Re-enter Flavius.
Flav. I beseech your honour,
Vouchsafe me a word; it does concern you near.

Tim. Near! why then another time I'll hear thee;
I pr’ythee, let us be provided
To Thew chem entertainment.
Flav. [Afide.] I scarce know how.

Enter another Sert'ent. 2 Serv. May it please your honour, the lord Lucius, Out of his free love, hath presented to you Four milk-white horses trapt in silver.

Tim. I shall accept them fairly: Let the presents Be worthily entertain'd.- How now, what news ?

Enter a third Servant. 3 Serv. Please you, my lord, that honourable gentleman, lord Lucullus, entreats your company tomorrow to hunt with him; and has sent your honour two brace of greyhounds.

Tim. I'll 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 shew 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
For every word.

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 forc'd out !
Happier is he that has no friend to feed,
Than such that do even enemies exceed.

I bleed

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.

i Lord. With more than common thanks I will receive it.

3 Lord. O! he is the very soul of bounty !

Tim. And now I remember, my lord, you gave Good words the other day of a bay courfer I rode on; it is your's because you lik'd it.

2 Lord. Oh, Í 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 my own: * I tell you true.

All Lords. O, none so welcome.

Tim. I take all and your several visitations So kind to heart, s'tis not enough to give My thanks; I could deal kingdonis 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 haft Lie in a pitch'd field. Alc. ' l' defiled land, my lord.

I Lord.

l'll call on you.

5

4 I tell you true.

] The other editions, I'll tell you.

JOHNSON. -'is not enough to give; Methinks, I could deal kingdoms- -] Thus the passage stood in all editions before Hanmer's, who re. stored

my
thanks.

JOHNSON. el defiled land, This is the old reading, which ap

parently

1 Lord. We are so virtuously bound,
Tin. And so am I to you.
2 Lord. So infinite endear'd, -
Tim. All to you.? Lights! more lights.
3

Lord. The best of happiness,
Honour and fortunes, keep with you, lord Timon !

Tim. Ready for his friends. (Exeunt Lords.

Apem. What a coil's here ! * Serving of becks, and jutting out of bums! 'I doubt, whether their legs, be worth the sums That are given for 'em. Friendship’s full of dregs: Methinks, false hearts should never have found legs. Thus honest fools lay out their wealth on court'sies.

parently depends on a very low quibble. Alcibiades is told, that bis efi ate lies in a pitch'd field. Now pitch, as Falstaff fays, dort defile. Alcibiades therefore replies, that his estate lies in defiled land. This, as it happened, was not understood, and all the editors published, I defy land,

Johnson. 7 All to you. -] i. e, all good wishes, or all happiness to you. - So Macbeth, All to all.

STEEVENS. * SERVING of becks] This nonsense should be read,

SERRING of becks from the French ferrer, to join close together. A metaphor taken from the billing of pigeons.

WARBURTON. The commentator conceives beck to mean the mouth or the head, after the French, bec, whereas it means a salutation made with the head. So Milton,

“ Nods and becks, and wreathed smiles." To serve a beck, is to offer a salutation.

JOHNSON. To serve a beck, means, I believe, 10 pay a courily obedience to a nod.

STEEVENS. See Surrey's Poems, p. 29. “ And with a becke full lowe he bowed at her feete.”

T. T. I doubt wbether their legs, &c.] He plays upon the word leg, as it fignifies a limb and a bow or all of obeisance. JOHNSON.

Tim. Now, Apemantus, if thou wert not sullen, I would be good to thee.

Apem. No, I'll nothing: for
If I should be brib'd too, there would be none left
To rail upon thee, and thou wouluit fin the faster.
Thou giv'it so long, Timon, 'I fear me, thou
Wilt give away thyself in paper shortly :
What need these feasts, pomps, and vain-glories ?

Tin. Nay,
If you begin to rail once on society,
I am sworn not to give regard to you.
Farewell; and come with better musick.

Apem. So;-
Thou wilt not hear me now, thou shalt not then.

I'll lock * Thy heaven from thee. Oh, that men's ears should be To counsel deaf, but not to flattery ! [Exit.

1

-I fear me, thou Wilt give away thyself in paper shortly.] i.e. be ruined by his securities entered into. But this sense is flat, and relishes very little of the salt in Apemantus's other reflections. We should read,

give arvay thyself in proper shortly. i. e. in person; thy proper self. This latter is an expression of Qur author's in the Tempeft;

And ev’n with such like valour men bang and drown
Their proper selves.

WARBURTON, Hanmer reads very plausibly,

-thou Wilt give away thyself in perpetuum. JOHNSON. I am fatisfied with Dr. Warburton's explanation of the text; but cannot concur in his emendation.

STEEVENS. * Thy heaven- ] The pleasure of being flattered. JOHNSON

ACT

ACT II.

SCENE I.

A publick place in the city.

Enter a Senator.

SENATOR.

A

ND late, five thousand to Varro;} and to Ifi

dore,
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 more
Better than he, why, give my horse to Timon;
Alk nothing, give it him, it foals me, straight,

And

3 And late five thousand 10 Varro; and 10 Ifidore

He owes nine thousand]
Former editors point the passage thus,
And late five thousand.-T. Varro and 10 lindore, &c.

T, T. 4 In old edition :

Ask nothing, give it him, it foals me straight

An able horse. - ] “If I want gold (fays the senator) let me steal a beggar's dog, and “ give it Timon, the dog coins me gold. If I would fell my borse, • and had a mind to buy ten better instead of him; why, I need “ but give my horse to Timon, to gain this point; and it pre“ fently ferches me an borse." But is that gaining the point propos'd? The first folio reads, less corruptly than the modern impressions,

And able horses, Which reading, joined to the reasoning of the passage, gave me the hint for this emendation.

THEOBALD. Instead of tin horses the old copy reads twenty. The passage

which

I