INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION THIS PLAY was first printed in Quarto form in 1609. There had been two entries in S.R. The first, in 7 February 1603, was to 'Master Robertes. Entred for his copie in full Court holden this day to print when he hath gotten sufficient authority for yt, The booke of Troilus and Cresseda as yt is acted by my lord ChamberIens Men.' Obviously Roberts had some rights to the play, but he did not print it. Pollard has suggested that the entry may have been made to stop anyone else pirating the piece. On 28 January 1609 the book was entered to Richard Bonian and Henry Walley who published it, in a good text, though not all editors agree with Peter Alexander that it was set up from Shakespeare's manuscript. The first Folio text presents problems.1 It should originally have been printed after Romeo and Juliet, which occupies pp. 53-77 (misnumbered 79). Timon of Athens, which now comes next, occupies pp. 80 (really 78)-98, followed by Julius Caesar ((107)-130). Troilus now appears between Henry VIII and Coriolanus, between the Histories and the Tragedies. Its second leafis numbered 79-80; there is no other pagination for this play. It is generally agreed that probably after the first pages of Troilus had been set up in type, a hitch occurred. Permission to print the play may have been refused by Walley. So Timon was printed after Romeo, though it was too short to fill the estimated gap. When permission to print Troilus was given, the catalogue of plays had already been run off, so Troilus does not appear in it. The play however was printed in its present position with a new first page (but five extant copies include the cancelled one) and the print already set up for the second leaf was used. The Folio text may well have been taken (as W. W. Greg and E. K. Chambers

1 Discussed by J. Q. Adams inJEGP, vii, 53-63; P. Williams, Studies in Bibliog. (Virginia) 1950, 131 -43; Alice Walker, MLR, xlv, 1950, 459-64; J. G. McManaway Sh Survey, 5, 145; and in Variorum p. 347.