have told more of you to myself, than you can with modesty speak in your own behalf; and thus far I confirm you. O, you gods, think I, what need we have any friends, if we should never have need of them? they were the most needless creatures living, should we ne'er have use for them: and would most resemble sweet instruments hung up in cafes, that keep their founds to themselves. Why, I have often wish'd myself poorer, that I might come nearer to you. We are born to do benefits: and what better or properer can we call our own, than the riches of our friends? O, what a precious comfort 'tis, to have so many, like brothers, commanding one another's fortunes! O joy, e'en made away ere it can be born! Mine eyes cannot hold out water, methinks: to forget their faults, I drink to you. 8 3 I confirm you.] I fix your characters firmly in my own mind. - 9 they were the most needless creatures living, should we ne'er have use for them: and - ) This paffage I have restored from the old copy. STEEVENS. 2 O joy, e'en made away ere it can be born!] Tears being the effect both of joy and grief, supplied our author with an opportunity of conceit, which he seldom fails to indulge. Timon, weeping with a kind of tender pleasure, cries out, O joy, e'en made away, deftroyed, turned to tears, before it can be born, before it can be fully possessed. JOHNSON. So, in Romeo and Juliet: "These violent delights have violent ends, The old copy has-joys. It was corrected by Mr. Rowe. MALONE. 3 Mine eyes cannot hold out water, methinks:] In the original edition the words stand thus: Mine eyes cannot hold out water, methinks. To forget their faults I drink to you. Perhaps the true reading is this: Mine eyes cannot hold out; they water. Methinks, to forget their faults, I will drink to you. Or it change. Mine eyes cannot hold cut water from breaking in upon them. may be explained without any water, that is, cannot keep JOHNSON. APEM. Thou weep'st to make them drink,4 Ti mon. 2. LORD. Joy had the like conception in our eyes, And, at that instant, like a babe sprung up. APEM. Ho, ho! I laugh to think that babe bastard. a 3. LORD. I promise you, my lord, you mov'd me much. APEM. Much! 6 [Tuckct founded. * --to make them drink, ] Sir T. Hanmer reads: - to make them drink thee; and is followed by Dr. Warburton, I think, without fufficient reason. The covert sense of Apemantus is, what thou losest, they get. JOHNSON. 5 like a babe] That is, a weeping babe. JOHNSON. I question if Shakspeare meant the propriety of allufion to be carried quite so far. To look for babies in the eyes of another, is no uncommon expreffion. So, in Love's Mistress, by Heywood, 1636: "Joy'd in his looks, look'd babies in his eyes." Again, in The Chriftian turn'd Turk, 1612: " She makes him sing songs to her, looks fortunes in his fists, and babies in his eyes." Again, in Churchyard's Tragicall discours of a dolorous Gentlewoman, 1593: " Men will not looke for babes in hollowd eyen." STEEVENS. Does not Lucullus dwell on Timon's metaphor by referring to circumftances preceding the birth, and means joy was conceived in their eyes, and sprung up there, like the motion of a babe in the womb? TOLLET. We The word conception, in the preceding line, shows, I think, that Mr. Tollet's interpretation of this passage is the true one. have a fimilar imagery in Troilus and Creffida: "-and, almost like the gods, "Does thoughts unveil in their dumb cradles." MALONE. 6 Much!] Apemantus means to say, - That's extraordinary. Much was formerly an expression of admiration. p. 304, n. 3. MALONE. See Vol. VIM. Much! is frequently used, as bere, ironically, and with fome indication of contempt. STEEVENS. : 1 TIM. What means that trump? How now? Enter a Servant. SERV. Please you, my lord, there are certain ladies most defirous of admittance. TIM. Ladies? What are their wills? SERV. There comes with them a forerunner, my lord, which bears that office, to fignify their pleafures. TIM. I pray, let them be admitted. Enter CUPID. CUP. Hail to thee, worthy Timon ; and to all That of his bounties taste! - The five best senses Acknowledge thee their patron; and come freely To gratulate thy plenteous bofom: The ear, Taste, touch, smell, all pleas'd from thy table rife;' The ear, &c. In former copies: There tafte, touch, all pleas'd from thy table rife, The five senses are talked of by Cupid, but three of them only are made out; and those in a very heavy unintelligible manner. It is plain therefore we should read: Th'ear, tafte, touch, smell, pleas'd from thy table rife, i. e. the five senses, Timon, acknowledge thee their patron; four of them, viz. the hearing, taste, touch, and smell, are all feafted at thy board; and these ladies come with me to entertain your fight in a masque. Massinger, in his Duke of Millaine, copied the paffage from Shakspeare; and apparently before it was thus corrupted; where speaking of a banquet, he says: all that may be had "To please the eye, the car, taste, touch, or smell, Dr. Warburton and the subsequent editors omit the word-all; but omission is the most dangerous mode of emendation. The They only now come but to feast thine eyes. admittance: Musick, make their welcome. [ Exit CUPID. 1. LORD. You fee, my lord, how ample you are belov'd. Muick. Re-enter CUPID, with a masque of Ladies as Amazons, with lutes in their hands, dancing, and playing. APEM. Hey day! what a sweep of vanity comes this way! They dance! they are mad women. As this pomp shows to a little oil, and root. corrupted word-There, shews that - The car was intended to be contraded into one syllable; and table also was probably ufed as taking up only the time of a monofyllable. MALONE. Perhaps the present arrangement of the foregoing words, renders monosyllabification needless. STEEVENS. 8 Muick, make their welcome. Perhaps the poet wrote: So, in Macbeth: " We will require her welcome, " Pronounce it for me, fir, to all our friends." STEEVENS, • They dance! I believe They dance to be a marginal note only; and perhaps we should read: These are mad women. TYRHWITT. * Like madness in the glory of this life, As this pomp shows to a little oil, and root.) The glory of this life is very near to madness, as may be made appear from this pomp, exbibited in a place where a philosopher is feeding on oil and roots. When we fee by example how few are the neceffaries of life, we learn what madness there is in so much fuperfluity. JOHNSON. The word like in this place does not express resemblance, but quality. Apemantus does not mean to say that the glory of this We make ourselves fools, to disport ourselves; With poisonous spite, and envy. Who lives, that's not Depraved, or depraves? who dies, that bears The Lords rife from table, with much adoring of TIMON; and, to show their loves, each fingles out an Amazon, and all dance, men with women, a lofty strain or two to the hautboys, and ceafe. TIM. You have done our pleasures much grace, Set a fair fashion on our entertainment, life was like madness, but it was just as much madness in the eye of reason, as the pomp appeared to be, when compared to the frugal repast of a philofopher. M. MASON. 3- of their friends' gift?] That is, given them by their friends. JOHNSON. 4 fair ladies,] I should wish to read, for the sake of metre-fairest ladies. STEEVENS. 5 lively luftre, For the epithet-lively, we are indebted to the second folio: it is wanting in the firft. STEEVENS. 6 mine own device;) The mask appears to have been de figned by Timon to surprize his guests. JOHNSON |