Troilus and Cressida

Henry Chettle and Thomas Dekker (1599)

Historical Records

Henslowe's Diary

F. 54v (Greg I.104)

		Lent vnto Thomas downton to lende
aprell 7		vnto mr dickers & harey cheattell in
daye 1599		earneste of ther boocke called Troyeles &
		creasse daye the some of . . . . . . . . . . . . iijli
		[...]
		Lent vnto harey cheattell & mr dickers in pte
		of payment of ther boocke called Troyelles &
		cresseda the 16 of Aprell 1599 . . . . . . . . xxs

F. 63 (Greg I.109)

Henslowe also appears to have confused the play with another on a Greek subject also co-authored by Chettle and Dekker:

			Lent vnto mr dickers & mr chettell the 26 of
			maye 1599 in earneste of a Boocke called troylles
			& creseda the tragede of Agamemnon the some of . . . . . xxxs

Plot

One of the seven extent backstage-plots (British Museum MS. Add 10449) is generally assumed to belong to Dekker and Chettle's "Troilus and Cressida." Greg noted that the actors names that appear in the plot connect it to the Admiral's Men and date it between March 1598 and July 1600, making the 1599 Troilus the most likely of several possible candidates (Documents, II.138). (For dissent, see Hillebrand 461, who proposes the "troye" play that Henslowe records in June 1596.)

The plot was transcribed by Greg in 1904 (Henslowe Papers, 142). A facsimile was published and the transcription corrected in Greg, Dramatic Documents, Plate V. This transcription is reprinted in Bullough, Narrative Sources, v. 6, pp. 220-21; and another facsimile appears in Bullough, "The Lost 'Troilus and Cressida'," facing p. 38.

Theatrical Provenance

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Probable Genre(s)

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References to the Play

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For What It's Worth

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