Genre

In 1623 when, seven years after Shakespeare's death, John Heminges and Henry Condell, the editors of First Folio (the first collected edition of Shakespeare's works), grouped roughly a third of Shakespeare's plays under the heading of 'histories', they confirmed a dramatic genre that Shakespeare himself seems to have endorsed: Polonius announced that 'the best actors in the world, either for tragedy, comedy, history . . .' had arrived in Elsinore (Ham., 2.2.416). But Heminges and Condell also unloosed a host of critical problems - they seem to have recognised difficulties themselves. Troilus and Cressida, which they placed after Henry VIII, they entitled The Tragedy of Troilus and Cressida. Yet this play is not included in the Folio's 'catalogue' or index of the tragedies, which are printed after the histories. In fact many have regarded Troilus as a 'history', which is how it had been categorised by the publisher of its Quarto version (1609) where it was entitled The Famous History of Troilus and Cresseid [sic]. In recent years critics have located Troilus among the 'problem plays' (plays that defy easy generic classification and which may be best approached by way of the ethical problems they explore).