SOURCE: Barfoot, C. C. “Troilus and Cressida: ‘Praise Us As We Are Tasted.’” Shakespeare Quarterly 39, no. 1 (spring 1988): 45-57.
In the following essay, Barfoot examines the human relationships in Troilus and Cressida in relation to the “mercantile metaphor” that runs throughout the play. This metaphor, the critic contends, “suggests that we are all traders in our relationships, and, as victims and perpetrators, susceptible to the inevitable treachery that trade brings in its wake.”
