The New Cambridge Shakespeare appeals to students worldwide for its
up-to-date scholarship and emphasis on performance. The series features
line-by-line commentaries and textual notes on the plays and poems.
Introductions are regularly refreshed with accounts of new critical,
stage and screen interpretations. This second edition of Troilus and
Cressida, a play that has long been considered difficult but is now
popular both on the stage and in criticism, features an expanded and
updated introduction and reading list. The first edition has been
praised for its careful rethinking of the text, excellent annotation,
lively attention to performance and extensive coverage of the play's
major concerns. This updated edition retains these characteristics. In
addition, Gretchen Minton and Anthony B. Dawson have provided a new
account of the critical and theatrical treatment of Troilus and Cressida
over the last fifteen years, showing how modern audiences have become
attuned to the play's sardonic undercutting of both the medieval romance
of the title characters and the Homeric tale of the Trojan War. Recent
performance history is placed against a broader background of social
change, including shifting attitudes towards war, political
decision-making, gender politics, and fear of disease and contagion.