Nay, my lords, ceremony Was but devis'd at first, to seta gloss On faint deeds, hollow welcomes, Recanting goodness sorry ere 'tis shown; But where there is true friendship, there needs none. Pray, fit; more welcome are ye to my fortunes, Than my fortunes to me. [They fit. 1. LORD. My lord, we always have confefs'd it. APEM. Ho, ho, confefs'd it? hang'd it, have you not? 2 TIM. O, Apemantus!-you are welcome. You shall not make me welcome: I come to have thee thrust me out of doors. No, TIM. Fie, thou art a churl; you have got a humour there Does not become a man, 'tis much to blame :They say, my lords, that ira furor brevis eft, But yond' man's ever angry. 4 Go, let him have a table by himself; APEM. Let me stay at thine own peril, 5 Timon; -- confefs'd it? hang'd it, have you not?] There seems to be some allusion here to a common proverbial saying of Shakspeare's time: " Confess and be hang'd." See Othello, A& IV. fc. i. MALONE. 3 They Say, my lords, that - ) That was inserted by Sir Thomas Hanmer, for the sake of metre. STEEVENS. 4 But yond' man's ever angry.) The old copy has very angry; which can hardly be right. The emendation now adopted was made by Mr. Rowe. MALONE. Perhaps we should read -- But yon man's very anger; i. e. anger itself, which always maintains its violence. STEEVENS. -- at thine own peril, ) The old copy reads-at thine apperil. I come to observe; I give thee warning on't. TIM. I take no heed of thee; thou art an Athe nian; therefore welcome: I myself would have no power: 'pr'ythee, let my meat make thee filent. APEM. I scorn thy meat; 'twould choke me, for I should Ne'er flatter thee.' - O you gods! what a number It grieves me, to see so many dip their meat I have not been able to find such a word in any Diaonary, nor is it reconcileable to etymology. I have therefore adopted an emendaa tion made by Mr. Steevens. MALONE. Apperil, the reading of the old editions, may be right, though no other instance of it has been, or poffibly can be produced. It is, however, in aqual use in the metropolis, at this day. 6 RITSON. I myself would have no power:] If this be the true reading, the sense is, - all Athenians are welcome to share my fortune: I would myself have no exclusive right or power in this house. Perhaps we might read, - I myself would have no poor. I would have every Athenian confider himself as joint poffeffor of my fortune. JOHNSON. I understand Timon's meaning to be: I myself would have no power to make thee filent, but I wish thou would'ft let my meat make thee filent. Timon, like a polite landlord, disclaims all power over the meaneft or most troublesome of his guefts." TYRWHITT. These words refer to what follows, not to that which precedes. I claim no extraordinary power in right of my being master of the house & I wish not by my commands to impose filence on any one: but though I myself do not enjoin you to filence, let my meat stop your mouth. MALONE. I Scorn thy meat; 'twould choke me, for I should Ne'er flatter thee.] The meaning is, I could not swallow thy meat, for I could not pay for it with flattery; and what was given me with an ill will would stick in my throat. JOHNSON. For has here perhaps the signification of because. So, in Othellos --Haply, for I am black." MALONE. * -- So many dip their meat In one man's blood;] The allusion is to a pack of hounds VOL. XVII. D He cheers them up too. I wonder, men dare trust themselves with men: Is the readiest man to kill him: it has been prov'd. If I Were a huge man, I should fear to drink at meals; Left they should spy my windpipe's dangerous notes: Great men should drink with harness * on their throats. TIM. My lord, in heart; and let the health go round. trained to pursuit by being gratified with the blood of an animal which they kill, and the wonder is that the animal on which they are feeding cheers them to the chase. JOHNSON. * Methinks, they should invite them without knives;) It was the custom in our author's time for every guest to bring his own knife, which he occafionally whetted on a ftone that hung behind the door. One of these whetstones may be seen in Parkinson's Museum. They were strangers, at that period, to the use of forks. RITSON. 9 windpipe's dangerous notes:] The notes of the windpipe seem to be only the indications which show where the windpipe is. JOHNSON. Shakspeare is very fond of making use of musical terms, when he is speaking of the human body, and windpipe and notes favour strongly of a quibble. STEEVENS. 2 -- with harness - i. e. armour. See Vol. XI. p. 255, 2.7. STEEVENS. 3 My lord, in heart;] That is, my lord's health with fincerity. An emendation has been proposed thus: My love in heart; but it is not neceffary. JOHNSON. So, in The Queen of Corinth, by Beaumont and Fletcher: " I will be never more in heart to you." Again, in King Henry IV. Part I. A& IV. fc. i: in heart defiring till "You may behold," &c. i 2. LORD. Let it flow this way, my Good lord. ill. Here's that, which is too weak to be a finner, Immortal gods, I crave no pelf; Rich men fin, and I eat root. [Eats and drinks. Much good dich thy good heart, Apemantus! ، Again, in Love's Labour's Loft, A& V. fc. ii: 4 - Timon, STEEVENS. Those healths-) This speech, except the concluding couplet, is printed as prose in the copy; nor could it be exhibited as verse but by transferring the word Timon, which follows-look ill, to its present place. The transposition was made by Mr. Capell. The word might have been an interlineation, and so have been misplaced. Yet, after all, I suspect many of the speeches in this play, which the modern editors have exhibited in a loose kind of metre, were intended by the author as prose; in which form they appear in the old copy. MALONE. Rich men fin, Dr. Farmer proposes to read-ing. REED. TIM. Captain Alcibiades, your heart's in the field now. ALCIB. My heart is ever at your service, my lord. TIM. You had rather be at a breakfast of enemies, than a dinner of friends. ALCIB. So they were bleeding-new, my lord, there's no meat like them; I could wish my best friend at such a feast. APEM. 'Would all those flatterers were thine enemies then; that then thou might'st kill 'em, and bid me to 'em. 1. LORD. Might we but have that happiness, my lord, that you would once use our hearts, whereby we might express some part of our zeals, we should think ourselves for ever perfect. TIM. O, no doubt, my good friends, but the gods themselves have provided that I shall have much help from you: How had you been my friends else? why have you that charitable title from thou fands, did you not chiefly belong to my heart?? I --for ever perfect.) That is, arrived at the perfe&ion of happiness JOHNSON. So, in Macbeth: " Then comes my fit again; I had else been perfect; -." STEEVENS. 7 How had you been my friends else? why have you that charitable title from thousands, did you not chiefly belong to my heart! Charitable fignifies, dear, endearing. So, Milton: " Relations dear, and all the charities Alms, in English, are called charities, and from thence we may colled that our ancestors knew well in what the virtue of almsgiving confisted; not in the aft, but in the disposition. WARBURTON. The meaning is probably this: - Why are you diftinguished from thousands by that title of endearment, was there not a particular conne&ion and intercourse of tenderness between you and me? JOHNSON. |