Troilus and Cressida by William Shakespeare
Act 5 - Scene 4
Plains between Troy and the Grecian camp.
Thersites : Now they are clapper-clawing one another; I'll go
[p]look on. That
dissembling abominable varlets Diomed,
[p]has got that same scurvy
doting foolish young knave's
[p]sleeve of Troy there in his helm: I
would fain see
[p]them meet; that that same young Trojan ass,
that
[p]loves the whore there, might send that
Greekish
[p]whore-masterly villain, with the sleeve, back to
the
[p]dissembling luxurious drab, of a sleeveless errand.
[p]O' the
t'other side, the policy of those crafty
[p]swearing rascals, that
stale old mouse-eaten dry
[p]cheese, Nestor, and that same dog-fox,
Ulysses, is
[p]not proved worthy a blackberry: they set me up,
in
[p]policy, that mongrel cur, Ajax, against that dog of
[p]as bad a
kind, Achilles: and now is the cur Ajax
[p]prouder than the cur
Achilles, and will not arm
[p]to-day; whereupon the Grecians begin to
proclaim
[p]barbarism, and policy grows into an ill opinion.
[p]Soft!
here comes sleeve, and t'other.
Troilus : Fly not; for shouldst thou take the river Styx,
[p]I would swim
after.
Diomedes : Thou dost miscall retire:
[p]I do not fly, but advantageous
care
[p]Withdrew me from the odds of multitude:
[p]Have at thee!
Thersites : Hold thy whore, Grecian!--now for thy whore,
[p]Trojan!--now the
sleeve, now the sleeve!
Hector : What art thou, Greek? art thou for Hector's match?
[p]Art thou of
blood and honour?
Thersites : No, no, I am a rascal; a scurvy railing knave:
[p]a very filthy
rogue.
Hector : I do believe thee: live.
Thersites : God-a-mercy, that thou wilt believe me; but a
[p]plague break thy neck
for frightening me! What's
[p]become of the wenching rogues? I think
they have
[p]swallowed one another: I would laugh at that
[p]miracle:
yet, in a sort, lechery eats itself.
[p]I'll seek them.
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Next: Act 5 - Scene 5
