Troilus and Cressida

Content Warning: This play reflects offensive attitudes and beliefs that were prevalent in early-17th-century England. The text also contains sexist, racist, anti-gay, and ableist language.

An actor—called the Prologue—addresses the audience, giving them the background of the play. The action is set in Troy, where armies from all over Greece have gathered at the behest of powerful Menelaus, king of Sparta. Menelaus is enraged that Paris, the young prince of Troy, stole Menelaus’s beautiful wife, Helen. Sixty-nine kings set forth from Athens to Troy so they could destroy the city where Helen sleeps with Paris. The Greeks emptied their cargo at Tenedos, an island near Troy. Now they wait in tents outside the city ruled by King Priam (Troy), which has six formidable gates bolstered with beams. 

Both Trojan and Greek soldiers are skittish with excitement for the battle that awaits. The Prologue is here only to narrate the play’s context, rather than to sing the praises of the playwright (unlike in the case of other authors of Shakespeare’s time). The play begins in the middle of the action of the war. Love it or loathe it, the choice is that of the audience—in a war, everything is up to chance.