But, for all this, my honest-natur'd friends,
I must needs fay, you have a little fault:
Marry, 'tis not monstrous in you; neither wish I,
You take much pains to mend.

Both Befeech your honour

To make it known to us.

Tim. You'll take it ill.

Both. Most thankfully, my lord.

Tim. Will you, indeed?

Both. Doubt it not, worthy lord.

Tim. There's ne'er a one of you but trusts a knave, That mightily deceives you.

Both. Do we, my lord?

Tim. Ay, and you hear him cog, fee him dissemble, Know his grofs patchery, love him, feed him; Keep in your bofom; yet remain affur'd,

That he's a made-up villain.

Pain. I know none fuch, my lord.

Poet. Nor I.

Tim. Look you, I love you well. I'll give you gold. Rid me these villains from your companies : Hang them, or ftab them, drown them in a draught, Confound them by fome courfe, and come to me, I'll give you gold enough.

Both. Name them, my lord, let's know them. Tim. You that way, and you this. But two in

company

Each

3-a made-up villain.] That is a villain that adopts qualities and characters not properly belonging to him; a hypocrite.

9in a draught,] That is, in the jakes.

JOHNSON. JOHNSON.

But two in company-] This is an imperfect sentence, and is to be supplied thus, But two in company spoils all. WARB. This paffage is obfcure. I think the meaning is this: but twe in company, that is, ftand apart, let only two be together; for even when each stands fingle there are two, he himself and a villain.

JOHNSON.

There

Each man apart, all fingle and alone,
Yet an arch villain keeps him company.
If where thou art, two villains fhall not be,

[To the Painter. Come not near him.-If thou wouldst not refide [To the Poet. But where one villain is, then him abandon.Hence, pack, there's gold; ye came for gold, ye flaves. You have work for me; there is payment. Hence! You are an alchymift, make gold of that.

Out, rafcal dogs! [Exit, beating and driving them out.

SCENE III.

Enter Flavius and two Senators.

Flav. It is in vain that you would fpeak with Timon: For he is fet fo only to himself,

That nothing, but himself, which looks like man, Is friendly with him.

1 Sen. Bring us to his cave,

It is our part and promife to the Athenians
To speak with Timon.

2 Sen. At all times alike,

Men are not still the fame: 'Twas time and griefs That fram'd him thus. Time, with his fairer hand,

Offering the fortunes of his former days,

The former man may make him: Bring us to him, 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 By two of their reverend fenate

Speak to them, noble Timon.

greet thee.

There is a thought not unlike this in The Scornful Lady of Beaumont and Fletcher." Take to your chamber when you please, there goes a black one with you, lady." STEEVENS.

Enter Timon out of his cave.

Tim. Thou fun, that comfort'st, burn!—Speak, and
be hang'd!

For each true word a blifter, and each falfe
Be as a cauterizing to the root o' the tongue,
Confuming it with speaking!

1 Sen. Worthy Timon,

Tim. Of none but fuch as you, and you of Timon. 2 Sen. The fenators of Athens greet thee, Timon. Tim. I thank them. And would fend them back the plague,

Could I but catch it for them.

1 Sen. O, forget

What we are forry for; ourselves, in thee.

The fenators, with one confent of love,

Intreat thee back to Athens; who have thought

On fpecial dignities, which vacant lie

For thy beft ufe and wearing.

2 Sen. They confefs,

Toward thee, forgetfulness too general, grofs:
And now the publick body, which doth feldom
Play the recanter, feeling in itself

A lack of Timon's aid, hath sense withal

3 Of its own fall, reftraining aid to Timon;

2 And now

Which now

-] So Hanmer. The old editions have,

JOHNSON.

3 Of its own fall.- -] The Oxford editor alters fall to fault, not knowing that Shakespeare ufes fall to fignify dishonour, not deftruction. So in Hamlet,

What a falling off was there!

WARBURTON.

The truth is, that neither fall means difgrace, nor is fault a neceffary emendation. Falling off in the quotation is not disgrace but defection. The Athenians bad fenfe, that is, felt the danger of their own fall, by the arms of Alcibiades. JOHNSON. -refraining aid to Timon;] I think it should be refraining aid, that is, with-holding aid that should have been given

4

to Timon.

JOHNSON.

And

And fends forth us to make their forrowed tender,
Together with a recompence more fruitful

5 Than their offence can weigh down by the dram :
Ay, even fuch heaps and fums of love and wealth,
As fhall 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:

Surprize me to the very brink of tears.

Lend me a fool's heart, and a woman's eyes,
And I'll beweep thefe comforts, worthy fenators.
1 Sen. Therefore, fo please thee to return with us,
And of our Athens (thine and ours) to take
The captainship, thou fhalt be met with thanks,
Allow'd with abfolute power, and thy good name
Live with authority.-So fhall we foon drive back
Of Alcibiades the approaches wild,

Than their offence can weigh down by the dram;] This which was in the former editions can fcarcely be right, and yet I know not whether my reading will be thought to rectify it. I take the meaning to be, We will give thee a recompence that our offences cannot outweigh, heaps of wealth down by the dram, or delivered according to the exacteft measure. A little diforder may perhaps have happened in transcribing, which may be reformed by reading,

-Ay, ev'n fuch heaps

And fums of love and wealth, down by the dram,
As fhall to thee-

• Allow'd with abfolute power,—

nor fenfe. We should read,

Hallow'd with absolute power,

JOHNSON.

-] This is neither English

i. e. Thy perfon fhall be held facred. For abfolute power being an attribute of the Gods, the ancients thought that he who had it in fociety was become facred, and his perfon inviolable: On which account the Romans called the tribunitial power of the emperors, facrofania poteftas. WARBURTON.

Allowed is licenfed, privileged, uncontrolled. So of a buffoon, in Love's Labour loft, it is faid, that he is allowed, that is, at liberty to say what he will, a privileged fcoffer,

JOHNSON.

Who, like a boar too favage, doth root up
His country's peace.

2 Sen. And shakes his threatning fword Against the walls of Athens.

I Sen. Therefore, Timon,

Tim. Well, fir, I will. Therefore I will, fir. Thus, If Alcibiades kill my countrymen,

Let Alcibiades know this of Timon,

That-Timon cares not. But if he fack fair Athens,
And take our goodly aged men by the beards,
Giving our holy virgins to the ftain

Of contumelious, beaftly, mad-brain'd war;
Then let him know,-and tell him, Timon speaks it,
In pity of our aged and our youth,

I cannot chufe but tell him, that I care not.
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,
But I do prize it at my love, before

The reverend'ft throat in Athens. So I leave you
To the protection of the profperous 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 fickness Of health and living now begins to mend, And nothing brings me all things. Go, live ftill: Be Alcibiades your plague, you his,

And last fo long enough!

1 Sen. We fpeak 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.

1 Sen. That's well spoke.

7My long fickness] The disease of life begins to promife

me a period.

JOHNSON.