Troilus and Cressida is a tragedy by William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...

, believed to have been written in 1602. It was also described by Frederick S. Boas

Frederick S. Boas

Frederick Samuel Boas was an English scholar of early modern drama. He was born on 24 July 1862, the eldest son of Hermann Boas of Belfast. He attended Clifton College as a scholar and went up to Balliol College, Oxford, in 1881. During his time at Balliol his tutor was David George Ritchie...

 as one of Shakespeare's problem plays. The play ends on a very bleak note with the death of the noble Trojan Hector

Hector

In Greek mythology, Hectōr , or Hektōr, is a Trojan prince and the greatest fighter for Troy in the Trojan War. As the first-born son of King Priam and Queen Hecuba, a descendant of Dardanus, who lived under Mount Ida, and of Tros, the founder of Troy, he was a prince of the royal house and the...

 and destruction of the love between Troilus and Cressida. Throughout the play, the tone lurches wildly between bawdy comedy and tragic gloom, and readers and theatre-goers have frequently found it difficult to understand how one is meant to respond to the characters.