Troilus and Cressida: Tempus edax rerum

Abstract

Troilus and Cressida appears to present itself as a reworking of earlier material in the canon. One is immediately aware of certain correspondences (Troilus/Romeo, Pandarus/Nurse) and of some stylistic reminiscences of Shakespeare’s earlier manner. From these resemblances, commentators¹ have been tempted to conclude that the play was conceived, perhaps partly written, at an earlier stage, and rewritten in accordance with a more complex vision. But this surely is erroneous. Shakespeare is drawing on the styles of his former manner to adduce certain characteristics (and inadequacies) of his dramatis personae.² In an important sense, Troilus and Cressida is a revision of Romeo and Juliet (also, of Henry V) but not in the sense that most holders of revisionist theories adopt. Rather, it is the act of seeing again that every great artist applies to his earlier work in breaking fresh ground. I regard Troilus and Cressida as a grand allusion to the earlier treatment of love and war in the canon; and if Troilus and Cressida reads like a revaluation, that is no more than a recognition that Time is a presence in the Shakespearean canon, as well as in this play.