Tim. Ye're honest men: ye've heard that I have gold;

I am sure you have: speak truth; ye're 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
counterfeit

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

Pain.

Tim. E'en so, sir, as I say.

So so, my lord.
And, for thy fiction,

Why, thy verse swells with stuff so fine and smooth
That thou art even natural in thine art.

But, for all this, my honest-natured 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.

To make it known to us.

Tim.

Beseech your honour

You'll take it ill.

Will you, indeed?

Both. Most thankfully, my lord.
Tim.

Both. Doubt it not, worthy lord.

Tim. There's never a one of you but trusts a knave,

That mightily deceives you.

Both.

Do we, my lord?

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

Know his gross patchery, love him, feed him,

Keep in your bosom: yet remain assured

That he's a made-up villain.

Pain. I know none such, my lord.

98. cog, deceive. 99. patchery,

80

100

hypocrisy, which, like a clumsy

blundering patch, fails to hide the fault.

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,

Yet an arch-villain keeps him company.

If where thou art two villains shall not be,
Come not near him. If thou wouldst not reside
But where one villain is, then him abandon.
Hence, pack! there's gold; you came for gold,
ye slaves:

[To Painter] You have work'd for me; there's
payment for you: hence!

[To Poet] You are an alchemist; make gold of that. Out, rascal dogs! [Beats them out, and then

retires to his cave.

Enter FLAVIUS and two Senators.

Flav. It is in vain that you would speak with

Timon;

For he is set so only to himself

That nothing but himself which looks like man

Is friendly with him.

Men are not still the same: 'twas time and griefs
That framed 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.

Here is his cave.

Flav.
Peace and content be here! Lord Timon! Timon!
Look out, and speak to friends: the Athenians,
By two of their most reverend senate, greet thee:
Speak to them, noble Timon.

TIMON comes from his cave.

Tim. Thou sun, that comfort'st, burn! Speak
and be hang'd:

For each true word, a blister! and each false
Be as a cauterizing to the root o' the tongue,
Consuming it with speaking!

First Sen.

Worthy Timon,—

Tim. Of none but such as you, and you of

Timon.

First Sen. The senators of Athens greet thee,
Timon.

Tim. I thank them; and would send them back

the plague,

Could I but catch it for them.

First Sen.

O, forget

What we are sorry for ourselves in thee.

The senators with one consent of love

Entreat thee back to Athens; who have thought
On special dignities, which vacant lie

For thy best use and wearing.

Sec. Sen.

They confess

Toward thee forgetfulness too general, gross:

Which now the public body, which doth seldom
Play the recanter, feeling in itself

A lack of Timon's aid, hath sense withal

Of it own fail, restraining aid to Timon;

And send forth us, to make their sorrow'd render, 152. sorrow'd render, sorrowful confession.

130

140

150

Together with a recompense more fruitful
Than their offence can weigh down by the dram;
Ay, even such heaps and sums of love and wealth
As shall 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,

Surprise me to the very brink of tears :

Lend me a fool's heart and a woman's eyes,
And I'll beweep these comforts, worthy senators.
First Sen. Therefore, so please thee to return
with us

And of our Athens, thine and ours, to take
The captainship, thou shalt be met with thanks,
Allow'd with absolute power and thy good name
Live with authority: so soon we shall drive back
Of Alcibiades the approaches wild,

Who, like a boar too savage, doth root up

His country's peace.

Sec. Sen.

And shakes his threatening sword

Against the walls of Athens.

First Sen.

160

Therefore, Timon,- 170

Tim. Well, sir, I will; therefore, I will, sir;

thus:

If Alcibiades kill my countrymen,

Let Alcibiades know this of Timon,

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

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

I cannot choose but tell him, that I care not,
And let him take't at worst; for their knives care
not,

165. Allow'd with, authoritatively invested with. VOL. X

241

R

180

While you have throats to answer: for myself,
There's not a whittle in the unruly camp

So I leave you

But I do prize it at my love before
The reverend'st throat in Athens.
To the protection of the prosperous 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 sickness
Of health and living now begins to mend,
And nothing brings me all things.
Be Alcibiades your plague, you his,

And last so long enough!

First Sen.

Go, live still;

We speak 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.

First Sen.

That's well spoke.

Tim. Commend me to my loving countrymen,First Sen. These words become your lips as they pass thorough them.

Sec. Sen. And enter in our ears like great triumphers

In their applauding gates.

190

Tim. Commend me to them, 200 And tell them that, to ease them of their griefs, Their fears of hostile strokes, their aches, losses, Their pangs of love, with other incident throes That nature's fragile vessel doth sustain In life's uncertain voyage, I will some kindness do them :

I'll teach them to prevent wild Alcibiades' wrath. First Sen. I like this well; he will return again Tim. I have a tree, which grows here in my close,

202. aches (disyllabic; ch=tsh).