any details of vocabulary, meter, and style.

{174}

+Date+.--_Troilus and Cressida_ must have been written before 1603, for
in the spring of that year an entry in regard to it was made in the
Stationers' Register. It must have been written after 1601, for it
alludes (Prologue, ll. 23-25) to the Prologue of Jonson's _Poetaster_,
a play published in that year. Hence the date of composition would
fall during or slightly before 1602. The First Quarto was not
published until 1609.

+Sources+.--The main source of this drama was the narrative poem
_Troilus and Criseyde_ by Chaucer. Contrary to his custom, Shakespeare
has degraded the characters of his original, instead of ennobling them.
The camp scenes are adapted from Caxton's _Recuyell of the Historyes of
Troye_; and the challenge of Hector was taken from some translation of
Homer, probably that by Chapman. An earlier lost play on this subject
by Dekker and Chettle is mentioned in contemporary reference. We do
not know whether Shakespeare drew anything from it or not. Scattered
hints were probably taken from other sources, as the story of Troy was
very popular in the Middle Ages.

+All's Well That Ends Well+.--When a beautiful and noble-minded young
woman falls in love with a contemptible scoundrel, forgives his
rebuffs, compromises her own dignity to win his affection, and finally
persuades him to let her throw herself away on him,--is the result a
romance or a tragedy? This is a nice question; and by the answer to it
we must determine whether _All's Well That Ends Well_ is a romantic
comedy like _Twelfth Night_ or a satirical comedy bitter as tragedy,
like _Troilus and Cressida_.

Helena, a poor orphan girl, has been brought up by the kindly old
Countess of Rousillon, and cherishes a deep affection for the
Countess's son Bertram, though he neither suspects it nor returns it.
She saves the life of the French king, and he in gratitude allows her
{175} to choose her husband from among the noblest young lords of
France. Her choice falls on Bertram. Being too politic to offend the
king, he reluctantly marries her, but forsakes her on their wedding day
to go to the wars. At parting he tells her that he will never accept
her as a wife until she can show him his ring on her finger and has a
child by him. By disguising herself as a young woman whom Bertram is
attempting to seduce, Helena subsequently fulfills the terms of his
hard condition. Later, before the