Alcib. I see them now; then was a blessed time.9 Tim. As thine is now, held with a brace of harlots. Timan. Is this the Athenian minion, whom the world Voic'd so regardfully? Tim. Timan. Yes. Art thou Timandra? Tim. Be a whore still! they love thee not, that use thee; Give them diseases, leaving with thee their lust. For tubs, and baths; bring down rose-cheeked youth2 9 then was a blessed time.] I suspect, from Timon's answer, that Shakspeare wrote-thine was a blessed time. Malone. I apprehend no corruption. Now, and then, were designedly op posed to each other. Steevens. 1 Be a whore still! they love thee not, that use thee; Give them diseases, leaving with thee their lust. Make use of thy salt hours: &c.] There is here a slight transposition. I would read: they love thee not that use thee. Leaving with thee their lust; give them diseases, Make use of thy salt hours, season the slaves For tubs, and baths; 2 Johnson. ·bring down rose-cheeked youth —] This expressive epithet our author might have found in Marlowe's Hero and Leander: "Rose-cheek'd Adonis kept a solemn feast." Malone. 3 To the tub-fast, and the diet.] [Old copy-fub-fast.] One might make a very long and vain search, yet not be able to meet with this' preposterous word fub-fast, which has notwithstanding passed current with all the editors. We should read—tub-fast. The author is alluding to the lues venerea and its effects. At that time the cure of it was performed either by guaiacum, or mercurial unctions: and in both cases the patient was kept up very warm and close; that in the first application the sweat might be promoted; and lest, in the other, he should take cold, which was fatal. The regimen for the course of guaiacum (says Dr. Friend, in his History of Physick, Vol. II, p. 380,) was at first strangely circumstantial; and so rigorous, that the patient was put into a dungeon in order to make him sweat; and in that manner, as Fallopius expresses it, the bones, and the very man himself was macerated." Wiseman says, in England they used a tub for this purpose, as abroad, a cave, or oven, or dungeon. And as for the unetion, it was sometimes continued for thirty-seven days, (as he observes, p. 375,) and during this time there was necessarily an extraordinary abstinence required. Hence the term of the tub-fast. VOL. XV. Warburton. N n Timan. Hang thee, monster! Alcib. Pardon him, sweet Timandra; for his wits Are drown'd and lost in his calamities. I have but little gold of late, brave Timon, I had rather be alone. Alcib. Why, fare thee well: Here's some gold for thee. Tim. Keep 't, I cannot eat it. Alcib. When I have laid proud Athens on a heap,Tim. Warr'st thou 'gainst Athens? Alcib. Ay, Timon, and have cause. Tim. The gods confound them all i' thy conquest; and Thee after, when thou hast conquer'd! Alcib. Tim. That, Why me, Timon? By killing villains, thou wast born to conquer Put up thy gold; Go on,-here 's gold,-go on; In the Latin comedy of Cornelianum Dolium, which was probably written by T Randolph, there is a frontispiece representing the sweating-tub, which from the name of the unfortunate patient, was afterwards called Cornelius's tub, as appears from the Dictionaries of Cotgrave and Howel. Some account of the sweating-tub with a cut of it may be seen in Ambrose Paræus's Works, by Johnson, p. 48 Another very particular representation of it may be likewise found in the Recueil de Proverbes par Facques Lagniet, with the following lines: "Pour un petit plaisir je soufre mille maux; "Je fais contre un hyver deux este ci me semble: For another print of this tub, see Holmes's Academy of Armory. 4 trod upon them,] Sir Thomas Hanmer reads-had trod upon them. Shakspeare was not thus minutely accurate. Malone, Will o'er some high-vic'd city hang his poison He's an usurer: Strike me the counterfeit matron; Herself 's a bawd: Let not the virgin's cheek Be as a planetary plague, when Jove Will o'er some high-vic'd city hang his poison In the sick air:] This is wonderfully sublime and picturesque. Warburton. We meet with the same image in King Richard 11: 66 or suppose "Devouring pestilence hangs in our air." Malone. The same idea occurs in Chapman's version of the sixth Iliad: and therefore hangs, I fear, "A plague above him." Steevens. 6 thy trenchant sword;] So, in Philemon Holland's translation of the ninth Book of Pliny's Natural History, 1601, p. 237: - they all to cut and hacke them with their trenchant teeth; See note on Macbeth, Vol VII. Steevens. 7 That through the window-bars bore at men's eyes,] The virgin that shows her bosom through the lattice of her chamber, Johnson. Dr Johnson's explanation is almost confirmed by the following passage in Cymbeline: 66 or let her beauty “Look through a casement to allure false hearts, Shakspeare at the same time might aim a stroke at this indecency in the wantons of his own time, which is also animadverted on by several contemporary dramatists. So, in the ancient interlude of The Repentance of Marie Magdalene, 1567: "Your garment must be worne alway, "That your white pappes may be seene if you may."If young gentlemen may see your white skin, "It will allure them to love, and soon bring them in. "Both damsels and wives use many such feates. "I know them that will lay out their faire teates." All this is addressed to Mary Magdalen. Steevens. I do not believe any particular satire was here intended. Lady Suffolk, Lady Somerset, and many of the celebrated beauties of the time of James I, are thus represented in their pictures; nor were they, I imagine, thought more reprehensible than the ladies of the present day, who from the same extravagant pursuit of what is called fashion, run into an opposite extreme. Malone. I have not hitherto met with any ancient portrait of a modest Are not within the leaf of pity writ, Set them downs horrible traitors: Spare not the babe, Hath doubtfully pronounc'd thy throat2 shall cut, Alcib. Hast thou gold yet? I'll take the gold thou giv'st me, Not all thy counsel. Tim. Dost thou, or dost thou not, heaven's curse upon thee! English woman, in which the papille exerte were exhibited as described on the present occasion by Shakspeare; for he alludes not only to what he has called in his celebrated Song, "the hills of snow," but to the "pinks that grow" upon their summits. I believe we should read nearly thus: nor those milk-paps, That through the widow's barb bore at men's eyes, Steevens. The use of the doubled negative is so common in Shakspeare, that it is unnecessary to support it by instances. The barbe, I believe, was a kind of veil. Cressida, in Chaucer, who appears as a widow, is described as wearing a barbe. Troilus and Cressida, Book II, v. 110, in which place Caxton s edition (as I learn from the Glossary) reads—wimple, which certainly signifies a veil, and was probably substituted as a synonymous word for barbe, the more antiquated reading of the manuscripts. Unbarbed is used by Shakspeare for uncovered, in Coriolanus, Act III, sc. v: "Must I go show them my unbarbed sconce?" See also Leland's Collectanea, Vol. V, p. 317, new edit. where the ladies, mourning at the funeral of Queen Mary, are mentioned as having their barbes above their chinnes. Tyrwhitt. & Set them down -] Old copy, in defiance of metreBut set them down. Steevens. 9 exhaust their mercy;] For exhaust, Sir Thomas Hanmer, and after him Dr. Warburton, read-extort; but ́exhaust herc sig. nifies literally to draw forth. Johnson. 1 2 Pope. bastard,] An allusion to the tale of Oedipus. Johnson. thy throat] Old copy-the throat. Corrected by Mr. Malone. Phr. & Timan. Give us some gold, good Timon: Hast thou more? Tim. Enough to make a whore forswear her trade, And be no turncoats:6 Yet may your pains, six months, 3 And to make whores, a bard.] That is, enough to make a whore leave whoring, and a bawd leave making whores. Johnson. 4 The immortal gods that hear you,] The same thought is found in Antony and Cleopatra, Act 1, sc. iii: "Though you with swearing shake the throned gods." Again, in The Winter's Tale: 66 Though you would seek to unsphere the stars with oaths."" 5 I'll trust to your conditions:] You need not swear to continue M. Mason. 6 And be no turncoats:] By an old statute, those women who lived in a state of prostitution, were, among other articles concerning their dress, enjoined to wear their garments, with the wrong-side outward, on pain of forfeiting them. Perhaps there is in this pas sage a reference to it. Henley. I do not perceive how this explanation of-turncoat, will accord with Timon's train of reasoning; yet the antiquary may perhaps derive satisfaction from that which affords no assistance to the commentator. Steevens. 7 Yet may your pains, six months, Be quite contrary:] This is obscure, partly from the ambiguity of the word pains, and partly from the generality of the expres sion. The meaning is this: he had said before, follow constantly your trade of debauchery: that is (says he) for six months in the year. Let the other six be employed in quite contrary pains and labour, namely, in the severe discipline necessary for the repair of those disorders that your debaucheries occasion, in order to fit you anew to the trade; and thus let the whole year be spent in |