SCENE IV.
Between Troy and the Grecian Camp.
Alarums: Excursions. Enter Thersites.
Ther.
Now they are clapper-clawing one another;
I'll go look on. That dissembling abominable
varlet, Diomed, has got that same scurvy doting
foolish young knave's sleeve of Troy there, in his
helm: I would fain see them meet; that that same
young Trojan ass, that loves the whore there, might
send that Greekish whoremasterly villain, with the
sleeve, back to the dissembling luxurious drab, of
a sleeveless errand. O' the other side, The policy
of those crafty swearing rascals8 note
,—that stale old
mouse-eaten dry cheese, Nestor; and that same
dog-fox, Ulysses,—is not proved worth a blackberry:
—They set me up, in policy, that mongrel
cur, Ajax, against that dog of as bad a kind,
Achilles: and now is the cur Ajax prouder than the
cur Achilles, and will not arm to-day; whereupon
the Grecians begin to proclaim barbarism9 note, and
policy grows into an ill opinion. Soft! here comes
sleeve, and t'other.
-- 429 --
Enter Diomedes, Troilus following.
Tro.
Fly not; for, shouldst thou take the river Styx,
I would swim after.
Dio.
Thou dost miscall retire:
I do not fly; but advantageous care
Withdrew me from the odds of multitude:
Have at thee!
Ther.
Hold thy whore, Grecian!—now for thy
whore, Trojan!—now the sleeve, now the sleeve!
[Exeunt Troilus and Diomedes, fighting.
Enter Hector.
Hect.
What art thou, Greek? art thou for Hector's match?
Art thou of blood, and honour1 note
?
Ther.
No, no:—I am a rascal; a scurvy railing
knave; a very filthy rogue.
Hect.
I do believe thee;—live.
[Exit
Ther.
God-a-mercy, that thou wilt believe me;
-- 430 --
But a plague break thy neck, for frighting me!
What's become of the wenching rogues? I think,
they have swallowed one another: I would laugh at
that miracle. Yet, in a sort, lechery eats itself.
I'll seek them.
[Exit.
James Boswell [1821], The plays and poems of William Shakspeare, with the corrections and illustrations of various commentators: comprehending A Life of the Poet, and an enlarged history of the stage, by the late Edmond Malone. With a new glossarial index (J. Deighton and Sons, Cambridge) [word count] [S10201].
