VEN. A noble spirit. TIM. [They all stand ceremoniously looking on TIMON. Nay, my lords, ceremony Was but devis'd at first, to set a gloss On faint deeds, hollow welcomes, Recanting goodness, sorry ere 'tis shown; But where there is true friendship, there needs none. Pray, sit; more welcome are ye to my fortunes, Than my fortunes to me. [They sit. 1 LORD. My lord, we always have confess'd it. APEM. Ho, ho, confess'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. Fye, thou art a churl; you have got a humour there Does not become a man, 'tis much to blame :- The term-our betters, being used by the inferior classes of men when they speak of their superiors in the state, Shakspeare uses these words, with his usual laxity, to express persons of high rank and fortune. MALone. So, in King Lear, Act III. sc. vi. Edgar says, (referring to the distracted king): 2 "When we our betters see bearing our woes, "We scarcely think our miseries our foes." STEEVENS. -confess'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, Act IV. sc. i. MALONE. 3 They say, my lords, that-] That was inserted by Sir T. Hanmer, for the sake of metre. STEEVENS. But yond' man's ever angry. Go, let him have a table by himself; APEM. Let me stay at thine own peril,5 Timon 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 silent. 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 have not been able to find such a word in any Dictionary, nor is it reconcileable to etymology. I have therefore adopted an emendation made by Mr. Steevens. MALONE. Apperil, the reading of the old editions, may be right, though no other instance of it has been, or possibly can be produced. It is, however, in actual use in the metropolis, at this day. 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 consider himself as joint possessor of my fortune. JOHNSON. I understand Timon's meaning to be: I myself would have no power to make thee silent, but I wish thou would'st let my meat make thee silent. Timon, like a polite landlord, disclaims all power over the meanest or most troublesome of his guests. 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 silence on any one: but though I myself do not enjoin you to silence, let my meat stop MALONE. your mouth. APEM. I scorn thy meat; 'twould choke me, for I should Ne'er flatter thee.7-O you gods! what a number Of men eat Timon, and he sees them not! 8 It grieves me, to see so many dip their meat I wonder, men dare trust themselves with men : Is the readiest man to kill him: it has been prov❜d. Were a huge man, I should fear to drink at meals; Lest they should spy my windpipe's dangerous notes:1 Great men should drink with harness on their throats. 7 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 Othello: Haply, for I am black." MALONE. so many dip their meat In one man's blood;] The allusion is to a pack of hounds 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. 9 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 occasionally whetted on a stone 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. 1 windpipe's dangerous notes:] The notes of the wind TIM. My lord, in heart; and let the health go round. 2 LORD. Let it flow this way, my good lord. АРЕМ. Flow this way! A brave fellow!-he keeps his tides well. Timon, Those healths will make thee, and thy state, look ill. pipe 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 savour strongly of a quibble. STEEVENS. n. 6. ——with harness-] i. e. armour. See Vol. X. p. 254, STEEVENS. 3 My lord, in heart;] That is, my lord's health with sincerity. An emendation has been proposed thus: My love in heart ; but it is not necessary. JOHNSON. So, in Chaucer's Knightes Tale, 2685: "And was all his in chere, as his in herte." Again, in Sir Amyas Poulet's letter to Sir Francis Walsingham, refusing to have any hand in the assassination of Mary Queen of Scots: " -he [Sir Drue Drury] forbeareth to make any particular answer, but subscribeth in heart to my opinion." Again, in King Henry IV. Part I. Act IV. sc. i: in heart desiring still "You may behold," &c. Again, in Love's Labour's Lost, Act V. sc. ii: 66 - Dost thou not wish in heart, "The chain were longer, and the letter short?" Timon, STEEVENS. Those healths-] This speech, except the concluding couplet, is printed as prose in the old copy; nor could it be exhibited as verse but by transferring the word Timon, which followslook 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. Here's that, which is too weak to be a sinner, Honest water, which ne'er left man i'the mire: This, and my food, are equals; there's no odds. Feasts are too proud to give thanks to the gods. APEMANTUS'S GRACE. Immortal gods, I crave no pelf; Rich men sin, and I eat root. [Eats and drinks. Much good dich thy good heart, Apemantus! 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 Rich men sin,] Dr. Farmer proposes to read-sing. REED. |