idge,--

_Enter_ AJAX.

_Ajax._ Thersites.

_Thers._ Set up to frighten daws from cherry-trees,--

_Ajax._ Dog!

_Thers._ A standard to march under.

_Ajax._ Thou bitch-wolf! can'st thou not hear? feel then.
[_Strikes him._

_Thers._ The plague of Greece, and Helen's pox light on thee,
Thou mongrel mastiff, thou beef-witted lord!

_Ajax._ Speak then, thou mouldy leaven of the camp;
Speak, or I'll beat thee into handsomeness.

_Thers._ I shall sooner rail thee into wit; thou canst kick, canst
thou? A red murrain on thy jades tricks!

_Ajax._ Tell me the proclamation.

_Thers._ Thou art proclaimed a fool, I think.

_Ajax._ You whorson cur, take that. [_Strikes him._

_Thers._ Thou scurvy valiant ass!

_Ajax._ Thou slave!

_Thers._ Thou lord!--Ay, do, do,--would my buttocks were iron, for thy
sake!

_Enter_ ACHILLES _and_ PATROCLUS.

_Achil._ Why, how now, Ajax! wherefore do you this?
How now, Thersites, what's the matter, man?

_Thers._ I say this Ajax wears his wit in's belly, and his guts in's
brains.

_Achil._ Peace, fool.

_Thers._ I would have peace, but the fool will not.

_Patro._ But what's the quarrel?

_Ajax._ I bade him tell me the proclamation, and he rails upon me.

_Thers._ I serve thee not.

_Ajax._ I shall cut out your tongue.

_Thers._ 'Tis no matter; I shall speak as much sense as thou
afterwards. I'll see you hanged ere I come any more to your tent; I'll
keep where there's wit stirring, and leave the faction of fools.
[_Going._

_Achil._ Nay, thou shalt not go, Thersites, till we have squeezed the
venom out of thee: pr'ythee, inform us of this proclamation.

_Thers._ Why, you empty fuz-balls, your heads are full of nothing else
but proclamations.

_Ajax._ Tell us the news, I say.

_Thers._ You say! why you never said any thing in all your life. But,
since you will know, it is proclaimed through the army, that Hector is
to cudgel you to-morrow.

_Achil._ How, cudgel him, Thersites!

_Thers._ Nay, you may take a child's part on't if you have so much
courage, for Hector has challenged the toughest of the Greeks; and it
is in dispute which of your two heads is the soundest timber. A knotty
piece of work he'll have betwixt your noddles.

_Achil._ If Hector be to fight with any Greek,
He knows his man.

_Ajax._ Yes; he may kno