ABRAM           Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?

SAMPSON       I do bite my thumb, sir.

ABRAM           Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?

SAMPSON       [Aside to Gregory] Is it the law of our side if I say ay?

GREGORY       [Aside to Sampson] No.

SAMPSON       No, sir, I do not bite my thumb at you, sir, but I bite my thumb, sir. (1.1.37-43)

This is one of the points in the scene where the temperature really begins to rise and the tempo increases. It’s in the shorter units of the stichomythia, and the closeness of the repetitions, and the way in which, in these six prose lines, there isn’t a single polysyllabic word. Sampson’s thumb is still ridiculous, but the situation is becoming more dangerous, even as the language becomes more artificial: the repeated sirs are not polite (at least not as Abram uses them; Sampson may still be trying to appease) but rather, insolent.