with a discovery of the infinite flatteries, that follow youth and opulency. TIM. Must thou needs stand for a villain in thine own work? Wilt thou whip thine own faults in other men? Do so, I have gold for thee. POET. Nay, let's seek him : Then do we sin against our own estate, When we may profit meet, and come too late. When the day serves", before black-corner'd night ", Come. TIM. I'll meet you at the turn. gold, What a god's That he is worshipp'd in a baser temple, Than where swine feed! 'Tis thou that rigg'st the bark, and plough'st the foam ; Settlest admired reverence in a slave : To thee be worship! and thy saints for aye representing simply. For the subject of this projected satire was Timon's case, not his person. WARBURTON. 7 When the day serves, &c.] Theobald with some probability assigns these two lines to the Poet. MALONE. 8 before BLACK-CORNER'D night,] An anonymous correspondent sent me this observation: "As the shadow of the earth's body, which is round, must be necessarily conical over the hemisphere which is opposite to the sun, should we not read blackconed? See Paradise Lost, book iv." To this observation I might add a sentence from Philemon Holland's translation of Pliny's Natural History, b. ii.: “Neither is the night any thing else but the shade of the earth. Now the figure of this shadow resembleth a pyramis pointed forward, or a top turned upside down." 66 I believe, nevertheless, that Shakspeare, by this expression, meant only, Night which is as obscure as a dark corner. In Measure for Measure, Lucio calls the Duke, a duke of dark corners." Mr. M. Mason proposes to read-“ black-crown'd night; " another correspondent, "black-cover'd night." STEEVENS. Be crown'd with plagues, that thee alone obey! POET. Hail, worthy Timon! [Advancing. Our late noble master. TIM. Have I once liv'd to see two honest men? POET. Sir, Having often of your open bounty tasted, Hearing you were retir'd, your friends fall'n off, Whose star-like nobleness gave life and influence With any size of words. TIM. Tet it go naked, men may see't the better: You, that are honest, by being what you are, Make them best seen, and known. PAIN. He, and myself, Have travell'd in the great shower of your gifts, TIM. Ay, you are honest men. PAIN. We are hither come to offer you our ser vice. TIM. Most honest men! Why, how shall I requite you? Can you eat roots, and drink cold water? no. BOTH. What we can do, we'll do, to do you service. TIM. You are honest men: You have heard that I have gold; I am sure, you have: speak truth: you are honest men. PAIN. So it is said, my noble lord: but therefore Came not my friend, nor I. 9 'Fit I Do meet them.] For the sake of harmony in this hemistich, I have supplied the auxiliary verb. STEEVENS. TIM. Good honest men :-Thou draw'st a coun Best in all Athens: thou art, indeed, the best ; PAIN. So, so, my lord. TIM. Even so, sir, as I say :-And, for thy fic tion, [To the Poet. Why, thy verse swells with stuff so fine and smooth, That thou art even natural in thine art.But, for all this, my honest-natur'd friends, I must needs say, you have a little fault : Marry, 'tis not monstrous in you: neither wish I, You take much pains to mend. Вотн. To make it known to us. TIM. Beseech your honour, You'll take it ill. Will you, indeed ? BOTH. Most thankfully, my lord. BOTH. Doubt it not, worthy lord. TIM. There's ne'er a one of you but trusts a knave, That mightily deceives you. Вотн. Do we, my lord? TIM. Ay, and you hear him cog, see him dissem ble, Know his gross patchery, love him, feed him, a COUNTERFEIT] It has been already observed, that a portrait was so called in our author's time: 2 "Fair Portia's counterfeit!" Merchant of Venice. STEEVENS. —a MADE-UP villain.] That is, a villain that adopts qualities and characters not properly belonging to him; a hypocrite. JOHNSON. A made-up villain, may mean a complete, a finished villain. M. MASON. PAIN. I know none such, my lord. POET. Nor I 3. TIM. Look you, I love you well; I'll give you gold, Rid me these villains from your companies: Hang them, or stab them, drown them in a draught*, Confound them by some course, and come to me, I'll give you gold enough. BOTH. Name them, my lord, let's know them. TIM. You that way, and you this, but two in company 5 : 3 Nor I.] As it may be supposed (perhaps I am repeating a remark already made on a similar occasion) that our author designed his Poet's address to be not less respectful than that of his Painter, he might originally have finished this defective verse, by writing: "Nor I, my lord." STEEVENS. 4 —in a DRAUGHT,] That is, in the jakes. JOHNSON. So, in Holinshed, vol. ii. p. 735 : he was then sitting on a draught." STEEVENS. 5 66 but two in company:] This is an imperfect sentence, and is to be supplied thus: "But two in company spoils all." WARBURTON. This passage is obscure. I think the meaning is this: "but two in company," that is, stand apart, "let only two be together; for even when each stands single there are two, he himself and a villain. JOHNSON. This passage may receive some illustration from another in The Two Gentlemen of Verona: "My master is a kind of knave; but that's all one, if he be but one knave." The sense is, each man is a double villain, i. e. a villain with more than a single share of guilt. See Dr. Farmer's note on the third Act of The Two Gentlemen of Verona, &c. Again, in Promos and Cassandra, 1578 : Go, and a knave with thee." Again, in The Storye of King Darius, 1565, an interlude: 66 66 if you needs will go away, "Take two knaves with you by my faye." There is a thought not unlike this in The Scornful Lady of Beaumont and Fletcher:-" Take to your chamber when you please, there goes a black one with you, lady." STEEVENS. There are not two words more frequently mistaken for each other, in the printing of these plays, than but and not. I have Each man apart, all single and alone, If, where thou art, two villains shall not be, [To the Painter. Come not near him.-If thou would'st not reside [To the Poet. But where one villain is, then him abandon.— Hence! pack! there's gold, ye came for gold, ye slaves: You have done work for me, there's payment° : Hence ! no doubt but that mistake obtains in this passage, and that we should read it thus: not two in company: "Each man apart M. MASON. "You that way, and you this, but two in company : "Each man apart, all single, and alone, "Yet an arch-villain keeps him company." The first of these lines has been rendered obscure by false pointing; that is, by connecting the words, "but two in company," with the subsequent line, instead of connecting them with the preceding hemistich. The second and third line are put in apposition with the first line, and are merely an illustration of the assertion contained in it. Do you (says Timon) go that way, and you this, and yet still each of you will have two in your company: each of you, though single and alone, will be accompanied by an arch-villain. Each man, being himself a villain, will take a villain_along with him, and so each of you will have two in company. It is a mere quibble founded on the word company. See the former speech, in which Timon exhorts each of them to "hang or stab the villain in his company," i. e. himself. The passage quoted by Mr. Steevens from Promos and Cassandra, puts the meaning beyond a doubt. MALONE. 6 You have DONE work, &c.] For the insertion of the word done, which, it is manifest, was omitted by the negligence of the compositor, I am answerable. Timon in this line addresses the Painter, whom he before called "excellent workman ;" in the next the Poet. MALONE. I had rather read: "You've work'd for me, there is your payment: Hence!" STEEVENS. |
