Troilus and Cressida

Early printed texts

Troilus and Cressida exists in two different early versions, both of which have complicated histories, although the textual variants are not significant enough for most readers to notice. The play was first published in 1609 as a quarto that exists in two different states. The earlier state (Qa) has a title page describing the play as a “Historie” published “As it was acted by the Kings Majesties servants at the Globe.” The second state (Qb), however, has a title page that does not refer to the play’s performance and includes a prefatory letter, “A never writer, to an ever reader,” that asserts that the play was “never stal’d with the Stage, never clapper-clawd with the palmes of the vulger.” (Scholars are divided on the assertion that the play was never performed.)

The play was then included in the 1623 First Folio (F1) as The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida, albeit only after some confusion; a few copies of F1 survive without the play and it was never listed in the book’s “Catalogue,” or table of contents. The play seems to have been intially slated to appear in the middle of the tragedies, just after Romeo and Juliet, and a few copies still include a leaf that has the ending of Romeo and Juliet on one side and the start of Troilus and Cressida on the other. (The Folger’s Fo.1 no.45 is one such copy.) But before the full play could be printed, there was apparently a change of plans. The play was moved to appear after the last play in the history section, Henry VIII, and the first play in the tragedy section, Coriolanus. A prologue to the play (not in Q) was also added, facing the ending of Henry VIII.