Scene III. TIMON OF ATHENS. Re-enter the Lords, with other Lords and Senators. | SCENE II.-Athens. A room in Timon's house. 1 Lord. How now, my lords? 2 Lord. Know you the quality of lord Timon's fury? 3 Lord. Pish! did you see my cap? 4 Lord. I have lost my gown. 3 Lord. He's but a mad lord, and nought but humour sways him. He gave me a jewel the other day, and now he has beat it out of my hat:-Did you see my jewel? 4 Lord. Did you see my cap? 2 Lord. Here 'tis. 4 Lord. Here lies my gown. 1 Lord, Let's make no stay. 2 Lord. Lord Timon's mad. 3 Lord. I feel't upon my bones. 4 Lord. One day he gives us diamonds, next [Exeunt. day stones. ACT IV. SCENE I-Without the walls of Athens. En- Tim. Let me look back upon thee, O thou wall, Do't in your parents' eyes! bankrupts, hold fast; steal! Large handed robbers your grave masters are, On Athens, ripe for stroke! thou cold sciatica, (1) Common sewers. [Exit. (2) i. e. Contrarieties, whose nature it is to waste or destroy each other. (3) For libertinism. (4) Accumulated curses. VOL. II. Enter Flavius, with two or three Servants. 1 Serv. Hear you, master steward, where's our Are we undone? cast off? nothing remaining? I Let me be recorded by the righteous gods, 1 Serv. Such a house broke! 2 Serv. As we do turn our backs With his disease of all-shunn'd poverty, Flav. All broken implements of a ruin'd house. Into this sea of air. Flav. Good fellows all, Nay, put out all your hands. [Exeunt Servants. O, the fierce wretchedness that glory brings us! To have his pomp, and all what state compounds, SCENE III.-The woods. Enter Timon. (5) Hasty, precipitate. (7) i. e. The moon's, this sublunary world. 20 The greater scorns the lesser: Not nature, To whom all sores lay siege, can bear great fortune, Raise me this beggar, and denude that lord; The beggar native honour. It is the pasture lards the brother's sides, The want that makes him lean. Who dares, who dares, In purity of manhood stand upright, And say, This man's a flatterer ? if one be, Who seeks for better of thee, sauce his palate valiant. Ha, you gods! why this? What this, you gods? Why this Will lug your priests and servants from your sides; Will knit and break religions; bless the accurs'd; a [Keeping some gold. Enter Alcibiades, with drum and fife, in warlike manner; Phrynia and Timandra. Alcib. Speak. thy heart, What art thou there? Tim. Be a whore still! they love thee not, that use thee; Give them diseases, leaving with thee their lust. Make use of thy salt hours: season the slaves For tubs, and baths; bring down rose-cheeked youth To the tub-fast, and the diet. Timan. I have but little gold of late, brave Timon, Tim. How dost thou pity him, whom thou dost trouble? Tim. A beast, as thou art. The canker gnaw I had rather be alone. For showing me again the eyes of man! Alcib. What is thy name? Is man so hateful to thee, Alcib. Why, fare thee well: Here's some gold for thee. Tim. Keep't, I cannot eat it. Alcib. When I have laid proud Athens on a heap, Tim. Warr'st thou 'gainst Athens? Alcib. Ay, Timon, and have cause. Tim. The gods confound them all i'thy conquest; and Thee after, when thou hast conquer'd! Alcib. Tim. That, Why me, Timon? By killing villains, thou wast born to conquer Put up thy gold; Go on,-here's gold,-go on; (5) i. e. Gold restores her to all the sweetness Gold and freshness of youth. (6) Alluding to the cure of the lues venerea, then in practice. Be as a planetary plague, when Jove Herself's a bawd: Let not the virgin's cheek Make soft thy trenchant' sword; for those milkpaps, The source of all erection.-There's more gold:- That through the window-bars bore at men's eyes,If Set them down horrible traitors: Spare not the babe, mercy; 2 Think it a bastard, whom the oracle Hath doubtfully pronounc'd thy throat shall cut, Put armour on thine ears, and on thine eyes; Phr. & Timan. More counsel with more money, Tim. More whore, more mischief first; I have Alcib. Strike up the drum towards Athens. Fare- I thrive well, I'll visit thee again. Tim. If I hope well, I'll never see thee more, Tim. Yes, thou spok'st well of me. Strike. Get thee away, We but offend him. [Drum beats. Exeunt Alcibiades, Phrygia, and Timandra. . Tim. That nature, being sick of man's unkind ness, Should yet be hungry!-Common mother, thou, (Digging. Alcib. Hast thou gold yet? I'll take the gold Whose womb unmeasurable, and infinite breast," thou giv'st me, Not all thy counsel. Tim. Dost thou, or dost thou not, heaven's curse Phr. & Timan. Give us some gold, good Timon: Tim. Enough to make a whore forswear her And to make whores, a bawd. Hold up, you sluts, I'll trust to your conditions; Be whores still; Be quite contrary: And thatch your poor thin roofs 9 Teems, and feeds all; whose self-same mettle, Apem. I was directed hither: Men report, Tim. 'Tis then, because thou dost not keep a dog Phr. & Timan. Well, more gold;-What then?-A Believ't, that we'll do any thing for gold. Tim. Consumptions sow In hollow bones of man; strike their sharp shins, And let the unscarr'd braggarts of the war place? This slave-like habit? and these looks of care? (8) Boundless surface. (9) The serpent called the blind-worm. (11) i, e. Their diseased perfumed mistresses. Rascals should have't. Do not assume my likeness. Tim. Were I like thee, I'd throw away myself. Apem. Thou hast cast away thyself, being like thyself; A madman so long, now a fool: What, think'st That the bleak air, thy boisterous chamberlain, Will put thy shirt on warm? Will these moss'd trees, I, that I am one now; Were all the wealth I have, shut up in thee, I'd give thee leave to hang it. Get thee gone.— And skip when thou point'st out? Will the cold That the whole life of Athens were in this! That have outliv'd the eagle, page thy heels, brook, Candied with ice, caudle thy morning taste, To cure thy o'er-night's surfeit? call the creatures,Whose naked natures live in all the spite Of wreakful heaven; whose bare unhoused trunks, Answer mere nature,-bid them flatter thee; Tim. A fool of thee: Depart. now than e'er I did. At duty, more than I could frame employment; They never flatter'd thee: What hast thou given? (1) i. e. Arrives sooner at the completion of its wishes. (2) By his voice, sentence. (3) From infancy. Thus would I eat it. Apem. [Eating a rool. Here; I will mend thy feast. [Offering him something. Tim. First mend my company, take away thyself. Apem. So I shall mend mine own, by the lack of thine. Tim. 'Tis not well mended so, it is but botch'd; If not, I would it were. Apem. What would'st thou have to Athens? Tim. Thee thither in a whirlwind. If thou wilt, Tell them there I have gold; look, so I have. Apem. Here is no use for gold. Tim. The best, and truest: For here it sleeps, and does no hired harm. Apem. Where li'st o'nights, Timon? Tim. Under that's above me. Where feed'st thou o'days, Apemantus? Apem. Where my stomach finds meat; or, rather, where I eat it. Tim. 'Would poison were obedient, and knew my mind! pem. Where would'st thou send it? Tim. To sauce thy dishes. Apem. The middle of humanity thou never knewest, but the extremity of both ends: When thou wast in thy gilt, and thy perfume, they mocked thee for too much curiosity; in thy rags thou knowest none, but art despised for the contrary. There's a medlar for thee, eat it. Tim. On what I hate, I feed not. Tim. Ay, though it look like thee. Apem. An thou hadst hated meddlers sooner, thou should'st have loved thyself better now. What man didst thou ever know unthrift, that was be loved after his means? Tim. Who, without those means thou talkest of didst thou ever know beloved. Apem. Myself. Tim. I understand thee; thou hadst some means to keep a dog. Apem. What things in the world canst thou nearest compare to thy flatterers? Tim. Women nearest; but men, men are the things themselves. What would'st thou do with the word, Apemantus, if it lay in thy power? Ape.ive it the beasts, to be rid of the men. Tim. Voald'st thou have thyself fall in the con fusion of men, and remain a beast with the beasts? Apem. Ay, Timon. Tim. A beastly ambition, which the gods grant thee to attain to! If thou wert the lion, the fox would beguile thee if thou wert the lamb, the fox would eat thee: if thou wert the fox, the lion would suspect thee, when, peradventure, thou wert accused by the ass: if thou wert the ass, thy dulness would torment thee: and still thou livedst but as a breakfast to the wolf: if thou wert the wolf, thy greediness would afflict thee, and oft thou shouldst hazard thy life for thy dinner: wert thou the unicorn, pride and wrath would confound thee, (4) The cold admonitions of cautious prudence. (5) For too much finical delicacy. Apem. Tim. Long live so, and so die!-I am quit.[Exit Apemantus. Live, and love thy misery. and make thine own self the conquest of thy fury:| wert thou a bear, thou would'st be killed by the horse; wert thou a horse, thou would'st be seized by the leopard; wert thou a leopard, thou wert More things like men?-Eat, Timon, and abhor them. Enter Thieves. german to the lion, and the spots of thy kindred were jurors on thy life: all thy safety were remotion; and thy defence, absence. What beast could'st thou be, that wert not subject to a beast? 1 Thief. Where should he have this gold? It is and what a beast art thou already, that seest not some poor fragment, some slender ort of his rethy loss in transformation? Apem. If thou couldst please me with speaking to me, thou might'st have hit upon it here: The commonwealth of Athens is become a forest of beasts. Tim. How has the ass broke the wall, that thou art out of the city. Apem. Yonder comes a poet and a painter: The plague of company light upon thee! I will fear to catch it, and give way: When I know not what else to do, I'll see thee again. Tim. When there is nothing living but thee, thou shalt be welcome. I had rather be a beggar's dog, than Apemantus. Apem. Thou art the cap2 of all the fools alive. 'Would thou would'st burst! Away, Thou tedious rogue! I am sorry, I shall lose [Throws a stone at him. A stone by thee! Beast! Slave! Apem Tim. Apem. Toad! Tim. Rogue, rogue, rogue! [Apemantus retreats backward, as going. I am sick of this false world; and will love nought But even the mere necessities upon it. Then, Timon, presently prepare thy grave; Lie where the light foam of the sea may beat Thy grave-stone daily: make thine epitaph, That death in me at others' lives may laugh. O thou sweet king-killer, and dear divorce [Looking on the gold. Twixt natural son and sire! thou bright defiler Of Hymen's purest bed! thou valiant Mars! Thou ever young, fresh, lov'd, and delicate wooer, Whose blush doth thaw the consecrated snow That lies on Dian's lap! thou visible god, That solder'st close impossibilities, And mak'st them kiss! that speak'st with every tongue, To every purpose! O thou touch of heart! Tim. Throng'd to? Ay. (1) Remoteness, the being placed at a distance mainder; The mere want of gold, and the fallingfrom of his friends, drove him into this melancholy. 2 Thief. It is noised, he hath a mass of treasure. 3 Thief. Let us make the assay upon him; if he care not for't, he will supply us easily; If he covetously reserve it, how shall's get it? 2 Thief. True; for he bears it not about him, 'tis hid. 1 Thief. Is not this he? Thieves. Where? 2 Thief. 'Tis his description. Thieves. Soldiers, not thieves. Thieves. We are not thieves, but men that much do want. Tim. Your greatest want is, you want much of meat. Why should you want? Behold, the earth hath roots; Within this mile break forth a hundred springs: The oaks bear mast, the briars scarlet hips; The bounteous housewife, nature, on each bush Lays her full mess before you. Want? why want? i Thief. We cannot live on grass, on 'berries, water, As beasts, and birds, and fishes. Tim. Nor on the beasts themselves, the birds, and fishes; You must eat men. Yet thanks I must you con, 1 Thief. Tis in the malice of mankind, that he thus advises us; not to have us thrive in our mystery. |