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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.

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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.
a god 's gold,

That he is worshipp'd in a baser temple
Than where swine feed!

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

What

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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 :

draught,

Settlest admired reverence in a slave:

To thee be worship; and thy saints for aye

Confound them by some course, and come to me,
I'll give you gold enough.

Advancing.

Be crown'd with plagues that thee alone obey.
Fit I meet them.

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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,
ve 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;

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It is our part and promise to the Athenians
To speak with Timon.

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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.

199

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 care.

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

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

Worthy Timon,

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Entreat thee back to Athens; who have thought On special dignities, which vacant lie

For thy best use and wearing.

Second Sen.

150

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.

160

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 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,

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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, 210 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. Flar. Trouble him no further; thus you still shall find him.

Tim. Come not to me again; but say to Athens,

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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:

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

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

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I cannot choose but tell him, that I care not,

And let him take't at worst; for their knives

care not

As full as thy report? Mess.

I have spoke the least;

Besides, his expedition promises

are his files

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

The reverend'st throat in Athens. So I leave you Present approach.

To the protection of the prosperous gods,

As thieves to keepers.

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

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Second Com. Truly, sir, to wear out their

Upon a labouring day without the sign

Of your profession? Speak, what trade art shoes, to get myself into more work. But

thou?

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Second Com. Why, sir, cobble you.

Flav. Thou art a cobbler, art thou?

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indeed, sir, we make holiday to see Cæsar and to rejoice in his triumph.

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 sense

less things!

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?

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

Ces. He is a dreamer; let us leave him:
pass.
Sennet. Exeunt all but BRUTUS

and CASSIUS.

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?

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

Cas. Will you go see the order of the course?
Bru. Not I.

60

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Of that quick spirit that is in Antony.

30

I'll leave you.

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

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.

Bru.

Cassius,

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

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 80
And keep us all in servile fearfulness.

Exeunt.

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By means whereof this breast of mine hath
buried

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:

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 eves.

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

That of yourself which you yet know not of. 70
And be not jealous on me, gentle Brutus:
Were I a common laugher, or did use
To stale with ordinary oaths my love
To every new protester; if you know
That I do fawn on men and hug them hard,
And after scandal them; or if you know
That I profess myself in banqueting
To all the rout, then hold me dangerous.

Plourish and shout.

Bru. What means this shouting? I do fear
the people

Choose Cæsar for their king.
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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