Troilus and Cressida — Act 5, Scene 8: Another part of the plains.

On the battlefield, Menelaus and Paris are fighting when Thersites appears and mocks them both, ridiculing Menelaus as the deceived husband and Paris as the man who stole Helen. The two combatants leave without any clear result. Margarelon, the bastard son of Priam, then enters and challenges Thersites to turn and fight. Thersites identifies himself as a bastard too and boasts that he is entirely illegitimate in birth, mind, and courage. He refuses the challenge, arguing that one bastard should not attack another and warning that the fight is dangerous and foolish. Margarelon curses him as a coward, and both men exit separately.

The cuckold and the cuckold-maker are at it. Now,

bull! now, dog! 'Loo, Paris, 'loo! now my double-

henned sparrow! 'loo, Paris, 'loo! The bull has the

game: ware horns, ho!

Turn, slave, and fight.

What art thou?

A bastard son of Priam's.

I am a bastard too; I love bastards: I am a bastard

begot, bastard instructed, bastard in mind, bastard

in valour, in every thing illegitimate. One bear will

not bite another, and wherefore should one bastard?

Take heed, the quarrel's most ominous to us: if the

son of a whore fight for a whore, he tempts judgment:

farewell, bastard.

The devil take thee, coward!