3 Sen. I do conceive.

Tim. Each man to his flool, with that fpur as he would to the lip of his miftrefs: your diet fhall be in all places alike. Make not a city feaft of it, to let the meat cool ere we can agree upon the first place: Sit, fit. The gods require our thanks.

5

Your reeking villainy. Live loath'd, and long,
Moft fmiling, fmooth, detefted parafites,
Courteous deftroyers, affable wolves, meek bears,
You fools of fortune, trencher-friends, time's flies 3,
Cap and knee slaves, vapours, and minute-jacks 4!
Of man, and beast, the infinite malady 5.
Cruft you quite o'er !-What, dost thou go?
Soft, take thy physic first,—thou too,—and thou:
[Throws the dishes at them.

You great benefactors, Sprinkle our fociety with thankfulness. For your own gifts, make yourselves prais'd: but referve fill to give, left your deities be defpis'd. Lend to each man enough, that one need not 10 Stay, I will lend thee money, borrow none.-

lend to another: for, were your godheads to borrow
of men, men would ferfake the gods. Make the meat
be beloved, more than the man that gives it. Let no
affembly of twenty be without a fcore of villains:
If there fit twelve women at the table, let a dozen of 15
them be as they are.-The reft of your fees, O gods,-
the fenators of Athens, together with the common lag
of people, what is amifs in them, you gods, make Just-
able for deftruction. For these my prefent friends,—as
they are to me nothing, fo in nothing bless them, and to 20
nothing are they welcome.

Uncover dogs, and lap.

What, all in motion? Henceforth be no feast,
Whereat a villain's not a welcome guest.
Burn houfe; fink Athens; henceforth hated be
Of Timon, man, and all humanity!
Re-enter the Senators.

1 Sen. How now, my lords?

[Exit. [fury?

2 Sen. Know you the quality of lord Timon's 3 Sen. Pifh! did you fee my cap?

4 Sen. I have lost my gown.

1 Sen. He's but a mad lord, and nought but humour fways him. He gave me a jewel the other day, and now he has beat it out of my hat :-Did you fee my jewel?

2 Sen. Did you fee my cap?

With it beat out his brains! piety, and fear,
Religion to the gods, peace, justice, truth,
Domestick awe, night-rest, and neighbourhood,
Inftruction, manners, myfteries, and trades,
45 Degrees, obfervances, customs, and laws,
Decline to your confounding contraries,

And yet confufion live! Plagues, incident to men,
Your potent and infectious fevers heap

On Athens, ripe for stroke! thou cold sciatica,

Pluck the grave wrinkled fenate from the bench, 50 Cripple our fenators, that their limbs may halt

And minifter in their fteads! to general filths
Convert o' the inftant, green virginity!
Do't in your parents' eyes! bankrupts, hold faft:
Rather than render back, out with your knives,
And cut your trufters' throats! bound fervants, 55
fteal;

Large-handed robbers your grave masters are,
And pill by law! maid, to thy mafter's bed;
Thy miftrefs is o' the brothel! fon of fixteen,
Pluck the lin'd crutch from thy old limping fire,

As lamely as their manners! luft and liberty
Creep in the minds and marrows of our youth;
That 'gainst the stream of virtue they may strive,
And drown themselves in riot! itches, blains,
Sow all the Athenian bofoms; and their crop
Be general leprofy! breath infect breath;
That their fociety, as their friendship, may
Be meerly poifon! Nothing I'll bear from thee,
But nakedness, thou deteftable town!
60 Take thou that too, with multiplying banns!

Dr. Warburton thinks we fhould read foes. 2 i. e. the highest of your excellence. 3 i. e. flies of a feafon. 4 A minute-jack is what was called formerly a Jack of the clock-boufe; an image whofe office was the fame as one of thofe at St. Dunstan's church in Fleet-fireet. See note 1, p. 658. 5i.c. every kind of difeafe incident to man and beaft.

Enter Flavius, with two or three Servants.

1 Serv. Hear you, master steward, where is our master?

Are we undone? caft off? nothing remaining?
Flav. Alack, my fellows, what fhould I fay
to you?

Let me be recorded by the righteous gods,
I am as poor as you.

1 Serv. Such a house broke!

So noble a master fallen! All gone! and not
One friend, to take his fortune by the arm,
And go along with him!

2 Serv. As we do turn our backs
From our companion, thrown into his grave;
So his familiars from his buried fortunes
Slink all away; leave their falfe vows with him,
Like empty purfes pick'd: and his poor felf,
A dedicated beggar to the air,

With his difeafe of all-fhunn'd poverty,
Walks, like contempt, alone.- -More of our

fellows.

Enter other Servants.

5

To have his pomp, and all what state compounds,
But only painted, like his varnish'd friends?
Poor honeft lord, brought low by his own heart;
Undone by goodness! Strange, unusual blood,
When man's worst fin is, he does too much good!
Who then dares to be half fo kind again?
For bounty, that makes gods, does still mar men.
My dearest lord,-bleft, to be most accurs'd,
Rich, only to be wretched ;-thy great fortunes
10 Are made thy chief afflictions. Alas, kind lord!
He's flung in rage from this ungrateful feat
Of monstrous friends: nor has he with him to
Supply his life, or that which can command it.
I'll follow, and enquire him out:

15 I'll ever ferve his mind with my best will;
Whilft I have gold, I'll be his steward still.

[Exit

Tim. O bleffed breeding fun, draw from the
earth

25 Rotten humidity; below thy fifter's orb 3
Infect the air! Twinn'd brothers of one womb,
Whofe procreation, refidence, and birth,
Scarce is dividant,-touch them with several for-
tunes :

30 The greater fcorns the leffer: Not nature, [tune,
To whom all fores lay fiege, can bear great for-
But by contempt of nature 4.

Flav. All broken implements of a ruin'd houfe. 35
3 Serv. Yet do our hearts wear Timon's livery,
That fee I by our faces; we are fellows ftill,
Serving alike in forrow: Leak'd is our bark;
And we, poor mates, ftand on the dying deck,
Hearing the furges threat: we must all part
Into this fea of air.

Flav. Good fellows all,

The latest of my wealth I'll share amongst you.
Wherever we shall meet, for Timon's fake,

Raife me this beggar, and denude that lord;
The fenator fhall bear contempt hereditary,
The beggar native honour.

It is the paftor lards the brother's fides,

The want that makes him leave 5. Who dares, who dares,

In purity of manhood stand upright,

40 And fay, This man's a flatterer?' if one be,
So are they all; for every grize of fortune
Is fmooth'd by that below: the learned pate
Ducks to the golden fool: All is oblique;
There's nothing level in our curfed natures,

Let's yet be fellows; let's fhake our heads, and 45 But direct villainy. Therefore, be abhorr'd

fay,

As 'twere a knell unto our master's fortunes,

'We have seen better days.'

Let each take fome;
[Giving them money.
Not one word more: 50

Nay, put out all your hands.
Thus part we rich in forrow, parting poor.
[Exeunt Servants.

O, the fierce wretchednefs that glory brings us!
Who would not wish to be from wealth exempt,
Since riches point to mifery and contempt?
Who'd be fo mock'd with glory? or to live
But in a dream of friendship?

tion.

1 Fierce is here used for bafty, precipitate. 2 Strange, unusual Ulood may mean, strange unusual difpofi3 That is, the moon's, this fublunary world. 4 Dr. Johnson explains this paffage thus: Brother, when bis fortune is enlarged, will fearn brother; for this is the general depravity of human nature, which, befieged as it is by mifery, admonished as it is of want and imperfection, when elevated by fortune, will defife beings of nature like its own.” 5 That is, It is the paftour that greafes or flatters the rich brother, and will greafe him on till want make him leave. 6 Grize for step or degree. i.e. no infincere or inconftant fupplicant. Gold will not ferve me instead of roots. This may mean either ye cloudless skies, or ye deities exempt from guilt. 3 G 2

feize, gripe.

7 i. e.

Ha,

But yet I'll bury thee: Thou'lt go, strong thief,
When gouty keepers of thee cannot stand :-
Nay, stay thou out for earneft. [Keeping fome gold. 20
Enter Alcibiades, with drum and fife, in warlike man-
ner, and Phrynia and Tymandra.

Alc. What art thou there? speak.
Tim. A beaft, as thou art. The canker gnaw thy 25
For fhewing me again the eyes of man!

Alc. What is thy name? Is man fo hateful to
thee,

That art thyself a man?

Tim. I am mifanthropos, and hate mankind. For thy part, I do wish thou wert a dog, That I might love thee fomething.

Alc. I know thee well;

But in thy fortunes am unlearn'd and strange.
Tim. I know thee too; and more, than that 135
know thee,

I not defire to know. Follow thy drum:
With man's blood paint the ground, gules, gules:
Religious canons, civil laws are cruel;

Then what should war be? This fell whore of 40

i.e. men who have strength yet remaining to struggle with their diftemper. This alludes to an old cuftom of drawing away the pillow from under the heads of men in their laft agonies, to make their departure the easier. 2 Waped or wappen'd, according to Warburton, fignifies both forrowful and terrified, either for the lofs of a good husband, or by the treatment of a bad. But gold, he says, can Overcome both her affection and her fears. 3 That is, to the wedding day, called by the poet, fatirically, April day, or fool's day. The April day, however, does not relate to the widow, but to the other difeafed female, who is reprefented as the outcast of an hofpital. She it is whom gold embalms and Spices to the April day again: i. e. gold restores her to all the freshness and fweetness of youth. 4 Lie in

5 Thou haft life and motion in thee.

method of cure for venereal complaints (explained in note 4, p. 90), the unction for which was fometimes continued for thirty-feven days, and during this time there was neceffarily an extraordinary ab ftinence required. Hence the term of the tub-faft. The dice was likewife a customary term for the regi men prefcribed in thefe cafes.

Will o'er fome high-vic'd city hang his poison
In the fick air: Let not thy fword skip one :
Pity not honour'd age for his white beard,
He is an ufurer: Strike me the counterfeit matron,
It is her habit only that is honest,

Herfelf's a bawd: Let not the virgin's cheek
Make foft thy trenchant fword; for thofe milk-
paps,

That through the window-bars bore at men's eyes,
Are not within the leaf of pity writ,

Set them down horrible traitors: Spare not the babe,
Whofe dimpled fmiles from fools exhauft their
mercy;

Think it a bastard, whom the oracle

Hath doubtfully pronounc'd thy throat fhall cut 2,
And mince it fans remorfe: Swear against objects 3;
Put armour on thine ears, and on thine eyes;
Whofe proof, nor yells of mothers, maids, nor
babes,

Nor fight of priests in holy veftments bleeding,
Shall pierce a jot. There's gold to pay thy foldiers:
Make large confufion; and, thy fury spent,
Confounded be thyfelf! Speak not, be gone.
Alc. Haft thou gold yet? I'll take the gold thou
giv'ft me,

Not all thy counsel.

Pbr. and Tym. Give us fome gold, good Timon:
Haft thou more ?

5

Phr. and Tym. Well, more gold;-What then? Believe't, that we'll do any thing for gold.

Tim. Confumptions fow

In hollow bones of man; ftrike their fharp fhins, And marr men's fpurring. Crack the lawyer's voice,

That he may never more falfe title plead,

Nor found his quillets 7 fhrilly: hoar the flamen,
That fcolds against the quality of flesh,

10 And not believes himfelf: down with the nofe,
Down with it flat; take the bridge quite away
Of him, that his particular to foresee 9,
Smells from the general weal: make curl'd-patę
ruffians bald;

15 And let the unfcarr'd braggarts of the war
Derive fome pain from you: Plague all;
That your activity may defeat and quell
The fource of all erection.-There's more gold :-
Do you damn others, and let this damn you,
20 And ditches grave you all!

25

[trade, 30

Tim. Enough to make a whore forfwear her
And to make whores, a bawd 4. Hold up, you fluts,
Your aprons mountant: You are not oathable,-
Although, I know, you'll fwear, terribly swear,
Into ftrong fhudders, and to heavenly agues,
The immortal gods that hear you,spare your
oaths,

I'll truft to your conditions 5: Be whores ftill;
And he whose pious breath seeks to convert you,
Be ftrong in whore, allure him, burn him up;
Let your close fire predominate his fmoke,
And be no turn-coats: Yet may your pains 6, fix
months,
[roofs

35

10

Phr. and Tym. More counsel, with more money, bounteous Timon.

Tim. More whore, more mifchief first; I have
given you earnest.

Alc. Strike up the drum towards Athens.
Farewel, Timon;

If I thrive well, I'll vifit thee again.

Tim. If I hope well, I'll never see thee more.
Alc. I never did thee harm.

Tim. Yes, thou spok'ft well of me.

Alc. Call'st thou that harm?

Tim. Men daily find it.

Get thee away, and take thy beagles with thee.
Alc. We but offend him.-Strike,

[Drum beats. Exeunt Alcibiades,
Phrynia, and Tymandra.

Tim. [Digging.] That nature, being fick of man's

unkindness,

Should yet be hungry!- -Common mother, thou
40 Whofe womb unmeasurable, and infinite breast 11,
Teems, and feeds all; whofe felf-fame mettle,
Whereof thy proud child, arrogant man, is puft,
Engenders the black toad, and adder blue,
The gilded newt, and eyelefs venom'd worm 12,
With all the abhorred births below crifp 13 heaven
Whereon Hyperion's quickening fire doth fhine;
Yield him, who all thy human fons doth hate,
From forth thy plenteous bofom, one poor root!
Enfear thy fertile and conceptious womb,

Be quite contrary: And thatch your poor thin
With burdens of the dead :-fome that were 45
hang'd,
[still;

No matter:-wear them, betray with them: whore
Paint 'till a horse may mire upon your face,
A pox of wrinkles !

i. e. draw forth. 2 An allufion to the tale of Oedipus. 3 Perhaps objects is here used provincially for abjects. 4 That is, enough to make a whore leave whoring, and a barvd leave making whores. i. e. I will truft to your inclinations. 6 Dr. Warburton comments on this paffage thus: "This is obfcure, partly from the ambiguity of the word pains, and partly from the generality of the expreffion. The meaning is this: He had faid before, Follow conftantly your trade of debauchery; that is (fays he) for fix months in the year. Let the other fix be employed in quite contrary pains and labour, namely, in the fevere difcipline ncceffary for the repair of those disorders that your debaucheries occafion, in order to fit you anew to the trade; and thus let the whole year be spent in these different occupations. On this account he goes on, and says, Make falfe bair, &c. Mr. Steevens however conceives the meaning to be only this: "Yet for half the year at leaft, may you fuffer fuch punishment as is inflicted on barlots in boufes of correction.” 7 Quillers are fubtilties. i. e. give the flamen the boary leprofy. 9 To forefee his particular, is to provide for his private advantage, for which he leaves the right fcent of public good. In hunting, when hares have crofs'd one another, it is common for fome of the hounds to fell from the general weal, and foresee their own particular. Shakspeare, who feems to have been a skilful sportsman, and has alluded often to falconry, perhaps alludes here to hunting. 10 To grave is to entomb. 11 Whofe infinite breaft means whose boundless furface. 12 The ferpent, which we, from the smallness of his eyes, call the blind worm. 18 i. e, curled, bent, hollow.

༢༦ ༣

Let it no more bring out ingrateful man!
Go great with tygers, dragons, wolves, and bears ;|
Teem with new monsters, whom thy upward face
Hath to the marbled manfion all above
Never prefented!-O, a root,-Dear thanks!
Dry up thy marrows, vines, and plough-torn leas;
Whereof ingrateful man, with liquorice draughts,
And morfels unctuous, greafes his pure mind,
That from it all confideration flips!
Enter Apemantus.

More man? Plague! plague!

Apem. I was directed hither: Men report,
Thou dost affect my manners, and dost use them.
Tim. 'Tis then, because thou doft not keep a dog
Whom I would imitate: Confumption catch thee!
Apem. This is in thee a nature but affected;
A poor unmanly melancholy, fprung
From change of fortune. Why this fpade? this place?
This flave-like habit? and thefe looks of care?
Thy flatterers yet wear filk, drink wine, lie foft;
Hug their difeas'd perfumes, and have forgot
That ever Timon was. Shame not these woods,
By putting on the cunning of a carper 1.
Be thou a flatterer now, and feek to thrive
By that which has undone thee: hinge thy knee,
And let his very breath, whom thou'lt obferve,
Blow off thy cap; praife his most vicious ftrain,
And call it excellent: Thou waft told thus;
Thou gav'ft thine ears, like tapfters,that bidwelcome
To knaves, and all approachers: 'Tis moft juft,
That thou turn rafcal; hadit thou wealth again,
Rafcals fhould have 't. Do not affume my likeness.
Tim. Were I like thee, I'd throw away myself.
Apem. Thou haft caft away thyself, being like
thyfelf;

A madman fo long, now a fool; What, think'ft
That the bleak air, thy boisterous chamberlain,
Will put thy fhirt on warm? Will these moist trees,
That have out-liv'd the eagle, page thy heels,

5

15

Tim. What a knave too?

Apem. If thou didst put this four cold habit on
To caftigate thy pride, 'twere well: but thou
Doft it enforcedly; thou'dft courtier be again,
Wert thou not beggar. Willing mifery
Out-lives incertain pomp, is crown'd before:
The one is filling ftill, never complete;
The other, at high with: Beft ftate, contentless,
Hath a diftracted and moft wretched being,
Worfe than the worst, content 2.
Thou should'nt defire to die, being miferable.

Tim. Not by his breath 3, that is more miferable.
Thou art a flave, whom fortune's tender arm
With favour never clafp'd; but bred a dog 4.
Hadft thou, like us, from our first swath 5 pro-

ceeded

The fweet degrees that this brief world affords
To fuch as may the paffive drugs of it
Freely command, thou wouldst have plung'd thyfelf
20 In general riot; melted down thy youth

In different beds of luft; and never learn'd
The icy precepts of respect 6, but follow'd
The fugar'd game before thee. But myself,
Who had the world as my confectionary;
25 The mouths, the tongues, the eyes, and hearts of men
At duty, more than I could frame employment,
(That numberless upon me stuck, as leaves
Do on the oak, have with one winter's brush
Fell from their boughs, and left me open, bare
30 For every storm that blows) I to bear this,
That never knew but better, is fome burden:
Thy nature did commence in fufferance, time
Hath made thee hard in 't. Why should't thou

hate men?

35 They never flatter'd thee: What hast thou given!
If thou wilt curse,-thy father, that poor rag,
Muft be thy fubject; who, in fpight, put ftuff
To fome the beggar, and compounded thee
Poor rogue hereditary. Hence! be gone!-

And skipwhen thou point it out? will the cold brook 40 If thou hadft not been born the worst of men,

Candied with ice, caudle thy morning tafte

To cure thy o'er-night's furfeit? Call the creatures,
Whofe naked natures live in all the fpight

Of wreakful heaven; whofe bare unhoufed trunks,
To the conflicting elements expos'd,

Answer meer nature,bid them flatter thee;
O! thou shalt find-

Tim. A fool of thee: Depart.

Apem. I love thee better now than e'er I did.
Tim. I hate thee worse.

1451

55

Thou hadst been a knave, and flatterer.

Apem. Art thou proud yet?

Tim. Ay, that I am not thee.

Apem. I, that I was no prodigal.

Tim. I, that I am one now:

Were all the wealth I have, fhut up in thee,
I'd give thee leave to hang it. Get thee gone.-
That the whole life of Athens were in this!
Thus would I eat it.

[Eating a ret.

Apem. Here; I will mend thy feast.

[Offering him femething. Tim. First mend my company, take away thyfell. Apem. So I fhall mend my own, by the lack of

thine.

Tim. 'Tis not well mended fo, it is but botch'd;
if not,
I would it were.

Apem. What wouldst thou have to Athens?
Tim. Thee thither in a whirlwind. If thou wilt,

1 The cunning of a carper means the infidious art of a critic. 2 That is, Best states contentless have

a wretched being, a being worfe than that of the worst ftates that are content.
probably meant bis fentence. 4 Alluding to the word Cynic, of which fect Apemantus was.

5 From

3 By bis breath is infancy. Swath is the drefs of a new-born child. • Respect, according to Mr. Steevens, means the qu'en dira`t on? the regard of Athens, that strongeft reftraint on licentioufnefs: the iy prepra, is es

that cool hot blood.