Here lie I Timon; who, alive, all living men did 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 3. Dead

66 TIMON HIS EPITAPHE.

"My wretched caitiffe daies expired now and past,
"My carren corps enterred here, is graspt in ground,
"In weltring waves of swelling seas by sourges caste
My name if thou desire, the gods thee doe confound!
MALONE.

66

-Our BRAIN's flow.] Sir Thomas Hanmer and Dr. Warburton read, brine's flow. Our brains flow, is our tears; but we may read, our brine's flow,”— our salt tears.' Either will serve. JOHNSON.

66

"Our brain's flow" is right. So, in Sir Giles Goosecap, 1606: "I shed not the tears of my brain.”

-

Again, in The Miracles of Moses, by Drayton :

"But he from rocks that fountains can command,

"Cannot yet stay the fountains of his brain." STEEvens. 8 -ON faults forgiven.] Alcibiades's whole speech is in breaks, betwixt his reflections on Timon's death, and his addresses to the Athenian Senators: and as soon as he has commented on the place of Timon's grave, he bids the Senate set forward; tells 'em, he has forgiven their faults; and promises to use them with mery. THEOBALD.

I suspect that we ought to read:

66

One fault's forgiven.-Dead

"Is noble Timon;" &c.

One fault (viz. the ingratitude of the Athenians to Timon) is forgiven, i. e. exempted from punishment by the death of the injured person. TYRWHITT.

The old reading and punctuation appear to me sufficiently intelligible. Mr. Theobald asks, "why should Neptune weep over Timon's faults, or indeed what fault had he committed?" The faults that Timon committed, were, 1. that boundless prodigality which his Steward so forcibly describes and laments; and 2. his

7

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 1.
Let our drums strike.

[Exeunt 2.

becoming a Misanthrope, and abjuring the society of all men for the crimes of a few.-Theobald supposes that Alcibiades bids the Senate set forward, assuring them at the same time that he forgives the wrongs they have done him. "On ;-Faults forgiven." But how unlikely is it, that he should desert the subject immediately before him, and enter upon another quite different subject, in these three words; and then return to Timon again? to say nothing of the strangeness of the phrase-" faults forgiven," for "faults are forgiven." MALONE.

9STINT war;] i. e. stop it. So, in Spenser's Fairy Queen : 'gan the cunning thief

66 ——

"Persuade us die, to stint all further strife." STEEVENS.
leech.] i. e. physician. So, in Spenser's Fairy Queen:
"Her words prevail'd, and then the learned leech
"His cunning hand 'gan to his wounds to lay.”

STEEVENS.

11

The play of Timon is a domestick tragedy, and therefore strongly fastens on the attention of the reader. In the plan there is not much art, but the incidents are natural, and the characters various and exact. The catastrophe affords a very powerful warning against that ostentatious liberality, which scatters bounty, but confers no benefits, and buys flattery, but not friendship.

In this tragedy, are many passages perplexed, obscure, and probably corrupt, which I have endeavoured to rectify, or explain with due diligence; but having only one copy, cannot promise myself that my endeavours shall be much applauded. JOHNSON.

This play was altered by Shadwell, and brought upon the stage in 1678. In the modest title-page he calls it Timon of Athens, or the Man-Hater, as it is acted at the Duke's Theatre, made into a Play. STEEVENS.

KOEN

ACIDE

END OF VOL. XII.

HOFBIB

MOTHER

C. Baldwin, Printer, New Bridge-street, London.

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