2 Var. Serv. No matter what; he's poor, and SCENE V. The same. The Senate House. The that's revenge enough. Who can speak broader than he that has no house to put his head in? such may rail against great buildings.

Tim. Knock me down with 'em: cleave me to The worst that man can breathe; and make his

202

At Lacedæmon, and Byzantium,
Were a sufficient briber for his life.

1 Sen. What's that?

TIMON OF ATHENS.

Alcib. Why, I say, my lords, h'as done fair ser-
vice,

And slain in fight many of your enemies :
How full of valour did he bear himself

In the last conflict, and made plenteous wounds?
2 Sen. He has made too much plenty with 'em, he
Is a sworn rioter,' h'as a sin that often
Drowns him, and takes his valour prisoner :
If there were no foes, that were enough alone
To overcome him: in that beastly fury
He has been known to commit outrages,
And cherish factions: "Tis inferr'd to us,
His days are foul, and his drink dangerous.
1 Sen. He dies.

Alcib. Hard fate! he might have died in war.
My lords, if not for any parts in him
(Though his right arm might purchase his own time,
And be in debt to none,) yet, more to move you,
Take my deserts to his, and join them both :"
And, for I know your reverend ages love
Security, I'll pawn my victories, all2
My honour to you, upon his good returns.
If by this crime he owes the law his life,
Why, let the war receive't in valiant gore;
For law is strict, and war is nothing more.

1 Sen. We are for law, he dies; urge it no more,
On height of our displeasure: Friend or brother,
He forfeits his own blood, that spills another.
Alcib. Must it be so? it must not be. My lords,
I do beseech you, know me.
2 Sen. How?

Alcib. Call me to your remembrances.3 3 Sen.

What?

Alcib. I cannot think, but your age has forgot me;
It could not else be, I should prove so base,*
To sue, and be denied such common grace:
My wounds ache at you.

1 Sen.
Do you dare our anger?
"Tis in few words, but spacious in effect;
We banish thee for ever.

Alcib.

Banish me?

Banish your dotage; banish usury,

That makes the senate ugly.

1 Sen. If after two days' shine, Athens contain

thee,

Attend our weighter judgment. And, not to swell our spirit,

He shall be executed presently. [Exeunt Senators. Alcib. Now the gods keep you old enough; that you may live

Only in bone, that none may look on you!

I am worse than mad: I have kept back their foes,
While they have told their money, and let out
Their coin upon large interest; I myself,
Rich only in large hurts;-All those, for this?
Is this the balsam, that the usuring senate
Pours into captains' wounds? ha! banishment?
It comes not ill; I hate not to be banish'd;
It is a cause worthy my spleen and fury,
That I may strike at Athens. I'll cheer up
My discontented troops, and lay for hearts."
'Tis honour, with most lands to be at odds;
Soldiers should brook as little wrongs, as gods. [Exit.

1 i. e. a man who practises riot as if he had made it an oath or duty.

2 He charges them obliquely with being usurers. Thus in a subsequent passage:

banish usury,

That makes the senate ugly.'

SCENE VI.-A magnificent Room in Timon's
House. Music. Tables set out: Servants at-
tending. Enter divers Lords, at several doors.

1 Lord. The good time of day to you, sir.
2 Lord. I also wish it to you. I think, this ho-
nourable lord did but try us this other day.

1 Lord. Upon that were my thoughts tiring,
him, as he made it seem in the trial of his several
when we encountered: I hope, it is not so low with
friends.

2 Lord. It should not be, by the persuasion of his new feasting.

1 Lord. I should think so: He hath sent me an earnest inviting, which many my near occasions did urge me to put off; but he hath conjured me bo yond them, and I must needs appear.

2 Lord. In like manner was I in debt to my im portunate business, but he would not hear my exthat my provision was out. cuse. I am sorry, when he sent to borrow of me,

3 Remembrances is here used as a word of five sylla-i
bles. In the singular Shakspeare uses it as a word of
four syllables only:

And lasting in her sad remembrance.
Twelfth Night, Act i. Sc. 1.

4 Base for dishonoured.

5 This, says Steevens, I believe, means 'not to put
ourselves into any tumour of rage, take our definitive
resolution.' So in King Henry VIII. Act iii. Sc. 1:-
'The hearts of priuces kiss obedience,
So much they love it; but to stubborn spirits,
They swell and grow as terrible as storms.'

1 Lord. I am sick of that grief too, as. I understand how all things go.

2 Lord. Every man here's so. What would he have borrowed of you?

1 Lord. A thousand pieces.

2 Lord. A thousand pieces!

1 Lord. What of you?

3 Lord. He sent to me, sir,-Here he comes.

Enter TIMON, and Attendants.

Tim. With all my heart, gentlemen both :-And how fare you?

1 Lord. Ever at the best, hearing well of your lordship.

2 Lord. The swallow follows not summer more willing, than we your lordship.

Tim. [Aside.] Nor more willingly leaves winter; such summer-birds are men.-Gentlemen, our dinner will not recompense this long stay: feast your ears with the music awhile; if they will fare so harshly on the trumpet's sound: we shall to't pre

sently.

1 Lord. I hope, it remains not unkindly with your lordship, that I returned you an empty mos

senger.

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." -Come, 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.

2 Lord. How do you? What's the news?

3 Lord. Alcibiades is banished: Hear you of it? 12 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."

I think we might read with advantage:

And not to quell our spirit.'

e. not to repress or humble it.

6 To lay for hearts, is to endeavour to win the affections of the people.

7Upon that were my thoughts feeding or most anxiously employed.'

8 i. e. your good memory.' Shakspeare and his contemporaries often use the comparative for the positive or superlative. Thus in King John:

Nay, but make haste the better foot before.' 9 i. e. near at hand, or in prospect. So in Romeo and Juliet:-

'We have a foolish trifling banquet towards.'

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.

ACT IV.

SCENE I. Without the Walls of Athens.

Enter TIMON.

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 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 Large-handed robbers your grave masters are, no assembly of twenty be without a score of villains: And pill by law: maid, to thy master's bed; If there sit twelve women at the table, let a dozen of Thy mistress is o' the brothel! son of sixteen, them be-as they are.-The rest of your lees, 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.

Tim. Let me look back upon thee, O thou wall,
That girdlest in those wolves! Dive in the earth,
And fence not Athens! Matrons, turn incontinent;
Obedience fail in children! slaves, and fools,
Pluck the grave wrinkled senate from the bench,
And minister in their steads! to general filths
Convert o' the instant, green virginity!
Do't in your parents' eyes; bankrupts, hold fast;
Rather than render back, out with your knives,
And cut your trusters' throats! bound servants
steal!

[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 lukewarm

water

Is your perfection. This is Timon's last;
Who stuck and spangled you with flatteries,
Washes it off, and sprinkles in your faces

Pluck the lin'd crutch from the old limping sire, With it beat out his brains! piety, and fear, Religion to the gods, peace, justice, truth, Domestic awe, night-rest, and neighbourhood, Instruction, manners, mysteries, and trades, Degrees, observances, customs, and laws, Decline to your confounding contraries, And yet confusion live!-Plagues, incident to men Your potent and infectious fevers heap On Athens, ripe for stroke! thou cold sciatica, Cripple our senators, that their limbs may halt As lamely as their manners! lust and liberty!" Creep in the minds and marrows of our youth; That 'gainst the stream of virtue they may strive, And drown themselves in riot! itches, blains, Sow all the Athenian bosoms; and their crop [Throwing water in their faces. Be general leprosy! breath infect breath; Your reeking villany. Live loath'd, and long, That their society, as their friendship, may Most smiling, smooth, detested parasites, Be merely poison! Nothing I'll bear from thee, Courteous destroyers, affable wolves, meek bears, But nakedness, thou detestable town! You fools of fortune, trencher-friends, time's flies, Take thou that too, with multiplying bans !" Cap and knee slaves, vapours, and minute-jacks! Timon will to the woods; where he shall find Of man, and beast, the infinite malady The unkindest beast more kinder than mankind. Crust you quite o'er!-What, dost thou go? The gods confound (hear me, you good gods all,) Soft, take thy physic first-thou too,-and thou;-The Athenians both within and out that wall! [Throws the dishes at them, and drives them out. Stay, I will lend thee money, borrow none.What, all in motion? Henceforth be no feast, Whereat a villain's not a welcome guest. Burn, house; sink, Athens! henceforth hated be Of Timon, man, and all humanity! [Exit. Re-enter the Lords, with other Lords and Senators. 1 Lord. How now, my lords?

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:-Did you see my jewel?

4 Lord. Did you see my cap?

2 Lord. Here 'tis.

4 Lord. Here lies my gown.

1 Lord. Let's make no stay.
2 Lord, Lord Timon's mad
3 Lord.
I feel't upon my bones.
4 Lord. One day he gives us diamonds, next day
stones."
[Exeunt.

1 In all places alike. This alludes to the mode in which guests were formerly placed at table according to rank

in

2 Warburton and Mason say we should read foes stead of fees, which is the reading of the old copy. bave ventured to substitute lees, a more probable word to be misprinted fees, the long fand 1 being easily mistaken for each other. Timon means to call the senators the lees and dregs of the city, Sordes et fax urbis, on account of their vile propensities.

3 i. e. the highest of your excellence.
4 i. e. flies of a season. Thus before:-
-one cloud of winter showers,

These flies are couch'd.

And grant, as Timon grows, his hate may grow
To the whole race of mankind, high and low!

Amen.

[Exit.

SCENE II. Athens. A Room in Timon's House.
Enter FLAVIUS, with two or three Servants.

1 Serv. Hear you, master steward, where's our
master?

Are we undone? cast off? nothing remaining?
Flav. Alack, my fellows, what should I say to you?
Let me be recorded by the righteous gods,
I am as poor as you.

1 Serv.

Such a house broke!
So noble a master fallen! All gone! and not
One friend, to take his fortune by the arm,
And go along with him!
2 Serv.

As we do turn our backs

term was used for time serving busy bodies, who had their oar in every man's boat, or hand in every man's dish.'

6 This and the next speech is spoken by the newly. arrived lords.

7 In the old MS. play of Timon, painted stones are introduced as part of this mock banquet. It seems probable that Shakspeare was acquainted with this ancient drama. Timon has thrown nothing at his guests, but warm water and dishes.

8 Steevens explains this common sewers,' which is quite ludicrous, unless he meant it metaphorically. GeIneral filths means common strumpets: filthiness, and obscenity were synonymous with our ancestors. 9 i. e. contrarieties, whose nature it is to waste or destroy each other. as doth a galled rock O'erhang and jutty his confounded base." King Henry V. 10 Liberty here means licentiousness or libertinism. So in the Comedy of Errors:

5 Minute-jacks, are the same as jacks of the clockhouse, automaton figures appended to clocks: but the

And many such like liberties of sin.' 11 i. e. accumulated curses. Multiplying for multiplied, the active participle with a passive signification.

From our companion, thrown into his grave;
So his familiars to his buried fortunes!

Slink all away; leave their false vows with him,
Like empty purses pick'd: and his poor seif,
A dedicated beggar to the air,

With his disease of all-shunn'd poverty,

Infect the air! Twinn'd brothers of one womb,-
Whose procreation, residence, and birth,
Scarce is dividant,-touch them with several for-
tunes;

The greater scorns the lesser. Not nature,
To whom all sores lay siege, can bear great fortune,

Walks, like contempt, alone.-More of our fellows. But by contempt of nature:6

Enter other Servants.

Flav. All broken implements of a ruin'd house.
3 Serv, Yet do our hearts wear Timon's livery,
That see I by our faces; we are fellows still,
Serving alike in sorrow: Leak'd is our bark;
And we, poor mates, stand on the dying deck,
Hearing the surges threat: we must all part
Into this sea of air.

Flav.

Good fellows all,

The latest of my wealth I'll share amongst you.
Wherever we shall meet, for Timon's sake,
Let's yet be fellows; let's shake our heads, and say,
As 'twere a knell unto our master's fortunes.
We have seen better days. Let each take some;
[Giving them money.
Not one word more:
parting poor.2
[Exeunt Servants.
O, the fierce wretchedness that glory brings us!
Who would not wish to be from wealth exempt,
Since riches point to misery and contempt?
Who'd be so mock'd with glory? or to live
But in a dream of friendship?

Nay, put out all your hands.
Thus part we rich in sorrow,

To have his pomp, and all what state compounds,
But only painted, like his varnish'd friends?
Poor honest lord, brought low by his own heart;
Undone by goodness! Strange, unusual blood,4
When man's worst sin is, he does too much good!
Who then dares to be half so kind again?
For bounty, that makes gods, does still mar men.
My dearest lord,-bless'd, to be most accurs'd,
Rich, only to be wretched;-thy great fortunes
Are made thy chief afflictions. Alas, kind lord!
He's flung rage from this ungrateful seat
Of monstrous friends: nor has he with him to
Supply his life, or that which can command it.
I'll follow, and inquire him out:

I'll ever serve his mind with my best will;
Whilst I have gold, I'll be his steward still. [Exit.

SCENE III. The Woods. Enter TIMON.

Tim. O blessed breeding sun, draw from the earth Rotten humidity; below thy sister's orb

1 So those who were familiar to his buried fortunes, who in the most ample manner participated them, slink all away,' &c.

2 This conceit occurs again in King Lear :

Fairest Cordelia, thou art most rich, being poor? Johnson observes, that Nothing contributes more to the exaltation of Timon's character than the zeal and fidelity of his servants; nothing but real virtue can be honored by domestics; nothing but impartial kindness can gain affection from dependants.'

3 Fierce here means tehement.

Raise me this beggar, and deny't' that lord;
The senator shall bear contempt hereditary,
The beggar native honour.

Who dares, who

It is the pasture lards the brother's sides,
The want that makes him lean.
dares,

In purity of manhood stand upright,
And say, This man's a flatterer? if one be,
So are they all; for every grize1" of fortune
Is smooth'd by that below: the learned pate
Ducks to the golden fool: All is oblique;
There's nothing level in our cursed natures,
But direct villany. Therefore, be abhorr'd
All feasts, societies, and throngs of men!
His semblable, yea, himself, Timon disdains:
Destruction fang mankind! Earth, yield me roots!
[Digging.

Who seeks for better of thee, sauce his palate
With thy most operant poison! What is here?
Gold? yellow, glittering, precious gold? No, gods
I am no idle votarist.12 Roots, you clear heavens!13
Thus much of this, will make black, white; foul, fair;
Wrong, right; base, noble; old, young; coward,
valiaut.
What this, you gods?

Ha, you gods! why this?
Why this

Will lug your priests and servants from your sides;14
Pluck stout men's pillows from below their heads:15
This yellow slave

Will knit and break religions; bless the accurs'd,
Make the hoar leprosy ador'd; place thieves,
And give them title, knee, and approbation,
With senators on the bench: this is it,
That makes the wappen'd's widow wed again;
She, whom the spital-house, and ulcerous sores,
Would cast the gorge at, this embalms and spices
To the April day again. Come, damned earth,
Thou common whore of mankind, that put'st odds
Among the rout of nations, I will make thee
Do thy right nature. 18-[March afar off.]—Ha! a
drum? Thou'rt quick,
But yet I'll bury thee: Thou'lt go, strong thief,
When gouty keepers of thee cannot stand:-
Nay, stay thou out for earnest. [Keeping some gold.

meaning of the passage as it now stands is, Men are
courted and flattered according to their riches.' It is the
possessions of a man that makes sycophants, 'enlarda
his fat-already pride; if he wants wherewith to pasture
his flatterers, his vanity will be starved. The poet is
still thinking of the rich and poor brother he had before
mentioned.

9 This man does not refer to any particular person, but to any supposed individual. So in As You Like It: "Who can come in and say that I mean her, When such a one as she such is her neighbours,' 10 Grize, step or degree,

11 i. e. seize, gripe.

4 Blood is here used for passion, propensity, affec tion. Malone asserts that blood is used for natural propensity or disposition throughout these plays; but he has not given a single instance, while we have many passages where it can mean nothing but passion or af-serve me instead of roots. Tection.

5 That is, the moon's- this sublunary world.

6 Brother, when his fortune is enlarged, will scorn brother: such is the general depravity of mankind. Not even beings besieged with misery can bear good fortune without contemming their fellow creatures, above whom accident has elevated them.' But is here used in its ex. ceptive sense, and signifies without.

7 This is the reading of the old copy. Steevens reads 'denude. It has been said that there is no antecedent to which deny it can be referred. I think that it clearly refers to great fortune in the preceding sentence, with which I have now connected it, by placing a colon instead of a period at nature. The construction will be, 'Raise me this beggar to great fortune, and deny it to that lord,' &c.

8 The folio of 1623 reads:

It is the pas tour lards the brother's sides,
The want that makes him leave.

The second folio changes leave to leane The probable

12 No insincere or inconstant supplicant: gold will not

13 You clear heavens, is you pure heavens. So in

Lear:

the clearest gods, who make them honours Of men's impossibilities, have preserv'd thee.' 14 Aristophanes, in his Plutus, makes the priest of Jupiter desert his service to live with Plutus.

15 This alludes to an old custom of drawing away the pillow from under the heads of men, in their last agonies, to accelerate their departure.

16 It is not clear what is meant by wappen'd in this passage; perhaps worn out, debilitated. In Fletcher's Two Noble Kinsmen, (which tradition says was written in conjunction with Shakspeare,) we have unwappered in a contrary sense.

17 Restores to all the freshness and sweetness of youth. Youth is called by the old poets the April of man's life.' Young Fenton, in the Merry Wives of Windsor, smells April and May.'

18 i. e. lie in the earth, where nature laid thee; thou'rt quick, means thou hast life and motion in thee.

5 By window-bars the poet probably means 'the partJet, gorget, or kerchief, which women put about their 10 The meaning of this passage appears to be as Steeneck, and pin down over their paps,' sometimes called vens explains it-Timon had been exhorting them to a niced, and translated Mamillare or fascia pectoralis: follow constantly their trade of debauchery, but he inand described as made of fine linen: from its semitrans-terrupts himself and imprecates upon them that for half parency arose the simile of window bars. This is the the year their pains may be quite contrary, that they Dest explanation I have to offer. The late Mr. Boswell may suffer such punishment as is usually inflicted upon thoughi that windows were used to signify a woman's harlots. He then continues his exhortations.