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 rascals,
-- 126 --
—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 barbarism, and policy grows into an
ill opinion. Soft! here comes sleeve, and th' other. 11Q0856
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 honour?
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; 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.
-- 127 --
J. Payne Collier [1842–1844], The works of William Shakespeare. The text formed from an entirely new collation of the old editions: with the various readings, notes, a life of the poet, and a history of the Early English stage. By J. Payne Collier, Esq. F.S.A. In eight volumes (Whittaker & Co. [etc.], London) [word count] [S10101].
