musick awhile; if they will fare so harshly on the trumpet's sound: we shall to 't presently. 1 Lord. I hope, it remains not unkindly with your lordship, that I returned you an empty messenger. Tim. O, sir, let it not trouble you. 2 Lord. My noble lord, Tim. Ah, my good friend! what cheer? [The Banquet brought in. 2 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. 2 Lord. If you had sent but two hours before, —— Tim. Let it not cumber your better remembrance.5Come, bring in all together. 2 Lord. All covered dishes! 1 Lord. Royal cheer, I warrant you. 3 Lord. Doubt not that, if money, and the season can yield it. 1 Lord. How do you? What's the news? 3 Lord. Alcibiades is banished: Hear you of it? 1&2 Lord. Alcibiades banished! 3 Lord. 'Tis so, be sure of it. 1 Lord. How? how? 2 Lord. I pray you, upon what? Tim. My worthy friends, will you draw near? 3 Lord. I'll tell you more anon. Here's a noble feast toward. 2 Lord. This is the old man still. 3 Lord. Will 't hold? will 't hold? 2 Lord. It does: but time will-and so 3 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. Make not a city feast of it, to let the meat cool ere 5 your better remembrance.] i. e. your good memory: the comparative for the positive degree. Steevens. • Here's a noble feast toward.] i. e. in a state of readiness. So, in Romeo and Juliet: 7 "We have a foolish trifling banquet towards." Steevens. your diet shall be in all places alike.] See The Winter's Tale, Vol. VI, p. 181, n. 1. Steevens. we can agree upon the first place: Sit, sit. The gods require 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 beloved, more than the man that gives it. Let no assembly of twenty be without a score of villains: 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 they are welcome. Uncover, dogs, and lap. [The Dishes uncovered are full of warm Water. Some speak. What does his lordship mean? 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; [Throwing Water in their Faces. Your reeking villainy. Live loath'd, and long, 2 The rest of your fees,] We should read-foes. Warburton. We must surely read foes instead of fees. I find no sense in the present reading M Mason. 9 the common lag-] Old copy-leg. Corrected by Mr. Rowe. Malone. The fag-end of a web of cloth is, in some places, called the lag-end. Steevens. 1 Is your perfection.] Your perfection, is the highest of your excellence. Johnson. 2 · Live loath'd, and long,] This thought has occurred twice before: Again: let not that part "Of nature my lord paid for, be of power "Gods keep you old enough," &c. Steevens. Most smiling, smooth, detested parasites, Courteous destroyers, affable wolves, meek bears, Crust you quite o'er!-What, dost thou go? [Exit. Re-enter the Lords, with other Lords and Senators. 1 Lord. How now, my lords?7 2 Lord. Know you the quality of lord Timon's fury? 3 Lord. Pish! did you see my cap? 4 Lord. I have lost my gown. 3 Lord. He's but a mad lord, and nought but humour sways him. He gave me a jewel the other day, and now he has beat it out of my hat :-) you see my jewel? 3 -Did 4 Lord. Did you see my cap? 2 Lord. Here 'tis. 4 Lord. Here lies my gown. 1 Lord. Let's make no stay. -fools of fortune,] The same expression occurs in Romeo and Juliet: "O! I am fortune's fool." Steevens. 4 - time's flies,] Flies of a season. Johnson. So, before: 5 "one cloud of winter showers, "These flies are couch'd." Steevens. - minute-jacks!] Sir Thomas Hanmer thinks it means Jacka-lantern, which shines and disappears in an instant. What it was I know not; but it was something of quick motion, mentioned in King Richard III. Johnson. A minute-jack is what was called formerly a Jack of the clockhouse; an image whose office was the same as one of those at St. Dunstan's church in Fleet street. See King Richard III, Vol. XI, p. 132, n. 1. Steevens. 6- -the infinite malady -] Every kind of disease incident to man and beast. Johnson. 7 How now, my lords?] This and the next speech are spoken by the newly arrived Lords. Malone. 2 Lord. Lord Timon 's mad. 3 Lord. I feel 't upon my bones. [Exeunt. 4 Lord. One day he gives us diamonds, next day stones.8 ACT IV..... SCENE I. Without the Walls of Athens. Enter TIMON. Tim. Let me look back upon thee, O thou wall, Do 't in your parent' eyes! bankrupts, hold fast; 8 stones.] As Timon has thrown nothing at his worthless guests, except warm water and empty dishes, I am induced, with Mr. Malone, to believe that the more ancient drama described in p. 303, had been read by our author, and that he supposed he had introduced from it the "painted stones" as part of his banquet; though in reality he had omitted them. The present mention therefore of such missiles, appears to want propriety. 2 Steevens. -general filths —] i. e. common sewers. Steevens. — green —] i. e. immature. So, in Antony and Cleopatra : "When I was green in judgment Steevens. o' the brothel!] So the old copies. Sir Thomas Hanmer reads, i' the brothel. Johnson. One would suppose it to mean, that the mistress frequented the brothel; and so Sir Thomas Hanmer understood it. Ritson. The meaning is, go to thy master's bed, for he is alone; thy mistress is now of the brothel; is now there. In the old copy, ith', o' th', and a' th', are written with very little care, or rather seem to have been set down at random in different places. Malone. Pluck the lin❜d crutch from thy old limping sire, On Athens, ripe for stroke! thou cold sciatica, Take thou that too, with multiplying banns!" "Of the brothel" is the true reading. So, in King Lear, Act II, sc. ii, the Steward says to Kent, "Art of the house?" Steevens. confounding contraries,] i. e. contrarieties whose nature it is to waste or destroy each other. So, in King Henry V: 3 as doth a galled rock O'erhang and jutty his confounded base." Steevens. - yet confusion -] Sir Thomas Hanmer reads, let confusion; but the meaning may be, though by such confusion all things seem to hasten to dissolution, yet let not dissolution come, but the miseries of confusion continue. Johnson. 5 liberty-] Liberty is here used for libertinism. So, in The Comedy of Errors: "And many such like liberties of sin;" apparently meaning-libertines. Steevens. 6- multiplying banns!] i. e. accumulated curses. Multiplying for multiplied: the active participle with a passive signification. See Vol. II, p. 185, n. 9. Steevens. |