It tutors nature: artificial strife
Lives in these touches, livelier than life.

Enter certain Senators, and pass over.
Pain. How this lord is followed!
Poet. The senators of Athens :-happy men!
Pain. Look; more!

Poet. You see this confluence, this great flood of
visitors.

I have, in this rough work, shaped out a man,
Whom this beneath world doth embrace and hug
With amplest entertainment: my free drift
Halts not particularly, but moves itself
In a wide sea of wax: no levelled malice
Infects one comma in the course I hold;
But flies an eagle flight, bold, and forth on,
Leaving no tract behind.

Pain. How shall I understand you?
Poet.
I will unbolt to you.

You see how all conditions, how all minds
(As well of glib and slippery creatures, as

Of grave and austere quality), tender down
Their services to lord Timon: his large fortune,
Upon his good and gracious nature hanging,
Subdues and properties to his love and tendance
All sorts of hearts; yea, from the glass-faced flatterer
To Apemantus, that few things loves better
Than to abhor himself: even he drops down
The knee before him, and returns in peace
Most rich in Timon's nod.

Pain. I saw them speak together. Poet. Sir, I have upon a high and pleasant hill Feigned Fortune to be throned: the base o'the

A thousand moral paintings I can shew,
That shall demonstrate these quick blows of
Fortune

More pregnantly than words. Yet you do well
To shew lord Timon that mean eyes have seen
The foot above the head.

Trumpet sounds. Enter TIMON, attended; the
Servant of VENTIDIUS talking with him.
Tim.
Imprisoned is he, say you?

Ven. Serv. Ay, my good lord: five talents is his debt;

His means most short, his creditors most strait: Your honourable letter he desires

To those have shut him up; which failing to him, Periods his comfort.

Ven. Serv. Your lordship ever binds him.

Tim. Commend me to him: I will send his ransom;

And, being enfranchised, bid him come to me: 'Tis not enough to help the feeble up,

But to support him after.--Fare you well.

Ven. Serv. All happiness to your honour! [Exit.

Enter an Old Athenian.

Old Ath. Lord Timon, hear me speak.

Tim. Freely, good father.

Old Ath. Thou hast a servant named Lucilius.

Tim. I have so what of him?

And dispossess her all.

Tim.

How shall she be endowed,

If she be mated with an equal husband?

Old Ath. Three talents, on the present; in

future, all.

A

Tim. How likest thou this picture, Apemantus? Apem. The best for the innocence. Tim. Wrought he not well that painted it? Apem. He wrought better that made the painter; and yet he's but a filthy piece of work.

Pain. You are a dog.

Apem. Thy mother's of my generation: what's she, if I be a dog?

Tim. Wilt dine with me, Apemantus?
Apem. No; I eat not lords.

Tim. An' thou shouldst, thou 'dst anger ladies. Apem. O, they eat lords; so they come by great bellies.

Tim. That's a lascivious apprehension. Apem. So thou apprehend'st it: take it for thy labour.

Tim. How dost thou like this jewel, Apemantus? Apem. Not so well as plain dealing, which will not cost a man a doit.

Tim. What dost thou think 't is worth?

Apem. Not worth my thinking. - How now,

poet?

Poet. How now, philosopher?

Apem. Thou liest.

Poet. Art not one?

Apem. Yes.

Poet. Then I lie not.

Apem. Art not a poet?
Poet. Yes.

Apem. Then thou liest: look in thy last work, where thou hast feigned him a worthy fellow. Poet. That's not feigned; he is so. Apem. Yes, he is worthy of thee, and to pay thee for thy labour: he that loves to be flattered is worthy o'the flatterer. Heavens, that I were a lord!

Tim. What wouldst do then, Apemantus? Apem. Even as Apemantus does now; hate a lord with my heart.

Trumpets sound. Enter a Servant.

Tim. What trumpet's that? Serv. 'Tis Alcibiades, and some twenty horse, All of companionship.

Tim. Pray entertain them; give them guide to [Exeunt some Attendants. You must needs dine with me:- Go not you hence,