Achil.
I'll heat his blood with Greekish wine to-night ^note,
Which with my scimitar ^note I'll cool to-morrow. ^note
Patroclus, let us feast him to the height.

Patr.
Here comes Thersites.

Enter Thersites.

Achil.
How now, thou core ^note of envy!
Thou crusty batch ^note of nature, what's the news?

Ther.

Why, thou picture of what thou seemest, and idol ^note of idiot-worshippers, here's a letter for thee.

Achil.

From whence, fragment?

Ther.

Why, thou full dish of fool, from Troy.

Patr.

Who keeps the tent now?

Ther.

The surgeon's box, or the patient's wound.

Patr.

Well said, adversity ^note! and what need these ^note tricks?

Ther.

Prithee, be silent, boy ^note; I profit not by thy talk: thou art thought ^note to be Achilles' ^note male varlet.

Patr.

Male varlet ^note, you rogue! what's that?

Ther.

Why, his masculine whore. Now, the rotten ^note diseases of the south, the guts-griping, ruptures ^note, catarrhs ^note, loads o' ^note gravel i' the ^note back ^note, lethargies, cold palsies, raw eyes, dirt-rotten livers, wheezing ^note lungs, bladders full of imposthume, sciaticas, limekilns ^note i' the palm, incurable bone-ache, and the rivelled fee-simple of the tetter, ^note take and take again such preposterous discoveries ^note!

Patr.

Why, thou damnable box of envy, thou, what mean'st ^note thou to curse thus?

Ther.

Do I curse thee?

Ther.

Why, no, you ruinous butt ^note; you whoreson indistinguishable cur, no. ^note

Ther.

No! why art thou then exasperate, thou idle immaterial skein of sleave ^note silk, thou green sarcenet ^note flap for a sore eye, thou tassel ^note of a prodigal's purse, thou? Ah, how the poor world is pestered with such waterflies, diminutives of nature!

Patr.

Out, gall! ^note

Ther.

Finch-egg!

Achil.
My sweet Patroclus, I am thwarted ^note quite
From my great purpose in to-morrow's battle.
Here is a letter from Queen Hecuba,
A token from her daughter, my fair love,
Both taxing me and gaging me to keep
An oath that I have sworn. I will not break it:
Fall Greeks ^note; fail fame; honour or go or stay;
My major vow lies here, this I'll obey.
Come, come, Thersites, help to trim my tent:
This night in banqueting must all be spent.
Away, Patroclus! ^note [Exeunt ^note Achilles and Patroclus.

Ther.

With too much blood and too little brain, these two may run mad; but, if with too much brain and too little blood they do, I'll be a curer of madmen. Here's Agamemnon, an honest fellow enough and one that loves quails ^note; but he has not so much brain as ear-wax: and the goodly ^note transformation of Jupiter there, his brother, the ^note bull, the primitive statue and oblique ^note memorial of cuckolds; a thrifty shoeing-horn ^note in a chain, hanging at his brother's ^note leg,—to what form but that he is ^note, should wit larded with malice and

malice forced ^note with wit turn him to? ^note To an ass, were nothing; he is both ass and ox: to an ox, were nothing; he is both ox ^note and ass. To be a dog, a mule, a cat, a fitchew ^note, a toad, a lizard ^note, an owl, a puttock, or a herring without a roe ^note, I would not care; but to be Menelaus ^note! I would conspire against destiny. Ask me not what ^note I would be, if I were not Thersites; for I care not to be the louse of a lazar, so I were not Menelaus. Hoy-day ^note! spirits ^note and fires!