Tim. Ye're honest men: ye’ve heard that I

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

men

80

90

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.

So so, my lord.
Tim. E'en so, sir, as I say. 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.

Beseech

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 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 dis-

semble,
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.

hypocrisy, which, like a clumsy 99. patchery, blundering patch, fails to hide the fault.

100

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.

120

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.
First Sen.

Bring us to his cave:
It is our part and promise to the Athenians
To speak with Timon.
Sec. Sen.

At all times alike
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.
Flav.

Here is his cave.
Peace and content be here ! Lord Timon! Timon !

130 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,

140 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.

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

160

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.

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

211

R

180

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'st throat in Athens.

So I leave you
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,

190
And nothing brings me all things. Go, live still;
Be Alcibiades your plague, you his,
And last so long enough!
First Sen.

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. 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).