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The same.

SCENE II.

A Hall in Timon's House.

Enter FLAVIUS, with many Bills in his hand. Flav. No care, no stop! so senseless of expense, That he will neither know how to maintain it, Nor cease his flow of riot: Takes no account How things go from him; nor resumes no care Of what is to continue; Never mind

Was to be so unwise, to be so kind1.

What shall be done? He will not hear, till feel:
I must be round with him now he comes from hunting.
Fye, fye, fye, fye!

Enter CAPHIS, and the Servants of ISIDORE and

Caph.

VARRO.

You come for money?
Var. Serv.

Good even2, Varro: What,

Is't not your business too?

It is so.

I fear it.

Caph. It is;-And yours too, Isidore?

Isid. Serv.

Caph. 'Would we were all discharg❜d!

Var. Serv.

Caph. Here comes the lord.

Enter TIMON, ALCIBIADES, and Lords, &c. Tim. So soon as dinner's done, we'll forth again3, My Alcibiades.-With me? What's your will?

1 This is elliptically expressed:

Never mind

Was [made] to be unwise [in order] to be so kind.' Conversation, as Johnson observes, affords many examples of similar lax expression.

2 Good even, or good den, was the usual salutation from noon, the moment that good morrow became improper. See Romeo and Juliet, Act ii. Sc. 4.

* ie. to hunting; in our author's time it was the custom to

Caph. My lord, here is a note of certain dues. Tim. Dues? Whence are you?

Caph.

Of Athens, here, my lord.

Tim. Go to my steward.

Caph. Please it your lordship, he hath put me off To the succession of new days this month: My master is awak'd by great occasion, To call upon his own; and humbly prays you, That with your other noble parts you'll suit*, In giving him his right.

Mine honest friend,

Tim.
I pr'ythee, but repair to me next morning.

Caph. Nay, good my lord,

Tim.

Contain thyself, good friend.

Var. Serv. One Varro's servant, my good lord,

Isid. Serv.

From Isidore; He humbly prays your speedy payment,

Caph. If you did know, my lord, my master's wants,

Var. Serv. "Twas due on forfeiture, my lord, six weeks,

And past,

Isid. Serv. Your steward puts me off, my lord; And I am sent expressly to your lordship. Tim. Give me breath,

I do beseech you, good my lords, keep on;

[Exeunt ALCIBIADES and Lords. I'll wait upon you instantly.-Come hither, pray [To FLAVIUS. How goes the world, that I am thus encounter'd

you;

hunt as well after dinner as before. Thus in Tancred and Gismunda, 1592, He means this evening in the park to hunt.' Queen Elizabeth, during her stay at Kenilworth Castle, she always hunted in the afternoon.

4i. e. that you will behave on this occasion in a manner consistent with your other noble qualities.

With clamorous demands of date-broke bonds 5,
And the detention of long-since-due debts,
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 Wherefore you are not paid.

Tim.

See them well entertain'd.

Flav.

Do so, my friends:
[Exit TIMON.

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Enter APEMANTUS and a Fool.

Caph. Stay, stay, here comes the fool with Ape-
mantus; let's have some sport with 'em.
Var. Serv. Hang him, he'll abuse us.
Isid. Serv. A plague upon him, dog!
Var. Serv. How dost, fool?

Apem. Dost dialogue with thy shadow?
Var. Serv. I speak not to thee.

Apem. No; 'tis to thyself,-Come away.

[To the Fool.

Isid. Serv. [To VAR. Serv.] There's the fool hangs on your back already.

Apem. No, thou stand'st single, thou art not on

him yet.

5 The old copy reads:

of debt, broken bonds.'

The emendation, which was made by Malone, is well supported by corresponding passages in the poet. Thus at p. 32, ante :-'And my reliances on his fracted dates..

6 Johnson thought that a scene or passage had been here lost, in which the audience were informed that the fool and the page that follows him belonged to Phrynia, Timandra, or some other courtesan; upon the knowledge of which depends the greater part of the ensuing jocularity.

Caph. Where's the fool now?

Apem. He last ask'd the question.-Poor rogues, and usurers' men! bawds between gold and want! All Serv. What are we, Apemantus?

Apem. Asses.

All Serv. Why?

Apem. That you ask me what you are, and do not know yourselves.-Speak to 'em, fool. Fool. How do you, gentlemen?

All Serv. Gramercies, good fool: How does your mistress?

Fool. She's e'en setting on water to scald such chickens as you are. 'Would, we could see you at Corinth 7.

Apem. Good! gramercy.

Enter Page.

Fool. Look you, here comes my mistress' page. Page. [To the Fool.] Why, how now, captain? what do you in this wise company?-How dost thou, Apemantus?

Apem. Would 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. Canst not read?
Page. No.

7 The reputation of the ladies of Corinth for gallantry caused the term to be anciently used for a house of ill repute. The scalding, to which the fool alludes, is the curative process for a certain disease, by means of a tub, which persons affected (according to Randle Holme, Storehouse of Armory, b. iii. p. 441), were put into, not to boyl up to an heighth, but to parboyl.' In the frontispiece to the Old Latin Comedy of Cornelianum Dolium this sweating tub is represented. It was anciently the practice to scald the feathers off poultry instead of plucking them.

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Apem. There will little learning die then, that day thou art hanged. This is to Lord Timon; this to Alcibiades. Go: thou wast born a bastard, and thou'lt die a bawd.

Page. Thou wast whelped a dog; and thou shalt famish, a dog's death. Answer not, I am gone. [Exit Page. Apem. Even so thou out-run'st grace. Fool, 1 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 Serv. Ay; 'would they served us!

Apem. So would I, as good a trick as ever hangman served thief.

Fool. Are you three usurers' men?

All Serv. Ay, fool.

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 approach sadly, and go away merry; but they enter my mistress' house merrily, and go away sadly: The reason of this?

Var. Serv. I could render one.

Apem. Do it then, that we may account thee a whoremaster, and a knave; which notwithstanding, thou shalt be no less esteemed.

Var. Serv. What is a whoremaster, fool?

Fool. A fool in good clothes, and something like thee. 'Tis a spirit: sometime, it appears like a lord; sometime, like a lawyer; sometime, like a philosopher, with two stones more than his artificial one: He is very often like a knight; and,

8 Meaning the celebrated object of all alchymical research, the philosopher's stone, at that time much talked of. Sir Thomas Smith was one of those who lost considerable sums in

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