Diomed and Cressida (Act V, Scene ii)

Troilus and Cressida

William Shakespearec. 1602
Influence18th pct
Popularity17th pct
Shakespeare

Read this if you…

  • loved the Iliad/ Trojan war stuff
  • are checking the box of shakespeare plays, there are better plays

Skip this if you…

  • aren't willing to go slow, read notes, look up analyses of famous passages (only way to "get" shakespeare)
  • foolishly think shakespeare is overrated
  • haven't already read the classic tragedies

The Groblé Take

Quality Shakespeare weaving in a tragic dark love story within the story of the Iliad, pretty fun, not amazing

Connections

The lineage through Troilus and Cressida

Built Onwhat came beforeTroilus and CressidaThe Canterbury…The IliadMetamorphoses

  • The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer. Troilus and Cressida built on it. - Shakespeare drew the play's plot directly from Chaucer's *Troilus and Criseyde* — he knew Chaucer's work intimately - The disillusioned love story is Chaucer's; Shakespeare just sharpens the cynicism - Chaucer's range — the comedy, the romance, the cutting irony — is the soil this play grew in
  • The Iliad by Homer. Troilus and Cressida built on it. - Behind this sour, disillusioned war play stands Homer's *Iliad*, which Shakespeare knew through Chapman's 1598 translation - The bones are Homeric — Achilles sulking in his tent, Hector marching to his death — but Shakespeare strips out the heroism and lets Thersites jeer at all of it - Read the *Iliad* first and you feel exactly what *Troilus and Cressida* is corroding: the epic ideal of glory it refuses to grant
  • Metamorphoses by Ovid. Troilus and Cressida built on it. - Shakespeare's deflated Ajax — "a dolt and grossehead" — and his scheming Ulysses owe as much to Ovid as to Homer - The source is Ovid's "Judgement of Arms" (Book 13), the contest where eloquence beats raw strength: read it first and the play's poisoned rhetoric lands sharper - Golding's *Metamorphoses* was one of Shakespeare's favorite books; this play is him turning Ovid's brute-and-rhetorician pair against the heroic myth itself
See the full map
Gallery

Depicted in Art

Cressida flirts with Diomedes outside the Greek tents while Troilus, restrained by Ulysses, watches in agony from the shadows.

Angelica Kauffmann, 1789

The lovers meet in Pandarus's orchard, embracing under the trees as Cressida yields to Troilus's vows.

Edward Henry Corbould, 1873

Engraved print of Kauffmann's Act V scene — Troilus held back by Ulysses as Diomedes courts Cressida in the Greek camp.

Luigi Schiavonetti (after Angelica Kauffmann), 1795

Chaucer reads from a podium before Richard II and the assembled court; widely identified as the frontispiece to his Troilus.

Unknown English illuminator, 1415

A more erotic reading of the same scene: Cressida leans into Diomedes with her bodice loosened while Troilus seethes in the background.

James Neagle (after Henry Fuseli), 1804

The lovers seated together in Pandarus's garden, Cressida looking down as Troilus speaks; an intimate Victorian rendering.

Valentine Walter Bromley

Manuscript illumination of Pandarus speaking to a grieving Criseyde, who lies weeping on her bed in a curtained chamber.

Editions

Recommended Editions

#1Top Pick

Folger Shakespeare Library

2007

Folger's the readable one. Text on one page, notes on the facing page, written in plain English instead of textbook-speak. Catches every word and reference you'd otherwise google, without breaking the scene to do it.

Buy on Bookshop

Please support us by purchasing through these links, at no extra cost to you!

Notable Quotes

One touch of nature makes the whole world kin.

Ulysses, Act III scene iii
All 16 quotes, with sources →
Adaptations

Screen & Stage

Posters via The Movie Database (TMDB)

AcclaimPraised by 3 notable voices
  • Joyce Carol Oates, American novelist & critic, b. 1938: "Troilus and Cressida, that most vexing and ambiguous of Shakespeare's plays, strikes the modern reader as a contemporary document."
  • George Bernard Shaw, Irish playwright & critic, 1856–1950: Shakespeare treated the heroic story as an iconoclast treats an idol — and in Cressida he drew his first real woman.
  • Harold Bloom, Yale literary critic, 1930–2019: "It is the most difficult and elitist of all his works."

More by William Shakespeare

  1. 11A Midsummer Night’s Dream~1595William ShakespeareGrueling·Quick·118 pagesInfluence24Popularity81ShakespeareComedyEnglish
  2. 13Hamlet~1600William ShakespeareGrueling·Quick·218 pagesInfluence98Popularity96ShakespeareTragedyEnglish
  3. 20Othello~1603William ShakespeareGrueling·Quick·189 pagesInfluence88Popularity76ShakespeareTragedyEnglish
  4. 23King Lear~1605William ShakespeareGrueling·Quick·187 pagesInfluence95Popularity72ShakespeareTragedyEnglish
  5. 26Macbeth~1606William ShakespeareGrueling·Quick·122 pagesInfluence94Popularity87ShakespeareTragedyEnglish
  6. 42Richard II~1595William ShakespeareGrueling·Quick·160 pagesInfluence22Popularity24ShakespeareHistory PlayEnglish
  7. 43Twelfth Night~1601William ShakespeareGrueling·Quick·142 pagesInfluence20Popularity60ShakespeareComedyEnglish
  8. 52Romeo and Juliet~1595William ShakespeareGrueling·Quick·175 pagesInfluence88Popularity99ShakespeareTragedyEnglish
  9. 54The Tempest~1611William ShakespeareGrueling·Quick·119 pagesInfluence87Popularity62ShakespeareRomanceEnglish
  10. 59Love's Labour's Lost~1594William ShakespeareGrueling·Quick·153 pagesInfluence8Popularity18ShakespeareComedyEnglish
  11. 69All's Well That Ends Well~1604William ShakespeareGrueling·Quick·164 pagesInfluence15Popularity18ShakespeareComedyEnglish
  12. 72Much Ado About Nothing~1598William ShakespeareGrueling·Quick·151 pagesInfluence18Popularity60ShakespeareComedyEnglish
  13. 77Julius Caesar~1599William ShakespeareGrueling·Quick·141 pagesInfluence21Popularity61ShakespeareTragedyEnglish
  14. 78King Henry IV, Part 1~1596William ShakespeareGrueling·Quick·176 pagesInfluence22Popularity24ShakespeareHistory PlayEnglish
  15. 80The Merchant of Venice~1596William ShakespeareGrueling·Quick·152 pagesInfluence20Popularity60ShakespeareComedyEnglish
  16. 81Measure for Measure~1604William ShakespeareGrueling·Quick·156 pagesInfluence18Popularity18ShakespeareComedyEnglish
  17. 94As You Like It~1599William ShakespeareGrueling·Quick·155 pagesInfluence19Popularity58ShakespeareComedyEnglish
  18. 112Antony and Cleopatra~1606William ShakespeareGrueling·Quick·178 pagesInfluence20Popularity32ShakespeareTragedyEnglish
  19. 120Richard III~1593William ShakespeareGrueling·Quick·209 pagesInfluence22Popularity58ShakespeareHistory PlayEnglish
  20. 129Henry V~1599William ShakespeareGrueling·Quick·187 pagesInfluence23Popularity50ShakespeareHistory PlayEnglish
  21. 137The Winter's Tale~1610William ShakespeareGrueling·Quick·178 pagesInfluence16Popularity16ShakespeareRomanceEnglish
  22. 138The Taming of the Shrew~1591William ShakespeareGrueling·Quick·150 pagesInfluence16Popularity59ShakespeareComedyEnglish
  23. 142Troilus and Cressida~1602William ShakespeareGrueling·Quick·186 pagesInfluence18Popularity17ShakespeareSatireEnglish
  24. 150The Comedy of Errors~1594William ShakespeareGrueling·Quick·105 pagesInfluence16Popularity20ShakespeareComedyEnglish
  25. 152Coriolanus~1608William ShakespeareGrueling·Quick·197 pagesInfluence17Popularity32ShakespeareTragedyEnglish
  26. 156King John~1596William ShakespeareGrueling·Quick·148 pagesInfluence14Popularity22ShakespeareHistory PlayEnglish
  27. 163Timon of Athens~1606William ShakespeareGrueling·Quick·130 pagesInfluence10Popularity14ShakespeareTragedyEnglish
  28. 173The Two Gentlemen of Verona~1590William ShakespeareGrueling·Quick·122 pagesInfluence8Popularity19ShakespeareComedyEnglish
  29. 174Henry IV, Part Two~1597William ShakespeareGrueling·Quick·183 pagesInfluence14Popularity22ShakespeareHistory PlayEnglish
  30. 176Titus Andronicus~1592William ShakespeareGrueling·Quick·148 pagesInfluence12Popularity14ShakespeareTragedyEnglish
  31. 178The Merry Wives of Windsor~1597William ShakespeareGrueling·Quick·156 pagesInfluence12Popularity20ShakespeareComedyEnglish
  32. 179Cymbeline~1610William ShakespeareGrueling·Quick·197 pagesInfluence11Popularity16ShakespeareRomanceEnglish
  33. 180Pericles~1607William ShakespeareGrueling·Quick·132 pagesInfluence10Popularity16ShakespeareRomanceEnglish
  34. 181The Two Noble Kinsmen~1613William ShakespeareGrueling·Quick·181 pagesInfluence9Popularity15ShakespeareRomanceEnglish
  35. 188Henry VI, Part 1~1592William ShakespeareGrueling·Quick·154 pagesInfluence14Popularity22ShakespeareHistory PlayEnglish
  36. 189King Henry VI, Part 2~1591William ShakespeareGrueling·Quick·182 pagesInfluence13Popularity21ShakespeareHistory PlayEnglish
  37. 190King Henry VI, Part 3~1591William ShakespeareGrueling·Quick·174 pagesInfluence12Popularity20ShakespeareHistory PlayEnglish
  38. 199Henry VIII~1613William ShakespeareGrueling·Quick·176 pagesInfluence10Popularity23ShakespeareHistory PlayEnglish
  39. Shakespeare's Sonnets1609William ShakespeareGrueling·Quick·121 pagesInfluence—Popularity—PoetsLyricEnglish