atch the
ear of the average playgoer of all ages. But it is not to these
subsidiary features that the universality of the play's vogue can be
attributed. It is the intensity of interest which Shakespeare contrives
to excite in the character of the hero that explains the position of the
play in popular esteem. The play's unrivalled power of attraction lies
in the pathetic fascination exerted on minds of almost every calibre by
the central figure--a high-born youth of chivalric instincts and finely
developed intellect, who, when stirred to avenge in action a desperate
private wrong, is foiled by introspective workings of the brain that
paralyse the will.

'Troilus and Cressida.'

Although the difficulties of determining the date of 'Troilus and
Cressida' are very great, there are many grounds for assigning its
composition to the early days of 1603. In 1599 Dekker and Chettle were
engaged by Henslowe to prepare for the Earl of Nottingham's company--a
rival of Shakespeare's company--a play of 'Troilus and Cressida,' of
which no trace survives. It doubtless suggested the topic to
Shakespeare. On February 7, 1602-3, James Roberts obtained a license for
'the booke of Troilus and Cresseda as yt is acted by my Lord Chamberlens
men,' _i.e._ Shakespeare's company. {226a} Roberts printed the Second
Quarto of 'Hamlet' and others of Shakespeare's plays; but his effort to
publish 'Troilus' proved abortive owing to the interposition of the
players. Roberts's 'book' was probably Shakespeare's play. The metrical
characteristics of Shakespeare's 'Troilus and Cressida'--the regularity
of the blank verse--powerfully confirm the date of composition which
Roberts's license suggests. Six years later, however, on January 28,
1608-9, a new license for the issue of 'a booke called the history of
Troylus and Cressida' was granted to other publishers, Richard Bonian and
Henry Walley, {226b} and these publishers, more fortunate than Roberts
soon printed a quarto with Shakespeare's full name as author. The text
seems fairly authentic, but exceptional obscurity attaches to the
circumstances of the publication. Some copies of the book bear an
ordinary type of title-page stating that the piece was printed 'as it was
acted by the King's majesties servants at the Globe.' But in other
copies, which differ in no way in regard to the text of the play, there
was substituted for this title-page a more pretentious announcement
running: 'The