51�Թ�

Going back a millennium to ancient Greece, consider Thersites in Homer’s “The Iliad.”

But Odysseus beats Thersites with a scepter until he collapses.

Impossible to imagine Lear’s Fool succeeding him or Thersites commanding the Greek army.

The “scabrous” Thersites in Troilus and Cressida speaks with relentless, scene-stealing venom.

As Greek and Trojan nobles “clapperclaw” one another, and as Prince Troilus woos Cressida through the agency of her debauched uncle, Pandarus, then wins and loses her, Thersites wanders on and off the stage like an envenomed tragic chorus.