Secono Servant : 
 
 " and his poor self 
 Walks like contempt, alone" 
 
 TiMON OF Athens Aci IV Scene 2
 
 myi^otes^ Glossary, 
 C^vxticcil C7on\nr\er\jts, 
 ai\cf «/g^etKpcf of Study 
 
 Tl\e Ur\iver»si^y Society 
 New York.
 
 Copyright, 1 901 
 
 By 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY SOCIETY
 
 COLLEGE 
 LIBRARY 
 
 ?K 
 
 THE A ^ 
 
 LIFE OF TIMON OF ATHENS. '"^^ ' 
 
 Preface. 
 
 The First Edition. '' Tinwn of Athens'' was printed 
 for the first time in the Folio of 1623 ; it occupies twenty- 
 one pages, from 80 to 98 in the division of " Tragedies " 
 (pages 81 and 82 being numbered twice over). ''The 
 Actors' Names " are given on the next page, a blank page 
 follows, and then comes the play of Julius Cccsar, begin- 
 ning a new sheet, marked kk instead of ii, and numbered 
 109. It is noteworthy that *' Troilus and Cressida " 
 would just have filled the space of pages 80-108, and 
 judging from the fact that its second and third pages are 
 numbered 79''' and 80, one may perhaps safely assume 
 that Timon took its place in the Folio {vide Preface to 
 Troilus and Cressida). The text is one of the worst 
 printed in the volume, and the famous crux " Vllorxa " 
 (III. iv. 112) may be regarded as typical of the many 
 errors, resulting from carelessness or other causes. 
 
 The Authorship of the Play. The doubtful authorship 
 of a great part of the play accounts, in all probability, for 
 the unsatisfactory state of the text; it is now generally 
 agreed that '' Timon " contains a good deal of non-Shake- 
 spearian alloy. The following pieces do not stand the 
 test: — Act I. Sc. i. 189 — end of the scene (? 249-265; 
 283-294) ; the whole of Sc. ii. ; Act II. Sc. ii. 45-124; 
 
 * Be it observed that the first page of Timon is really 78, not 80; 
 the mistake was due to the numbering of the last page of Romeo 
 and Juliet, which was marked 79 instead of 77.
 
 Preface THE LIFE OF 
 
 Act III., except Sc. vi. 92-109; Act. IV. Sc. ii. 30-50, ( ?) 
 iii. 292-360, 402-415. 456-544 ; Act V. ( ?) Sc. i. 1-59 ; il. ; 
 iii. A^arions attempts have been made to extract the ore 
 from this " mineral of metals base," and, purged from 
 grosser stuff, " Shakespeare's Timon " was issued by the 
 Neiv Shakespeare Society in the year 1874, embodying 
 the labours of Mr. Fleay {vide also Shakespeare Manual, 
 pp. 187-208).* 
 
 A'arious theories have been advanced as to the com- 
 position of Timon: — (i.) that Shakespeare worked over 
 an older drama, the remains of which are still to be found 
 in the inferior portions of the play;f (ii.) that Shake- 
 speare and another author collaborated; (iii.) that the 
 play left unfinished by Shakespeare was hastily and care- 
 lessly completed by some playwright either (0) for stage- 
 purposes, or {h) for insertion in the First Folio; (iv.) 
 that the editors of the Folio could only obtain the parts 
 of the principal actors, and the deficiencies had to be sup- 
 plied from an earlier Timon,X or by some second-rate 
 
 * " The play is. in its present state, unique among Shakespeare's 
 for its languid, wearisome want of action. This renders it one of 
 the least read of all his works. But this fault is entirely due to 
 the passages which I assign to the second writer, not one of which 
 adds anything to the development of the plot, for they are in 
 every instance mere expansions of facts mentioned in the genuine 
 parts of the play." 
 
 t The Cambridge Editors seem to hold the view : — " The origi- 
 nal play, on which Shakespeare worked, must have been written, 
 for the most part, either in prose or in very irregular verse." 
 Farmer first suggested this explanation ; Knight followed Farmer, 
 maintaining that " Timon was a play originally produced by an 
 artist very inferior to Shakespeare, which probably retained pos- 
 session of the stage for some time in its first form ; that it has 
 come down to us not wholly rewritten, but so far remodelled that 
 entire scenes of Shakespeare have been substituted for entire 
 scenes of the elder play," etc. 
 
 $ Elze, Delius. and others assign the earlier Timon to George 
 Wilkins (cp. Preface to Pericles); Fleay believes "that Cyril 
 Tourneur was the only person connected with the King's Com-
 
 TIMON or ATHENS Preface 
 
 dramatist; (v.) that the combination of (i.) and (iii.) 
 best satisfies all the difficulties. 
 
 The Fifth Act of the play gives, me judice, the best 
 clue to the solution of the problem. It certainly produces 
 the impression of having been left roughly sketched by 
 Shakespeare, whose touch is manifest in the more impor- 
 tant speeches, especially those belonging to the character 
 of Timon ; but while the Third Scene is clearly not Shake- 
 speare's, the four-lined epitaph in the Fourth Scene, the 
 Shakespearian portion, combines two inconsistent couplets, 
 and the combination could not have been intended by 
 Shakespeare, though both wxre naturally in the rough un- 
 finished MS. ; the poet had evidently not made up his 
 mind which of the two epitaphs to use, whether Timon's 
 own, or that which, " commonly rehearsed," was not his 
 " but was made by the poet Callimachus." * 
 
 In all probability Shakespeare's unfinished MS., con- 
 
 pany at this time who could have written the other part " of the 
 play. All this is mere supposition. 
 
 * In order that the reader should understand the weight of this 
 piece of evidence, he should compare Act V. Sc. iv. 11. 70-73 with 
 its original in North's Plutarch {Life of Antonius) : — " He (Ti- 
 mon) died in the city of Hales, and was buried upon the seaside. 
 Now it chanced so that the sea getting in, it compassed his tomb 
 round about, that no man could come to it ; and upon the same 
 was written this epitaph : — 
 " Here lies a wretched corse, of wretched soul bereft; 
 
 Seek not my name: a plague consume you wicked wretches 
 left!" 
 
 It is reported that Timon himself when he lived made this epi- 
 taph ; for that which is commonly rehearsed was not his, but made 
 by the poet Callimachus : — 
 " Here lie /, Timon, who alive all living men did hate: 
 
 Pass by and curse thy fill: but pass, and stay not here thy gait."' 
 
 (The substitution of " ivicked caitiffs" for ^'wicked wretches" 
 suggests a comparison with Paynter's version of the epitaph, be- 
 ginning " My wretched caitif days" etc.). It is not likely that lines 
 3, 4 in the previous Scene (V. iii.) are intended for Timon's epi- 
 taph, though at first sight the rhyming couplet gives that impres-
 
 Preface THE LIFE OF 
 
 taining the main parts of the play already written out, 
 with the general plan merely outlined, was worked up 
 after Shakespeare's death into the play we possess ; it 
 cannot be finally determined whether this elaboration was 
 undertaken for stage-representation, or for the purpose of 
 fitting it for a place in the First Folio, when the Editors 
 had resolved to change the position of Troihis and Cres- 
 sida."^^ Perhaps the printing of Julius Cccsar was com- 
 menced before that of Timon was finished. 
 
 There is no definite evidence of an older play on the 
 subject that could have been the original of Shake- 
 speare's,! nor are the inferior portions strikingly sug- 
 gestive of the style of the old-fashioned productions super- 
 seded by Shakespeare's revisions or recasts. The MS. 
 play entitled '' Timon,'' written about the year 1600, edited 
 for the Shakespeare Society by Dyce in 1842, was in- 
 tended solely for the amusement of an academic audience, 
 and there is not the least evidence that it was ever seen 
 by Shakespeare. I 
 
 sion {vide Note). The speech is weak enough as it is without 
 adding to it the crowning absurdity of making the soldier first 
 read the epitaph, and then proceed to take the character in wax, 
 because he cannot read it. 
 
 * Dr. Nicholson {Trans, of New Shak. Soc. 1874) adduced what 
 he considered " tolerably decisive proof that Timon as we now 
 have it was an acted play " : — " in old plays the entrance directions 
 are sometimes in advance of the real entrances, having been thus 
 placed in the theatre copy, that the performers or bringers-in of 
 stage-properties might be warned to be in readiness to enter on 
 their cue." He points out some of these directions in the present 
 play as printed in the Folio ; but his case, from this point of view, 
 does not seem strong. 
 
 t There seems to be no foundation for Mr. Simpson's statement 
 that " a Timon was, at the date of the Satiromastix, in the pos- 
 session of Shakespeare's Company " {New Shak. Soc., 1874, p. 
 252). 
 
 X Malone pointed out that there is a scene in it resembling 
 Shakespeare's banquet given by Timon to his flatterers. Instead
 
 TIMON OF ATHENS Preface 
 
 Source of the Plot. A passage in Plutarch's Life of 
 Antojiius (in North's Plutarch) containing a short ac- 
 count of Timon may have attracted Shakespeare to the 
 subject of the play. Shakespeare was also acquainted 
 with Paynter's story of Timon, in '' the Palace of Pleas- 
 ure.'' Other versions of the story are to be found in 
 Elizabethan literature {e.g. the account of Timon in Rich- 
 ard Barckley's Felicity of Man). " Critic Timon " is al- 
 ready referred to by Shakespeare in his early play of 
 Love's Labour's Lost. 
 
 An interesting comparison might be instituted between 
 the present play and Lucian's Dialogue on Timon ; it seems 
 almost certain that directly or indirectly the Dialogue has 
 exercised considerable influence on the conception of the 
 drama, though we know of no English or French version 
 of Lucian's work that Shakespeare could have used ; per- 
 haps the other author of the play possessed the Greek he 
 lacked. 
 
 Date of Composition. Some of the problems connected 
 with the composition of Timon have already been indi- 
 cated. Internal evidence of style is alone available for 
 fixing the date of Shakespeare's parts of the play. 
 Esthetic and metrical considerations would place it after 
 Hamlet — (Coleridge describes it as an " after-vibration of 
 Hamlet," but the vibration is rather too harsh and jarring) 
 — and before the opening of Shakespeare's last period, i.e. 
 about the same time as Macbeth, Othello, and Lear: 
 Shakespeare's satirical drama must belong to the period 
 when, " as the stern censurer of mankind," he reached his 
 greatest tragic height ; it makes one happy to think that 
 the pity and terror of tragedy had more attractions for 
 
 of warm water, he sets before them stones painted like artichokes, 
 and afterwards beats them out of the room. The likeness is easily- 
 accounted for by identity of source. The last line of the Third 
 Act, with its mention of "stones," is noteworthy, seeing that in 
 the play Timon throws the water ii the faces of the guests and 
 nothing is said about his pelting them with stones. The stage- 
 direction is not found in the Folios.
 
 Preface 
 
 THE LIFE OF 
 
 him than the stern severity of bitter satire ; he probably 
 found the theme uncongenial and cast it aside : — 
 
 "No. — / am that I am; and they that level 
 At my abuses reckon up their own: 
 I may be straight, though they themselves be bevel; 
 By their rank thoughts my deeds must not be shoivn; 
 Unless this general evil they maintain, — 
 All men are bad and in their badness reign.'' 
 
 (Sonnet cxxi.) 
 
 Duration of Action. The time of the play may be 
 taken as six days represented on the stage, with one long 
 interval : — 
 
 Day I, Act I. Sc. i., ii. Day 2, Act 11. Sc. i., ii. ; Act 
 TIL Sc. i.-iii. Day 3, Act III.\Sc. iv.-vi. ; Act IV. Sc. i., 
 ii. Internal Day 4, Act l\ . Sc. iii. Day 5, Act V. Sc. 
 i., ii. Day 6, Act V. Sc. iii.. iv. 
 
 OpAin-NOt OAVNOIOJ 
 
 Er||cr/^H£AtKAHniOftft»r 
 
 OAYNOIOt 
 
 On his gravestone thts insetilpture " (V. iv. 67). 
 From the Elgin Marbles.
 
 TIMON OF ATHENS 
 
 Critical Comments. 
 I. 
 
 Argument. 
 
 I. The lavish generosity of Timon, a great lord of 
 Athens, draws to him a throng of sycophants and hang- 
 ers-on who profit by his careless extravagance. With his 
 frank, cordial nature he does not suspect their true mis- 
 sion, but esteems them all his friends. They flatter him 
 assiduously, and he showers gifts upon them or doe.-; 
 them various good services. He gives a costly banquet 
 at wdiich the favours are precious stones. The reckless 
 waste is a matter of much concern to his steward, who 
 foresees speedy impoverishment. 
 
 II. Presently Timon 's creditors begin to suspect his 
 true financial state and press him greatly with bills. The 
 steward at last succeeds in acquainting his master with 
 his bankrupt condition. Timon is thunderstruck, but 
 consoles himself with the thought that he can draw upon 
 all the men to whom he has been liberal in time past. He 
 therefore despatches his servants to request from them 
 loans. 
 
 III. The false friends desert him in his hour of need; 
 nor will they advance him money. Instead they make 
 specious excuses and even go so far as to importune him 
 in turn for certain sums. Timon's eyes are opened to 
 their ingratitude and un worthiness. To express his con- 
 tempt he gives a final feast, at which nothing is set forth 
 but warm water. While uttering the bitterest reproaches 
 he dashes the water in their faces, and ends by throwing 
 
 7
 
 Comments THE LIFE OF 
 
 the dishes at them and driving them out of the banquet- 
 ing-room. 
 
 IV. Timon now abjures the society of all mankind, 
 and seeks refuge in a cave in the woods outside the city, 
 where he subsists upon the roots of the earth. In dig- 
 ging them he discovers a hidden treasure of gold, but 
 takes no pleasure in it, for it brings him only heavy recol- 
 lections of his folly. He bestows a portion of the gold 
 upon Alcibiades, a former friend of his who honestly 
 desires to aid him, and who is now marching against 
 Athens to humiliate that city for its unjust banishment of 
 him. Though Timon wishes Alcibiades success, it is not 
 because he is reconciled with him, but because he desires 
 the punishment of Athens. The only man whom the 
 misanthrope will acknowledge to be honest is his faithful 
 steward, who seeks him out and remains true to him in 
 adversity. Upon him Timon bestows a liberal gift of the 
 treasure, enjoining him never to come within his sight 
 again. 
 
 V. The near approach of Alcibiades to Athens causes 
 the senators to bethink themselves of the neglected Timon. 
 They visit him in the forest to pray his aid, promising a 
 restoration of fortune and honour. But Timon greets 
 their advances with taunts and curses. They return 
 bootless to the city, which they are shortly after forced to 
 surrender to Alcibiades. While the conqueror is singling 
 out his own and Timon's enemies for punishment, he re- 
 ceives word that Timon is dead within his forest cave. 
 
 McSpadden : Shakespearian Synopses. 
 
 II. 
 
 Timion. 
 
 It marks an approach to hardness and formalism in 
 Shakespeare's conception of character that his Timon is 
 adequately summed up in the label he adopts : " I am 
 
 8
 
 TIMON OF ATHENS Comments 
 
 Misanthropes, and hate mankind." Lear is on the whole 
 his nearest Shakespearean analogue. The sting of in- 
 gratitude is the common provocation of both ; and in both 
 its maddening effect is enhanced by naive ignorance of 
 men and equally naive exaggeration of their own claims. 
 Both are simple natures, finely gifted, but quite without 
 subtlety and penetration ; a single shock throws them off 
 their balance. But Lear is testy, self-indulgent, arrogant 
 and exacting from the first ; while Timon is quixotically 
 generous, and thinks his honour concerned to give more 
 than is asked, and to repay tenfold what he receives. 
 Lear's most imperious ethical instinct is that of the primi- 
 tive Northern tribe — the duty of children to parent; Ti- 
 mon's is that of the philosophic schools and society of 
 Athens — the duty of friend to friend. ... In the 
 Athens of Timon this noble communism is as dead as the 
 duty of children in the heart of Regan. His disillusion, 
 as terrible as Lear's, and far nearer, in kind, to common 
 experience, is far less real, and is worked out with gravely 
 diminished dramatic resource. His monologues, close 
 packed, knotty with phrase, but unbroken in their sombre 
 monotony, take the place of the wonderfully varied and 
 modulated temper of Lear. His anger pursues its way 
 like a torrent without pause or change. It is more pene- 
 trated than Lear's with the hunger for moral retribution, 
 and the discovery of the gold puts the instrument of it in 
 his grasp — the 
 
 damned earth, 
 Thou common whore of mankind, that put'st odds 
 Among the rout of nations, I will make thee 
 Do thy right nature. 
 
 Of Timon 's series of vindictive encounters before his 
 cave, little but the idea is probably ultimately due to Lu- 
 cian. The poet may be foreshadowed in Gnathonides, 
 the envoys of repentant Athens in Demeas. But Flavins, 
 the one honest man, is Shakespeare's characteristic cre- 
 ation, and in Apemantus and .\lc:biades he adapted to the 
 
 9
 
 Comments THE LIFE OF 
 
 scheme of Lucian the suggestive hints of Pkitarch. In 
 J Autarch both figure only as the companions of Timon's 
 misanthropic days, the one his fellow cynic, the other his 
 destined avenger upon Athens. Shakespeare introduced 
 both into the picture of Timon's prodigal festivities. The 
 misanthrope by nature was thus set in sharp contrast with 
 the misanthrope by disillusion, and the ground was laid 
 for their encounter in the second part (IV. iii. 198 et scq.) 
 with its profoundly imagined discrimination between the 
 set hatred grounded in habit and creed and that kindled 
 by fresh conviction, the misanthropy which is a form of 
 intellectual self-indulgence, and that which is goaded with 
 poignant memories. 
 
 Herfokd : The Evcrslcy Shakespeare. 
 
 III. 
 
 Timon and Shakespeare. 
 
 With few exceptions, those portions of the play in 
 which Timon is the speaker can have come from no other 
 hand than that of Shakspere. If such conjectures were 
 allowed to possess any worth, one might venture to as- 
 sert that by the time this play was written, Shakspere had 
 mastered the impulses within himself to mere rage against 
 the evil that is in the world. The impression which the 
 play leaves is that of Shakspere's sanity. He could now 
 so fully and fearlessly enter into Timon's mood, because 
 he was now past all danger of Timon's malady. He had 
 now learned to strive with evil and to subdue it ; he had 
 now learned to forgive. And therefore he could dare to 
 utter that wrath against mankind to which he had as- 
 suredly been tempted, but to which he had never wholly 
 yielded. 
 
 It would seem that about this period Shakspere's mind 
 was much occupied with the questions, In what temper 
 are we to receive the injuries inflicted upon us by our 
 fellow men? How are we to bear ourselves towards 
 
 10
 
 TIMON OF ATHENS Comments 
 
 those that wrong us? How shall we secure our inward 
 being from chaos amid the evils of the world ? How shall 
 we attain to the most just and noble attitude of soul in 
 which life and the injuries of life may be confronted? 
 Now, here in Timon we see one way in which a man may 
 make his response to the injuries of life ; he may turn 
 upon the world with a fruitless and suicidal rage. Shak- 
 spere was interested in the history of Timon, not merely 
 as a dramatic study, and not merely for the sake of moral 
 edification, but because he recognized in the Athenian 
 misanthrope one whom he had known, an intimate ac- 
 quaintance, the Timon of Shakspere's own breast. Shall 
 we hesitate to admit that there was such a Timon in the 
 breast of Shakspere? We are accustomed to speak of 
 Shakspere's gentleness and Shakspere's tolerance so 
 foolishly that we find it easier to conceive of Shak- 
 spere as indulgent towards baseness and wickedness 
 than as feeling measureless rage and indignation against 
 them — rage and indignation which would sometimes 
 flash beyond their bounds and strike at the whole wicked 
 race of man. And it is certain that Shakspere's de- 
 light in human character, his quick and penetrating sym- 
 pathy with almost every variety of man, saved him from 
 any persistent injustice towards the world. But it can 
 hardly be doubted that the creator of Hamlet, of Lear, 
 of Timon, saw clearly, and felt deeply, that there is a 
 darker side to the world and to the soul of man. 
 
 The Shakspere invariably bright, gentle, and genial is 
 the Shakspere of a myth. The man actually discoverable 
 behind the plays was a man tempted to passionate ex- 
 tremes, but of strenuous will, and whose highest self pro- 
 nounced in favor of sanity. Therefore he resolved that 
 he would set to rights his material life, and he did so. 
 And, again, he resolved that he would bring into harmony 
 with the highest facts and laws of the world his spiritual 
 being, and that in his own high fashion he accomplished 
 also. The plays impress us as a long study of self- 
 control — of self-control at one with self-surrender to the 
 
 II
 
 Comments THE LIFE OF 
 
 highest facts and laws of human hfe. Shakspere set 
 about attainmg self-mastery, not of the petty, pedantic 
 kind, which can be dictated by a director or described in 
 a manual, but large, powerful, luminous, and calm ; and 
 by sustained effort he succeeded in attaining this in the 
 end. It is* impossible to conceive that Shakspere should 
 have traversed life, and felt its insufficiencies and injuries 
 and griefs, without incurring Timon's temptation — the 
 temptation to fierce and barren resentment. 
 
 DowDEN : Shakspere. 
 
 IV. 
 
 Alcibiades. 
 
 The whole conduct of Alcibiades forms a complete 
 parallel to that of Coriolanus, and here again the con- 
 nection between the two plays is obvious. Shakespeare 
 found a brief account of the mutual relations of Timon 
 and Alcibiades in North's translation of Plutarch's Life 
 of Antony, together with a description of Timon's good- 
 will towards the general on account of the calamities that 
 he foresaw he w^ould bring upon the Athenians. The 
 name of Alcibiades would not recall to Shakespeare, as it 
 does to us, the most glorious period of Greek culture, and 
 such names as Pericles, Aristophanes, and Plato — he gen- 
 erally gives Latin names to his .Greeks, such as Lucius, 
 Flavins, Servilius, etc. ; nor did it represent to him the 
 unrivalled subtlety, charm, instability, and reckless ex- 
 travagance of the man. He would read Plutarch's com- 
 parison of Alcibiades and Coriolanus, in which the Greek 
 and Roman generals are considered homogeneous, and 
 for Shakespeare Alcibiades was merely the soldier and 
 commander ; on that account he let him occupy much the 
 same relation to Timon that Fortinbras did to Hamlet. 
 
 Where Timon merely hates, Alcibiades seizes his 
 weapons ; and when Timon curses indiscriminately, Alci- 
 biades punishes severely but deliberately. He does not 
 
 12
 
 TIMON OF ATHENS Comments 
 
 tear down the city walls and put every tenth citizen to the 
 sword, as he is invited to do ; he only seeks vengeance on 
 his personal enemies and those whom he considers guilty. 
 Brandes : Williain Shakespeare. 
 
 V. 
 
 Apemantus. 
 
 The character of Apemantus seems designed, in part, 
 on purpose to illustrate the difference between the intense 
 hearty misanthropy of Timon and the low vulgar cynicism 
 of an outworn profligate or superannuated debauchee. 
 For in Apem.antus we have a specimen cf the cynic proper, 
 who finds his pastime in a sort of scowLng buffoonery and 
 malignant slang ; at first setting himself to practise the 
 arts of a snarling scorner of men, because this feeds his 
 distempered conceit ; and then by dint of such exercise 
 gradually working himself up into a corresponding pas- 
 sion. For it is easy to see that the cynicism which now 
 forms his character originated in sheer affectation. Ti- 
 mon justly despises the sincere cant of one who thus 
 drives contempt of mankind as a trade ; for he knows it 
 to be the offspring of disappointed vanity, seeking to in- 
 demnify its own baseness by making reprisals on others. 
 He sees that Apemantus never had in himself a single 
 touch of the goodness, the alleged want of which he so 
 much delights to bark at ; and that his superiority to the 
 common passions of men is all because he has not virtue 
 enough left to vicious. 
 
 Hudson : The Works of Shakespeare. 
 
 VI. 
 Flavius. 
 
 An exception to this general picture of selfish depravity 
 is found in the old and honest steward Flavius, to whom 
 Timon pays a full tribute of tenderness, Shakespear 
 
 13 '
 
 Comments THE LIFE OF 
 
 was unwilling to draw a picture " ugly all over zcith 
 hypocrisy.'' He owed this character to the good-natured 
 solicitations of his Aluse. His mind might well have 
 been said to be the " sphere of humanity." 
 
 Hazlitt : Characters of Shakespcar's Plays. 
 
 Opposed to this friendship of semblance and falsehood, 
 stands the true and warm affection of Timon's household, 
 especially that of his steward Flavins, whom Timon de- 
 clares the only honest man. In an over-civilized, morally 
 corrupt state, where the senators are usurers, where the 
 people abandon themselves to luxury and gluttony, and 
 banish the more virtuous or leave them to perish from 
 neglect, and where the army, accompanied by courtesans, 
 takes up arms against its own country, the little of virtue 
 and morahty that is left takes refuge in the lowest orders. 
 Ulrici : Shakspcare's Dramatic Art. 
 
 VII. ♦ 
 
 BlanKness of Feature. 
 
 The want of individualisation of numerous persons in 
 the play, named and unnamed, is a cause of apparent in- 
 feriority and infirmity; the forms of shabbiness are 
 varied among the false friends, but not appropriated. 
 Shabby tricks to save their money, and shabby means of 
 "obtaining it, do not suffice alone to mark out one mean 
 man from another by absolute and necessary indication. 
 Certainly it may be said t^iat this blankness has some 
 propriety in marking the herd as a herd ; and accordingly, 
 the omission of the names of individual friends at the 
 last banquet of warm and steaming water, is quite con- 
 sistent with the rest; but the play in which blankness of 
 feature is so largely required or admissible, will lose in 
 dignity, though it must be admitted that some of the 
 scenes thus carried on between generic rather than indi- 
 
 14
 
 TIMON OF ATHENS Comments 
 
 vidual personations — for instance, the opening dialogue of 
 the Poet and the Painter, have all the appearance of being, 
 from the first word to the last, entirely Shakespeare's. 
 Lloyd : Critical Essays on the Plays of Shakespeare. 
 
 VIII. 
 The Non=Shakespearian Elements. 
 
 We must now, with a view to defining the non-S*hake- 
 spearian elements of the play, devote some attention to its 
 dual authorship. In the first act it is particularly the 
 prose dialogues between Apemantus and others which 
 seem unworthy of Shakespeare. The repartee is laconic 
 but laboured — not always witty, though invariably bitter 
 and disdainful. The style somewhat resembles that of 
 the colloquies between Diogenes and Alexander in 
 Lyly's Alexander and Campaspe. The first of Apeman- 
 tus's conversations might have been written by Shake- 
 speare — it seems to have some sort of continuity wath the 
 utterances of Thersites in Troliiis and Cressida — but the 
 second has every appearance of being either an interpo- 
 lation by a strange hand, or a scene which Shakespeare 
 had forgotten to score out. Flavius's monologue (I. ii.) 
 never came from Shakespeare's pen in this form. Its 
 marked contrast to the rest shows that it might be the 
 outcome of notes taken by some blundering shorthand 
 writer among the audience. 
 
 The long conversation, in the second act, between Ape- 
 mantus, the Fool, Caphis, and various servants, was, in 
 all probability w^ritten by an alien hand. It contains 
 nothing but idle chatter devised to amuse the gallery, and 
 it introduces characters who seem about to take some 
 standing in the play, but who vanish immediately, leav- 
 ing no trace. A Page comes with messages and letters 
 from the mistress of a brothel, to which the Fool appears 
 to belong, but w^e are told nothing of the contents of these 
 letters, whose addresses the bearer is unable to read. 
 
 15
 
 Comments THE LIFE OF 
 
 In the third act there is much that is feeble and irrele- 
 vant, together with an aimless unrest which incessantly 
 pervades the stage. It is not until the banqueting scene 
 towards the end of the act that Shakespeare makes his 
 presence felt in the storm which bursts from Timon's lips. 
 The powerful fourth act displays Shakespeare at his best 
 and strongest ; there is very little here which could be 
 attributed to alien sources. I cannot understand the de- 
 cision with which English critics (including a poet like 
 Tennvson) have condemned as spurious Flavius's mono- 
 logue at the close of the second scene. Its drift is that 
 of the speech in the following scene, in which he ex- 
 presses the wdiole spirit of the play in one line : " What 
 viler things upon the earth than friends ! " Although 
 there is evidently some confusion in the third scene (for 
 example, the intimation of the Poet's and Painter's ap- 
 pearance long before they really arrive), I cannot agree 
 with Fleay that Shakespeare had no share in the passage 
 contained between the lines, " \\diere liest o' nights, Ti- 
 mon? " and " Thou art the cap of all the fools aHve." 
 
 One speech in particular betrays the master-hand. It 
 is that in which Timon expresses the wish that Apeman- 
 tus's desire to become a beast among beasts mav be ful- 
 filled :— 
 
 " If thou wert the lion, the fox would beguile thee : if thou 
 wert the lamb, the fox would eat thee : if thou wert the fox, the 
 lion would suspect thee when, peradventure, thou wert accused 
 by the ass: if thou wert the ass, thy dulness would torment thee: 
 and still thou livedst but as a breakfast to the wolf: if thou wert 
 the wolf, thy greediness would afflict thee, and oft thou shouldst 
 hazard thy life for thy dinner." 
 
 There is as much knowledge of life here as in a con- 
 cei^rated essence of all Lafontaine's fables. 
 
 The last scenes of the fifth act were evidently never 
 revised by Shakespeare. It is a comical incou'^ruitv that 
 makes the soldier who, we are expressly told, is unable to 
 read, capable of distinguishiu'^ Timon's tomb, and even 
 
 i6
 
 TIMON OF ATHENS Comments 
 
 of having the forethought to take a wax impression of the 
 words. There is also an amalgamation of the two con- 
 tradictory inscriptions, of which the first tells us that the 
 dead man wishes to remain nameless and unknown, while 
 the last two lines begin with the declaration, '' Here lie I, 
 Timon." Notwithstanding the shocking condition of the 
 text, the repeatedly pccurring confusion of the action, and 
 the evident marks of an alien hand, Shakespeare's leading 
 idea and dominant purpose is never for a moment ob- 
 scured. Much in Tlinon reminds us of King Lear, the 
 injudiciously distributed benefits and the ingratitude of 
 their recipients are the same, but in the former the bitter- 
 ness and virulence are tenfold greater, and the genius in- 
 contestably less. Lear is supported in his misfortunes by 
 the brave and manly Kent, the faithful Fool, that truest 
 of all true hearts, Cordelia, her husband, the valiant King 
 of France. There is but one who remains faithful to 
 Timon, a servant, which in those days meant a slave, 
 whose self-sacrificing devotion forces his master, sorely 
 against his will, to except one man from his universal vi- 
 tuperation. In his own class he does not meet with a 
 single honestly devoted heart, either man's or woman's ; 
 he has no daughter, as Lear ; no mother, as Coriolanus ; 
 no friend, not one. 
 
 Brandes : William Shakespeare. 
 
 IX. 
 
 Consensus of Critics, 
 
 Timon of Athens, of all the works of Shakspeare, pos- 
 sesses most the character of satire : a laughing satire in 
 the picture of the parasites and flatterers, and Juvenalian 
 in the bitterness of Timon's imprecations on the ingrati- 
 tude of a false world. The story is very simply treated, 
 and is definitely divided into large masses : in the first 
 act, the joyous life of Timon, his noble and hospitable 
 extravagance, and around him the throng of suitors of 
 
 17
 
 Comments THE LIFE OF 
 
 every description ; in the second and third acts, his em- 
 barrassment, and the trial which he is thereby reduced to 
 make of his supposed friends, who all desert him in the 
 hour of need ; in the fourth and fifth acts, Timon's flight 
 to the woods, his misanthropical melancholy, and his 
 death. The only thing which may be called an episode is 
 the banishment of Alcibiades, and his* return by force of 
 arms. However, they are both examples of ingratitude 
 — the one of a state towards its defender, and the other 
 of private friends to their benefactor. As the merits of the 
 general towards his fellow citizens suppose more strength 
 of character than those of the generous prodigal, their 
 respective behaviours are not less different ; Timon frets 
 himself to death, Alcibiades regains his lost dignity by 
 force. If the poet very properly sides with Timon against 
 the common practice of the world, he is, on the other 
 hand, by no means disposed to spare Timon. Timon was 
 a fool in his generosity ; in his discontent he is a mad- 
 man : he is everywhere wanting in the wisdom which 
 enables a man in all things to observe the due measure. 
 Although the truth of his extravagant feelings is proved 
 by his death, and though when he digs up a treasure he 
 spurns the wealth which seems to tempt him, we yet see 
 distinctly enough that the vanity of wishing to be sin- 
 gular, in both the parts that he plays, had some share in 
 his liberal self-forgetfulness, as well as in his anchoritical 
 seclusion. 
 Schlegel: Lectures on Dramatic Art and Literature. 
 
 Timon of Athens is one of Shakspeare's most remark- 
 able pieces, and in many respects is a problem that has 
 given editors, interpreters, and critics much to puzzle their 
 brains with, which has nevertheless not, by any means, as 
 yet been satisfactorily solved. In the first place the rep- 
 resentation suffers from a striking want of equality ; some 
 portions have evidently been worked out with pleasure 
 and care, others, on the contrary, have been so carelessly 
 
 i8
 
 TIMON OF ATHENS Comments 
 
 thrown off, and connected in so loose and disjointed a 
 manner, that they are not only wanting in strict coherence, 
 but even contradictions have crept in. It is much the 
 same as regards the delineation of the characters ; several 
 of the personages, especially Timon himself, are described 
 minutely and thoroughly in Shakespeare's usual masterly 
 style, others are mere sketches drawn with a few touches, 
 and other again, mere representatives of whole classes of 
 men. Lastly, similar contradictions pervade the diction : 
 by the side of lines which, in structure, rhythm, and lin- 
 guistic character entirely resemble the treatmnt of the 
 blank verse of Shakspeare's later pieces, we find a loose 
 and careless prose, unconnected, bounding transitions 
 from the one form of language to the other, passages of 
 which it cannot be determined whether they are intended 
 to be verse or prose; we also find rhyming couplets in 
 places where Shakspeare does not generally employ them. 
 Ulrici : Shakspeare's Dramatic Art. 
 
 The play is one of the less celebrated and less attract- 
 ive among Shakespeare's works. The theme itself is not 
 the most enticing, and its treatment must be pronounced 
 to be in many respects unsatisfactory. The inequality of 
 the execution will be acknowledged by every careful 
 reader. Some parts are wrought out with great skill and 
 completeness ; others are hastily and rudely sketched, 
 while certain necessary links seem to be omitted alto- 
 gether. The versification is often a mystery, and the 
 prose frequently appears to be written with exceeding 
 carelessness. But the main characteristic of the play is 
 the dark colouring in which it portrays social life. Its 
 speech is steeped in bitterness ; it contains the most vin- 
 dictive utterances against mankind to be found in Shake- 
 speare. A noble, generous character is victimized to the 
 last degree, and driven forward to suicide. Unselfish- 
 ness apparently becomes tragic in a selfish world. Still, 
 the other side is not neglected ; this very unselfishness is 
 
 19
 
 Comments 
 
 seen to be at bottom selfish. Timon is guilty, and has to 
 take the consequence of his deed. He turns misanthrope, 
 full of vehement sarcasm and red-hot imprecation. The 
 latter part of the play, in particular, is a bath of gall. 
 Snider : The Shakespearian Drama. 
 
 The play of Timon is a domestic tragedy, and therefore 
 strongly fastens on the attention of the reader. In the 
 plan there is not much art, but the incidents are natural, 
 and the characters various and exact. The catastrophe 
 affords a very powerful warning against that ostentatious 
 liberality, which scatters bounty, but confers no benefits, 
 and buys flattery, but not friendship. In this tragedy, are 
 many passages perplexed, obscure, and probably corrupt, 
 which I have endeavoured to rectify, or explain, with due 
 diligence; but, having only one copy, cannot promise 
 myself that my endeavours shall be much applauded. 
 Johnson : General Observations on Shakspeare's Plays. 
 
 Timon of Athens always appeared to us to be written 
 with as intense a feeling of his subject as any one play of 
 Shakespear. It is one of the few in which he seems to 
 be in earnest throughout, never to trifle nor go out of his 
 way. He does not relax in his efforts, nor lose sight of 
 the unity of his design. It is the only play of our author 
 in which spleen is the predominant feeling of the mind. 
 It is as much a satire as a play : and contains some of the 
 finest pieces of -invective possible to be conceived, both in 
 the snarling, captious answers of the cynic Apemantus, 
 and in the impassioned and more terrible imprecations of 
 Timon. 
 
 Hazlitt : Characters of Shakespear' s Plays. 
 
 20
 
 The Life of 
 Timon of Athens.
 
 DRAMATIS PERSONAE. 
 
 TiMON, a noble Athenian. 
 
 Lucius, "| 
 
 LucuLLUS, y nattering lords. 
 
 Sempronius, J 
 
 Ventidius, one of Timon's false friends. 
 
 Alcibiades, an Athenian captain. 
 
 Apemantus, a churlish philosopher. 
 
 Flavius, steward to Tim on. 
 
 Poet, Painter, Jeweller and Merchant. 
 
 An Old Athenian. 
 
 Flaminius, ^ 
 
 LuciLius, y servants to Timon. 
 
 Servilius, J 
 
 Caphis, ^ 
 
 Philotus, I 
 
 Titus i servants to Timon's creditors and to thi 
 
 Hortensius, ^''^'' 
 
 And others, 
 
 A Page. A Fool. Three Strangers. 
 
 iYNIA, 1^ 
 [ANDRA, ) 
 
 Phrynia, 
 
 rj. r mistresses to Alcibiades. 
 
 TiMi 
 
 Cupid and Amazons in the mask. 
 
 Other Lords, Senators, Officers, Banditti, and Attendants. 
 
 Scene: Athens, and the neighbouring woods.
 
 The Life of 
 
 TIMON OF ATHENS. 
 
 ACT FIRST. 
 Scene I. 
 
 Athens. A hall in Timon's house. 
 
 Enter Poet, Painter, Jeweller, Merchant, and others, 
 at several doors. 
 
 Poet. Good day, sir. 
 
 Pain. I am glad you 're well. 
 
 Poet. I have not seen you long : how goes the world ? 
 
 Pain. It wears, sir, as it grows. 
 
 Poet. Ay, that 's well known : 
 
 But what particular rarity ? what strange, 
 Which manifold record not matches? See, 
 Magic of bounty ! all these spirits thy power 
 Hath conjured to attend. I know the merchant. 
 
 Pain. I know them both ; th' other 's a jeweller. 
 
 Mer. O, 'tis a worthy lord ! 
 
 Jew. Nay, that 's most fix'd. 
 
 Mer. A most incomparable man, breathed, as it were, lo 
 To an untirable and continuate goodness : 
 He passes. 
 
 Jezv. I have a jewel here — 
 
 Mer. O, pray, let 's see 't : for the Lord Timon, sir ? 
 
 Jezv. If he will touch the estimate : but, for that — 
 
 Po^t. [Reciting to himself] ' When we for recompense 
 have praised the vile, 
 
 31
 
 Act I. Sc. i. THE LIFE OF 
 
 It stains the glory in that happy verse 
 Which aptly sings the good.' 
 
 Mer. [Looking on the jczcci] 'Tis a good form. 
 
 Jew. And rich : here is a water, look ye. 
 
 Pain. You are rapt, sir, in some work, some dedication 
 To the great lord. 
 
 Poet. A thing slipp'd idly from me. 20 
 
 Our poesy is as a gum, which oozes 
 From whence 'tis noupish'd : the fire i' the flint 
 Shows not till it be struck ; our gentle flame 
 Provokes itself, and, like the current, flies 
 Each bound it chafes, \\diat have you there? 
 
 Pain. A picture, sir. When comes your book forth ? 
 
 Poet. Upon the heels of my presentment, sir. 
 Let 's see your piece. 
 
 Pain. 'Tis a good piece. 
 
 Poet. So 'tis : this comes off well and excellent. 
 
 Pain. Indifferent. 
 
 Poet. Admirable : how this grace 30 
 
 Speaks his own standing ! what a mental power 
 This eye shoots forth ! how big imagination 
 Moves in this lip ! to the dumbness of the gesture 
 One might interpret. 
 
 Pain. It is a pretty mocking of the life. 
 Here is a touch ; is 't good ? 
 
 Poet. I will say of it, 
 
 It tutors nature : artificial strife 
 Lives in these touches, livelier than life. 
 
 Enter certain Senators, and pass over. 
 
 Pain. How this lord is follow'd ! 
 
 Poet, The senators of Athens : happy man ! 40 
 
 24
 
 TIMON OF ATHENS Act I. Sc. i. 
 
 Paiti. Look, moe ! 
 
 Poet. You see this confluence, this great flood of visitors. 
 I have, in this rough work, shaped out a man. 
 Whom this beneath world doth embrace and hug 
 With amplest entertainment : my free drift 
 Halts not particularly, but moves itself 
 In a wide sea of wax : no levell'd malice 
 Infects one comma in the course I hold ; 
 But flies an eagle flight, bold and forth on, 
 Leaving no tract behind. 50 
 
 Pain. How sliall I understand you ? 
 
 Poet. I will unbolt to you. 
 
 You see how all conditions, how all minds, 
 As well of glib and slippery creatures as 
 Of grave and austere quality, tender down 
 Their services to Lord Timon : his large fortune, 
 L^pon his good and gracious nature hanging, 
 Subdues and properties to his love and tendance 
 All sorts of hearts ; yea, from the glass-faced flatterer 
 To Apemantus, that few things loves better 
 Than to abhor himself : even he drops down 60 
 
 The knee before him, and returns in peace 
 Most rich in Timon 's nod. 
 
 Pain. I saw them speak together. 
 
 Poet. Sir, I have upon a high and pleasant hill 
 
 Feign'd Fortune to be throned : the base o' the mount 
 
 Is rank'd with all deserts, all kind of natures, 
 
 That labour on the bosom of this sphere 
 
 To propagate their states : amongst them all, 
 
 Whose eyes are on this sovereign lady fix'd, 
 
 One do I personate of Lord Timon 's frame. 
 
 Whom Fortune with her ivorv hand wafts to her ; 70
 
 Act I. Sc. i. THE LIFE OF 
 
 Whose present grace to present slaves and servants 
 Translates his rivals. 
 
 Pain. 'Tis conceived to scope. 
 
 This throne, this Fortune, and this hill, methinks, 
 With one man beckon'd from the rest below. 
 Bowing his head against the steepy mount 
 To climb his happiness, would be well express'd 
 In our condition. 
 
 Poet. Nay, sir, but hear me on. 
 
 All those which were his fellows but of late, 
 Some better than his value, on the moment 
 Follow his strides, his lobbies fill with tendance, 80 
 Rain sacrificial whisperings in his ear. 
 Make sacred even his stirrup, and through him 
 Drink the free air. 
 
 Pain. Ay, marry, what of these? 
 
 Poet. When Fortune in her shift and change of mood 
 Spurns down her late beloved, all his dependants 
 Which labour'd after him to the mountain's top 
 Even on their knees and hands, let him slip down. 
 Not one accompanying his declining foot. 
 
 Pain. 'Tis common : 
 
 A thousand moral paintings I can show, 90 
 
 That shall demonstrate these quick blows of Fortune's 
 More pregnantly than words. Yet you do well 
 To show Lord Timon that mean eyes have seen 
 The foot above the head. 
 
 Trumpets sound. Enter Lord Timon, addressing himself 
 courteously to every suitor; a Messenger from Ven- 
 tidiiis talking zvitJi him; Lucilius and other servants 
 following. 
 
 Tim. Imprison 'd is he, say you ? 
 
 26
 
 TIMON or ATHENS Act I. Sc. i. 
 
 Mess. Ay, my good lord : five talents is his debt ; 
 His means most short, his creditors most strait : 
 Your honourable letter he desires 
 To those have shut him up ; which failing, 
 Periods his comfort. 
 
 Tim. Noble Ventidius ! W'ell, 
 
 I am not of that feather to shake off lOO 
 
 My friend when he must need me. I do know him 
 A gentleman that well deserves a help : 
 Which he shall have : I '11 pay the debt and free him. 
 
 Mess. Your lordship ever binds him. 
 
 Tim. Commend me to him : and I will send his ransom ; 
 And, being enfranchised, bid him come to me : 
 'Tis not enough to help the feeble up, 
 But to support him after. Fare you well. 
 
 Mess. All happiness to your honour ! [Exit. 
 
 Enter an old Athenian. 
 
 Old Ath. Lord Timon, hear me speak. 
 
 Tint. Freely, good father, no 
 
 Old Ath. Thou hast a servant named Lucilius. 
 
 Tim. I have so: what of him? 
 
 Old Ath. Most noble Timon, call the man before thee. 
 
 Tim. Attends he here, or no ? Lucilius ! 
 
 Ltie. Here, at your lordship's service. 
 
 Old Ath. This fellow here, Lord Timon, this thy creature, 
 By night frequents my house. I am a man 
 That from my first have been inclined to thrift. 
 And my estate deserves an heir more raised 
 Than one w^hich holds a trencher. 
 
 Tim. Well, wdiat further? 120 
 
 Old Ath. One only daughter have I, no kin else, 
 
 27
 
 Act I. Sc. i. THE LIFE OF 
 
 On whom I may confer what I have got : 
 The maid is fair, o' the youngest for a bride, 
 And I have bred her at my dearest cost 
 In quahties of the best. This man of thine 
 Attempts her love : I prithee, noble lord, 
 Join with me to forbid him her resort ; 
 Myself have spoke in vain. 
 
 Tim. The man is honest. 
 
 Old Ath. Therefore he will be, Timon : 
 
 His honesty rewards him in itself ; 130 
 
 It must not bear my daughter. 
 
 Tim. Does she love him? 
 
 Old Ath. She is young and apt : 
 
 Our own precedent passions do instruct us 
 What levity 's in youth. 
 
 Tim. [To Lucilius] Love you the maid? 
 
 Luc. Ay, my good lord; and she accepts of it. 
 
 Old Ath. If in her marriage my consent be missing, 
 I call the gods to witness, I will choose 
 ]\Iine heir from forth the beggars of the world. 
 And dispossess her all. 
 
 Tim. How shall she be endow'd 
 
 If she be mated with an equal husband ? T40 
 
 Old Ath. Three talents on the present; in future, all. 
 
 Tim. This gentleman of mine hath served me long : 
 To build his fortune I will strain a little, 
 For 'tis a bond in men. Give him thy daughter : 
 What you bestow, in him I '11 counterpoise. 
 And make him weigh with her. 
 
 Old Ath. Most noble lord, 
 
 Pawn me to this your honour, she is his. 
 
 Tim. Mine hand to thee ; mine honour on my promise. 
 
 28
 
 TIMON OF ATHENS Act I. Sc. i. 
 
 Luc. Humbly I thank your lordship : never may 
 
 That state or fortune fall into my keeping, 150 
 
 Which is not owed to you ! 
 
 [Exeunt Lncilius and Old Athenian. 
 
 Poet. Vouchsafe my labour, and long live your lordship ! 
 
 Tim. I thank you ; you shall hear from me anon : 
 
 Go not away. What have you there, my friend ? 
 
 Pain. A piece of painting, which I do beseech 
 Your lordship to accept. 
 
 Tim. Painting is welcome. 
 
 The painting is almost the natural man ; 
 For since dishonour traffics with man's nature. 
 He is but outside : these pencill'd figures are 
 Even such as they give out. I like your work, 160 
 And you shall find I like it : wait attendance 
 Till you hear further from me. 
 
 Pain. The gods preserve ye ! 
 
 Tim. Well fare you, gentleman : give me your hand ; 
 We must needs dine together. Sir, your jewel 
 Hath suffer'd under praise. 
 
 Jezv. What, my lord ! dispraise ? 
 
 Tim. A mere satiety of commendations. 
 
 If I should pay you for 't as 'tis extoll'd, 
 It would unclew me quite. 
 
 Jezv. My lord, 'tis rated 
 
 As those which sell would give : but you well 
 
 know, 
 Things of like value, differing in the owners, 170 
 Are prized by their masters : believe 't, dear lord, 
 You mend the jewel by the wearing it. 
 
 Tim. Well mock'd. 
 
 Mer. No, my good lord ; he speaks the common tongue, 
 
 29
 
 Act I. Sc. i. THE LIFE OF 
 
 Which all men speak with him. 
 Tim. Look, who comes here: will you be chid? 
 
 Enter Apemantus. 
 
 Jew. We '11 bear, with your lordship. 
 
 Mer. He '11 spare none. 
 
 Tim. Good morrow to thee, gentle Apemantus ! 
 
 Apem. Till I be gentle, stay thou for thy good morrow ; 
 
 When thou art Timon's dog, and these knaves honest. 
 Tim. Why dost thou call them knaves? thou know'st 
 them not. i8i 
 
 Apem. Are they not Athenians? 
 Tim. Yes. 
 
 Apem. Then I repent not. 
 Jew. You know me, Apemantus ? 
 Apem. Thou know'st I do; I call'd thee by thy name. 
 Tim. Thou art proud, Apemantus. 
 
 Apem. Of nothing so much as that I am not like Timon. 
 Tim. Whither art going? 190 
 
 Apem. To knock out an honest Athenian's brains. 
 Tim. That 's a deed thou 'It die for. 
 Apem. Right, if doing nothing be death by the law. 
 Tim. How. likest thou this picture, Apemantus ? 
 Apem. The best, for the innocence. 
 Tim. Wrought he not well that painted it? 
 Apem. He wrought better that made the painter ; and 
 
 yet he 's but a filthy piece of work. 
 Pain. You 're a dog. 
 Apem. Thy mother 's of my generation : what 's she, 200 
 
 if I be a dog ? 
 Tim, Wilt dine with me, Apemantus? 
 
 30
 
 TIMON OF ATHENS Act I. Sc. L 
 
 Apein. ^o ; I eat not lords. 
 
 Tim. An thou shouldst, thou 'Idst anger ladies. 
 
 Apem. O, they eat lords ; so they come by great bellies. 
 
 Tim. That 's a lascivious apprehension. 
 
 Apem. So thou apprehend'st it : take it for thy labour. 
 
 Tim. How dost thou like this jewel, Apemantus? 
 
 Apem. Xot so well as plain-dealing, which will not 
 
 cost a man a doit. 210 
 
 Tim. What dost thou think 'tis worth ? 
 Apem. Not worth my thinking. How now, poet ! 
 Poet. How now, philosopher ! 
 Apem. Thou liest. 
 Poet. Art not one ? 
 Apem. Yes. 
 Poet. Then I lie not. 
 Apem. Art not a poet ? 
 Poet. Yes. 
 Apem. Then thou liest : look in thy last work, where 220 
 
 thou hast feigned him a worthy fellow. 
 Poet. That 's not feigned ; he is so. 
 Apem. Yes, he is worthy of thee, and to pay thee 
 
 for thy labour: he that loves to be flattered is 
 
 worthy o' the flatterer. Heavens, that I were 
 
 a lord ! 
 Tim. What wouldst do then, Apemantus? 
 Apem. E'en as Apemantus does now ; hate a lord 
 
 with my heart. 
 Tim. What, thyself ? 230 
 
 Apem. Ay. 
 Tim. Wherefore ? 
 Apem. That I had no angry v/it to be a lord. Art 
 
 not thou a merchant ?
 
 Act I. Sc. i. THE LIFE OF 
 
 Mer. Ay, Apemantus. 
 
 Apem. Traffic confound thee, if the gods will not ! 
 
 Mer. If traffic do it, the gods do it. 
 
 Apem. Traffic 's thy god; and thy god confound thee! 
 
 Trninpet sounds. Enter a Messenger. 
 
 Tim. What trumpet 's that? 
 
 Mess. 'Tis Alcibiades, and some twenty horse, 240 
 
 All of companionship. 
 
 Tim. Pray, entertain them ; give them guide to us. 
 
 [Exeunt some Attendants. 
 You must needs dine with me : go not you hence 
 Till I have thank'd you : when dinner's done, 
 Show me this piece. I am joyful of your sights. 
 
 Enter Alcibiades, zi'ith the rest. 
 
 Most welcome, sir ! 
 Apem. So, so, there ! 
 
 Aches contract and starve your supple joints ! 
 
 That there should be small love 'mongst these sweet 
 knaves. 
 
 And all this courtesy ! The strain of man's bred out 
 
 Into baboon and monkey. 250 
 
 Alcib. Sir, you have saved my longing, and I feed 
 
 IMost hungerly on your sight. 
 Tim. Right welcome, sir ! 
 
 Ere we depart, we '11 share a bounteous time 
 
 In different pleasures. Pray you, let us in. 
 
 [Exeunt all but Apemantus, 
 
 Enter tzvo Lords. 
 First Lord. What time o' day, is 't Apemantus ? 
 
 32
 
 TIMON OF ATHENS Act I. Sc. i. 
 
 Apcm. Time to be honest. 
 
 First Lord. That time serves still. 
 
 Apenu The most accursed thou, that still omitt'st it. 
 
 Sec. Lord. Thou art going to Lord Timon's feast? 
 
 Apem. Ay, to see meat fill knaves and wine heat foo's. 260 
 
 Sec. Lord. Fare thee well, fare thee well. 
 
 Apem. Thou art a fool to bid me farewell twice. 
 
 Sec. Lord. Why, Apemantus? 
 
 Apem. Shouldst have kept one to thyself, for I mean 
 
 to give thee none. 
 First Lord, Hang thyself ! 
 Apem. No, I wnll do nothing at thy bidding: make 
 
 thy requests to thy friend. 
 Sec. Lord. Away, unpeaceable dog, or I '11 spurn thee 
 
 hence ! 270 
 
 Apem, I will fly, like a dog, the heels o' the ass. [Exit. 
 First Lord. He's opposite to humanity. Come, shall we in, 
 
 And taste Lord Timon's bounty? he outgoes 
 
 The very heart of kindness. 
 Sec. Lord. He pours it out ; Plutus, the god of gold, 
 
 Is but his steward : no meed, but he repays 
 
 Sevenfold above itself ; no gift to him. 
 
 But breeds the giver a return exceeding 
 
 All use of quittance. 
 First Lord. The noblest mind he carries 
 
 That ever govern'd man. 280 
 
 Sec. Lord. Long may he live in fortunes ! Shall we in ? 
 First Lord. Til keep you company. [Exeunt. 
 
 ZZ
 
 Act I. Sc. ii. THE LIFE OF 
 
 Scene II. 
 
 A Banqucting-roorn in Timon's house. 
 
 Hautboys playing loud music, A great banquet served in; 
 Flavins and others attending; and then enter Lord 
 Timon, Alcibiades, Lords, Senators, and Ventidius. 
 Then comes, dropping after all, Apemantus, discon- 
 tentedly, like himself. 
 
 Ven. Most honour'cl Timon, 
 
 It hath pleased the gods to remember my father's age, 
 
 And call him to long peace. 
 
 He is gone happy, and has left me rich : 
 
 Then, as in grateful virtue I am bound 
 
 To your free heart, I do return those talents. 
 
 Doubled with thanks and service, from whose help 
 
 I derived liberty. 
 
 Tim. O, by no means. 
 
 Honest Ventidius ; you mistake my love : 
 
 I gave it freely ever ; and there 's none lO 
 
 Can truly say he gives, if he receives : 
 
 If our betters play at that game, we must not dare 
 
 To imitate them ; faults that are rich are fair. 
 
 Ven. A noble spirit ! 
 
 Tim. Xay, my lords, ceremony was but devised at first 
 To set a gloss on faint deeds, hollow welcomes. 
 Recanting goodness, sorry ere 'tis shown ; 
 But where there is true friendship, there needs none. 
 Pray, sit ; more welcome are ye to my fortunes 
 Than my fortunes to me. [They sit. 20 
 
 First Lord. My lord, we always have confess' d it. 
 
 Apem. Ho, ho, confess'd it! hang'd it, have you not? 
 
 Tim. O, Apemantus, you are welcome. 
 
 34
 
 TIMON OF ATHENS Act I. Sc. ii. 
 
 Apem. No ; 
 
 You shall not make me welcome : 
 I come to have thee thrust me out of doors. 
 
 Tim. Fie, thou 'rt a churl ; ye 've got a humour there 
 Does not become a man ; 'tis much to blame. 
 They say, my lords, ' ira furor brevis est' ; but 
 yond man is ever angry. Go, let him have a 
 table by himself ; for he does neither affect 30 
 company, nor is he fit for 't indeed. 
 
 Apem. Let me stay at thine apperil, Timon : 
 
 I come to observe ; I give thee warning on 't. 
 
 Tim. I take no heed of thee ; thou 'rt an Athenian, 
 therefore welcome : I myself would have no 
 power ; prithee, let my meat make thee silent. 
 
 Apem.. I scorn thy meat ; 'twould choke me, for I 
 should ne'er flatter thee. O you gods, what a 
 number of men eat Timon, and he sees 'em not ! 
 It grieves me to see so many dip their meat in 40 
 one man's blood ; and all the madness is, he 
 cheers them up too. 
 
 I wonder men dare trust themselves with men : 
 Methinks they should invite them without knives ; 
 Good for their meat, and safer for their lives. 
 There 's much example for 't ; the fellow that sits 
 next him now, parts bread with him, pledges the 
 breath of him in a divided draught, is the readiest 
 man to kill him : 't has been proved. If I were 
 a huge man, I should fear to drink at meals ; 50 
 
 Lest they should spy my windpipe's dangerous notes : 
 Great men should drink with harness on their throats. 
 
 Tim. My lord, in heart ; and let the health go round. 
 
 Sec. Lord. Let it flow this way, my good lord. 
 
 35
 
 Act I. Sc. ii. THE LIFE OF 
 
 Apem. Flow this way ! A brave fellow ! he keeps 
 his tides well. Those healths will make thee 
 and thy state look ill, Timon. Here 's that 
 which is too weak to be a sinner, honest water, 
 which ne'er left man i' the mire : 
 
 This and my food are equals ; there 's no odds : 6o 
 Feasts are too proud to give thanks to the gods. 
 
 Apemantuss Grace. 
 
 Immortal gods, I crave no pelf ; 
 
 I pray for no man but myself : 
 
 Grant I may never prove so fond, 
 
 To trust man on his oath or bond. 
 
 Or a harlot for her weeping, 
 
 Or a dog that seems a-sleeping, 
 
 Or a keeper with my freedom, 
 
 Or my friends, if I should need 'em. 
 
 Amen. So fall to 't : 70 
 
 Rich men sin, and I eat root. 
 
 [Eats and drinks. 
 Much good dich thy good heart, Apemantus ! 
 Tim. Captain Alcibiades, your heart 's in the field now. 
 Alcib. My heart is ever at your service, my lord. 
 Tim. You had rather be at a breakfast of enemies 
 
 than a dinner of friends. 
 Alcib. So they were bleeding-new, my lord, there 's 
 no meat like 'em : I could wish my best friend 
 at such a feast. 
 Apem. Would all those flatterers were thine enemies, 80 
 then, that then thou mightst kill 'em and bid me 
 to 'em ! 
 First Lord, Might we but have that happiness, my 
 
 36
 
 TIMON OF ATHENS Act I. Sc. ii. 
 
 lord, that you would once use our hearts, whereby 
 we might express some part of our zeals, we 
 should think ourselves for ever perfect. 
 
 Tim. O, no doubt, my good friends, but the gods 
 themselves have provided that I shall have much 
 help from you : how had you been my friends 
 else? why have you that charitable title from 90 
 thousands, did not you chiefly belong to my 
 heart ? I have told more of you to myself than 
 you can with modesty speak in your own behalf ; 
 and thus far I confirm you. O you gods, think 
 I, what need we have any friends, if we should 
 ne'er have need of 'em? they were the most 
 needless creatures living, should we ne'er have 
 use for 'em, and would most resemble sweet 
 instruments hung up in cases, that keep tKeir 
 sounds to themselves. Why, I have often wished 100 
 myself poorer, that I might come nearer to you. 
 We are born to do benefits : and what better or 
 properer can we call our own than the riches of 
 our friends? O, what a precious comfort 'tis 
 to have so many, like brothers, commanding one 
 another's fortunes ! O joy, e'en made away ere 't 
 can be born ! Mine eyes cannot hold out water, 
 methinks ; to forget their faults, I drink to you. 
 
 Apem. Thou weep'st to make them drink, Timon. 
 
 Sec. Lord. Joy had the like conception in our eyes, iio 
 And at that instant like a babe sprung up. 
 
 Apem. Ho, ho ! I laugh to think that babe a bastard. 
 
 Third Lord. I promise you, my lord, you moved me much. 
 
 Apem. Much! [Tucket, within. 
 
 Tim. What means that trump ? 
 
 Z7
 
 Act I. Sc. ii. THE LIFE OF 
 
 Enter a Servant. 
 
 How now ! 
 Serv. Please you, my lord, there are certain ladies 
 
 most desirous of admittance. 
 Tim. Ladies ! what are their wills ? 
 Serv. There comes with them a forerunner, my lord, 
 
 which bears that office, to signify their pleasures. 120 
 Tim. I pray, let them be admitted. 
 
 Enter Cupid. 
 
 Cup. Hail to thee, worthy Timon ! and to all 
 
 That of-his bounties taste ! The five best senses 
 Acknowledge thee their patron, and come freely 
 To gratulate thy plenteous bosom : th' ear. 
 Taste, touch, and smell, pleased from thy table rise ; 
 They only now come but to feast thine eyes. 
 
 Tim. They 're welcome all ; let 'em have kind admittance : 
 Music, make their welcome! [Exit Cupid. 
 
 First Lord. You see, my lord, how ample you 're beloved. 
 
 Music. Re-enter Cupid, zcitJi a mask of Ladies as Ama- 
 zons, with lutes in their hands, dancing and playing. 
 
 Apcni. Hoy-day, what a sweep of vanity comes this way ! 
 They dance! they are mad women. 132 
 
 Like madness is the glory of this life. 
 As this pomp shows to a little oil and root. 
 We make ourselves fools, to disport ourselves, 
 And spend our flatteries, to drink those men 
 Upon whose age we void it up again 
 With poisonous spite and envy. 
 Who lives, that's not depraved or depraves? 
 
 38
 
 TIMON OF ATHENS Act I. Sc. ii. 
 
 Who dies, that bears not one spurn to their graves 
 Of their friends' gift? 141 
 
 I should fear those that dance before me now 
 Would one day stamp upon me : 't has been done ; 
 Men shut their doors against a setting sun. 
 
 The Lords rise from table, zuith much adoring of Timon; 
 and to shozu their loves, each singles out an Amazon, 
 and all dance, men zuith zvomen, a lofty strain or tzvo 
 to the hautboys, and cease. 
 
 Tim. You have done our pleasures much grace, fair ladies, 
 Set a fair fashion on our entertainment, 
 Which was not half so beautiful and kind ; 
 You have added worth unto 't and lustre, 
 And entertain'd me with mine own device : 
 I am to thank you for 't. 150 
 
 First Lady. My lord, you take us even at the best. 
 
 Apem. Faith for the worst is filthy, and would not 
 hold taking, I doubt me. 
 
 Tim. Ladies, there is an idle banquet attends you : 
 Please you to dispose yourselves. 
 
 All Lad. Most thankfully, my lord. 
 
 [Exeunt Cupid and Ladies. 
 
 Tim. Flavins ! 
 
 Flav. My lord? 
 
 Tim. The little casket bring me hither. 
 
 Flaz'. Yes, my lord. [Aside] More jewels yet! 
 
 There is no crossing him in 's humour ; 160 
 
 Else I should tell him — well, i' faith, I should — 
 W^hen all 's spent, he 'Id be cross'd then, an he could. 
 'Tis pity bounty had not eyes behind, 
 Thatman might ne'er be wretched for his mind, [Exii^ 
 
 39
 
 Act I. Sc. ii. THE LIFE OF 
 
 First Lord. Where be our men ? 
 Scrv. Here, my lord, in readiness. 
 Sec, Lord. Our horses ! 
 
 Re-enter Flavins, zvith the easket. 
 
 Tim. O my friends, 
 
 I have one word to say to you : look you, my good 
 lord, 
 
 I must entreat you, honour me so much 170 
 
 As to advance this jewel ; accept it and wear it, 
 
 Kind my lord. 
 First Lord. I am so far already in your gifts, — 
 All. So are we all. 
 
 Enter a Servant. 
 
 Serv. My lord, there are certain nobles of the senate 
 
 newly alighted and come to visit you. 
 Tim. They are fairly welcome. 
 Flav. I beseech your honour, vouchsafe me a word ; 
 
 it does concern you near. 
 Tim. Near! why, then, another time I '11 hear thee: 180 
 
 I prithee, let 's be provided to show them entertain- 
 ment. 
 Flav. [Aside^ I scarce know how. 
 
 Enter another Servant. 
 
 Sec. Serv. May it please your honour. Lord Lucius 
 Out of his free love hath presented to you 
 Four milk-white horses, trapp'd in silver. 
 
 Tim. I shall accept them fairly : let the presents 
 Be worthily entertained. 
 40
 
 TIMON OF ATHENS Act I. Sc. ii. 
 
 Enter a third Servant, 
 
 How now! what news? 
 Third Serv. Please you, my lord, that honourable 
 
 gentleman, Lord Lucullus, entreats your company 
 
 to-morrow to hunt with him, and has sent your 190 
 
 honour two brace of greyhounds. 
 Tim. I '11 hunt with him ; and let them be received, 
 
 Not without fair reward. 
 Flav. [Aside] What will this come to? 
 
 He commands us to provide and give great gifts, 
 
 And all out of an empty coffer : 
 
 Nor will he know his purse, or yield me this, 
 
 To show him what a beggar his heart is. 
 
 Being of no power to make his wishes good : 
 
 His promises fly so beyond his state 
 
 That what he speaks is all in debt, he owes 200 
 
 For every word : he is so kind that he now 
 
 Pays interest for 't ; his land 's put to their books. 
 
 Well, would I were gently put out of office, 
 
 Before I were forced out ! 
 
 Happier is he that has no friend to feed 
 
 Than such that do e'en enemies exceed. 
 
 I bleed inwardly for my lord. [Exit. 
 
 Tim. You do yourselves 
 
 Much wrong, you bate too much of your own merits. 
 
 Here, my lord, a trifle of our love. 
 Sec. Lord. With more than common thanks I will 210 
 
 receive it. 
 Third Lord. O, he 's the very soul of bounty ! 
 Tim. And now I remember, my lord, you gave good 
 
 words the other day of a bay courser I rode on. 
 
 'Tis yours, because you liked it. 
 
 41
 
 Act I. Sc. ii. THE LIFE OF 
 
 Third Lord. O, I beseech you, pardon me, my lord, 
 in that. 
 
 Tim. You may take my word, my lord; I know, no 
 man can justly praise, but what he does affect : I 
 weigh my friend's affection with mine own : I '11 220 
 tell you true. I '11 call to you. 
 
 All Lords. O, none so welcome. 
 
 Tim. I take all and your several visitations 
 
 So kind to heart, 'tis not enough to give : 
 
 Methinks, I could deal kingdoms to my friends, 
 
 And ne'er be weary. Alcibiades, 
 
 Thou art a soldier, therefore seldom rich ; 
 
 It comes in charity to thee : for all thy living 
 
 Is 'mongst the dead, and all the lands thou hast 
 
 Lie in a pitch'd field. 230 
 
 Alcih. Ay, defiled land, my lord. 
 
 First Lord. We are so virtuously bound — 
 
 Tim. And so 
 
 Am I to you. 
 
 Sec. Lord. So infinitely endear'd — 
 
 Tim. All to you. Lights, more lights ! 
 
 First Lord. The best of happiness, 
 
 Honour and fortunes, keep with you. Lord Timon ! 
 
 Tun. Ready for his friends. 
 
 [Exeunt all but Apemantus and Timon. 
 
 Apem. What a coil 's here ! 
 
 Serving of becks and jutting-out of bums ! 
 I doubt whether their legs be worth the sums 240 
 
 That are given for 'em. Friendship 's full of dregs : 
 Methinks, false hearts should never have sound legs. 
 Thus honest fools lay out their wealth on court'sies. 
 
 Tim, Now, Apemantus, if thou wert not sullen, 
 
 42
 
 TIMON OF ATHENS Act II. Sc. i. 
 
 I would be good to thee. 
 Apem, No, I '11 nothing : for if I should be bribed too, 
 
 there would be none left to rail upon thee ; and 
 
 then thou wouldst sin the faster. Thou givest 
 
 so long, Timon, I fear me thou wilt give away 
 
 thyself in paper shortly : what needs these feasts, 250 
 
 pomps and vain-glories? 
 Tim. Nay, an you begin to rail on society once, I 
 
 am sworn not to give regard to you. Farewell ; 
 
 and come w4th better music. [Exit. 
 
 Apem. So : thou wilt not hear me now ; thou shalt 
 
 not then : I '11 lock thy heaven from thee. 
 
 O, that men's ears should be 
 
 To counsel deaf, but not to flattery ! {Exit. 
 
 ACT SECOND. 
 Scene I. 
 
 A Senator's house. 
 
 Enter a Senator, zvith papers in his hand. 
 
 Sen. And late five thousand : to Varro and to Isidore 
 He owes nine thousand ; besides my former sum, 
 Which makes it five and twenty. Still in motion 
 Of raging waste ? It cannot hold ; it will not. 
 If I want gold, steal but a beggar's dog 
 And give it Timon, why, the dog coins gold : 
 If I would sell my horse and buy twenty moe 
 Better than he, why, give my horse to Timon ; 
 Ask nothing, give it him, it foals me straight 
 And able horses : no porter at his gate, 10 
 
 43
 
 Act II. Sc. i. ■ THE LIFE OF 
 
 But rather one that smiles and still invites 
 All that pass by. It cannot hold ; no reason 
 Can found his state in safety. Caphis, ho ! 
 Caphis, I say ! 
 
 Enter Caphis. 
 
 Caph. Here, sir ; what is your pleasure ? 
 
 Sen. Get on your cloak, and haste you to Lord Timon ; 
 Importune him for my moneys ; be not ceased 
 With slight denial ; nor then silenced, when — • 
 ' Commend me to your master ' — and the cap 
 Plays in the right hand, thus : but tell hixH, 
 My uses cry to me, I must serve my turn 20 
 
 Out of mine own ; his days and times are past, 
 And my reliances on his fracted dates 
 Have smit my credit : I love and honour him, 
 But must not break my back to heal his finger J 
 Immediate are my needs ; and my relief 
 Must not be toss'd and turn'd to me in words, 
 But find supply immediate. Get you gone : 
 Put on a most importunate aspect, 
 A visage of demand ; for, I do fear, 
 When every feather sticks in his own wing, 30 
 
 Lord Timon will be left a naked gull. 
 Which flashes now a phoenix. Get you gone. 
 
 Caph. I go, sir. 
 
 Sen. ' I go, sir ! ' Take the bonds along with you. 
 And have the dates in compt. 
 
 Caph. I will, sir. 
 
 Sen. Go. [Exeunt 
 
 '44
 
 TIMON OF ATHENS Act II. Sc. ii. 
 
 Scene II. 
 
 A hall in Timons house. 
 
 Enter Flavins, zvith many bills in his hand. 
 
 Flav. No care, no stop ! so senseless of expense, 
 
 That he will neither know how to maintain it, 
 
 Nor cease his flow of riot : takes no account 
 
 How things go from him ; nor resumes no care 
 
 Of what is to continue : never mind 
 
 Was to be so unwise, to be so kind. 
 
 What shall be done ? he will not hear till feel : 
 
 I must be round with him, now he comes from 
 
 hunting, 
 Fie, fie, fie, fie ! 
 
 Enter Caphis, zvith the servants of Isidore and Varro. 
 
 Caph. Good even, Varro: what, you come for money? lo 
 
 Var. Scrv. Is 't not your business too ? 
 
 Caph. It is: and yours too, Isidore? 
 
 Isid. Serv. It is so. 
 
 Caph. Would we were all discharged ! 
 
 Var. Serv. I fear it. 
 
 Caph. Here comes the lord. 
 
 Enter Timon, Alcihiades, Lords, and others. 
 
 Tim. So soon as dinner 's done, we '11 forth again. 
 
 My Alcibiades. With me ? what is your will ? 
 Caph. My lord, here is a note of certain dues. 
 Tim. Dues ! Whence are you ? 
 
 Caph. Of Athens here, my lord. 20 
 
 Tim. Go to mv steward. 
 
 45
 
 Act II. Sc. ii. THE LIFE OF 
 
 CapK Please it your lordship, he hath put me off 
 To the succession of new days this month : 
 My master is awaked by great occasion 
 To call upon his own, and humbly prays you 
 That with your other noble parts you '11 suit 
 In giving him his right. 
 
 Tim. ]\Iine honest friend, 
 
 I prithee but repair to me next morning. 
 
 Caph. Nay, good my lord, — 
 
 Tim. Contain thyself, good friend. 
 
 J^ar. Serz'. One Varro's servant, my good lord, — 30 
 
 Isid. Sen'. From Isidore; he humbly prays your speedy 
 payment. 
 
 Caph. If you did know, my lord, my master's wants, — 
 
 Var. Scrv. 'Twas due on forfeiture, my lord, six weeks 
 and past. 
 
 Isid. Serv. Your steward puts me off, my lord, and I 
 Am sent expressly to your lordship. 
 
 Tim. Give me breath. 
 
 I do beseech you, good my lords, keep on ; 
 I '11 wait upon you instantly. 40 
 
 [Exeunt- Alcihiades, Lords, &c. 
 [To Flav.] Come hither: pray you, 
 How goes the world, that I am thus encounter'd 
 With clamorous demands of date-broke bonds. 
 And the detention of long-since-due debts. 
 Against my honour? 
 
 Flav. Please you, gentlemen, 
 
 The time is unagreeable to this business : 
 Your importunacy cease till after dinner. 
 That I may make his lordship understand 
 \Mierefore you are not paid. 
 
 46
 
 TIMON OF ATHENS Act II. Sc. ii. 
 
 Ti}n. Do so, my friends. See them well entertain'd. [Exit. 
 Flav. Pray, draw near. \Exit. 50 
 
 Enter Apcmantus and Fool. 
 
 Caph. Stay, stay, here comes the fool with Ape- 
 mantus : let 's ha' some sport with 'em. 
 
 Var. Serv. Hang him, he '11 abuse us. 
 
 hid. Serv. A plague upon him, dog! 
 
 Var. Serv. How dost, fool? 
 
 Apem. Dost dialogue with thy shadow ? 
 
 Var. Serv. I speak not to thee. 
 
 Apem. No, 'tis to thyself. [To the Fool] Come away. 
 
 hid. Serv. There 's the fool hangs on your back 
 
 already. 60 
 
 Apem. No, thou stand'st single, thou 'rt not on him yet. 
 
 Caph. Where 's the fool now ? 
 
 Apem. He last asked the question. Poor rogues, and 
 usurers' men ! bawds between gold and want ! 
 
 All Serv. What are we, Apemantus? 
 
 Apem. Asses. 
 
 All Serv. Why? 
 
 Apem. That you ask me what you are, and do not 
 know yourselves. Speak to 'em, fool. 
 
 Fool. How do you, gentlemen ? 70 
 
 All Serv. Gramercies, good fool : how does your 
 mistress ? 
 
 Fool. She 's e'en setting on water to scald such chick- 
 ens as you are. Would we could see you at 
 Corinth ! 
 
 Apem. Good! gramercy. 
 
 Enter Page. 
 Fool. Look you, here comes my mistress' page. 
 
 47
 
 Act II. Sc. ii. THE LIFE OF 
 
 Page. [To tJie Fool] Why, how now, captain ! what 
 do you m this wise company? How dost thou, 
 Apemantus ? 80 
 
 Apem. Would I had a rod in my mouth, that I might 
 answer thee profitably. 
 
 Page. Prithee, Apemantus, read me the superscrip- 
 tion of these letters : I know not which is which. 
 
 Apem. Canst not read? 
 
 Page. No. 
 
 Apem. There will little learning die then, that day 
 thou art hang'd. This is to Lord Timon ; this 
 to Alcibiades. Go; thou wast born a bastard, 
 and thou 'It die a bawd. 90 
 
 Page. Thou wast whelped a dog, and thou shalt 
 ■^amish a dog's death. Answer not, I am gone. 
 
 [Exit. 
 
 Apem. E'en so thou outrun'st grace. Fool, I will go 
 with you to Lord Timon's. 
 
 Fool. Will you leave me there? 
 
 Apem. If Timon stay at home. You three serve three 
 usurers? 
 
 All Sew. Ay ; would they served us ! 
 
 Apem. So would I, — as good a trick as ever hang- 
 man ser\'ed thief. 100 
 
 Fool. Are you three usurers' men ? 
 
 All Serv. Ay, fool. 
 
 Fool. I think no usurer but has a fool to his servant: 
 my mistress is one, and I am her fool. When 
 men come to borrow of your masters, they ap- 
 proach sadly and go away merry ; but they enter 
 my mistress' house merrily and go away sadly: 
 the reason of this? 
 
 48
 
 TIMON OF ATHENS Act I!. Sc. li. 
 
 Var. Serv. I could render one. 
 
 Apein. Do it tl:en, that we may account thee a whore- no 
 master and a knave ; which notwithstanding, 
 thou shalt be no less esteemed. 
 
 J'ar.Serz: ^^'hat is a whoremaster, fool? 
 
 Fool. A fool in good clothes, and something like 
 thee. 'Tis a spirit : sometime 't appears like a 
 lord ; sometime like a lawyer ; sometime like a 
 philosopher, with two stones moe than 's arti- 
 ficial one : he is very often like a knight ; and, 
 generally, in all shapes that man goes up and 
 down in from fourscore to thirteen, this spirit 120 
 walks in. 
 
 Var. Serv. Thou art not altogether a fool. 
 
 Fool. Nor thou altogether a wise man : as much 
 foolery as I have, so much wit thou lack'st. 
 
 Apern. That answer might have become Apemantus. 
 
 All Serv. Aside, aside ; here comes Lord Timon. 
 
 Re-enter Timon and Flavins. 
 
 Apem. Come with me, fool, come. 
 
 Fool. I do not always follow lover, elder brother, and 
 
 woman ; sometime the philosopher. 
 
 [Exeunt Apemantus and Fool. 
 Flav. Pray you, walk near: I '11 speak with you anon. 130 
 
 [Exeuiit Servants. 
 Tim. You make me marvel ; wherefore, ere this time, 
 
 Had you not fully laid my state before me. 
 
 That I might so have rated my expense 
 
 As I had leave of means? 
 Flav, You w^ould not hear me, 
 
 At many leisures I proposed. 
 
 49
 
 Act II. Sc. ii. THE LIFE OF 
 
 Tim. Go to : 
 
 Perchance some single vantages you took, 
 When my indisposition put you back ; 
 And that unaptness made your minister, 
 Thus to excuse yourself. 
 
 FIaz'. O my good lord, 
 
 At many times I brought in my accounts, 140 
 
 Laid them before you ; you would throw them off, 
 And say, you found them in mine honesty. 
 When for some trifling present you have bid me 
 Return so much, I have shook my head and wept ; 
 Yea, 'gainst the authority of manners pray'd you 
 To hold your hand more close: I did endure 
 Not seldom nor no slight checks, when I have 
 Prompted you in the ebb of your estate 
 And your great flow of debts. My loved lord, 
 Though you hear now, too late ! — yet now 's a 
 time — 150 
 
 The greatest of your having lacks a half 
 To pay your present debts. 
 
 Tim. Let all my land be sold. 
 
 FIaz'. 'Tis all engaged, some forfeited and gone. 
 And what remains will hardly stop the moilth 
 Of present dues : the future comes apace : 
 Wliat shall defend the interim? and at length 
 How goes our reckoning? 
 
 Tim. To Lacedsemon did my land extend. 
 
 Flav. O my good lord, the world is but a word : 
 
 Were it all yours to give it in a breath, 160 
 
 Plow quickly were it gone ! 
 
 Tim. You tell me true. 
 
 Flav. If you suspect my husbandry or falsehood, 
 
 50
 
 TIMON OF ATHENS Act II. Sc. ii 
 
 Call me before the exactest auditors, 
 
 And set me on the proof. So the gods bless me, 
 
 When all our offices have been oppress'd 
 
 With riotous feeders, when our vaults have wept 
 
 With drunken spilth of wine, when every room 
 
 Hath blazed with lights and bray'd with minstrelsy, 
 
 I have retired me to a wasteful cock. 
 
 And set mine eyes at flow. 
 
 Tim. Prithee, no more. 170 
 
 Flaz'. Heavens, have I said, the bounty of this lord ! 
 How many prodigal bits have slaves and peasants 
 This night englutted ! Who is not Timon's ? 
 What heart, head, sword, force, means, but is Lord 
 
 Timon's ? 
 Great Timon, noble, worthy, royal Timon ! 
 Ah, when the means are gone that buy this praise. 
 The breath is gone whereof this praise is made : 
 Feast-won, fast-lost ; one cloud of winter showers. 
 These flies are couch'd. 
 
 Tim. Come, sermon me no further: 
 
 Xo villanous bounty yet hath pass'd my heart ; 180 
 Unwisely, not ignobly, have I given. 
 Why dost thou weep? Canst thou the conscience 
 
 lack. 
 To think I shall lack friends? Secure thy heart; 
 If I would broach the vessels of my love, 
 And try the argument of hearts by borrowing, 
 Men and men's fortunes could I frankly use 
 As I can bid thee speak. 
 
 Flav. Assurance bless your thoughts ! 
 
 Tim, And in some sort these wants of mine are crown' d, 
 That I account them blessings ; for by these 
 
 -^ ^ SI
 
 Act II. Sc. ii. THE LIFE OF 
 
 Shall I try friends : you shall perceive how you 190 
 Mistake my fortunes ; I am wealthy in my friends. 
 Within there ! Flaminius ! Servilius ! 
 
 Enter Flani'uiius, Servilius, and other Servants. 
 
 Servants. My lord? my lord? • 
 
 Tim. I will dispatch you severally : you to Lord 
 Lucius : to Lord Lucullus you : I hunted with 
 his honour to-day : you to Sempronius : commend 
 me to their loves ; and, I am proud, say, that 
 my occasions have found time to use 'em to- 
 ward a supply of money : let the request be 200 
 fifty talents. 
 
 Flam. As you have said, my lord. 
 
 Flav. [Aside^ Lord Lucius and Lucullus? hum! 
 
 Tim. Go you, sir, to the senators — 
 
 Of whom, even to the state's best health, I have 
 Deserved this hearing — bid 'em send o' the instant 
 A thousand talents to me. 
 
 Flav. I have been bold, 
 
 For that I knew it the most general way, 
 To them to use your signet and your name, 
 But they do shake their heads, and I am here 
 No richer in return. 
 
 Tim. Is 't true? can 'the? 210 
 
 Flav. They answer, in a joint and corporate voice. 
 That now they are at fall, want treasure, cannot 
 Do what they would; are sorry — you are honour- 
 able, — 
 But yet they could have wish'd — they know not — 
 Something hath been amiss — a noble nature 
 May catch a wrench — would all were well — 'tis pity : — 
 
 S2
 
 TIMON OF ATHENS Act II. Sc. ii. 
 
 And so, intending other serious matters, 
 After distasteful looks and these hard fractions, 
 With certain half-caps and cold-moving nods 
 They froze me into silence. 
 Tim. You gods, reward them ! 220 
 
 Prithee, man, look cheerly. These old fellows 
 Have their ingratitude in them hereditary: 
 Their blood is caked, 'tis cold, it seldom flows ; 
 'Tis lack of kindly warmth they are not kind ; 
 And nature, as it grows again toward earth, 
 Is fashion'd for the journey, dull and heavy. 
 [To a Serz'.] Go to Ventidius. [To Flaz:] Prithee, 
 
 be not sad ; 
 Thou art true and honest ; ingeniously I speak. 
 No blame belongs to thee. [To Serv.] Ventidius 
 
 lately 
 Buried his father, by whose death he 's stepp'd 230 
 Into a great estate : w;hen he was poor, 
 Imprison'd, and in scarcity of friends, 
 I clear'd him with five talents : greet him from 
 
 me; 
 Bid him suppose some good necessity 
 Touches his friend, which craves to be remember'd 
 With those five talents. [Exit Serz:] [To Flaz:] That 
 
 had, give 't these fellows 
 To whom 'tis instant due. Ne'er speak or think 
 That Timon's fortunes 'mong his friends can sink. 
 Flaz'. I would I could not think it: that thought is 
 
 bounty's foe; 239 
 
 Being free itself, it thinks all others so. [Exeunt. 
 
 53
 
 Actlll. Sc. i. THE LIFE Of 
 
 ACT THIRD. 
 
 Scene I. 
 
 A room in LucuIIus's house. 
 
 Flaniinius zvaiting. Enter a Servant to hiiv. 
 
 Serv. I have told my lord of yon ; he is coming down 
 
 to yon. 
 Flam, I thank yon, sir. 
 
 Enter Lueiilliis. 
 
 Serv. Here 's my lord. 
 
 Lucid. {Aside^ One of Lord Timon's men? a gift, I 
 warrant. Why, this hits right ; I dreamt of a 
 silver basin and ewer to-night. Flaminius, hon- 
 est Flaminius ; you are very respectively wel- 
 come, sir. Fill me some wine. \Exit Servant. \ 
 And how does that honourable, complete, free- lo 
 hearted gentleman of Athens, thy very bountiful 
 good lord and master? 
 
 Flam. FTis health is well, sir. 
 
 Lucnl. I am right glad that his health is well, sir: 
 and what hast thou there under thy cloak, pretty 
 Flaminius ? 
 
 Flam. Faith, nothing but an empty box, sir ; which, 
 in my lord's behalf, I come to entreat your hon- 
 our to supply ; who, having great and instant 
 occasion to use fifty talents, hath sent to your 20 
 lordship to furnish him, nothing doubting your 
 present assistance therein. 
 
 Lucul. La, la, la, la ! ' nothing doubting,' says he ? 
 Alas, good lord ! a noble gentleman 'tis, if he 
 
 54
 
 TIMON OF ATHENS Act III. Sc. i. 
 
 would not keep so good a house. Many a 
 time and often I ha' dined with him, and told 
 him on 't ; and come again to supper to him, of 
 purpose to have him spend less ; and yet he 
 would embrace no counsel, take no warning by 
 my coming. Every man has his lault, and hon- 30 
 esty is his: I ha' told him on 't, but I could 
 ne'er get him from 't. 
 
 Re-enter Servant, zi'ith zviiie. 
 
 Sen: Please your lordship, here is the wine. 
 
 Lucid. Flaminius, I have noted thee always wise. 
 Here 's to thee. 
 
 Flam. Your lordship speaks your pleasure. 
 
 Lucid. I have observed thee always for a towardly 
 prompt spirit — give thee thy due — and one that 
 know^s wdiat belongs to reason ; and canst use 
 the time well, if the time use thee w^ell : good 40 
 parts in thee. [To Scrv.] Get you gone, sirrah. 
 [Exit Serz'.^ Draw nearer, honest Flaminius. 
 Thy lord 's a bountiful gentleman : but thou art 
 wdse ; and thou knowest well enough, although 
 thou comcst to me, that this is no time to lend 
 money, especially upon bare friendship, wdthout 
 security. Here 's three solidares for thee : good 
 boy, wink at me, and say thou saw'st me not. 
 Fare thee w^ell. 
 
 Flam. Is 't possible that the world should so much differ. 
 And we alive that lived? Fly, damned baseness, 51 
 To him that worships thee ! 
 
 [Throzviug back the money. 
 
 Lucid. Ha! now I see thou art a fool, and fit for thy 
 
 master. [Exit, 
 
 55
 
 Act III. Sc. ii. THE LIFE OF 
 
 Flam. May these add to the number that may scald thee ! 
 Let molten coin be thy damnation, 
 Thou disease of a friend, and not himself ! 
 Has friendship such a faint and milky heart, 
 It turns in less than two nights ? O you gods, 
 I feel my master's passion ! this slave, 60 
 
 Unto his honour, has my lord's meat in him : 
 Why should it thrive and turn to nutriment, 
 When he is turn'd to poison? 
 O, may diseases only work upon 't ! 
 And, when he 's sick to death, let not that part of 
 
 nature 
 Which my lord paid for, be of any power 
 To expel sickness, but prolong his hour. [Exit. 
 
 Scene II. 
 
 A public place. 
 Enter Lucius, zvith three Strangers. 
 
 Luc. Who, the Lord Timon ? he is my very good 
 friend, and an honourable gentleman. 
 
 First Stran. We know him for no less, though we 
 are but strangers to him. But I can tell you 
 one thing, my lord, and which I hear from 
 common rumours : now Lord Timon's happy 
 hours are done and past, and his estate shrinks 
 from him. 
 
 Luc. Fie, no, do not believe it; he cannot want for 
 
 money. 10 
 
 Sec. Stran. But believe you this, my lord, that not 
 long ago one of his men was with the Lord 
 Lucullus to borrow so many talents ; nay, urged 
 
 56
 
 TIMON OF ATHENS Act III. Sc. ii. 
 
 extremely for 't, and showed what necessity be- 
 longed to 't, and yet was denied. 
 
 Liic. How ! 
 
 Sec. S trail. I tell you, denied, my lord. 
 
 Luc. What a strangle case was that! now, before 
 the gods, I am ashamed on 't. Denied that 
 honourable man ! there was very little honour 20 
 showed in 't. For my own part, I must needs 
 confess, I have received some small kindnesses 
 from him, as money, plate, jewels, and such-like 
 trifles, nothing comparing to his ; yet, had he 
 mistook him and sent to me, I should ne'er have 
 denied his occasion so many talents. 
 
 Enter ServUius. 
 
 Scr. vSee, by good hap, yonder 's my lord ; I have 
 sweat to see his honour. My honoured lord ! 
 
 Luc. Servilius ! you are kindly met, sir. Fare thee 
 
 well : commend me to thy honourable virtuous 33 
 lord, my very exquisite friend. 
 
 Scr. i\Iay it please your honour, my lord hath sent — 
 
 Luc. Fla! what has he sent? I am so much en- 
 deared to that lord ; he 's ever sending : how 
 shall I thank him, think'st thou ? And what has 
 he sent now? 
 
 Scr. Has only sent his present occasion now, my 
 lord ; requesting your lordship to supply his in- 
 stant use with so many talents. 
 
 Luc. I know his lordship is but merry wath me; 40 
 
 He cannot want fifty five hundred talents. 
 
 Ser. But in the mean time he wants less, my lord. 
 If his occasion wxre not virtuous, 
 
 57
 
 Act III. Sc. ii. THE LIFE OF 
 
 I should not urge it half so faithfully. 
 
 Luc. Dost thou speak seriously, Servilius? 
 
 Ser. Upon my soul, 'tis true, sir. 
 
 Luc. What a wicked beast was I to disfurnish myself 
 against such a good time, when I might ha' 
 shown myself honourable ! how unluckily it hap- 
 pened, that I should purchase the day before for 50 
 a little part, and undo a great deal of honour! 
 Servilius, now, before the gods, I am not able 
 to do — the more beast, I say : — I was sending to 
 use Lord Timon myself, these gentlemen can 
 witness ; but I would not, for the wealth of Ath- 
 ens, I had done 't now. Commend me bounti- 
 fully to his good lordship ; and I hope his hon- 
 our will conceive the fairest of me, because I 
 have no power to be kind : and tell him this from 
 me, I count it one of my greatest afflictions, 
 say, that I cannot pleasure such an honourable 60 
 gentleman. Good Servilius, will you befriend me 
 so far as to use mine own words to him? 
 
 Ser. Yes, sir, I shall. 
 
 Luc. I '11 look you out a good turn, Servilius. 
 
 [Exit Servilius. 
 True, as you said, Timon is shrunk indeed ; 
 And he that 's once denied will hardly speed. [Exit. 
 
 First Stran. Do you observe this, Hostilius ? 
 
 Sec. Stran, Ay, too well. 
 
 First Stran. Why, this is the world's soul; and just of 
 the same piece 
 Is every flatterer's spirit. Who can tell him 70 
 
 His friend that dips In the same dish ? for, in 
 My knowing, Timon has been this lord's father, 
 
 58
 
 TIMON OF ATHENS Act III. Sc. iii. 
 
 And kept his credit with his purse; 
 
 Supported his estate ; nay, Timon's money 
 
 Has paid his men their wages : he ne'er drinks, 
 
 But Timon's silver treads upon his Hp ; 
 
 And yet — O, see the monstrousness of man 
 
 When he looks out in an ungrateful shape! — 
 
 He does deny him, in respect of his, 
 
 What charitable men afford to beggars. 80 
 
 Third Stran. Religion groans at it. 
 
 First Stran. For mine own part, 
 
 I never tasted Timon in my life. 
 Nor came any of his bounties over me, 
 To mark me for his friend ; yet, I protest. 
 For his right noble mind, illustrious virtue, 
 And honourable carriage, 
 Had his necessity made use of me, 
 I would have put my wealth into donation. 
 And the best half should have return'd to him, 
 So much I love his heart : but, I perceive, 90 
 
 Men must learn now with pity to dispense ; 
 For policy sits above conscience. [Exeunt. 
 
 Scene III. 
 
 A room in Sempronius's house. 
 
 Enter Sempronius, and a Servant of Timon's. 
 
 Sem. Must he needs trouble me in 't, — hum ! — 'bove all 
 others ? 
 He might have tried Lord Lucius or Lucullus ; 
 And now Ventidius is wealthy too, 
 W^hom he redeem'd from prison : all these 
 Owe their estates unto him. 
 
 59
 
 Act III. Sc. iii. THE LIFE OF 
 
 Serv. My lord, 
 
 They have all been touch'd and found base metal, for 
 They have all denied him. 
 
 Sem. How ! have they denied him ? 
 
 Has Ventidius and Lucullus denied him? 
 And does he send to me ? Three ? hum ! 
 It shows but little love or judgement in him : lo 
 
 Must I be his last refuge ? His friends, like physicians, 
 Thrive, give him over : must I take the cure upon me ? 
 Has much disgraced me in 't ; I 'm angry at him, 
 That might have known my place : I see no sense for't, 
 But his occasions might have woo'd me first ; 
 For, in my conscience, I was the first man 
 That e'er received gift from him : 
 And does he think so backwardly of me now, 
 That I '11 requite it last? No: 
 
 So it may prove an argument of laughter 20 
 
 To the rest, and 'mongst lords I be thought a fool. 
 I 'd rather than the worth of thrice the sum, 
 Had sent to me first, but for my mind's sake ; 
 I 'd such a courage to do him good. But now return. 
 And with their faint reply this answer join; 
 Who bates mine honour shall not know my coin. 
 
 [Exit, 
 
 Serv. Excellent ! Your lordship 's a goodly villain. 
 The devil knew not what he did when he made 
 man politic ; he crossed himself by 't : and I 
 cannot think but in the end the villanies of man 30 
 will set him clear. How fairly this lord strives 
 to appear foul ! takes virtuous copies to be 
 wicked; like those that under hot ardent zeal 
 Avould set whole realms on fire: 
 60
 
 TIMON OF ATHENS Act III. Sc. iv. 
 
 Of such a nature is his poHtic love. 
 
 This was my lord's best hope; now all are fled, 
 
 Save only the gods : now his friends are dead, 
 
 Doors, that w^ere ne'er acquainted with their wards 
 
 Many a bounteous year, must be employ'd 
 
 Now to guard sure- their master. 40 
 
 And this is all a liberal course allows ; 
 
 Who cannot keep his wealth must keep his house. 
 
 [Exit. 
 
 Scene IV. 
 
 A hall in Tiriwn's house. 
 
 Enter tzvo Servants of Varro, and the Servant of Lucius, 
 meeting Titus, Hortensiiis, and other Servants of 
 'Timons creditors, waiting his coming out. 
 
 First Var. Serv. Well met ; good morrow, Titus and 
 
 Hortensius. 
 Tit. The like to you, kind Varro. 
 Hor. Lucius ! 
 
 What, do we meet together? 
 Luc. Serv. Ay, and I think 
 
 One business does command us all ; for mine 
 
 Is money. 
 Tit. So is theirs and ours. 
 
 Enter Philotus. 
 
 Luc. Serv. And Sir Philotus too ! 
 
 Fhi. Good day at once. 
 
 Luc. Serv. Welcome, good brother. 
 
 What do you think the hour ? 
 Phi. Labouring for nine. 
 
 61
 
 Act ill. Sc. iv. ' THE LIFE OF 
 
 Luc. Serv. So much ? 
 
 Phi. Is not my lord seen yet? 
 
 Luc. Serv. Not yet. 
 
 Phi. I wonder on 't ; he was wont to shine at seven. lo 
 
 Luc. Serv. Ay, but the days are wax'd shorter with him: 
 
 You must consider that a prodigal course 
 
 Is like the sun's ; but not, like his, recoverable. 
 
 I fear 
 
 'Tis deepest winter in Lord Timon's purse ; 
 
 That is, one may reach deep enough and yet 
 
 Find little. 
 Phi. I am of your fear for that. 
 
 Tit. I '11 show you how to observe a strange event. 
 
 Your lord sends now for money. 
 Hot. Most true, he does. 
 
 Tit. And he wears jewels now of Timon's gift, 20 
 
 For which I wait for money. 
 Hot. It is against my heart. 
 Luc. Serv. Mark, how strange it shows, 
 
 Timon in this should pay more than he owes : 
 
 And e'en as if your lord should wear rich jewels, 
 
 And send for money for 'em. 
 Hor. I 'm weary of this charge, the gods can witness : 
 
 I know my lord hath spent of Timon's wealth. 
 
 And now ingratitude makes it worse than stealth. 
 First Var. Serv. Yes, mine 's three thousand crowns : 
 
 what 's yours ? 
 Luc. Serv. Five thousand mine. 30 
 
 First Var. Serv. 'Tis much deep : and it should seem by 
 the sum 
 
 Your master's confidence was above mine ; 
 
 Else, surely, his had equall'd. 
 
 6z
 
 TIMON OF ATHENS Act III. Sc. iv. 
 
 Enter Flaminius. 
 
 Tit. One of Lord Timon's men. 
 
 Lite. Scrz: Flaminius ! Sir, a word : pray, is my 
 
 lord ready to come forth? 
 Flam. No, indeed he is not. 
 
 Tit. We attend his lordship : pray, signify so much. 
 Flam. I need not tell him that ; he knows yoa are too 
 
 diligent. [Exit. 40 
 
 Enter Flavins in a cloak, muMed. 
 
 Luc. Serz'. Ha ! is not that his steward muffled so ? 
 
 He goes away in a cloud : call him, call him. 
 Tit. Do you hear, sir ? 
 Sec, Var. Serv. By your leave, sir, — 
 Flav, What do ye ask of me, my friend ? 
 Tit. We wait for certain money here, sir. 
 Flav. Ay, 
 
 If money were as certain as your waiting, 
 
 'Twas sure enough. 
 
 Why then preferr'd you not your sums and bills, 
 
 W^hen your false masters eat of my lord's meat? 50 
 
 Then they could smile and fawn upon his debts. 
 
 And take down the interest in their gluttonous maws. 
 
 You do yourselves but wTong to stir me up ; 
 
 Let me pass quietly : 
 
 Believe 't, my lord and I have made an end ; 
 
 I have no more to reckon, he to spend. 
 Luc. Serv. Ay, but this answer will not serve. 
 Flav. If 'twill not serve, 'tis not so base as you ; 
 
 For you serve knaves. [Exit. 
 
 First Var. Serv. Flow ! v.hat does his cashiered 60 
 
 worship mutter ? 
 
 63
 
 Act III. Sc. iv. THE LIFE OF 
 
 Sec. Var. Serv. No matter what ; he 's poor, and that 's 
 revenge enough. Who can speak broader than 
 he that has no house to put his head in? such 
 may rail against great buildings. 
 
 Enter ServUius. 
 
 Tit. O, here 's Servilius ; now we shall know some 
 answer. 
 
 Ser. If I might beseech you, gentlemen, to repair some 
 other hour, I should derive much from 't ; for, 
 take 't of my soul, my lord leans wondrously to 70 
 discontent : his comfortable temper has forsook 
 him ; he 's much out of health and keeps his 
 chamber. 
 
 Luc. Scrv. Many do keep their chambers are not sick : 
 And if it be so far beyond his health, 
 Methinks he should the sooner pay his debts, 
 And make a clear way to the gods. 
 
 Ser. Good gods ! 
 
 Tit. V\^e cannot take this for answer, sir. 
 
 Flam. [Within] Servilius, help ! My lord ! my lord ^ 
 
 Enter Timon, in a rage; Flaminius following. 
 
 Tim. What, are my doors opposed against my passage? 
 
 Have I been ever free, and must my house 81 
 
 Be my retentive enemy, my gaol ? 
 
 The place which I have feasted, does it now, 
 
 Like all mankind, show me an iron heart ? 
 Luc. Serv. Put in now, Titus. 
 Tit. My lord, here is my bill. 
 Luc. Serv. Here 's mine. 
 Hor. And mine, my lord. 
 
 64
 
 TIMON OF ATHENS Act II!. Sc. iv. 
 
 Both Var. Serv. And ours, my lord. 
 
 Fhi. All our bills. 90 
 
 Tim. Knock me down with 'em : cleave me to the girdle. 
 
 Luc. Scrv. Alas, my lord, — 
 
 Tim. Cut my heart in sums. 
 
 Tit. IMine, fifty talents. 
 
 Tim. Tell out my blood. 
 
 Luc. Scrv. Five thousand crowns, my lord. 
 
 Tim. Five thousand drops pays that. What 's yours ? — 
 and yours ? 
 
 First Var. Scrv. ]\'Iy lord, — 
 
 Sec. Var. Scrv. My lord, — 
 
 Tim. Tear me, take me, and the gods fall upon you ! 100 
 
 [Exit. 
 
 Hor. Faith, I perceive our masters may throw their 
 caps at their money : these debts may well be 
 called desperate ones, for a madman owes 'em. 
 
 [Exeunt. 
 
 Re-enter Tim on and Flavins. 
 
 Tim. They have e'en put my breath from me, the 
 
 slaves. Creditors ? devils ! 
 Flav. Aly dear lord, — 
 Tim. What if it should be so ? 
 Flav. My lord,— 
 
 Tim. I '11 have it so. My steward ! 
 
 Flav. Here, my lord. no 
 
 Tim. So fitly? Go, bid all my friends again, 
 
 Lucius, Lucullus, and Sempronius : all : 
 
 I '11 once more feast the rascals. 
 Flav. O my lord. 
 
 You only speak from your distracted soul ; 
 
 There is not so much left, to furnish out 
 
 65
 
 Act in. Sc. V. THE LIFE OF 
 
 A moderate table. 
 Tim. Be it not in thy care ; go, 
 
 I charge thee, invite them all : let in the tide 
 Of knaves once more ; my cook and I '11 provide. 
 
 [Exeunt, 
 
 Scene V. 
 
 The Senate-house. 
 The Senate sitting. 
 
 First Sen. My lord, you have my voice to it ; the fault 's 
 Bloody ; 'tis necessary he should die : 
 Nothing emboldens sin so much as mercy. 
 
 Sec. Sen. Most true ; the law shall bruise him. 
 
 Enter Alcihiades, attended. 
 
 Alcib. Honour, health, and compassion to the senate ! 
 
 First Sen. Now, captain ? 
 
 Alcib. I am an humble suitor to your virtues ; 
 For pity is the virtue of the law, 
 And none but tyrants use it cruelly. 
 It pleases time and fortune to lie heavy lo 
 
 Upon a friend of mine, who in hot blood 
 Hath stepp'd into the law, which is past depth 
 To those that without heed do plunge into 't. 
 He is a man, setting his fate aside, 
 Of comely virtues : 
 
 Nor did he soil the fact with cowardice — 
 An honour in him which buys out his fault — 
 But with a noble fury and fair spirit, 
 Seeing his reputation touch 'd to death, 
 He did oppose his foe : 20 
 
 66
 
 TIMON OF ATHENS Act III. Sc. v. 
 
 And with such sober and unnoted passion 
 He did behave his anger, ere 'twas spent, 
 As if he had but proved an argument. 
 
 First Sen. You undergo too strict a paradox, 
 Striving to make an ugly deed look fair : 
 Your w^ords have took such pains, as if they labour'd 
 To bring manslaughter into form, and set quarrelling 
 Upon the head of valour ; which indeed 
 Is valour misbegot and came into the w^orld 
 When sects and factions were newly born : 30 
 
 He 's truly valiant that can wisely suffer 
 The w^orst that man can breathe, and make his wTongs 
 His outsides, to wear them like his raiment, carelessly, 
 And ne'er prefer his injuries to his heart, 
 To bring it into danger. 
 If wrongs be evils and enforce us kill, 
 What folly 'tis to hazard life for ill ! 
 
 Alcib. My lord, — 
 
 First Sen. You cannot make gross sins look clear : 
 
 To revenge is no valour, but to bear. 
 
 Alcib. My lords, then, under favour, pardon me, 40 
 
 If I speak like a captain. 
 
 Why do fond men expose themselves to battle, 
 And not endure all threats ? sleep upon 't 
 And let the foes quietly cut their throats. 
 Without repugnancy? If there be 
 Such valour in the bearing, what make we 
 Abroad? why then women are more valiant 
 That stay at home, if bearing carry it ; 
 And the ass more captain than the lion, the felon 
 Loaden with irons wiser than the judge, 50 
 
 If wisdom be in suffering. O my lords, 
 
 67
 
 Act III. Sc. V. THE LIFE OF 
 
 As you are great, be pitifully good : 
 
 Who cannot condemn rashness in cold blood ? 
 
 To kill, I grant, is sin's extremest gust ; 
 
 But in defence, by mercy, 'tis most just. 
 
 To be in anger is impiety ; 
 
 But who is man that is not angry ? 
 
 Weigh but the crime with this. 
 
 Sec. Sen. You breathe in vain. 
 
 Alcib. In vain ! His service done 
 
 At Lacedsemon and Byzantium 60 
 
 Were a sufficient briber for his life. 
 
 First Sen. What's that? 
 
 Alcib. I say, my lords, has done fair service, 
 
 And slain in fight many of your enemies : 
 How full of valour did he bear himself 
 In the last conflict, and made plenteous wounds ! 
 
 Sec. Sen. He has made too much plenty with 'em ; 
 He 's a sworn rioter : he has a sin 
 That often drowns him and takes his valour prisoner : 
 If there were no foes, that were enough 
 To overcome him : in that beastly fury 70 
 
 He had been known to commit outrages 
 And cherish factions : 'tis inferr'd to us. 
 His days are foul and his drink dangerous. 
 
 First Sen. He dies. 
 
 Alcib. Hard fate ! he might have died in war 
 
 My lords, if not for any parts in him — 
 Though his right arm might purchase his own time 
 And be in debt to none — yet, more to move you. 
 Take my deserts to his and join 'em both : 
 And, for I know your reverend ages love 
 Security, I '11 pawn my victories, all 80 
 
 68
 
 TIMON OF ATHENS Act HI. Sc. v. 
 
 My honours to you, upon his good returns. 
 
 If by this crime he owes the law his hfe, 
 
 Why, let the war receive 't in valiant gore ; 
 
 For law is strict, and war is nothing more. 
 First Sen. We are for law : he dies ; urge it no more, 
 
 On height of our displeasure : friend or brother, 
 
 He forfeits his own blood that spills another. 
 Alcih. IMust it be so? it must not be. My lords, 
 
 I do beseech you, know me. 
 Sec. Sen. How ! 90 
 
 Alcih. Call me to your remembrances. 
 Tliird Sen. What ! 
 Alcib. I cannot think but your age has forgot me ; 
 
 It could not else be I should prove so base 
 
 To sue and be denied such common grace : 
 
 My wounds ache at you. 
 First Sen. Do you dare our anger ? 
 
 Tis in few words, but spacious in effect ; 
 
 W^e banish thee for ever. 
 Alcib. Banish me! 
 
 Banish your dotage ; banish usury. 
 
 That makes the senate ugly. 100 
 
 First Sen. If, after two days' shine, Athens contain thee, 
 
 Attend our weightier judgement. And, not to swell 
 our spirit, 
 
 He shall be executed presently. [Exeunt Senators. 
 Alcib. Nowthe gods keep you old enough, that youmay live 
 
 Only in bone, that none may look on you ! 
 
 I 'm worse than mad : I have kept back their foes, 
 
 While they have told their money and let out 
 
 Their coin upon large interest, I myself 
 
 Rich only in large hurts. All those for this ? 
 
 69
 
 Act III. Sc. vi. THE LIFE OF 
 
 Is this the balsam that the usuring senate i lo 
 
 Pours into captains' wounds ? Banishment ! 
 It comes not ill ; I hate not to be banish'd ; 
 It is a cause worthy my spleen and fury, 
 That I may strike at Athens. I '11 cheer up 
 My discontented troops, and lay for hearts. 
 'Tis honour with most lands to be at odds ; 
 Soldiers should brook as little wrongs as gods. [Exit. 
 
 Scene VI. 
 
 A banqueting-room in Timon's house. 
 
 Music. Tables set out: Servants attending. Enter divers 
 Lords, Senators and others, at several doors. 
 
 First Lord. The good time of day to you, sir. 
 
 Sec. Lord. I also wish it to you. I think this honour- 
 able lord did but try us this other day. 
 
 First Lord. Upon that were my thoughts tiring when 
 we encountered : I hope it is not so low with him 
 as he made it seem in the trial of his several friends. 
 
 Sec, Lord. It should not be, by the persuasion of his 
 new feasting. 
 
 First Lord. I should think so: he hath sent me an 
 
 earnest inviting, which many my near occasions lo 
 did urge me to put off ; but he hath conjured me 
 beyond them, and I must needs appear. 
 
 Sec. Lord. In like manner was I in debt to my Im- 
 portunate business, but he would not hear my 
 excuse. I am sorry, when he sent to borrow of 
 me, that my provision was out. 
 
 First Lord. I am sick of that grief too, as I under- 
 stand how all things go. 
 70
 
 TIMON OF ATHENS Act III. Sc. vi. 
 
 Sec. Lord. Every man here 's so. What would he 
 
 have borrowed of you ? 20 
 
 First Lord. A thousand pieces. 
 Sec. Lord. A thousand pieces ! 
 First Lord. What of you ? 
 Sec. Lord. He sent to me, sir, — Here he comes. 
 
 Enter Timon and Attendants. 
 
 Tim. With all my heart, gentlemen both : and how 
 fare you ? 
 
 First Lord. Ever at the best, hearing well of your 
 
 lordship. 30 
 
 Sec. Lord. The swallow follows not summer more 
 walling than we your lordship. 
 
 Tim. [Aside] Nor more willingly leaves winter ; such 
 summer-birds are men, — Gentlemen, our dinner 
 will not recompense this long stay : feast your ears 
 with the music awhile, if they will fare so harshly 
 o' the trumpet's sound ; we shall to 't presently. 
 
 First Lord. I hope it remains not unkindly with your 
 lordship, that I returned you an empty messenger. 
 
 77m. O, sir, let it not trouble you. 
 
 Sec. Lord. My noble lord, — 
 
 Tim. Ay, my good friend, what cheer? 40 
 
 Sec. Lord. My most honourable lord, I am e'en sick 
 of shame, that, when your lordship this other 
 day sent to me, I was so unfortunate a beggar. 
 
 Tim. Think not on 't, sir. 
 
 Sec. Lord. If you had sent but two hours before — 
 
 Tim,. Let it not cumber your better remembrance. 
 [The banquet brought in.] Come, bring in all 
 together. 
 
 71
 
 Act III. Sc. vi. THE LIFE OF 
 
 Sec. Lord. All covered dishes ! 
 
 First Lord. Royal cheer, I warrant you. 50 
 
 Third Lord. Doubt not that, if money and the season 
 can yield it. 
 
 First Lord. How do you? What 's the news? 
 
 Third Lord. Alcibiades is banished : hear you of it? 
 
 First and Sec. Lords. Alcibiades banished ! 
 
 Third Lord. Tis so, be sure of it. 
 
 First Lord. How ? how ? 
 
 Sec. Lord. I pray you, upon what ? 
 
 Tim. My worthy friends, will you draw near ? 
 
 Third Lord. I '11 tell you more anon. Here 's a noble 60 
 feast toward. 
 
 Sec. Lord. This is the old man still. 
 
 Third Lord. Will't hold? will't hold? 
 
 Sec. Lord. It does : but time will — and so — 
 
 Third Lord. I do conceive. 
 
 Tim. Each man to his stool, with that spur as he 
 would to the lip of his mistress : your diet shall 
 be in all places alike. jNIake not a city feast 
 of it, to let the meat cool ere we can agree 
 upon the first place : sit, sit. The gods require 70 
 our thanks. 
 
 You great benefactors, sprinkle our society 
 with thankfulness. For your own gifts, make 
 yourselves praised : but reserve still to give, lest 
 your deities be despised. Lend to each man 
 enough, that one need not lend to another ; for, 
 were your godheads to borrow of men, men 
 would forsake the gods. Make the meat be be- 
 loved more than the man that gives it. Let no 
 assembly of twenty be without a score of villains ; 80 
 
 7^
 
 TIMON OF ATHENS Act III. Sc. vi. 
 
 if there sit twelve women at the table, let a dozen 
 of them be — as they are. The rest of your fees, 
 O gods, — the senators of Athens, together with 
 the common lag of people, — what is amiss in 
 them, you gods, make suitable for destruction. 
 For these my present friends, as they are to me 
 nothing, so in nothing bless them, and to nothing 
 are they welcome. 
 Uncover, dogs, and lap. 
 
 [The dishes arc uncovered and seen to 
 be full of warm water. 
 
 Some speak. What does his lordship mean ? 90 
 
 Some other. I know not. 
 
 Tim. May you a better feast never behold. 
 
 You knot of mouth-friends ! smoke and luke-warm 
 
 water 
 Is your perfection. This is Timon's last ; 
 Who stuck and spangled you with flatteries, 
 W^ashes it ofif, and sprinkles in your faces 
 Your reeking villany. 
 
 [Throzving the zvatcr in their faces. 
 Live loathed, and long, 
 j\lost smiling, smooth, detested parasites, 
 Courteous destroyers, affable wolves, meek bears. 
 You fools of fortune, trencher-friends, time's flies, 
 Cap-and-knee slaves, vapours, and minute- jacks ! 10 1 
 Of man and beast the infinite malady 
 Crust you quite o'er ! What, dost thou go ? 
 Soft ! take thy physic first — thou too — and thou : — 
 Stay, I will lend thee money, borrow none. 
 
 [Throii's the dishes at them, and drives them out. 
 What, all in motion ? Henceforth be no feast, 
 Whereat a villain 's not a welcome guest, 
 
 7.3
 
 Act IV. Sc. L THE LIFE OF 
 
 Burn, house! sink, Athens! henceforth hated be 
 Of Timon man and all humanity ! [Exit. 
 
 Rc-cntcr the Lords, Senators, &c. 
 
 First Lord. How now, my lords! no 
 
 Sec. Lord. Know you the quality of Lord Timon's fury ? 
 
 Third Lord. Push ! did you see my cap ? 
 
 Fourth Lord. I have lost my gown. 
 
 First Lord. He 's but a mad lord, and nought but 
 humour sways him. He gave me a jewel th' 
 other day, and now he has beat it out of my hat. 
 Did you see my jewel ? 
 
 Third Lord. Did you see my cap ? 
 
 Sec. Lord, Here 'tis. 
 
 Fourth Lord. Here lies my gown. 120 
 
 First Lord. Let 's make no stay. 
 
 Sec. Lord. Lord Timon 's mad. 
 
 Third Lord. I feel 't upon my bones. 
 
 Fourth Lord. One day he gives us diamonds, next day 
 stones. [Exeunt. 
 
 ACT FOURTH. 
 Scene I. 
 
 Without the walls of Athens. 
 
 Enter Timon. 
 
 Tim. Let me look back upon thee. O thou wall, 
 That girdlest in those wolves, dive in the earth. 
 And fence not Athens ! ^Matrons, turn incontinent ! 
 Obedience fail in children ! Slaves and fools. 
 Pluck the grave wrinkled senate from the bench, 
 
 74
 
 TIMON OF ATHENS Act IV. Sc. i. 
 
 And minister in their steads ! To general filths 
 Convert o' the instant, green virginity ! 
 Do 't in your parents' eyes ! Bankrupts, hold fast ; 
 Rather than render back, out with your knives, 
 And cut your trusters' throats! Bound servants, 
 steal ! lo 
 
 Large-handed robbers your grave masters are 
 And pill by law. Alaid, to thy master's bed ! 
 Thy mistress is o' the brothel. Son of sixteen, 
 Pluck the lined crutch from thy old limping sire. 
 With it beat out his brains ! Piety and fear, 
 Religion to the gods, peace, justice, truth, 
 Domestic awe, night-rest and neighbourhood, 
 Instruction, manners, mysteries and trades. 
 Degrees, observances, customs and laws. 
 Decline to your confounding contraries, 20 
 
 And let confusion live ! Plagues incident to men, 
 Your potent and infectious fevers heap 
 On Athens, ripe for stroke ! Thou cold sciatica, 
 Cripple our senators, that their limbs may halt 
 As lamely as their manners ! Lust and liberty 
 Creep in the minds and marrows of our youth. 
 That 'gainst the stream of virtue they may strive, 
 And drown themselves in riot ! Itches, blains, 
 Sow all the Athenian bosoms, and their crop 
 Be general leprosy ! Breath infect breath, 30 
 
 That their society, as their friendship, may 
 Be merely poison ! Nothing I '11 bear from thee 
 But nakedness, thou detestable town ! 
 Take thou that too, with multiplying bans ! 
 Timon will to the woods, where he shall find 
 The unkindest beast more kinder than mankind, 
 
 75
 
 Act IV. Sc. 11. THE LIFE OF 
 
 The gods confound — hear me, you good gods all !— 
 The Athenians both within and out that wall ! 
 And grant, as Timon grows, his hate may grow 
 To the whole race of mankind, high and low ! 40 
 
 Amen. [Exit. 
 
 Scene II. 
 
 Athens. Timon' s house. 
 Enter Flavins, zvith two or three Servants. 
 
 First Serv. Hear you, master steward, where 's our master? 
 Are w^e undone ? cast off ? nothing remaining? 
 
 Flav. Alack, my fellows, what should I say to you ? 
 Let me be recorded by the righteous gods, 
 I am as poor as you. 
 
 First Serv. Such a house broke ! 
 
 So noble a master fall'n ! All gone ! and not 
 One friend to take his fortune by the arm. 
 And go along with him ! 
 
 Sec. Serv. As we do turn our backs 
 
 From our companion thrown into his grave. 
 So his familiars to his buried fortunes 10 
 
 Slink all away ; leave their false vows with him, 
 Like empty purses pick'd ; and his poor self, 
 A dedicated beggar to the air. 
 With his disease of all-shunn'd poverty. 
 Walks, like contempt, alone. More of our fellows. 
 
 Enter other Servants. 
 Flav. All broken implements of a ruin'd house. 
 Third Serv. Yet do our hearts wear Timon's livery ; 
 That see I by our faces ; we are fellows still, 
 
 76
 
 TIMON OF ATHENS Act IV. Sc. ii. 
 
 Serving alike in sorrow : leak'd is our bark, 
 And we, poor mates, stand on the dying deck, 20 
 Hearing the surges threat : we must all part 
 Into this sea of air. 
 Flav. Good fellows all, 
 
 The latest of my wealth I '11 share amongst you. 
 
 Wherever we shall meet, for Timon's sake 
 
 Let 's yet be fellows ; let 's shake our heads, and say, 
 
 As 'twere a knell unto our master's fortunes, 
 
 ' We have seen better days.' Let each take some. 
 
 Nay, put out all your hands. Not one word more : 
 
 Thus part we rich in sorrow, parting poor. 
 
 [Servants embrace, and part several ways, 
 O, the fierce wretchedness that glory brings us ! 30 
 Wlio would not wish to be from wealth exempt. 
 Since riches point to misery and contempt? 
 Who would be so mock'd with glory ? or to live 
 But in a dream of friendship ? 
 To have his pomp and all what state compounds 
 But only painted, like his varnish'd friends? 
 Poor honest lord, brought low by his own heart, 
 Undone by goodness ! Strange, unusual blood 
 When man's worst sin is, he does too much good ! 
 Who then dares to be half so kind again ? 40 
 
 For bounty, that makes gods, does still mar men. 
 My dearest lord, blest to be most accursed. 
 Rich only to be wretched, thy great fortunes 
 Are made thy chief afflictions. Alas, kind lord ! 
 He 's flung in rage from this ingrateful seat 
 Of monstrous friends ; nor has he with him to 
 Supply his life, or that which can command it. 
 I '11 follow, and inquire him out : 
 
 77
 
 Act IV. Sc. iii. THE LIFE OF 
 
 I '11 ever serve his mind with my best will ; 
 
 Whilst I have gold, I '11 be his steward still. [Exit. 
 
 Scene III. 
 
 Woods and cave, near the sea-shore. 
 
 Enter Timon, from the cave. 
 
 Tim. O blessed breeding sun, draw from the earth 
 Rotten humidity ; below thy sister's orb 
 Infect the air ! Twinn'd brothers of one womb, 
 Whose procreation, residence and birth 
 Scarce is dividant, touch them with several fortunes, 
 The greater scorns the lesser : not nature. 
 To whom all sores lay siege, can bear great fortune 
 But by contempt of nature. 
 Raise me this beggar and deny 't that lord, 
 The senator shall bear contempt hereditary, lo 
 
 The beggar native honour. 
 It is the pasture lards the rother's sides. 
 The want that makes him lean. Who dares, who 
 
 dares, 
 In purity of manhood stand upright, 
 And say * This man 's a flatterer? ' if one be. 
 So are they all ; for every grise of fortune 
 Is smooth'd by that below : the learned pate 
 Ducks to the golden fool : all is oblique ; 
 There 's nothing level in our cursed natures 
 But direct villany. Therefore be abhorr'd 20 
 
 All feasts, societies and throngs of men ! 
 His semblable, yea, himself, Timon disdains : 
 Destruction fang mankind ! Earth, yield me roots ! 
 
 [Digging. 
 
 78
 
 TIMON OF ATHENS Act IV. Sc. iii. 
 
 Who seeks for better of thee, sauce his palate 
 With thy most operant poison ! What is here ? 
 Gold ? yellow, glittering, precious gold ? No, gods, 
 I am no idle votarist : roots, you clear heavens ! 
 Thus much of this will make black white, foul fair, 
 Wrong right, base noble, old young, coward valiant. 
 Ha, you gods ! why this ? what this, you gods ? 
 
 Why, this 30 
 
 Will lug your priests and servants from your sides. 
 Pluck stout men's pillows from below their heads : 
 This yellow slave 
 
 Will knit and break religions ; bless the accursed ; 
 Make the hoar leprosy adored ; place thieves, 
 And give them title, knee and approbation 
 With senators on the bench : this is it 
 That makes the wappen'd widow wed again ; 
 She, whom the spital-house and ulcerous sores 
 Would cast the gorge at, this embalms and spices 40 
 To the April day again. Come, damned earth, 
 Thou common whore of mankind, that put'st odds 
 Among the rout of nations, I will make thee 
 Do thy right nature. [March afar off.] Ha! a 
 
 drum ? Thou 'rt quick, 
 But yet I '11 bury thee : thou 'It go, strong thief, 
 When gouty keepers of thee cannot stand : 
 Nay, stay thou out for earnest. [Keeping some gold. 
 
 Enter Alcihiades, zvith drum and fife, in zvarlike manner; 
 Phrynia and Timandra. 
 
 Alcib. What art thou there? speak. 
 
 Tim. A beast, as thou art. The canker gnaw thy heart, 
 For showing me again the eyes of man ! 
 
 79
 
 Act IV. Sc. iii. THE LIFE OF 
 
 Alcih. What is thy name? Is man so hateful to thee, 50 
 
 That art thyself a man ? 
 Tim. I am misanthropes, and hate mankind. 
 
 For thy part, I do wish thou wert a dog, 
 
 That I might love thee something. 
 Alcih. I know thee well; 
 
 But in thy fortunes am unlearn'd and strange. 
 Tim, I know thee too ; and more than that I know thee 
 
 I not desire to know. Follow thy drum ; 
 
 With man's blood paint the ground, gules, gules : 
 
 Religious canons, civil laws are cruel ; 59 
 
 Then what should war be ? This fell whore of thine 
 
 Hath in her more destruction than thy sword, 
 
 For all her cherubin look. 
 Phry. Thy lips rot off! 
 
 Tim. I will not kiss thee ; then the rot returns 
 
 To thine own lips again. 
 Alcih. How came the noble Timon to this change? 
 Tim. As the moon does, by wanting light to give : 
 
 But then renew I could not, like the moon ; 
 
 There were no suns to borrow of. 
 Alcih. Noble Timon, 
 
 What friendship may I do thee? 
 Tim. None, but to 
 
 Maintain my opinion. 70 
 
 Alcih. What is it, Timon? 
 Tim. Promise me friendship, but perform none: if 
 
 thou wilt not promise, the gods plague thee, for 
 
 thou art a man : if thou dost perform, confound 
 
 thee, for thou art a man ! 
 Alcih. I have heard in some sort of thy miseries. 
 Tim. Thou saw'st them when I had prosperity. 
 
 80
 
 TIMON or ATHENS Act IV. Sc. iii. 
 
 Alcib. I see them now ; then was a blessed time. 
 
 Tim. As thine is now, held with a brace of harlots. 
 
 Timan. Is this the Athenian minion whom the world 80 
 Voiced so regardfully ? 
 
 Tim. Art thou Timandra ? 
 
 Timan. Yes. 
 
 Tim.. Be a whore still : they love thee not that use thee ;' 
 Give them diseases, leaving with thee their lust. 
 Make use of thy salt hours : season the slaves 
 For tubs and baths ; bring down rose-cheeked youth 
 To t^e tub-fast and the diet. 
 
 Timan. Hang thee, monster ! 
 
 Alcib. Pardon l^im, sweet Timandra, for his wits 
 Are drown'd and lost in his calamities. 
 I have but little gold of late, brave Timon, 90 
 
 The want whereof doth daily make revolt 
 In my penurious band : I have heard, and grieved. 
 How cursed Athens, mindless of thy worth, 
 Forgetting thy great deeds, when neighbour states, 
 But for thy sword and fortune, trod upon them — 
 
 Tim. I prithee, beat thy drum, and get thee gone. 
 
 Alcih. I am thy friend and pity thee, dear Timon. 
 
 Tim. How dost thou pity him whom thou dost trouble ? 
 I had rather be alone. 
 
 Alcih. Why, fare thee well : 
 
 Here is some gold for thee. 
 
 Tim. Keep it, I cannot eat it. 
 
 Alcih. When I have laid proud Athens on a heap — loi 
 
 Tim. Warr'st thou 'gainst Athens ? 
 
 Alcih. Ay, Timon, and have cause. 
 
 Tim. The gods confound them all in thy conquest, 
 And thee after, when thou hast conquer'd ! 
 
 81
 
 Act IV. Sc. iii. THE LIFE OF 
 
 Alcib, Why me, Timon ? 
 
 Tim. That by kilHng of villains 
 
 Thou wast born to conquer my country. 
 Put up thy gold : go on, — here 's gold, — go on ; 
 Be as a planetary plague, when Jove 
 Will o'er some high-viced city hang his poison 
 In the sick air : let not thy sword skip one : no 
 
 Pity not honour'd age for his white beard ; 
 He is an usurer : strike me the counterfeit matron ; 
 It is her habit only that is honest. 
 Herself 's a bawd : let not the virgin's cheek 
 Make soft thy trenchant sword ; for those milk-paps, 
 That through the w^indow-bars bore at men's eyes, 
 Are not within the leaf of pity writ. 
 But set them down horrible traitors : spare not the 
 
 babe 
 Whose dimpled smiles from fools exhaust their mercy ; 
 Think it a bastard whom the oracle 120 
 
 Hath doubtfully pronounced thy throat shall cut, 
 And mince it sans remorse : swear against objects ; 
 Put armour on thine ears and on thine eyes. 
 Whose proof nor yells of mothers, maids, nor babes, 
 Nor sight of priests in holy vestments bleeding. 
 Shall pierce a jot. There 's gold to pay thy soldiers : 
 Make large confusion ; and, thy fury spent, 
 Confounded be thyself ! Speak not, be gone. 
 
 Alcib. Hast thou gold yet ? I '11 take the gold thou givest me, 
 Not all thy counsel. 130 
 
 T/m. Dost thou or dost thou not, heaven's curse upon thee ! 
 
 Phr. and Timan. Give us some gold, good Timon : hast 
 thou more? 
 
 Tim. Enough to make a whore forswear her trade, 
 
 82
 
 TIMON OF ATHENS Act IV. Sc. iii. 
 
 And to make whores, a bawd. Hold up, you sluts, 
 Your aprons mountant : you are not oathable ; 
 Although, I know, you '11 swear, terribly swear. 
 Into strong shudders and to heavenly agues, 
 The immortal gods that hear you ; spare your oaths, 
 I '11 trust to your conditions : be whores still ; 
 And he whose pious breath seeks to convert you, 
 Be strong in whore, allure him, burn him up ; 141 
 Let your close fire predominate his smoke, 
 And be no turncoats : yet may your pains, six months. 
 Be quite contrary : and thatch your poor thin roofs 
 With burdens of the dead ;— some that were hang'd. 
 No matter: — wear them, betray wath them: whore 
 
 still ; 
 Paint till a horse may mire upon your face : 
 A pox of wrinkles ! 
 rhr. and Timan. Well, more gold: what then? 
 
 Believe 't that we '11 do any thing for gold. 150 
 
 Tim. Consumptions sow- 
 In hollow bones of man ; strike their sharp shins. 
 And mar men's spurring. Crack the lawyer's voice. 
 That he may never more false title plead, 
 Nor sound his quillets shrilly : hoar the flamen, 
 That scolds against the quality of flesh 
 And not believes himself : down with the nose, 
 Down with it flat ; take the bridge quite away 
 Of him that, his particular to foresee. 
 Smells from the general weal: make curl'd-pate 
 ruffians bald ; i^o 
 
 And let the unscarr'd braggarts of the war 
 Derive some pain from you : plague all ; 
 That your activity may defeat and quell 
 83
 
 Act IV. Sc. iii. THE LIFE OF 
 
 The source of all erection. There 's more gold : 
 Do you damn others, and let this damn you, 
 And ditches grave you all ! 
 Phr. and Tiinan. ]\[ore counsel with more money, bounte- 
 ous Timon. 
 Tim. ]\Iore whore, more mischief first; I have given you 
 
 earnest. 
 Alcih. Strike up the drum towards Athens ! Farewell, 
 Timon : 
 If I thrive well, I '11 visit thee again. 170 
 
 Tim. If I hope well, I '11 never see thee more. 
 Alcih. I never did thee harm. 
 Tim. Yes, thou spokest well of me. 
 
 Alcih. Call'st thou that harm ? 
 
 Tim. ^len daily find it. Get thee away, and take 
 
 Thy beagles with thee. 
 Alcih. We but offend him. Strike ! 
 
 [Dnun heats. Exeunt Alcibiades, 
 Phrynia, and Timandra. 
 Tim. That nature, being sick of man's unkindness. 
 Should yet be hungry ! Common mother, thou, 
 
 [Digging. 
 Whose womb unmeasurable and infinite breast 
 Teems, and feeds all ; whose self-same mettle, 
 Whereof thy proud child, arrogant man, is puff'd, 
 Engenders the black toad and adder blue, 181 
 
 The gilded newt and eyeless venom'd worm. 
 With all the abhorred births below crisp heaven 
 Whereon Hyperion's quickening fire doth shine ; 
 Yield him, who all thy human sons doth hate, 
 From forth thy plenteous bosom one poor root ! . 
 En sear thy fertile and conceptions womb. 
 
 84
 
 TIMON OF ATHENS Act IV. Sc. iii. 
 
 Let it no more bring out ingrateful man ! 
 Go great with tigers, dragons, wolves and bears ; 
 Teem with new monsters, whom thy upward face 
 Hath to the marbled mansion all above 191 
 
 Never presented ! — O, a root ! dear thanks ! — 
 Dry up thy marrows, vines, and plough-torn leas ; 
 Whereof ingrateful man, with liquorish draughts 
 And morsels unctuous, greases his pure mind, 
 That from it all consideration slips ! 
 
 Enter ApernanUis. 
 
 More man? plague, plague! 
 A pern. I was directed hither : men report 
 
 Thou dost afTect my manners, and dost use them. 
 
 Tim. 'Tis then because thou dost not keep a dog, 200 
 Whom I would imitate : consumption catch thee ! 
 
 A pern. This is in thee a nature but infected; 
 A poor unmanly melancholy sprung 
 From change of fortune. Why this spade ? this place ? 
 This slave-like habit? and these looks of care? 
 Thy flatterers yet wear silk, drink wine, lie soft. 
 Hug their diseased perfumes and have forgot 
 That ever Timon was. Shame not these woods 
 By putting on the cunning of a carper. 
 Be thou a flatterer now, and seek to thrive 210 
 
 By that which hath undone thee : hinge thy knee, 
 And let his very breath whom thou 'It observe 
 Blow ofj thy cap ; praise his most vicious strain. 
 And call it excellent : thou wast told thus ; 
 Thou gavest thine ears like tapsters that bade welcome 
 To knaves and all approachers : 'tis most just 
 That thou turn rascal ; hadst thou wealth again, 
 
 85
 
 Act IV. Sc. iii. THE LIFE OF 
 
 Rascals should have 't. Do not assume my likeness. 
 
 Tim. Were I like thee, I 'Id throw away myself. 
 
 Apem. Thou hast cast away thyself, being like thyself, -220 
 A madman so long, now a fool. What, think'st 
 That the bleak air, thy boisterous chamberlain. 
 Will put thy shirt on warm ? will these moss'd trees, 
 That have outlived the eagle, page thy heels. 
 And skip when thou point 'st out ? will the cold brook, 
 Candied with ice, caudle thy morning taste. 
 To cure thy o'er-night's surfeit? Call the creatures 
 Whose naked natures live in all the spite 
 Of wreakful heaven, whose bare unhoused trunks. 
 To the conflicting elements exposed, 230 
 
 Answer mere nature ; bid them flatter thee ; 
 O, thou shalt find — 
 
 Tim. A fool of thee : depart. 
 
 Apcm. I love thee better now than e'er I did. 
 
 Tim. I hate thee worse. 
 
 Apem. Why ? 
 
 Tim. Thou flatter'st misery. 
 
 Apem. I flatter not, but say thou art a caitiflf. 
 
 Tim. Why dost thou seek me out? 
 
 Apem. To vex thee. 
 
 Tim. Always a villain's oflice or a fool's. 
 Dost please thyself in 't ? 
 
 Apem. Ay. 
 
 Tim. What ! a knave too ? 
 
 Apem. If thou didst put this sour-cold habit on 
 
 To castigate thy pride, 'twere well : but thou 240 
 Dost it enforcedly ; thou 'Idst courtier be again, 
 Were thou not beggar. Willing misery 
 Outlives incertain pomp, is crown'd before : 
 
 86
 
 TIMON OF ATHENS Act IV. Sc. Hi. 
 
 The one is filling still, never complete, 
 The other at high wish : best state, contentless, 
 Hath a distracted and most wretched being, 
 Worse than the worst, content. 
 Thou shouldst desire to die, being miserable. 
 Tim. Not by his breath that is more miserable. 
 
 Thou art a slave, whom Fortune's tender arm 250 
 With favour never clasp'd, but bred a dog. 
 Hadst thou, like us from our first swath, proceeded 
 The sweet degrees that this brief world aflfords 
 To such as may the passive drugs of it 
 Freely command, thou wouldst have plunged thyself 
 In general riot, melted down thy youth 
 In different beds of lust, and never learn'd 
 The icy precepts of respect, but follow'd 
 The sugar'd game before thee. But myself. 
 Who had the world as my confectionary, 260 
 
 The mouths, the tongues, the eyes and hearts of men 
 At duty, more than I could frame employment ; 
 That numberless upon me stuck, as leaves 
 Do on the oak, have with one winter's brush 
 Fell from their boughs, and left me open, bare 
 For every storm that blows : I, to bear this, 
 That never knew but better, is some burden : 
 Thy nature did commence in sufferance, time 
 Hath made thee hard in 't. Why shouldst thou hate 
 
 men 
 
 They never flatter'd thee : what hast thou given ? 
 If thou wilt curse, thy father, that poor rag, 271 
 
 Must be thy subject, who in spite put stuff 
 To some she beggar and compounded thee 
 Poor rogue hereditary. Hence, be gone ! 
 
 87
 
 Act IV. Sc. iii. THE LIFE OF 
 
 If thou hadst not been born the worst of men, 
 
 Thou hadst been a knave and flatterer. 
 Apem. Art thou proud yet? 
 
 Tim. Ay, that I am not thee. 
 Apem. I, that I was 
 
 No prodigal. 
 Tim. I, that I am one now : 
 
 Were all the wealth I have shut up in thee, 
 
 I 'Id give thee leave to hang it. Get thee gone. 280 
 
 That the whole life of Athens were in this ! 
 
 Thus would I eat it. [Eating a root. 
 
 Apem. Here ; I will mend thy feast. 
 
 [Offering him a root. 
 Tim. First mend my company ; take away thyself. 
 Apem. So I shall mend mine own, by the lack of thine. 
 Tim. Tis not well mended so, it is but botch'd ; 
 
 If not, I would it were. 
 Apem. What wouldst thou have to Athens? 
 Tim. Thee thither in a whirlwind. If thou wilt. 
 
 Tell them there I have gold ; look, so I have. 
 Apem. Here is no use for gold. 
 Tim. The best and truest ; 290 
 
 For here it sleeps, and does no hired harm. 
 Apem. Where liest o' nights, Timon? 
 Tim. Under that 's above me. 
 
 Where feed'st thou o' days, Apemantus? 
 Apem. Where my stomach finds meat ; or, rather, 
 
 where I eat it. 
 Tim. W^ould poison were obedient and knew my 
 
 mind ! 
 Apem. Where wouldst thou send it? 
 Tim. To sauce thy dishes.
 
 TIMON OF ATHENS Act IV. Sc. iii. 
 
 Apem. The middle of humanity thou never knewest, 300 
 but the extremity of both ends : when thou wast 
 in thy gilt and thy perfume, they mocked thee 
 for too much curiosity ; in thy rags thou know'st 
 none, but art despised for the contrary. There 's 
 a medlar for thee ; eat it. 
 
 Tim. On what I hate I feed not. 
 
 Apem. Dost hate a medlar? 
 
 Tim. Ay, though it look like thee. 
 
 Apem. An thou hadst hated meddlers sooner, thou 
 
 shouldst have loved thyself better now. What 310 
 man didst thou ever know unthrift that was be- 
 loved after his means? 
 
 Tim. Who, without those means thou talk'st of, didst 
 thou ever know beloved? 
 
 Apem. IMyself. 
 
 Tim. I understand thee ; thou hadst some means to 
 keep a dog. 
 
 Apem. ^\llat things in the world canst thou nearest 
 compare to thy flatterers ? 
 
 Tim. \\'omen nearest ; but men, men are the things 320 
 themselves. What wouldst thou do with the 
 world, Apemantus, if it lay in thy power ? 
 
 Apem. Give it the beasts, to be rid of the men. 
 
 Tim. Wouldst thou have thyself fall in the confusion 
 of men, and remain a beast with the beasts ? 
 
 Apem. Ay, Timon. 
 
 Tim. A beastly ambition, which the gods grant thee 
 t' attain to ! If thou wert the lion, the fox would 
 beguile thee : if thou wert the lamb, the fox 
 would eat thee: if thou wert the fox, the lion 33 d 
 would suspect thee, when peradventure thou 
 
 89
 
 Act IV. Sc. iii. THE LIFE OF 
 
 wert accused by the ass : if thou wert the ass, 
 thy dulness would torment thee, and still thou 
 livedst but as a breakfast to the wolf: if thou 
 wert the wolf, thy greediness would afflict thee, 
 and oft thou shouldst hazard thy life for thy 
 dinner : wert thou the unicorn, pride and wrath 
 would confound thee, and make thine own self 
 the conquest of thy fury : wert thou a bear, 
 thou wouldst be killed by the horse : wert thou 340 
 a horse, thou wouldst be seized by the leopard : 
 wert thou a leopard, thou wert german to the 
 lion, and the spots of thy kindred were jurors on 
 thy life : all thy safety were remotion. and thy 
 defence absence. What beast couldst thou be 
 that were not subject to a beast? and what a 
 beast art thou already, that seest not thy loss in 
 transformation ! 
 
 Apem. If thou couldst please me with speaking to 
 
 me, thou mightst have hit upon it here : the com- 350 
 monwealth of Athens is become a forest of beasts. 
 
 Tiui. How has the ass broke the wall, that thou art 
 out of the city? 
 
 Apem. Yonder comes a poet and a painter : the 
 plague of company light upon thee ! I will fear 
 to catch it, and give way : when I know not what 
 else to do, I '11 see thee again. 
 
 Tim. When there is nothing living but thee, thou 
 shalt be welcome. I had rather be a beggar's 
 dog than Apemantus. 360 
 
 Apem. Thou art the cap of all the fools alive. 
 
 Tim. Would thou wert clean enough to spit upon ! 
 
 Apem. A plague on thee ! thou art too bad to curse. 
 "90
 
 TIMON OF ATHENS Act IV. Sc. lii. 
 
 Tim. All villains that do stand by thee are pure. 
 
 Apem. There is no leprosy but what thou speak'st. 
 
 Tim. If I name thee. 
 
 I '11 beat thee ; but I should infect my hands. 
 
 Apem. I would my tongue could rot them off ! 
 
 Tim. Away, thou issue of a mangy dog ! 370 
 
 Choler dost kill me that thou art alive ; 
 I swoon to see thee. 
 
 Apem. Would thou wouldst burst ! 
 
 Tim. Away, thou tedious rogue ! I am sorry I shall 
 
 lose a stone by thee. [Throzvs a stone at him, 
 
 Apem. Beast! 
 
 Tim. Slave! 
 
 Apem. Toad! 
 
 Tim. Rogue, rogue, rogue ! 
 
 I am sick of this false world, and will love nought 
 
 But even the mere necessities upon 't. 380 
 
 Then, Timon, presently prepare thy grave ; 
 
 Lie where the light foam of the sea may beat 
 
 Thy grave-stone daily : make thine epitaph, 
 
 That death in me at others' lives may laugh. 
 
 [To the gold] O thou sweet king-killer, and dear 
 
 divorce 
 'Tw4xt natural son and sire ! thou bright defiler 
 Of Hymen's purest bed ! thou valiant Mars ! 
 Thou ever young, fresh, loved, and delicate wooer, 
 Whose blush doth thaw the consecrated snow 
 That lies on Dian's lap ! thou visible god, 390 
 
 That solder'st close impossibilities. 
 And makest them kiss! that speak'st with every 
 
 tongue. 
 To every purpose ! O thou touch of hearts ! 
 
 91
 
 Act IV. Sc. iii. THE LIFE OF 
 
 Think thy slave man rebels ; and by thy virtue 
 
 Set them into confounding odds, that beasts 
 
 ]\Iay have the world in empire ! 
 Apem. \\^ould 'twere so ! 
 
 But not till I am dead. I '11 say thou has^ gold : 
 
 Thou wilt be throng'd to shortly. 
 Tim. Throng'd to ! 
 
 Apem. Ay. 
 
 Tim. Thy back, I prithee. 
 
 Apem. Live, and love thy misery ! 
 
 Tim. Long live so, and so die ! [Exit Apemantus.^ I am 
 quit. 
 
 Moe things like men ? Eat, Timon, and abhor them. 
 
 Enter Banditti. 
 
 First Ban. ^^llere should he have this gold ? It is 
 some poor fragment, some slender ort of his 
 remainder : the mere want of gold, and the 
 falling-from of his friends, drove him into this 
 melancholy. 
 
 Sec. Ban. It is noised he hath a mass of treasure. 
 
 Third Ban. Let us make the assay upon him: if he 
 care not for 't, he will supply us easily ; if he 
 covetously reserve it, how shall 's get it? 41c 
 
 Sec. Ban. True, for he bears it not about him ; 'tis hid. 
 
 First Ban. Is not this he ? 
 
 Banditti. Where? 
 
 Sec. Ban. 'Tis his description. 
 
 Third Ban. He; I know him. 
 
 Banditti. Save thee, Timon. 
 
 Tim. Now, thieves ? 
 
 Banditti. Soldiers, not thieves. 
 
 92
 
 TIMON OF ATHENS Act IV. Sc. iii. 
 
 Titn. Both too ; and women's sons. 
 
 Banditti. We are not thieves, but men that much do want. 
 
 Tim. Your greatest want is, you want much of meat. 421 
 Why should you want? Behold, the earth hath 
 
 roots ; 
 Within this mile break forth a hundred springs ; 
 The oaks bear mast, the briers scarlet hips ; 
 The bounteous housewife, nature, on each bush 
 Lays her full mess before you. Want ! why want ? 
 
 First Ban. We cannot live on grass, on berries, water. 
 As beasts and birds and fishes. 
 
 Tim. Nor on the beasts themselves, the birds and fishes ; 
 You must eat men. Yet thanks I must you con 430 
 That you are thieves profess'd, that you work not 
 In holier shapes : for there is boundless theft 
 In limited professions. Rascal thieves, 
 Here 's gold. Go, suck the subtle blood o' the grape, 
 Till the high fever seethe your blood to froth. 
 And so 'scape hanging : trust not the physician ; 
 His antidotes are poison, and he slays 
 Aloe than you rob : take wealth and lives together ; 
 Do villany, do, since you protest to do 't. 
 Like workmen. I '11 example you with thievery : 440 
 The sun 's a thief, and with his great attraction 
 Robs the vast sea : the moon 's an arrant thief. 
 And her pale fire she snatches from the sun : 
 The sea 's a thief, whose liquid surge resolves 
 The moon into salt tears : the earth 's a thief. 
 That feeds and breeds by a composture stol'n 
 From general excrement : each thing 's a thief : 
 The laws, your curb and whip, in their rough power 
 Have uncheck'd theft. Love not yourselves ; away, 
 
 93
 
 Act IV. Sc. iii. THE LIFE OF 
 
 Rob one another. There 's more gold. Cut throats : 
 All that you meet are thieves : to Athens go, 45 1 
 
 Break open shops ; nothing can you steal, 
 But thieves do lose it : steal not less for this 
 I give you ; and gold confound you howsoe'er ! 
 Amen. 
 
 Third Ban. Has almost charmed me from my profes- 
 sion by persuading me to it. 
 
 First Ban. 'Tis in the malice of mankind that he 
 thus advises us ; not to have us thrive in our 
 mystery. 460 
 
 Sec. Ban, I '11 believe him as an enemy, and give over 
 my trade. 
 
 First Ban. Let us first see peace in Athens : there 
 is no time so miserable but a man may be true. 
 
 [Exeunt Banditti. 
 
 Enter Flavins. 
 
 Flav. O you gods ! 
 
 Is yond despised and ruinous man my lord ? 
 
 Full of decay and failing ? O monument 
 \ And wonder of good deeds evilly bestow'd ! 
 , / What an alteration of honour 
 
 Has desperate want made ! 470 
 
 J What viler thing upon the earth than friends 
 
 Who can bring noblest minds to basest ends ! 
 
 How rarely does it meet with this time's guise, 
 * When man was wish'd to love his enemies ! 
 
 Grant I may ever love, and rather woo 
 
 Those that would mischief me than those that do ! 
 
 Has caught me in his eye : I will present 
 
 My honest grief unto him, and, as my lord, 
 
 Still serve him with my life. My dearest master ! 
 
 94
 
 TIMON OF ATHENS Act IV. Sc. Hi. 
 
 Tim. Away ! what are thou ? 
 
 Flav. Have you forgot me, sir? 480 
 
 Tim. Why dost ask that ? I have forgot all men ; 
 
 Then, if thou grant'st thou 'rt a man, I have forgot 
 thee. 
 
 Flaz'. An honest poor servant of yours. 
 
 Tim. Then I know thee not : 
 
 I never had honest man about me, I ; all 
 
 I kept were knaves, to serve in meat to villains. 
 
 Flaz: The gods are witness, 
 
 Ne'er did poor steward wear a truer grief 
 For his undone lord than mine eyes for you. 
 
 Ti}}i. What, dost thou weep ? come nearer ; then I love thee. 
 Because thou art a woman, and disclaim'st 491 
 
 Flinty mankind, whose eyes do never give 
 But thorough lust and laughter. Pity 's sleeping : 
 Strange times, that weep with laughing, not with 
 weeping ! 
 
 Flaz'. I beg of you to know me, good my lord. 
 
 To accept my grief, and whilst this poor wealth lasts 
 To entertain me as your steward still. 
 
 Tim. Had I a steward. 
 
 So true, so just, and now so comfortable? 
 
 It almost turns my dangerous nature mild. 500 
 
 Let me behold thy face. Surely this man 
 
 Was born of woman. 
 
 Forgive my general and exceptless rashness, 
 
 You perpetual-sober gods ! I do proclaim 
 
 One honest man — mistake me not — but one ; 
 
 No m.ore, I pray, — and he 's a steward. 
 
 How fain would I have hated all mankind ! 
 
 And thou redeem'st thyself : but all, save thee, 
 
 95
 
 Act IV. Sc. lii. THE LIFE OF 
 
 I fell with curses. 
 
 Methinks thou art more honest now than wise ; 510 
 
 For, by oppressing and betraying me, 
 
 Thou mightst have sooner got another service : 
 
 For many so arrive at second masters, 
 
 Upon their first lord's neck. But tell me true — 
 
 For I must ever doubt, though ne'er so sure — 
 
 Is not thy kindness subtle, covetous. 
 
 If not a usuring kindness and as rich men deal gifts, 
 
 Expecting in return twenty for one? 
 
 Flav. No, my most worthy master ; in whose breast 
 
 Doubt and suspect, alas, are placed too late : 520 
 
 You should have fear'd false times when you did feast : 
 
 Suspect still comes where an estate is least. 
 
 That which I show, heaven knows, is merely love, 
 
 Duty and zeal to your unmatched mind, 
 
 Care of your food and living ; and, believe it. 
 
 My most honour'd lord, 
 
 For any benefit that points to me. 
 
 Either in hope or present, I 'Id exchange 
 
 For this one wish, that you had power and wealth 
 
 To requite me by making rich yourself. 530 
 
 Tim. Look thee, 'tis so ! Thou singly honest man, 
 Here, take : the gods, out of my misery, 
 Flave sent thee treasure. Go, live rich and happy : 
 But thus condition'd : thou shalt build from men. 
 Hate all, curse all, show charity to none. 
 But let the famish'd flesh slide from the bone 
 Ere thou relieve the beggar : give to dogs 
 \\' hat thou deniest to men ; let prisons swallow 'em, 
 Debts wither 'em to n@thing: be men like blasted 
 woods, 
 
 96
 
 TIMON OF ATHENS Act V. Sc. i. 
 
 And may diseases lick up their false bloods ! 540 
 
 And so farewell, and thrive. 
 Flav. O, let me stay 
 
 And comfort you, my master. 
 Tim. If thou hatest curses 
 
 Stay not : fly, whilst thou art blest and free : 
 
 Ne'er see thou man, and let me ne'er see thee. 
 
 [Exeunt severally. 
 
 ACT FIFTH. 
 Scene I. 
 
 The woods. Before Timon's cave. 
 
 Enter Poet and Painter; Timon zvatching them 
 from his cave. 
 
 Pain. As I took note of the place, it cannot be far 
 where he abides. 
 
 Poet. \Miat 's to be thought of him ? does the rumour 
 hold for true, that he 's so full of gold ? 
 
 Pain. Certain : Alcibiades reports it ; Phrynia and 
 Timandra had gold of him : he likewise enriched 
 poor straggling soldiers with great quantity : 
 'tis said he gave unto his steward a mighty sum. 
 
 Poet. Then this breaking of his has been but a try 
 
 for his friends. 10 
 
 Pain. Notl:ing else : you shall see him a palm in 
 Athens again, and flourish with the highest. 
 Therefore 'tis not amiss we tender our loves 
 to him in this supposed- distress of his : it will 
 show honestly in us, and is very likely to load 
 our purposes with what they travail for, if it 
 
 97
 
 Act V. Sc. i. THE LIFE OF 
 
 be a just and true report that goes of his 
 having. 
 
 Poet. What have you now to present unto him? 
 
 Pain. Nothing at this time but my visitation : only I 20 
 will promise him an excellent piece. 
 
 Poet. I must serve him so too, tell him of an intent 
 that 's coming toward him. 
 
 Pain. Good as the best. Promising is the very air o' 
 the time : it opens the eyes of expectation : per- 
 formance is ever the duller for his act; and, but 
 in the plainer and simpler kind of people, the 
 deed of saying is quite out of use. To promise 
 is most courtly and fashionable : performance is 
 a kind of will or testament which argues a great 30 
 sickness in his judgement that makes it. 
 
 [Tinwn eoines from his cave, behind. 
 
 Tim. [Aside\ Excellent workman! thou canst not 
 paint a man so bad as is thyself. 
 
 Poet. I am thinking what I shall say I have provided 
 for him : it must be a personating of himself ; a 
 satire against the softness of prosperity, with a 
 discovery of the infinite flatteries that follow 
 youth and opulency. 
 
 Tim. [Aside^ ]\Iust thou needs stand for a villain in 
 
 thine own work? wilt thou whip thine own 40 
 faults in other men? Do so, I have gold for 
 thee. 
 
 Poet. Nay, let 's seek him : 
 
 Then do we sin against our own estate, 
 When we may profit meet, and come too late. 
 
 Pain. True ; 
 
 Wlien the day serves, before black-corner'd night, 
 
 98
 
 TIMON OF ATHENS Act V. Sc. i. 
 
 Find what thou want'st by free and offered hght. 
 
 Come. 
 Tim. [Aside] I '11 meet you at the turn. What a god's gold, 
 
 That he is worshipp'd in a baser temple 51 
 
 Than where swine feed ! 
 
 'Tis thou that rigg'st the bark and plough'st the foam, 
 
 Settlest admired reverence in a slave : 
 
 To thee be worship ! and thy saints for aye 
 
 Be crown 'd with plagues, that thee alone obey ! 
 
 Fit I meet them. [Coming forward. 
 
 Poet. Hail, worthy Timon ! 
 
 Paiii. Our late noble master ! 
 
 Tim. Have I once lived to see two honest men ? 
 Poet. Sir, 60 
 
 Having often of your open bounty tasted, 
 
 Hearing you were retired, your friends fall'n off. 
 
 Whose thankless natures — O abhorred spirits ! — 
 
 Not all the whips of heaven are large enough — - 
 
 What ! to you. 
 
 Whose star-like nobleness gave life and influence 
 
 To their whole being ! I am rapt, and cannot cover 
 
 The monstrous bulk of this ingratitude 
 
 With any size of words. 
 Tim. Let it go naked, men may see 't the better. 70 
 
 You that are honest, by being what you are. 
 
 Make them best seen and known. 
 Pain. He and myself 
 
 Have travail'd in the great shower of your gifts, 
 
 And sweetly felt it. 
 Tim. ' Ay, you are honest men. 
 
 Pain. We are hither come to offer you our service. 
 Tim. Most honest men ! Why, how shall I requite you ? 
 
 99
 
 Act V. Sc. i. THE LIFE OF 
 
 Can you eat roots, and drink cold water? no. 
 Both. What we can do, we '11 do, to do you service. 
 Tim. Ye 're honest men : ye 've heard that I have gold ; 
 
 I am sure you have : speak truth ; ye 're honest men. 
 Fain. So it is said, my noble lord : but therefore 8i 
 
 Came not my friend nor I. 
 Tim, Good honest men ! Thou draw'st a counterfeit 
 
 Best in all Athens : thou 'rt indeed the best ; 
 
 Thou counterfeit'st most lively. 
 Fain. So, so, my lord. 
 
 Tim. E'en so, sir, as I say. And, for thy fiction. 
 
 Why, thy verse swells with stuff so fine and smooth 
 
 That thou art even natural in thine art. 
 
 But, for all this, my honest-natured friends, 
 
 I must needs say you have a little fault : 90 
 
 Marry, 'tis not monstrous in you ; neither wish I 
 
 You take much pains to mend. 
 Both. Beseech your honour 
 
 To make it known to us. 
 Tim. You '11 take it ill. 
 
 Both. Most thankfully, my lord. 
 Tim. Will you, indeed ? 
 
 Both. Doubt it not, w^orthy lord. 
 Tim. There 's never a one of you but trusts a knave 
 
 That mightily deceives you. 
 Both. Do we, my lord ? 
 
 Tim. Ay, and you hear him cog, see him dissemble, 
 
 Know his gross patchery, love him, feed him. 
 
 Keep in your bosom : yet remain assured 100 
 
 That he 's a made-up villain. 
 Fain. I know none such, my lord. 
 Foct. Nor 1. 
 
 100
 
 TIMON OF ATHENS Act V. Sc. i. 
 
 Tim. Look you, I love you well ; I '11 give you gold, 
 Rid me these villains from your companies : 
 Hang them or stab them, drown them in a draught. 
 Confound them by some course, and come to me, 
 I '11 give you gold enough. 
 
 Both. Name them, my lord, let 's know them. 
 
 Ti}n. You that way, and you this, but two in company : 
 Each man apart, all single and alone, no 
 
 Yet an arch-villain keeps him company. 
 If, where thou art, two villains shall not be, 
 Come not near him. If thou wouldst not reside 
 But where one villain is, then him abandon. 
 Hence, pack ! there's gold ; you came for gold, ye slaves : 
 [ To Painter] You have work for me, there 's payment : 
 
 hence ! 
 [To Poet] You are an alchemist, make gold of that: 
 Out, rascal dogs ! 
 
 [Beats them out, and then retires into his cave. 
 
 Enter Flavins, and tzco Senators. 
 
 Flav. It is in vain that you would speak with Timon ; 
 
 For he is set so only to himself 120 
 
 That nothing but himself which looks like man 
 Is friendly with him. 
 
 First Sen. Bring us to his cave : 
 
 It is our part and promise to the Athenians 
 To speak with Timon. 
 
 Sec. Sen. At all times alike 
 
 Men are not still the same : 'twas time and griefs 
 That framed him thus : time, with his fairer hand, 
 Offering the fortunes of his former days. 
 The former man may make him. Bring us to him, 
 
 lOI
 
 ActV.Sc. i. THE LIFE OF 
 
 And chance it as it may. 
 Flav. Here is his cave. 
 
 Peace and content be here ! Lord Timon ! Timon ! 
 Look out, and speak to friends: the Athenians 131 
 By two of their most reverend senate greet thee : 
 Speak to them, noble Timon. 
 
 Timon comes from his cave. 
 
 Tim, Thousun,that comfort'st,burn ! Speak, and be hano^'d : 
 For each true word, a bhster ! and each false 
 Be as a cauterizing to the root o' the tongue, 
 Consuming it with speaking ! 
 
 First Sen. Worthy Timon, — 
 
 Tim. Of none but such as you, and you of Timon. 
 
 First Sen. The senators of Athens greet thee, Timon. 
 
 Tim. I thank them, and would send them back the plague, 
 Could I but catch it for them. 
 
 First Sen. O, forget 141 
 
 What we are sorry for ourselves in thee. 
 The senators with one consent of love 
 Entreat thee back to Athens ; who have thought 
 On special dignities, which vacant lie 
 For thy best use and wearing. 
 
 Sec. Sen. They confess 
 
 Toward thee forgetfulness too general, gross : 
 WHiich now the public body, which doth seldom 
 Play the recanter, feeling in itself 
 A lack of Timon's aid, hath sense withal 150 
 
 Of it own fail, restraining aid to Timon ; 
 And send forth us, to make their sorrowed render, 
 Together with a recompense more fruitful 
 Than their offence can weigh down by the dram ; 
 102
 
 TIMON OF ATHENS Act V. Sc. i. 
 
 Ay, even such heaps and sums of love and wealth, 
 As shall to thee blot out what wrongs were theirs. 
 And write in thee the figures of their love, 
 Ever to read them thine. 
 
 Tim. You witch me in it, 
 
 Surprise me to the very brink of tears : 
 Lend me a fool's heart and a woman's eyes, i6o 
 
 And I '11 beweep these comforts, worthy senators. 
 
 First Sen. Therefore, so please thee to return with us. 
 And of our Athens, thine and ours, to take 
 The captainship, thou shalt be met with thanks, 
 AUow'd with absolute power, and thy good name 
 Live with authority : so soon we shall drive back 
 Of Alcibiades the approaches wild ; 
 Who, like a boar too savage, doth root up 
 His country's peace. 
 
 Sec. Sen. And shakes his threatening sword 
 
 Against the walls of Athens. 
 
 First Sen. Therefore, Timon, — 170 
 
 Tim. Well, sir, I will ; therefore, I will, sir ; thus : 
 If Alcibiades kill my countrymen, 
 Let Alcibiades know this of Timon, 
 That Timon cares not. But if he sack fair Athens 
 And take our goodly aged men by the beards. 
 Giving our holy virgins to the stain 
 Of contumelious, beastly, man-brain'd war; 
 Then let him know, and tell him Timon speaks it, 
 In pity of our aged and our youth, 
 I cannot choose but tell him, that I care not, 180 
 
 And let him take 't at worst ; for their knives care not, 
 While you have throats to answer : for myself. 
 There 's not a whittle in the unruly camp, 
 
 103
 
 ActV. Sc. i. THE LIFE OF 
 
 But I do prize it at my love before 
 The reverend'st throat in Athens. So I leave you 
 To the protection of the prosperous gods, 
 As thieves to keepers. 
 Flav. Stay not ; all 's in vain. 
 
 Tim, Why, I was writing of my epitaph ; 
 
 It will be seen to-morrow : my long sickness 
 Of health and living now begins to mend, 190 
 
 And nothing brings me all things. Go, live still ; 
 Be Alcibiades your plague, you his. 
 And last so long enough ! 
 First Sen. We speak in vain. 
 
 Tim. But yet I love my country, and am not 
 One that rejoices in the common wreck. 
 As common bruit doth put it. 
 First Sen. That 's well spoke. 
 
 Tim. Commend me to my loving countrymen, — 
 First Sen. These words become your lips as they pass 
 
 thorough them. 
 Sec. Sen. And enter in our ears like great triumphers 
 
 In their applauding gates. 
 Tim- Commend me to them ; 200 
 
 And tell them that, to ease them of their griefs, 
 Their fears of hostile strokes, their aches, losses. 
 Their pangs of love, with other incident throes 
 That nature's fragile vessel doth sustain 
 In life's uncertain voyage, I will some kindness do them : 
 I '11 teach them to prevent wild Alcibiades' wrath. 
 First Sen. I like this well ; he will return again. 
 Tim. I have a tree, which grows here in my close, 
 That mine own use invites me to cut down, 
 And shortly must I fell it: tell my friends, 210 
 
 104
 
 TIMOiN OF ATHENS Act V. Sc. ii. 
 
 Tell Athens, in the sequence of degree 
 
 From high to low throughout, that whoso please 
 
 To stop affliction, let him take his haste, 
 
 Come hither ere my tree hath felt the axe, 
 
 And hang himself: I pray you, do my greeting. 
 
 Flaz'. Trouble him no further ; thus you still shall find him. 
 
 Ti})i. Come not to me again : but say to Athens, 
 Timon hath made his everlasting mansion 
 Upon the beached verge of the salt flood ; 
 Who once a day with his embossed froth 220 
 
 The turbulent surge shall cover: thither come, 
 And let my grave-stone be your oracle. 
 Lips, let sour words go by and language end : 
 What is amiss, plague and infection mend ! 
 Graves only be men's works, and death their gain ! 
 Sun, hide thy beams ! Timon hath done his reign. 
 
 [Retires to his cave. 
 
 First Sen. His discontents are unremoveably 
 Coupled to nature. 
 
 Sec. Sen. Our hope in him is dead : let us return. 
 
 And strain what other means is left unto us, 230 
 In our dear peril. 
 
 First Sen. It requires swift foot. [Exeunt. 
 
 Scene II. 
 
 Before the zvalls of Athens. 
 Enter tn'o Senators and a Messenger. 
 
 First Sen. Thou hast painfully discover'd : arc his files 
 
 As full as thy report? 
 Mess. I have spoke the least : 
 
 Besides, his expedition promises 
 
 105
 
 AcfV.Sc. Hi. THE LIFE OF 
 
 Present approach. 
 
 Sec. Sen. We stand much hazard, if they bring not Timon. 
 
 Mess. I met a courier, one mine ancient friend ; 
 
 Whom, though in general part we were opposed. 
 
 Yet our old love made a particular force, 
 
 And made us speak like friends : this man was riding 
 
 From Alcibiades to Timon's cave, lo 
 
 With letters of entreaty, which imported 
 
 His fellowship i' the cause against your city, 
 
 In part for his sake moved. 
 
 First Sen. Here come our brothers. 
 
 Enter Senators from Timon. 
 
 Third Sen. No talk of Timon, nothing of him expect. 
 The enemies' drum is heard, and fearful scouring 
 Doth choke the air with dust : in, and prepare : 
 Ours is the fall, I fear, our foes the snare. [Exet/nt. 
 
 Scene III. 
 
 The woods. Timon's cave, and a rude tomb seep. 
 
 Enter a Soldier, seeking Timon. 
 
 Sold. By all description this should be the place. 
 
 Who 's here ? speak, ho ! No answer ! What is this ? 
 Timon is dead, who hath outstretchVl his span : 
 Some beast read this ; there does not live a man. 
 Dead, sure ; and this his grave. What 's on this tomb 
 I cannot read ; the character I '11 take with wax : 
 Our captain hath in every figure skill, 
 ^ An aged interpreter, though young in days : 
 Before proud Athens he 's set down by this, 
 Whose fall the mark of his ambition is. [Exit. lo 
 
 io6
 
 TIMON OF ATHENS Act V. Sc. iv. 
 
 Scene IV. 
 
 Before the zvalls of Athens. 
 
 Trumpets sound. Enter Alcibiades zvith his powers, 
 
 Alcih. Sound to this coward and lascivious town 
 
 Our terrible approach. [A parley sounded. 
 
 Enter Senators upon the walls. 
 
 Till now you have gone on and fill'd the time 
 With all licentious measure, making your wills 
 The scope of justice; till now myself and such 
 As slept within the shadow of your power 
 Have wander'd with our traversed arms and breathed 
 Our sufferance vainly ; now the time is flush, 
 When crouching marrow in the bearer strong 
 Cries of itself ' No more ' : now breathless wrong lo 
 Shall sit and pant in your great chairs of ease, 
 And pursy insolence shall break his wind 
 With fear and horrid flight. 
 First Sen. Noble and young. 
 
 When thy first griefs were but a mere conceit, 
 Ere thou hadst power or we had cause of fear. 
 We sent to thee, to give thy rages balm, 
 To wipe out our ingratitude with loves 
 Above their quantity. 
 See. Sen. So did we woo 
 
 Transformed Timon to our city's love 
 By humble message and by promised means : 20 
 
 We were not all unkind, nor all deserve 
 The common stroke of war. 
 First Sen, These walls of ours 
 
 107
 
 Act V. Sc. IV. THE LIFE OF 
 
 Were not erected by their hands from whom 
 You have received your griefs : nor are they such 
 That these great tovv^ers, trophies and schools should fall 
 For private faults in them. 
 
 Sec. Sen. Nor are they living 
 
 Who were the motives that you first went out ; 
 Shame, that they wanted cunning, in excess 
 Hath broke their hearts. March, noble lord, 
 Into our city with thy banners spread : 30 
 
 By decimation and a tithed death — 
 If thy revenges hunger for that food 
 Which nature loathes — take thou the destined tenth. 
 And by the hazard of the spotted die 
 Let die the spotted. 
 
 First Sen. All have not ofifended ; 
 
 For those that w^ere, it is not square to take, 
 On those that are, revenges : crimes, like lands, 
 Are not inherited. Then, dear countryman. 
 Bring in thy ranks, but leave without thy rage : 
 Spare thy Athenian cradle and those kin 40 
 
 Which, in the bluster of thy Vv^ath, must fall 
 With those that have offended : like a shepherd 
 Approach the fold and cull the infected forth, 
 But kill not all together. 
 
 Sec. Sen. What thou wilt, 
 
 Thou rather shalt enforce it with thy smile 
 Than hew to 't w^ith thy sword. 
 
 First Sen. Set but thy foot 
 
 Against our rampired gates, and they shall ope ; 
 So thou wilt send thy gentle heart before, 
 To say thou 'It enter friendly. 
 
 Sec. Sen. Throw thy glove, 
 
 108
 
 TIMON OF ATHENS Act V. Sc. iv. 
 
 Or any token of thine honour else, 50 
 
 That thou wilt use the wars as thy redress 
 And not as our confusion, all thy powers 
 Shall make their harbour in our town, till we 
 Have seal'd thy full desire. 
 Alcib. Then there 's my glove ; 
 
 Descend, and open your uncharged ports : 
 Those enemies of Timon's, and mine own, 
 AVhom you yourselves shall set out for reproof. 
 Fall, and no more : and, to atone your fears 
 With my more noble meaning, not a man 
 Shall pass his quarter, or offend the stream 60 
 
 Of regular justice in your city's bounds. 
 But shall be render'd to your public laws 
 At heaviest answer. 
 
 Both. 'Tis most nobly spoken. 
 
 Alcib. Descend, and keep your words. 
 
 [The Senators descend, and open the gates. 
 
 Enter Soldier. 
 
 Sold. My noble general, Timon is dead ; 
 
 Entomb'd upon the very hem o' the sea ; 
 And on his grave-stone this insculpture, which 
 With wax I brought away, whose soft impression 
 Interprets for my poor ignorance. 
 
 Alcih. [Reads] 
 
 ' Here lies a wretched corse, of wretched soul bereft : 
 Seek not my name: a plague consume you wicked 
 caitiffs left! 71 
 
 Here lie T, Timon ; who, alive, all living men did hate : 
 Pass by and curse thy fill ; but pass and stay not here 
 thy gait.' 
 
 109
 
 Act V. Sc. iv. THE LIFE OF 
 
 These well express in thee thy latter spirits : 
 
 Though thou abhorr'dst in us our human griefs, 
 
 Scorn'dst our brain's flow and those our droplets which 
 
 From niggard nature fall, yet rich conceit 
 
 Taught thee to make vast Neptune weep for aye 
 
 On thy low grave, on faults forgiven. Dead 
 
 Is noble Timon : of whose memory 80 
 
 Hereafter more. Bring me into your city. 
 
 And I will use the olive with my sword. 
 
 Make war breed peace, make peace stint war, make each 
 
 Prescribe to other as each other's leech. 
 
 Let our drums strike. [Exeunt. 
 
 no
 
 TIMON OF ATHENS 
 
 Glossary. 
 
 Abhor himself, make himself 
 abhorred (Hanmer, " make 
 himself ahhorrd") ; I. i. 60. 
 
 Aches (dissyllabic) ; I. i. 247. 
 
 Advance, promote, raise to 
 honour; I. ii. 171. 
 
 Affect, like, desire; I. ii. 219. 
 
 Allow'd, trusted, invested by 
 public authority (Warbur- 
 ton, " H allow'd") ; V. i. 165. 
 
 All to you, " all good wishes to 
 you"; I. ii. 235. 
 
 Alteration; "a. of honour,"/.^, 
 change to dishonour; IV. iii. 
 469. 
 
 Ample, amply ; I. ii. 130. 
 
 Apperil, peril ; I. ii. 32. 
 
 Argument, contents; II. ii. 185. 
 
 , subject, theme; III. iii. 
 
 20; III, V. 23. 
 
 Arms; " travers'd arms," (?) 
 folded arms ; according to 
 others, with arms reversed ; 
 V. iv. 7. 
 
 Artificial, belonging to art, ar- 
 tistic ; " a. strife," the strife 
 of art to outdo nature ; I. i. 
 37- 
 
 Atone, set at peace, put in ac- 
 cord; V. iv. 58. 
 
 Attend, await; III. v. 102. 
 
 Attends, awaits; I. ii. 154. 
 
 Banquet, dessert ; I. ii. 154. 
 Bans, curses; IV. i. 34. 
 
 Beagles, a small sort of dog ; 
 
 used of servile followers ; 
 
 IV. iii. 175. 
 Bear, bear off; I. i. 131. 
 Becks, nods ; I. ii. 239. 
 Beggar's dog; II. i. 5. {Cp. 
 
 illustration.) 
 
 
 From a XVIIth century black-letter 
 ballad. 
 
 Behave, govern ; III. v. 22. 
 
 Beneath, lower, below; I. i. 4\. 
 
 Best, that which can be most 
 depended upon (S. Walker 
 conj. "last"); III. iii. 36. 
 
 Blains, botches ; IV. i. 28. 
 
 Blood, temper (Johnson cor.j. 
 "mood") ; IV. ii. 38. 
 
 Bound, bank, boundary ; I, i. 25. 
 
 Brains flow, tears (Hanmer, 
 "brine's flow"); V. iv. 76. 
 
 Breath, voice; IV. iii. 249. 
 
 Breathe, utter; III. v. z^- 
 
 Breathed, trained {" inured to 
 constant practice ; so trained 
 as not to be wearied ; To 
 breathe a horse is to exercise 
 him for the course " ; I. i. 10. 
 
 Ill
 
 Glossary 
 
 THE LIFE OF 
 
 Bring, conduct; V. i, 122. 
 Bruise, crush, destroy ; III. v. 4. 
 Bruit, rumour ; V. i. 196. 
 By, according to ; I. i. 171. 
 By mercy, (?) by your leave; 
 III. V. 55. 
 
 Candied, congealed; IV. iii. 
 
 226. 
 Cap, top, principal ; IV. iii. 361. 
 Carper, censurer; IV. iii. 209. 
 Caudle, serve as a caudle, re- 
 fresh; IV. iii. 226. 
 Ceased, stopped, silenced ; II. i. 
 
 16. 
 Character, writing; V. iii. 6. 
 Charge, commission; III. iv. 25. 
 Charitable; " ch. title," i.e. title 
 
 of endearment ; I. ii. 90. 
 Cheerly, cheerfully; II. ii. 221. 
 Clear, pure ; IV. iii. 27. 
 Close, (?) closely; IV. iii. 391. 
 Cock ; " wasteful c." {v. Note) ; 
 
 II. ii. 169. 
 Cog, deceive ; V. i. 98. 
 Coil, ado, confusion ; I. ii. 238. 
 Cold-moving, distant; II. ii. 
 
 219. 
 Comes off well, i.e. is well 
 
 done ; I. i. 29. 
 Comfortable, comforting ; IV. 
 
 iii. 499. 
 Composture, compost; IV. iii. 
 
 446. 
 Compt; " in c," i.e. for the 
 
 computation of the interest 
 
 due (Folios, "in. Come"; 
 
 H a n m e r, " in count " ; 
 
 Keightley conj. "in mind") ; 
 
 II. i. 34. 
 Conceptions, fruitful ; IV. iii. 
 
 187. 
 
 Condition, (?) art (perhaps 
 " would be well express' d in 
 our c." = " would find a stri- 
 king parallel in our state," 
 Schmidt) ; I. i. yy. 
 
 Conditions, inclinations (per- 
 haps = "vocations"); IV. 
 iii. 139- 
 
 Confectionary, store for sweets; 
 
 IV. iii. 260. 
 
 Confound, destroy IV. iii. 338. 
 Confounding, causing ruin ; IV. 
 i. 20. 
 
 , ruinous ; IV. iii. 395. 
 
 Confusion, destruction ; IV. iii. 
 
 324. 
 
 , ruin ; V. iv. 52. 
 
 Con thanks, be thankful ; IV. 
 
 iii. 430. 
 Continuate, continual; I. i. 11. 
 Contraries, contrarieties ; IV. i. 
 
 20. 
 Convert, turn ; IV. i. 7. 
 Corinth, a cant name for a 
 
 brothel ; II. ii. y^,. 
 Couch'd; " are c," lie low, have 
 
 disappeared; II. ii. 179. 
 Counterfeit, portrait, likeness; 
 
 V. i. 83. 
 
 Courage, disposition ; III. iii. 24. 
 
 Crown'd, glorified; II. ii. 188. 
 
 Cunning, profession; IV. iii. 
 209. 
 
 Curiosity, scrupulousness, fas- 
 tidiousness; IV. iii. 303. 
 
 Date-broke, date-broken (Fo- 
 lios, " debt, broken " ; Ma- 
 lone, "date-broken") \ II. ii. 
 
 Dear, used intensively; IV. iii. 
 385.
 
 TIMON OF ATHENS 
 
 Glossary 
 
 Dear, extreme, desperate ; V. i. 
 
 231. 
 Dearest, utmost ; 1. i. 124. 
 Dedicated; " a d. beggar to the 
 
 air," i.e. a beggar dedicated 
 
 to the air; IV. ii. 13. 
 Deed of saying, doing what one 
 
 promises ( Pope reads 
 
 " deed ") ; V. i. 28. 
 Defiled, used with a play upon 
 
 " pitch' d" (suggestive of 
 
 " pitch that doth defile," cp. 
 
 I Henry IV., II. iv. 415) ; I. 
 
 ii. 231. 
 Depart, part ; I. i. 253. 
 Depraved, slandered ; I. ii. 139. 
 Depraves, slanders ; I. ii. 139. 
 Deserts; "all d.," i.e. all kinds 
 
 of men ; I. i. 65. 
 Dich, a corruption of " do it," 
 
 due to the phrase " d' it ye " 
 
 (the y palatalising the ; I. 
 
 ii. ']2. 
 Discharged, paid; II. ii. 12. 
 Discovery, disclosing ; V. i. 37. 
 Disfurnish, deprive of means; 
 
 III. ii. 49. 
 
 Dispraise, disparagement ; I. i. 
 
 165. 
 Dividant, divided, IV. iii. 5. 
 Doit, the smallest coin ; a trifle ; 
 
 I. i. 210. 
 Doubt, fear ; I. ii. 153. 
 Doubtfully, ambiguously ; I\'. 
 
 iii. 121. 
 Draught, sink; V. i. 105. 
 
 Earnest, earnest money, a part 
 paid beforehand as a pledge ; 
 
 IV. iii. 47. 
 
 Embossed, tumid, swollen ; V. 
 i. 220. 
 
 Entertain, use, employ; IV. iii. 
 497. 
 
 Ever, always (Rowe's emenda- 
 tion of Folios, "very''); I. 
 ii. 29. 
 
 Exceptless, making no excep- 
 tion; IV. iii. 503. 
 
 Fail, offence (Capell's reading; 
 
 Folios, " fall " ; Hanmer, 
 
 "fault") ; V. i. 151. 
 Fall; "at f.," at a low ebb; II. 
 
 ii. 212. 
 Falling-from, falling off (Pope, 
 
 "falling off") ; IV. iii. 405. 
 Fang, seize with teeth ; IV. iii. 
 
 23. 
 Fate, evil destiny (Warburton 
 
 conj. "fault") ; III. v. 14. 
 Feeders, parasites ; II. ii. 166. 
 Fees, property (Warburton 
 
 conj. "foes"; Singer, 
 
 "lees") ; III. vi. 82. 
 
 companions ; IV. ii. 
 
 u. 30. 
 ; V.ii. 
 
 • 155- 
 i. 219. 
 V. iv. 
 
 Fellozi 
 
 18. 
 Fierce, excessive ; IV. 
 Files, ranks of soldiers 
 Flamen, priest; IV. iii 
 Flood, sea, ocean ; Y. 
 Flush, in its full vigour ; 
 Fond, foolish ; I. ii. 64. 
 For, because; III. v. 80. 
 
 , of; V. i. II. 
 
 Forth on, onward ; I. i. 49. 
 Fracted, broken ; II. i. 22. 
 Fractions, broken sentences 
 
 ii. 218. 
 Frame, plan ; IV. iii. 262. 
 Framed, moulded, shaped; 
 
 i. 126. 
 Frankly, as frankly, as freelv 
 
 II. ii. 186. 
 
 II. 
 
 V. 
 
 113
 
 Glossary 
 
 THE LIFE OF 
 
 Free, liberal ; 11. ii. 240. 
 From, from among ; I. ii. 90, 
 , away from ; IV. iii. 534. 
 
 German, akin; IV. 'iii. 342. 
 
 Girdlest in, dost surround (Fo- 
 lios, "girdles"); IV. i. 2. 
 
 Give out, profess to be; I. i. 
 160. 
 
 Glass-faced, reflecting, like a 
 mirror, the looks of his pa- 
 tron; I. i. 58. 
 
 Good, real ; II. ii. 234. 
 
 Good even, the common form 
 of salutation after noon ; II. 
 ii. 9. 
 
 Gorge ; " cast the g. at," vomit ; 
 IV. iii. 40. 
 
 Gramercies, many thanks ; II. 
 ii. 69. 
 
 Grave, bury ; IV. iii. 166. 
 
 Griefs, grievances; V. iv. 14. 
 
 Grise, step ; IV. iii. 16. 
 
 Grows, grows older (Theobald, 
 "goes") ; I. i. 3- 
 
 Gules, the heraldic term for 
 red; IV. iii. 59. 
 
 Gull, properly, an unfledged 
 nestling, here used with play 
 upon this and secondary 
 sense: — dupe; II. i. 31. 
 
 Gust, taste, relish ; III. v. 54. 
 
 Habit, exterior; IV. iii. 113. 
 Half-caps, caps half taken off, 
 
 slight salutations; II. ii. 219. 
 Hap, chance, luck; III. ii. 27. 
 Hard in, hardened to; IV. iii. 
 
 269. 
 Harness, armour; I. ii. 52. 
 Having, possessions; II. ii. 151. 
 
 Heart ; " in h./' heartily ; i.e. I 
 drink to you with all my 
 heart, heartily: (Gould conj. 
 "your health"); I. ii. 53. 
 
 Heaven, salvation (here = good 
 advice ; according to others, 
 " the pleasure of being flat- 
 tered ") ; I. ii. 256. 
 
 Hew to, shape by cutting 
 (Daniel conj. " hcvj out"); 
 V. iv. 46. 
 
 Hinge, bend; IV. iii. 211. 
 
 His, its ; I. i. 31. 
 
 Hoar, make rotten ; IV. iii. 155. 
 
 Hold, continue ; II. i. 12. 
 
 Hold taking, bear handling; I. 
 
 ii- 153- 
 Honesty, liberality, bounty; III. 
 
 i. 30. 
 Horrid, dreadful ; V. iv. 13. 
 Hoy-day, hey-day; I. ii. 131. 
 Humour, caprice (Folios i, 2, 
 
 "humors") ; III. vi. 115. 
 Hungerly, hungrily ; I. i. 252. 
 Husbandry, good management, 
 
 economy; II. ii. 162. 
 Hyperion, the God of the Sun; 
 
 IV. iii. 184. 
 
 Idle, trifling; I. ii. 154. 
 
 , foolish ; IV. iii. 27. 
 
 Importunacy, importunity; II. 
 ii. 42. 
 
 Incertain, uncertain ; IV. iii. 243. 
 
 Incontinent, inconstant, un- 
 chaste; IV. i. 3. 
 
 Infected, diseased (Rowe, "af- 
 fected") ; IV. iii. 202. 
 
 Inferr'd, alleged : III. v. 73. 
 
 Infinite, (? ) numberless (Grant 
 White conj. "infectious") \ 
 III. vi. 102. 
 
 114
 
 TIMON OF ATHENS 
 
 Glossary 
 
 In-fiuence (used in the astrolog- 
 ical sense) ; V. i. 66. 
 
 Ingeniously, ingenuously, 
 frankly; II. ii. 228. 
 
 Ingratefiil, ungrateful ; IV. ii. 
 
 45. 
 Innocence ( ?) want of spirit 
 (perhaps used ironically) ; I. 
 
 i. 195- 
 Intending, pretending ; II. ii. 
 
 217. 
 Ira furor brevis est, anger is a 
 
 brief madness; I. ii. 28. 
 It, its; V. i. 151. 
 
 Keep his house, remain within 
 the house; III. iii. 42. 
 
 Lag, lowest class (Folios i, 2, 
 3. " legge " ; Anon. ap. Rann 
 conj. " tag") ; III. vi. 84. 
 
 Late, lately; II. i. i. 
 
 Lay for, venture for, strive to 
 win; III. V. 115. 
 
 Leak'd, leaky; IV. ii. 19. 
 
 Leech, physician ; V. iv. 8 
 
 Legs, used with play upon (i.) 
 limbs, (ii.) bowing; I. ii. 
 240. 
 
 Length; " at 1.," at last ; II. ii. 
 156. 
 
 Levell'd, aimed ; I. i. 47. 
 
 Liberty, licentiousness ; IV.i.25. 
 
 Limited, circumscribed, con- 
 fined within bounds ; IV. iii. 
 
 433- 
 Lined, stuffed; IV. i. 14. 
 Lively, ^o the life ; V. i. 85. 
 Loarf^'H, loaded, laden ; III. v. 50. 
 
 Made-up, complete, perfect ; V. 
 
 Make, do; III. v. 46. 
 Many, many of; III. vi. 10. 
 Marrow, vigour ; V. iv. 9. 
 Mean; "mean eyes," i.e. eyes 
 
 of inferiors (Theobald conj. 
 
 " men's ") ; I. i. 93. 
 M^eans, power, wealth ; V. iv. 20. 
 Meddler, used with quibble 
 
 upon " medlar " ; IV. iii. 309. 
 Medlar, a kind of fruit ; IV. iii. 
 
 305. . 
 
 Meed, merit ; I. i. 276. 
 
 Men, human beings ; IV. iii. 534. 
 
 Merely, absolutely; IV. i. 32. 
 
 Mind, magnanimity ; I. ii. 164. 
 
 Minion, favourite, darling ; IV. 
 iii. 80. 
 
 Minute - jacks, time - servers 
 (with perhaps an allusion to 
 "Jacks-of-the-Clock," figures 
 that struck the bell in old 
 clocks) ; III. vi. loi. 
 
 Misanthropos, hater of man- 
 kind (Folio I, " misantro- 
 pos") ; IV. iii. 53- 
 
 Moe, more; I. i. 41. 
 
 Monstrous, unnatural ; V. i. 91. 
 
 Moss'd, overgrown with moss 
 (Folios I, 2, "moyst"; Fo- 
 lios 3, 4, "moist"); IV. iii. 
 223. 
 
 Motives, authors; V. iv. 27. 
 
 Multiplying, increasing; IV. i. 
 
 34- 
 Mysteries, trades, professions ; 
 IV. i. 18. 
 
 Natural, used probably in 
 double sense (i.) genuine, 
 (ii.) a fool; V. i. 88. 
 
 Nature, necessities of nature; 
 IV. iii, 231. 
 
 115
 
 Glossary 
 
 THE LIFE OF 
 
 Jack 0* the clock. 
 From the specimen formerly at St. 
 Dunstan's Church, Fleet Street, E.G. 
 
 Near, nearly ; I. ii. 179. 
 Neighbour, neighbouring; IV. 
 iii. 94. 
 
 Objects, things presented to the 
 sight, everything that comes 
 in the way; IV. iii. 122. 
 
 Occasion, necessity; III. ii. 26. 
 
 Occasions, engagements ; III. 
 vi. 10. 
 
 Offices, apartments where food 
 was prepared; II. ii. 165. 
 
 On, at ; I. i. 141. 
 
 , in; IV. iii. loi. 
 
 Ope, open ; V. iv. 47. 
 
 Operant, active; IV. iii. 25. 
 
 Opulency, opulence, riches ; V. 
 
 i. 38. 
 Ort, remnant ; IV. iii. 400. 
 Out, without, outside ; IV. i. 38, 
 Outgoes, exceeds ; I. i. 273. 
 Ozved; " o. to you," held at 
 
 your service; I. i. 151. 
 
 Pack, be off; V. i. 115. 
 
 Page, follow like a page ; IV. 
 
 iii. 224. 
 Painfully; " thou hast p. dis- 
 covered " ; i.e. thou hast to 
 
 our distress discovered; V. 
 
 ii. I. 
 Paper, bonds, deeds (Warbur- 
 
 ton, "proper" ; Hanmer, 
 
 '' perpetiiiim" ; Kinnear conj. 
 
 "person" ', Becket conj. 
 
 " pauper") ; I. ii. 250. 
 Part, particular business (S. 
 
 Walker conj. "pact"); V. i. 
 
 123. 
 , side, part ; " in general 
 
 p.." in the public cause; V. 
 
 ii. 7. 
 
 , depart; IV. ii. 21. 
 
 Particular, personal advantage ; 
 
 IV. iii. 159. 
 Particularly; " halts not p.," 
 
 does not stop at particular 
 
 persons ; I. i. 46. 
 Parts, endowments, qualities ; 
 
 II. ii. 23. 
 
 , virtues; III. v. 76. 
 
 Passes, surpasses (Jackson 
 
 conj. "surpasses") ; I. i. 12. 
 Passion, violent emotion ; III. i. 
 
 59- 
 Patchery; "botchery intended 
 to hide faults; gross and 
 bungling hypocrisy " ; V. i. 99. 
 
 116
 
 TIMON OF ATHENS 
 
 Pawn, pledge ; I. i. 147. 
 
 Perfect ; " for ever p.," arrived 
 at the perfection of happi- 
 ness ; I. ii. 86. 
 
 Perfection, highest excellence ; 
 ( ? " perfect image ") ; III. 
 vi. 94. 
 
 Perfumes ; " diseased p." = 
 " diseased perfumed mis- 
 tresses " ; IV. iii. 207. 
 
 Periods, puts an end to ; I. i. 99. 
 
 Personating, representing; V. i. 
 
 35- 
 
 Pill, pillage, plunder ; IV. i. 12. 
 
 Plain-dealing, an allusion to the 
 proverb, " Plain-dealing is a 
 jewel, but they that use it 
 die beggars " ; I. i, 209. 
 
 Ports, gates ; V. iv. 55. 
 
 Prefer, show, lay before ; III. 
 V. 34. 
 
 Preferr'd, showed, presented ; 
 III. iv. 49. 
 
 Present; " p. slaves." i.e. imme- 
 diate slaves (S. Walker conj. 
 "peasant slaves") ; I. i. 71. 
 
 Presentment; " upon the heels 
 of my p., " as soon as my 
 book has been presented to 
 its patron " ; I. i. 27. 
 
 Proof, test ; II. ii. 164. 
 
 , resisting power ; IV. iii. 
 
 124. 
 
 Properties, makes the property 
 of; I. i. 57. 
 
 Prosperous, favourable ; V. i. 
 186. 
 
 Protest, vow ; IV. iii. 439. 
 
 Purposes, plans, intentions; V. 
 i. 17. 
 
 Pursy, " fat and short- 
 winded " ; V. iv. 12. 
 
 Glossary 
 
 Push, pshaw ! (Theobald, 
 " Psha " ; Hanmer, "' Pish ") ; 
 
 III. vi. 112. 
 
 Quick, living; IV. iii. 44. 
 Quillets, nice, subtle distinc- 
 tions ; IV. iii. 155. 
 Quit, rid of you ; IV, iii. 400. 
 Quittance, requital ; I. i. 279. 
 
 Rag, shabby, beggarly person ; 
 
 IV, iii. 271. 
 
 Rampired, barricaded ; V. iv. 
 
 47' ^ 
 Rank'd, crowded ; I. i. 65. 
 Rapt, beside myself ; V. i. 67. 
 Rarely, admirably, excellently; 
 
 IV. iii. 473. 
 Recoverable, possible to be 
 
 brought back to a better con- 
 dition ; III. iv. 13. 
 
 Regardfully, respectfully ; IV. 
 iii. 81, 
 
 Remembrance ; "better r.." i.e. 
 remembrance of better 
 things ; III. vi. 46. 
 
 Remorse, pity; IV. iii. 122. 
 
 Remotion, non-appearance, ab- 
 sence (Grant White conj. 
 "motion") ; IV. iii. 344. 
 
 Render, statement, confession ; 
 
 V. i, 152. 
 
 Render back, give back ; IV. i, 
 
 9- 
 Render' d, surrendered, given 
 
 up ; V. iv. 62. 
 Repugnancy, resistance; III. v, 
 
 45. 
 Requite, repay ; IV. iii. 529. 
 Resort; "her r.," to visit her; 
 
 I. i. 127. 
 
 117
 
 Glossary 
 
 THE LIFE or 
 
 Respect; " in r. of his," in pro- 
 portion to what he possesses ; 
 III. ii. 8i. 
 
 Respectively, regardfully ; III. 
 
 i. 7- , 
 Restraining, withholding ; V. i. 
 
 151. 
 
 Resumes, assumes ; II. ii. 4. 
 
 Retentive, restraining ; III. iv. 
 82. 
 
 Rother's, ox's (Singer's read- 
 ing, adopted by Collier; Fo- 
 lios, "Brothers"; Rowe, 
 " h e g gar's" ; Warburton, 
 "weather's" ; Farmer conj. 
 "broader" ; etc.) IV. iii. 
 12. 
 
 Rotten, corrupted ; IV. iii. 2. 
 
 Round, plain, straight-forward ; 
 II. ii. 8. 
 
 Sacrificial, full of devotion as 
 to a God; I. i. 81. 
 
 Salt, wanton ; IV. iii. 85. 
 
 Sans, without ; IV. iii. 122. 
 
 Scope; ''conceived to s.," i.e. 
 " imagined, appositely, to the 
 purpose"; (Folios, " con- 
 ceyu'd, to scope " ; Theobald. 
 " conceiv'd to th' scope ") ; I. 
 i. 72. 
 
 Secure thy heart, be reassured ; 
 II. ii. 183. 
 
 Seen; "is my lord s. yet," i.e. 
 to be seen ; III. iv. 9. 
 
 Scmhlahle, like; IV. iii. 22. 
 
 Sequence, succession ; " s. of 
 degree " ; according to their 
 rank; V. i. 211. 
 
 Set ; " s. so only to himself," 
 i.e. " wrapt up in self-con- 
 templation " ; V. i. 120. 
 
 Set him clear, make him ap- 
 pear innocent; III. iii. 31. 
 
 Set me on, put me to ; II. ii. 
 164. 
 
 Shall 's, shall us = shall we; 
 IV. iii. 410. 
 
 Signet; II. ii. 208. (Cp. the 
 subjoined facsimiles of an- 
 tique specimens.) 
 
 Sinner, a cause of sin ; I. ii. 58. 
 Smooth'd, flattered; IV. iii. 17. 
 So, if only; V. iv. 48. 
 Solidares, small pieces oi 
 
 money; III. i. 46. 
 Something, somewhat; IV. iii. 
 
 55- 
 Sour, bitter (Rowe's emenda- 
 tion ; Folios, " four " ; S. 
 
 Walker conj. "your ") ; V. i. 
 
 223. 
 Spilth, spilling; II. ii. 167. 
 Spirit, anger, wrath ; III. v. 
 
 102. 
 Spital-house, hospital ; IV. iii. 
 
 39. 
 Spotted die; V. iv. 34. {Cp. 
 
 illustration.) 
 Square, suitable ; V. iv. 2>^. 
 Starve, paralyse (Folio i, 2, 
 
 " sterue ") ; I. i. 247. 
 States, estates; I. i. 67, 
 
 118
 
 TIMON or ATHENS 
 
 Glossary 
 
 {b) 
 
 From specimens found (^r) in the neigh- 
 bourhood of Marsielles and {b) at 
 Herculaneum respectively. 
 
 Still, always, continually; 11. i. 
 II ; IV. iii. 522. 
 
 Stint, stop; V. iv. 83. 
 
 Stout, strong; IV. iii. z^- 
 
 Strain, race ; I. i. 249. 
 
 , quality ; IV. iii. 213. 
 
 Strait, strict ; I. i. 96. 
 
 Strange, unacquainted ; IV. iii. 
 56. 
 
 Strife, emulation ; I. i. 37. 
 
 Sufferance, suffering, misery; 
 IV. iii. 268. 
 
 Suspect, suspicion : IV. iii. 520. 
 
 Szuatli; "first s.." earliest in- 
 fancy, swaddling clothes ; IV. 
 iii. 252. 
 
 Take, make; V. i. 213. 
 
 Tendance, persons attending, 
 waiting his pleasure ; I. i. 80. 
 
 That, would that; IV. iii. 281. 
 
 Time's Hies, " flies of a sea- 
 son " ; III. vi. 100. 
 
 Tiring, busy ; III. vi. 4. 
 
 To; "call to you," i.e. call on 
 you; I. ii. 221. 
 
 Told, counted; III. v. 107. 
 
 Touch, touchstone ; IV. iii. 393- 
 
 Touch; " t. the estimate," pay 
 the price at which it is esti- 
 mated; I. i. 14. 
 
 Touch'd, tested with the touch- 
 stone ; III. iii. 6. 
 
 Toward, at hand ; III. vi. 60. 
 
 Towardly, docile ; III. i. 36. 
 
 Tract, track ; trace ; I. i. 50. 
 
 Traversed, crossed, folded, (?) 
 reversed ; V. iv. 7. 
 
 True, honest; IV. iii. 464. 
 
 Trump, trumpet; I. ii. 119. 
 
 Try, trial ; V. i. 10. 
 
 Unagreeable, unsuitable; II. ii. 
 
 41. 
 Unbolt, reveal, explain; I. i. 51. 
 Uncharged, unassailed; V. iv. 
 
 55- 
 
 Unclew, undo, ruin ; I. i. 168. 
 
 Unctuous, oily; IV. iii. I95- 
 
 Under; " u. praise," by being 
 praised so much (not " un- 
 derpraise" as the jeweller 
 understands it) ; I. i. 165. 
 
 Under, under pretence of; III. 
 
 iii- 33- 
 Undergo, undertake ; III. v. 24. 
 Unmatched, matchless; IV. iii. 
 
 524- 
 
 Unnoted, (?) imperceptible 
 (perhaps = undemonstra- 
 tive) ; III. V. 21. 
 
 Unpeaceable, quarrelsome 
 (Collier MS., " unappeas^ 
 able") ; I. i. 269. 
 
 Unremoveably, fixedly; V. i. 
 227. 
 
 Untirable, untiring, indefatiga- 
 ble; I. i. II. 
 
 Use, customary; I. i. 279. 
 
 Uses, necessities ; II, i. 20, 
 
 119
 
 Glossary 
 
 THE LIFE OF 
 
 Wmdozc'-dars. 
 From the " Herodiade " print by Israel 
 Van Mechlin (c. 1500). 
 
 Vantages, opportunities; II. ii. 
 136. 
 
 Virtuous, " caused by his vir- 
 tue " ; (?) strong, forcible ; 
 III. ii. 45- 
 
 Visitations, visits; I. ii. 223, 
 Voiced, proclaimed; IV. iii. 81. 
 Void, emit ; I. ii. 137. 
 Votarisf, votary ; IV. iii. 27. 
 
 Wafts, beckons ; I. i. 70. 
 Wappcn'd, beaten, worn out, 
 
 stale; IV. iii. 38. 
 Wards, bars, bolts; III. iii. 2,^^. 
 Warm, heated to a moderate 
 
 degree ; IV. iii. 223. 
 Whittle, small clasp-knife; V. 
 
 i. 183. 
 Willing, willingly; III. vi. t,^- 
 Window-bars, cross-bar lacing 
 
 of the bodice; IV. iii. 116. 
 
 (Cp. illustration.) 
 Witch, bewitch; V. i. 158. 
 Without, outside ; V. iv. 39. 
 Wreakful, revengeful ; IV. iii. 
 
 229. 
 
 Yet, still ; IV. ii. 17. 
 Yield, grant; I, ii. 196. 
 
 Enter Apcmanttts and Fool (Stage Directions, II. ii.). 
 
 From a small bronze statuette of Roman workmanship. The arms, 
 
 •yvhen whole, probably displayed some comic gesture. 
 
 J2Q
 
 TIMON OF ATHENS 
 
 Critical Notes. 
 
 BY ISRAEL GOLLANCZ. 
 
 I. i. 21. 'gum, which oozes'; Johnson's reading; Folios read 
 ' gown, which uses ' ; Pope, ' gum which issues.' 
 
 I. i. 24-25. 'Hies Each hound it chafes'; Folios, 'chases'; 
 Becket conj. 'Hies. Eche {bound) it chafes'; Schmidt, 'chafes 
 zi'ith: 
 
 I. i. 30-31. 'grace Speaks his own standing'; Johnson conj. 
 ' standing . . . graces or grace Speaks understanding ' ; Mason 
 conj. 'Grace speaks its own standing'; Jackson conj. 'grace 
 Speaks! 'tis on standing'; Orger conj. 'grace . . . seeming.' 
 
 I. i. 40. 'happy man'; Theobald's emendation of Folios, 'happy 
 men.' 
 
 I. i. 47. 'sea of wax'; Bailey conj. 'sweep of taxing'; Collier 
 MS., 'sea of verse,' etc.; but there is evidently a reference to 
 writing-tablets covered with wax. 
 
 I. i. 87. 'slip'; Folios, 'sit'; Delius conj. 'sink.' 
 
 I. i. 129. The line is supposed by some to be corrupt, and many 
 emendations have been proposed, but Coleridge's interpretation 
 commends itself: — " The meaning of the first line the poet himself 
 explains, or rather unfolds, in the second. * The man is honest ! ' 
 — True ; and for that very cause, and with no additional or 
 extrinsic motive, he will be so. No man can be justly called 
 honest, who is not so for honesty's sake, itself including its 
 reward." 
 
 I. i. 233. ' That I had no angry wit to be a lord ' ; Blackstone 
 conj. 'Angry that I had no ivit, — to he a lord'; Malone conj. 
 ' That I had no angry ivit. — To be a lord! ' ; Anon, conj., ' That I 
 had no ampler wit than he a lord ' ; Warburton, ' That I had so 
 hungry a wit to he a lord' ; Heath conj. ' That . . . so wrong'd 
 my wit to be a lord,' etc., etc. 
 
 I. ii. 45. Alluding to the then custom of each guest bringing his 
 own knife to a feast. 
 
 I. ii. 71. 'sin'; Farmer conj. 'sing'; Singer conj. 'dine'; Kin- 
 near conj. 'surfeit.' 
 
 J2l
 
 Notes 
 
 THE LIFE OF 
 
 I. ii. 122-127. The arrangement of these lines was first suggested 
 by Rann, and followed by Steevens in his edition of 1793, 
 
 I. ii. 129. ' Music, make their zvelcomc ' ; Pope reads ' Let musick 
 make their welcome' ; Capell, 'Mustek, make known their zvelcomc.' 
 
 I. ii. Direc. 'A mask of ladies as Amazons.' {Cp. illustration.) 
 
 From a plate illustrating the Imperial Festivities at Venice, 1560. 
 
 II. i. 10. 'And able horses'; so Folios i, 2; Folios 3. 4, 'An able 
 horse'; Theobald, 'ten able horse'; Jackson conj. 'Ay, able 
 horses ' ; Collier MS., ' a stable 0' horses ' ; Singer conj. ' Two able 
 horses.' 
 
 II. i. 13. ' found his state in safety ' ; Hanmer's reading ; Folios, 
 'sound . . .' ; Capell, 'found . . . on safety'; Capell conj. 
 ' Und . . . in safety.' 
 
 II. ii. 6. 'Was to be'; Heath conj. 'Was made to be'; Long 
 MS., 'Was'; Mason conj. 'Was formed'; Singer MS., 'Was 
 truly' ; Collier MS., ' Was surely.' 
 
 II. ii. 75. 'mistress' (so line 107). 
 
 II. ii. 149. 'loved lord'; Folios 2, 3, 4, 'dear lov'd lord'; S. 
 Walker conj. ' belov'd.' 
 
 IL ii. 150, Folios read ' Though you heare now (too late) yet 
 nowes a time, The'; Hanmer, ' Though . . . yet now's too late 
 a time ' ; Collier MS., ' Though . . . yet now 's a time toQ lat^^ 
 
 122
 
 TIMON OF ATHENS NoieS 
 
 II. ii. 169. ' wasteful cock ' ; Pope reads ' lonely room ' ; Collier 
 MS., 'wasteful nook ' ; Jackson conj. ' wakeful cock ' ; Jervis conj. 
 'wakeful couch'-, Keightley, 'wasteful cock-loft'; Daniel conj. 
 'wakeful cot'; Jackson's conjecture seems best, 'wakeful cock,' 
 i.e. ' cock-loft,' unless ' cock ' = wine-tap. 
 
 III. i. 50. 'And we alive that lived' \ i.e. in so short a time. 
 
 III. i. 55. ' Let molten coin be thy damnation ' ; cp. the old bal- 
 lad, " The Dead Man's Song " : — 
 
 "And ladles full of melted gold 
 Were poured down their throats." 
 
 III. i. 59-60. ' slave, Unto his honour' Steevens' reading ; Folios, 
 'Slave unto his honour'; Pope, 'slave Unto this hour'; Collier 
 MS., 'slave unto his humour'; Staunton, 'slave Unto dishonour' ; 
 but the words are probably spoken ironically. 
 
 III. ii. 13. 'so many'; changed by Theobald to 'fifty'; so, too, 
 in line 41 ; but the figures are very doubtful, and ' fifty-five hun- 
 dred talents,' in line 43, is obviously a mere exaggeration. 
 
 III. ii. 25. ' mistook him,' etc., i.e. ' made the mistake and applied 
 to me'; Hanmer, ' o'erlooked' ; Warburton, ' mistook' d' ; Johnson 
 conj. 'not mistook.' 
 
 III. ii. 50. 'for a little part' ; Theobald, 'for a little dirt' ; Han- 
 mer, 'a little dirt' ; Heath conj. 'for a little profit' ; Johnson conj. 
 'for a little park'; Mason conj. 'for a little port'; Jackson conj. 
 'for a little part'; Bailey conj. 'for a little sport'; Kinnear conj. 
 'for a little pomp.' Steevens explains the passage thus: — "By 
 purchasing what brought me little honour, I have lost the more 
 honourable opportunity of supplying the wants of my friend." 
 
 HI. ii. 70. 'spirit' Theobald's correction of Folios, 'sport'; 
 Collier MS., 'port.' 
 
 HI. ii. 79. 'in respect of his'; Staunton conj. 'this.' 
 
 HI. iii. 12. ' Thrive, give him over ' ; so Folio i ; Folios 2, 3, 4, 
 'That thriv'd, give him over'; Pope, 'Three give him over?'; 
 Hanmer, ' Tried give him over ' ; Theobald, ' Thriv'd, give him 
 over?'; Tyrwhitt conj. ' Shriv'd give him over:'; Johnson conj. 
 ' Thrice give him over,' etc. 
 
 III. iii. 14. 'sense'; Collier conj. ''sense.' 
 
 III. iv. 112. ' Sempronius: all:', so Folios 3, 4; Folio i, ' Sem- 
 pronius Vllor.ra: AW; Folio 2, ' Semprovius: All'; Malone, 
 'Sempronius: Ullorxa, all' ; Grant White suggested that 'Vllorxa' 
 was a misprint for ' Ventidius.' 
 
 III. v. 22. ' behave his anger, ere 'twas spent ' ; Folios, ' behooue 
 
 123
 
 Notes THE LIFE Of, 
 
 Jiis . . /; Johnson conj. ' hchold his adversary shent'; Steevens 
 conj. ' behave, ere was his anger spent ' ; Becket cdnj. ' behave; his 
 anger was, 'ere spent'; Hanmer, 'behave in's . . .' ; Malone 
 conj. 'behave his . . .' ; Collier MS., 'reprove his . . .,' etc. 
 
 III. V. 63. 'I say, my lords, has'; Pope reads ' / say my lords 
 h'as' ; Folio i, ' Why say my Lords ha's' ; Folios 2, 3, ' Why I say 
 my lords ha's'; Folio 4, 'Why, I say my Lords h'as'; Capell, 
 ' Why, I say, my lords, he has ' ; Dj^ce, ' Why, I say, my lords, 
 has ' ; Globe edd., 7 say, my lords, he has.' 
 
 III. V. 102. 'And, not to swell our spirit,' i.e. ' not to swell our 
 spirit with anger, not to become exasperated ' ; Theobald, 'And 
 note, to swell your spirit' ; Capell, 'And, not to swell your spirit'; 
 Singer, ' quell ' ; Kinnear, ' quail.' 
 
 III. V. 105. ' Only in bone,' i.e. ' as a mere skeleton ' ; Staunton 
 conj. 'Only at home,' or 'Only in doors'; Ingleby conj. 'only in 
 bed'; Hudson conj. 'only alone.' 
 
 III. V. 116. 'most lands'; Warburton, 'most hands'; Malone 
 conj. 'most lords'; Mason conj. 'my stains'; Becket conj. 'most 
 brands'; Jackson conj. 'most bands.' 
 
 III. vi. SJ. 'harshly o' the trumpet's' ; Rowe, ' harsJily as o' the 
 Trumpets' ; Steevens (1793), 'harshly on the trumpet's; Grant 
 White conj. 'harshly. O. the trumpets,' etc. 
 
 III. vi. 95. 'you zvith flatteries'; so Folios; Warburton, ' zvith 
 your flatteries ' ; Keightley, ' by you with flatteries ' ; Folio 2 reads 
 'flatreries'; S. Walker conj. 'flattery.' 
 
 III. vi. 115, 116. 'He gave me a jewel 
 th' other day, and noiv he has beat it out 
 of 7ny hat.' The annexed example of a 
 hat with a jewel fashioned like a bird 
 holding in its claws a pearl, is copied 
 from the rare portrait of Thomas Lant, 
 1587. 
 
 IV. i. 21. 'let,' Hanmer's emendation 
 of Folios, 'yet.' 
 
 IV. ii. 35. ' xvhat state compounds' \ S. 
 Walker conj. 'state comprehends' ; 
 Grant WHiite conj. ' that state com- 
 pounds'; Watkiss Lloyd conj. ' what e'er state comprehends.' 
 
 IV. iii. 9. ' deny 't ' ; Warburton, ' denude ' ; Hanmer, ' degrade ' ; 
 Heath conj. 'deprive'; Steevens conj. 'devest'; Collier MS., 
 ' decline ' ; etc. ; the indefinite ' // ' refers to the implied noun in 
 ' raise,' i.e. ' give elevation to.' 
 
 124
 
 TIMON OF ATHENS Notes 
 
 IV. iii. 12. 'pasture lards the rother's sides'; ' rother' Singer's 
 emendations for Folios 'brothers.' Fojio i, ' Pastour' ; Folios 
 2, 3, 4, 'pastor'; Farmer and Steevens conj. ' pasterer' : 'lards'; 
 Rowe's reading, Folio i, 'Lards'; Folios 2, 3. 4, 'Lords.' 
 
 IV. iii. 18. 'all is oblique'; Pope's emendation; Folio i, 'All's 
 obliqiiie'; Folios 2, 3, 'Alls obliquy'; Folio 4. 'All's obliquy ' ; 
 Rowe, 'all's obloquy'; Lettsom conj. 'all, all's oblique.' 
 
 IV. iii. 38. ' zvappen'd' ; so Folios i, 2; Folios 3, 4, ' wapen'd' ; 
 Warburton, 'waped'; Johnson conj. 'wained'; Malone conj. 
 ' wapper'd ' ; Anon. conj. ' Wapping' ; Steevens conj. 'weeping'; 
 Seymour conj. 'vapid' ; Staunton conj. ' woe-pin'd' ; Fleay, 'wop- 
 eyed'; i.e. having waterish eyes {vide Glossary). 
 
 IV. iii. 106. ' conquer my country ' ; Kinnear conj. ' confound my 
 countrymen ' ; Hanmer, ' make conquest of my country ' ; Capell, 
 'conquer thy own country'; S. Walker conj. 'scourge thy coun- 
 try ' ; Hudson, ' scourge my country.' 
 
 IV. iii. 116. ' windozu-bars ' ; Johnson conj.; Folios, 'window 
 Barn'; Pope, 'window-barn' ; Warburton, ' wind ozv -lawn' ; 
 Tyrwhitt conj. ' zvidozvs's barb.' 
 
 IV. iii. 153. 'spurring' ; Hanmer, 'sparring'; Long MS., 
 'spurning' ; Seymour conj. 'springing' ; there is no need to 
 emend the text. 
 
 IV. iii. 215. 'bade'; Folio i, 'bad'; Folios, 2. 3, 4, 'bid.' 
 
 IV. iii. 225. 'when'; S. Walker conj. 'where.' 
 
 IV. in. 243. ' Outlives incerfain'; Rowe's emendation; Folio 
 I reads 'Out-lives: incertaine ' ; Folios 2, 3, 4, 'Out-lives: in cer- 
 taine ' ; Hanmer, ' Out-strips incertain ' ; Capell, ' Out-vies un- 
 certain.' 
 
 IV. iii. 254. 'drugs'; Folios i. 2, ' drugges' ; Mason conj. 
 'drudges'; Collier MS., 'dugs'; Capell conj. MS. 'dregs'; 
 ' drugs ' = ' drudges.' 
 
 IV. iii. 283. ' my ' ; Rowe's correction of Folios, ' thy.' 
 
 IV. iii. 312. 'after his means/ i.e. 'after his means were gone.' 
 
 IV. iii. 421. 'meat'; Theobald, 'meet' (i.e. 'what you ought 
 to be ') ; Hanmer, 'men '; Steevens conj. ' me,' etc. 
 
 IV. iii. 422-426. 'Behold, the earth hath roots,' etc.; cp. Hall's 
 Satires, IIL i (pub. 1598) : — 
 
 " Time zvas that, whiles the autumn full did last. 
 Our hungry sires gap'd for the falling mast," etc. 
 
 IV. iii. 439. ' villany ' ; Rowe's correction of Folios i, 2, ' vil- 
 la inc.' 
 
 125
 
 Notes THE LIFE OF 
 
 IV. in. 44S. ' moon' ; Theobald, 'mounds'; Capell, 'earth'; 
 Toilet conj. ' main.' 
 
 IV. iii. 500. 'dangerous nature mild'; Thirlby conj.; Folios, 
 'wild'; Becket conj. 'nature dangerous-mild'; Jackson conj. 
 ' dolorous nature wild.' 
 
 V. i. 47. ' black-corner' d,' i.e. ' hiding things in dark corners ' ; 
 Hanmer, ' hlack-corneted' ; Warburton conj. ' black-cornette' ; 
 Farmer conj. MS. ' black-coroned' ; Mason conj. ' black- 
 crozvned'; Jackson conj. 'dark-horned' ; Singer conj. ' black- 
 curtain'd/ etc. 
 
 V. i. 116. 'You have work'; so Folios; Hanmer, 'You have 
 work'd ' ; Malone, ' You have done work ' ; Steevens conj. ' You 've 
 work'd.' 
 
 V. i. 136. 'as a cauterising'; Rowe's emendation; Folio i, 
 ' as a Cantherizing ' ; Folios 2, 3, 4, ' as a Catherising ' ; Pope, 
 ' cauterizing ' ; Capell, ' cancerizing.' 
 
 V. i. 147. 'general, gross:'; Pope's emendation of Folios, 
 'generall grossc:'; S. Walker conj., adopted by Dyce, 'general- 
 gross.' 
 
 Y. i. 213. ' haste'; Pope, 'taste'; Warburton conj. MS. 
 ' tatch ' ; Collier MS. ' halter.' 
 
 V. ii. 7. ' whom' instead of ' who,' owing to confusion of con- 
 structions ; Pope, 'Who'; Hanmer, 'And' ; Singer, 'When,' etc. 
 
 V. ii. 8. 'made a particular force' ; Hanmer reads 'had . . . 
 force'; Staunton conj. 'took . . . truce'; Bailey conj. 'had 
 . . . force with,' etc. 
 
 V. iii. 3-4. These words are in all probability the reflection of 
 the soldier ; this view is certainly more acceptable than to be- 
 lieve them to be an inscription placed by Timon somewhere near 
 the tomb. Nor is it necessary, with Warburton, to change *" read ' 
 into ' rear'd.' The soldier, seeing the tomb, infers that Timon is 
 dead, but he cannot read the inscription ; ' some beast read this ! 
 there does not live a man able to do so ' {v. Preface). 
 
 V. iv. 28. 'Shame, that they wanted cunning, in excess'; Theo- 
 bald's emendation (' extreme shame for their folly in banishing 
 you hath broke their hearts') ; Folio i reads '{Shame that they 
 zvanted, cunning in excesse)' ; Folios 2, 3, 4, 'Shame {that they 
 wanted cunning in excesse)' ; Johnson conj. 'Shame that they 
 wanted, coming in excess.' 
 
 V. iv. 62. ' render' d to your'; the conj. of Chedworth, 
 adopted by Dyce ; Folio i reads ' remedied to your ' ; Folios 2, 3, 
 4, 'remedied by your'; Pope, 'remedied by'; Johnson, 'remedied 
 
 126
 
 TIMON or ATHENS Notes 
 
 to'; Malone, ' remedy d, to your'; Singer (ed. 2), 'remitted to 
 your.' 
 
 V. iv. 79. ' On thy low grave, on faults forgiven. Dead ' ; the 
 reading of Folios; Theobald reads 'On thy low grave. — On: 
 faults forgiven. — Dead ' ; Hanmer, ' On thy low grave our faults — 
 forgiv'n, since dead' 
 
 127
 
 THE LIFE OF 
 
 Explanatory Notes. 
 
 The Explanatory Notes in this edition have been specially selected and 
 adapted, with emendations after the latest and best authorities, from the 
 most eminent Shakespearian scholars and commentators, including Johnson, 
 Malone, Steevens, Singer, Dyce, Hudson, White, Furness, Dowden, and 
 others. This method, here introduced for the first time, provides the best 
 annotation of Shakespeare ever embraced in a single edition. 
 
 ACT FIRST. 
 Scene I. 
 
 I et seq. In Timon, as in Coriolanus, Shakespeare put his own 
 thoughts and feelings into the mouths of the various characters 
 of the play. Falseness and ingratitude are the subjects of the 
 most frequent allusion. They were uppermost in Shakespeare's 
 mind at the time, and the changes are rung upon these vices by 
 the Epicurean and the Cynic, by servants and strangers, before 
 and after the climax. Even the fickle Poet serves as spokesman 
 for the all-prevailing idea ; and the Painter is every whit as worth- 
 less. 
 
 30,31. This picture, it would seem, is a full-length portrait of 
 Timon, in which the gracefulness of the attitude expresses the 
 habitual standing or carriage of the original. 
 
 S7. artiUcial strife : — The excellence of an artist was often set 
 forth by representing him as the tutor or the competitor of nature. 
 " The execution of the pencil emulating Nature," says Heath, 
 " displays a life in those touches which is livelier than even life 
 itself." So in the Poet's Venus and Adonis: — 
 
 " Look, when a painter would surpass the life, 
 In limning out a well proportion'd steed. 
 His art with nature's workmanship at strife. 
 As if the dead the living should exceed." 
 
 128
 
 TIMON OF ATHENS Notes 
 
 47-50. tio levcll'd malice, etc. : — Johnson explains the passage 
 thus : '* My poem is not a satire written with any particular view, 
 or lez'dl'd at any single person : I fly, like an eagle, into a general 
 expanse of life, and leave not, by any private mischief, the trace of 
 my passage." 
 
 59. To Apemantus: — Ritson thinks that the Poet, seeing that 
 Apemantus paid frequent visits to Timon, naturally concluded 
 that he was as much of a courtier as the other guests. 
 
 171. prized by their masters: — Johnson explains: "Are rated 
 according to the esteem in which their possessor is held." For 
 the use of by, compare Coriolanus, III. ii. 52-54: — 
 
 " Because that now it lies you on to speak 
 To the people ; not by your own instruction. 
 Nor by the matter which your heart prompts you," etc. 
 
 180. When thou art Timon's dog, etc.: — "That is," explains 
 Rolfe, " till you become a dog, and these knaves become honest — 
 a far-off morrozv to wait for." Hanmer read " When I am Ti- 
 mon's dog " ; and Johnson interpreted the passage thus : " When 
 thou hast gotten a better character, and instead of being Timon 
 as thou art, shalt be changed to Timon's dog, and become more 
 worthy kindness and salutation." 
 
 185. Here, according to the judgement of most of the latest 
 commentators, begins the anonymous workmanship. Hudson 
 (Harvard ed.) indicates what he regards as the anonymous por- 
 tions of the play by asterisks placed before the lines. From this 
 indication it appears that Hudson assigns about three-fifths of 
 the play to Shakespeare, including nearly the whole of Act. I. i., 
 all of Act n. i., most of Act H. ii.. almost the whole of Act HI. 
 vi., all but about thirty lines of Act IV".. and all except a dozen 
 lines of Act V. White's interesting opinion may be summarized 
 as follows : Act T. Sc. i., Shakespeare's until the entrance of 
 Apemantus; Sc. ii.. not Shakespeare's; Act. H. Sc. i., Shake- 
 speare's; Sc. ii.. Shakespeare's, except where the Fool appears; 
 Act HI, Sc. i.. not Shakespeare's, except, perhaps, the last speech ; 
 Sc. ii., probably not Shakespeare's ; Sc. iii., not Shakespeare's ; Sc. 
 iv., not Shakespeare's; Sc. v., not Shakespeare's; Sc. vi., mostly 
 not Shakespeare's; Act IV. Sc. i.. Shakespeare's; Sc. ii., mostly 
 Shakespeare's; Sc. iii, Shakespeare's, "and in his largest style"; 
 A.ct. V. Sc. i., partly Shakespeare's ; Scs. ii. and iii., not Shake- 
 speare's ; Sc. iv.. Shakespeare's beyond question. 
 
 195. for the irrr.oceKce: — Rolfe says that "it may be a question
 
 Notes THE LIFE OF 
 
 whether this is to be taken literally or ironically." Crosby sur- 
 mises that "the cynic means that the picture has no spirit, no ex- 
 pression ; and dog-like he prefers it on that account." 
 
 233. That I had no angry wit to be a lord : — In Clarke's opinion, 
 this bears "the interpretation, 'That, being a lord, I should have 
 no angry wit,' no faculty for acrimonious satire — such as Ape- 
 mantus prides himself upon possessing. The sentence also in- 
 cludes the effect of 'that I had given up (Apemantus's) angry wit 
 in order to be a lord.' " " This," adds Rolfe, " is perhaps the best 
 of the attempts to explain the text, but it seems rather forced. If 
 we simply strike out angry, we doubtless get the real meaning of 
 the passage. The adjective is almost certainly wrong, but it is 
 difficult to replace it satisfactorily." 
 
 Scene II. 
 
 12. 13. // our betters, etc. : — That is, the faults of rich persons, 
 as the world goes, are thought fair ; still they are faults. 
 
 22. confess d it! hang'd it: — Perhaps an allusion to a proverbial 
 saying of Shakespeare's time, " Confess and be hanged," 
 
 35, 36. / myself zvould Jiave no power: — Tyrwhitt explains thus : 
 " I myself would have no power to make thee silent, but I wish 
 thou wouldst let my meat make thee silent. Timon, like a polite 
 landlord, disclaims all power over the meanest or most trouble- 
 some of his guests." 
 
 27. 38. 'twould choke me, for, etc. : — " I could not swallow thy 
 meat, for / could not pay for it with flattery." So Johnson in- 
 terprets. 
 
 51. my windpipe's dangerous notes: — "The notes of the wind- 
 pipe seem to be only the indications which show where the wind- 
 pipe is." Thus Johnson. Of course the zvindpipe's notes are "the 
 sounds or motions made by the throat in drinking." There ap- 
 pears to be, as Steevens observes, a quibble on windpipe and notes. 
 
 109. Thou weep'st, etc. : — On this rather obscure passage, John- 
 son remarks : " The covert sense of Apemantus is, ' what thou 
 losest, they get.'" Heath's explanation is: "The words Thou 
 zveep'st do not only refer to the tears then actually shed, but to 
 those future ones for which Timon was laying the foundation ; 
 . . . implying a prediction that the excess of drinking to 
 which he was now encouraging his false friends would prove the 
 source of tears to him flowing from real regret." Rolfe finds 
 
 130
 
 TIMON OF ATHENS Notes 
 
 neither of these interpretations satisfactory, and observes that 
 " perhaps the expression is nothing more than a cynical sneer at 
 tlie incongruity of making his tears an occasion for their 
 drinking." 
 
 III. like a babe: — "That is, a weeping babe," says Johnson. 
 Compare Heywood, Lovers Mistress : " Joyed in his looks, look'd 
 babies in his eyes"; also The Christian Turned Turk, 1612: 
 " She makes him sing songs to her, looks fortunes in his fists, and 
 babies in his eyes." 
 
 114. Much was a not uncommon ironical expression of denial, 
 contempt, etc. 
 
 132. The writer probably borrowed this idea from the Puritani- 
 cal writers of his time. Thus Stubbes, in his Anatomic of Abuses, 
 1583 : ''Dauncers thought to be madmen." Again : "And as in 
 all feasts and pastimes dauncing is the last, so it is the extream 
 of all other vice." Once more: "There were (saith Ludovicus 
 Vives) from far countries certain men brought into our parts of 
 the world, who, when they saw men daunce, ran away, marvel- 
 lously affraid, crying otit and thinking them mad." 
 
 1335 134- Tike madness, etc. : — The glory of this life is just such 
 madness, in the eye of reason, as this pomp appears when com- 
 pared with the frugal repast of a man feeding on oil and roots. 
 
 ACT SECOND. 
 Scene I. 
 
 10. no porter at Jiis gate: — Johnson believed that a line after 
 this descriptive of a surly porter has been lost. Staunton con- 
 jectured grim porter, and so reads Hudson (Harvard ed.). 
 
 32. Which flashes nozv a phmiix: — Which (for who) refers to 
 Timon; according to the common practice of Shakespeare's day. 
 
 Scene II. 
 
 17. we'll forth again: — That is, to hu];iting; it was then the 
 custom to hunt after dinner as well as before. Thus in Tancred 
 and Gismunda, 1592: "He means this evening in the park to 
 hunt." Queen Elizabeth, during her stay at Kenil worth Castle, 
 hunted in the afternoon. 
 
 72)y 74. Slic 's e'en, etc. : — Alluding to the scalding of chickens, 
 
 131
 
 Notes THE LIFE OF 
 
 to get the feathers off. And v/ith this is joined a reference to a 
 certain disease and to the sweating-tub used for the curing of it ; 
 which tub, according to Randle Hohne, persons '* were put into, 
 not to boyl up to an heighth, but to parboyV 
 
 94. to Lord Tiuwn's: — They are already in Timon's house. 
 Here is some blunder hard to explain. In Clarke's opinion the 
 presence-chamber or banqueting-room of Timon is meant. 
 
 117,118. artificial one: — Meaning the great object of all al- 
 chemical research, the philosopher's stone, in the author's time 
 much talked of. 
 
 138. that unaptness made, etc. : — The construction is, and you 
 made that unaptness your minister — you made my indisposition 
 serve you. 
 
 194-202. you to Lord Lucius . . . hum! — Hudson (Har- 
 vard ed.) agrees with Fleay in regarding this as non-Shake- 
 spearian, and in giving the next speech to a servant. Furnivall, 
 on the contrary, argues that " the Steward, in answer to this re-, 
 quest, says that he has already asked the senators; and he gives 
 Timon their answer, that they will not lend the money. Timon, 
 however, does not get angry about their refusal ; he rrerely ex- 
 plains it and excuses it : — 
 
 ' These old fellows 
 Have their ingratitude in them hereditary : 
 Their blood is caked, 'tis cold, it seldom flows.' 
 
 Thus the refusal of these old curmudgeons does not affect Timon, 
 does not anger him at all. It is his own personal friends that he 
 relies on, and whose refusal he thinks impossible. Again, if 
 Shakespeare only sent to the senators and Ventidius. he would 
 have left, as the cause of the entire and terrible change in 
 Timon's nature, nothing but the refusal of one false friend, Ven- 
 tidius ; and this, when the refusal is not given i\ the' play, ex- 
 cept by reference. I cannot believe that Shakespea:-c would make 
 the ingratitude of one man the sole cause of Timon's entire 
 change of character. This would not be motive enough; we 
 must have refusal and ingratitude from more friends than one ; 
 and I therefore believe, that Shakespeare wrote these few prose 
 words ordering the servants to go to Lucius and Lucullus (and 
 possibly to Sempronius). as well as the Steward to go. first to the 
 senators, and then — that having been already tried — to Ventidius. 
 It is quite possible that the expander of the play put in the sen- 
 tence, ' You to Sempronius ' (the third friend), for Shakespeare 
 
 132
 
 TIMON OF ATHENS Notes 
 
 has not introduced a third servant by name. But this is not cer- 
 tain, as the direction of the Folio i-^. 'Enter three Servants." and a 
 fouith false friend, and a fourth refusal, help to strengthen the 
 motive for Timon's change of character." 
 
 ACT THIRD. 
 Scene I. 
 
 47. solidares: — ''I believe." says Steevens. "this coin is from the 
 mint of the Poet." Florio describes an Italian coin called a solido 
 as being of the value of a shilling, which may have been the 
 origin of the dramatist's coinage. 
 
 67. His for its, as in I. i. 31. 
 
 Scene H. 
 
 24-26. had he mistook him, etc.: — Lucius means that though it 
 would have been a mistake in Timon to apply to him, who had 
 received but few favours from him in comparison to those be- 
 stowed on Lucullus, yet he could not have denied him. 
 
 88. / would have put my wealth into donation : — The meaning 
 evidently is. " Though he has never given me anything. I would 
 have regarded my wealth as a gift from him, and returned him 
 the best part of it." 
 
 Scene III. 
 
 7. Hozv! have they denied him? — This speech is given with 
 the verse-like arrangement of lines with which it is printed in 
 the Folio ; " but, if it were ever constructed in verse," says 
 White, " only the irreparable wreck remains." Hudson, both in 
 earlier and later editions, prints it. all but the closing couplet, as 
 prose. 
 
 31. set him clear: — The commentafors have had much to say 
 on this passage. According to Warburton it means to " bafifle 
 the devil, outdo him at his own weapons." Him, of course, refers 
 to man. Crossed, as Johnson and others have thought, means 
 exempted from evil ; and in their view it is the devil who is to be 
 set clear of the guilt of temnting man. " Servilius," says Mason, 
 " means to say that the devil did not foresee the advantage that 
 
 133
 
 Notes THE LIFE OF 
 
 would arise to himself from thence, when he made man politic : 
 he redeemed himself by it, for men will, in the end, become so 
 much more villainous than he is, that they will set him clear ; he 
 will appear innocent when compared with them." Steevens gives 
 " the notes of all the commentators," and then declares himself 
 to be " in the state of Dr. Warburton's devil — puzzled, instead of 
 being set clear by them." Hudson explains it thus : " In making 
 man crafty, or full of cunning shifts, the devil overreached or 
 thzvarted himself; for man is likely to outdo him so far in wicked- 
 ness as to pluck his laurels from him, and make him seem but a 
 poor devil after all." 
 
 Scene IV. 
 
 i6. one may reach deep enough, etc.: — Steevens expounds 
 this as follows : " Still, perhaps, alluding to the effects of win- 
 ter, during which some animals are obliged to seek their scanty 
 provision through a depth of snow." 
 
 91. Knock me dozen with 'em : — There is here an implied play 
 upon words : bills formerly meant, in one use, a weapon. The 
 name was given especially to certain weapons carried by foresters, 
 watchmen, etc. 
 
 Scene V. 
 
 55. by mercy: — Johnson explains the passage thus: "I call 
 Mercy herself to witness that defensive violence is just." Ma- 
 lone's interpretation is : " Homicide in our own defence, by a 
 merciful and lenient interpretation of the laws, is considered as 
 justifiable." 
 
 116. 'Tis honour, etc.: — "That is," explains Heath, "govern- 
 ments are in general so ill administered that there are very few 
 whom it is not an honour to oppose." Clarke's opinion is that 
 the general means merely to say, "the more war the more glory." 
 But Heath's explanation seems to suit the context better. 
 
 Scene VI. 
 
 102, 103. Of man and beast tJie infinite malady, etc.: — "I sus- 
 pect," says White, " that there is corruption here. Why should 
 the infinite malady crust? Did not Shakespeare write 'the in- 
 fectious malady'? See Coriolanus, Act I. Sc. 4: 
 
 134
 
 TIMON OF ATHENS Notes 
 
 ' — Boils and plagues 
 Plaster you o'er ; that you may be abhorr'd 
 Farther than seen, and one infect another 
 Against the wind a mile ! ' " 
 
 123, As Timon has in fact thrown nothing at his guests but 
 warm water and dishes, it is not altogether clear why stones 
 should be thus mentioned in this place. The things thrown may, 
 it is true, have had much the same effect as stones, and thus led 
 the speaker to mistake them for such missiles. On the other 
 hand, the common use of stones in such a way may have caused 
 other missiles to be designated by that term. Or the need of 
 something to ihymc with hones may have suggested the word. 
 But the most probable explanation is found in an old play on the 
 subject, in which Timon invites his false friends to a feast, but, 
 instead cf wa.m water, sets before them stones painted to look 
 like artichokes, which he afterwards throws at them, and drives 
 them out. The date of this play is not fully ascertained, but the 
 play is supposed to have been written before Shakespeare's. 
 
 ACT FOURTH. 
 Scene I. 
 
 Timon is unable to accept his sorrow, and hold his nature stren- 
 uously under command until it can adjust itself to the altered 
 state of things. He flings himself from an airy, unreal philan- 
 thropy into passionate hatred of men. He is a revolter from 
 huminity. He foams at the mouth wirh imprecation. He shakes 
 off the dust of Athens from his feet, and strives to maintain him- 
 self in isolation, the one protester in the world against the 
 cruelty and selfishness and baseness of the race. 
 
 Scene H. 
 
 8-11. As zve do turn . . . away :— Mason, very speciously, 
 as White thinks, suggested that we should transpose from and 
 to in this sentence, and read — 
 
 "As we do turn our backs 
 To our companion, thrown into his grave, 
 So his familiars from his buried fortunes 
 Slink all away." 
 
 135
 
 Notes THE LIFE OF 
 
 " Undoubtedly," says White, " when we leave the graves of our 
 friends, we turn our backs to or on them, and Timon's parasites 
 did slink away from his fallen fortunes. But this sentence is 
 written in a freer style than perhaps would be permissible now- 
 adays. Here turn our hacks is used as the equivalent of go away; 
 and the conduct of Timon's familiars is spoken of in its relation 
 to his buried fortunes." Hudson adopts Mason's transposition. 
 
 Scene III. 
 
 3-8. Twinn'd brothers . . . nature: — Brother, when his for- 
 tune is enlarged, will scorn brother. Not even beings besieged 
 with misery can bear good fortune without contemning their 
 fellow creatures, above whom accident has elevated them. 
 
 30,31. Aristophanes, in his Plutus, makes the priest of Jupiter 
 desert his service to live with Plutus. 
 
 32. This alludes to a practice ascribed to some nurses of 
 brutally drawing away the pillow from under the heads of the 
 dying to hasten their departure. 
 
 63, 64. the rot returns, etc.: — This alludes to the old erroneous 
 prevalent opinion, that infection communicated to another left 
 the infector free. " I will not," says Timon, " take the rot from 
 thy lips by kissing thee." In this scene we trace the dramatist's 
 reading to Plutarch's Alcibiadcs, North's translation; there being 
 no mention made of the courtesans in either of the sources whence 
 the other materials of the play were drawn. Thus in Plutarch : 
 " Now was Alcibiades in a certaine village of Phrygia with a 
 concubine of his called Timandra. So he dreamed one night that- 
 he had put on his concubines apparell, and how she had dressed 
 his head, frizeled his haire, and painted his face, as he had bene 
 a woman ; and the voice goeth, this vision was but a litle before 
 his death. Those that were sent to kill him durst not enter the 
 house where he was, but set it on fire round about. Alcil^iades, 
 spying the fire, got such apparell and hangings as he had, and 
 threw it on the fire, thinking to put it out; and so, casting his 
 cloke about his left arme, tooke his naked sword in his other 
 hand, and ranne out of the house, himselfe not once touched with 
 the fire, saving his clothes were a litle singed. These murtherers, 
 so soone as they spied him, drew backe, and stood asunder, and 
 durst not one of them come neere him, to stand and fight with 
 him; but afarre off they bestowed so many arrowes and darts on 
 
 136
 
 TIMON OF ATHENS Notes 
 
 him. that they killed him there. Now, when they had left him, 
 Timandra went and tooke his body, which she wrapped up in the 
 best linen she had and buried him as honourably as she could." 
 
 133. Brandes says : " Compare this scene with the latter part 
 of Plutarch's Alcibiadcs, to which Shakespeare had referred, and 
 see what the Poet's acrimony has made of Timandra, the faithful 
 mistress who follows Alcibiades to Phrygia. They are together 
 when his murderess sets fire to the house, and it is Timandra who 
 enshrouds his body in the most costly material she possesses, and 
 gives him as splendid a funeral as her isolated position can 
 secure." 
 
 I33» 134- Enough to make . . . bazvd : — That is, "enough to 
 make whores leave whoring, and a bawd leave making whores." 
 
 144, 145. thatch your poor thin roofs, etc. : — The fashion of 
 periwigs for women, which Stowe informs us " were brought 
 into England about the time of the massacre of Paris," seems to 
 have been a fertile source of satire. Stubbes, in his Anatomie of 
 Abuses, says that it was dangerous for any child to wander, as 
 nothing was more common than for women to entice such as had 
 fine locks into private places, and there to cut them off. In 
 A Mad World My Masters, 1608, the custom is decried as un- 
 natural : "To wear periwigs made of another's hair, is not this 
 against kind?" So Drayton, in his Mooncalf: — 
 
 " And with large sums they stick not to procure 
 Hair from the dead, yea, and the most unclean ; 
 To help their pride they nothing will disdain." 
 
 151 ct seq. Brandes says: "They shout to him for more gold; 
 they will ' do anything for gold.' Timon answers them in words 
 which Shakespeare, for all the pathos of his youth, has never 
 surpassed, words whose frenzied scathing has never been 
 equalled." 
 
 177-179. Common mother, etc.: — This image would almost 
 make one imagine that Shakespeare was acquainted with some 
 personifications of nature similar to the ancient statues of Diana 
 Ephesia Multimammia. 
 
 183. crisp : — This epithet probably has about the same meaning 
 here as that conveyed by the cnrl'd clouds in The Tempest, 1. ii. 
 192. In Milton's Comus, 984, we find " the crisped shades and 
 bowers," apparently referring to the curling tendrils or leaves of 
 vines. 
 
 252 et seq. " There is in this speech." says Johnson, " a sullen 
 
 137
 
 Notes THE LIFE OF 
 
 haughtiness and malignant dignity, suitable at once to the lord 
 and the man-hater. The impatience with which he bears to have 
 his luxury reproached by one that never had luxury within his 
 reach is natural and graceful. There is in a letter, written by the 
 Earl of Essex, just before his execution, to another nobleman, a 
 passage somewhat resembling this, with which, I believe, every 
 reader will be pleased, though it is so serious and solemn that it 
 can scarcely be inserted without irreverence : ' God grant your 
 lordship may quickly feel the comfort I now enjoy in my un- 
 feigned conversion, but that you may never feel the torments I 
 have suffered for my long delaying it. I had none but divines 
 to call upon me, to whom I said, if my ambition could have en- 
 tered into their narrow breasts, they would not have been so 
 humble; or if my delights had been once tasted by them, they 
 would not have been so precise. But your lordship hath one to 
 call upon you that knoweth what it is you now enjoy, and what 
 the greatest fruit and end is of all contentment that this world 
 can afford. Think, therefore, dear earl, that I have staked and 
 buoyed all the ways of pleasure unto you, and left them as sea- 
 marks for you to keep the channel of religious virtue. For shut 
 your eyes never so long, they must be open at the last, and then 
 you must say with me, there is no peace to the ungodly.' " 
 
 263-266. as leaves, etc. : — Somewhat of the same imagery is 
 found in the LXXIII. Sonnet of Shakespeare : — 
 
 " That time of year thou mayst in me behold 
 When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang 
 Upon those boughs which shake against the cold, 
 Bare ruin'd choirs, where late the sweet birds sang." 
 
 275,276. If thou hadst not . . . nattcrer:— Johnson says: 
 " Dryden has quoted two verses of Virgil to show how well he 
 could have written satires. Shakespeare has here given a speci- 
 men of the same power, by a line bitter beyond all bitterness, in 
 which Timon tells Apemantus that he had not virtue enough for 
 the vices which he condemns. I have heard Mr. Burke commend 
 the subtlety of discrimination with which Shakespeare distin- 
 guishes the present character of Timon from that of Apemantus. 
 whom, to vulgar eyes, he would seem to resemble." 
 
 S3i. Thou singly honest man :—Wi\kts finds in Timon's praise 
 of Flavins "the second instance, only, out of twenty-nine plays, 
 in which a man of less rank than a noble, or a knight, is spoken 
 of with approbation and respect. The first instance is that of 
 
 138
 
 TIMON OF ATHENS Notes 
 
 old Adam in As You Like It. It is worthy of observation, how- 
 ever, that one of the characters, at the opening of the next Act, 
 reports that Timon had given to his steward a mighty sum. 
 And here it should be remarked that the stewards of great lords 
 and millionaires, like Timon, were often of exceedingly good 
 families, as we see by the steward of Goneril in King Lear, who 
 is almost a cabinet minister." 
 
 ACT FIFTH. 
 Scene I. 
 
 [Enter Poet and Painter.] The Poet and Painter were within 
 view when Apemantiis parted from Timon ; they must therefore 
 be supposed to have been wandering about the woods in search 
 of Timon's cave, and to have heard in the interim the particulars 
 of Timon's bounty to the thieves and the steward. But Shake- 
 speare was not attentive to these minute particulars, and if he and 
 the audience knew these circumstances, he would not scruple to 
 attribute the knowledge to persons who perhaps had not yet an 
 opportunity of acquiring it. 
 
 208 et seq. This was suggested by a passage in Plutarch's Life 
 of Antonius, where it is said Timon addressed the people of 
 Athens m similar terms from the public tribune in the market- 
 place. 
 
 Scene III. 
 
 3. Timon is dead : — The scholiast of Aristophanes has the story 
 that Timon died from the mortification of a limb, broken by an 
 accident in the country, and lacking the contemned attendance of 
 a surgeon. 
 
 Scene IV. 
 
 [Alcibiades.] Although possessed of none of the potential 
 nobleness of Timon, Alcibiades has one faculty — that of perceiv- 
 ing such things as lie within the range of his limited observation. 
 He does not see the whole world, but he sees the positive limited 
 half of it rightly in the main. He is less than Timon, and yet 
 greater ; for Timon miserably fails through want of the one gift 
 which Alcibiades has. In like manner, Hamlet failed for want 
 
 139
 
 Notes THE LIFE OF 
 
 of the gift which Fortinbras possessed; and yet Hamlet's was be- 
 yond all measure a larger and rarer soul than that of the Prince 
 of Norway. Alcibiades has, at least, not been living in a dream; 
 he lays hold of the positive and coarser pleasures of life, and en- 
 dures its positive, limited pains, definite misfortunes which lie 
 within appreciable bounds. No absolute, ideal anguish like that 
 of Timon can overwhelm him. 
 
 70-73. Here lies, etc. : — What is here given as one epitaph is 
 really a combination of two, as may be seen by consulting 
 North's Plutarch. The reader will of course observe the incon- 
 sistency between the two couplets, the first saying, " Seek not my 
 name " ; the second, " Here lie I, Timon." How the two got thus 
 thrown together, it were vain to speculate : possibly the dramatist 
 was in doubt which to choose, and so copied them both, and 
 then neglected to erase the one which he meant to reject. In 
 The Palace of Pleasure the epitaph is given thus: — 
 
 " My wretched catife dayes expired now and past, 
 My carren corps intered here is fast in grounde, 
 In waltering waves of swelling sea by surges cast : 
 My name if thou desire, the gods thee doe confounde." 
 
 140
 
 TIMON OF ATHENS 
 
 Questions on Timon of Athens, 
 
 1. To what period of the Poet's career is Timon of Atliois as- 
 signed? With what other plays is it associated in the time scheme? 
 
 2. What has been said by critics about the doubtful authorship 
 of parts? What parts are assigned to Shakespeare? Who have 
 been suggested as co-authors? 
 
 3. From what sources were the materials of the play probably 
 derived ? 
 
 4. Is it recorded that Timon of Athens was ever played upon 
 the stage in Shakespeare's era? Do you see any reason that 
 makes it unsuitable for a stage-play? 
 
 ACT FIRST. 
 
 5. Interpret the meaning of the expression concerning the 
 world, in line 3, // zvcars, sir, as it grozi's. 
 
 6. What does the opening Scene convey of the atmosphere in 
 which the life of Timon is passed? 
 
 7. Give some estimate of the character of the Poet as indicated 
 by his account of his art beginning line 20. 
 
 8. What standard of excellence is assumed for the judging of 
 the art of printing in the conversation of the Poet and the Painter? 
 
 9. How does the Poet describe the people who surround 
 Timon? What does he say of Apemantus? What is fore- 
 shadowed by the allegory that he draws for the Painter? How 
 is the Painter himself affected by the recital? 
 
 10. Show what the Ventidius episode contributes to the plot. 
 Comment on the naturalism of the subsequent colloquy with the 
 Old Athenian concerning the marriage of his daughter. 
 
 11. Show the dramatic purpose in introducing Apemantus at 
 this stage of the play. What is there in this colloquy from line 
 184 onward that has led to its condemnation as the work of 
 Shakespeare? From previous hints is it not likely that Shake- 
 speare designed the character? 
 
 12. In Sc. ii. what does Timon say about the return of gifts? 
 
 141
 
 Questions THE LIFE OF 
 
 13. How does Apemantus reveal himself in the grace he offers 
 to the gods? 
 
 14. Does Timon's speech upon friendship show him to be a bad 
 observer of men? 
 
 15. Does the generosity of Timon strike you as fulsome? Is 
 this impression conveyed aside from the fact that the speech of 
 Flavius soon apprises us of his approaching bankruptcy? 
 
 16. What has Act I. established as the underlying idea of the 
 plot? What are the positive elements of Timon's character? 
 Do they win admiration? Does the Act fail to present certain 
 elements concerning him that might aid in a higher appreciation ? 
 
 ACT SECOND. 
 
 17. Show the turn in the tide indicated by the Senator's 
 speeches in Sc. i. How is prudence here weighed against friend- 
 ship, marking a sharp contrast with parts of the first Act? 
 
 18. For what does Flavius's speech at the opening of Sc. ii. 
 prepare? How does Flavius prove himself a resourceful servant? 
 What dramatic expedient is served by his manner of disposing of 
 the servants of Timon's creditors? 
 
 19. Why are lines 45-126 judged non-Shakespearian? 
 
 20. What is Timon's proposal when he hears that his treasury 
 is exhausted? How does he extenuate his past conduct? Upon 
 what does he place reliance? 
 
 21. To what does Timon refer in line 204 when he speaks of the 
 Senators, of whom, even to the state's best health, he has de- 
 served a hearing? 
 
 22. WHiat is the state of Ventidius's fortune when Timon ap- 
 plies to him for aid? 
 
 ACT THIRD. 
 
 23. How does Flaminius, Timon's servant, fare at the house of 
 Lucullus? How does he reflect upon the ingratitude of Lucul- 
 lus? 
 
 24. What type of man is portrayed in Lucius in Sc. ii.? 
 
 25. Is there any ironic intention in the words of the First 
 Stranger; or do you interpret his words as a sincere utterance 
 like those of Flaminius at the close of the first Scene? 
 
 26. What is the excuse made by Sempronius? 
 
 142
 
 TIMON OF ATHENS Questions 
 
 Q.'j. How is Timon affected in body and in mind by the treat- 
 ment of his false friends? What does he finally determine upon? 
 
 28. Does the episode which is brought out in Sc. v. seem to 
 invalidate the unity of the piny? Would the cise be improved 
 by naming the friend for whom Alcibiades pleads? 
 
 29. Is there not a subtle harmony between the case of Timon 
 in his present distress and that of the man under condemnation 
 by the Senate? Is the unity which at first sight seemed destroyed 
 in respect of this episode partially, at least, restored? 
 
 30. What does the Senate visit upon Alcibiades for his per- 
 sistent pleading? How is this later inwrought into the texture 
 of the story? 
 
 31. Sc. vi. is said to be of undoubted Shakespearian authorship. 
 What qualities differentiate it from the rest of the Act? 
 
 32. Who were present at Timon's last banquet? Would a lesser 
 dramatist have brought Lucullus, Lucius, Sempronius, and Ven- 
 tidius again upon the stage? Why did not Shakespeare? 
 
 SS. How does he address them when they sit at the table? 
 
 34. Compare the breaking up of assembly with the similar 
 device in the play scene of Hamlet. 
 
 35. With what final words does Timon quit the scene? 
 
 ACT FOURTH. 
 
 :^6. Mention some elements of the picture of human society 
 that Timon draws in his imprecations upon Athens. Are these 
 the words of a sane man? Is a man sane who is possessed by so 
 powerful a passion? 
 
 37. How does he compare mankind and the beasts? What 
 does he implore of the gods ? 
 
 38. What is the purpose of Sc. ii.? Mention some un-Shake- 
 spearian qualities of Flavius's speech beginning with line 30. 
 
 39. What things are the object of Timon's curse in the open- 
 ing of Sc. iii.? Does he include himself in his general disdain 
 of humanity? Upon what does he subsist? 
 
 40. What does he find in digging in the earth ? How does he 
 describe the power of money? 
 
 41. How is Alcibiades accompanied upon his entrance? Does 
 Timon recognize him? Why does Timon say, / do zuish thou 
 wert a dog, that I might love thee something? 
 
 42. What does Timon name himself? What does he now say 
 
 143
 
 Questions THE LIFE OF 
 
 or imply concerning friendship? When, in his opinion, did he 
 suffer miseries? 
 
 43. Against Athens, how has Alcibiades arrayed himself? 
 What injunctions concerning Athens does Timon lay upon him? 
 Notice how at the mention of pity by Alcibiades, Timon turns 
 his invective mainly against pity as a possible accompaniment 
 of war. 
 
 44. What attitude to x\lcibiades personally does Timon persist 
 in? What is his attitude towards the women who accompany 
 Alcibiades? 
 
 45. Indicate the attitude of the dramatist towards women by 
 the way these two curry profit out of Timon's misanthropy? 
 
 46. How in line 176 does Timon define his malady? 
 
 47. Is Nature included in the curses Timon heaps upon man- 
 kind, and if so to what extent is she exonerated? 
 
 48. Show the dramatic purpose in bringing Timon and Ape- 
 mantus together. How do you contrast their respective views 
 of human society? 
 
 49. With what arguments does Apemantus try to persuade 
 Timon of the folly of his present course? What is there in 
 Timon that makes such a life as Apemantus recommends impos- 
 sible ? 
 
 50. In lines 239 ct scq. how does Apemantus read Timon ? 
 What degree of truth is there in his words? 
 
 51. How does Timon retort upon Apemantus? Is there truth 
 in his analysis? 
 
 52. Does either man compel admiration? 
 
 53. When does Timon resolve to die? 
 
 54. How does he apostrophize gold in lines beginning with 385 ? 
 
 55. How does Timon meet the Banditti who come out to rob 
 him? What warrant from nature's laws does he give them for 
 practising theft? Compare this view of nature with that of a 
 modern author, Robert Louis Stevenson, in an essay called 
 Pulvis et Umbra. 
 
 56. What effect have Timon's words upon the Banditti ? 
 
 57. How is the cause of Timon's misanthropy again sounded in 
 the words of Flavins? 
 
 58. In what way does the unselfishness of Flavins cause Timon 
 to modify his new creed? How does Flavins again point cut the 
 weakness of Timon? 
 
 59. With what admonitions does Timon accompany his gift of 
 gold to Flavius? In this is he consistent? 
 
 144
 
 TIMON OF ATHENS Questions 
 
 ACT FIFTH. 
 
 60. Does the scene between Timon and the Poet and Painter 
 suggest Hamlet's dialogue with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern in 
 the method employed in leading them into self-conviction? 
 
 61. Who are the last visitors to Timon and by whom are they 
 sent? What inducements are used to persuade Timon to return 
 to Athens? What has led the Senate to make this request? 
 What has the play revealed of Timon's past history to warrant 
 this confidence in him? 
 
 62. Indicate the immediate effect upon him of the words of the 
 Senators. 
 
 63. In the speech beginning line 171 does Timon show a gen- 
 uine pity for mankind, assuming his point of view as a just and 
 righteous one? In other words does Shakespeare prove the case 
 of misanthropy as a legitimate moral view-point ? 
 
 64. Does Timon in his latest speeches reach a pitch of 
 pessimism that seems to involve more than mankind in his ar- 
 raignment for the evils, to use his words, that nature's fragile 
 vessel doth sustain in life's uncertain voyage? Is there ever a 
 hint that men are helpless in the hands of malevolent deities? 
 
 65. What is effected by Scenes ii. and iii. ? 
 
 66. What charges does Alcibiades bring against Athens in 
 Sc. iv.? How do the Senators exonerate Athens and the present 
 inhabitants from blame for that which Alcibiades is bringing pun- 
 ishment? Upon whom do they allow punishment to fall? 
 
 67. From whence did Shakespeare derive the epitaph of Timon? 
 Of the two couplets which do you consider the more appropriate? 
 
 68. What humour is there in the comment of Alcibiades upon 
 Timon's choice of a resting-place? What . sublimity in the fact 
 itself? 
 
 69. How does this Scene present a justification of Timon? 
 
 70. The hero of a drama should commend himself to the in- 
 tellectual approbation if not to the moral affections. Does Timon 
 fulfil either of these demands? Show in what way this is ef- 
 fected, if you decide affirma lively. Has Shakespeare ever before 
 set himself so difficult a problem? 
 
 71, Does religion or philosophy set any approval upon mis- 
 anthropy? Is it a legitimate motif for dramatic art? Has any 
 
 145
 
 Questions 
 
 other of the world's great dramatists treated the motif? If so, 
 has it been treated in the spirit of tragedy or comedy? 
 
 72. Does the present day development of philosophic thought 
 make it any longer possible to treat misanthropy as a tragic 
 motif? 
 
 73. Comment on Shakespeare's spiritual state at the time of 
 writing this play. What characters save the play from inculca- 
 ting absolute pessimism? In what ways do they furnish the re- 
 action from the dominant implications? 
 
 74. Support by citation from the play the following criticism by 
 Lloyd: "He speaks and curses in spleen and sarcasm rather 
 than malevolently, and the natural tendency of his suggestions 
 of mischief is from their tone rather to awaken shame and self- 
 mistrust in the vicious than to stimulate to vice, and some notes 
 of lamentation and remonstrance are audible amidst and above 
 his angry complaints." 
 
 75. Show the similarity and contrast between Coriolanus and 
 Timon. 
 
 76. In what way is Apemantus related to Thersites? 
 
 yy. Mention some passages of poetry that may be said to pos- 
 sess sublimity and show their dramatic fitness. 
 
 78. Had Shakespeare bidden the world farewell with this phy 
 what would be assumed as to his knowledge and experience of 
 life? What evidence have we that he attained to higher spiritual 
 levels? 
 
 146
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA-LOS ANGELES 
 
 L 009 978 341 7