With certain half-caps 22, and cold-moving nods, They froze me into silence.

Tim.

You gods, reward them!I pr'ythee, man, look cheerly; These old fellows Have their ingratitude in them hereditary : Their blood is cak'd, 'tis cold, it seldom flows; 'Tis lack of kindly warmth, they are not kind; And nature, as it grows again toward earth, Is fashion'd for the journey, dull, and heavy.Go to Ventidius, [To a Serv.]-Pr'ythee, [To FLAVIUS], be not sad,

Thou art true, and honest; ingeniously I speak,
No blame belongs to thee;-[To Serv.] Ventidius
lately

Buried his father; by whose death, he's stepp'd
Into a great estate: when he was poor,
Imprison'd, and in scarcity of friends,

I clear'd him with five talents; Greet him from me;
Bid him suppose, some good necessity

Touches his friend, which craves to be remember'd With those five talents:-that had,-[Fo FLAV.] give it these fellows

To whom 'tis instant due. Ne'er speak, or think, That Timon's fortunes 'mong his friends can sink. Flav. I would, I could not think it; That thought is bounty's foe;

Being free 23 itself, it thinks all others so. [Exeunt.

22 Fractions are broken hints, abrupt remarks. A half-cap is a cap slightly moved, not put off.

23 Liberal, not parsimonious.

ACT III.

SCENE I. Athens. A Room in Lucullus's House.

FLAMINIUS waiting.

Enter a Servant to him.

you, he is coming

Serv. I have told my lord of

down to you.

Flam. I thank you, sir.

Enter LUCULlus.

Serv. Here's my lord.

Lucul. [Aside.] One of Lord Timon's men? a gift, I warrant. Why, this hits right; I dreamt of a silver bason and ewer to-night. Flaminius, honest Flaminius; you are very respectively1 welcome, sir.Fill me some wine. [Exit Servant.]-And how does that honourable, complete, free-hearted gentleman of Athens, thy very bountiful good lord and master?

Flam. His health is well, sir.

Lucul. I am right glad that his health is well, sir: And what hast thou there under thy cloak, pretty Flaminius?

Flam. 'Faith, nothing but an empty box, sir; which, in my lord's behalf, I come to entreat your honour to supply; who, having great and instant occasion to use fifty talents, hath sent to your lordship to furnish him; nothing doubting your present assistance therein.

Lucul. La, la, la, la,—nothing doubting, says he? alas, good lord! a noble gentleman 'tis, if he would not keep so good a house. Many a time

1 i. e. consideratively, regardfully. See vol. iii. p. 97, note 16.

and often I have dined with him, and told him on't; and come again to supper to him, of purpose to have him spend less: and yet he would embrace no counsel, take no warning by my coming. Every man has his fault, and honesty is his; I have told him on't, but I could never get him from it.

2

Re-enter Servant, with wine.

Serv. Please your lordship, here is the wine. Lucul. Flaminius, I have noted thee always wise. Here's to thee.

Flam. Your lordship speaks your pleasure.

Lucul. I have observed thee always for a towardly prompt spirit,-give thee thy due, and one that knows what belongs to reason: and canst use the time well, if the time use thee well: good parts in thee.-Get you gone, sirrah.-[To the Servant, who goes out.]-Draw nearer, honest Flaminius. Thy lord's a bountiful gentleman: but thou art wise; and thou knowest well enough, although thou comest to me, that this is no time to lend money; especially upon bare friendship, without security. Here's three solidares for thee; good boy, wink at me, and say, thou saw'st me not. Fare thee well.

Flam. Is't possible, the world should so much differ;

And we alive, that liv'd? Fly, damned baseness,
To him that worships thee.

[Throwing the money away.

2 Honesty here means liberality.

That nobleness of spirit or

honesty that free-born men have.'-Baret.

3 Steevens says, 'I believe this coin is from the mint of the poet.' We are not to look for the name of a Greek coin here; but he probably formed it from solidari, or soldi, a small coin, which Florio makes equal to shillings in value.

And we alive now who lived then. As much as to say, in so short a time.

for thy master.

Lucul. Ha! Now I see, thou art a fool, and fit [Exit LUCULLUS. Flam. May these add to the number that may scald thee!

Let molten coin be thy damnation 5,

Thou disease of a friend, and not himself!
Has friendship such a faint and milky heart,
It turns in less than two nights? O you gods,
I feel my master's passion! This slave

Unto his honour 8,
.8 has my lord's meat in him:
Why should it thrive, and turn to nutriment,
When he is turn'd to poison?

O, may diseases only work upon't!

And, when he is sick to death, let not that part of

nature

Which my lord paid for, be of any power
To expel sickness, but prolong his hour?!

[Exit.

5 One of the punishments invented for the covetous and avaricious in hell of old was to have melted gold poured down their throats. In the old Shepherd's Calendar Lazarus declares himself to have seen covetous men and women in hell dipped in caldrons of molten metal. And in the old black letter ballad of The Dead Man's Song:

Ladles full of melted gold
Were poured down their throats.'

Crassus was so punished by the Parthians.

6 So in King Lear :

my daughter,

Or rather a disease,' &c.

7 i. e. suffering, grief. Othello, when Desdemona weeps, says. O well dissembled passion.'

8 Some modern editions have changed his honour into this hour. I think the old reading which Steevens explains, "This slave (to the honour of his character) has,' &c. not what is meant to be expressed, and should prefer the correction.

9 i. e. prolong his hour of suffering. Thus Timon, in a future passage, says, Live loath'd, and long! And in Coriolanus, Menenius says to the Roman sentinel, Be that you are long; and your misery increase with your age.'

SCENE II. The same.

A public Place.

Enter LUCIUS, with three Strangers.

Luc. Who, the Lord Timon? he is my very good friend, and an honourable gentleman.

1 Stran. We know1 him for no less, though we' are but strangers to him. But I can tell you one thing, my lord, and which I hear from common rumours; now Lord Timon's happy hours are done and past, and his estate shrinks from him.

Luc. Fye no, do not believe it; he cannot want for money.

2 Stran. But believe you this, my lord, that, not long ago, one of his men was with the Lord Lucullus, to borrow so many talents; nay, urged extremely for't, and showed what necessity belonged to't, and yet was denied.

Luc. How?

2 Stran. I tell you, denied, my lord.

Luc. What a strange case was that? now, before the gods, I am ashamed on't. Denied that honourable man? there was very little honour showed in't. For

my own part, I must needs confess, I have received some small kindnesses from him, as money, plate, jewels, and such like trifles, nothing comparing to his; yet had he mistook him3, and sent to me, I should ne'er have denied his occasion talents.

SO many

Acknowledge.

2 'So many talents,' a common colloquial phrase for an indefinite number: the stranger apparently did not know the exact sum; and yet some editors have arbitrarily substituted 'fifty talents.'

3 Lucius means to insinuate that it would have been a kind of mistake in Timon to apply to him, who had received but few favours from him in comparison to those bestowed on Lucullus.