With burdens of the dead ;-some that were hang'd,' | Let it no more bring out ingrateful man! No matter:-wear them, betray with thom: whore still;

3 The old copy reads 'hoar the flamen,' which Steevens suggests may mean, give him the hoary leprosy. I have not scrupled to insert Upton's reading of hoarse into the text, because I think the whole construction of Again in Othello :the speech shows that is the word the poet wrote. afflict him with leprosy would not prevent his scolding, to deprive him of his voice by hoarseness might. 4 Toforesee his particular' is to provide for hisprivate advantage, for which he leaves the right scent of public good.'

To grave is to bury. The word is now obsolete, but was familiar to our old writers. Thus Chapman in his version of the fifteenth Iliad :

At duty, more than I could frame employment;"
That numberless upon me stuck, as leaves
Do on the oak, have with one winter's brush
Fell from their boughs, and left me open, bare
For every storm that blows;'-I, to bear this,
That never knew but better, is some burden:
Thy nature did commence in sufferance, time
Hath made thee hard in't. Why should'st thou
hate men?

They never flatter'd thee: What hast thou given?
If thou wilt curse,-thy father, that poor rag,
Must be thy subject: who, in spite, put stuff
To some she-beggar, and compounded thee,
Poor rogue hereditary. Hence! be gone!-
If thou hadst not been born the worst of men,
Thou hadst been a knave and flatterer.
Apem.

Art thou proud yet?
Tim. Ay, that I am not thee.

1 To have wishes crowned is to have them completed, to be content. The highest fortunes, if contentless, have a wretched being, worse than that of the most abject fortune accompanied by content.

Apem. Where would'st thou send it?
Tim. To sauce thy dishes.

Apem. The middle of humanity thou never knewest, but the extremity of both ends: When thou wast in thy gilt, and thy perfume, they mocked thee for too much curiosity; in thy rags thou knowest none, but art despised for the contrary. There's a medlar for thee, eat it.

Tim. On what I hate, I feed not.
Apem. Dost hate a medlar?

Tim. Ay, though it look like thee.

Apem. An thou hadst hated meddlers sooner, thou should'st have loved thyself better pow.

What man

didst thou ever know unthrift, that was beloved after his means?

Tim. Who, without those means thou talkest of, didst thou ever know beloved?

Apem. Myself.

Tim. I understand thee; thou hadst some means to keep a dog.

Apem. What things in the world canst thou nearest compare to thy flatterers?

Tim. Women nearest; but men, men are the things themselves. What would'st thou do with the world, Apemantus, if it lay in thy power?

Apem. Give it the beasts, to be rid of the men.

4 The old copy reads The passive drugges of it.'
Drug or drugge, is only a variation of the orthography
of drudge, as appears by Baret's Alvearie.
5 The cold admonitions of cautious prudence. Re-
spect is regardful consideration:-

-Reason and respect
Makes livers pale, and lustihood deject.'
Troilus and Cressida.

6 i. e. more than I could frame employment for.
O summer friendship,

7

Whose flatt'ring leaves that shadow'd us in our
Prosperity, with the least gust drop off
In the autumn of adversity.'

Massinger's Maid of Honour.

2 By his breath means by his voice, i. e. suffrage. 3 i. e. from infancy, from the first swathe hand with which a new-born infant is enveloped. There is in this speech a sullen haughtiness and malignant dignity, suitable 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.' Johnson. Ó si sic omnia. In the conception and expression of this note (says Mr. Pye) we trace the mind and the pen of the author; a collection of such notes by Johnson would have been indeed a commentary worthy the critic and the poet. Johnson has adduced a passage somewhat resembling this from a letter written by the unfortunate favourite of Elizabeth, the Earl of Essex, just before his execution. I had none but divines to call upon me, to whom I said, if my ambition could have entered into their narrow hearts, they would not have been so humble; or if my I have heard Mr. Burke commend the subtlety of disdelights had been once tasted by them, they would not crimination with which Shakspeare distinguishes the have been so precise. The rest of this admirable let-present character of Timon from that of Apemantus, ter is, as Johnson justly observes, too serious and so-whom, to vulgar eyes, he would seem to resemble lemn to be inserted here without irreverence.' It was Johnson.

8 Dryden has quoted two verses of Virgil to show how well he could have written satires. Shakspeare has here given a specimen of the same power, by a line bit ter beyond all bitterness, in which Timon tells Apeman tus that he had not virtue enough for the vices which he condemns. Dr. Warburton explains worst by lowest, which somewhat weakens the sense, and yet leaves it sufficiently vigorous.

very likely to make a deep impression upon Shak- 9 Curiosity is scrupulous exactness, finical niceness speare's mind. But indeed no one can read it without Baret explains it picked diligence, Accuratus corporis emotion. Johusen copied his extract from Birch's Me-cultus. A waiting gentlewoman should flee affection or moirs of Queen Elizabeth, and has erroneously printed curiosity,' (i. e. affectation or overniceness.)-It some deceivers for divines. times means scrupulous anxiety, precision.

Tim. Would'st thou have thyself fall in the confusion of men, and remain a beast with the beasts? Apem. Ay, Timon.

ACT IV

Thy grave-stone daily make thine epitaph,
That death in me at others' lives may laugh.
O thou sweet king-killer, and dear divorce

"Twixt natural son and sire! thou bright defiler
[Looking on the gold.
Of Hymen's purest bed! thou valiant Mars!
Thou ever young, fresh, lov'd, and delicate wooer,
Whose blush doth thaw the consecrated snow
That lies on Dian's lap ! thou visible god,
That solder'st close impossibilities,

tongue,

Tim. A beastly ambition, which the gods grant thee to attain to! If thou wert the lion, the fox would beguile thee: if thou wert the lamb, the fox would eat thee: if thou wert the fox, the lion would suspect thee, when, peradventure, thou wert accused by the ass: if thou wert the ass, thy dulness would torment thee; and still thou livedst but as a breakfast to the wolf: if thou wert the wolf, thy And mak'st them kiss! that speak'st with every greediness would afflict thee, and oft thou should'st hazard thy life for thy dinner: wert thou the uni-To every purpose! O thou touch" of hearts! ́corn, pride and wrath would confound thee, and Think, thy slave man rebels; and by thy virtue make thine own self the conquest of thy fury: Set them into confounding odds, that beasts wert thou a bear, thou would'st be kill'd by the May have the world in empire! horse wert thou a horse, thou would'st be seized by the leopard: wert thou a leopard, thou wert But not till I am dead!—I'll say thou hast gold: Apem. 'Would 'twere so ;german to the lion, and the spots of thy kindred Thou wilt be throng'd to shortly. were jurors on thy life: all thy safety were remotion, and thy defence, absence. What beast could'st thou be, that were not subject to a beast? and what a beast art thou already, that seest not thy loss in transformation?

Apem. If thou could'st please me with speaking to me, thou might'st have hit upon it here: The commonwealth of Athens is become a forest of beasts.

Tim. How has the ass broke the wall, that thou art out of the city?

Apem. Yonder comes a poet and a painter: The plague of company light upon thee! I will fear to catch it, and give way: When I know not what else to do, I'll see thee again.

Tim. When there is nothing living but thee, thou shalt be welcome. I had rather be a beggar's dog, than Apemantus.

Apem. Thou art the cap of all the fools alive. Tim. 'Would thou wert clean enough to spit upon.

Apem. A plague on thee, thou art too bad to

curse.

Tim. All villains, that do stand by thee, are pure.

Apem. There is no leprosy but what thou speak'st.
Tim. If I name thee,-

I'll beat thee,-but I should infect my hands.
Apem. I would, my tongue could rot them off!
Tim. Away, thou issue of a mangy dog!
Choler does kill me, that thou art alive;
I swoon to see thee.

Арет.
Tim.

'Would thou would'st burst.

Thou tedious rogue! I am sorry,

A stone by thee.

Apem.

Beast!

Tim.

Slave!

Apem.

Tim.

shall lose

Away, [Throws a stone at him.

Toad!
Rogue, rogue, rogue!
[APEMANTUS retreats backward as going.
I am sick of this false world; and will love nought
But even the mere necessities upon it.
Then, Timon, presently prepare thy grave;
Lie where the light foam of the sea may beat

1 Alluding to the unicorn's being sometimes overcome from striking his horn into a tree in his furious pursuit of an enemy See Gesner's History of Animals,

and Julius Cæsar, Act ii. Sc. 1.

2 This seems to imply that the lion bears, like the Turk, no brother near the throne.'

Thief. Where should he have this gold? It is mainder: The mere want of gold, and the fallingsome poor fragment, some slender ort of his refrom of his friends, drove him into this melancholy.

2 Thief. It is noised, he hath a mass of treasure. care not for't, he will supply us easily; If he covet3 Thief. Let us make the assay upon him; if he ously reserve it, how shall's get it?

2 Thief. True; for he bears it not about him, 'tis hid.

3 Both Steevens and Malone are wrong in their ex-Your greatest want is that you expect supplies from me, planation of remotion here; which is neither removing of whom you can reasonably expect nothing. Your from place to place,' nor remoteness; but removing necessities are indeed desperate, when you apply to one away, removing afar off. Remotio.' in my situation. Dr. Farmer would point the passage differently, thus:

4 1. e. the top, the principal.

5 See Act iii. Sc. 4.

6 Warburton remarks that the imagery here is ex

quisitely beautiful and sublime.

7 Touch for touchstone:

'O Buckingham, now do I play the touch, To try if thou be'st current gold.'

8 The old copy reads, Enter the Banditti.'

9 The old copy reads:

'Your greatest want is, you want much of meat.'

"Your greatest want is, you want much. Of meat Why should you want,' &c.

10 Limited professions are allowed professions. Thus in Macbeth :

I'll make so bold to call, for 'tis my limited service.'

I will request the reader to correct my explanation of li mited in Macbeth, where I have unintentionally allowed the old glossarial explanation to stand, which interprets it appointed.

Here's gold Go, suck the subtle blood of the grape
Till the high fever seethe your blood to froth,
And so 'scape hanging: trust not the physician;
His antidotes are poison, and he slays
More than you rob: take wealth and lives together;
Do villany, do, since you profess to do't,
Like workmen. I'll example you with thievery:
The sun's a thief, and with his great attraction
Robs the vast sea: the moon's an arrant thief,
And her pale fire she snatches from the sun :
The sea's a thief, whose liquid surge resolves
The moon into salt tears: the earth's a thief,
That feeds and breeds by a composture stol'n
From general excrement: each thing's a thief;
The laws, your curb and whip, in their rough power
Have uncheck'd theft. Love not yourselves: away;
Rob one another. There's more gold: Cut throats;
All that you meet are thieves: To Athens, go,
Break open shops; for nothing can you steal,
But thieves do lose it: Steal not less, for this
I give you; and gold confound you howsoever!
Amen.
[TIMON retires to his Cave.
3 Thief. He has almost charmed me from my
profession, by persuading me to it.

1 Thief. "Tis in the malice of mankind, that he thus advises us; not to have us thrive in our mys

Is yon despis'd and ruinous man my lord?
Full of decay and failing? O monument
And wonder of good deeds evilly bestow'd!
What an alteration of honour has
Desperate want made!

What viler thing upon the earth, than friends,
Who can bring noblest minds to basest ends!
How rarely does it meet with this time's guise,
When man was wish'd to love his enemies :
Grant, I may ever love, and rather woo

Tim. What, dost thou weep?-Come nearer ;--
then I love thee,

Because thou art a woman, and disclaim'st
Flinty mankind; whose eyes do never give,"
But thorough lust and laughter. Pity's sleeping;
Strange times, that weep with laughing, not with
weeping!

Flav. I beg of you to know me, good my lord,
To accept my grief, and, whilst this poor wealth lasts,
To entertain me as your steward still.

Tim. Had I a steward so true, so just, and now
So comfortable? It almost turns

My dangerous nature mild. Let me behold
Thy face.-Surely this man was born of woman.-
Forgive my general and exceptless rashness,
You perpetual-sober gods! I do proclaim
One honest man,mistake me not,—but one?
No more, I pray, and he is a steward.-
How fain would I have hated all mankind,
And thou redeem'st thyself: But all, save thes,
I fell with curses.

Methinks thou art more honest now, than wise ;'
For, by oppressing and betraying me,
Thou might'st have sooner got another services\
For many so arrive at second masters,
Upon their first lord's neck. But tell me true
(For I must ever doubt, though ne'er so sure,}
Is not thy kindness subtle, covetous,

1

If not a usuring kindness; and as rich men deal gifts,

Expecting in return twenty for one?

Flav. No, my most worthy master, in whose breast

Doubt and suspect, alas, are plac'd too late

You should have fear'd false times, when you did

feast:

Suspect still comes where an estate is least.

That which I show, heaven knows, is merely love,
Duty and zeal to your unmatched mind,

Care of your food and living: and, believe it,
My most honour'd lord,

For any benefit that points to me,

Either in hope, or present, I'd exchange

For this one wish, That you had power and wealth

Those that would mischief me, than those that do! To requite me, by making rich yourself.

He has caught me in his eye: I will present
My honest grief unto him; and, as my lord,
Shall serve him with my life.-My dearest master!
TIMON comes forward from his Cave.
Tim. Away! what art thou?
Flav.

Have you forgot me, sir?
Tim. Why dost ask that? I have forgot all men;
Then, if thou grant'st thou'rt a man, I have forgot

thee.

Flay. An honest poor servant of yours.
Tim.

I know thee not: I ne'er had honest man
About me, I; all that I kept were knaves,
To serve in meat to villains.
Flav.

Then

The gods are witness,
Ne'er did poor steward wear a truer grief
For his undone lord, than mine eyes for you.

1 The moon is called the moist star in Hamlet, and the poet in the last scene of The Tempest has shown that he was acquainted with her influence on the tides. The watery beams of the moon are spoken of in Romeo and Juliet. The sea is therefore said to resolve her into salt tears, in allusion to the flow of the tides, and perhaps of her influence upon the weather, which she is said to govern. There is an allusion to the lachrymose nature of the planet in the following apposite passage in King Richard III:

That I, being govern'd by the walry moon, May bring forth plenteous tears to drown the world.' 2 i. e. compost, manure.

There is no hour in a man's life so wretched but he always has it in his power to become true, i. e. hongst.' 4 An alteration of honour, is an alteration of an *bonourable state to a state of disgrace.

5 How rarely, i.e. how admirably. So in Much Ado About Nothing, Act iii. Sc. 1, how rarely featur'd,' 6 i. e. desired. Friends and enemies here mean those who profess friendship and profess enmity. The proverb Defend me from my friends, and from my

Tim. Look thee, 'tis so!-Thou singly honest

man,

Here, take-the gods out of my misery
Have sent thee treasure. Go, live rich, and happy
But thus condition'd; Thou shalt build from men
Hate all, curse all: show charity to none;
But let the famish'd flesh slide from the bone,"
Ere thou relieve the beggar: give to dogs
What thou deny'st to men; let prisons swallow them,
Debts wither them to nothing: Be men like blasted
woods,

And may diseases lick up their falso bloods!
And so farewell, and thrive.

Flav.

O, let me stay,

1

And comfort you, my master.
Tim.
If thou hat'st
Curses, stay not; fly whilst thou'rt bloss'd and free:
Ne'er see thou man, and let me ne'er see thee.
[Exeunt severally.

enemics I will defend myself,' is a sufficient comment
on this passage.

7 To give is to yield, to give way to tears
s. The old copy reads:-

It almost turns

My dangerous nature wild. The emendation is Warburton's. Timon's dangerous nature is his savage wildness, a species of frenzy induced by the basenees and ingratitude of the world. It would be idle to talk of turning a dangerous nature wild the kindness and fidelity of Timon's steward was more likely to soften and compose him; and he does indeed show himself more mild and gentle to Flavius in consequence, being moved by the tears of his affection

ate servant.

9 I think with Mr. Tyrwhitt that If not has slipped in here by an error of the compositor, caught from the Is not of the preceding line. Both sense and metre would be better without it.

10 i. c. away from human habitation.

ACT V.

SCENE I. The same. Before Timon's Cave.
Enter Poet and Painter;' TIMON behind, unseen.
Pain. As I took note of the place, it cannot be
far where he abides.

Pock. What's to be thought of him? Does the rumour hold for true, that he is so full of gold?

Pain. Certain Alcibiades reports it, Phrynia and Timandra had gold of him: he likewise enriched poor straggling soldiers with great quantity: 'Tis said, he gave unto his steward a mighty sum. Poet. Then this breaking of his has been but a try for his friends.

Pain. Nothing else; you shall see him a palm in Athens again, and flourish with the highest. There fore, 'tis not amiss, we tender our loves to him, in this supposed distress of his: it will show honestly in us; and is very likely to load our purposes with what they travel for, if it be a just and true report that goes of his having.

Poet. What have you now to present unto him? Pain. Nothing at this time but my visitation: only I will promise him an excellent piece.

Poet. I must serve him so too; tell him of an intent that's coming toward him.

Pain. Good as the best. Promising is the very air o' the time: it opens the eyes of expectation; performance is ever the duller for his act; and, but in the plainer and simpler kind of people, the deed of saying is quite out of use. To promise is most courtly and fashionable: performance is a kind of will or testament, which argues a great sickness in his judgment that makes it.

Tim. Excellent workman! Thou canst not paint a man so bad as is thyself.

Poet. I am thinking, what I shall say I have provided for him: It must be a personating of himself: a satire against the softness of prosperity; with a discovery of the infinite flatteries, that follow youth and opulency.

Tim. Must thou needs stand for a villain in thine own work? Wilt thou whip thine own faults in other men? Do so, I have gold for thee.

Poet. Nay, let's seek him:

Then do we sin against our own estate,
When we may profit meet, and come too late.

Pain. True;

When the day serves, before black-corner'd night,^
Find what thou want'st by free and offer'd light.
Come.

Tim. I'll meet you at the turn. What a god's gold,
That he is worship'd in a baser temple,

Than where swine feed!

"Tis thou that rigg'st the bark, and plough'st the

foam;

Settlest admired reverence in a slave:
To thee be worship! and thy saints for ayo
Be crown'd with plagues, that thee alone obey!
'Fit I do meet them.

[Advancing.

Poet. Hail, worthy Timon!
Pain.
Our late noble master.
Tim. Have I once liv'd to see two honest men?
Poet. Sir,

Having often of your open bounty tasted,
Hearing you were retir'd, your friends fall'n off,
Whose thankless natures-O abhorred spirits!

1 The poet and painter were within view when Apemantus parted from Timon; they must therefore be supposed to have been wandering about the woods in search of Timon's cave, and to have heard in the interim The particulars of Timon's bounty to the thieves and the steward. But (as Malone observes) Shakspeare was not attentive to these minute particulars, and if he and the audience knew these circumstances, he would not scruple to attribute the knowledge to persons who perhaps had not yet an opportunity of acquiring it.'

2 The doing of that we have said we would do. Thus in Hamlet:

As he in his peculiar act and force
May give his saying deed.

3 Personating for representing simply. The subject of this projected satire was Timon's case, not his person.

Not all the whips of heaven are large enough—

What to you!

Whose starlike nobleness gave life and influence
To their whole being! I'm rapt, and cannot cover
The monstrous bulk of this ingratitude
With any size of words.

Tim. Let it go naked, men may see't the better
You, that are honest, by being what you are,
Make them best seen, and known.

Pain.

He, and myself,
Have travell'd in the great shower of your gifts,
And sweetly felt it.
Tim.
Aye, you are honest men.
Pain. We are hither come to offer you our ser-
vice.

Tim. Most honest men! Why, how shall I re-
quite you?

Can you eat roots, and drink cold water? no.
Both. What we can do, we'll do, to do you service.
Tim. You are honest men: You have heard that
I have gold:

I

am sure you have: speak truth; you are honest

men.

Pain. So it is said, my noble lord: but therefore Came not my friend, nor I.

Tim. Good honest men :-Thou draw'st a coun-
terfeits

Best in all Athens: thou art, indeed, the best;
Thou counterfeit'st most lively.

So, so, my
lord.
Pain.
Tim. Even so, sir, as I say :-And for thy fic-
tion,
[To the Poet.
Why, thy verse swells with stuff so fine and
smooth,

That thou art even natural in thine art.—
But, for all this, my honest natur'd friends,
I must needs say you have a little fault:
Marry, 'tis not monstrous in you; neither wish I,'
You take much pains to mend.

Both.

Beseech your honour,
To make it known to us.
Tim.
You'll take it ill.
Both. Most thankfully, my lord.
Tim.
Both. Doubt it not, worthy lord.
Tim. There's ne'er a one of you but trusts a
knave,

That mightily deceives you.

Both.

Will you, indeed?

Do we, my lord?

Tim. Ay, and you hear him cog, see him dissem

ble,

Know his gross patchery, love him, feed him,
Keep in your bosom: yet remain assur'd,
That he's a made-up villain.

Pain. I know none such, 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 stab them, drown them in a draught,"
Confound them by some course, 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 man apart, all single and alone,

4 Black-corner'd night. Many conjectures, have been offered about this passage, which appears to me a Some have proposed to read corruption of the text." black-coned, alluding to the conical form of the earth's shadow; others black-crown'd, and black-cover'd. It appears to me that it should be black-curtain'd. We have the blanket of the dark,' in Macbeth, 'Night's black mantle,' in the Third Part of King Henry VI. and the First Part of the same drama: