Just read Troilus and Cressida. What a weird play. Lots of very
modern seeming self reflective action -- actors miming the
characterization performed by actors in the preceding scene. And all
this buddy-buddy gallant enemy stuff -- which is basically well done but
after a while I wanted to say All right all right I get it! And the
irony of saying "If not may my name become a byword" is fine the first
time and the second time and even the third time, but do we have to have
it a fourth and fifth time? It's got some great lines, and it's
interesting to see the refurbishments of the echoes of Homer's
archetypes come down through so many ages. But all in all it's one of
the few WS works which seems self-indulgent, like he was more interested
in strutting his stuff than getting on with the job the groundlings are
paying him for. (I understand there's a theory that the play was made
for private performance, which may explain some of this.)
-
But strength alone though of the Muses born
Is like a fallen angel: trees uptorn,
Darkness, and worms, and shrouds, and sepulchres
Delight it; for it feeds upon the burrs
And thorns of life; forgetting the great end
Of poesy, that it should be a friend
To soothe the cares and lift the thoughts of man.
-- Keats
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