Internet Shakespeare Editions

Author: William Shakespeare
Editor: William Godshalk
Peer Reviewed

Troilus and Cressida (Folio 1, 1623)

Enter Thersites, Menelaus, and Paris.
Ther. The Cuckold and the Cuckold maker are at it:
3480now bull, now dogge, lowe; Paris lowe; now my dou-
ble hen'd sparrow; lowe Paris, lowe; the bull has the
game: ware hornes ho?
Exit Paris and Menelaus.
Enter Bastard.
3485Bast. Turne slaue and fight.
Ther. What art thou?
Bast. A Bastard Sonne of Priams.
Ther. I am a Bastard too, I loue Bastards, I am a Ba-
stard begot, Bastard instructed, Bastard in minde, Bastard
3490in valour, in euery thing illegitimate: one Beare will not
bite another, and wherefore should one Bastard? take
heede, the quarrel's most ominous to vs: if the Sonne of a
whore fight for a whore, he tempts iudgement: farewell
Bastard.
3495Bast. The diuell take thee coward. Exeunt.