1 Can found his state in safety. Caphis, ho! Enter CAPHIS. CAPH. Here, fir; What is your pleasure? 2 Timon; Impórtune him for my monies; be not ceas'd With flight denial; nor then filenc'd, whenCommend me to your master and the cap Plays in the right hand, thus:--but tell him, firrah, My uses cry to me, I must serve my turn Out of mine own; his days and times are past, ១ -- no reason Can found his ftate in Safety.] (Old copy - found. The supposed meaning of this must be, - No reason, by founding, fathoming, or trying, his ftate, can find it safe. But as the words stand, they imply, that no reason can safely found his ftate. I read Reason cannot find his fortune to have any safe or folid foundation. The types of the fift printer of this play were so worn and de faced, that f and sare not always to be diftinguished. 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. e. ftopp'd. So, in Claudius Tiberius Nero, 1607: Why should Tiberius' liberty be ceased." Again, in The Valiant Welchman, 1615: pity thy people's wrongs, " And cease the clamours both of old and young.' STEEVENS. 3 --firrah, was added for the sake of the metre by the editor of the second folio. MALONE, ( And my reliances on his fracted dates 4 A visage of demand; for, I do fear, SEN. I go, fir?_take the bonds along with you, And have the dates in compt." CAPH. SEN. I will, fir. Go. 4 [Exeunt, a naked gull.) A gull is a bird as remarkable for the poverty of its feathers, as a phenix is supposed to be for the richness of its plumage. STEFVENS, * Which flashes &c.] Which, the pronoun relative, relating to things, is frequently used, as in this instance, by Shakspeare, inftead of who, the pronoun relative, applied to persons. The use of the former instead of the latter is still preferved in the Lord's prayer. Caph. I go, fir. STEEVENS. Sen. I go, fir? This last speech is not a captious repetition of what Caphis said, but a further injuncion to him to go. I, in all the old dramatic writers, stands for-ay, as it does in this place M. MASON. I have left Mr. M. Mason's opinion before the reader, though I do not heartily concur in it. STEEVENS. 7 take the bonds along with you, And have the dates in compt. ) ( Old copy-And have the dates in. Come. Certainly, ever since 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 lapsed. The Senator's charge to his servant must be to the tenour SCENE II. The fame. A Hall in Timon's Houfe. Enter FLAVIUS, with many bills in his hand. FLAV. No care, no stop! so senseless of expence, That he will neither know how to maintain it, hunting. Fye, fye, fye, fye! 9 as I have amended the text; Take good notice of the dates, for the better computation of the interest due upon them. THEOBALD. Mr. Theobald's emendation may be supported by the following inftance in Macbeth: STEEVENS. "Have theirs, themselves, and what is theirs, in compt." Never mind Was to be so unwise, to be so kind.] Nothing can be worse, or more obfcurely expressed: and all for the fake of a wretched rhyme. To make it sense and grammar, it should be supplied thus: Never mind Was [made] to be so unwise, [in order to be so kind.] i. e. Nature, in order to make a profuse mind, never before endowed any man with so large a share of folly. WARBURTON. Of this mode of expreffion, conversation 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. Good even, Varro: What, CAPH. Is't not your business too? Good even, Varro:] It is obfervable, that this good evening is before dinner: for Timon tells Alcibiades, that they will go forth again, as soon as dinner's done, which may prove that by dinner our author meant not the cana of ancient times, but the mid-day's repast. I do not suppose the passage corrupt: fuch inadvertencies neither author nor editor can escape. There is another remark to be made. Varro and Ifidore ink a few lines afterwards into the servants of Varro and Hidore. Whether servants, in our author's time, took the names of their masters, I know not. Perhaps it is a flip of negligence. JOHNSON. In the old copy it stands: "Enter Caphis, Ifidore, and Varro." STEEVENS. In like manner in the fourth feene of the next at the fervant of Lucius is called by his master's name; but our author's intention is sufficiently manifested by the stage-dire&ion in the fourth scene of the third act, where we find in the first folio, (p. 86, col. 2.) "Enter Varro's man, meeting others." I have therefore always annexed Serv. to the name of the master. MALONE. Good even, or, as it is sometimes less accurately written, Good den, was the usual falutation from noon, the moment that Good morrow became impropei. This appears plainly from the following paffage in Romeo and Juliet, A& II. fc. iv: "Nurse. God ye good morrow, gentlemen. "Merc. 'Tis no less I tell you; for the..... hand of the dial is now upon the..... of noon." So, in Hamlet's greeting to Marcellus. A& L. fc. i. Sir T. Hanmer and Dr. Warburton, not being aware, I prefume, of this wide sense of Good even, have altered it to Good morning; without any neceffity, as from the course of the incidents, precedent and subsequent, the day may well be supposed to be turn'd of noon. TYRWHITT. CAPH. It is;-And yours too, Ifidore? It is fo CAPH. 'Would we were all discharg'd! I fear it. CAPH. Here comes the lord. Enter TIMON, ALCIBIADES, and Lords &c. TIM. So foon as dinner's done, we'll forth again, 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: 3 we'll forth again,] i. e. to hunting, from which diversion, we find by Flavius's speech, he was just returned. It may be here observed, that in our author's time it was the custom to hunt as well after dinner as before. Thus, in Laneham's Account of the Enter- tainment at Kenelworth Castle, we find, that Queen Elizabeth always, while there, hunted in the afternoon. "Monday was hot, and therefore her highness kept in 'till five a clok in the evening; what time it pleaz'd her to ryde forth into the chase, to hunt the hart of fors; which found anon, and after sore chased," &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 majefty in the chase hunted the hart (as before) of forz," &c. So, in Tancred and Gifmund, 1592: 4 " He means this evening in the park to hunt." REED. 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. |