Troilus and Cressida
Arkangel Shakespeare
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Narrated by:
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Ian Pepperell
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Julia Ford
About this listen
Lust poses as love and ambition as patriotism in this dark and brilliant play depicting the heroic action of the Trojan War.
Troy is besieged by the invading Greeks, but the young Trojan prince Troilus can think only of his love for Cressida. Her uncle Pandarus brings the two together, but after only one night news comes that Cressida must be sent to the enemy camp. There, as Troilus looks on, she yields to the wooing of the Greek Diomedes. The tragic story is undercut by the commentary of Thersites, who provides a cynical chorus.
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From knock-knock jokes to the wild goose chase, we owe many of our most-used and best-loved phrases to the talent of the Bard. His words are timeless in their direct wisdom, their witty humor, and their surprising applicability to modern life: its nature, its purpose, and its pitfalls. We’ve collected some of our favorite William Shakespeare quotes for when you want to think about life’s big questions, wax poetic on the nature of love, or just need a good laugh. Immerse yourself in these Shakespeare quotes to dive into the comedies and tragedies penned by the Bard of Avon.
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My Fourth Try at an Audible Quixote
- By James on 12-24-12
By: Edith Grossman - translator, and others
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Samson Agonistes
- By: John Milton
- Narrated by: David de Keyser, Philip Madoc, Matthew Morgan, and others
- Length: 1 hr and 51 mins
- Original Recording
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Samson Agonistes, the 'dramatic poem' by John Milton, was published in 1671, three years before the poet's death. Written in the form of a Greek tragedy, with the Chorus commenting on the action, it follows the biblical story of the blind Samson as he wreaks his revenge on the Philistines who have imprisoned him. A powerful subject, with a personal resonance for the blind Milton, it is a perfect work for the medium of audiobook where poetry and drama can be balanced equally.
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Unbelievable
- By Anonymous User on 11-06-20
By: John Milton
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Don Quixote (Adapted for Modern Listeners)
- By: Miguel de Cervantes
- Narrated by: Johnny Heller
- Length: 4 hrs and 39 mins
- Abridged
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Quixotic is a word that the dictionary defines as "extravagantly chivalrous or romantic; visionary...." and that is a fitting definition, indeed, for this charming retelling of Don Quixote, the 17t- century Spanish classic by Miguel de Cervantes, now updated for the modern listener. The gallant and fragile Quixote will touch listeners, as will his faithful squire Sancho Panza and the tragically beautiful heroine of the gentle Don’s chivalries, the fair Dulcinea.
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Great way in
- By pxriver on 07-12-18
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Don Quixote
- By: John Ormsby - translator, Miguel de Cervantes
- Narrated by: Roy McMillan
- Length: 36 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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The most influential work of the entire Spanish literary canon and a founding work of modern Western literature, Don Quixote is also one of the greatest works ever written. Hugely entertaining but also moving at times, this episodic novel is built on the fantasy life of one Alonso Quixano, who lives with his niece and housekeeper in La Mancha. Quixano, obsessed by tales of knight errantry, renames himself ‘Don Quixote’ and with his faithful servant Sancho Panza, goes on a series of quests.
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More than funny
- By Colin on 08-21-11
By: John Ormsby - translator, and others
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The Plays of Sophocles
- Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonus, and Antigone
- By: Sophocles
- Narrated by: David McCallion
- Length: 5 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Sophocles was born at Colonus, near Athens in about 496 BC and is considered to be one of the premier playwrights of Greek tragedy. His stories may have been filled with strife, but Sophocles himself was prosperous and came from a good family. It is said that he was handsome, wealthy, and a highly respected citizen of Athens. During his life, he wrote over 120 plays and was instrumental in how plays would eventually be performed, including the addition of stage props.
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Bad Dialogue
- By Zoe Olvera on 08-12-18
By: Sophocles
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Waverley
- By: Sir Walter Scott
- Narrated by: David Rintoul
- Length: 17 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Waverley by Sir Walter Scott is an enthralling tale of love, war and divided loyalties. Taking place during the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745, the novel tells the story of proud English officer Edward Waverley. After being posted to Dundee, Edward eventually befriends chieftain of the Highland Clan Mac-Ivor and falls in love with his beautiful sister Flora. He then renounces his former loyalties in order actively to support Scotland in open rebellion against the Union with England. The book depicts stunning, romantic panoramas of the Highlands.
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Loved it
- By Tad Davis on 04-12-18
By: Sir Walter Scott
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Medea
- By: Euripides
- Narrated by: Jonathan Waters
- Length: 1 hr and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Medea is an ancient Greek tragedy written by Euripides, based upon the myth of Jason and Medea and first produced in 431 BC. The plot centers on the actions of Medea, a former princess of the "barbarian" kingdom of Colchis, and the wife of Jason; she finds her position in the Greek world threatened as Jason leaves her for a Greek princess of Corinth. Medea takes vengeance on Jason by murdering Jason's new wife as well as her own children, after which she escapes to Athens to start a new life.
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Great Narrator makes this story work
- By cosmitron on 08-02-18
By: Euripides
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Gargantua and Pantagruel
- By: François Rabelais
- Narrated by: Bill Homewood
- Length: 34 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Here is a grotesque and carnivalesque collection of exuberant, fantastical stories that takes us from the ancient world through to the European Renaissance. At the heart of these tall tales are the giant Gargantua and his equally seismic son, Pantagruel. Containing magical adventures, maniacal punning, slapstick humor, erudite allusions, and just about any bodily function one can think of, here is quite possibly the zaniest, most risqué book ever written.
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The king of all the narrators
- By amazon on 02-13-20
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Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
- By: J. R. R. Tolkien
- Narrated by: Terry Jones
- Length: 4 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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A collection of three medieval English poems, translated by Tolkien for the modern-day reader and containing romance, tragedy, love, sex and honour.
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An absolute delight!
- By Shannon Slee on 07-15-18
By: J. R. R. Tolkien
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Oedipus the King
- By: Sophocles
- Narrated by: full cast
- Length: 1 hr and 46 mins
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In Sophocles' tragedy, Oedipus discovers that he has been caught in his terrible destiny, unknowingly murdering his father and marrying his mother.
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Superb
- By Mark on 11-24-09
By: Sophocles
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What listeners say about Troilus and Cressida
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- lavalleem
- 07-15-17
ArkAngel is always a wonderful interpretation
Where does Troilus and Cressida rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?
Troilus and Cressida was a wonderful performance of one of William Shakespeare's lesser known plays, it is in the top 15 for sure.
What was one of the most memorable moments of Troilus and Cressida?
The peak of the play with Troilus and Cressida are finally able to come together.
Which scene was your favorite?
I enjoyed the scene's highlighting Cressida the most.
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
I was able to listen to this in two sittings.
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- Aidan O'Reilly
- 01-30-20
a great rendition of an awesome play
beautiful and bitter, cynical and romantic. very intelligently performed. my only complaint is that the music is a bit grating.
it helps if you are familiar with the stories of the siege of Troy. especially the illiad
a great radio version of a too infrequently performed play.
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- Darwin8u
- 08-30-17
Wounds Heal Ill That Men Do Give Themselves
“Those wounds heal ill that men do give themselves.”
― William Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida
Troilus and Cressida is one of those Shakespeare plays that seems to have slipped through the cracks for me during my first 40 years. It was a distant, dark planet. I knew it existed, but couldn't give you a useful quote or discuss the plot or structure. A minor Shakespeare play, perhaps? Now that I've read it, I'm still a bit in the dark. I've got the basics (I've read The Iliad several times and am familiar with most of the characters), but still need some more time banging around the text. My eyes have adjusted, but I probably need to read it again (or see it on stage) a couple times before I could feel super comfortable with it.
It is messier and less lyrical than his most famous tragic love story (Romeo and Juliet), but still has much to commend it. It is a very modern play. Its characters are challenging many of the big ideas and virtues: love, rank, bravery, nobility, etc. It is also a tad moralizing and homophobic (and yes, I NEVER try to judge a 400+ year old play by modern standards, but like The Merchant of Venice those attitudes and bigotries are still important to discuss). I had never even heard of the terms brach and varlet* before. But like in many of Shakespeare's plays, the ugliest character is often the best. I absolutely adored Thersites. He outshines Cassandra. His rants, rages, and insults are some of Shakespeare's sharpest. His venom is epic. His tongue is a hot razor.
One additional note of affection for this play. The warriors, gathered at Troy, are an interesting group. In Act 4, Scene 5, there is a fantastic dialogue between Hector and Achilles that could easily (and if I was to set up this scene, this is how I'd do it) have been written and promoted by Don King. I imagine Hector and Achilles at a table, cameras and press facing them as they peacock and throw verbal jabs and insults to the other. Those lines are better trash talk than I've seen in boxing. Floyd Mayweather, Conor McGregor, and the lot needed to take a lesson from Shakespeare's trash talk factory.
Favorite lines:
― “Upon my back to defend my belly; upon my
wit, to defend my wiles; upon my secrecy, to defend
mine honesty; my mask, to defend my beauty; and you
to defend all these; and at all these wards I lie, at a
thousand watches.“ (Act 1, Scene 2).
― “Men price the thing ungained more than it is;“ (Act 1, Scene 2).
― “The raven chides blackness.” (Act 2, Scene 3).
― “For to be wise and love exceeds man's might.” (Act 3, Scene 2).
― “Both merits poised, each weighs not less nor more;
But he as he, the heavier for a whore.“ (Act 4, Scene 2)
― “What's past and what's to come is strewed with husks
And formless ruin of oblivion.“ (Act 4, Scene 5).
― “But still sweet love is food for fortune's tooth.“ (Act 5, Scene 1).
― “Why are thou then exasperate, thou idle
immaterial skein of sleave silk, thou green sarcent flap
for a sore eye, though tassel of a prodigal's purse, thou?
Ah, how the poor world is pestered with such water
flies, diminutives of nature.“ (Act 5 Scene 1)
― “Lechery, lechery, still
wars and lechery; nothing else holds fashion.“ (Act 5, Scene 2).
― “I think they have swallowed
one another. I would laugh at that miracle - yet, I
in a sort, lechery eats itself.“ (Act 5, Scene 4)
― “I am a bastard, too. I love bastards! I am bastard
begot, bastard instructed, bastard in mind, bastard
in valor, in everything illegitimate.” (Act 5, Scene 7).
― “Farewell, bastard.” (Act 5, Scene 7).
* varlet as a homosexual insult also appears in Measure for Measure & King Lear (both plays written around the time of T&C).
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12 people found this helpful
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- Mike
- 12-16-16
Terrific performance
Few of Shakespeare's plays are as troublesome as this--and yet as rewarding. Bravo! The various speeches make the listening worth the effort. It may be the Bard's most philosophical play, and worth listening for that reason alone.
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- Diana S. Long
- 01-06-18
Tragedy or Comedy Very Enjoyable
I listened to the Arkangel full cast recording of the play while reading the text from the Delphi Complete Works of Shakespeare E Book. This is one of those plays where it appears like both a tragedy and comedy, based on Greek myths of Troy. It is a rather long play and we jump from kiss fest moments to battles, complete with some creepy stalker type character that hides in the bushes and narrates some play by play moments, more like a pot stirrer I would think. Cressida proves to be a flighty kind of lover for Troilus but he doesn't seem to put up much of a fight when she gets traded.. since the play includes Achilles I thought sure at some point he'd be shot in that heel. Troilus does make it through the play but not unscathed and without the fair Cressida. Very enjoyable and entertaining.
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- Tad Davis
- 12-07-19
I’ll bequeath you my diseases
This is probably my least favorite Shakespeare play. It's dark and meandering and much of the humor is cruel. Part of my problem — and I have the same problem with Chaucer’s poem, which was Shakespeare's source — is that I just don't get why Troilus and Cressida have to conduct their affair in secret. They're both single, and neither has been promised to anyone else. Is it because he's of royal blood and she isn't? Maybe, but it seems doubtful. Her uncle Pandarus moves freely among the Trojan royals — Hector and Priam and Paris — which suggests that his family is respectable enough. If the secrecy IS required because of a class disparity, it seems like someone should mention it somewhere along the way.
The vocabulary is strange and the syntax almost impenetrable, especially when the Greeks are speaking. Shakespeare seems to have vowed never to use a familiar word when an unfamiliar one was available, and never to write a simple declarative sentence when it was possible to nest dependent clauses several levels deep. It's a very talky play, with characters standing around debating important issues for what seems like hours. Ulysses’ famous speech on order and degree is closely reasoned — and over 60 lines long. He follows it almost immediately with another one over 40 lines long. Both speeches are basically variations on a theme: they don't really go anywhere, and meanwhile the other Greek generals are standing around doing nothing. This is endemic to the play: virtually every speech longer than two lines is too long by half.
Motivations are obscure. Hector makes several eloquent speeches in council, arguing that Helen should be given back to the Greeks. Having made a strong case, in the space of half a line he turns his back on it, says of course we can't do that, and agrees to continue fighting to keep her.
Despite the occasional bursts of brutal violence — the scene where Achilles sics his Mymidons on Hector being a prime example — the play is static to the point of being dramatically inert.
Troilus is grossly unfair to Cressida. When she's taken against her will to the Greek camp, she's manhandled by the Greek commanders one after another. All force kisses on her, even the doddering Nestor (whose eyes no doubt are leaking plum tree gum); on stage perhaps they force even more graphic attention. As staged in the Arkangel production, it sounds like an assault. In desperation she accepts the protection of Diomedes, even though the price is becoming his sex toy. Troilus acts as if she freely elected to do this out of simple lust. I may be wrong, but I think Shakespeare has taken pains to show otherwise.
The Arkangel production, by the way, uses stereo to good effect in the complex discovery scene. Cressida and Diomedes are in the center, supposedly in her father's tent. Troilus and Ulysses are on the left, watching them in secret. Thersites, observing both groups and commenting on them, is on the right. Troilus goes off the deep end as he witnesses this supposed betrayal (“Oh, control yourself!” Ulysses admonishes him). This is a good argument for downloading the file in enhanced format.
It's all part of the sad, misogynistic, corrupt, sick world Shakespeare has put together. In some cases the sickness is real: Pandarus shows up at the end trembling with the Neapolitan bone-ache: in other words syphilis. He promises to bequeath it to the audience. Part of me thinks Shakespeare found this amusing, or thought his audience would. If so, it's another example of ugliness and moral bankruptcy from a society that found it entertaining to watch dogs and bears killing each other.
Over and over again Shakespeare raises a tragic vision only to undercut it with satirical commentary. The climactic battle starts out, in this production, with an epic clash of armies in sound; but within seconds the bitter Thersites dismisses it as armies “clapper-clawing” one another. The death of Hector, almost a sacred act in The Iliad, is here an ugly, dishonorable murder at the hands of Achilles’ Myrmidons. As noted, the play ends not in triumph but in the stews and bone aches of venereal disease.
The cast as always with Arkangel is excellent. Ian Pepperel is a tortured Troilus, Julia Ford a flirty Cressida who ends in sad resignation. Gerard Murphy makes a coldly cynical Ulysses; David Troughton is a restrained Thersites who is forced to admit, bitterly, that he's a “rascal.” The music is performed on Elizabethan instruments and sounds as old as the hills.
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- Anonymous User
- 01-03-20
Such a weird play...
A love story amid the long Trojan war?! So strange. It just doesn't work. And it departs in significant ways from The Iliad (e.g., Hector ambushed by the Myrmidons?!).
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