2 Tim. Be a whore ftill! They love thee not that -use thee; Give them diseases, leaving with thee their luft: youth 3 To the tub-faft, and the diet. Timan. 2 Be a whore fill! They love thee not that use thee There is here a flight tranfpofition. I would read, -Thy love thee not that use thee, Leaving with thee their luft; give them difeafes 3 For tubs and baths; Јонизов. 3 To the fub-faft, and the diet.] One might make a very long and vain fearch, yet not be able to meet with this prepofterous word fub-faft, which has notwithstanding paffed current with all the editors. We should read tub-faft. The author is alluding to the lues venerea, and its effects. At that time the cure of it was performed either by guaiacum, or mercurial unctions: and in both cafes the patient was kept up very warm and clofe; that in the first application the fweat might be promoted; and left, in the other, he should take cold, which was fatal. The regimen for the courfe of guaiacum (fays Dr. Friend in his Hiftory of Phyfick, vol. II. p. 380.) was at first firangely circumftantial; and jo rigoreus, that the patient was put into a dungeon in order to make him jweat; and in that manner, as Fallopius expreffes it, the bones, and the very man himself was macerated. Wifeman fays, in England they used a tub for this purpose, as abroad, a cave, or oven, or dungeon. And as for the unction, it was fometimes continued for thirty-feven days (as he obferves, p. 375.) and during this time there was neceffarily an extraordinary abftinence required. Hence the term of the tub-faft. WARBURTON, So in Jasper Maine's City Match, 1639, -You had better match a ruin'd bawd, "One ten times cur'd by fweating and the tub." Again, in The Family of Love, 1608,' a doctor fays, "O for one of the hoops of my Cornelius' tub, I shall burst "myself with laughing elfe."" So Timan. Hang thee, monster! Alc. Pardon him, sweet Timandra; for his wits Are drown'd and loft in his calamities. -I have but little gold of late, brave Timon, I had rather be alone. Alc. Why, fare thee well: Here is fome gold for thee. Tim. Keep it, I cannot eat it. Alc. When I have laid proud Athens on a heap,Tim. Warr'ft thou 'gainst Athens ? Alc. Ay, Timon, and have cause. Tim. The Gods confound them all in thy conqueft, And thee after, when thou haft conquered! Alc. Why me, Timon? Tim. That by killing of villains thou was born To conquer my country. Put up thy gold. Go on,-Here's gold,-Go on; So in Beaumont and Fletcher's Knight of the Burning Pefle, -whom I in diet keep "Send lower down into the cave, "And in a tub that's heated fmoaking hot, &c." Again in the fame play, "caught us, and put us in a tub, "Where we this two months fweat, &c." *This bread and water hath our diet been, &c." * Be as a planetary plague, when Jove, He is an ufurer. Strike me the counterfeit matron, Herfelf's a bawd. Let not the virgin's cheek Set them down horrible traitors. Spare not the babe, mercy; Think it a baftard, whom the oracle Hath doubtfully pronounc'd thy throat fhall cut, 5 Be as a planetary plague, when Jove Will o'er fome high-vic'd city hang his poison In the fick aire -] This is wonderfully fublime and picturesque. WARBURTON. That through the window-barn-] How the words come to be blundered into this ftrange nonfenfe, is hard to conceive. But it is plain Shakespeare wrote, -window-lawn i. e. lawn almost as tranfparent as glafs windows. WARBURTON. The reading is more probably, ber. -window-bars, The virgin that fhews her bofom through the lattice of her chamJOHNSON. 6-exhaust their mercy ;] For exhauft, fir T. Hanmer, and after him Dr. Warburton, read extort; but exhaust here fignifies literally to draw forth. 7baftard, An allufion to the tale of Edipus. JOHNSON. JOHNSON. Shall Shall pierce a jot. There's gold to pay thy foldiers : I'll take the gold thou giv'st me, not thy counsel. Tim. Doft thou, or doft thou not, heaven's curfe upon thee! 8 Both. Give us fome gold, good Timon. Haft thou more? Tim. Enough to make a whore forfwear her trade, And to make whores a bawd. Hold up, you fluts, Your aprons mountant: you are not oathable, Although, I know, you'll fwear, terribly fwear Into ftrong fhudders, and to heavenly agues, The immortal Gods that hear you. Spare your oaths; I'll trust to your conditions. Be whores ftill: And he whofe pious breath feeks to convert you, Be strong in whore, allure him, burn him up; Let your close fire predominate his smoke, And to make whore a bawd.] The power of gold, indeed, may be fuppofed great, that can make a whore forfake her trade; but what mighty difficulty was there in making a whore turn bawd? And yet, 'tis plain, here he is defcribing the mighty power of gold. He had before fhewn, how gold can perfuade to any villainy; he now fhews that it has still a greater force, and can even turn from vice to the practice, or, at least, the femblance of virtue. We must therefore read, to restore fenfe to our author, And to make whole a bard. i. e. not only make her quit her calling, but thereby restore her to reputation. The old edition reads, And to make hores a bawd. WARBURTON, That is, enough to make a whore leave whoring, and a hard leove making whores. 9 I'll trust to your conditions. continue whores, I will truft to your inclinations. JOHNSON. -] You need not fwear to JOHNSON. And And be no turn-coats. months, Yet may your pains, fix Be quite contrary: and thatch your poor thin roofs * With This is obfcure, partly from the ambiguity of the word pains, and partly from the generality of the expreffion. The meaning is this, he had faid before, follow conftantly your trade of debauchery: that is (fays he) for fix months in the year. Let the other fix be employed in quite contrary pains and labour, namely, in the fevere difcipline neceffary for the repair of those disorders that your debaucheries occafion, in order to fit you anew to the trade; and thus let the whole year be spent in thefe different occupations. On this account he goes on, and fays, Make falfe bair, &c. But for, pains fix months, the Oxford editor reads pains exterior. What he means I know not. WARBURTON. The explanation is ingenious, but I think it very remote, and would willingly bring the author and his readers to meet on easier terms. We may read, -Yet may your pains fix months Be quite contraried. Timon is withing ill to mankind, but is afraid left the whores fhould imagine that he wishes well to them; to obviate which he lets them know, that he imprecates upon them influence enough to plague others, and difappointments enough to plague themselves. He wishes that they may do all poflible mifchief, and yet take pains fix months of the year in vain. In this fenfe there is a connection of this line with the next. Finding your pains contraried, try new expedients, thatch your thin roofs, and paint. To contrary is an old verb. Latymer relates, that when he went to court, he was advifed not to contrary the king. -Yet may your pains fix months Be quite contrary JOHNSON. I believe this means,-Yet for half the year at leaf, may you fuffer fuch punishment as is inflicted on ftrumpus in houfes of correction. STEEVENS. 2 -thatch your poer thin roofs, &c.] About the year 1595, when the fashion was first introduced in England of wearing more hair than was ever the produce of a fingle head, it was dangerous for any child to go about, as nothing was more common than for wo |