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Tim. They are fairly welcome.

I beseech your honour,

Flav.
Vouchsafe me a word; it does concern you near.
Tim. Near? why then another time I'll hear thee:
I pr'ythee, let us be provided

To show them entertainment.

Flav.

I scarce know how. [Aside.

Enter another Servant.

2 Serv. May it please your honour, the lord Lucius, Out of his free love, hath presented to you Four milk-white horses, trapp'd in silver.

Tim. I shall accept them fairly: let the presents
Enter a third Servant.

Be worthily entertain'd.--How now, what news?

3 Serv. Please you, my lord, that honourable gentleman, lord Lucullus, entreats your company to-morrow to hunt with him; and has sent your honour two brace. of greyhounds.

Tim. I'll hunt with him; And let them be receiv'd, Not without fair reward.

Flav. [aside]

What will this come to?

He commands us to provide, and give great gifts,

And all out of an empty coffer.7-

Nor will he know his purse; or yield me this,
To show him what a beggar his heart is,
Being of no power to make his wishes good;
His promises fly so beyond his state,

That what he speaks is all in debt, he owes
For every word; he is so kind, that he now
Pays interest for 't; his land 's put to their books.
Well, 'would I were gently put out of office,

Before I were forc'd out!

Happier is he that has no friend to feed,

Than such as do even enemies exceed.

I bleed inwardly for my lord.

[Exit.

6 I pr'ythee, let us be provided-] As the measure is here imperfect, we may reasonably suppose our author to have written:

I pr'ythee, let us be provided straight ·

So, in Hamlet:

"Make her grave straight.”

i. e. immediately. Steevens.

7 And all out of an empty coffer.] Read:

And all the while out of an empty coffer. Ritson.

Tim.

You do yourselves

Much wrong, you bate too much of your own merits :Here, my lord; a trifle of our love.

2 Lord. With more than common thanks I will receive it.

3 Lord. O, he is the very soul of bounty!

Tim. And now I remember me, my lord, you gave Good words the other day of a bay courser

I rode on: it is yours, because you lik'd it.

2 Lord. I beseech you,9 pardon me, my lord, in that. Tim. You may take my word, my lord; I know, no

man

Can justly praise, but what he does affect:

I weigh my friend's affection with mine own;
I'll tell you true.1 I'll call on you.

All Lords.

None so welcome.

Tim. I take all and your several visitations
So kind to heart, 'tis not enough to give;
Methinks, I could deal kingdoms to my friends,

8

remember me,] I have added-me, for the sake of measure. So, in King Richard III:

"I do remember me,-Henry the sixth

"Did prophecy

---" Steevens.

9 I beseech you,] Old copy, unmetrically

O, I beseech you,

The player editors have been liberal of their tragick O's, to the frequent injury of our author's measure. For the same reason I have expelled this exclamation from the beginning of the next speech but one. Steevens.

1 I'll tell you true.] Dr. Johnson reads,-I tell you &c. in which he has been heedlessly followed; for though the change does not affect the sense of the passage, it is quite unnecessary, as may be proved by numerous instances in our author's dialogue. Thus, in the first line of King Henry V:

“My lord, I'll tell you, that self bill is urg'd Again, in King John:

2

' I'll tell thee, Hubert, half my power, this night —.”

'tis not enough to give;

Steevens.

Methinks, I could deal kingdoms-] Thus the passage stood in all the editions before Sir T. Hanmer's, who restored-My thanks. Johnson.

I have displaced the words inserted by Sir T. Hanmer. What I have already given, says Timon, is not sufficient on the occasion: Methinks I could deal kingdoms, i. e. could dispense them on every side with an ungrudging distribution, like that with which I could deal out cards. Steevens.

And ne'er be weary.-Alcibiades,

Thou art a soldier, therefore seldom rich,

It comes in charity to thee: for all thy living
Is 'mongst the dead; and all the lands thou hast
Lie in a pitch'd field.

Alcib.

Ay, defiled land,3 my lord. 1 Lord. We are so virtuously bound,

Tim.

Am I to you.

2 Lord.

So infinitely endear'd,

Tim. All to you.4-Lights, more lights. 1 Lord.

And so

Honour, and fortunes, keep with you, lord Timon!
Tim. Ready for his friends.5

Apem.

The best of happiness,

[Exeunt ALCIB. Lords, &c.

What a coil 's here!

Serving of becks, and jutting out of bums!
I doubt whether their legs' be worth the sums

3 Ay, defiled land,] I,-is the old reading, which apparently depends on a very low quibble. Alcibiades is told, that his estate lies in a pitch'd field. Now pitch, as Falstaff says, doth defile. Alcibiades therefore replies, that his estate lies in defiled land. This, as it happened, was not understood, and all the editors published

1 defy land,

Johnson.

I being always printed in the old copy for Ay, the editor of the second folio made the absurd alteration mentioned by Dr. Johnson. Malone.

4 All to you.] i. e. all good wishes, or all happiness to you. So, Macbeth:

"All to all." Steevens.

5 Ready for his friends.] I suppose, for the sake of enforcing the sense, as well as restoring the measure, we should read: Ready ever for his friends. Steevens.

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6 Serving of becks,] Beck means a salutation made with the head. So, Milton:

"Nods and becks, and wreathed smiles."

To serve a beck, is to offer a salutation. Johnson.

To serve a beck, means, I believe, to pay a courtly obedience to a nod. Thus, in The Death of Robert Earl of Huntington, 1601: "And with a low beck

"Prevent a sharp check."

Again, in The Play of the Four P's, 1569:

"Then I to every soul again,

"Did give a beck them to retain.”

That are given for 'em. Friendship 's full of dregs:
Methinks, false hearts should never have sound legs.
Thus honest fools lay out their wealth on court'sies.
Tim. Now, Apemantus, if thou wert not sullen,
I'd be good to thee.

Apem.

No, I'll nothing: for,

If I should be brib'd too, there would be none left

To rail upon thee; and then thou would'st sin the faster. Thou giv'st so long, Timon, I fear me, thou

Wilt give away thyself in paper shortly:

What need these feasts, pomps, and vain glories?

Tim.

An you begin to rail on society once,

1 am sworn, not to give regard to you.

Nay,

In Ram-Alley, or Merry Tricks, 1611, I find the same word: "I had my winks, my becks, treads on the toe."

Again, in Heywood's Rape of Lucrece, 1630:

66

wanton looks,

"And privy becks, savouring incontinence." Again, in Lyly's Woman in the Moon, 1597:

"And he that with a beck controuls the heavens."

It happens then that the word beck has no less than four distinct significations. In Drayton's Polyolbion, it is enumerated among the appellations of small streams of water. In Shakspeare's Antony and Cleopatra, it has its common meaning-a sign of invitation made by the hand. In Timon, it appears to denote a bow, and in Lyly's play, a nod of dignity or command; as well as in Marius and Sylla, 1594:

"Yea Sylla with a beck could break thy neck." Again, in the interlude of Jacob and Esau, 1568:

"For what, O Lord, is so possible to man's judgment
"Which thou canst not with a beck perform incontinent?"

See Surrey's Poems, p. 29:

Steevens.

"And with a becke full lowe he bowed at her feete."

Tyrwhitt.

7 I doubt whether their legs &c.] He plays upon the word leg, as it signifies a limb, and a bow or act of obeisance. Johnson. See Vol. VIII, p. 247, n. 5. Malone.

8 - I fear me,

thou

Wilt give away thyself in paper shortly:] i. e. be ruined by his securities entered into. Warburton.

Dr. Farmer would read-in proper. So, in William Roy's Satire against Wolsey:

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their order

"Is to have nothynge in proper,

"But to use all thynges in commune" &c. Steevens.

Farewel; and come with better musick.

Apem.

[Exit.

So;

Thou 'It not hear me now,-thou shalt not then, I'll lock?
Thy heaven1 from thee. O, that men's ears should be
To counsel leaf, but not to flattery!

[Exit.

ACT II.....SCENE I.

The sam. A Room in a Senator's House.

Enter a Senator, with Papers in his Hand.

Sen. And late, fve thousand to Varro; and to Isidore He owes nine thousand; besides my former sum, Which makes it fire and twenty.-Still in motion Of raging waste? t cannot hold; it will not. If I want gold, sted but a beggar's dog, And give it Timon,why, the dog coins gold: If I would sell my horse, and buy twenty2 more Better than he, why, give my horse to Timon, Ask nothing, give it lim, it foals me, straight, And able horses: Noporter at his gate;

9 Thou 'lt not hear me now -thou shalt not then, I'll lock — ]The measure will be restored bythe omission of an unnecessary word

-me:

Thou 'It not hear now,-thou shalt not then, I'll lock —

Steevens.

1 Thy heaven -] The pleasue of being flattered. Johnson. Apemantus never intended, at any event, to flatter Timon, nor did Timon expect any flattery from him. By his heaven he means good advice, the only thing by which he could be saved. The following lines confirm this explanation. M. Mason.

2

twenty-] Mr. Theobald has-ten. Dr. Farmer proposes to read twain. Reed.

3 Ask nothing, give it him, it foals me, straight,

And able horses:] Mr. Theobald reads:

Ten able horses. Steevens.

"If I want gold (says the Senator) let me steal a beggar's dog, and give it Timon, the dog coins me gold. If I would sell my horse, and had a mind to buy ten better instead of him; why, I need but give my horse to Timon, to gain this point; and it presently fetches me an horse." But is that gaining the point proposed? The first folio reads:

And able horses:

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