74 state men of rank What i.e. what honor, reward

  75 that victory commands who wins purpose intend that

  76 known acknowledged, declared Will you do you wish that

  77 edge … extremity point of death (without any interruption)

  78 be … field they be separated by a marshal or by set rules in the field of combat

  80 bade ordered me to

  82 conditions agreed procedure

  83 securely overconfidently, carelessly

  84 disprizing undervaluing, disdaining

  89 In … Hector i.e. Hector’s courage is as great as his vanity is nonexistent

  91 The one i.e. valor all the sum of everything

  92 The other i.e. pride blank i.e. absent Weigh judge, assess the value of

  94 half … blood Ajax’s mother Hesione was Priam’s sister, so he and Hector are cousins

  98 maiden virginal, i.e. without bloodshed (with derogatory connotations of weakness) perceive understand

  99 gentle noble

  101 order procedure, direction

  102 uttermost point of death

  103 a breath i.e. a series of more sporting bouts with pauses for breath

  104 stints restrains strife endeavors, strong exertions

  105 opposed facing one another lists designated combat area (literally, the barriers enclosing it)

  106 heavy sad

  109 matchless without equal firm of word resolute in speech

  110 deedless … tongue i.e. never boasting of his achievements

  112 free generous

  114 bounty generosity

  115 impare uneven, unconsidered, unworthy

  117 subscribes yields, grants mercy

  118 tender objects pitiful sights, i.e. the defeated and defenseless

  119 vindicative vindictive, revengeful

  120 erect … Hector i.e. he is expected to prove as worthy as Hector

  123 Even … inches in every detail, from top to toe with private soul confidentially, privately and from the heart

  124 translate interpret, explain, i.e. describe Alarum call to battle (usually trumpets or drums)

  125 in action engaged in combat

  128 disposed placed, distributed

  129 no more stop

  130 so if it

  131 warm warmed up

  135 cousin-german first cousin

  137 emulation rivalry

  138 commixtion … Trojan Trojan-Greek mixture

  142 dexter right sinister left

  143 Bounds in encloses multipotent massively powerful

  144 bear carry away member body part

  145 impressure imprint

  146 rank large/grievous/violent feud i.e. the Trojan-Greek war gainsay forbid

  150 him that thunders i.e. Jupiter/Jove, whose weapon was the thunderbolt lusty strong, vigorous

  154 gentle noble free generous

  156 addition title (i.e. honor, enhanced reputation)

  157 Neoptolemus i.e. Achilles; in fact the name of his son, Pyrrhus Neoptolemus mirable admirable, marvelous

  158 crest heraldic device on a coat of arms/helmet, i.e. head ‘Oyez’ cries of “oyez,” the shout a town crier used to summon attention

  159 promise … Hector assure himself of additional honor gained by defeating Hector

  161 expectance watchful anticipation, expectation

  164 issue outcome

  166 seld seldom chance i.e. to issue such an invitation desire ask, invite

  171 signify make known, report

  172 the … part those Trojans who are awaiting news

  173 Desire them ask them to go

  178 portly stately, dignified

  179 Worthy of arms you who are so worthy to bear arms/receive embraces as … one you are as welcome as you possibly can be to one such as myself

  181 welcome i.e. true, proper welcome

  184 extant present, existing troth truth

  185 Strained purely entirely purified hollow false, insincere bias-drawing deviation, crooked dealing (bowling metaphor: the bias causes swerving)

  187 heart … heart the center of the heart

  188 imperious majestic

  191 brace pair

  192 Who … answer? a polite way of asking Menelaus’ name

  194 Mars his gauntlet Mars’ armored glove

  195 affect favor, assume, use th’untraded the unconventional, unfamiliar

  196 quondam former Venus’ glove as Mars’ lover Venus was unfaithful to her husband, Vulcan; the phrase plays on the sense of “vagina” (Latin for “sheath,” “scabbard”)

  197 bade me not did not ask me to/asked me not to

  198 deadly theme subject for mortal conflict/dire subject for discussion

  201 Labouring for destiny doing the work of, employed by fate (in putting people to death)

  203 hot hot-tempered/keen Perseus killer of the snake-haired gorgon Medusa Phrygian steed i.e. the winged horse Pegasus

  204 forfeits and subduements the defeated, those near death (i.e. easy victims)

  205 hung suspended, checked the swing of advancèd outstretched, raised

  206 decline … declined descend on the vanquished

  207 That so that

  211 Olympian god of Mount Olympus/wrestler at the Olympic games

  212 still always locked in steel i.e. covered by your helmet

  219 chronicle historical record (Nestor’s age makes him a storehouse of memories; perhaps suggests a penchant for lengthy stories)

  221 clasp embrace

  222 arms limbs/weapons contention battle, strife

  223 contend engage

  227 I … time i.e. I can remember the time when I could have fought you

  229 base and pillar foundation and support

  230 favour appearance, face

  233 embassy ambassadorial mission (i.e. an earlier negotiation regarding reparations for the loss of Helen)

  235 half … yet half-fulfilled

  236 pertly audaciously, boldly

  237 wanton insolent/playful/lascivious buss kiss

  240 modestly demurely, chastely (applies to the walls)/without exaggeration

  241 Phrygian i.e. Trojan; Phrygia, a region in Asia Minor (now Turkey), was the location of Troy

  242 the … all i.e. the eventual outcome is all that matters, time decides all things (proverbial)

  243 arbitrator one who decides and settles a matter between opposed parties (legal term)

  245 him i.e. Time

  249 forestall prevent

  251 exact detailed, precise perused inspected, examined

  252 quoted scrutinized joint limb, body part (probably, picking up on fed and continued in fill, with connotations of a butcher’s joint of meat)

  255 fair in full view

  259 As as if

  260 book of sport hunting manual

  262 oppress (seek to) dominate

  265 local individual, specific

  266 make distinct mark out/differentiate

  267 spirit soul/life-giving essence (thought to be carried in the blood) flew took flight/flowed

  269 Stand again stand up (implying Achilles has knelt to the gods)/stand still/stand forward

  270 catch capture, seize pleasantly easily/mockingly

  271 prenominate specify in advance nice precise, detailed conjecture prediction

  277 stithied … helm forged Mars’ helmet

  283 chafe thee anger yourself

  285 accident chance event to’t i.e. to fight Hector

  287 stomach appetite general state Greek generals, council/whole Greek cause

  288 entreat prevail upon, persuade odd at odds, at variance

  290 pelting paltry, petty refused spurned, cast off

  293 fell fierce, cruel

  295 match agreement, contract (plays on the sense of “contest”)

  296 peers nobles/companions

  297 in to convive you feast, be convivial

  298 bounties generosity, kindness

  299 severally individually entreat invite

  300 taborins drums

  303 keep lodge, dwell

  307 bent direction

  309 bound obliged, indebted

  313 As gentle i.e. be so courteous as to honour reputation, good name

  316 such as those who scars i.e. wounds of love

  317 A mock mockery (i.e. for boasting, but the further implication is that Diomedes’ flirtation with Cressida would make her former lover the object of ridicule)

  318 is, and doth is still beloved and still loves

  319 still always food … tooth subject to being preyed on by fortune (playing on the idea of fortune having a sweet tooth)

  2 scimitar short curved sword cool i.e. by exposing it to the air (with connotations of chilling with fear)

  5 core essence/center (as in the hard center of a boil)

  6 crusty scabby/ill-tempered (plays on the sense of “with a baked crust”) batch product/baker’s batch (plays on “botch,” i.e. boil) nature conceivably plays on the sense of “semen”

  7 picture mere image

  9 fragment insignificant or incomplete being/leftover, scrap of food

  10 fool idiocy (plays on the sense of “cream and stewed fruit pudding”)

  11 keeps the tent is looking after Achilles’ tent/is guilty of keeping to their tent

  12 surgeon’s box surgeon’s instrument case (Thersites responds to tent’s meaning of “surgical implement for cleaning a wound”)

  13 adversity perversity (because Thersites deliberately misunderstands words) need is the point of

  15 varlet knave, rogue/attendant, servant (hence “prostitute”)

  17 diseases … south i.e. venereal disease, popularly perceived as coming from Italy, especially the southern city of Naples, which had high rates of syphilis; also suggests the south wind, thought to convey disease, and perhaps the lower half of the body

  18 guts-griping colic or similar illness causing intestinal spasms ruptures hernias catarrhs colds, phlegm-producing illnesses loads o’gravel i’th’back kidney stones

  19 palsies fever characterized by trembling; the Quarto text has a longer list at this point (see appended list of “Quarto passages that do not appear in the Folio,” p. 138) take strike, infect

  20 preposterous discoveries revelations of perversity (preposterous literally means “back to front,” suggesting anal sex)

  21 box plays on the sense of “vagina”

  24 ruinous ruined, i.e. rotten (also suggesting “diseased”) butt cask (plays on the sense of “buttocks”)

  25 indistinguishable shapeless, misshapen

  26 exasperate exasperated, enraged

  27 immaterial insubstantial, flimsy skein … silk reel of fine silk thread sleaved separated into filaments, plays on “sleeved” sarcenet fine silken cloth; green suggests immaturity or girlish weakness flap patch

  28 tassel dangling fringed decoration (possible phallic connotations) prodigal lavish, wasteful spender (perhaps suggestive of sexual exhaustion) purse may play on the sense of “scrotum”

  29 pestered infested/irritated waterflies i.e. buzzing insects

  31 Out expression of dismissive irritation gall bitterness/poison/irritating sore or painful pustule

  32 Finch-egg! i.e. small/insignificant thing

  36 daughter … love i.e. Polyxena

  37 taxing imposing duty on/calling to account/reproving gaging binding, committing

  39 Fall Greeks should the Greeks be defeated or either

  41 trim tidy, deck out

  44 blood temper, hot-headedness/passion/sexual desire

  47 fellow usually used for servants, lower-class or worthless men, so a dismissive term for Agamemnon quails birds eaten as delicacies/prostitutes

  49 Jupiter … bull i.e. Menelaus, the horned cuckold, here compared to Jupiter who transformed himself into a bull in order to abduct Europa primitive statue original, archetypal image

  50 oblique memorial indirect reminder thrifty useful/ordinary, not elaborate shoeing-horn again alluding to the cuckold’s horns; plays on the sexual senses of “shoe” (vagina) and “horn” (penis) in on

  51 hanging … leg i.e. Menelaus is a hanger-on, dependent on Agamemnon that he is his current one

  52 wit i.e. Thersites’ wit larded mixed, saturated/stuffed (culinary term for the insertion of bacon strips into chicken) forced strengthened/stuffed (in a culinary sense)

  53 To i.e. to transform him into ass and ox suggesting fool and cuckold

  55 fitchew polecat/prostitute puttock scavenging bird of prey, buzzard

  56 but to be faced with the prospect of being/were I to be

  58 care … be wouldn’t mind being

  59 lazar leper so so long as Hoy-day expression of surprise

  67 tend on escort, protect

  71 draught cesspool, sewer quoth a did he say sink cesspool, sewer

  78 tide whereof time for which

  86 unjust dishonest, untrustworthy leers looks sideways/smiles disarmingly/glances seductively

  87 spend his mouth bay, bark loudly (hunting term)

  88 Brabbler a boastful liar, a brawler performs keeps his word, follows his words with deeds

  89 astronomers fortell it i.e. like a rare and significant event in the heavens prodigious ominous

  90 borrows of i.e. dims, reflects the light of (an unnatural event)

  91 leave to see abandon seeing

  92 dog him follow Diomedes drab whore uses regularly visits

  94 incontinent sexually unrestrained

  5 discover reveal

  7 charge responsibility, one entrusted to my care

  10 sing … sight sing to/get to know instantly, as if sight-reading music/have sex with any man quickly as if he were music to be sight-read (possible allusion to the sirens’ song)

  11 take her clef find the right musical key (clef)/possess her sexually (punning on cleft, i.e. “vagina”)

  12 noted marked, observed/notorious/set down in musical notation

  18 List! Listen!

  19 folly foolishness/lechery

  23 tell a pin i.e. don’t talk to me of trifles (pin may play on the sense of “(small) penis,” a derogatory reference to Troilus) forsworn – – – – perjured, oath-breaking (dashes in original text indicate an omitted obscenity)

  25 juggling trick magic trick/deceitful ruse/sexual intercourse secretly open frank in private/sexually available in secret/modest and bold simultaneously/sexually accessible (playing on sense of secret meaning genitals)

  33 fool plaything/dupe

  34 Thy better i.e. Troilus himself

  37 moved agitated, upset, angry

  39 wrathful terms i.e. a fight

  42 go off leave

  43 flow … distraction are becoming increasingly agitated, frenzied (alludes to a swelling river)

  50 grieve distress, upset truth fidelity

  54 palter equivocate/haggle/trifle/mumble

  57 break out explode in anger/leap out from concealment

  61 will i.e. desire to confront Cressida and Diomedes all offences the actions Troilus might take/Cressida’s wrongdoing to him

  63 Luxury lechery

  64 potato-finger large penis/fat finger (also sexually suggestive as a digit that tickles sexually) Fry burn with lust (with connotations of the burning symptoms of venereal disease)/burn in hell

  66 lo used to add emphasis else otherwise

  67 token item used as a pledge surety assurance

  71 be myself i.e. allow myself to act on my feelings cognition recognition, knowledge

  84 sharpens toughens her resistance/sharpens Diomedes’ desire (with erectile connotations) whetstone stone used for sharpening swords (plays on the senses of vagina/woman/whore)

  91 memorial bestowed in remembrance

  92 thee refers to the sleeve; various stagings are possible in this sequence, and some editors have suggested that the ensuing line (“do not snatch it”) should be spoken by Cressida, not Diomedes

  94 withal with it, as well

  105 Diana’s waiting-women i.e. the stars (Diana was the Roman goddess of chastity and the moon) yond up there

  108 grieve hurt, distress his spirit i.e. the spirit of whoever owns the sleeve

  109 wor’st wore

  116 starts you provokes a sudden reaction in you, makes you swerve off in another direction

  118 likes pleases

  121 be plagued suffer, be tormented/be afflicted with divine punishment

  125 with … see i.e. my other eye, representative of my true feelings, focuses on Diomedes (eye puns on “I”)

  126 poor our our poor

  127 error mistake/deception/wandering, straying

  128 What whatever

  129 swayed ruled, directed turpitude wickedness, depravity

  130 proof … more she could not state a stronger proof (i.e. tried and tested truth)

  132 All’s done i.e. it’s over, there is no more to see

  135 recordation record, commemorative account

  137 co-act behave together

  139 Sith since credence faith, belief, trust

  140 esperance hope

  141 test evidence, testimony (most editors prefer Quarto’s “th’attest”)

  142 deceptious deceptive, misleading

  143 calumniate slander

  145 conjure i.e. magically produce a vision of Cressida

  148 negation denial hath … of does not seem like

  149 but now only a moment ago

  150 for for the sake of

  151 advantage opportunity

  152 a … depravation grounds on which to base all women’s depravity/grounds for vilification

  155 soil stain, dishonor

  157 swagger … eyes blusteringly talk himself out of believing the evidence of his own eyes

  160 sanctimony holy, holiness

  162 there … itself unity cannot be divided

  163 discourse rationality

  164 That … thyself that sets up arguments (cause) for and against itself

  165 By abiding by, employing foul false/corrupt, flawed/illegible, incomprehensible revolt i.e. against itself

  166 perdition destroying itself loss loss of reason, i.e. madness (also recalls loss of Cressida) reason appearance of reason

  167 revolt contradiction

  168 conduce take place

  169 a thing i.e. Cressida inseparate indivisible

  170 Divides more wider is more widely divided

  172 Admits allows orifex orifice, opening subtle finely spun

  173 Ariachne i.e. Arachne, a weaver turned into a spider by Minerva; alternatively a conflation of Arachne and Ariadne, who gave Theseus thread to use in finding his way out of the labyrinth of the Minotaur woof cross-threads in weaving (hence the strand of a spider’s web)