Troilus and Cressida

Act 5, Scene 4

Modern spelling. Stage directions omitted.

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THERSITES

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 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 sleeve-less errand. O’ the other side, the policy of those crafty swearing rascals that stale old mouse-eaten dry cheese, Nestor, and that same dog-fox, Ulysses, is not prov’d 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 today; whereupon the Grecians begin to proclaim barbarism, and policy grows into an ill opinion.

THERSITES

Soft! here comes sleeve, and t’other.

TROILUS

Fly not; for take the river Styx, I would swim after.

DIOMEDES

miscall retire.
I do not fly; but advantageous care
Withdrew me from the odds of multitude.
Have at !

THERSITES

Hold whore, Grecian; now for whore,
Trojan! now the sleeve, now the sleeve!

HECTOR

What art , Greek? Art for Hector’s match?
Art of blood and honour?

THERSITES

No, no I am a rascal; a scurvy railing ; a very filthy rogue.

HECTOR

I do believe . Live.

THERSITES

God-a-mercy, that wilt believe me; but a plague break 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.

All of Troilus and Cressida

Opening and close

Prologue,

Act 1

Act 1, Scene 1Act 1, Scene 2Act 1, Scene 3,

Act 2

Act 2, Scene 1Act 2, Scene 2Act 2, Scene 3,

Act 3

Act 3, Scene 1Act 3, Scene 2Act 3, Scene 3,

Act 4

Act 4, Scene 1Act 4, Scene 2Act 4, Scene 3Act 4, Scene 4Act 4, Scene 5,

Act 5

Act 5, Scene 1Act 5, Scene 2Act 5, Scene 3Act 5, Scene 4Act 5, Scene 5Act 5, Scene 6Act 5, Scene 7Act 5, Scene 8Act 5, Scene 9Act 5, Scene 10

Open Troilus and Cressida in the 1623 First Folio. See its words in the cloud.

Modern spelling for reading. The edition is public domain in the United States. Edition source.