TIMON OF ATHENS. ACT I. SCENE I. Athens. A Hall in Timon's House. Enter Poet, Painter, Jeweller, Merchant, and Goop day, sir. Pain. Poet. I am glad you are well1. Poet. I have e not seen you long; How goes the world? Pain. It wears, sir, as it grows. Poet. Ay, that's well known: But what particular rarity? what strange, Which manifold record not matches2? See, Magic of bounty! all these spirits thy power Hath conjur'd to attend. I know merchant. Pain. I know them both; t'other's a jeweller. Mer. O, 'tis a worthy lord! Jew. the Nay, that's most fix'd. Mer. A most incomparable man; breath'd, as it were, It would be less abrupt and more metrical to begin the play thus: Poet. Good day, sir. Pain. Good sir, I'm glad you're well. 2 The Poet merely means to ask if any thing extraordinary out of the common course of things has lately happened; and is prevented from waiting for an answer by observing so many conjured by Timon's bounty to attend. To an untirable and continuate goodness: I have a jewel here. Mer. O, pray, let's see't: For the Lord Timon, sir? Jew. If he will touch the estimate: But, for that- Poets. When we for recompense have prais'd the vile, It stains the glory in that happy verse Mer. 'Tis a good form. [Looking at the Jewel. Jew. And rich: here is a water, look you. Pain. You are rapt, sir, in some work, some dedication To the great lord. Poet. A thing slipp'd idly from me. Our poesy is a gum, which oozes6 From whence 'tis nourished: The fire i'the flint book forth? Poet. Upon the heels of my presentments, sir. Let's see your piece. Pain. Tiss a good piece. Poet. So 'tis: this comes off wells and excellent. Pain. Indifferent. Poet. Speaks his own Admirable: How this grace tanding10! what a mental power This eye shoots forth! how big imagination Moves in this lip! to the dumbness of the gesture One might interpret11, Pain. It is a pretty mocking of the life. Here is a touch; Is't good? is a touch Poet. Dua for our I'll say of it, It tutors nature: artificial strife12 Lives in these touches, livelier than life. Enter certain Senators, and Pain. How this this lord's follow'd! pass over. Poet. The senators of Athens:-Happy men! Poet. You see this confluence, this great flood of visitors13, I have, in this rough work, shap'd out a man, Whom this beneath world14 doth embrace and hug With amplest entertainment: My free drift 8 i. e. as soon as my book has been presented to Timon, 9 This comes off well apparently means this is cleverly done, or this piece is well executed. The phrase is used in Measure for Measure ironically. See vol. ii. p. 24, note 10 How the graceful attitude of this figure proclaims that it stands firm on its centre, or gives evidence in favour of its own fixure. Grace is introduced as bearing witness to propriety. One might venture to supply words to such intelligible action. Such significant gesture ascertains the sentiments that should accompany it. So in Cymbeline, Act' ii. Sc. 4: never saw I pictures So likely to report themselves." 12 i. e. the contest of art with nature. This was a very common mode of expressing the excellence of a painter. Shakspeare has it again, more clearly expressed, in his Venus and Adonis: His art with nature's workmanship at strife." 13 Mane salutantum totis vomit ædibus undam.' 14 So in Measure for Measure we have, This under generation;' and in King Richard III. the lower world. Halts not particularly15, but moves itself In a wide sea of wax16: no levell'd malice so od But flies an eagle flight, bold, and forth on, so Pain. How shall I understand you? To Apemantus, that few things loves better I saw them speak together. Poet. Sir, I have upon a high and pleasant hill, Feign'd Fortune to be thron'd: The base o'the mount Is rank'd with That labour on the bosom of this sphere serts, all One do I personate of Lord Timon's frame, " Whom Fortune with her ivory hand wafts to her: Whose present grace to present slaves and servants Translates his rivals. 15 My design does not stop at any particular character. 16 An allusion to the Roman practice of writing with a style on tablets, covered with wax: a castom which also prevailed in England until about the close of the fourteenth century. 17 i, e open, explain. 18 i. e. subjects and appropriates. 19 One who shows by reflection the looks of his patron. The poet was mistaken in the character of Apemantus; but seeing that he paid frequent visits to Timon, he naturally concluded that he was equally courteous with his other guests. 20 i. e. to improve or promote their conditions. See vol. ii. p. 15, note 6. Pain. 'Tis conceiv'd to scope21. This throne, this Fortune, and this hill, methinks, With one man beckon'd from the rest below, Bowing his head against the steepy mount To climb his happiness, would be well express'd In our condition22. Poet. Nay, sir, but hear me on: All those which were his fellows but of late Make sacred even his stirrop, and through him Pain. Ay, marry, what of these? Poet. When Fortune, in her shift and change of mood, Spurns down her late belov'd, all his dependants, Which labour'd after him to the mountain's top, Even on their knees and hands, let him slip down, Not one accompanying his declining foot. Pain. A thousand moral paintings I can show, That shall demonstrate these quick blows of fortune More pregnantly than words. Yet you do well, To show Lord Timon, that mean eyes25 have seen foot above the head. The 21 i. c. extensively imagined, largely conceived. 22 i. e. in our art, in painting. Condition was used for profession, quality; façon de faire. See vol. i p. 137, note 14. |