TIMON OF ATHENS. Enter a Servant. Serv. Please you, my lord, there are certain ladies most desirous of admittance. Tim. Ladies? What are their wills? Serv. There comes with them a fore-runner, 5 my lord, which bears that office, to signify their pleasures. Tim. I pray, let them be admitted. Enter Cupid. Cup. Hail to thee, worthy Timon;-and to all, Musick, make their welcome. 1 Lord. You see, my lord, how amply you are Musick. Re-enter Cupid, with a Masque of Ladies Apem. Heyday! what a sweep of vanity comes They dance! they are mad women. As this pomp shews to a little oil, and root'. Set a fair fashion on our entertainment, [Act 1. Scene. Tim. The little casket bring me hither. 15 20 25 1 Lord. Where be our men? Serv. Here, my lord, in readiness. 2 Lord. Our horses. Tim. O, my friends, I have one word To say to you:-Look you, my good lord, I must Enter a Servant. Serc. My lord, there are certain nobles of the Newly alighted, and come to visit you. [senate Tim. They are fairly welcome. Flac. I beseech your honour, Vouchsafe me a word; it does concern you near. Tim. Near? why then another time I'll hear pr'ythee, let us be provided 30 To shew them entertainment. Flav. [Aside.] I scarce know how. Enter another Servant. [thee: 2 Serc. May it please your honour, lord Lucius, Out of his free love, hath presented to you 35 Four milk-white horses, trapt in silver. 40 Tim. Ladies, there is an idle banquet attends [you. Tim. I shall accept them fairly: let the presents Be worthily entertain'd.-How now? what news? Enter a third Servant. gentleman, lord Lucullus, entreats your company [ceiv'd, Flav. [iside.] What will this come to? The meaning is, according to Dr. Johnson, "The glory of this life is very near to madness, as may be made appear from this pomp, exhibited in a place where a philosopher is feeding on oil and roots. When we see by example how few are the necessaries of life, we learn what madness there is in so much superfluity." 2 i. e. here, that he would be cross'd in humour, but that he would have his hand cross'd with money, if he you have seen the best we can do. could. He is playing on the word, and alluding to our old silver penny, used before K. Edward the The poet does not mean First's time, which had a cross on the reverse, with a crease, that it might be more easily broke into halves and quarters, half-pence and farthings. From this penny, and other pieces, was our common expression derived, I have not a cross about me; i. e. not a piece of money. ries that are following her. honour by wearing it. 'i. e. for his nobleness of soul. 4.To see the mise1 i. c. to prefer it; to raise it to Pays Of your own merits :--Here, my lord; a trifle of 3 Lord. O, he is the very soul of bounty! 2 Lord. O, I beseech you, pardon me, my lord, In that. Tim. You may take my word, my lord; I Can justly praise, but what he does affect: All Lords. O, none so welcome. Tim. I take all and your several visitations Thou art a soldier, therefore seldom rich, It comes in charity to thee: for all thy living Is 'mongst the dead; and all the lands thou hast, Alcib. In defiled land, my lord. 15 20 I 1 Lord. We are so virtuously bound,- 2 Lord. So infinite endear'd, Tim. All 1 to you.-Lights! more lights. [mon! Honour, and fortunes, keep with you, "lord Ti- [Exeunt Alcibiades, Lords, &c. Apem. What a coil's here! Apem. No, I'll nothing: for, If I should be brib'd too, there would be none left the faster. 4 Thou giv'st so long, Timon, I fear me, thou 25 If you begin to rail once on society, I am sworn, not to give regard to you. Farewell; and come with better musick. [Exit. Thou wilt not hear me now,-thou shalt not then, 30 I'll lock [be Sen. AND A publick place in the City. Enter a Senator. ND late, five thousand to Varro; and He owes nine thousand;-besides my former sum, II. . 140 Can found his state in safety.-Caphis, ho! Caphis, I say! 1451 Enter Caphis. Cuph. Here, sir; What is your pleasure? Importune him for my monies; be not ceas'd' i. e. all good wishes, or all happiness to you. 2 To serve a beck, according to Johnson, is o offer a salutation: Mr. Steevens believes it in this place to mean, to pay a courtly obedience to a nod. Our author plays upon the word leg, as it signifies a limb and a bow or act of obeisance. 4 i. c. be ruined by his securities entered into. i. e. the pleasure of being flattered. i. e. If I give my horse to Timon, it immediately foals, and not only produces more, but able horses. ? Our author here alludes to that sternness which was in his days the general characteristic of a porter. ' i. e. Reason cannot find his for une to have any safe or solid foundation. i, e. stopp'd. But I do beseech you, good my lords, keep on; [Exeunt Alcibiades, &c. 10Pllwait uponyou instantly.--Come hither,prayyou. [To Flavius How goes the world, that I am thus encounter'd With clamorous demands of broken bonds, And the detention of long-since-due debts, 15 Against my honour? Flav. Please you, gentlemen, The time is unagreeable to this business: Your importunacy cease, 'till after dinner; That I may make his lordship understand 20 Wherefore you are not paid. Enter Caphis, with the servants of Isidore and Varro. 25 Caph. Good even^, Varro: What, Tim. Do so, my friends: See them well entertain'd. Flav. Pray draw near. [Exit Timon. [Exit Flavius. Enter Apemantus, and a Fool. Caph. Stay, stay, here comes the fool with Apemantus; Let's have some sport with 'em. Var. Hang him, he'll abuse us. Isid. A plague upon him, dog! Apem. Dost dialogue with thy shadow? Apem. No, 'tis to thyself.-Come away. You come for money? Var. Is't not your business too? Caph. It is;-And yours too, Isidore? 30 J'ar. How dost, fool? Tim.So soon as dinner's done, we'll forth again, My Alcibiades. With me? What is your will? Apem. No, thou stand'st single, thou art not on him yet. [To the Fool. Isid. [To Var.] There's the fool hangs on your back already. [They present their bills. Caph. My lord, here is a note of certain dues. Caph. Please it your lordship, he hath put me off Tim. Mine honest friend, I pr'ythee, but repair to me next morning. - Tim. Contain thyself, good friend. Var. One Varro's servant, my good lord,— He humbly prays your speedy payment,— 40 45 Caph. Where's the fool now? Apem. He last ask'd the question. Poor rogues, and usurers' men! bawds between gold and want! All. What are we, Apeiantus? Apem. Asses. Áll. Why? Apem. That you ask me, what you are, and do not know yourselves.-Speak to 'em, fool.Fool. How do you, gentlemen? All. Gramercies, good fool: How does your mistress? 50 Fool. She's e'en setting on water to scald' such Apem. Good! gramercy. Fool. Look you, here comes my master's page. 1 A gull is a bird as remarkable for the poverty of its feathers, as a phoenix is supposed to be for the richness of its plumage. 2 Which is here used for who, and refers to Timon. Warburton supplies the sense of this passage thus: Never mind was [made] to be so unwise, [in order] to be so kind: i. e. Nature, in order to make a profusé mind, never before endowed any man with so large a share of folly. Good even, or, as it is sometimes less accurately written, Good den, was the usual salutation from noon, the moment that Good morrow becaine improper. The old name for a certain disease was the brenning, and a sense of scalding is one of its first symptoms. A cant name for a bawdy-house, probably from the dissoluteness of that ancient Greek city. Page. Page. [To the Fool.] Why, how now, captain? what do you in this wise company?-How dost thou, Apemantus? Apem. 'Wold I had a rod in my mouth that I might answer thee profitably. Page. Pr'ythee, Apemantus, read me the superscription of these letters; I know not which is which. Apem. Can'st not read? Apem. There will little learning die then, that day thou art hang'd. This is to lord Timon; this to Alcibiades. Go; thou wast born a bastard, and thou 'lt die a bawd. anon. Flac. Pray you, walk near; I'll speak with you 5 Had you not fully laid my state before me; 10 Page. Thou wast whelp'd a dog; and thou 15 shalt famish, a dog's death. Answer not, I am [Exit. gone. Apem. Even so, thou out-runn'st 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. Ay; 'would they serv'd us! Apem. So would I,-as good a trick as ever hanginan serv'd thief. Fool. Are you three usurers' men? All. Ay, fool. Flav. You would not hear me, Perchance, some single vantages you took Flao. O my good lord! At many times I brought in my accounts, 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 20 approach sadly, and go away merry; but they enter my master's house merrily, and go away sadly: The reason of this? Var. I could render one. Apem. Do it then, that we may account thee 35 a whore-master, and a knave; which notwithstanding, thou shalt be no less esteemed. Var. What is a whore-master, fool? Fool. A fool in good clothes, and something like thee. "Tis a spirit: sometime, it appears 40 like a lord; sometime, like a lawyer; sometime, like a philosopher, with two stones more 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 spi-45 rit walks in. Var. Thou art not altogether a fool. Fool. Nor thou altogether a wise man; as much foolery as I have, so much wit thou lack'st. Apem. That answer might have become Ape- 50 mantus. All. Aside, aside; here comes lord Timon. Apem. Come with me, fool, come. Fool. I do not always follow lover, elder bro-5 ther, and woman; sometime, the philosopher. 1 Tim. Let all my land be sold. Flav. 'Tis all engag'd, some forfeited and gone; Tim. To Lacedæmon did my land extend. Tim. You tell me true. 2 The Meaning the celebrated philosopher's stone, which was in those times much talked of. meaning is, As the world itself may be comprised in a word, you might give it away in a breath. *Feeders are servants, whose low debaucheries are practised in the offices of a house.-It appears, that what we now call offices, were anciently called houses of office. * A wasteful cock is what we now call a waste pipe; a pipe which is continually running, and thereby prevents the overflow of cisterns and other reservoirs, by carrying off their superfluous water. This circumstance served to keep the idea of Timon's unceasing prodigality in the mind of the steward, while its remoteness from the scenes of luxury within the house, was favourable to meditation, The The breath is gone whereof this praise is made:| Tim. Come, sermon me no further: Flav. Assurance bless your thoughts! Tim. And, in some sort, these wants of mine That I account them blessings; for by these Enter Flaminius, Servilius, and other Servants. Tim. I will dispatch you severally,-You, to To lord Lucullus you; I hunted with his Flam. As you have said, my lord. Flav. Lord Lucius, and Lucullus? hum!Tim. Co you, sir, to the senators, [To Flavius. (Of whom, even to the state's best health, I have Deserv'd this hearing) bid 'em send o' the instant A thousand talents to me. Flav. I have been bold, 5 But they do shake their heads, and I am here Tim. Is't true? can't be? Flac.They answer, in a joint and corporate voice, That now they are at fall, want treasure, cannot Do what they would; are sorry you are honourable, But yet they could have wish'd-they know notSomething hath been amiss-a noble nature 10 May catch a wrench-would all were well-'tis pity And so, intending' other serious matters, After distasteful looks, and these hard fractions*, With certain half-caps, and cold-moving nods, 15 They froze me into silence. Tim. You gods, reward them!- I pr'ythee, man, look cheerly: These old fellows 23 30 35 [me; I clear'd him with five talents: Greet him from To whom 'tis instant due. Ne'er speak, or think, Being free itself, it thinks all others so. [Excunt, 1 Argument may here be put for contents, as the arguments of a book; or for evidences and proofs. * i. e. compendious way. To intend and to attend had anciently the same meaning. 4 Fractions here mean broken hints, interrupted sentences, abrupt remarks." A half-cap is a cap slightly moved, not put off. ⚫ i. e. liberal. ? i. e. respectfully. occasion |