That the bleak air, thy boisterous chamberlain, To cure thy o'er-night's surfeit? Call the creatures, Of wreakful heaven; whofe bare unhoused trunks, Answer meer nature; bid them flatter thee; Tim. A fool of thee; depart. Apem. I love thee better now, than e'er I did. Apem. Why? Tim. Thou flatter'st mifery. Apem. I flatter not; but fay, thou art a caitiff. Apem. To vex thee. Tim. Always a villain's office, or a fool's. Doft please thyfelf in't? Apem. Ay. Tim. What! a knave too? moift trees,] Hanmer reads very elegantly, -mofs'd trees. Apem. JOHNSON. Shakespeare uses the fame epithet in As you like it, A&IV. "Under an oak, whofe boughs were mofs'd with age." 5 Tim. Always a villain's office or a fool's. Doft pleafe thyself in't? Apem. Ay. Tim. What! a knave too?] STEEVENS. Mr. Warburton proposes a correction here, which, though it opposes the reading of all the printed copies, has great juftnefs and propriety in it. He would read; What! and know't too? The reasoning of the text, as it ftands in the books, is, in fome fort, Apem. If thou didft put this four cold habit on The other, at high wifh. Beft ftate, contentlefs, Thou should'ft defire to die, being miferable. Tim. Not by his breath, that is more miferable. fort, concluding backward; or rather making a knave's and a villain's office different; which, furely, is abfurd. The correction quite removes the abfurdity, and gives this fenfible rebuke. "What! Do'st thou please thyself in vexing me, and at the same "time know it to be the office of a villain or fol." THEOBALD. Such was Dr. Warburton's first conjecture, but afterwards he adopted Sir T. Hanmer's conjecture, What a knave thou! Lut there is no need of alteration. Timon had juft called Apemantus fool, in confequence of what he had known of him by for mer acquaintance; but when Apemantus tells him, that he comes to vex him, Timon determines that to vex is either the office of a villain or a fool; that to vex by design is villainy, to vex without defign is folly. He then properly afks Apemantus whether he takes delight in vexing, and when he anfwers, yes, Timon replies, What! and knave too? I before only knew thee to be a fool, but I now find thee likewife a knave. This feems to be fo clear as not to ftand in need of a comment. JOHNSON. 6 is crown'd before:] Arrives fooner at high wish; that is, at the completion of its wishes. JOHNSON. 1 Worfe than the worst, content.] This line might have been originally completed in a manner fomething like the following: Worfe than the worst, contented is most happy. Without a fupplement like this, no meaning can be drawn from it. T. T. This one would Beft ftates contentlefs have a wretched being, a being worfe than that of the worst states that are content. think too plain to have been mistaken. JOHNSON. 8-by his breath,-] It means, I believe, by his counsel, by his direction. JOHNSON. Thou are a flave, whom fortune's tender arm Hadft thou, like us, from our firft fwath, proceeded Through fweet degrees that this brief world affords, To fuch as may the paffive drugs of it Freely command, thou wouldst have plung'd thyself In different beds of luft; and never learn'd 1 The -but bred a dog.] Alluding to the word Cynic, of which feat Apemantus was. WARBURTON. Hadft thou, like us,- -] There is in this fpeech a fullen haughtiness, and malignant dignity, fuitable 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 Effex, just before his execution, to another nobleman, a paffage fomewhat refembling this, with which, I believe every reader will be pleased, though it is fo ferious and solemn that it can scarcely be inserted without ir reverence. "God grant your lordship may quickly feel the comfort I now enjoy in my unfeigned converfion, but that you may never feel the torments I have fuffered for my long delaying it. I had none but deceivers to call upon me, to whom I said, if my ambition could kave entered into their narrow breafts, they would not hawe bien fo humble; or if my delights had been once tafted by them, they would not have been fo precife. But your lordship bath one to call upon you, that knoweth what it is you now enjoy; and what the greateft frait and end is of all contentment that this world can afford, Think, therefore, dear earl, that I have flaked and buoyed all the ways of pleasure unto you, and left them as fea-marks for you to keep the channel of religious virtue. For fhut your eyes never fo long, they must be open at the laft, and then you must fay with me, there is no peace to the ungodly." JOHNSON. 2 From infancy. Swath is the drefs of a new-born child. JOHNSON, 3 -precepts of respect,-] Of obedience to laws. JOHNSON. 4 - But myself,] The connection here requires fome attention. But is here ufed to denote oppofition; but what imme diately Who had the world as my confectionary, The mouths, the tongues, the eyes, and hearts of men They never flatter'd thee. What haft thou given? Apem. Art thou proud yet ? Tim. diately precedes is not oppofed to that which follows. The adverfative particle refers to the two first lines. Thou art a flave, whom fortune's tender arm Who Lad the world as my confectionary, &c. The intermediate lines are to be confidered as a parenthefis of paffion. JOHNSON. that poor rag,] If we read poor regue, it will correspond rather better to what follows. JOHNSON. In Richard III. Margaret calls Glofter rag of honour. The old reading, I believe, should ftand. STEEVENS. "Thou bad bein knave and flatterer.] Dryden has quoted two verfes of Virgil to fhew how well he could have written fatires. Shakespeare has here given a fpecimen of the fame 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. Dr. Warburton explains worst by lowel, which fomewhat weakens the fenfe, and yet leaves it fufficiently vigorous. I have heard Mr. Bourke commend the fubtilty of difcrimi 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, fhut up in thee, I'd give thee leave to hang it. Get thee gone. [Eating a root. Apem. Here. I will mend thy feast. [Offering him another. Tim. First mend my company, take away thyself. Apem. So I fhall mend my own, by the lack of thine. Tim. 'Tis not well mended fo, it is but botch'd; If not, I would it were. Apem. What wouldft 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 ufe for gold. Tim. The best and trueft: For here it fleeps, and does no hired harm. Where feed'st thou o'days, Apemantus? Apem. Where my ftomach finds meat; or rather, where I eat it. Tim. 'Would poifon were obedient, and knew my mind! Apem. Where wouldst thou fend it? Tim. To fawce thy dishes. Apem. The middle of humanity thou never knew'ft, but the extremity of both ends. When thou waft in thy gilt, and thy perfume, they mock'd thee " for too much curiofity; in thy rags thou knoweft none, but nation with which Shakespeare diftinguishes the prefent character of Timon from that of Apemantus, whom to vulgar eyes he would now resemble. 7 JOHNSON. 1 for too much curiofity;] i. e. for too much finical delicacy. The Oxford editor alters it to courtesy. WARBURTON. art |