The turbulent surge shall cover: thither come, First Sen. His discontents are unremovably Sec. Sen. Our hope in him is dead : let us return, And strain what other means is left 27 unto us In our dear peril. 28 And made us speak like friends:-this man was riding From Alcibiades to Timon's cave, Here come our brothers. Enter Senators from TIMON. Third Sen. No talk of Timon, nothing of him expect. The enemies' drum is heard, and fearful scouring [Exeunt. Doth choke the air with dust: in, and prepare: Ours is the fall,32 I fear; cur foes the snare. 29. One mine ancient friend. Upton proposed to change one to once;' but the phrase in the text is equivalent to one of my ancient friends,' or 'an old friend of mine.' The Italians have a precisely similar form of expression: un mio antico amico. 30. Whom, though in general part, &c. Hanmer altered "whom" to 'and,' while Singer substituted when.' It is probable, however, that "whom" is here used not only in reference to the "courier," but also to the "I" of the preceding line-not only to the "friend," but to the speaker: so that thus "whom" would stand elliptically for 'between whom and myself.' It should be remembered that Shakespeare uses relative pronouns very peculiarly, with great force of ellipsis, and often in reference to an implied particular. 31. Our old love made a particular force, and made us, &c. Here Hanmer and others change the first "made" into 'had;' but it appears to us that the repeated word is precisely in Shakespeare's style. We take occasion to point out the present passage as affording one of many wherein he opposes the two expressions, "general" and "particular" (see, among several others that may be cited, the passage referred to in Note 18, Act iv., "Second Part Henry IV."); and yet Mr. Singer altered the words "in general," in the preceding line, to on several.' 32. Ours is the fall. "Fall" here means 'downfall,' 'defeat,' and we think coincides with our view of the word in the passage discussed in Note 17 of this Act. 33. Reads an inscription near the grave. There is no stage direction here in the Folio. Mr. Staunton first introduced it thus SCENE IV.- The Woods. TIMON's Cave, and a tombstone seer. Enter a Soldier, seeking TIMON. Sold. By all description this should be the place. Who's here? speak, ho!-No answer?-What is this? [Reads an inscription near the grave.33 Timon is dead. Who hath outstretch'd his span,4Some beast,-read this; 35 there does not live a man. Dead, sure; and this his grave. tomb What's on this -"[Reads]," which we adopted in our editions published in 1860 and 1864, amplified as above. We thoroughly agree with that gentleman in believing that the two lines of rhyming couplet which follow were intended by the author as an inscription to be read by the soldier, and not as forming a portion of his speech. The two lines are in Timon's own style of bitter misanthropy; they announce his death, they bid his survivors read the epitaph, they declare these survivors to be beasts only-a declaration which tallies with his previous words in Act iv., sc. 3, "that beasts may have the world in empire!" The soldier is able to read this inscription near the grave, because it is written in the language of the country; but he is unable to read what is on the tomb, because it is insculptured in another (and to him unknown character. That this is intended, we think is indicated by the words, "our captain hath in every figure skill," which seem purposely put to draw attention to the point; for were that which is on the tomb to be merely written in the ordinary vernacular, it would hardly have been needful to lay so much stress upon Alcibiades being "an ag'd interpreter, though young in days." That there should be two distinct inscriptions in two distinct characters, is in strict accordance with an ancient observance in sepulchral inscriptions; and this observance is twice referred to in Miss Martineau's "Eastern Life, Present and Past" (1850), at pages 107 and 252. 34. Timon is dead. Who hath outstretch'd his span. "Who" is here used in the sense of 'whoever,' or 'whosoever.' See Note 77, Act. iv., "Second Part Henry VI." Those who accept these two lines as part of the soldier's speech take "who" to refer to Timon, and outstretch'd" to mean 'passed beyond :' but we think that "outstretch'd" here means 'outlived,' ' exceeded in length'-a less forced interpretation, as it appears to us. 35. Some beast,-read this. Warburton, not being able to make out the meaning of these words, as spoken by the soldier Enter Senators on the Walls. Our sufferance vainly now the time is flush, First Sen. Sec. Sen. So did we woo Transformed Timon to our city's love By humble message and by promis'd means: -and certainly they afford no sense as part of his speech-says in a note on this passage, "Some beast read what ?" and then alters "read" to 'rear'd.' 36. What's on this tomb I cannot read. The soldier here shows that he has before been able to read what he beheld, but that he is now unable to decipher something that there was a bidding to read. 37. Whose fall the mark of his ambition is. "Fall" is here again used in the sense of 'downfall,' 'ruin,' 'destruction.' See Note 32 of this Act. 38. Travers'd arms. 'Arms crossed,' 'arms folded athwart the chest in token of dejection;' what Ariel poetically calls, "in this sad knot." See Note 40, Act i., "Tempest. 39 By their hands. 'By the hands of those.' Elliptically expressed; and the "them," at the close of this speech, refers to the persons thus elliptically implied. 40. From whom you have receiv'd your griefs. The Folio prints 'greefe' for "griefs" here. Theobald's correction; shown to be right by the previous speech: "Noble and young, when thy first griefs were," &c. 41. Nor are they living who, &. One of Shakespeare's For those that were, it is not square 43 to take, Sec. Sen. · 42. Cunning. Here used for wisdom,' 'judgment.' See Note 2, Act iv., "Coriolanus." 43. Square. Here employed for 'according to due rule;' 'just,' 'equitable.' 44. Revenges. The Folio prints 'revenge;' but the metre of the present line, as well as the word " " in the prerevenges vious speech, show that Steevens's correction is right here. 45. Crimes, like lands, are not inherited. Instance of transposed construction, where the transposition almost gives the effect of a contrary sense to the one intended. This sentence, superficially viewed, gives the effect of 'crimes, in the same way as lands, are not inherited;' whereas, rightly viewed, it means 'crimes are not inherited, as lands are.' 46 Alcib. Both. [The Senators descend, and open the gates. 52. Here lies a wretched, &c. That which here forms one epitaph is a combination of two distinct epitaphs, cited in North's "Plutarch" as being the first couplet composed by Timon himself, the second by the poet Callimachus. This accounts for the discrepancy between "seek not my name in the first couplet, and "here lie I, Timon," in the second. It is as if Shakespeare had jotted down both the epitaphs from North's "Plutarch" in his own original MS. of this play, intending to mould a third upon these two. A small point seems to corroborate the idea of our author's having transcribed the brace of couplets with a view to altering them; and this is, that the word "caitiffs," as occurring in Shakespeare's play, is Alcib. [Reads.] Here lies a wretched corse, of wretched soul bereft : 52 Seek not my name: a plague consume you wicked caitiffs left! From niggard nature fall, yet rich conceit Taught thee to make vast Neptune weep for 'wretches' in the parallel passage of North's "Plutarch." Moreover, this word "caitiffs" seems to have been suggested by the version of the epitaph, as given in Painter's "Palace of Pleasure," thus: "My wretched catife dayes expired now and past, My carren corps intered here is fast in grounde, In waltering waves of swelling sea by surges cast: My name if thou desire, the gods thee doe confounde." We are confirmed in our idea that Shakespeare meant to write an almost wholly different epitaph from the one that here appears to be a hasty sketch framed upon those already written, by Timon's closing words to the senators: "Thither come, and let my grave-stone be your oracle." We imagine that the author intended to have composed an epitaph for Timon that should have been oracular in its moral monition, in its sententious warning: whereas the four disjointed lines here inserted contain nothing of the kind. All this adds probability to the conjecture we stated in our opening Note-that Shakespeare's "Timon of Athens" was one of his productions that he wrote in a fit of temporary depression, and never cared to re-read or to polish. There is a possibility that he never saw it put upon the stage, and that it was never acted during his lifetime; for there is no record of its performance anterior to its publication in the 1623 Folio. 53. Stint. Stop,' 'put a period to.' See Note 53, Act i., "Romeo and Juliet." 54. Leech. An old term for a 'physician.' |