To answer for his love, tell him from me,- ULYSS. Amen. AGAM. Fair lord Æneas, let me touch your hand; To our pavilion shall I lead you, sir.* So shall each lord of Greece, from tent to tent: [Exeunt all except ULYSSES and NESTOR. ULYSS. Nestor, NEST. What says Ulysses? ULYSS. I have a young conception in my brain, Be you my time to bring it to some shape. NEST. What is't? That can from Hector bring his honour* off, c Our imputation shall be oddly pois'd Of things to come at large. It is suppos'd, What heart receives from hence the conquering part, To steel a strong opinion to themselves? ULYSS. For both our honour and our shame in this The lustre of the better yet to show, So the folio: the quarto reads,— The lustre of the better shall exceed, By showing the worse first. f The sort-] That is, the lot. Enter AJAX and THERSITES.(1) AJAX. Thersites, THER. The plague of Greece upon thee, thou mongrel beef-witted lord! AJAX. Speak then, thou vinewedst" leaven, THER. Agamemnon-how if he had boils, speak: I will beat thee into handsomeness. full, all over, generally?— AJAX. Thersites, THER. And those boils did run ?-Say so, did not the general run then?* were not that a botchy core? AJAX. Dog, THER. Then would come some matter from him; I see none now. AJAX. Thou bitch-wolf's son, canst thou not hear? Feel, then. [Strikes him. (*) First folio omits, then. s-a botchy core?-] Query, "a botchy cur"? a AJAX. Do not, porcupine, do not; my fingers itch. THER. I would thou didst itch from head to foot, and I had the scratching of thee; I would make thee the loathsomest scab in Greece. When thou art forth in the incursions, thou strikest as slow as another." AJAX. I say, the proclamation, THER. Thou grumblest and railest every hour on Achilles; and thou art as full of envy at his greatness as Cerberus is at Proserpina's beauty, ay, that thou barkest at him. AJAX. Mistress Thersites ! THER. Thou shouldst strike him. THER. He would pun thee into shivers with his fist, as a sailor breaks a biscuit. AJAX. You whoreson cur! THER. Do, do! c [Beating him. AJAX. Thou stool for a witch! THER. Ay, do, do; thou sodden-witted lord! thou hast no more brain than I have in mine elbows; an assinego may tutor thee. Thou scurvyvaliant ass! thou art here but to thrash Trojans ; and thou art bought and sold among those of any wit, like a Barbarian slave. If thou use to beat me, I will begin at thy heel, and tell what thou art by inches, thou thing of no bowels, thou! AJAX. You dog! THER. You scurvy lord! AJAX. You cur! [Beating him. PATR. Good words, Thersites. ACHIL. What's the quarrel? AJAX. I bade the vile owl go learn me the tenour of the proclamation, and he rails upon me. THER. I serve thee not. AJAX. Well, go to, go to. THER. I serve here voluntary. ACHIL. Your last service was sufferance, 't was not voluntary, no man is beaten voluntary: Ajax was here the voluntary, and you as under an impress. THER. Even so ??—a great deal of your wit, too, lies in your sinews, or else there be liars. Hector shall have a great catch, if he knock out either of your brains; 'a* were as good crack a fusty nut with no kernel. ACHIL. What, with me too, Thersites ? THER. There's Ulysses and old Nestor,-whose wit was mouldy ere your + grandsires had nails on their toes,-yoke you like draught oxen, and make you plough up the wars. In hot digestion of this cormorant war,— As far as toucheth‡ my particular, Yet, dread Priam, There is no lady of more softer bowels, If we have lost so many tenths of ours, TROIL. The holding. TROIL. What's aught, but as 'tis valued? HECT. But value dwells not in particular will; It holds his estimate and dignity As well wherein 'tis precious of itself As in the prizer; 'tis mad† idolatry, To make the service greater than the god; And the will dotes, that is attributive To what infectiously itself affects, Without some image of the affected merit. TROIL. I take to-day a wife, and my election Is led on in the conduct of my will; My will enkindled by mine eyes and ears, Two traded pilots 'twixt the dangerous shores once. (*) First folio, hard. (†) First folio, made. (1) First folio, inclineable. See note (e), p. 144, Vol. II. d And fly like chidden Mercury, &c.] This and the following line are transposed in the folio. |