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Part of the book: Engaging with Troy

Edited by Francesca Rayner and Janice Valls-Russell

Transcript 27

Legenda

RenaissanceEnglishDramaFictionopen

Abstract.  When Lavatch, the Clown of All’s Well That Ends Well, is ordered to fetch Helen to the Countess, he bursts into an impromptu ballad about Troy. The Countess complains that ‘you corrupt the song, sirrah’, a remark with multiple layers of meaning. This chapter considers how the Clown’s ‘corruption’ or altering of the song is part of a wider refashioning of the Troy story for strategic purposes in retellings by Shakespeare and his contemporaries.

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