Shakespeare's “sugred Sonnets”, Troilus and Cressida and the Odcombian Banquet: An exploration of promising paratexts, expectations and matters of taste

Abstract

This study centres on the promises that the first printed paratexts of Troilus and Cressida seem to be making before the action of the play begins. These promises are not identical to the promises made between people or characters, but, like these promises, they create expectations and make associations. This exploration, therefore, begins by taking “Sonnet 107” as an example of a text that makes promises, in order to set up the notion of promising texts. It then focuses on the Sonnets' dedication, before moving on to consider the title pages and the epistle to Troilus and Cressida. Finally, it attempts to make sense of the culinary terms in the paratexts to Troilus and Cressida by using the Folio prologue to the play and the Odcombian Banquet to show that readers' and playgoers' experiences were often imagined as a matter of taste that seem linked to a burgeoning consumer culture.