Plays and Poems

SCENE I.]

TIMON OF ATHENS,

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,

But, for all this, my honest-natur'd friends,
I must needs say you have a little fault :
You take much pains to mend.
Marry, 'tis not monstrous in you, neither wish I
Both.

Beseech your honour

To make it known to us.

You'll take it ill.
Tim.
Both. Most thankfully, my lord.
Tim.
Both. Doubt it not, worthy lord.
Tim. There's never a one of you but trusts a
knave,

Will you indeed?

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.
What
Come.

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

That he is worshipp'd in a baser temple

Than where swine feed!

That mightily deceives you.
Do we, my lord?
Both.
Tim. Ay, and you hear him cog, see him dis-
semble,

Know his gross patchery, love him, feed him,
That he's a made-up villain.
Keep in your bosom; yet remain assur'd

Pain. I know none such, my lord.

Poct.

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,

draught,

Settlest admired reverence in a slave:

To thee be worship; and thy saints for aye
Advancing.
Be crown'd with plagues that thee alone obey.
Fit I meet them.

Poet. Hail, worthy Timon!
Pain.

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 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.

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;

He and myself
Pain.
Have travell'd in the great shower of your gifts,
And sweetly felt it.
Ay, you are honest men.
Tim.
Pain. We are hither come to offer you our
service.

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
Hence pack! there's gold; you came for gold,
But where one villain is, then him abandon.

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;

100

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;

120

For he is set so only to himself,
Is friendly with him.
That nothing but himself, which looks like man,

110

First Sen.

Bring us to his cave:
To speak with Timon.
It is our part and promise to the Athenians
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,
The former man may make him. Bring us to him,
Offering the fortunes of his former days,
And chance it as it may.

129

Here is his cave.
Flav.
Peace and content be here! Lord Timon! Timon!
By two of their most reverend senate, greet thee:
Look out, and speak to friends. The Athenians,
Speak to them, noble Timon.

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.

Tim. Good honest men !
counterfeit

Best in all Athens: thou 'rt, indeed, the best;
Thou counterfeit'st most lively.

82
Thou draw'st a

Pain.

So, so, my lord. Tim. E'en so, sir, as I say. And, for thy fiction, Why, thy verse swells with stuff so fine and smooth

That thou art even natural in thine art.

Re-enter TIMON from his cave.

Tim. Thou sun, that comfort'st, burn! Speak
and be hang'd:

For each true word, a blister! and each false
Consuming it with speaking!
Be as a cauterizing to the root o' the tongue,
First Sen.

Worthy Timon,

Tim. Of none but such as you, and you of Timon. Second Sen. The senators of Athens greet thee, Timon.

Tim. I thank them; and would send them back the plague,

140

Could I but catch it for them.

First Sen.

O! forget What we are sorry for ourselves in thee. The senators with one consent of love Entreat thee back to Athens; who have thought On special dignities, which vacant lie For thy best use and wearing.

Second Sen.

They confess Toward thee forgetfulness too general, gross; Which now the public body, which doth seldom Play the recanter, feeling in itself A lack of Timon's aid, hath sense withal Of its own fail, restraining aid to Timon; And send forth us, to make their sorrow'd render, Together with a recompense more fruitful Than their offence can weigh down by the dram; Ay, even such heaps and sums of love and wealth As shall to thee blot out what wrongs were theirs, And write in thee the figures of their love, Ever to read them thine.

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,

150

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

Tim. Well, sir, I will; therefore, I will, sir. thus:

If Alcibiades kill my countrymen,

Let Alcibiades know this of Timon,

That Timon cares not. But if he sack fair Athens,

And take our goodly aged men by the beards, Giving our holy virgins to the stain

160

Of contumelious, beastly, mad-brain'd war, Then let him know, and tell him Timon speaks it, In pity of our aged and our youth

179

I cannot choose but tell him, that I care not, And let him take 't at worst; for their knives

care not

While you have throats to answer: for myself, There's not a whittle in the unruly camp

still:

Be Alcibiades your plague, you his,

And last so long enough!

First Sen.

Flav.

Stay not; all's in vain. 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

190

We speak in vain.

Tim. But yet I love my country, and am not One that rejoices in the common wreck, As common bruit doth put it. First Sen. That's well spoke. Tim. Commend me to my loving country

men,

First Sen. These words become your lips as

they pass through them.

Second Sen. And enter in our ears like great triumphers

In their applauding gates.

Tim. Commend me to them; 200 And tell them that, to ease them of their griefs, Their fears of hostile strokes, their aches, losses, Their pangs of love, with other incident throes That nature's fragile vessel doth sustain

In life's uncertain voyage, I will some kindness do them:

I'll teach them to prevent wild Alcibiades' wrath. Second Sen. I like this well; he will return again.

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.

But I do prize it at my love before

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

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.

210

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
In our dear peril.
First Sen.

It requires swift foot. Excunt.

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

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

Here come our brothers.

First Sen.
Third Sen. No talk of Timon, nothing of him
expect.

The enemy's drum is heard, and fearful scouring
Doth choke the air with dust. In, and prepare:
Ours the fall, I fear; our foes the snare.
Exeunt.

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

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

SCENE III-The Woods. TIMON's Cave, and a rude tomb seen.

Enter a Soldier, seeking TIMON.

Sold. By all description this should be the place. Who's here? speak, ho! No answer! what is this?

Timon is dead, who hath outstretch'd his span:
Some beast rear'd this; here does not live a man,
What's on
Dead, sure; and this his grave.

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:
Which in the bluster of thy wrath must fall
Spare thy Athenian cradle, and those kin
With those that have offended: like a shepherd,
Approach the fold and cull the infected forth,
What thou wilt,
Second Sen.
But kill not all together.
Thou rather shalt enforce it with thy smile
First Sen.
Than hew to 't with thy sword.

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.

this tomb

I cannot read; the character I'll take with wax:
Our captain hath in every figure skill;
An ag'd interpreter, though young in days.
Before proud Athens he's set down by this,
Whose fall the mark of his ambition is.

Exit.

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.

Then there's my glove;
Alcib.
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
Both.
At heaviest answer.

"Tis most nobly spoken.
Alcib. Descend, and keep your words.

The Senators descend, and open the gates.
Enter a Soldier.

Sold. My noble general, Timon is dead;
Entomb'd upon the very hem o' the sea:
And on his grave-stone this insculpture, which
With wax I brought away, whose soft impression
Interprets for my poor ignorance.

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.

So did we woo
Second Sen.
Transformed Timon to our city's love
By humble message and by promis'd means: 20
We were not all unkind, nor all deserve
The common stroke of war.

These walls of ours
First Sen.
Were not erected by their hands from whom
You have receiv'd your grief; nor are they such
That these great towers, trophies, and schools
should fall

Alcib. Here lies a wretched corse, of wretched soul beret:

Seck not my name: a plague consume you wicked caitiff's left!

Here lie I, Timon; who, alive, all living men did hate:

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

For private faults in them.
Nor are they living
Second Sen.
Who were the motives that you first went out;
Shame that they wanted cunning in excess
Hath broke their hearts. March, noble lord,
Into our city with thy banners spread:
By decimation, and a tithed death,
If thy revenges hunger for that food

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

Taught thee to make vast Neptune weep for aye
From niggard nature fall, yet rich conceit
On thy low grave, on faults forgiven. Dead
Is noble Timon; of whose memory
Bring me into your city,
Hereafter more.
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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