Dry up thy marrows, vines, and plough-torn leas;
Whereof ingrateful man, with liquorifh draughts,
And morfels unctuous, greases his pure mind,
That from it all confideration flips!

Enter APEMANTUS.

More man? Plague! plague!

APEM. I was directed hither: Men report,
Thou dost affect my manners, and dost use them.
TIM. 'Tis then, because thou doft not keep a dog
Whom I would imitate: Confumption catch thee!
APEM. This is in thee a nature but affected;
A poor unmanly melancholy, fprung

From change of fortune. Why this spade? this place?
This flave-like habit? and thefe looks of care?
Thy flatterers yet wear filk, drink wine, lie soft ;
Hug their difeas'd perfumes, and have forgot
That ever Timon was. Shame not these woods,
By putting on the cunning of a carper.

Be thou a flatterer now, and seek to thrive
By that which has undone thee: hinge thy knee,
And let his very breath, whom thou❜lt observe,
Blow off thy cap; praise his most vicious strain,
And call it excellent: Thou waft told thus;
Thou gav'st thine ears, like tapfters, that bid welcome,
To knaves, and all approachers: 'Tis most just,
That thou turn rafcal; had'ft thou wealth again,
Rafcals fhould have't. Do not affume my likeness.
TIM. Were I like thee, I'd throw away myself.
APEM. Thou haft caft away thy felf, being like thyself;
A madman fo long, now a fool: What, think'st
That the bleak air, thy boisterous chamberlain,
Will put thy fhirt on warm? Will these mofs'd trees,
That have outliv'd the eagle, page thy heels,

And skip when thou point'ft out? will the cold brook Candied with ice, caudle thy morning taste,

To cure thy o'er-night's surfeit? call the creatures,—
Whose naked natures live in all the spite

Of wreakful heaven; whofe bare unhoufed trunks,
To the conflicting elements expos'd,

Answer mere nature,-bid them flatter thee;

O! thou fhalt find.

TIM. A fool of thee: Depart.

APEM. I love thee better now than ere I did.

TIM. I hate thee worse.

APEM. Why?

TIM. Thou flatter'ft mifery.

APEM. I flatter not; but fay, thou art a caitiff.

TIM. Why doft thou seek me out?

APEM. To vex thee.

TIM. Always a villain's office, or a fool's. Dost please thyself in't?

APEM. Ay.

TIM. What? a knave too?

APEM. If thou didst put this four-cold habit on
To caftigate thy pride, 'twere well: but thou
Doft it enforcedly; thou'dft courtier be again,
Wert thou not beggar. Willing mifery
Outlives incertain pomp, is crown'd before :
The one is filling ftill, never complete;
The other, at high wish: Best state, contentless,
Hath a distracted and moft wretched being,
Worfe than the worst, content.

Thou should'ft defire to die, being miferable.
TIM. Not by his breath, that is more miferable.
Thou art a flave, whom Fortune's tender arm
With favour never clafp'd; but bred a dog.

Hadft thou, like us, from our first swath, proceeded
The fweet degrees that this brief world affords
To fuch as may the paffive drugs of it

and hearts of men

Freely command, thou would'st have plung'd thyself
In general riot; melted down thy youth
In different beds of luft; and never learn'd
The icy precepts of refpect, but follow'd
The fugar'd game before thee.
But myself,
Who had the world as my confectionary;
The mouths, the tongues,
the eyes,
At duty, more than I could frame employment;
That numberless upon me ftuck, as leaves
Do on the oak, have with one winter's brush
Fell from their boughs, and left me open, bare
For every ftorm that blows ;-I, to bear this,
That never knew but better, is fome burden:
Thy nature did commence in fufferance, time

Hath made thee hard in't. Why should'st thou hate men?
They never flatter'd thee: What haft thou given?
If thou wilt curfe,-thy father, that poor rag,
Must be thy subject; who in fpite, put stuff
To fome fhe 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.

APEM. I, that I was

No prodigal.

TIM. I, that I am one now:

Were all the wealth I have, fhut up in thee,
I'd give thee leave to hang it. Get thee gone.
That the whole life of Athens were in this!

Thus would I eat it.

APEM. Here; I will mend thy feast.

[Eating a root.

[Offering him fomething.

TIM. First mend my company, take away thyself.

APEM. So I fhall mend mine own, by the lack of thine. TIM. 'Tis not wel! mended fo, it is but botch'd;

If not, I would it were.

APEM. What would'st thou have to Athens?

TIM. Thee thither in a whirlwind. If thou wilt, Tell them there I have gold; look, so I have. APEM. Here is no ufe for gold.

TIM. The best, and truest:

For here it fleeps, and does no hired harm.
APEM. Where ly'ft o'nights, Timon?
TIM. Under that's above me.

Where feed'st thou o'days, Apemantus ?

APEM. Where my ftomach finds meat; or, rather, where I eat it.

TIM. 'Would poifon were obedient, and knew my mind! APEM. Where would'st thou fend it?

TIM. To fauce thy dishes.

APEM. The middle of humanity thou never knewest, but the extremity of both ends: When thou waft in thy gilt, and thy perfume, they mock'd thee for too much curiofity; in thy rags thou knoweft none, but art defpifed for the contrary. There's a medlar for thee, eat it. TIM. On what I hate, I feed not.

APEM. Doft hate a medlar?

TIM. Ay, though it look like thee.

APEM. An thou hadst hated medlers fooner, thou fhould't have loved thyfelf better now. What man didft thou ever know unthrift, that was beloved after his means?

TIM. Who, without those means thou talk'ft of, didst thou ever know beloved?

APEM. Myfelf.

TIM. I understand thee; thou hadft fome means to keep a dog.

APEM. What things in the world canft 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 beafts, to be rid of the men.

TIM. Would'st thou have thyself fall in the confufion of men, and remain a beast with the beasts ?

APEM. Ay, Timon.

:

TIM. A beaftly 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 fufpect thee, when, peradventure, thou wert accus'd by the ass if thou wert the afs, thy dulnefs would torment thee; and ftill thou livedft but as a breakfast to the wolf: if thou wert the wolf, thy greedinefs would afflict thee, and oft thou shouldst hazard thy life for thy dinner: wert thou the unicorn, pride and wrath would confound thee, and make thine own felf the conqueft of thy fury: wert thou a bear, thou would't be kill'd by the horse; wert thou a horse, thou would'st be feiz'd by the leopard; wert thou a leopard, thou wert german to the lion, and the fpots of thy kindred were jurors on thy life: all thy safety were remotion; and thy defence, absence. What beast could'st thou be, that were not fubject to a beaft? and what a beast art thou already, that seest not thy lofs in transformation?

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