"He was not of an age, but for all time." So wrote Ben Jonson in his dedicatory verses to the memory of William Shakespeare in 1623, and so we continue to affirm today. No other writer, in English or in any other language, can rival the appeal that Shake...

"He was not of an age, but for all time." So wrote Ben Jonson in his dedicatory verses to the memory of William Shakespeare in 1623, and so we continue to affirm today. No other writer, in English or in any other language, can rival the appeal that Shake...

William Shakespeare's reputation is based primarily on his plays. With the partial exception of the Sonnets (1609), quarried since the early nineteenth century for autobiographical secrets allegedly encoded in them, the nondramatic writings have traditio...

Recently, over at B.A.M., William Forsythe in his new piece, Three Atmospheric Studies, made his position clear: He’s anti-war. Study I involves 15 or so dancers in street clothes, brawling. They brawl and brawl (very effectively) until one of them is hauled away—you see, this...

In the following essay, McCandless explores the play's approach to masculinity, particularly Shakespeare's treatment of the Trojan War as a process of emasculation. The critic maintains that the play's dramatic representation of sexual difference is left unresolved.

In the following essay, James explores the Elizabethan attitudes reflected in Shakespeare's treatment of history and legend in Troilus and Cressida, explaining that at the time the play was written the legend of the Trojan War and its warriors and lovers were viewed with mixed emotions by Elizabethans. James additionally relates elements of the play to the Essex rebellion.

In the following essay, Hodgdon refers to several different stage adaptations of Troilus and Cressida to demonstrate how the play was constructed to keep Cressida in particular, and, through her representation, Renaissance women in general, under male control.