Dry up thy marrows, vines, and plough-torn leas; Enter APEMANTUS. More man? Plague! plague! APEM. I was directed hither: Men report, From change of fortune. Why this spade? this place? Be thou a flatterer now, and seek to thrive 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,— Of wreakful heaven; whofe bare unhoufed trunks, 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 Thou should'ft defire to die, being miferable. Hadft thou, like us, from our first swath, proceeded and hearts of men Freely command, thou would'st have plung'd thyself Hath made thee hard in't. Why should'st thou hate men? 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, 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. 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? ༢ |