170 Ideals in the Modern World
the worst that one can half- plausibly say about a given individual is
the most central truth.
As the play proceeds, Thersites’ presence increases and the
temperature of his invective goes up. He progresses from bitter to
rancid to rank to rotten. And it is diffi cult not to feel that he is reg-
istering Shakespeare’s growing contempt for his characters as he
continues— through the act of writing them and inhabiting them in
the intimate way a playwright does—to spend his hours in their
com pany.
An exchange among Thersites, Achilles, and Patroclus at the end
of the play shows how far matters descend. Thersites enters and
Achilles greets him:
How now thou [core] of envy?
Thou crusty batch of nature, what’s
the news?
Thersites: Why, thou picture of what thou seemest, and idol of
idiot worshippers, here’s a letter for thee.
Achilles: From whence fragment?
Thersites: Why, thy full dish of fool, from Troy.
Patroclus: Who keeps the tent now?
Thersites: The surgeon’s box, or the patient’s wound.
Patroclus: Well said adversity! and what needs [these] tricks?
Thersites: Prithee be silent [boy], I profi t not by thy talk. Thou
art said to be Achilles’ male varlot?
Patroclus: Male varlot, you rogue! What’s that?
Thersites: Why, his masculine whore.
(V.i.4–18)Without much eff ort, Thersites has brought the noblest of the Greek
heroes down to the base level. In fact, one might say that Thersites