Ther. Do, do. 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'scurvy valiant ass! Thou art here put 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, thon thing of no bowels, thou! Ajax. You dog! Ther. You scurvy lord,! Ajax. You cur! [Beating him. Ther. Mars his idiot! Do, rudeness; do, camel; do, do. Enter ACHILLES and PATROCLUS. Achil. Why, how now, Ajax? Wherefore do you thus ? How now, Thersites? What's the matter, man? Achil. Ay; what's the matter? Ther. Nay, look upon him. Achil. So I do; what's the matter? Ther. Nay, but regard him well. Achil. Well, why I do so. Ther. But yet you look not well upon him for, whosoever you take him to be, he is Ajax. Achil. I know that, fool. Ther. Ay, but that fool knows not himself. Ther. Lo, lo, lo, lo, what modicums of wit he utters His evasions have ears thus long. I have bobb'd his brain, more than he has beat my bones: I will buy nine sparrows for a penny, and his pia matert is not worth the ninth part of a sparrow. This lord, Achilles, Ajax,-who wears his wit in his belly, and his guts in his head,-I'll tell you what I say of him. Achil. What? Ther. I say, this Ajax- [Ajax offers to strike him, Achilles interposes. Ther. Has not so much wit Ass, a cant term for a foolish fellow. + Continue. 1 The membrane that protects the brain. Achil. Nay, I must hold you. Ther. As will stop the eye of Helen's needle, for whom he comes to fight. Achil. Peace, fool! Ther. I would have peace and quietness, but the fool will not: he there; that he; look you there. Ajax. O thou damn'd cur! 1 shall Achil. Will you set your wit to a fool's? Ther. No, I warrant you; for a fool's will shame it. Achil. What's the quarrel? Ajax. Well, go to, go to. Ther. I serve here voluntary*. Ajax. I bade the vile owl, go learn me the tenor of the proclamation, and he rails upon me. Ther. I serve thee not. Achil. Your last service was sufferance, 'twas 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 you 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 mouldly ere your grandsires had nails on their toes, yoke you like draught oxen, and make you plough up the wars. Achil. What, what? Ther. Yes, good sooth; to, Achilles! to, Ajax! to! Ther. 'Tis no matter; I shall speak as much as thou, afterwards. Patr. No more words, Thersites; peace. Ther. I will hold my peace when Achilles' brach bids me, shall I? Achil. There's for you, Patroclus. Ther. I will see you hang'd, like clotpoles, ere I come any more to your tents; I will keep where there is wit stirring, and leave the faction of fools. [Exit, • Voluntarily. VOL. IV. Patr: A good riddance. Achil. Marry, this, Sir, is proclaim'd through all our host': 2 That Hector, by the first hour of the sun, Q 9 Will, with a trumpet, 'twixt our tents and Troy, To morrow morning call some knight to arms, That hath a stomach; and such a one, that dare Maintain-I know not what; 'tis trash farewell. Ajax. Farewell. Who shall answer him? Achil. I know not, it is put to lottery; otherwise, He knew his man Ajax. O, meaning you :—I'll go learn more of it. [Exeunt. SCENE II.-Troy.-A Room in Priam's Palace. Enter PRIAM, HECTOR, TROILUS, PARIS, and HELENUS. Pri. After so many hours, lives, speeches spent, Thus once again says Nestor from the Greeks; Deliver Helen, and all damage else― As honour, loss of time, travel, expence, Wounds, friends, and what else dear that is consumed, In hot digestion of this cormorant war,— Shall be struck off: Hector, what say you to't? Hect. Though no man lesser fears the Greeks than 1, As far as toucheth my particular, yet, Dread Priam, There is no lady of more softer bowels, More spongy to suck in the sense of fear," More ready to cry out-Who knows what follows What merit's in that reason, which denies The yielding of Tro. Fie, fie, my brother! So great as our Weigh you the worth and honour of a king, Of common ounces? Will you with counters sum 638 our dread father, in a scale The past-proportion of his infinite? • Tenths. 7 P9 And buckle-in a waist most fathomless, IT With spans and inches so diminutive As fears and reasons? Fie, for godly shame! T Hel. No marvel, though you bite so sharp at reasons, You are so empty of them. Should not our father, Bear the great sway of his affairs with reasons, Because your speech hath none, that tells him so? Tro. You are for dreams and slumbers, brother. priest, LSBE bio, You fur your gloves with reason. Here are your reasons: de la Or like a star dis-orb'd :-Nay, if we talk of reason, Let's shut our gates, and sleep: Manhood and ho nour Should have hard hearts, would they but fat their thoughts With this cramm'd reason: reason and respect + Hect. Brother, she is not worth what she doth cost The holding. Tro. What is 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; The wife I chose? There can be no evasion viands We do not throw in unrespective sieve t, freshness Wrinkles Apollo's, and makes pale the morning. Cas. [Within.] Cry, Trojans, cry! Enter CASSANDRA, raring、, Cas. Cry,Trojans, cry! Lend me ten thousand eyes, Add I will fill them with prophetic tears. Hect. Peace, sister, peace. Cas. Virgins and boys, mid-age and wrinkled ' elders, J Soft infancy, that nothing canst but cry, • Shrink, or fly off. + Basket. |