least plausible theories may be rejected, 
 and by a comparison of the others with the facts, some tangible and 
 reasonable conclusion may be reached. 
 
 Some of the most important theories of interpretation of Troilus 
 and Cressida areAfirst, that it was a contribution to the war of the 
 theatres in which Shakespeare satirized his rivals )i*^condly, that it 
 was a malicious degradation of the Homeric story caused by jealousy 
 of Chapman and the rising popularity of the classics ;^^irdly, that it 
 was the result of Shakespeare's. personal history, producing a cynical 
 and satirical viewpoint; andj)pstly, that it was the natural outgrowth 
 .of the long history of the story. 
 
 Scholars no longer hold the theory advanced by Fleay, that it 
 was a satire on the dramatists of the day. It would take a vivid 
 imagination to see the play in this light. That Troilus and Cressida 
 is a deliberate travesty of the classics caused by Shakespeare's jealousy 
 of the "rival poet," Chapman, is an interpretation held by several 
 critics. Schlegel calls it a parody designedly made of the Greek 
 epic as translated by Chapman. Ulrici has the same opinion. Fumi- 
 val calls it a "deliberate debasing of that Homer Chapman englisht." 
 Furnival gives as proof for this belief the fact that in Lucrece due 
 reverence is paid to the Greeks, while in Troilus and Cressida an 
 entirely different attitude is shown toward the Greek leaders. He 
 
 ' S. T. Coleridge, Lectures and Notes on Shakespeare (1818-1829). 
 ^A. C. Swinburne, General Introduction to the Works of Shakespeare. 
 
Studies in History and Literature 109 
 
 says that if the poem and play be set side by side, the entirely differ- 
 ent tone in the two will be obvious.' When Shakespeare wrote Lucrece 
 he had one attitude toward the Greeks, but after the translation of 
 Homer by Chapman, he changed his viewpoint entirely ; in other words, 
 that Shakespeare out of jealousy belittled the heroes of Homer. On 
 the surface, this explanation seems reasonable, but Furnival fails to 
 note that partiality is shown to the Trojans in Lucrece to the disparage- 
 ment of the Greeks, and this cannot be explained by Chapman's trans- 
 lation of Homer. 3[^en the main characteristics of the Greeks of 
 Lucrece are not^dhgngedTn Troilus and Cressida. Ulysses is given the 
 epithet "sly." He has absolute self-control, "smiling government." 
 These are the qualities elaborated in Troilus and Cressida. Nestor 
 occupies a favorable enough place in the play, not different in essen- 
 tial qualities from the Nestor of Lucrece. The "blunt rage and rigour"' 
 of Ajax is enlarged upon in Troilus and Cressida, with the emphasis 
 on the "blunt" it must be admitted. The Greeks certainly received 
 their share of blame in the condemnation of Sinon as an exponent of 
 Greek duplicity in Lucrece. Furnival does not take into consideration 
 the sources of the two representations of the story. In the poem, the 
 classical atmosphere of Vergil is retained to a large degree, while the 
 atmosphere of Troilus and Cressida is medieval and chivalric. 
 
 Lloyd calls Troilus and Cressida "a profanation of Homeric 
 poetry in the use made of the characters and incidents of the Iliad. 
 . . . It is difficult at first to restrain a feeling of indignation at 
 the travestie he thus commits himself to, of the grand characters of 
 Ajax, Achilles, and Patroclus. . . his boldly changing and revers- 
 ing them altogether . . . Shakespeare well knew that Ajax and 
 Achilles were not in the Iliad the blockheads and bullies it suits him 
 to make them; the change was deliberate. Was it malicious? Did 
 Shakespeare, whose deficiency in Greek was notorious, indulge him- 
 self by showing how substantially the could embody a Greek subject, 
 taking for his experiment that of the noblest Greek the world's noblest 
 poem, and purposely degrading and vulgarizing it?'" 
 
 Lloyd proceeds to show that Shakespeare's profanation of the 
 classic is deliberate, but not malicious. However, he ascribes to 
 Shakespeare the remaking of the Greek heroes. The history of the 
 Troy story refutes this. Shakespeare cannot claim originality in the 
 characterization of the Greek heroes in Troilus and Cressida. They 
 
 ' F. J. Furnival, Introduction to Leopold Shakespeare 1877. 
 *W. W. Lloyd, Critical Essays. Singer's F;dition. 1856. 
 
 /n 
 
110 Howard College Bulletin 
 
 had already emerged from Lydgate, Caxton, and Greene with all the 
 essential features that they are endowed with in Shakespeare, whose 
 duty it was to give them reality and animation. 
 
 One of the most unreasonable views to take of Troilus and Cres- 
 sida is to class it as an outcome of Shakespeare's own life, the express- 
 ing of ideas suggested by his inner experiences. James Stalker says 
 of it: 
 
 "It can not be looked upon in any strict sense as an 
 attempt to dramatize history. It is a curious piece, and has 
 an important value as a document in Shakespeare's personal 
 history. It seems to have been written at a time when Shakes- 
 peare was disgusted with life and especially with the charac- 
 ter of woman.'" 
 
 A. W. Verity" explains it by the title, Troiltts and Cressida, a 
 love story. Romeo and Juliet was written by a young man, who 
 believed in love, loyalty and truth. Time brings disillusions, and 
 Shakespeare sees there is evil as well as good in the world, and he 
 writes a play from the opposite standpoint. 
 
 George Brandes' suggests that it is the old sorrow of the sonnets 
 creeping out. The Dark Lady was the first prototype of Cressida. 
 Shakespeare later cooled down, saw the folly of loving such a creature, 
 exclaimed "What a farce !" and immediately wrote Troilus and Cres- 
 sida. 
 
 "He had felt as Troilus did, the honest soul, the honor- 
 able fool, who was simple enough to believe in woman's con- 
 stancy." 
 
 Those who would find a solution for Troilus and Cressida in 
 Shakespeare's mood at the time of writing, should be consistent in this 
 view. According to one critic, the closing mood of the sonnets is one 
 of bitter disillusion and disgust. Yet the writing of Romeo and Juliet 
 came soon after, and was written at a time when he believed in love 
 and constancy. He then created Portia and Rosalind. After this, all 
 agree that he met with a second disillusionment, and vented his ill 
 humor upon Cressida. If this is true in Cressida's case, the same 
 theory should hold good for all of Shakespeare's heroines. He was 
 disgusted with women when he wrote Troilus and Cressida, hence he 
 
 ^ James Stalker. 
 
 ^A. W. Verity, Introd. to Troilus and Cressida. Irving Edition. 1889 
 
 ° George Brandes, Wm. Shakespeare — A Critical Study. 
 
Studies in History and Literature 111 
 
 deprived her of virtue and and constancy; a little later disillusioned 
 as to woman's intellectual powers, he refuses to give Ophelia a fair 
 amount of brains. When he created Desdemona, he had regained his 
 lost faith in woman's love and constancy. By the time he wrote 
 Macbeth and Antony and Cleopatra, he was willing to return to woman 
 her intellectual capacity, but probably somewhat disillusioned again as 
 to her moral character, took away the lovable qualities he had given 
 to Desdemona. He finished, however, in an idealistic mood. After 
 his checkered life, in Imogen he embodies most of the qualities of the 
 ideal woman. 
 
 Such an explanation of Shakespeare's heroines is most unsatis- 
 factory. Drama indeed has a narrow scope if a literary artist can 
 portray no passion, and present no development of character without 
 meeting the accusation that it is the picturing of his own heart and 
 life. This takes away Shakespeare's power to portray characters 
 objectively. Certainly Shakespeare's heart, and especially his great 
 mind, is to be found in his works, but his petty personal prejudices 
 and sorrows are not allowed to color his outlook upon life, or to govern 
 his attitude toward any of his characters. If his jealousy of Chapman, 
 or his old sorrow of the sonnets, explain his attitude toward the Troy 
 story, then Shakespeare is a much smaller man than these same critics 
 would ever admit him to be. 
 
 Those who regard the play as a cynical travesty of the Homeric 
 story are closely related to those who explain it by the personal history 
 theory. K. Deighton speaks of the "cynical belittling, sour spirit that 
 besmirches the whole play and seems to testify to a passing mood of 
 morbid disgust."^ 
 
 Prof. Root sees even less beauty in it: 
 
 "If Chaucer has transformed the spirit of the story from 
 pathetic sentimentality to half ironical humor, Shakespeare in 
 his Troilus and Cressida has approached it in a spirit of bit- 
 ter cynicism and blackest pessimism. The love story, which 
 is after all subordinate to the intrigue of the Grecian camp, 
 has neither the romance of Boccaccio, nor the humor of 
 Chaucer ; it is merely disgusting. Troilus remains much what 
 he is in Chaucer, but Criseyda has flung away even the pre- 
 tense of virtue and is merely a confessed wanton. The keen- 
 sighted Ulysses reads her at a glance. That the generous 
 Troilus, own brother to Romeo, should break his heart for 
 such a woman as this is but another proof of the essential 
 
 ' K. Deighton, Introd. to Troilus and Cressida. Arden Ed. 
 
112 Howard College Bulletin 
 
 mockery of human life. Pandarus has lost all his geniality 
 and humor and is merely repulsive. To crown all, the final 
 worthlessness of Cressida and the breaking heart of Troilus 
 are interpreted to us by the syphilitic mind of Thersites, 
 whose whole function in the play is to defile with the foul- 
 ness of his own imagination all that humanity holds high and 
 sacred.'" 
 
 Swinburne says that — 
 
 "No one can deny that the key-note of the dramatic 
 poem, the key-stone of the spiritual structure is radically and 
 indisputably cynical.'" 
 
 Dryden supposes it a satire on the inconstancy of women. This 
 accusation of cynicism is one of the most universal criticisms of the 
 play. It can not be denied that the first reading of the play usually 
 brings a shock to the one who goes to the play with the Homeric siege 
 of Troy in mind. But, as Prof. Dowden explains, it must be remem- 
 bered that it is not the Homeric siege of Troy that is dramatized, but 
 the story as it was reworked and retold in, the Middle Ages. Since 
 Shakespeare did not pretend to dramatize Homer, it is unjust to 
 compare the story with Homer's for the purpose of explaining 
 Shakespeare's conception of it. When read in connection with any 
 modern version of the story, Guido, Lydgate, or Caxton, the feeling 
 of repulsion for the play is dispelled. Coleridge^ is not surprised or 
 shocked at Shakespeare's treatment of the theme, because he took into 
 consideration its former versions. 
 
 "The name and the remembrance connected with it, 
 prepare us for the representation of attachment no less faith- 
 ful than fervent on the side of the youth, and of sudden and 
 shameless inconstancy on the part of the lady."* 
 
 He realized its historical and traditional nature. If it is cynicism 
 to represent life under certain conditions as it is found, then 
 Shakespeare is cynical. Cynicism is a disbelief in rectitude and sin- 
 cerity where those qualities exist. To see good where there is only 
 falseness and duplicity is not idealism but stupidity. If Troilus and 
 Cressida is an expression of cynicism, then in the outcome of the plot 
 right must triumph over wrong, and the "eternal fitness of things" 
 
 ^ R. K. Root, The Poetry of Chaucer. 
 
 ^ A. C. Swinburne, Introd. to the Works of Shakespeare. 
 
 ^S. T. Coleridge, Lectures and Notes on Shakespeare, 
 
Studies in History and Literature 113 
 
 must be sacrificed to the "essential mockery of human life." After 
 all, is the fall of the Trojans due to the duplicity and more clever 
 management of the Greeks, or to some tragic flaw in the Trojans 
 themselves? Does not the issue lie deeper than the outward circum- 
 stance would imply at first thought? 
 
 Shakespeare in Troilus and C'ressida arouses most antagonism (> 
 because of his presenting Cressida as a deliberate coquette, and because 
 he pictures Ajax as a dolt, and Achilles as a cowardly, conceited j 
 bully. Can Shakespeare be justified for so presenting these charac-/ 
 ters ? If the fact that others so presented them can excuse Shakespeare, i 
 then he is freed from all censure. 
 
 We have already shown the development of the character of 
 Cressida from Chaucer to Shakespeare, and shown that the popular ( 
 conception of her in the Elizabethan age was that of a loose woman 
 who suffered the hideous fate of leprosy. That Shakespeare partook 
 of this popular notion is proved by the reference to the "lazar kite of 
 Cressid's kind." But Shakespeare's characterization of her in the 
 play does not go to this extreme. Benoit, who was the first to use 
 the love story, makes Cressida fickle and coquettish. Guido follows 
 suit, and Lydgate and Caxton preserve this same nature in their trans? 
 lations. In Chaucer and Boccaccio, she is more idealistic, but incon- 
 sistent. Chaucer represents her as demure, chaste and sober, and 
 most deeply in love with Troilus, but after sixteen days at the Grecian 
 camp she has fallen as deeply in love with Diomed. Chaucer himself 
 professes that he can not understand it. It does pass comprehension. 
 Shakespeare saw the inconsistency of it, so he makes her a coquette 
 from the beginning. She has no deep capacity for love. Brandes 
 thinks the change from Troilus to Diomed in Shakespeare takes place 
 too quickly to be plausible, that nowhere in literature is the change 
 made so quickly from love to treachery. He forgot Heywood, who 
 accomplishes the change in a ten minutes conversation. Her character 
 in The Iron Age has far less motivation than Shakespeare's Cressida. 
 She is urged by her father to desert Troilus' for Diomed. After a 
 little hesitation she answers him: 
 
 Diomed and you I'll follow, Troilus shun.' 
 
 In Lydgate's Troy-Booke, the time of the change is as long as in 
 Chaucer, but her character is the same as in Shakespeare. The 
 
 ' Heywood, The Iron Age, iii. i. 
 
114 Howard College Bulletin 
 
 moment she enters the Greek camp Diomed begins to occupy her 
 thoughts, and she is won by him long before she yields. She puts 
 Diomed off for coquettish reasons, just as Cressida pretends to be 
 indifferent to Troilus in Shakespeare. She wishes to display her 
 power of enslaving men. Love of conquest made her tarry in con- 
 fessing her love for Diomed. She wishes to see if she can make him 
 suffer by keeping him waiting, which makes her more truly one who 
 plays with love than Shakespeare's Cressida who uses less wiles in; 
 winning Diomed. With a woman of this type the time of the change 
 has little to do with the change. Lydgate realized this, for he says 
 that one could not change a ducat as quickly in Lombard Street as 
 Cressida changed Troilus for Diomed. 
 
 Shakespeare realized that a woman who could change lovers in 
 sixteen days could do so as easily in one, so he does not pretend to 
 make Cressida anything but a fickle beauty subject to passing fancies, 
 which is all she is anywhere in literature, except in Chaucer and 
 Boccaccio, and there she is inconsistent. Shakespeare realistically, 
 not cynically, portrays her according to the traditions of the story. 
 Cressida in Shakespeare is not an innovation as Sir Sidney Lee' char- 
 acterizes her — 
 
 In defiance of authorities he presented Cressida as a 
 heartless coquette.' 
 
 Cressida, as Shakespeare thought of her, was surpassingly lovely 
 in physical appearance, being the rival of the beautiful Helen at the 
 Trojan court, for she is as fair in her plainest dress as Helen is in 
 her best. 
 
 She would be as fair on Friday as Helen is on Sunday.' 
 
 She has one advantage of Helen : she is young, with all the fresh- 
 ness and charm of youth at her command. I Her first conversation 
 with Pandarus shows her to be of quick and ready wit, of lively and 
 teasing disposition. She delights in baffling both Pandarus and 
 Troilus. This scene also proves her a thorough-going coquette. She 
 pretends absolute indifference to Troilus. The moment she is alone, 
 she admits her love for him, and in this soliloquy states her philosophy 
 of love, and in so doing reveals her love merely as a thing of the senses. 
 
 ■" Sir Sidney Lee, Shakespeare's Life and Works. 
 ' T. C. i. I. 75-78. 
 
Studies in History and Literature 115 
 
 She refuses to be won, in order to make herself more highly prized: 
 
 Yet hold I off. Women are angels wooing: 
 Things won are done : joy's soul lies in the doing 
 That she belov'd knows nought that knows not this : 
 Men prize the thing ungain'd more than it is/ 
 
 The love scene with Troilus brings out the best and the worst in 
 Cressida. She is in love with Troilus as deeply as her shallow, frivo- 
 lous nature will allow her. She uses all the wiles of a coquette in ' 
 leading the timid Troilus on. She is a mixture of shrewdness and 
 charming naivete, especially practiced for the occasion. To the in- 
 fatuated Troilus, she seems all modesty, timidity, and sweetness. Her 
 sudden baitings and stammerings in the confession of her love, her 
 seeming embarassment at receiving a kiss she purposely provoked, 
 would have deceived a more subtle lover than Troilus. One would 
 be tempted to believe in her good faith if it were not for her reception 
 at the Greek camp next morning, where she indiscriminately exchanges 
 jests and kisses with the Greek leaders. ^She shows herself worthy of 
 Nestor's judgment^ 
 
 A woman of quick sense,' 
 
 and also equally deserving of Ulysses' condemnation. Ulysses was 
 as quick and shrewd as she, and sized up her character immediately: 
 
 Fie, fie upon her! 
 There's language in her eye, her cheek, her lip. 
 Nay, her foot speaks; her wanton spirits look out 
 At every joint and motive of her body.'' 
 
 She is an avowed flirt, anxious to please and attract all men she 
 comes in contact with, hence her amour with Diomed does not come 
 as a great shock, as sornething that seems contrary to nature, but with 
 Troilus we had fears from the very beginning as to whether she would 
 be true. Her true nature is clearly brought out in her conversation 
 with Diomed. Her seeming reluctance to let Troilus' token go is 
 mere pretence to arouse Diomed's interest more deeply. Once given, 
 she would make him believe she wishes it back, but after all her 
 protestations, she gives herself away: 
 
 ^T. C. i. 2. 297-300. 
 ^T. C. iv. 5. 53- 
 'T. C. iv. 5. 54-57. 
 
 /'■ 
 
116 Howard College Bulletin 
 
 But, now that you have it, take it' 
 Diomed says he will wear it on his helm, — 
 
 And grieve his spirit that dares not challenge it." 
 
 But Cressida knew that Troilus would challenge it, and here was 
 a greater satisfaction to her vanity. It would prove her power to 
 have one of the most valiant Greek knights challenged in the field 
 by the famous Trojan because of her. 
 
 As to the Trojan and Greek heroes in Shakespeare, they can only 
 be explained by taking into consideration the medieval atmosphere that 
 pervades the play. The war is carried on as a game. The heroes 
 find the battlefield a source of recreation and knightly adventure. 
 Aeneas exclaims: 
 
 Hark, what good sport is out of town today !' 
 and Troilus adds — 
 
 But to the sport abroad.' 
 
 The challenge sent to the Greeks by Hector, and delivered in the 
 absurdly chivalric manner of courtly Aeneas, testifies to the influence 
 of chivalry. Aeneas takes the character of a herald-at-arms at a 
 tournament : 
 
 He bade me take a trumpet 
 And to his purpose speak : , Kings, princes, lords ! 
 If there be one among the fair'st of Greece 
 That holds his honor higher than his ease,^ 
 That seeks his praise more than he fears his perily 
 That knows his valour, and knpws not his fear. 
 That loves his mistress more than in confession, 
 
 fWith' truant vows to her own lips he loves, 
 nd dare avow her beauty and her worth 
 I other arms than hers, — to him this challenge, 
 ector in view of Trojans and of Greeks 
 Shall make it good or do his best to do it. 
 He hath a lady wiser, fairer, truer, 
 Than ever Greek did compass in his arms; 
 
 T. C. V. 2. 87. 
 
 - T. C. V. 2. 91. 
 
 sr. c. i. 1. 117. 
 «r. c. i. 1. 119. 
 
Studies in History and Literature 117 
 
 And will tomorrow with his trumpet call, 
 
 Midway between your tents and walls of Troy, 
 
 To rouse a Grecian that is true in love: 
 
 If any come, Hector shall honor him; 
 
 If none, he'll say in Troy when he retires 
 
 The Grecian Dames are sunburnt, and not worth 
 
 The splinter of a lance/ 
 
 This challenge is favorably accepted in the Grecian camp. Old / 
 Nestor declares that he will accept the challenge if there is no one else 
 to do so. Even he is swayed by medieval notions of chivalry. He 
 will fight to prove the beauty of his lady. 
 
 But if there be not in our Grecian host 
 
 One noble man that hath one spark of fire 
 
 To answer for his love, tell him from me, 
 
 I'll hide my silver beard in a gold beaver 
 
 And in my vantbrace put this wither'd brawn ; 
 
 And, meeting him, will tell him that my lady 
 
 Was fairer than his grandam, and as chaste 
 
 As may be in the world; his youth in flood, 
 
 I'll prove this truth with my three drops of blood.'' 
 
 It will be noticed that it is medieval arnior that Nestor speaks of. 
 On the morning of the contest between Hector and Ajax, Aeneas 
 sums up the issue in terms of chivalry: 
 
 Let us address to tend on Hector's heels: 
 The glory of our Troy doth this day lie 
 On his fair worth and single chivalry.' 
 
 The combat takes place in accordance with the rules of knight- 
 hood. Aeneas arranges the terms. Hector makes much of the blood 
 relation between himself and Ajax, and because of this refuses to fight 
 to the finish. The combat takes a chivalrous turn, and Hector is 
 invited to the Greek camp. His welcome by the Greek leaders is 
 permeated with the spirit of chivalry. The vindictive foes of the 
 battlefield discourse like old friends, exchange jests, boasts and 
 threats. Achilles' speech gives the general attitude: 
 
 T. C. i. 3- 263-83. 
 
 ^T. C. i. 3. 294-301. '" 
 
 ^T. C. iv. 4- 145-48. 
 
118 Howard College Bulletin 
 
 To-morrow do I meet thee, fell as death ; 
 To-night all friends.' 
 
 Hector is the great exponent of chivalry. In him are summed up 
 all the qualities of the perfect knight. He is always gallant on the 
 battlefield. He never takes advantage of a foe, but on the contrary, 
 he is too lenient. Troilus takes him to task for this fault which later 
 proved his undoing: 
 
 Troiliis — Brother, you have a vice of mercy in you. 
 Which better fits a lion than a man. 
 
 Hector — What vice is that, good Troilus ? chide me for it. 
 
 Troilus — When many times the captive Grecian falls. 
 Even in the fan and wind of your fair sword, 
 You bid them rise and live. 
 
 Hector — O ! 'tis fair play, 
 
 Troilus — Fool's play, by heaven. Hector.' 
 
 This is exemplified when Hector spares Achilles when he could 
 have conquered him. Achilles profited by his courtesy, though he pro- 
 fessed to scorn it. 
 
 I do disdain thy courtesy proud Trojan.' 
 
 In Medieval chivalry, a knight scorned the thoughts of contesting 
 with an inferior in social rank, hence when Hector meets Thersites 
 on the field he demands: 
 
 What are thou, Greek? art thou for Hector's match? 
 'Art thou of blood and honor?' 
 
 And Thersites replies anxiously and hurriedly, also truly: 
 
 No, no, I am a rascal; a scurvy railing knave; a very 
 filthy rogue. 
 
 Thus Hector, living up to his chivalric ideals, answers him : 
 
 I do believe thee: live. 
 
 ^ This element of elaborate courtesy proves Hector's tragic flaw, 
 and finally the foe he had spared proves incapable of appreciation 
 
 ' T. C. iv. 5. 268-69. 
 
 . * T. C. V. iii. 36-44. 
 
 T. C. V. 5. IS. 
 
 *T. C. V. 4. 26-30. 
 
Studies in History and Literature 119 
 
 of it, and so failed to spare him in similar circumstances. 
 
 According to the customs of lovers of the Middle Ages, Troilus 
 and Cressida exchange tokens, a sleeve for a glove. Later, when 
 Cressida gives the sleeve to Diomed, he says he will wear it on his 
 helm to see if Troilus will dare challenge it. When he captures 
 Troilus' horse, he sends it to Cressida. All the knights fight on 
 horseback, their language is that of chivalry, love, fair ladies, tokens, 
 knightly armor, courtesy to foes. 
 
 Throughout the play the Trojans are represented as more courtly 
 and generous than the Greeks. Hector's chivalry is contrasted with 
 Achilles' outspoken hostility. Aeneas is the very "pink of courtesy." 
 He approaches the Grecian leaders, when he brings Hector's challenge, 
 with such courtly and gallant language that Agamemnon is not sure 
 whether he is in earnest or is making fun of them : 
 
 This Trojan scorns us : or the men of Troy 
 Are ceremonious courtiers.' 
 
 And Aeneas answers him truthfully, summing up the chief charac- 
 teristics of his countrymen: 
 
 Courtiers as free, as debonair, unarm'd 
 
 As bending angels; that's their fame in peace: 
 
 But when they would seem soldiers, they have galls. 
 
 Good arms, strong joints, true swords, and Jove's accord. 
 
 Nothing so full of heart. 
 
 The two war councils bring out well the contrast between the 
 Greeks and the Trojans. In the war council of Troy, old King Priam 
 should be the ruling force, but he merely introduces the issue, which 
 is that if Helen will be delivered up the account will be considered 
 settled and nothing else will be demanded. The young sons control 
 the affairs of state, and strangest of all, Paris, the selfish cause of 
 all the strife, and the young hot-headed, passionate Troilus have more 
 power than Priam, Hector, Helenus, and Cassandra. The wise, prac- 
 tical reasons of Hector and the moral issues he sets forth are both 
 over-run by the less sensible advice of two young lovers. Priam once 
 gives a feeble protest. He reminds Paris that he enjoys the sweets 
 of the war, while all the rest have the bitterness. It is only a protest 
 and goes unheeded; the youths have their way. On the other hand, 
 
 » T. C. i. 3. 233-39. 
 
120 Howard College Bulletin 
 
 the Greek policies are shaped by the shrewd, diplomatic, and practical 
 Ulysses, and the grave, judicious, and wise counselor, Nestor.- 
 Agamemnon is a brave general, but of little consequence in managing 
 affairs. Patroclus and Achilles do not stand out very favorably, but 
 Shakespeare only followed medieval tradition in fashioning their 
 characters. That Shakespeare cynically made the Greeks less worthy 
 than the Trojans is not substantiated by the text. This belief is due, 
 I think, to the fact that Achilles and Ajax occupy such unfavorable 
 places. It should be remembered, however, that this is not in fact 
 entirely contrary to Homer, though it may be in spirit. Achil les in 
 the classics is a fierce warrior, absolutely unmerciful and exceedingly 
 cruel. When he is about to kill Hector, who begsTEinr atleast to see 
 that his body has burial, he heartlessly refuses: 
 
 Dog, he replied, urge not my ruth, by parents soul, nor knees ; 
 I would to God that any rage would let me eat thee raw, 
 Sliced into pieces.' 
 
 Horse, chariot, in haste 
 He called for; and those joined, the horse 
 Was to his chariot tied. 
 
 And thrice about the sepulchre he made his fury ride. 
 Dragging the person. All this past, in his pavilion 
 Still suffering it t'oppress the dust.^ 
 
 Achilles' anger is always "divine wrath" in Homer. Ajax in 
 Ovid is represented as stupid, vain, and haughty. He is called a 
 dolt, and a gross head: 
 
 Rayling of this foolish dolt.' 
 
 His wit is blockish. These characteristics are merely emphasized by 
 Shakespeare. As for Nestor, Ulysses, and Agamemnon, they will 
 compare favorably with any three Trojans. Nestor is very stohipa- 
 thetically portrayed: 
 
 As venerable Nestor, hatch'd in silver.* 
 His age and wisdom are always noted: 
 
 Tell him of Nestor, one that was a man 
 
 Where Hector's grandsire sucked ; he is old now.' 
 
 ^ Iliad, (Chapman), Book 22. 
 
 'Iliad, (Chapman), Book 24. 
 
 'Ovid (Golding), Metamorphoses, Book 13, line 37'?. 
 
 'T. C i, 3. 65. 
 
 T. C 1, 3. 91-2. 
 
Studies in History and Literature 121 
 
 The Trojans are more admirable in some respects. They have 
 a finer sense of honor, more idealism, but the Greeks far surpass them 
 in war measures. They have a shrewdness, diplomacy, wisdom, power 
 to plan and execute, which is mostly lacking to the Trojans. We can- 
 not help sympathizing with the Trojans though, because of the chivalry, 
 the essential nobleness of their greatest warrior, Hector, the hope of 
 Troy, who exemplifies the best characteristics of the Trojan race. 
 
 The comic element is pronounced in Troilus and Cressida. When ( 
 the play opens a long truce has just closed, skirmishes were going on, 
 but there was little real fighting. Troilus, love-sick, finds no interest 
 in the battlefield. Hector sends a "roisting challenge" to arouse the 
 Greeks, who during the truce had become dull and factious. This 
 situation at the Greek camp is one of the most realistic parts of the 
 play, and though it may not be true to the spirit of the classical story 
 of Troy, it is certainly true to life. 'Yet even Homer sings of strife 
 among the godlike heroes. Achilles in his "divine wrath" refuses to 
 go to battle. Shakespeare knew that after seven years of fighting 
 around the walls of Troy, the high enthusiasm and spirit of patriotism 
 naturally became slack. A long truce had given opportunity for lax- 
 ness in the discipline of the army. Achilles and Patroclus loll in their 
 tents, jesting at the expense of the other Greek leaders. Patroclus 
 gives a farcical representation of the various generals, while Achilles 
 holds his sides, convulsed with laughter. If the Trojan heroes look 
 on the war as a game, these two Greeks survey it as a huge joke. 
 Thersites, when he "opes his mastick jaws" is another source of fun 
 for these merry Greeks. He is the most realistically vulgar of all 
 Shakespeare's comic characters. He is also one of the quickest witted. 
 He has a sharp clear insight into character, and though he always sees 
 the worst of everything, the element of truth is easily seen in most 
 of his "railing" remarks. Strangely enough, this is the one character I 
 taken directly from Homer. He is not mentioned in any of the 
 medieval versions of the Trojan war. There is ample suggestion in 
 the Iliad for Shakespeare's Thersites, but it is a very lifeless picture 
 compared with the brilliant and animated fool of Troilus and Cressida. 
 Homer characterizes him thus :, 
 
 Thersites only .would speak all, a most disordered store 
 
 Of words he foolishly puor'd out; of which his mind held 
 
 more 
 Than it could manage : anything with which he could procure 
 
132 Howard College Bulletin 
 
 Laughter, he never could contain. He should have yet been 
 
 sure 
 To touch no King: t'oppose their states becomes not jester's 
 
 parts. 
 But he the filthiest fellow was of all that had deserts 
 In Troy's brave siege.' 
 
 Shakespeare took this description and out of it turned a living 
 individual, one of the most interesting characters of the play. 
 
 Ajax is made a comic character, and he affords no less amuse- 
 ment than Thersites. The ruse which Ulysses and Nestor use to 
 arouse Achilles from his stupid indifference is the one original contri- 
 ^ bution Shakespeare makes to the plot. Ajax in his vanity and con- 
 ceit is made the butt of ridicule. This affords amusement as well as 
 serves a purpose. Shakespeare, doubtless, wondered what the Homeric 
 heroes did while encamped on the plains of Troy for ten years. They 
 could not have kept up the fever heat of patriotism and high resolve. 
 War camps usually become after long periods scenes of disorder, loose 
 morals, and discontent; so Shakespeare allows his imagination to 
 picture real men in a real war camp. The small familiar details 
 necessarily tend to destroy the dignity and grandeur of the classical 
 heroes. 
 
 What was Shakespeare's conception of the young hero, Troilus? 
 Some scholars maintain that Ulysses is the hero ; others. Hector. The 
 complexity of the plot leads to disagreement as to just what Shakes- 
 peare was attempting to do. It seems to me that while the comic 
 element is pronounced and the camp story is very prominent, the main 
 interest and action centres about Troilus. He is the one character 
 in the play who changes, goes through a process of growth. The 
 tragic forces of the play, love and war, center about him. He is 
 frustrated in both, but the close of the play finds him a greater hero. 
 He is young — Pandarus says that he is "very young" and that "he 
 ne'er saw three-and-twenty." When the play opens, he is a t)T)ical 
 love-sick youth. He has become infatuated with the beautiful Cres- 
 sida. She is all he can thiiik of. The war does not interest him. Jn 
 his restlessness he forgets patriotism and is chided for it by his 
 brother, Aeneas. He goes to battle half-heartedly. The offer of peace 
 by the Greeks on the terms that Helen be restored arouses him imme- 
 diately to action. Paris loves Helen, therefore the passionate young 
 lover, Troilus, takes sides with him at the war council, and by his 
 
 ^ Iliad, (Chapman), Book II. 
 
Studies in History and Literature 123 
 
 ardor and eloquence sways them to his opinion. His happiness is 
 then made complete by the winning of Cressida. It is a short-lived 
 happiness, though. On the morning of the parting of the lovers, 
 Troilus has a prophetic foreboding of the impending tragedy to their 
 love, and again and again he urges Cressida to be true. Was it 
 wholly his fear of the charms of the merry Greeks, or did he dimly 
 suspect that Cressida was fickle? His fears are realized before he 
 has time scarcely to form them. To those who say that Troilus' love 
 was wholly sensual, Shakespeare answers : 
 
 Let it not be believed for Womanhood! 
 Think we had mothers ! 
 
 If beauty have a soul, this is not she; 
 If souls guide vows, if vows be sanctimony. 
 If sanctimony be the god's delight, 
 If there be rule in unity itself 
 This is not she.' 
 
 With disillusion in love, came disbelief in the goodness of every- 
 thing. This proves that Cressida stood for something more to him 
 than mere physical beauty. Defeated in love, Troilus now throws 
 himself into the fighting with reckless abandon. When Hector begs 
 of him not to fight that day, calls him "young Troilus," he quickly 
 resents it, and in turn gives the sound advice to show no mercy to 
 the Greeks. Nothing can keep him from the battlefield. It is the 
 only outlet for his breaking heart. He proves himself a valiant soldier, 
 a second Hector, fearless on the field. The death of Hector is the 
 second great blow to Troilus. He now fully realizes his own respon- 
 sibility in the war, and he realizes that it is a hopeless war for the 
 Trojans. Troy's absolute dependence on Hector is emphasized by 
 Shakespeare in order to make more tragic the fate of the younger 
 brother left behind: 
 
 He's dead; and at the murderer's horse's tail 
 In beastly sort, dragg'd through the shameful field. 
 Frown on, you heavens, effect your rage with speed ! 
 Sit gods upon your thrones, and smile at Troy ! 
 I say, at once let your brief pledges be mercy. 
 And linger not our sure destruction on !' 
 
 ' T. C. V. 2. 126-27; 134-39. 
 'T. C. V. 15. 4-9- 
 
124 Howard College Bulletin 
 
 Aeneas rebukes him for frightening the army thus, and Troilus 
 replies, knowing that he must bear the heavy news of Hector's death 
 to Priam and Hecuba, and that the fate of Troy is now resting on his 
 young shoulders: 
 
 You understand me not that tell me so. 
 I do not speak of flight, of fear, of death ; 
 But dare all imminence that gods and men 
 Address their dangers in. Hector is gone: 
 Who shall tell Priam so, or Hecuba? 
 Let him that will a screech-owl aye be called 
 Go in to Troy, and say there Hector's dead. 
 There is a word will Priam turn to stone. 
 Make wells and Niobes of the maids and wives 
 Cold statutes of the youth: and, in a word. 
 Scare Troy out of itself. But march away: 
 Hector is dead; there is no more to say. 
 Stay yet, you vile abominable tents, 
 That proudly pight our Phrigian Plains 
 Let Titan rise as early as he dare, 
 ril through and through you! And thou, 
 
 great-siz'd coward, 
 No space of earth shall sunder our two hates: 
 I'll hauiit thee like a wicked conscience still, 
 That mouldeth goblins swift as frenzy's thoughts, 
 Strike a free march to Troy ! With cony art go ! 
 Hope of revenge shall hide our inward woe.' 
 
 This is a new Troilus, or the bringing out of the true Troilus. 
 When we remember his speeches in the first scene of the play, we 
 can realize what a great development has taken place : 
 
 But I am weaker than a woman's tear 
 Tamer than sleep, fonder than ignorance. 
 Less valiant than the virgin in the night. 
 And skilless as unpracticed infancy.^ 
 
 Many complain because Troilus is left alive. Miss Porter shows 
 that this is more artistically tragic for Troilus than death would have 
 been. Troilus is — 
 
 "the core of tragic affliction, the survivor of Troy's ruin. 
 Troylus lives to mourn for Hector, to sum up the tragic issue 
 consciously, to taste all the bitterness of defeat in love and 
 
 *T. C. V. 10. 11-31. 
 'T. C. i. 1. 8-12. 
 
Studies in History and Literature 135 
 
 war. . . . The woe of it is thus perfected as it could 
 not be if Hector were less the warrior type of loss, and Troy- 
 lus were less the luckless hero, left over, love-crossed, war- 
 crossed, withered in his youthful prime by full knowledge of 
 the futility of ardor and courtesy when guile and force com- 
 bine to crush them out.'" 
 
 We found in Lucrece that Shakespeare saw the Trojan war as 
 tragic in its development, but foolish in its beginning. The sole cause 
 is ascribed to the lust of Paris. This viewpoint is emphasized in the 
 play. Every one from Thersites to Priam realizes this. Troilus sums 
 up the general sentiment : 
 
 Fools on both sides ! Helen must needs be fair. 
 When with your blood you daily paint her thus,' 
 
 In Lucrece, Shakespeare asks why the private wrong and pleas- 
 ures of one be made the public evil of so many. This seems unfair, 
 but in Troilus and Cressida he shows the essential justice of it. The 
 sin of Helen and Paris must necessarily affect the whole Trojan race, 
 for they agreed to it. In the war council sober judgment and moral 
 rights give way to the foolish reasoning of passionate youth. Hector 
 pleads for the cause of right: 
 
 Nature craves 
 All dues to be render'd to their owners : Now, 
 What nearer debt in all humanity 
 Than wife is to husband? if this law 
 Of nature be corrupted through affection. 
 And that great minds, of partial indulgence 
 To their benumbed wills, resist the same ; 
 There is a law in each well-ordered nation 
 To curb those raging appetites that are 
 Most disobedient and refractory. 
 .If Helen then be wife to Sparta's King, 
 As it is known she is, these moral laws 
 Of nature, and of nations, speak aloud 
 To have her back return'd : thus to persist 
 In doing wrong extenuates not wrong. 
 But makes it much more heavy." 
 
 Hector urges that the sin of Helen and Paris should be expiated. 
 The wrong to society should not be allowed to exist. Those who see 
 
 'Charlotte Porter, Introd. to Troilus and Cressida (First Folio Edition.) 
 ^r. C. i. 1. 94-5. 
 »r. C. ii. 2. 173-88. 
 
126 Howard College Bulletin 
 
 the play as cynical only see a chivalrous nation overcome by craft and 
 guile. They fail to see this great tragic flaw in the Trojan race itself 
 that is so prominent in Shakespeare's mind. The fall of Troy is not 
 due alone to Greek duplicity. "Doting Priam" does not restrain his 
 sons' evil desires. He allows them to govern the war council. Priam 
 and his soldiers agreed to the rape of Helen, and they must bear the 
 consequence. Shakespeare does not represent the outcome as unfair. 
 Injustice does not prevail in the final outcome of the war. Shakespeare, 
 however, does make us sympathize with the unfortunate race, but he 
 would not have us to excuse it. 
 
 Shakespeare's interest in the Troy story was caused by its popu- 
 larity, his treatment of it determined by his sources of information, 
 modified by original interpretation of facts in accordance with his 
 ethical ideals. The interest in the story was transitory. His later 
 plays show little influence of it. However, at the time of interest 
 the story played an important part in his dramatic art. The play will 
 always stand out as one of the most unique and interesting contribu- 
 tions to the versions of the Troy story, and as one of the most powerful 
 plays of Shakespeare. The beauty of the poetry, and the exactness 
 of the characterizations of the Greek and Trojan heroes are two of 
 its outstanding features. He surpassed Homer in individualizing his 
 characters. William Godwin well expressed this: 
 
 "The Achilles, the Ajax, and the various Grecian heroes 
 of Shakespeare, on the other hand are absolute men, deficient 
 in nothing which can tend to individualize them, and already 
 touched with the promethian fire that might infuse a soul into 
 what, without it, were lifeless form."* 
 
 PART ni 
 
 Shakespeare's Sources of the Troy Story 
 
 Ben Jonson's characterization of Shakespeare's classical knowledge 
 as "small Latin and less Greek" has led to numerous conjectures about 
 the sources of his classical mythology. The King's New School which 
 Shakespeare attended gave a thorough course in Latin. Shakespeare 
 was drilled in Lyly's famous Grammatica Latina, the chief text book. 
 He also studied the various Latin authors including Mantuanus, Ver- 
 
 ^ William Godwin, The Life of Chaucer^ 
 
Studies in History and Literature 127 
 
 gil, Seneca, Plautus, Horace, Ovid, and Cicero. Ovid became 
 Shakespeare's favorite Latin author, and from him Shakespeare prob- 
 ably received more than from any other person among his sources. 
 Baynes,' in making a detailed study of what Shakespeare learned at 
 school, proves him acquainted with Vergil and Ovid in the original 
 latin. Stapfer' adds Sallust and Caesar to the list, but ascribes his 
 knowledge of Ovid to Golding's translation of the Metamorphoses. 
 
 Most of the definite references outside of Troilus and Cressida 
 are either from Vergil or Ovid. Many, however, are merely the ex- 
 pression of the popular conception of the story. Such are most of 
 the references to Hector, Helen, Paris, Troilus, Cressida, and Pandarus, 
 while those to Ajax and Ulysses show both medieval and classical 
 derivation. The common people were familiar with the main features 
 of the story through stage representations. The uneducated in 
 Shakespeare's plays show a knowledge of the chief heroes and their 
 outstanding characteristics. No definite sources can be assigned to 
 these references. Hector's one trait was valor, and this characteristic 
 was familiar to all. The same is true of the references to Helen and 
 Paris. Helen, as the cause of the war and the type of physical beauty, 
 was a well known figure in literature. In The Tragical History of 
 Dr. Faustus, Faustus asks, "Was this the face that launched a thou- 
 sand ships?" Shakespeare gives the same facts in much the same 
 way: 
 
 Fair Leda's daughter had a thousand wooers. 
 
 and. 
 
 Was this fair face the cause, quoth she 
 Why the Grecians sacked Troy? 
 
 "Fair Leda's daughter" shows a definite source, however, which 
 is probably Ovid's Metamorphoses (Book 10). Paris, as Helen's 
 lover, shows no definite source. 
 
 The allusions to Troilus and Cressida are the mere expression 
 of the popular conception, except in The Merchant of Venice, where 
 a direct reference is made to Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde. When 
 Shakespeare has Rosalind say that Troilus had his "brains dashed out 
 by a Grecian club," he makes use of no known source. It is a careless 
 
 ' T. S. Baynes, Shakespeare Studies. 
 
 ' Paul Stapfer, Shakespeare and Classical Antiquity. 
 
138 Howard College Bulletin 
 
 and humorous allusion where exactness is unnecessary to make the 
 illustration apt. The only references to Pandarus are made by comic 
 characters, who merely sum up the popular notion of him. 
 
 "Sly" Ulysses occurs many times in Golding's translation of 
 Ovid's Metamorphoses, but not in the original Latin, hence it is argued 
 that Shakespeare used Golding's translation. The term "sly", how- 
 ever, was a stock epithet for Ulysses, and this was doubtless the reason 
 that Golding used it. Therefore Shakespeare may have been using 
 Golding when he calls Ulysses sly, or he may have been only follow- 
 ing the popular conception. The reference to Ulysses and Diomed 
 stealing the steeds of Rhesus is taken from the Metamorphoses 
 (Book 13). 
 
 The character of Ajax is derived from the Metamorphoses 
 (Book 13). His seven-fold shield is described at the beginning of the 
 famous contention with Ulysses over the armor of Achilles. Ulysses, 
 in stating his claims to the armor, ridicules the idea of giving it to 
 such a "dolt and grosshead." He characterizes the speech of Ajax 
 as the "rayling of this foolish dolt," and calls attention to his stupidity, 
 his conceit, and his ostentatious boasting. The madness and suicide 
 of Ajax is pictured in the last of the thirteenth book of the 
 Metamorphoses. Shakespeare uses this as an example of stupidity 
 and unrestrained anger. 
 
 The popular conception of Achilles is expressed, when, in Love's 
 Labour's Lost, he is called the foe of Hector. The magic qualities Q,f 
 his famous spear mentioned in the second part of Henry VI is taken 
 from the Metamorphoses : 
 
 And when the noble Telephus did my dart of Steele 
 The double force of wounding and of healing also feele.' 
 
 I did wound 
 King Teleph with his speare, and when he lay upon the 
 
 ground 
 I was entreated with the speare to heale him safe and sound.' 
 
 The story of the fall of Troy, the perjured Sinon, the wooden 
 horse, filled with Greeks, the burning of the city, the death of Priam, 
 the sorrow of Hecuba, the flight of Aeneas with Anchises, Aeneas' 
 tale to Dido, Dido's sister Anna, Aeneas' desertion, and Dido's death 
 are all taken from Vergil. The death of Priam and sorrow of Hecuba 
 
 'Ovid, The Metamorphoses (Golding), Book 12, line 121. 
 ^ Ibid., Book 13, line 210. 
 
Studies in History and Literature 129 
 
 in Hamlet is an adaptation of the second book of Vergil's Aeneid (lines 
 268-97). The painting in Lucrece is also, for the most part, taken 
 from the second book the Aeneid. The description of Ilion is taken 
 from Lydgate; the characters of Ajax, Ulysses, Nestor, and the spear 
 of Achilles are taken from the Metamorphoses, but on the whole the 
 atmosphere is Vergilian. 
 
 Troilus and Cressida owes its enigmatic nature to the complexity 
 of its sources. Only Shakespeare could have combined the classical, 
 the medieval, and the renaissance treatments of the story in such a 
 logical way. Ovid and Homer furnish some of the material, Chaucer 
 the love story, but the main outline of the plot, and the medieval atmos- 
 phere is contributed by Caxton. 
 
 To Ovid Shakespeare is indebted for the characteristics of Ajax, 
 Ulysses, and Nestor. The Ajax of Troilus and Cressida is the Ajax 
 of Ulysses' speech in the Metamorphoses. His "blunt rage," stupidity, 
 and cowardly boasting are emphasized. Ulysses is also fundamentally 
 the same as in the Metamorphoses. He outwits Ajax and wins the 
 prize by his superior craft, his slyness, his wise guile. Shakespeare 
 deepens and multiplies these characteristics given by Ovid. Nestor's 
 outstanding feature in Troilus and Cressida is his age, with the wisdom 
 and experience that goes with years. Shakespeare speaks of his 
 "white beard," of "venerable Nestor hatched in silver." In answer 
 to Hector's challenge, Nestor asks the messenger to — 
 
 Tell him of Nestor, one that was a man 
 
 When Hector's grandsire sucked: he is old now:' 
 
 In Ovid, Nestor says : 
 
 Though the length of time have made my senses dim, 
 And divers things erst seen in youth now out of mind be gone : 
 Yit heave I still no things in mind: and of them all is none 
 Among so many both of peere and war, that yit doth take 
 More steadfast root in memorye and of that time may make 
 A man great store of things through long continuance for 
 
 too see: 
 Two hundred years already of my life full passed bee 
 And now I go upon a third.' 
 
 Homer furnishes Shakespeare with the character of Thersites. 
 Nowhere in the medieval treatments of the Troy story is such a person 
 
 »r. C. i. 3- 291- 
 
 'Ovid, Metamorphoses, Book 12, line 205. 
 
130 Howard College Bulletin 
 
 to be found. In 1537 the Comic Interlude of Thersites gives a super- 
 ficial resemblance to Shakespeare's Thersites, but there is little in 
 common between them. Shakespeare took the picture of the "reviler" 
 of Homer and gave life to it in the witty railer of the play. There are 
 several other events of Troilus and Cressida that show the influence 
 of Homer. The scene where Cassandra breaks in upon the war coun- 
 cil with the prophecy of the ruin of Troy is impressive in its classic 
 tone. This seems more reminiscent of Homer than of the shrieking 
 lamentations of the medieval Cassandra. In Caxton and other 
 medieval treatments, the deeds of Troilus arouse Achilles from his 
 sullen refusal to enter battle. In Shakespeare, as in Homer, it is the 
 death of his friend Patroclus that stirs him to action. 
 
 The death of Hector in Shakespeare is an unusual combination. 
 In Caxton, Achilles slips up to Hector unawares and stabs him while 
 his shield is lowered. Hector's body is rescued by his friends. In 
 Homer, the body is tied to Achilles' chariot and is dragged three times 
 about the sepulchre of Patroclus. In Shakespeare, he is surrounded 
 by the Myrmadons and killed while unarmed by Achilles. His body 
 is then tied to the tail of Achilles' horse and dragged across the battle- 
 field. In Caxton, the circumstances of Troilus' death are those that 
 Shakespeare applies to the death of Hector. Either Shakespeare pur- 
 posely does this, or he uses Caxton's account of Hector's death and 
 adds to it the Homeric story of Achilles' dragging the body. 
 
 The love story is based primarily upon Chaucer's Troilus and 
 Criseyde, with some changes in the development of the three main 
 characters, Troilus, Cressida, and Pandarus. The rest of the plot is 
 based upon Caxton, with the exception of the ruse which Ulysses and 
 Nestor use to arouse Achilles to action, which is Shakespeare's own 
 invention, and upon which much of the unity of the play depends. 
 
 It is a problem to decide whether for the main plot and atmos- 
 phere of the play, Shakespeare made use of Lydgate or Caxton, as 
 both tell the very same events, and both received their knowledge from 
 Guido, though Caxton's immdiate source was Leferve. Miss Char- 
 lotte Porter' favors Caxton as the source of Shakespeare, and says 
 that if Shakespeare, Lydgate, and Caxton are read along together it 
 will be unmistakable that Caxton is the source. She analyzes the 
 prologue, and identifies the various facts in Caxton. The Greeks are 
 called "orgulous." This unusual word is often used by Caxton, who 
 took it from the French of Leferve. "The port of Athens" and "the 
 
 ' Charlotte Porter, Sources — Troylus and Cressida. First Folio Edition, p. 129. i, 
 
Studies in History ahd Literature 131 
 
 sixty and nine kings" agree exactly with Caxton's designation of the 
 starting place of the Greek ships, and of the number of kings who 
 sailed to Troy. The names of the six gates of Priam's city agree 
 more nearly in form with those of Caxton than with the names as 
 given by Lydgate. The names, according to Lydgate, are Dardanydes, 
 Tymbria, Helyas, Cethas, Troiana, Anthonydes ; according to Caxton, 
 Dardane, Tymbria, Helyas, Chetas, Troyenne, Antenorides. Shakes- 
 peare gives the names in much the same form as Caxton does : Dardan, 
 Timbria, Helias, Chetas, Trojen and Antenorides. Shakespeare also 
 preserves from Caxton the name of Hector's horse as Galathe. Miss 
 Porter has identified the various events of the play with the narrative 
 of Caxton. 
 
 However, in the result, it matters little whether Shakespeare used 
 Lydgate or Caxton. He preserved the medieval atmosphere, and the 
 main features of the plot contributed by both, but he so modified them 
 by his genius that the play of Troilus and Cressida is unique in the 
 history of the Troy story. Stapfer' says that if Shakespeare "had 
 known any Arabian legends concerning the Trojan war, he would 
 have used them, had they pleased him, and suited his purpose." 
 
 FRENCH HAYNES. 
 
 ^ Paul Stapfer, Shakespeare and Classical Antiquity. 
 
132 
 
 Howard College mdlemn 
 
 The Little Flower of Encouragement in tW 
 \ Poetic Contests ofme College of A 
 \ / Rheroric at YouIousjb / ^ 
 
 Ifhe Mistory of the Academy on. the Floral Gapes of Toulouse 
 divides itself into three perions : ther first, the period oi the Oonsistory 
 of GayXScience, which lasted\from the founding in 13S3 tc/ about the 
 openindlpf the sixteenth centutly/the second, the period\p/the College 
 of theMVt and Science of Rhetoric, lasting throughout Xhe sixteenth 
 and saveAteenth centuries ; ana me third, the period of the Academy 
 of the Floral Games of Touloiuse.Vasting from 1694, ^enVhe College 
 of Eiietoriawas converted into an institution of state ymder Ijbuis XIV, 
 dov/n to theXpresent time. JThe wrifler has already o/utlined tfle history 
 of /the two elarlier periods/in the Romanic Review (vol. xii.jVio. 3)', 
 daaling especklly with th/ transformation of th^jay Science mto the 
 Qollege of Rhetoric, ancy with the poere and thair poetry in theceriod 
 of the Renaissance. / \ / V 
 
 / The custorn of awarding to the suacesfeful contestants goldVan(i 
 /silver prizes wrWgm; in the form of flcwers dates from the \ksry 
 beginning of the Vaciety. Throughout thA period of the Gay Scjekce 
 the three principM prizes awarded amually were the Violet, toe 
 Eglantine, and th* Marigold (Provenca/ Ga«c/i, French Souciy. Thele 
 three were conti/ueS throughout the p/riod of the College of Rhetoric 
 L as principal prifees. \ln addition to mese three main prias, a fourthV 
 prize known asr the FJbwer of Encouragement was frequently awarded, 
 Kittle is known of thiV custom duning the perJpd of thfc Gay Science, 
 but abundant information concer/ing the awaming fi the flower of 
 endpuragement is afforded by thfe hivre /?OM^e, Vhe^ecretary's record 
 of tbe annual poetic contests d/ring the greater Wrt of the period of y 
 the Oollege of Rhetoric. Yrhe/Z,wre Rouge, whicA has been preserved 
 in mamiecript in the libr^n/of the Floral Gamek at Toulouse, 9M1- 
 tains tlArecord of the anniitl meetings (May f-Z) Vrom 1513 to i641. 
 It is WieVurpose of the writer in the presdit article to discvRs the 
 awanfling oi the flower «5f encouragement during this periods 
 
 /No secVtary's recdrds haRre been pre/erved froih the/period of 
 Gaty Science, Vnd the /rincipalX source oyinformation\co»(cerning the 
 
 JrSee also DawsoI^s Toultuse in the Renaissance/ Vatt I, C. U. Plfss, N. Y. 1921.