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Can found his ftate in fafety. Caphis, ho!
Caphis, I fay!

Enter CAPHIS.

CAPH.

Here, fir; What is your pleasure?

SEN. Get on your cloak, and hafte you to lord
Timon;

Impórtune him for my monies; be not ceas'd'
With flight denial; nor then filenc'd, when-
Commend me to your master-and the cap

Plays in the right hand, thus:—but tell him, firrah‚3
My ufes cry to me, I must ferve my turn
Out of mine own; his days and times are past,

no reason

Can found his ftate in fafety.] [Old copy-found.] The fuppofed meaning of this must be,-No reafon, by founding, fa thoming, or trying, his ftate, can find it fafe. But as the wor is ftand, they imply, that no reason can safely found his ftate, I read thus:

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Reafon cannot find his fortune to have any safe or folid foundation. The types of the first printer of this play were fo worn and defaced, that ƒ and are not always to be distinguished.

JOHNSON. The following paffage in Macbeth affords countenance to Dr. Johnson's emendation:

2

"Whole as the marble, founded as the rock;-."

STEEVENS.

be not ceas'd-] i. c. ftopp'd. So, in Claudius Tiberius

Nero, 1607:

"Why fhould Tiberius' liberty be ceafed."

Again, in The Valiant Welchman, 1615:

-pity thy people's wrongs,

"And cenfe the clamours both of old and young."

STEEVENS.

3 -firrah,] was added for the fake of the metre by the editor of the fecond folio.. MALONE.

And my reliances on his fracted dates

Have fmit my credit: I love, and honour him;
But must not break my back, to heal his finger:
Immediate are my needs; and my relief
Muft not be tofs'd and turn'd to me in words,
But find fupply immediate. Get you gone:
Put on a most importunate afpéct,

A vifage of demand; for, I do fear,
When every feather sticks in his own wing,
Lord Timon will be left a naked gull,
Which flashes now a phoenix. Get you gone.
CAPH. I go, fir.

SEN. I go, fir?"-take the bonds along with you, And have the dates in compt."

CAPH.
SEN.

I will, fir.

Go.

[Exeunt.

a naked gull,] A gull is a bird as remarkable for the poverty of its feathers, as a phoenix is supposed to be for the richnefs of its plumage. STEEVENS.

5 Which flashes &c.] Which, the pronoun relative, relating to things, is frequently used, as in this inftance, by Shakspeare, instead of who, the pronoun relative, applied to perfons. The ufe of the former inftead of the latter is ftill preferved in the Lord's prayer. STEEVENS.

6 Caph. I go, fir.

Sen. I go, fir?] This laft fpeech is not a captious repetition of what Caphis faid, but a further injunction to him to go. I, in all the old dramatic writers, ftands for-ay, as it does in this place. M. MASON.

I have left Mr. M. Mafon's opinion before the reader, though I do not heartily concur in it. STEEVENS.

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take the bonds along with you,

And have the dates in compt.] [Old copy-And have the dates in. Come.] Certainly, ever fince bonds were given, the date was put in when the bond was entered into: and these bonds Timon had already given, and the time limited for their payment was lapfed. The Senator's charge to his fervant must be to the tenour

SCENE II.

The fame. A Hall in Timon's House.

Enter FLAVIUS, with many bills in his hand.

FLAV. No care, no ftop! fo fenfelefs of expence, That he will neither know how to maintain it, Nor ceafe 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 fo unwife, to be fo kind.'

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!

as I have amended the text; Take good notice of the dates, for the better computation of the intereft due upon them.

THEOBALD.

Mr. Theobald's emendation may be fupported by the following inftance in Macbeth:

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"Have theirs, themfelves, and what is theirs, in compt.”

Never mind

STEEVENS.

Was to be fo unwife, to be fo kind.] Nothing can be worse, or more obfcurely expreffed: and all for the fake of a wretched rhyme. To make it fenfe and grammar, it fhould be fupplied thus:

Never mind

Was [made] to be fo unwife, [in order] to be fo kind.] i. e. Nature, in order to make a profufe mind, never before endowed any man with so large a share of folly. WARBURTON.

Of this mode of expreffion, converfation affords many examples: "I was always to be blamed, whatever happened."-" I am in the lottery, but I was always to draw blanks.' JOHNSON.

Enter CAPHIS, and the Servants of Ifidore and Varro.

CAPH.

Good even, Varro: What,

You come for money?

VAR. SERV.

Is't not your business too?

2. Good even, Varro:] It is obfervable, that this good evening is before dinner for Timon tells Alcibiades, that they will go forth again, as foon as dinner's done, which may prove that by dinner our author meant not the cana of ancient times, but the mid-day's repaft. I do not fuppofe the paffage corrupt: fuch inadvertencies neither author nor editor can efcape.

There is another remark to be made. Varro and Ifidore fink a few lines afterwards into the fervants of Varro and Ifidore. Whether fervants, in our author's time, took the names of their mafters, I know not. Perhaps it is a flip of negligence. JOHNSON.

In the old copy it ftands: "Enter Caphis, Ifidore, and Varro." STEEVENS.

In like manner in the fourth scene of the next act the fervant of Lucius is called by his mafter's name; but our author's intention is fufficiently manifested by the stage-direction in the fourth scene of the third act, where we find in the firft folic, (p. 86, col. 2.) "Enter Varro's man, meeting others." I have therefore always annexed Serv. to the name of the mafter. MALONE.

Good even, or, as it is fometimes lefs accurately written, Good den, was the ufual falutation from noon, the moment that Good morrow became improper. This appears plainly from the following paffage in Romeo and Juliet, Act II. fc. iv:

"Nurfe. God ye good morrow, gentlemen.

"Mercutio. God ye good den, fair gentlewoman.

"Nur. Is it good den?

"Merc. 'Tis no lefs I tell you; for the hand of the

dial is now upon the of noon."

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So, in Hamlet's greeting to Marcellus. At I. fc. i. Sir T. Hanmer and Dr. Warburton, not being aware, I prefume, of this wide fenfe of Good even, have altered it to Good morning; without any neceffity, as from the courfe of the incidents, precedent and fubfequent, the day may well be fuppofed to be turn'd of noon. TYRWHITT.

CAPH. It is;-And yours too, Ifidore?

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Enter TIMON, ALCIBIADES, and Lords, &c.

TIM. So foon as dinner's done, we'll forth again,3 My Alcibiades. With me? What's your will? 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 fucceffion of new days this month:
My master is awak'd by great occafion,

To call upon his own; and humbly prays you,
That with your other noble parts you'll fuit,+

66

3we'll forth again,] i. e. to hunting, from which diverfion, we find by Flavius's fpeech, he was juft returned. It may be here obferved, that in our author's time it was the cuftom to hunt as well after dinner as before. Thus, in Laneham's Account of the Entertainment at Kenel-worth Caftle, we find, that Queen Elizabeth always, while there, hunted in the afternoon. Monday was hot, and therefore her highness kept in 'till frue a clok in the evening; what time it pleaz'd her to ryde forth into the chafe, to hunt the hart of fors; which found anon, and after fore chafed," &c. Again, "Munday the 18 of this July, the weather being hot, her highness kept the caftle for coolness 'till about five a clok, her majesty in the chafe hunted the hart (as before) of forz," &c. So, in Tancred and Gifmund, 1592:

"He means this evening in the park to hunt." REED.

4 That with your other noble parts you'll fuit,] i. e. that you will behave on this occafion in a manner confiftent with your other noble qualities. STEEVENS.

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