Plays and Poems

Enter TIMON, from his cave.

Tim. Aside. Excellent workman! thou canst not paint a man so bad as is thyself.

Poet. I am thinking what I shall say I have provided for him: it must be a personating of himself; a satire against the softness of prosperity, with a discovery of the infinite flatteries that follow youth and opulency.

Tim. Aside. 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.
Pain. True;

When the day serves, before black-corner'dnight,
Find what thou want'st by free and offer'd light.
Come.

Tim. Aside. I'll meet you at the turn. What a god's gold,

That he is worshipp'd in a baser temple

Than where swine feed!

Nor I. Tim. Look you, I love you well. I'll give you gold, Rid me these villains from your companies:

'Tis thou that rigg'st the bark and plough'st the Hang them or stab them, drown them in a foam,

Having often of your open bounty tasted,
Hearing you were retir'd, your friends fall'n off,
Whose thankless natures-O abhorred spirits!
Not all the whips of heaven are large enough—
What! to you,

Whose star-like nobleness gave life and influence
To their whole being! Iam rapt, and cannot cover
The monstrous bulk of this ingratitude
With any size of words.

Tim. Let it go naked, men may see 't the better:
You that are honest, by being what you are, 71
Make them best seen and known.
Pain.
He and myself
Have travell'd in the great shower of your gifts,
And sweetly felt it.

Tim.
Ay, you are honest men.
Pain. We are hither come to offer you our
service.

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. Ye're honest men. have gold;

Ye've heard that I

I am sure you have: speak truth; ye're honest men. Pain. So it is said, my noble lord; but therefore Came not my friend nor I.

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;

110

Each man apart, all single and alone,
Yet an arch-villain keeps him company.
If, where thou art two villains shall not be,
Come not near him. If thou would'st not reside
But where one villain is, then him abandon.
Hence pack! there's gold; you came for gold,
ye slaves:

You have work'd for me, there's payment: hence!
You are an alchemist, make gold of that.
Out, rascal dogs!

Beats them out and then retires to his cave.
Enter FLAVIUS and two Senators.

Flav. It is in vain that you would speak with
Timon;

Second Sen.

At all times alike Men are not still the same: 'twas time and griefs That fram'd him thus: time, with his fairer hand, Offering the fortunes of his former days, The former man may make him. Bring us to him, And chance it as it may. Flav. Here is his cave. Peace and content be here! Lord Timon! Timon! Look out, and speak to friends. The Athenians, By two of their most reverend senate, greet thee: Speak to them, noble Timon.

Re-enter TIMON from his cave.

129

160

Tim.
You witch me in it;
Surprise me to the very brink of tears:
Lend me a fool's heart and a woman's eyes,
And I'll beweep these comforts, worthy senators.
First Sen. Therefore so please thee to return
with us,

And of our Athens, thine and ours, to take
The captainship, thou shalt be met with thanks,
Allow'd with absolute power, and thy good name
Live with authority: so soon we shall drive back
Of Alcibiades the approaches wild;
Who, like a boar too savage, doth root up
His country's peace.

Second Sen. And shakes his threat'ning sword
Against the walis of Athens.
First Sen.

Therefore, Timon,

170

While you have throats to answer: for myself,
There's not a whittle in the unruly camp
But I do prize it at my love before

210

Tim. I have a tree which grows here in my close, That mine own use invites me to cut down, And shortly must I fell it; tell my friends, Tell Athens, in the sequence of degree, From high to low throughout, that whoso please To stop affliction, let him take his haste, Come hither, ere my tree hath felt the axe, And hang himself. I pray you, do my greeting. Flav. Trouble him no further; thus you still shall find him.

Tim. Come not to me again; but say to Athens, Timon hath made his everlasting mansion Upon the beached verge of the salt flood; Who once a day with his embossed froth The turbulent surge shall cover: thither come, And let my grave-stone be your oracle. Lips, let sour words go by and language end: What is amiss plague and infection mend! Graves only be men's works and death their gain! Sun, hide thy beams! Timon hath done his reign. Exit.

First Sen. His discontents are unremoveably Coupled to nature.

Second Sen. Our hope in him is dead: let us return,

And strain what other means is left unto us 20
In our dear peril.
First Sen.

It requires swift foot. Exeunt.

SCENE II. Before the Walls of Athens. Enter two Senators and a Messenger, First Sen. Thou hast painfully discover'd: are his files

As full as thy report?

Mess. I have spoke the least; Besides, his expedition promises

The reverend'st throat in Athens. So I leave you Present approach.
To the protection of the prosperous gods,
As thieves to keepers.

Stay not; all's in vain.

Flav.
Tim. Why, I was writing of my epitaph;
It will be seen to-morrow. My long sickness
Of health and living now begins to mend,
And nothing brings me all things. Go; live
still:

Be Alcibiades your plague, you his,
And last so long enough!
First Sen.

We speak in vain.

190

Second Sen. We stand much hazard if they bring not Timon.

Mess. I met a courier, one mine ancient friend,
Whom, though in general part we were oppos'd,
Yet our old love made a particular force.
And made us speak like friends: this man was
riding

From Alcibiades to Timon's cave,
With letters of entreaty, which imported
His fellowship i' the cause against your city,
In part for his sake mov'd.

SCENE IV. Before the Walls of Athens. Trumpets sound. Enter ALCIBIADES with his Powers.

Aleib. Sound to this coward and lascivious town Our terrible approach. A parley sounded.

Enter Senators on the walls.
Till now you have gone on, and fill'd the time
With all licentious measure, making your wills
The scope of justice; till now myself and such
As slept within the shadow of your power
Have wander'd with our travers'd arms, aud
breath'd

Our sufferance vainly. Now the time is flush,
When crouching marrow, in the bearer strong,
Cries of itself, 'No more': now breathless wrong
Shall sit and pant in your great chairs of ease,
And pursy insolence shall break his wind
With fear and horrid flight.

First Sen.

Noble and young, When thy first griefs were but a mere conceit, Ere thou hadst power or we had cause of fear, We sent to thee, to give thy rages balm, To wipe out our ingratitude with loves Above their quantity.

Second Sen.

So did we woo

Which nature loathes, take thou the destin'd tenth,

And by the hazard of the spotted die
Let die the spotted.
First Sen.

All have not offended;

For those that were, it is not square to take
On those that are, revenges: crimes, like lands,
Are not inherited. Then, dear countryman,
Bring in thy ranks, but leave without thy rage:
Spare thy Athenian cradle, and those kin
Which in the bluster of thy wrath must fall
With those that have offended: like a shepherd,
Approach the fold and cull the infected forth,
But kill not all together.
What thou wilt,
Thou rather shalt enforce it with thy sinile
Than hew to 't with thy sword.
First Sen.
Set but thy foot
Against our rampir'd gates, and they shall ope,
So thou wilt send thy gentle heart b.fore,
To say thou 'lt enter friendly.
Second Sen.

Second Sen.

Throw thy glove, Or any token of thine honour else, That thou wilt use the wars as thy redress And not as our confusion, all thy powers Shall make their harbour in our town, till we Have seal'd thy full desire.

Alcib. Then there's my glove; Descend, and open your uncharged ports: Those enemies of Timon's, and mine own, Whom you yourselves shall set out for reproof, Fall, and no more; and, to atone your fears With my more noble meaning, not a man Shall pass his quarter, or offend the stream Of regular justice in your city's bounds, But shall be render'd to your public laws At heaviest answer. Both. "Tis most nobly spoken. Alcib. Descend, and keep your words. The Senators descend, and open the

Enter a Soldier.

gates.

hate:

Pass by and curse thy fill; but pass and stay not here thy gait.

These well express in thee thy latter spirits: Though thou abhorr'dst in us our human griefs, Scorn'dst our brain's flow and those our droplets which

From niggard nature fall, yet rich conceit
Taught thee to make vast Neptune weep for aye
On thy low grave, on faults forgiven. Dead
Is noble Timon; of whose memory
Hereafter more. Bring me into your city,
And I will use the olive with my sword;
Make war breed peace; make peace stint war;
make each

Prescribe to other as each other's leech.
Let our drums strike.

Exeunt.

ACT I.

SCENE I.-Rome. A Street.

Enter FLAVIUS, MARULLUS, and certain
Commoners.

Senators, Citizens, Guards, Attendants, etc.

SCENE.-During a great part of the Play, at Rome: afterwards at Sardis and near Philippi.

Flav. Hence! home, you idle creatures, get you home:

First Com. Why, sir, a carpenter.
Mar. Where is thy leather apron, and thy

Conspirators against Julius
Cæsar.

rule? What dost thou with thy best apparel on? You, sir, what trade are you?

Second Com. Truly, sir, in respect of a fine workman, I am but, as you would say, a cobbler. Mar. But what trade art thou? Answer me directly.

Second Com. A trade, sir, that I hope I may use with a safe conscience; which is, indeed, sir, a mender of bad soles.

Mar. What trade, thou knave? thou naughty knave, what trade?

Second Com. Nay, I beseech you, sir, be not out with me: yet, if you be out, sir, I can mend you. Mar. What meanest thou by that? Mend me, thou saucy fellow!

METELLUS CIMBER,
CINNA,

FLAVIUS and MARULLUS, Tribunes.
ARTEMIDORUS, a Sophist of Cnidos.
A Soothsayer.
CINNA, a Poet.

Another Poet.

LUCILIUS, TITINIUS, MESSALA, Young CATO, and
VOLUMNIUS. Friends to Brutus and Cassius.
VARRO, CLITUS, CLAUDIUS, STRATO, LUCIUS, DAR
DANIUS, Servants to Brutus.
PINDARUS, Servant to Cassius.
CALPURNIA. Wife to Cæsar.
PORTIA, Wife to Brutus.

Is this a holiday? What! know you not,
Being mechanical, you ought not walk
Upon a labouring day without the sign

Second Com. Truly, sir, to wear out their

Of your profession? Speak, what trade art shoes, to get myself into more work. But. indeed, sir, we make holiday to see Cæsar and to rejoice in his triumph.

thou?

Mar. Wherefore rejoice?

What conquest brings he home? What tributaries follow him to Rome To grace in captive bonds his chariot wheels! You blocks, you stones, you worse than senseless things!

Second Com. Why, sir, cobble you.

Flav. Thou art a cobbler, art thou?

with the awl: I meddle with no tradesman's matters, nor women's matters, but with awl. I am, indeed, sir, a surgeon to old shoes; when they are in great danger, I recover them. As proper men as ever trod upon neat's-leather have gone upon my handiwork.

Flav. But wherefore art not in thy shop today?

Why dost thou lead these men about the streets?

O you hard hearts, you cruel men of Rome,
Knew you not Pompey? Many a time and

oft

Have you climb'd up to walls and battlements,
To towers and windows, yea, to chimney-tops
Your infants in your arms, and there have sat
The livelong day, with patient expectation,
To see great Pompey pass the streets of Rome:
And when you saw his chariot but appear,
Have you not made an universal shout,
That Tiber trembled underneath her banks,
To hear the replication of your sounds
Made in her concave shores ?

And do you now put on your best attire?

Second Com. Truly, sir, all that I live by is And do you now cull out a holiday?

Cæs. He is a dreamer; let us leave him :
pass.
Sennut. Exeunt all but BRUTUS
and CASSIUS.
Cas. Will you go see the order of the course?
Bru. Not I.

Cas. I pray you, do.

Bru. I am not gamesome: I do lack some part

Of that quick spirit that is in Antony.

Assemble all the poor men of your sort;
Draw them to Tiber banks, and weep your Let me not hinder, Cassius, your desires;

I'll leave you.

And do you now strew flowers in his way,
That comes in triumph over Pompey's blood?
Be gone!

Run to your houses, fall upon your knees,
Pray to the gods to intermit the plague
That needs must light on this ingratitude.
Flav. Go, go, good countrymen, and for this
fault

tears

Into the channel, till the lowest stream
Do kiss the most exalted shores of all.
Exeunt all the Commoners.
See whe'r their basest metal be not mov'd;
They vanish tongue-tied in their guiltiness.
Go you down that way towards the Capitol;
This way will I. Disrobe the images
If you do find them deck'd with ceremonies.
Mar. May we do so?

You know it is the feast of Lupercal.

Flav. It is no matter; let no images
Le hung with Cæsar's trophies. I'll about
And drive away the vulgar from the streets :
So do you too where you perceive them thick.
These growing feathers pluck'd from Cæsar's
wing

Will make him fly an ordinary pitch,
Who else would soar above the view of men
And keep us all in servile fearfulness.

Exeunt.

SCENE II.-The Same. A public Place. Enter, in procession, with music, CÆSAR; ANTONY, for the course; CALPURNIA, PORTIA, DECIUS, CICERO, BRUTUS, CASSIUS, and CASCA; a great crowd following, among them a Soothsayer. Caes. Calpurnia! Casca.

Cas.

Cal. Here, my lord.

Cæs. Stand you directly in Antonius' way When he doth run his course. Antonius!

Ant. Cæsar, my lord.

Cas. Forget not, in your speed, Antonius, To touch Calpurnia; for our elders say, The barren, touched in this holy chase, Shake off their sterile curse.

Bru.

Cassius,
Be not deceiv'd if I have veil'd my look,
I turn the trouble of my countenance
Merely upon myself. Vexed I am

Of late with passions of some difference,
Conceptions only proper to myself,
Which give some soil perhaps to my behaviours ;
But let not therefore my good friends be griev'd,
Among which number, Cassius, be you one,
Nor construe any further my neglect,
Than that poor Brutus, with himself at war,
Forgets the shows of love to other men.

Cas. Then, Brutus, I have much mistook your
passion;

By means whereof this breast of mine hath buried

Peace, ho! Cæsar speaks.
Music ceases.
Calpurnia!

And it is very much lamented, Brutus,
That you have no such mirrors as will turn
Your hidden worthiness into your eye,
That you might see your shadow. I have heard,
Where many of the best respect in Rome,
Except immortal Cæsar, speaking of Brutus, 60
And groaning underneath this age's yoke,
Have wish'd that noble Brutus had his eyes.

Bru. Into what dangers would you lead me,
Cassius,

That you would have me seek into myself
For that which is not in me?

Cas. Therefore, good Brutus, be prepar'd to
hear;

And since you know you cannot see yourself
So well as by reflection, I, your glass,
Will modestly discover to yourself

Sooth. Cæsar !
Cæs. Ha! Who calls?
That of yourself which you yet know not of. 70
Casca. Bid every noise be still: peace yet And be not jealous on me, gentle Brutus :
again!
Music ceases.
Were I a common laugher, or did use
Caes. Who is it in the press that calls on me? To stale with ordinary oaths my love
I hear a tongue, shriller than all the music, To every new protester; if you know
Cry Cæsar!' Speak; Cæsar is turn'd to hear. That I do fawn on men and hug them hard,
Sooth. Beware the ides of March.
And after scandal them; or if you know
Caes.
That I profess myself in banqueting
To all the rout, then hold me dangerous.
Flourish and shout.
Bru. What means this shouting? I do fear
the people

What man is that? Bru. A soothsayer bids you beware the ides of March.

Choose Cæsar for their king.

Ant.

I shall remember:
When Cæsar says 'Do this,' it is perform'd.
Cas. Set on; and leave no ceremony out.

Music.

Cas. Brutus, I do observe you now of late:
I have not from your eyes that gentleness
And show of love as I was wont to have:
You bear too stubborn and too strange a hand
Over your friend that loves you.

Caes. Set him before me; let me see his face.
Cas. Fellow, come from the throng; look
upon Cæsar.
Caes. What say'st thou to me now? Speak
once again.

Sooth. Beware the ides of March.

Thoughts of great value, worthy cogitations. 50
Tell me, good Brutus, can you see your face?

Bru. No, Cassius; for the eye sees not itself,
But by reflection, by some other things.
Cas. 'Tis just :

Cas.
Ay, do you fear it? 80
Then must I think you would not have it so.
Bru. I would not, Cassius; yet I love him well.

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