Language, Style, and Meaning in "Troilus and Cressida"

Author(s): T. McAlindon
Source: PMLA, Vol. 84, No. 1 (Jan., 1969), pp. 29-43
Published by: Modern Language Association
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/1261154
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 LANGUAGE, STYLE, AND MEANING IN TROILUS AND CRESSIDA
BY T. MCALINDON

. . .and quite athwart speech in the play. None of the theories com-
Goes all decorum. monly advanced to explain the peculiarly Latin-
(Measure for Measure I.iv.30-31) ate diction of Troilus and Cressida-that
Shakespeare was adjusting his style to an ac
OR THOSE who regard Troilus and Cressidademic audience and to a philosophical treatm
as a play marred by incongruous elements and of his subject, that he was energetically explor
an uncertain purpose, Act iv, Scene v, will always all the semantic resources of language-ca
constitute an obvious source of dissatisfaction.
justify the jingling and outlandish collection
Here, a long-awaited andloudly heralded climax-words given at this point of the drama to a cha
the duel between Ajax and Hector-rapidly acter such as Hector. On the available theor
subsides into anticlimax: before Ajax is evenone can only account for such words by invoki
warm with action, Hector calls an end to the the notion of undisciplined experimentalism
combat on the ground that he and his opponentplacing them among what one critic has cal
are cousins. Moreover, Hector explains his "the grotesque excesses" in the vocabulary o
motive for withdrawal, and comments on Ajax'sTroilus and Cressida.
reply, in speeches whose diction and style merely The trouble with this explanation is that it
add to the discordant effect of his behavior:
credits Shakespeare, at a point in his career when
Why, then will I no more: he had already written Much Ado, Julius Caesar,
Thou art, great lord, my father's sister's son, As You Like It, Twelfth Night, and, perhaps,
A cousin-german to great Priam's seed; Hamlet, with having unwittingly added linguistic
The obligation of our blood forbids to dramatic discord; it allows the mature Shake-
A gory emulation 'twixt us twain.
speare practically no artistic sense at all. An
Were thy commixtion Greek and Trojan so,
That thou couldst say "This hand is Grecian all,
alternative explanation must, then, be found. I
And this is Trojan; the sinews of this leg would suggest (putting a corollary first) that the
All Greek, and this all Troy; my mother's blood anticlimax was part of Shakespeare's whole
Runs on the dexter cheek, and this sinister conception of the play, and that he employed
Bounds in my father's," by Jove multipotent, Latinate diction and neologism in order to
Thou shouldst not bear from me a Greekish intensify its dissonant effect.2 As most readers
member
will have observed, the conceited, antithetical
Wherein my sword had not impressure made expression in the speech quoted above is almost
Of our rank feud; but the just gods gainsay
as effective as the diction in debasing Hector's
That any drop thou borrow'dst from thy
inherently respectable motive for withdrawal;
mother,
My sacred aunt, should by my mortal sword
Be drained! 1 Ed. Alice Walker and J. Dover Wilson, New Cambridge
(11. 119-138; italics minel) Shakespeare, Cambridge, Eng., 1957.
2 Some support for this view can be found by referring to
To Ajax's rueful observation that he came the
to bathetic climax of the subplot in Love's Labour's Lost.
slay and not to embrace his cousin, Hector Here,
re- Don Armado, in the presence of all the royalty and
nobility of the drama, withdraws at the last moment from his
sponds: stage duel with Pompey the Great (alias Nathaniel) because
Not Neoptolemus so mirable, he finds himself improperly clad: "The naked truth of it is, I
On whose bright crest Fame with her loud'st oyez have no shirt; I go woolward for penance" (ed. R. David,
Cries "This is he," could promise to himself Arden Shakespeare, London, 1951, v.ii. 699-700). Not only is
Don Armado an old-fashioned knight whose "fire-new words"
A thought of added honour torn from Hector.
are the chief symptom of his divorce from reality, but in this
(11. 142-145; italics mine)
scene he is also playing the part of Hector, and the pompous-
sounding epithet which he applies to Mars in his bombastic
Although an element of bombast is traditionally
quatrain on Hector's spear-"armipotent" (1. 641)-is oddly
considered decorous in a soldier's "brag," the like that applied to Jove by Hector in his withdrawal speech-
circumstances in which this brag is delivered are "multipotent." Moreover, his speech here (like that of each
such as to present it as mere bombast: loud words of the other Worthies) is a "brag." Shakespeare must have
which no seen or foreseeable acts can justify. But been consciously repeating one of his own dramatic strata-
gems and remembering Don Armado when he used inkhorn
the jarring effect of Hector's lines stems princi- terms to underline the discrepancy between words and deeds,
pally from the Latinized vocabulary and the words and character, words and situation in the climax of the
coinages, more noticeable here than in any other military plot of Troilus and Cressida.

29

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30 Language, Style, and Meaning in "Troilus and Cressida"

the strained use of Latinized diction is, in fact,

refer only to such of them as allow one to infer
that problems of speech and style are to be ap-
only one of several kinds of stylistic dissonance
in the play, all of which, I propose, are calcu-
prehended as dramatic equivalents for problems
lated.3 The heroic and romantic characters of of value and behavior. Subsequently, the effects
Troilus and Cressida are continually losing their
of this artistic intention on the style of the play
hold on the style which is appropriate to theircan be examined in some detail.
traditional reputations or to the fine qualities The evaluative comments which the char-
acters of the play make upon one another are
which are intermittently realized for them in the
course of the play. They sin against what was often expressed in terms of the relationship be
for a contemporary audience the first principletween theme ("matter," "argument") and style.
of good speech: decorum, the law that word and It is apparent from these remarks that finding
style should suit the speaker, the person ad-
the right style for a given subject (person) is not
dressed, the subject, and the situation.4 These easy: individuals differ, or, in the process of time
errors of speech have a dramatic purpose, being change their minds on whether the subject is
used by Shakespeare to focus attention on the noble or base. One is liable, therefore, to treat
graver maladies which afflict the Greeks andnoble subject basely, or a base subject nobly
Trojans. And there are other problems. One may be ac-
Linguistic theory in the Renaissance was un- cused of speaking when one has no "matter" a
doubtedly such as to warrant a dramatic design all; or of having neither speech nor style in which
in which imperfect speech is prominently used to communicate a true evaluation of a subject.7
as an omen of personal and social disorder. The Hence the most inadequate character in the play
concept of oratio imago animi, rendered familiar is the illiterate Ajax. According to Ulysses, Ajax
chiefly by Quintilian and Cicero, was considered is lord of nothing because he is unable to "com
applicable to society as a whole as well as to the municate his parts to others" (III.iii.115-117,
individual. Thus, in one part of his Discoveries 125); according to Thersites, he is "languageless
Jonson observes: "Neither can his mind be a monster" who "raves in saying nothing" (11.
thought in tune, whose words do jarre; nor 263, his 249) and can only express his pseudo-subjec
reason in frame, whose sentence is preposterous"; (his own greatness) by stalking up and down lik
and in another: "Wheresoever manners and a peacock (1. 251)-that is, by ridiculous gestures
fashions are corrupted, Language is. It imitates Soldiers and lovers traditionally take a solemn
the publicke riot."5 The identification of speech view of their own utterances: their characteristic
with social morality in the second quotation
words are oaths and vows; they are quick t
swear. "Word," "oath," "vow," and "swear,"
hints at the doctrine of decorum, whose theoreti-
cal basis gave to speech and style the widest
3 A roughly similar conception of the play has been put
implications. In this doctrine it is assumed that
forward by Una Ellis-Fermor in The Frontiers of the Drama,
speech and conduct are subject to essentially
2nd ed. (London, 1946), pp. 56-76 (" 'Discord in the Spheres':
the same laws of fitness; that fitness of style-
The Universe of Troilus and Cressida"). My interpretation
conduct is relative and so requires continuous,
also agrees in essentials with Theodore Spencer's view of the
discriminating adjustment. For the Renaissance
play as one in which Shakespeare elaborately sets up a code of
theorist, it follows that fitting words signifybehavior
an which the action violates: "A Commentary on
Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida," Studies in English
intelligent respect for the universal law of Literature,
"de- Tokyo, xvI (1936), 1 ff.; Shakespeare and the Na-
gree, priority, and place"; they are a recognition
ture of Man (New York, 1949), pp. 109-121.
of the proportion and order implanted in things4 George Puttenham, The Arte of English Poesie, ed. Gladys
by nature.6 The good speaker is a man who D.un- Willcock and Alice Walker (Cambridge, Eng., 1936), pp.
263-264.
derstands and accepts his appointed place in the
ordered universe. 6 Ben Jonson, ed. C. H. Herford and P. and E. Simpson,
viII (Oxford, 1947), 628 and 593. The first quotation occurs in
a passage transcribed directly from John Hoskyn's Directions
II
for Speech and Style, a work indebted to Quintilian and
Lipsius. The second is a translation from Seneca, Epist.
Troilus and Cressida contains a high propor-
cxiv.3, 11. See Herford and Simpson, ix (Oxford, 1952), 244,
tion of words and phrases referring to speech and
274-275.
style. Yet most of these go unnoticed, being com- 6 Puttenham, pp. 261-262, 291-298. Gladys Willcock has
pletely absorbed by the drama, and emerging stressed the influence of the concept of "degree" on language
from it very often in the disguise of metaphor in her essay, "Shakespeare and Elizabethan English," Shake-
speare Survey, vn (1954), 13.
and wordplay. Although the sustained literary
consciousness which all these allusions denote is7 For the above points see I.i.94-95; II.i.8 (cf. I.iii.71);
n.ii.81-82, 153, 160, 199; In.iii.93; iv.v.26, 29-30, 181; v.ii.
of general relevance here, it will be sufficient 131-132.
to

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 T. McAlindon 31

a set of terms which occurs frequently in Troilusagainst the war, he concludes by supporting it.
and Cressida, are therefore virtually synonymousThe immediate cause of this violent severance
in it. Their contexts indicate that there are cer- of words from appropriate behavior is prob-
tain desiderata for the right use of words; and it ably the "roisting challenge" (II.ii.208) which
is clear that these are of the greatest relevance inHector remembers having sent over with the
understanding and assessing character. A simple too-eloquent Aeneas to the Greeks and which he
basic necessity is to choose the right word (or is bound in "honor" to uphold. As he prepares
figure)-and to choose it consciously: to hit on later
it for what is to be his last battle, Hector is
accidentally and unawares shows an unusualstill governed by this ethic; but now he is forced
to be explicit about his motive, this being an
degree of inadequacy in the speaker. Too few and
too many words must both be avoided, as must appropriate moment for the audience to perceive
words which are unlikely to be realized in thethe chief cause of his miserable end. He claims
that he is committed to what Andromache calls
kind of behavior they predict. And one must re-
member that words are no more reliable than the "bloody turbulence" (v.iii.11) because of the
mind of the person who uses them and so are angry oath to which Achilles provoked him:
liable to prove treacherous if too much faith is"The gods have heard me swear" (1. 15). Cas-
placed in them; the attitude of the clown insandra and Andromache, however, quickly
Twelfth Night is apposite here: "words are grown dispose of this magical view of words: "The gods
so false I am loath to prove reason with them"are deaf to hot and peevish vows: / They are
(III.i.24-25). Basically, then, the right use ofpolluted offerings.... It is the purpose that
words presupposes what Puttenham defined asmakes strong the vow; / But vows to every pur-
the conditions for a true sense of decorum in pose must not hold" (11. 16-17, 23-24). An exag-
speech and conduct: discretion (judgment) gerated
and (perhaps insincere) respect for the bind-
experience.8 But, since this is a play about lovers
ing power of foolish words is not, as we shall see,
(who must be true) and men of action (who peculiar to Hector or even to the warriors in
Troilus and Cressida. It is symptomatic of a
must act), good speech also requires constancy,
that quality of the will which ensures that words
common flaw in the amatory and heroic codes
are fitly translated into deeds. which control the action.
The vaunt of Hector which has been quoted Like
at Hector, Troilus can fall into heroic oaths
the beginning of this essay is inappropriate
which he will never fulfil (iv.iv. 126-129, v.ii. 170-
partly because he has just withdrawn from 176),
the and so, like Hector, can disregard his own
situation which justifies it, partly because fleeting
the awareness of the distinction between
total context-one of verbosity and frustration-
"needful talk" and a mere brag (Iv.iv.139, 137).
suggests that time will treat his words as mere
In Troilus' case, however, the psychological and
wind. Yet Hector does understand the necessity
ethical confusions connected with the faulty use
of establishing a proper relation between words
of words stem almost entirely from the nature of
and deeds, even though his greatest failureslovers'
are oaths and vows. From the beginning, his
in this area. When driven to threatening oaths
use of the language of love reveals more than
by the insolence of Achilles, he apologizes to his
anything else a distinct lack of judgment and
Greek hosts for the folly which has been drawn
experience. In the first scene he is found attach-
from his lips, and adds: "But I'll endeavour
ing a value to Cressida which an Elizabethan
deeds to match these words" (Iv.v.259). Oddly
would have found comically excessive and at the
(a typical Shakespearian surprise?), it is Ajaxsame
whotime groping self-consciously for apt figures
enunciates the decorum by which the many in which to describe his emotional drama ("Let
brags in this play must stand condemned: it "let
be called the wild and wandering flood," etc.,
these threats alone / Till accident or purpose i.i.104). The whole style and tone of the scene
bring you to't" (11. 262-263); only in the context
suggest that in the use of language, as in love, he
of action itself, and not before or after, haveis "skilless as unpractised infancy" (1. 12). This
menacing words any justification. conception of his character has a grim relevance
Superfluity of words is causally related in in
the two most important scenes in which he
Hector to a much more dangerous fault, that of
subsequently appears, the assignation and the
justifying reprehensible deeds by reference to
betrayal. In both, the difficulty of thinking (or
judging) and acting correctly when passion
rash words. This irrational but typically chivalric
procedure may be detected in his astonishing, sways reason is dramatized in the mind's largely
unexplained volte-face in the council scene (II.ii),
where, having argued with force and lucidity 8 Puttenham, p. 263.

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32 Language, Style, and Meaning in "Troilus and Cressida"

abortive effort to strike a just relation between whose rhymes are "Full of protest, of oath, and
words and meanings, words and deeds. big compare," grow weary of the old similes,
In the assignation scene, the lovers are both they will use the phrase "As true as Troilus" to
aware for a while that passion has interfered with "crown up the verse and sanctify the numbers"
their control over words. At first Troilus is (11. 173-182).
speechless: "You have bereft me of all words, Through Troilus' verbal dilettantism, all three
characters stumble into the harmonious, choric
lady," he tells Cressida (III.ii.53; cf. 1. 45). Cres-
sida, however, feels she has disclosed so many expression
of of absolute truth. Cressida, protest-
her "unbridled" thoughts that she has "blabbed" ing too much, and Pandarus, playing jocosely
with words and hypotheses, chime in with
(11. 121, 123). Unfortunately for herself and Troi-
Troilus' literary mood and use their own names
lus, she is not to be numbered among the "tongue-
tied maidens" for whom Pandarus prays at as the
figures of speech with a fitness which history
close of this scene (1. 209). As Ulysses wascorroborates
to (11. 183-206):
observe after her flirtation with the Greek leaders,
PANDARUS. Here I hold your hand; here my cousin's.
"There's language in her eye, her cheek, Ifher ever you prove false to one another, since I have
lip, / Nay, her foot speaks"; she is "glibtaken of such pains to bring you together, let all pitiful
tongue," one of those who will "wide unclaspgoers-between
the be called to the world's end after my
name-call them all Pandars: let all inconstant men be
tables of their thoughts / To every tickling
reader" (Iv.v.55-56, 58, 60-61). Troiluses, all false women Cressids, and all brokers-
between Pandars. Say "Amen."
The idea of the relationship between words and
TROILUS. Amen.
deeds keeps intruding upon the dialogue of CRESSIDA.
the Amen.
assignation scene. For Pandarus the question
PANDARUS. Amen. (11. 197-206)
is a purely erotic one: lovers should waste no
time in performing what they have verbalized Theat scene thus ends with an impressive exhibi-
length: "Words pay no debts, give her deeds" tion of the slipperiness of words. The elaborate
harmony (between speakers, and between words
(1. 54; cf. 11. 41-42). Later, Troilus seems to take
up this notion when he acknowledges that a pre- and deeds or characters) is discordant, because
ponderance of words over deeds in love is un- essentially unintended. And the appearance of
natural: is, in fact (he reassures Cressida), the
complete propriety in the speech of Pandarus
only "monstrous" thing in all Cupid's pageant rests on a serious non-sequitur: if these lovers
"prove false to one another," constant men will
(11. 73-82). However, if my (untraditional) read-
never be called Troiluses.
ing of this subtle passage of dialogue is correct,
In his eulogy of Troilus (Iv.v.96-112), spoken
Troilus is not thinking at all of the sexual act in
this speech. He is pursuing the word-deed prob- shortly before the betrayal scene, Ulysses repre-
lem in a manner which peculiarly expresses his sents "the youngest son of Priam" as a knight
who, although "not yet mature," achieves an
own "humour" and is quite alien to that of
Pandarus. Troilus is simply contemplating the ideal relation between thought, word, and deed.
impossibility of ever fulfilling the "monstrous" Troilus is "matchless firm of word; / Speaking in
hyperbolic vows of constancy and fortitudedeeds to and deedless in his tongue." He reveals his
which poetic lovers, always eager to climb the thoughts candidly; but his candor is guided by
highest mountain, are addicted: ". . . when we his "judgement," and so he never "dignifies
vow to weep seas, live in fire, eat rocks, tame an impair [unproportioned] thought with breath."
tigers; thinking it harder for our mistress to de-Since, however, it was Aeneas who "did ... thus
vise imposition enough than for us to undergo translate" Troilus for Ulysses, the encomium is
probably touched with exaggeration from the
any difficulty imposed . . . the desire [that is, to
perform heroic exploits for the beloved] is bound-
start. More important, it agrees imperfectly with
less, but the act a slave to limit" (11. 76-82). what the audience has already seen of Troilus.
Since Troilus' intention had been to reassure Nevertheless, it defines the ideal by which he
Cressida, and since in his soliloquy at the startshould be measured and toward which, in his
of the scene he had said that fruition must be most painful, maturing experience, he progresses.
overwhelming if expectation is so sweet (11. 18- In Cressida's dialogue with Diomedes during
29), he cannot have been thinking here of the in- the betrayal scene (v.ii), the ostensible issue is a
adequacy of the sexual act. This is apparent too promise of sexual favors which she has recently
in the way he reasserts his peculiarly literarymade to him; but the real issue is her solemn vow
concern for words when proclaiming his truth of fidelity to Troilus. Cressida's weakness mani-
and constancy: in times to come, when lovers,fests itself here as verbal fluency combined with

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 T. McAlindon 33

an insincere respect for certain words. From the this very silence of Troilus during the speeches of
beginning of the scene she abounds in words Cressida and Diomedes is made to serve as an
which titillate, anger, and appease her new lover: instance of word-keeping which counterpoints
"Now, my sweet guardian! Hark, a word with their word-breaking. Ulysses reminds him: "You
you [whispers]" (1. 8); "Hark, one word in your have sworn patience" (1. 63); he assents, and later
ear" (1. 36); "I will not keep my word" (1. 99); affirms: "I did swear patience" (1. 85).
"You shall not go; one cannot speak a word / But when the lovers leave, Troilus allows his
But straight it starts you" (11. 101-102). In con- feelings to carry him into "madness of discourse"
sequence, Diomedes is also preoccupied with
(1. 142) where extreme paradox, baffling ellipsis,
words. He urges her: "let your mind be coupledsolecism, and a passionate vow of revenge (11.
with your words" (1. 16); tells her she is "for-137-160, 163-176) act out the disorders of a
sworn" (1. 23); and asks rhetorically: "What didn-ind which has discovered that souls do not
you swear you would bestow on me?" (1. 26).always guide vows and that vows are not always
Her plaintive reply to this question shows thatsacred (1. 139). Ulysses tries to moderate his
she is eager to use its corruption of words as avehemence with ironic literalness: "What hath
pretext for following "appetite"; "I prithee, doshe done, prince, that can soil our mothers?"
not hold me to mine oath; / Bid me do anything(1. 134), but this only provokes Troilus' most
but that, sweet Greek" (11. 27-28). irrational (and most admired) sentence:
We are undoubtedly meant to understand that, "Nothing at all, unless that this were she"
in their use of words, Cressida and Diomedes (1. 135). Ulysses presently asks, in astonishment,
are two of a kind. At the close of the previouswhether the feelings which Troilus experiences
scene, Thersites described Diomedes as "a false can be half as violent as the words which express
hearted rogue" who "will spend his mouth and them (11. 161-162), and finally halts the execra-
promise, like Babbler the hound" (v.i.88-89). tions with a worried reminder that a crowd will
The significance of this observation is disclosed collect: "0, contain yourself; / Your passion
almost immediately after in the first sentence draws ears hither" (11. 161-162). Almost im-
which Diomedes addresses to Cressida in the mediately Troilus recovers verbal (and, of course,
betrayal scene: "How now, my sweet charge!" behavioral) decorum. In four terse lines (11.
(1. 7). He is her "sweet guardian" (1. 8) as well as185-187, 189) he greets the newly arrived
her seducer; so both of them are word-breakingAeneas, bids a courteous farewell to Ulysses,
while supposedly word-keeping. Together, they bitterly defines his new relationship with Cressida
are responsible for that hallucinatory moment in and Diomedes, and, with a decorous awareness of
Troilus' life when words mean everything and indecorum, thanks Ulysses for the offer to see him
nothing, communicate lies and truth at once to the gates of the Greek camp: "Accept dis-
(11. 116 ff.). tracted thanks" (1. 189).
The danger which threatens Troilus while he Thereafter, Troilus shows an exact if de-
watches Blabber and Babbler "co-act" (1. 118) ispressing sense of the value of words. He rejects
that of verbal explosion precisely when utter the now obsolete language of chivalry by telling
silence is necessary. Ulysses has here good reasonHector that in a war with Achilles "mercy" is a
to modify his secondhand account of Troilus' "vice" (v.iii.37), "fair play" is "fool's play"
speech; yet the audience, more familiar with the(1. 43). And with gestures as luminous with
young man's weaknesses, can only admire his meaning as the laconic speech which accompanies
performance. Listening to Troilus' brief exclama- them, he consigns to the wind the last, loving
tions of incredulous horror, Ulysses fears that his words addressed to him by Cressida:
"displeasure" (an exquisite inaccuracy) will
"enlarge itself to wrathful terms" (11. 38-39), PANDARUS. What says she there?
that he will "flow to great distraction," andTROILUS. Words, words, mere words; no matter from
the heart;
"break out" (1. 52). But Troilus, by an effort
Th'effect doth operate another way. [tearing the
which he feels undoes his whole nature (11. 64-65), letter]
manufactures an outward patience (11. 56, 65, Go, wind, to wind! there turn and change together.
69, 85) and checks the words which passionMy love with words and errors still she feeds,
demands: "by hell and all hell's torments, / IBut edifies another with her deeds. (11. 107-112)
will not speak a word" (11. 44-45); "Nay, stay;
by Jove, I will not speak a word" (11. 53-54). TheFinally, foreseeing the effect of Hector's death on
phrasing in these two quotations is significant. the Trojans, he reflects on the power and com-
Such is the economy of Shakespeare's art that pleteness of monosyllabic brevity:

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34 Language, Style, and Meaning in "Troilus and Cressida"

Let him that will a screech-owl aye be called: Agamemnon and Nestor, as well as a prefac
Go in to Troy and say there "Hector's dead," his own speech on degree. Its timing shows
There is a word will Priam turn to stone, obvious, preliminary respect for hierarc
Make wells and Niobes of the maids and wives, Ulysses has waited until the general and th
Cold statues of the youth, and, in a word,
oldest councillor have spoken their minds,
Scare Troy out of itself. But march away.
Hector is dead; there is no more to say.
at length. Its whole style, however, constitut
(v.x. 16-22) disciplined and graceful effort on the part of t
speaker to adjust himself to his companions
III
circumstances which render such adjustm
difficult. For what Ulysses intends to say in
In two speeches, placed immediately before
degree speech implies a complete rejection o
and after the famous speech on degree andtheir
on theexplanation of the siege's failure; h
disorder which follows when it is broken, believes
Ulysses that the cause of failure is not Fortu
draws attention to the deeper implications of inadequacies of the Greeks (includin
but the
decorum and indecorum of style. The second of
Agamemnon and Nestor). The speeches of th
these speeches provides concrete evidence for the
older men, therefore, on the need for consta
theoretical explanation of the Greek failure
when toFortune tries us, are largely irrelevan
take Troy, outlined in the degree speech; it
the immediate context. Nevertheless, they
consists of a lengthy, critical description of the certain good qualities which Ulys
possess
manner in which Patroclus, to the appreciative
before proceeding to give his own views, is
guffaws of Achilles, mimics the Greeklates,leaders.
praises, and finds becoming to the speake
Ulysses represents Patroclus as "a strutting
generalized and enduring wisdom in Agamemno
player" (I.iii.153) in a bad play of his own
andmak-
silvery eloquence in Nestor. I quote Ulys
ing, one which he has the audacity to call and concluding sentence:
second
"imitation" (1. 150). Devoid of all intelligence
... hear what Ulysses speaks.
("conceit"), Patroclus delights in the "wooden
Beside th'applause and approbation
dialogue" (1. 155) between his feet and the
Thestage.
which, [to Agamemnon] most mighty for thy
His "terms" are so unfitting ("unsquared")
place and sway,
that even if they dropped from "the tongue of And thou most reverend for thy stretch
[to Nestor]
roaring Typhon" they "Would seem hyperboles"
out life,
(11. 159-161). His gestures are "ridiculous
I give toand
both your speeches, which were such
As, Agamemnon, all the hands of Greece
awkward" (1. 149), his voice cacophonous:
Should hold up high in brass, and such again
"when he speaks, / 'Tis like a chime a-mending"
As, venerable Nestor, hatched in silver,
(11. 158-159). The total product-"this fusty
Should with a bond of air, strong as the axletree
stuff" (1. 161)-bears as much resemblance to the
On which heaven rides, knit all the Greekish ears
true greatness of the subject as VulcanTodoes to
his experienced tongue-yet let it please both,
Venus (11. 158, 168). Thou great, and wise, to hear Ulysses speak.
When Ajax and Thersites join Patroclus in
(11.the
58-69)
word game and all three mock Ulysses and what
Thewhich
he stands for, a different style is used, one balanced and complicated syntax, which
Ulysses
works by deflation rather than inflation; but it is controls with delicate firmness, is
thoroughly
equally inaccurate and equally indicative of afunctional: a necessary instrument
for his agile
shocking contempt for the dignity of office. In effort to defer simultaneously to his
this style "policy" is transformed into superiors
"coward- and yet discriminate in praise between
their respective
ice" (1. 197), logistic and strategic planning into virtues. Equally noticeable is the
way
"bed-work, mappery, closet-war" (11. 199-205). in which Ulysses utilizes praise of Nestor to
All the superior gifts of the leaders andsuggest that fitting speech is an instrument of
all their
social harmony
efforts to secure victory or a truce are reduced to and that both are extensions of
the harmony
the material for verbal absurdities ("paradoxes," of the universe itself.9 Ulysses is
anticipating
1. 184). The leaders themselves (Nestor adds) the "chime a-mending" in the
are matched "in comparisons with dirt"speech of Patroclus as well as the rhetorical
(1. 194).
The norm of style-conduct which has been
violated here is exemplified and alluded to9 See
in Alice
theWalker's elucidation of 11. 64-65, New Cam-
bridge ed., pp. 151-152. For the traditional association of
little speech (11. 55-69) which serves Ulysses
silver withas
music and musical voices, see Romeo and Julie
an appreciative response to the speeches of iv.v.127-140.
I.-i.165-166,

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 T. McAlindon 35

climax of the degree speech: "untune that Things small as nothing, for request's sake only,
string, / And hark what discord follows" (11. He makes important; possessed he is with greatness,
109-110). And speaks not to himself but with a pride
That quarrels at self-breath: imagined worth
At this early stage (I.iii) in the play, then, the
Holds in his blood such swollen and hot discourse
political and social-even cosmic-implications
That 'twixt his mental and his active parts
of good and bad speech are brought to our notice.
Kingdomed Achilles in commotion rages
Moreover, the two most fundamental forms ofAnd batters down himself. (II.iii. 167-174)
discordant speech in the play-one resulting
from inflation, the other from deflation-are Quite different is the bombast of Ajax, who
isolated and subjected to ethico-literary criti- eagerly accepts Agamemnon's invitation to blow
cism. In showing how the central experience ofhis own trumpet (being "languageless," he needs
disorder is reflected in the style (or styles) of thethis instrument):1
play, it is convenient to follow this simple classi- Thou trumpet, there's my purse.
fication; indeed, it is difficult to avoid it. How-
Now crack thy lungs, and split thy brazen pipe;
ever, since the two extremes noted by UlyssesBlow, villain, till thy sphered bias cheek
cover a wide variety of effects, it will be helpful Outswell the choller of puffed Aquilon.
to draw on the terminology used in traditionalCome, stretch thy chest, and let thy eyes spout
figurist criticism for the vices of style. Puttenham blood;
Thou blow'st for Hector. [trumpet sounds]
is a particularly useful theorist for present pur-
(Iv.v.6-11)
poses, since his chapter on the vices of style is
followed (pointedly) by a forty-page discussion While in the politic process of persuading
on the nature of decorum (in speech and be- Ajax that he was superior to Achilles, Ulysses
havior) and on its sociopolitical functions. These
and Agamemnon shrewdly mimicked the
pages encourage a modern reader to adopt abombast which he here perfects (II.iii.240-247,
positive attitude to certain speeches and situa-Iv.v.3-6). In this play, however, an ability to
tions in Troilus and Cressida which might other- mock another man's style in no way guarantees
wise merely confuse and irritate him. They show the purity of one's own. Ulysses, Agamemnon,
too that an educated Renaissance audience would and Nestor suffer from the kinds of vicious
have been acutely conscious of certain dissonant surplusage to which professionally wise men are
features of style in the play for which the figurists prone: pleonasmus ("Too ful speech"-a matter
offered no labels.
of words) and macrologia ("Long language ...
when we use large clauses or sentences more than
IV is requisite to the matter").12 Evident chiefly
in the council scene (I.iii), these weaknesses give
According to Puttenham, the most insidious some substance to the allegations of Thersites
vices of style are those which result from a and the dissident warriors that the leaders are
disproportioned use of the two basic techniques addicted to mere talk. Of the three, Agamemnon
of figurative language: "surplusage" and "dimin- is much the gravest offender. His prolixity is
ishing." The grossest vice of surplusage is inseparable from his failure to communicate with
bomphiologia ("vsing such bombasted wordes, those below him and with his lack of perception
as seeme altogether farced full of winde, being into the causes of military stalemate. But for
a great deal to high and loftie for the matter").10 his verbal flatulence, there might have been no
This is what Ulysses ascribes to Patroclus as
insubordination and no seven-year siege to
actor-dramatist-and what Patroclus ascribes discuss.
to Agamemnon as general. Associated with the
His opening speech is informed with a lingering
miles gloriosus, it is very much a soldier's vice.
repetitiousness ironically appropriate to his
It is found in Hector's withdrawal speech and his
oath "by mirable Neoptolemus." Ulysses detects10 Puttenham, pp. 259-260.
11 The trumpet is blown rather too often in the play and
an unusually dangerous form of it in the moody has, of course, a symbolic significance. For further instances
Achilles. Playing on the double sense of the word
see I.i.91; I.iii.213, 256-259, 263, 277; Iv.iv.140; iv.v.64, 112-
"discourse" (the process of reasoning: rational
113, 274-275; v.iii.13, 94-95; v.viii.15, 23; v.ix.2.-It should
speech), he equates the egotistical unreason of
perhaps be recorded that "windy," "puffy," and "swollen"
(sufflatus) are the terms usually applied in rhetorical tradi-
Achilles with a kind of interior bombast which,
tion to an inappropriate or exaggerated "high" style. See
because he is too proud even to voice it, threatens
Rhetorica ad Herennium iv.x.15 and Puttenham, p. 153.
to destroy his sanity: 12 Puttenham, p. 257.

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36 Language, Style, and Meaning in "Troilus and Cressida"

theme: Jove is testing our constancy and en- of that failure in true valuation which is the
durance. The idea developed in lines 2-7 (all main source of disorder in the play. It is notice-
human plans are subject to delay and frustra- able where Helen and Cressida are made themes
tion) is repeated, with a minute variation, in of honor and renown; but it is generally present
lines 13-17 (history shows that all human plans, wherever the courtly-chivalric outlook is at work
etc.). The circumstantial detail given in the first concealing the triviality or cruelty of knightly
line (you both look anxious) is offered again in activities. The style of Troilus in the opening
line 18. The subject of the coordinate clause in scene is so burdened with periergeia that
lines 23-25 (all men) is amplified in four lame Pandarus completely misunderstands him and
contraries ("the bold and coward, / The wise and leaves the stage in a huff, convinced that he is
fool, the artist and unread, / The hard and dispraising, not praising, Cressida (I.i.50-70).
soft"). And there are no less than six doublets or However, since a character who falls repeatedly
near doublets ("checks and disasters," "Tortive into periergeia is liable to join the Osrics of
and errant," "Bias and thwart," "affined and Shakespearian society, Troilus' errors of judg-
kin," "wind and tempest," "mass or matter").ment are, after the opening scene, disclosed by
The lexical and phonetic aspects of plump more subtle forms of stylistic discord. It is
phrases like "ample proposition" (1. 2) and Alexander (I.ii.20-30) and, particularly, Aeneas-
"promised largeness" (1. 4) betray the bias of
general master of ceremonies in a world where
Agamemnon's style; but not nearly so much as Ceremony is defunct-whose speech is character-
the wind image (extracted from the storms of ized entirely by this vice.
Fortune) with which he concludes his speech Greeks and Trojans alike are aware of Aeneas'
(11. 26-30), and the word "Puffing" (1. 28), whichaffected style. His elaborate expression of loving
he isolates in a position of metrical emphasis hatred for an enemy who visits him under safe-
just before the last sentence subsides with anconduct is correctly viewed by Paris as an at-
air of self-satisfied completion. Dryden, whotempt to decorate military relationships with
thought it necessary to rewrite Troilus andPetrarchan oxymorons: "This is the most
Cressida, may well have had this speech indespiteful-gentle greeting, / The noblest-hateful
mind when, in his preface to the play (1679), helove, that e'er I heard of" (iv.i.34-35). Achilles
censured Shakespeare for his "blown puffy dourly mocks his mellifluous and periphrastic
stile."l3 manner of requesting such elementary informa-
Nestor's speech (11. 31-54), although dense tion as a man's name (Iv.v.75-77). But it is in
with metaphors which stretch their roots far into
delivering Hector's "roisting challenge" to the
the imaginative structure of the play is, in theGreeks that he makes a marked contribution to
circumstances, pure tautology, an avowed ampli- the improprieties and confusions of the two
fication of Agamemnon's ideas: "Nestor shall worlds in which he moves. The preliminary ele-
apply / Thy latest words" (11. 32-33). One wouldgances inspired by name-asking are here so
hesitate to raise a minor objection to the degree
inflated by the courtier's flattery of a prince
speech (11. 75-137) of the judicious Ulysses were
("Which is that god in office, guiding men? /
it not that he himself seems to apologize for its
Which is the high and mighty Agamemnon?"-
unnecessary exhaustiveness in the concludingi.iii.231-232) that forty lines of dialogue are
couplet: "to end a tale of length, / Troy in ourwasted before he discovers that the person he is
weakness stands, not in her strength." Ulysses'asking for is the one he is speaking to. The
fault in this scene is not repetition but a nervousdelay is caused not only by his own loquacity but
refusal to leave anything remotely relevant by the consequent bewilderment of Agamemnon:
unspecified: "This Trojan scorns us, or the men of Troy
All our abilities, gifts, natures, shapes,
/ Are ceremonious courtiers" (11. 233-234).
Severals and generals of grace exact, Puttenham, who has a good deal to say on the
decorum proper to heralds and ambassadors,
Achievements, plots, orders, preventions ... (11. 179-
184; cf. 11. 85-88, 104-108)
1 Of Dramatic Poesy and Other Critical Essays, ed. G.
The courtly equivalent to heroic bombast and
Watson, Everyman's Library (London, 1962), I, 257. The
political tautology is periergeia. Glossed by
criticism is delivered in a curiously indirect fashion. Dryden
Puttenham as "ouerlabour," it arises from the says he will not accuse Shakespeare of the blown puffy style,
but then goes on to quote from the Pyrrhus speech in Hamlet
speaker's "ouermuch curiositie and studie to
and to exclaim: "What a pudder is here kept in raising the
shew himself fine in a light matter."'4 More expression of trifling thoughts."
obviously even than bombast, it is symptomatic 14 Puttenham, p. 258.

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 T. McAlindon 37

would have asserted unhesitatingly that Aeneas example of supreme indecorum the decline of
has no true understanding of his duties. He wise old age into juvenile sports; and that the
is reprehensible not only because he makesindividuala whom he chooses as the type of aged
prince uneasy and fails to deliver his message wisdom is Nestor: "And profound Solomon to
promptly; his flattery is quite alien to the manlytune a jig, / And Nestor play at push-pin with
candor proper to messages between enemies: the boys" (Iv.iii.166-167).
The like vndecencie ["decencie" is Puttenham's word
The last form of affected speech to be con-
sidered here is the one we began with: neologism,
for "decorum"] vsed a Herald at armes sent by Charles
or, in figurist terminology, cacozelia. Puttenham
the fifth Emperor, to Fraunces the first French king,
bringing him a message of defiance, and thinking anglicizes
to this term as "fonde affectation" and
qualifie the bitternesse of his message with words says that the fault occurs "when we affect new
pompous and magnificent for the kings honor, vsed words and phrases other then the good speakers
much this terme (sacred Maiestie) which was not and writers in any language, or then custom hath
vsually geuen to the French king, but to say for theallowed."l7 That Shakespeare used neologism at
most part [Sire]. The French king neither liking of his
least once in the play (in Hector's anticlimax
errant, nor yet of his pompous speech, said somewhat
speech) in order to create an impression of
sharply, I pray thee good fellow clawe me not where I
unfitness is, I believe, reasonably certain. Else-
itch not with thy sacred maiestie, but goe to thy
where an assessment of this common feature of
businesse, and tell thine errand in such termes as are
decent betwixt enemies, for thy master is not my the play's style is complicated by his ingenuity
frend.'5 in making defective speech contribute to the
imaginative formation of theme as well as to the
The actual defiance which Aeneas delivers immediate revelation of disordered character.
(11. 260-283) on Hector's behalf is the sourceForof example, the eccentric epithet "tortive" in
even more falsity and indecorum than his pre- Agamemnon's lines "divert his grain / Tortive
amble. Its ridiculous terms (briefly, that Hector
and errant from his course of growth" (I.iii.8-9),
will accuse the Grecian dames of being sunburntwith its trochaic beat and ugly consonantal
if no one meets him in combat) are far from character, is the most important word in a sound
consonant with Hector's character; a fact whichsequence which nicely cooperates with the mean-
Achilles would seem to appreciate whening he of the sentence (and play): the distortion of
refuses to repeat them for Patroclus: ". . . natural
and processes. It is only when we have con-
such a one that dare maintain-I know not what; sidered all the peculiarities of style in the speech,
'tis trash" (i.i.125). In style and sentiment, and
the related them to its effect in context, that we
speech agrees too exactly with the consistent can be reasonably certain that Agamemnon's
manner of Aeneas to be anything else but his choice of phrases such as "Tortive and errant,"
own invention. Furthermore, by failing to adjust
"protractive trials" (1. 20), and "persistive con-
himself to his audience, Aeneas induces Aga- stancy" (1. 21) is meant to suggest a preoccupa-
memnon and Nestor to respond in his own idiom tion with language as a means of self-expansion
and so to deliver what are probably the most rather than of communication. By the same pro-
indecorous speeches in the whole play. The ideacedure we can infer that Troilus' choice of the
of Agamemnon and Nestor expressing willing- word "maculation" (iv.iv.64), in a rather evasive,
ness to take up the challenge themselves, as
too-protesting answer to a question of Cressida's,
lovers, and of Nestor arming his "withered is another intentionally discordant cacozelia; an
brawn" (1. 297) to do battle for the chastity inference which finds some support in Love's
(1. 299) of his lady, seems improper even to Labour's Lost, where the same word has the
Aeneas: "Now heavens forfend such scarcity of damning approval of Don Armado (I.ii.87-89).
youth!" (1. 302); but the laconic "Amen" with With the qualification that Shakespeare can
which Ulysses caps this exclamation (1. 303) per- secure a number of effects from a single instru-
haps contains the most reliable evaluation of ment, I would suggest, therefore, that the main
what has been said. That the dialogue between purpose of the Latinate and neologistic diction
Aeneas and the two oldest Greeks was designed of Troilus and Cressida is to evoke a sense of
to offend our sense of fitness is certain. It is strain and unnaturalness similar to that felt by
hardly necessary to record that the endeavors Hamlet when he heard the word "mobled" in
of the old to behave like the young were con-
sidered an obvious form of "vndecencie" by '5 Puttenham, pp. 272-273.
Puttenham.l6 But it is helpful to know that in 16 Puttenham, pp. 279-280.
L.ove's Labour's Lost Berowne invokes as an 17 Puttenham, p. 251.

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38 Language, Style, and Meaning in "Troilus and Cressida"

the player's "passionate speech" on (signifi- We have encountered it in the attitude of Achilles
cantly?) the fall of Troy. Perhaps the term and Patroclus toward the strategic and tactical
"strange" (or "strangeness"), prominently used
thinking of their leaders (I.iii. 197-205). What
in Troilus and Cressida, best describes the in-
Hector describes as the "high strains of divina-
tended and achieved effects of the Latinate tion" in Cassandra (II.ii.114), Troilus dismisses
diction. The connotations of the term, as used in brainsick raptures" of "our mad sister"
as "the
the play, are rich, involving affectation, deliber-
(11. 98, 122). Pandarus enthusiastically represents
ate insincerity, and an unhappy deviation from
Troilus as "the prince of chivalry" (I.ii.230) but
the wholesome norms of custom and tradition.'8 Cressida asks: "What sneaking fellow comes
yonder?" (1. 227). Much the most offensive use of
V
tapinosis, however, is found in a speech of
In what is for him an unusually perceptive Diomedes, addressed, while he is under diplo-
speech (II.iii. 112-137), Agamemnon comments matic immunity, to Paris (Iv.i.57-76). Diomedes
critically on the "savage strangeness" of Achilles tells Paris that he is a lecher and Menelaus, "a
who, in an insolent answer delivered by Patro- puling cuckold." Helen is "a flat tamed piece,"
clus, has refused to meet and listen to him. "contaminated carrion" out of whose "whorish
Agamemnon warns that such "humorous" loins" Paris is pleased to breed inheritors, "not
self-inflation inevitably leads to the loss of one's
making any scruple of her soilure." Immediately
reputation in the minds of the judicious, andpreceded by the loving oxymorons of Aeneas and
hints that the process is liable to be accelerated the amiable flaccidity of Paris ("And tell me,
by direct deflation as well. This speech pinpoints noble Diomed, faith, tell me true, / Even in the
the intricate relationship between the satiric soul of sound good-fellowship . .."), this sharply
styles of the play and its main plot: the artificialcoherent answer rings with fierce stridence in the
inflation of Ajax by the Greek leaders has the Trojan world of false and sickly concord.
effect of making Ajax ridiculous but is designedUnconscious tapinosis is a much more subtle
principally to deflate Achilles. In short, Aga-dramatic technique. Its effect is to introduce
memnon's speech suggests a neat rationale of the
images and ideas which work counter to the
play's artistic procedure. speaker's usually panegyric intention; it tends,
In Shakespeare's deflation of the Homerictherefore, to reveal disorder in the individual
legend the most obvious weapon by far is therather than in society. In a comic context, it fully
vice of style known as tapinosis, termed by discloses the "vndecencie" of Pandarus who, in
Puttenham "the abbaser." It arises when the order to praise Troilus, recalls that Cassandra and
speaker uses "such wordes and termes as do Hecuba (the very types of prophetic gloom and
diminish the matter he would seeme to set forth, royal grief) laughed heartily at Helen's jest on
by impairing the dignitie, height, vigour orthe young man's beard (I.ii.144-146). But the
maiestie of the cause he takes in hand."19 finer effects of unconscious tapinosis are achieved
Thersites is little more than a personification of context of lyrical and passionate speech,
in the
tapinosis. For him chivalric combat is "clapper-
where it serves as a second voice commenting
clawing" (v.iv.1); "Agamemnon is a fool" with quiet irony on the dangerous enthusiasms
(nI.iii.58); Achilles is a fool, a dog, and aofcurthe speaker. Other Elizabethan poets than
(II.ii.58, v.iv.12, 14); Nestor, "a stale old mouse-
Shakespeare-notably Spenser and Marlowe-
eaten dry cheese" and Ulysses, a "dog-fox" made use of this technique; but all seem to have
(v.iv.9-10); Helen, a whore and Menelaus, a in it an apt instrument for expressing their
found
cuckold (n.iii.71); Troilus, a "scurvy doting
double consciousness of the splendor and folly of
foolish young knave" (v.iv.3-4); and Cressida, a
passion.20
"dissembling luxurious drab" (11. 7-8). The shrillTroilus begins to emulate Paridell and Doctor
railing of Thersites is no nearer to the truth Faustus
than when, in the opening scene, he allows
the "overlabour" of Aeneas. He too suffers fromhimself to elaborate the image of love's wound
the prevailing lack of sound judgment, and hea realism of detail which completely contra-
with
contributes more than most to the disharmony ofthe sweet painfulness proper to the tradi-
dicts
the world he inhabits. It is well to recall Aga-
memnon's remark that "music, wit, and oracle" 18 u.iii.125, 235; m.ii.9; m.iii.8-12, 39, 46, 50-51.
never issue from his "rank" and "mastic jaws" '9 Puttenham, p. 259.
(i.iii. 73-74). 20 The Faerie Queene m.ix.33-36 (Paridell praises Helen
and his ancestor Paris); Doctor Faustus, ed. J. D. Jump
Thersites is not the only character in the play (London, 1962), xvmI.99-118 (Faustus praises Helen and
who uses tapinosis as an expression of contempt. cries, "I will be Paris").

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 T. McAlindon 39

tional figure. The "gash" in his flesh and the the husband who cleaves to his wife even when
"open ulcer" of his heart into which Pandarushe has grown weary of her (11. 61-67) combines
pours his (by implication poisonous or galling) bad taste and muddled reasoning. A marital
words concerning Cressida's beauty turn the analogy unhappily calls attention to the adulter-
love affair into an unnatural and diseased rela- ous nature of the relationship which Troilus is
tionship, and Pandarus himself into a sinister, extolling. Moreover, the logic of the analogy
would require that Helen be sent back to her
magician-like figure (11. 55-65). The same effects
are obtained in a few movingly ambiguous lines husband and the war discontinued: a policy
in the assignation scene. By giving dispropor- which it is the whole purpose of the speech to
denounce. Of the various conclusions to be drawn
tionate attention to certain details in his mytho-
logical metaphor, Troilus unwittingly suggests from this scene, one is that adulterate poetry will
that he is not so much a lover destined (as he overpower all but the most rational audience.
believes) for Elysian bliss, as a lost soul movingFlawed though it is in logic and style, the
toward his personal Hell. The identification ofpassionate language of Troilus persuades the
Pandarus with the demon porter of Hades Trojan council to make a decision which guaran-
renders the duality of the figure unmistakable:tees the fall of Troy.
No, Pandarus; I stalk about her door, VI
Like a strange soul upon the Stygian banks
Staying for waftage. O be thou my Charon, The juxtaposition of widely different styles
And give me swift transportance to those fields is a common form of stylistic discord in Troilus
Where I may wallow in the lily beds and Cressida. An important immediate effect
Proposed for the deserver! (Ii.ii.8-13) of this technique is that excesses and deficiencies
of style which might go unnoticed in a dramatic
The treacherous development of the love- context are easily perceived. But, like the refusal
Elysium analogy here recalls the grim theological of one person to speak to another, like evasive
twist given by Spenser and Marlowe to the old answers, rude tapinosis, and misunderstanding
conceit of the lover's soul vanishing through his (to which it often gives rise), discordant juxta-
lips in the kiss of passion.21 position also has the general effect of exhibiting
It is in the Trojan council scene, however, social disunity. There are in the play too many
where he champions the cause of Paris, that self-absorbed characters who exaggerate their
Troilus excels in the poetry of impassioned folly. own idiom, adhere to it inflexibly, and are unable
He argues that honor and reverence for beauty or unwilling to make those sensitive modifica-
are implied in the possession and retention of tions and transitions in style which are essential
Helen. But in the metaphorical development of for harmonious social intercourse and the proper
this theme he associates Helen with soiled silks
functioning of a hierarchical society.
which the purchaser is tempted to bring back to The chief source of discordant juxtaposition is
the merchant (II.ii.69-70), and with leftover foodTroilus' relationship with Pandarus and Cres-
which repels the sated palate and barely escapessida; the most poetic character in the play is
the garbage basket (11. 71-72). The mercantile continually engaged in a doomed attempt to
imagery too leads Troilus into a figure from whichcommunicate with the two most prosaic.
the Trojan royal family emerge as "thievesPandarus speaks almost entirely in prose.
unworthy of a thing [i.e., Helen] so stolen" Troilus does so only once (though beautifully),
(1. 94). To aristocratically biased Renaissanceand that when Cressida, as he says, has deprived
poets, Troilus' claim that Helen "turned crownedhim of all words (III.ii.53 ff.). The features of
kings to merchants" (1. 83) might have seemedstyle which mark the profound differences in
almost as indecorous. If, as I think likely, the sensibility between the two lovers are strongly
lines "she is a pearl / Whose price hath launchedexaggerated in the opening scenes, where they
above a thousand ships" (11. 81-82) are a make their debuts independently in conversation
deliberate echo of Marlowe, they should bewith characters whose style is antithetical to
taken as an inept, because incomplete, quota-their own, and as extreme. In the first scene the
tion;22 as well as launching a thousand ships,distance between the strained poeticizing of
Helen (in Marlowe's next line) burnt the topless
towers of Ilium, a point which prophetic Cas-
21 The Faerie Queene II.xii.73; Doctor Faustus xviII.101-104.
sandra has in mind thirty lines later in this
22 It would not be the only ironically inept allusion in the
scene: "Troy burns or else let Helen go" (1. 112; play: see Cressida's echo of Matt. xix.5 in rv.ii.96-99. Mar-
cf. 1. 110). Finally, Troilus' opening analogy oflowe was fond of this device.

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40 Language, Style, and Meaning in "Troilus and Cressida"

Troilus and the kitchen prose of Pandarus (with since the glorious Helen described by the servant
its sequence of culinary images for courtship) is a few moments earlier has turned out to be jolly
such that, as we have noted, the attempt at "Nell" (1. 53). But it is only in the love scenes
dialogue breaks down abruptly: "Pray you, speak involving Troilus and Cressida that the full
no more to me: I will leave all as I found it, and import of Pandarus' "broken music" is perceived.
there an end" (I.i.89-90). Like her uncle, Cressida Whatever slight chance the dialogues of the
makes her first appearance as a debunker of lovers might have had of developing into lyrical
courtly style; and although her debunking has duets is completely eliminated by him. He is
the merit of being intentional, it renders her an always present at some point, interrupting and
unattractive personality, since it is devoid of the commenting, turning poetry into prose and pas-
light finesse to which she obviously aspires. Her sion into lust.
flat tone, her factual questioning, and her mcck- Before Cressida makes her appearance in the
ing literalness (I.ii.11-18) quickly reduce Alex- assignation scene, Pandarus is unintentionally
ander from blank verse, pastoral prosopopoeia, at work reminding the audience that she is not
and metaphor to prose; but only to euphuistic at all what Troilus thinks her to be and pointing
prose (11. 19-30), and not to the characterless to the wild loss of judgment already implicit in
stuff in which she herself converses throughout the lover's erotic verse. Troilus invites him (in
this scene. one of his worst pieces of "ouerlabour") to pluck
That Alexander is Cressida's servant is a point the wings from Cupid's shoulders and fly with
of some dramatic significance. Shakespeare him to Cressida in Elysium (III.ii.13-15);
stresses the inadequacy of both niece and uncle Pandarus' short and flat reply almost visibly
by juxtaposing them with social inferiors whose brings the "giddy" (1. 18) speaker down to earth:
speech is noticeably more cultivated than their "Walk here i' th' orchard; I'll bring her straight"
own. Pandarus on one occasion reprimands a (1. 17). Alone and waiting, Troilus compares his
quibbling servant who has avoided answering hisagitation to that of a vassal rendered speechless
questions correctly: "Friend, we understand not when encountering the eye of majesty unawares
one another: I am too courtly and thou art too (11. 35-39). The unfitness of the simile might es-
cunning" (III.i.28-29). The anonymous servant,cape notice were it not that Pandarus has just
however, with his adroit playing on words, hisdescribed this particular queen as "the prettiest
lyrical (or mock-lyrical?) description of Helen
villain" who, in anticipation of her lover, "fetches
(11. 31-34), and his disgust at Pandarus' crude
her breath as short as a new-ta'en sparrow"
choice of phrase ("There's a stewed phrase (11. 33-34).
indeed!"-l. 42), proves himself to be much more In the waking and parting of the lovers next
courtly than the self-styled "Lord Pandarus" morning, a specific and exquisite lyric form, the
(1. 11). When, in his ensuing encounter with aubade, is evoked only to be degraded; the
Paris and Helen, Pandarus does attempt toscene be is conceived as one continuous discord.
courtly, he is grotesque rather than amusing, for
The "busy day" has been "Waked by the lark"
he is not then aiming at the style of his betters
but the lark "hath roused the ribald crows"
but simply trying, unsuccessfully, to speak as he
(Iv.ii.8-10). The lover concludes his expected
ought. The most outstanding characteristic of
denunciation of night's brevity with the most
his prose style, the vice of homiologia (inane
unexpected anticlimax in the play: "You will
repetition), becomes more apparent than ever
catch cold," he remarks to his lady, "and curse
when he addresses himself to courtly compli-
me" (1. 16). The lady protests that she will
ment: "What says my sweet queen, my very very
"crack" her "clear voice" and "break" her
sweet queen?" (11. 79-80).23 heart with "sounding" her lover's name (11.
Interrupting the musical entertainment of108-109). Worst of all, the prompt arrival of the
Paris and Helen, Pandarus is accused of having pandar, with his obscene jests and cawing, repe-
broken the "good broken music" which hetitious prose ("To do what? to do what? let her
politely applauds (11. 50-51). But he is told that
say what! What have I brought you to do?"-
he can make amends with a song, since, says
11. 27-28), lets a ribald crow into the bedroom of
Paris, "he is full of harmony" (11. 53-54). When
love.
he protests modestly that he is, "in good sooth,In the scene of final farewell, Pandarus plays
very rude" (1. 57), Helen jests: "You shall not
bob us out of our melody. If you do, our melan-
23 For homiologia, not noted by Puttenham, see Sr. Miriam
choly upon your head!" The harmony-discord Joseph, Shakespeare's Use of the Arts of Language (New York,
theme has immediate metaphoric significance,1947), pp. 69, 302.

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 T. McAlindon 41

the part of an aged, semiliterate spectator at a VIl

drama of high passion. He is moved, but only An indecorous compliment occasionally paid
at the crudest level of feeling; and he insists onto Troilus and Cressida is that although con-
voicing his thoughts and becoming a partici- fused in itself it throws light on other plays in the
pant. As the tearful lovers embrace, he punscanon. How much light has not perhaps been
farcically and comes between them for his fully appreciated; for the extent to which we
embrace: "What a pair of spectacles is here! understand one of Shakespeare's plays must
Let me embrace too" (iv.iv.13). He quotes a surely affect the manner in which it illuminates
quatrain of jingling verse, applauding its aptness another. My final concern here is to substantiate
to the occasion (11. 16-22); and caps the most the general interpretation of Troilus and Cressida
moving lines in the play with a ludicrously mis- given above by reference to Love's Labour's Lost
managed, conventional hyperbole (11. 53-54).24
and Hamlet; but it is possible that in the process
He even intervenes in the dialogue of the lovers,
I may, incidentally, be able to add a little to
answering a question which one puts to the other
present understanding of Shakespeare's intentions
(11. 28-29): it is remarkable how Shakespeare in these two plays as well. Their relevance in an
contrives by every means to present the phe-
interpretation of Troilus and Cressida is, simply,
nomenon of fractured speech, "broken music."
that the design which is implicit throughout this
Except in the opening scene, the intensity of
play is disclosed in them with comparative
Troilus' feelings is always such that the violent
overtness: in Love's Labour's Lost, because
incongruities of style to which he is exposed (perhaps) of the immaturity of the author and
result in dissonance rather than in bathos. It
the slightness of the material; in Hamlet, because
may be possible to laugh at him, but only atofthe
the reflective character of the hero.
risk of showing some of that bad taste, that It is brought to our notice with almost weari-
"rudeness" with which the play is so intimately
some emphasis in Love's Labour's Lost that the
concerned; for he is a lost and confused, not a
plot turns upon the making and breaking of rash
ridiculous, figure.25 In spite of the chattering
vows. Here is an immediate general connection
interferences of Pandarus, he commands for one
with Troilus and Cressida; but the parallel is
memorable moment in this farewell scene a
much more comprehensive and exact. The
style which reveals unambiguously a deeply
errors and follies attendant upon rash vows are
imaginative as well as passionate nature:
dramatised not only as ridiculous but, specifi-
And suddenly; where injury of chance cally, as indecorous conduct: "gravity's revolt to
Puts back leave-taking, jostles roughly by wantonness," "foolery in the wise" (v.ii.74, 76),
All time of pause, rudely beguiles our lips "misbecom'd .. . gravities" (1. 758). And, of
Of all rejoindure, forcibly prevents course, as indecorous speech. The vices of style
Our locked embraces, strangles our dear vows
which are so extensively exhibited throughout
Even in the birth of our own labouring breath.
the play are symptoms of the same weakness
We two, that with so many thousand sighs
Did buy each other, must poorly sell ourselves
or imbalance of judgment which gives rise to the
With the rude brevity and discharge of one. abuse of vows and oaths. Moreover, these vices
Injurious Time now with a robber's haste of style react upon the plot by creating serious
Crams his rich thievery up he knows not how: misunderstandings: it is precisely because "love
As many farewells as be stars in heaven, is full of unbefitting strains" (1. 750) that love's
With distinct breath and consigned kisses to them,
labour (or overlabour) is lost. The wooing of the
Ie fumbles up into a loose adieu, ladies of France by the lords of Navarre meets
And scants us with a single famished kiss, with no success at all until the ladies are about
Distasted with the salt of broken tears. (11. 33-48)
to leave the country simply because the lords'
"silken terms precise, / Three piled hyperboles,
And yet, although this great speech allows
Troilus to transcend his environment and his own spruce affection, / Figures pedantical" (11. 406-
407) are construed "As bombast and lining to the
gross errors of judgment, it also exists in the most
time" (1. 771) rather than as sincere expressions
intricate imaginative relationship with its im-
of love. The lords' herald, too, borrowed from
mediate and total context, and so testifies to the
Don Armado and carefully drilled by them in
marvellous unity of the play. For it is a speech
"Action and accent" (1. 99) and "presence
about imperfect speech and gesture, about a
wonderfully fitting valediction crudely truncated.
24 Noted by Alice Walker, ed., Troilus and Cressida, p. 200.
Its subject-and here one sees the whole in the" For the use of the word "rude" in the play see .i.94;
part-is its own indecorum. i.iii.115; nr.ii.25; iv.iv.35, 41.

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42 Language, Style, and Meaning in "Troilus and Cressida"

majestical" (1. 102), inevitably fails to communi- (v.i.133-134). His advice on acting is a clear
cate their wishes, being told by the ladies: "If statement of the principle of decorum in rela-
they do speak our language, 'tis our will / That tion to the stage; but since all the world's a stage,
some plain man recount their purposes" (11. and since Hamlet feels himself to be an actor in it
176-177). The final effect of the comic complica- (v.ii.332-333), the admonitions here are ad-
tions on the hero of the play is, therefore, a dressed to himself as well as to his guests. The
resolve to express his mind thereafter "In russet good actor must let his discretion be his tutor,
yeas and honest kersey noes" (1. 413): a foolish must suit the action to the word and the word
resolve, since it would simply result in another to the action. In delivery and movement, he
kind of indecorum. must avoid excess and tameness ("overdone, or
It is not difficult to see Hamlet as a man whose come tardy off"), both of which "make the
judicious grieve." Of the two vices, it is the first
reverence for the fitness of things has received a
severe shock. His disgust at his mother's re- which offends him most. He denounces the
marriage proceeds from an outraged sense of ranters who strut and bellow, saw the air with
propriety: "look you how cheerfully my mother their hands, and make "damnable faces"; and
looks, and my father died within's two hours" he insists that even in the whirlwind of passion a
(mI.ii.124-125),26 In their admission that the certain temperance must prevail (III.ii.4-32,
marriage was "o'er-hasty" (II.ii.57) and that it 252).
acquainted Denmark with "mirth in funeral, Hamlet is well aware that "wild and whirling
and with dirge in marriage" (I.ii.12), Gertrude words" (i.v.133), together with a "strange or
and Claudius clarify the nature of Hamlet's odd" bearing (1. 170), will be construed as mad-
feelings and connect the socially indecorous ness. Many of his own violations of decorum,
nature of their union with deep disorder and dis- being intended, are acceptable: but not all. In
cord. But Hamlet is even more offended by his his own view, his first fault was to "say nothing"
mother's lack of discrimination in choosing a when he should have said much (II.ii.572). This,
second husband than by her "most wicked speed" however, was succeeded by a tendency to "un-
(1. 156). She has passed unconcernedly from pack" his "heart with words, / And fall a-
"Hyperion to a satyr" (1. 140): and "what cursing like a very drab" (11. 589-590) when
judgment/ Would step from this to this?" action was necessary. Judged by the standards
(II.iv.70-71). A slave to passion, Gertrude has, which he defines for the actors, Hamlet is prob-
like Troilus, lost all "distinction" in her joys ably at his worst when he wrestles in a grave and
(T &- C iii.ii.27). competes in hyperbolic grief with one "whose
Hamlet's concern for fitness is most evident, phrase of sorrow / Conjures the wand'ring
stars": "I'll rant as well as thou" (v.i.249-250,
however, in his references to speech and gesture,
acting and plays. These must not be taken 278). Claudius and Gertrude may not be entirely
simply as signs of a scholarly temperament which wrong when they say that this is "madness"
renders him unsuited for revenge. Nor must it be (11. 266, 278). But in fairness to Hamlet-indeed,
thought that the primary function of the observa- in order to understand him correctly-we must
tions on methods of acting is satirical and so bear in mind the cause of his madness. Hamlet's
extraneous to the main issues of the tragedy. All rant is provoked by a hatred of rant; he loses
Hamlet's comments on style and drama are, temperance and proportion because he sees them
rather, indirect expressions of the problem which disregarded everywhere:
most engages his mind: the need for judgment, But I am very sorry, good Horatio,
truth, and balance in word and deed.
That to Laertes I forgot myself; ...
"Mobled" is not the only strange word to But sure the bravery of his grief did put me
which Hamlet objects. All his mockery of Into a towering passion. (v.ii.75-76, 79-80)
Osric's "golden words" is aimed at neologism or
"Fonde Affectation" (v.ii.110-135). Accordingly, So Hamlet, Love's Labour's Lost, and Troilus
and Cressida are concerned with men who lose
he prefers plays which are "as wholesome as
sweet," "by very much more handsome than their proper style. Shakespeare's investigation
fine"; and where the phrasing is untouched by of the special problems of Berowne, Hamlet,
affectation ("affection") (II.ii.447-450). In the and Troilus brought into play and was enriched
quibbling of the clown he sees a sign of the dis- by his consciousness of the requirements and
regard for degree in contemporary society, and pitfalls of his art; the Renaissance conviction that
concludes, for his own benefit, that "we must 26 Ed. J. D. Wilson, The New Shakespeare (Cambridge,
speak by the card or equivocation will undo us" Eng., 1957).

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 T. McAlindon 43

the laws of life and of art coincide in certain one can surely hear the ghostly echo of that
fundamentals allowed him to put a great deal ofmild but unanswerable rebuke which was
addressed in Love's Labour's Lost to those who
himself into these characters without sacrificing
dramatic objectivity. In Troilus and Cressida, revelled in mocking "Hector the Great" and the
other Worthies: "This is not generous, not gentle,
therefore, one occasionally has the strong impres-
not humble" (v.ii.621).27
sion that Shakespeare is simultaneously scruti-
nizing characters in action and his own play in the UNIVERSITY OF HULL
making; that in exposing to censure the con-
Hull, England
temptuous treatment of the Greek and Trojan
heroes by Patroclus, Thersites, and "envious
and calumniating Time" he is ruefully con- 27 In the time which has intervened between the writing
templating the discourteous truthfulness of his
and printing of this paper, I have come to the conclusion that
own art and wondering whether it is he, not they, the concept of decorum and indecorum (in speech, gesture,
conduct) is central to the dramatic design of most of Shake-
who is guilty of a failure to treat the subject with
speare's plays. I hope to write a full study of the subject and
a proper decorum. Troilus and Cressida is thewill shortly be publishing an article on Hamlet from this
work of an acutely self-conscious artist in whichpoint of view.

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