Word: troilus
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...Cancro Joyned." Astronomy helped Princeton Dean Robert K. Root settle one matter that had long tantalized Chaucerians: the date of Chaucer's Troilus and Crlseyde. Dean Root was struck by the passage: "The bente moone with hire homes pale,†Saturne, and Jove, in Cancro joyned were . . ." No astronomer, Dean Root suspected that such a conjunction of Saturn, Jupiter and the moon was no common occurrence. He was right: for the first time in 600 years, the planets had come together in the sign of Cancer in 1385. That, concluded Root, to the general applause of Chaucerians...
...Troilus and Cressida" is not simple dramatic material. Although it contains some of Shakespeare's finest lines, the play is talky and often lacking in action; a good deal of judicious cutting was necessary. (The new production has been cut even further.) A second difficulty is that the story of Troilus and Cressida, grafted onto the traditional Homeric legend, makes the plot disjointed and confused. The ending is inconclusive, and there seem to be no outstanding characters. It is a tribute to Peter Temple's direction and to the talents of the east that the Brattle Theater succeeded in making...
Jerry Kilty, as Ulysses, gives perhaps the top performance of the play. His interpretation of the shrewd Greek strategist, practical, polite, and somehow sinister is a quite convincing one. Hector, who comes closer to being the hero of the play then Troilus does, is a straight and rather dull part. Robert Fletcher handles it well, if with a bit too much restraint. His seting here shows considerably more reserve than in last year's performance...
Bryant Halliday plays a competent Troilus, although he does not seem to get across the depth of feeling the part requires in the later seenes. As the meat-headed Ajax, John Peters is magnificent. Will West plays Achilles with a sufficient amount of sulky pride and a distinguished profile...
...shortcomings of the Brattle Theater's "Troilus and Cressida" are shortcomings only by comparison with the general high level of the production. Exams permitting, it makes a rewarding evening...