Rethinking the Values of War: The Trojan Battle Deliberations in Troilus and Cressida

Why Hotspur Can’t Take a Joke: Temperament and Leadership in Shakespeare’sHenry IV, Part 1

“…Sometimes honor is treated favorably; for example, in Henry V, the play that follows the two Henry IV plays, the heroic king confesses, "If it be a sin to covet honor, I am the most offending soul alive" (H5 5.3.129). On the other hand, in the dark play Troilus and Cressida, honor, in the hands of the unyielding Trojan Troilus, drives the Greeks to a relentless pursuit of their ruinous war (Edmondson III, 2006). Troilus knows nothing except his foul version of "manhood and honor," ideas that are untempered and unguided by reason, the faculty that Troilus disparagingly calls "crammed reason" (Tro.…”