Enter TIMON, ALCIBIADES, and Lords, etc.

Tim. So soon as dinner 's done, we 'll forth again, My Alcibiades. With me? what is your will ? Caph. My lord, here is a note of certain dues. Tim. Dues! Whence are you?

Caph.

Of Athens here, my lord.

Tim. Go to my steward.

Caph. Please it your lordship, he hath put me off To the succession of new days this month:

My master is awaked by great occasion

To call upon his own, and humbly prays you
That with your other noble parts you'll suit
In giving him his right.

Tim.

Mine honest friend,

I prithee, but repair to me next morning.

Caph. Nay, good my lord,—

Tim.

Contain thyself, good friend.

Var. Serv. One Varro's servant, my good lord,—

Isid. Serv.

From Isidore;

He humbly prays your speedy payment.

Caph. If you did know, my lord, my master's

wants

Var. Serv. 'Twas due on forfeiture, my lord, six

weeks

And past.

Isid. Serv. Your steward puts me off, my lord; And I am sent expressly to your lordship.

Tim. Give me breath.

I do beseech you, good my lords, keep on;

I'll wait upon you instantly.

[Exeunt Alcibiades and Lords.

[To Flav.] Come hither: pray you, How goes the world, that I am thus encounter'd

20. To the succession, etc., to the time of the new moon.
23. suit, accord.

With clamorous demands of date-broke bonds,
And the detention of long-since-due debts,

Against my honour?

Flav.

Please you, gentlemen,

40

The time is unagreeable to this business:
Your importunacy cease till after dinner,
That I may make his lordship understand
Wherefore you are not paid.

Tim. Do so, my friends.

tertain❜d.

Flav. Pray, draw near.

See them well en

Enter APEMANTUS and Fool.

[Exit.

[Exit.

Caph. Stay, stay, here comes the fool with
Apemantus: let's ha' some sport with 'em.

Var. Serv. Hang him, he'll abuse us.
Isid. Serv. A plague upon him, dog!
Var. Serv. How dost, fool?

Apem. Dost dialogue with thy shadow?
Var. Serv. I speak not to thee.

Apem. No, 'tis to thyself. [To the Fool] Come

away.

Isid. Serv. There's the fool hangs on your back already.

Apem. No, thou stand'st single, thou 'rt not on

him yet.

Caph. Where's the fool now?

Apem. He last asked the question.

50

Poor 60

rogues, and usurers' men! bawds between gold

and want!

All Serv. What are we, Apemantus ?

Apem. Asses.

All Serv. Why?

Apem. That you ask me what you are, and do

not know yourselves. Speak to 'em, fool.

Fool. How do you, gentlemen?

All Serv. Gramercies, good fool: how does your mistress ?

Fool. She's e'en setting on water to scald such chickens as you are. Would we could see you at

Corinth!

Apem. Good! gramercy.

Enter Page.

Fool. Look you, here comes my mistress' page. Page. [To the Fool] Why, how now, captain! what do you in this wise company? How dost thou, Apemantus ?

Apem. Would I had a rod in my mouth, that I might answer thee profitably.

Page. Prithee, Apemantus, read me the superscription of these letters: I know not which is which.

Apem. Canst not read?

Page. No.

Apem. There will little learning die then, that day thou art hanged. This is to Lord Timon; this to Alcibiades. Go; thou wast born a bastard, and thou 't die a bawd.

Page. Thou wast whelped a dog, and thou shalt famish a dog's death. Answer not; I am

gone.

[Exit. Apem. E'en so thou outrunnest grace. Fool,

I will go with you to Lord Timon's.

Fool. Will you leave me there?

Apem. If Timon stay at home. You three serve three usurers?

All Serv. Ay; would they served us!

71. She's een setting on water, etc., she is preparing to 'pluck' you; alluding to the

70

80

90

custom of plunging the newlykilled chicken into boiling water before plucking it. L.

Apem. So would I, -as good a trick as ever hangman served thief.

Fool. Are you three usurers' men?

All Serv. Ay, fool.

Fool. I think no usurer but has a fool to his servant my mistress is one, and I am her fool. When men come to borrow of your masters, they approach sadly, and go away merry; but they enter my mistress' house merrily, and go away sadly the reason of this?

Var. Serv. I could render one.

Apem. Do it then, that we may account thee 11 a whore-master and a knave; which notwithstanding, thou shalt be no less esteemed.

Var. Serv. What is a whore-master, fool?

Fool. A fool in good clothes, and something like thee. 'Tis a spirit sometime 't appears like a lord; sometime like a lawyer; sometime like a philosopher, with two stones moe than's artificial one he is very often like a knight; and, generally, in all shapes that man goes up and down in from fourscore to thirteen, this spirit 120 walks in.

Var. Serv. Thou art not altogether a fool.

Fool. Nor thou altogether a wise man : as much foolery as I have, so much wit thou lackest. Apem. That answer might have become Ape

mantus.

All Serv. Aside, aside; here comes Lord Timon.

Re-enter TIMON and FLAVIUS.

Apem. Come with me, fool, come.

Fool. I do not always follow lover, elder brother 130

and woman; sometime the philosopher.

[Exeunt Apemantus and Fool.

anon.

Flav. Pray you, walk near: I'll speak with you
[Exeunt Servants.
Tim. You make me marvel: wherefore ere this
time

Had you not fully laid my state before me,
That I might so have rated my expense,

As I had leave of means?

Flav.

You would not hear me,

At many leisures I proposed.

Go to:

Tim.
Perchance some single vantages you took,
When my indisposition put you back;
And that unaptness made your minister,
Thus to excuse yourself.

Flav.
O my good lord,
At many times I brought in my accounts,
Laid them before you; you would throw them off,
And say, you found them in mine honesty.
When, for some trifling present, you have bid me
Return so much, I have shook my head and wept ;
Yea, 'gainst the authority of manners, pray'd you
To hold your hand more close: I did endure
Not seldom, nor no slight checks, when I have
Prompted you in the ebb of your estate
And your great flow of debts. My loved lord,
Though you hear now, too late-yet now 's a time—
The greatest of your having lacks a half

To pay your present debts.

Tim.

Let all my land be sold.

Flav.. 'Tis all engaged, some forfeited and gone;
And what remains will hardly stop the mouth
Of present dues: the future comes apace:

135. rated, calculated.

152. This is the reading of the Folios, but Hanmer's emenda

140

150

tion-Though you hear now, yet now's too late a time'. seems to accord with the sense of the succeeding lines.