This book identifies the patterns, strategies, and systems that determine the organization of Troilus and Cressida. It argues that Shakespeare renders meaning through these features; thus, the book is a discussion of how meaning is rendered in the play and what meanings the play suggests. Some of the strategies identified are Shakepeare's system of qualifying tropes, the recapitulative scene, the prologue-epilogue system, and the re-written scene. In essence, The Life of Our Design seeks to provide evidence for a revision of criticism's assessment of Troilus and Cressida. The play is not so unique as it is difficult; it is not so ambiguous as it is complex. Contents: The Apple of Discord and the Prologue; Recapitulation in the First Two Scenes and III; Character and Theme in the First Five Scenes; The Pandarus Scene; The Troilus and Cressida Scenes; The Achilles Scene; The Ulysses Scene; The Hector-Troilus Scene; Thersites and the Battlefield Scenes.