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year they obtained a licence for their exhibitions from king James; and from that time they bore the more honourable appellation of his majeſty’s servants. There can, therefore, be little doubt, that the Troilus and Creſſida which is here entered, as acted at Shakſpeare’s theatre, was his play, and was, if not repreſented, intended to have been repreſented there[1].
Perhaps the two diſcordant accounts, relative to this piece, may be thus reconciled. It might have been performed in 1602 at court, by the lord chamberlain’s ſervants, (as many plays at that time were) and yet not have been exhibited on the publick ſtage till ſome years afterwards. The editor in 1609 only ſays, “ it had never been ſtaled with the ſtage, never clapperclaw’d with the palms of the vulgar.”
As a further proof: of the early appearance of Troilus and Creſſida it may be obſerved, that an incident in it ſeems to be burleſqued in a comedy entitled Hiſtriomaſtix, which, though not printed till 1610, muſt have been written before the death of queen Elizabeth, who, in the laſt act of the piece, is ſhadowed under the character of Aſtræa, and is ſpoken of as then living.
In our author’s play, when Troilus and Creſſida part, he gives her his ſleeve, and ſhe, in return, preſents, him with her glove.
To this circumſtance theſe lines in Hiſtriomaſtix ſeem to refer. They are ſpoken by Troilus and Creſſida, who are introduced in an interlude:
Troi. “ Come Creſſida, my creſſet light,
Thy face doth ſhine both day and night.
Behold, behold, thy garter blue
Thy knight his valiant elbow weares,
That, when he ſhakes his furious ſpeare,
The foe in ſhivering fearful fort
May lay him down in death to ſnort.
Creſſ., O knight, with valour in thy face,
Here take my ſkreene, weare it for grace;
Within thy helmet put the ſame,
Therewith to make thy enemies lame.”
- ↑ No other play with this title has come down to us. We have therefore a right to conclude that the play entered in the books of the Stationers’ company, was Shakſpeare’s.
