Tim. I will not kiss thee; then the rot returns To thine own lips again.' Alcib. How came the noble Timon to this change? Alcib. Maintain my opinion. Noble Timon, None, but to What is it, Timon? Tim. Promise me friendship, but perform none: If Thou wilt not promise, the gods plague thee, for Thou art a man! if thou dost perform, confound thee, For thou'rt a man! Alcib. I have heard in some sort of thy miseries. Tim. Thou saw'st them, when I had prosperity. Alcib. I see them now; then was a blessed time. Tim. As thine is now, held with a brace of harlots. Timan. Is this the Athenian minion, whom the world Voic'd so regardfully? Art thou Timandra ? Tim. Give them diseases, leaving with thee their lust. Hang thee, monster! Alcib. Pardon him, sweet Timandra; for his wits Are drown'd and lost in his calamities.- 1 This alludes to the old erroneous prevalent opinion, that infection communicated to another left the infecter free. I will not,' says Timon, take the rot from thy lips by kissing thee. See the fourth satire of Donne. 2 See Act ii. Sc. 2. The diet was a customary term for the regimen prescribed in these cases. So in The Mastive, a Collection of Epigrams: She took not diet nor the sweat in season.' 3 Warburton justly observes, that this passage is wonderfully sublime and picturesque.' The same image occurs in King Richard II. 'Devouring pestilence hangs in our air.' 4 Cutting. Alcib. Tim. That, Why me, Timon? By killing villains, thou wast born to conquer Put up thy gold; Go on,-here's gold,-go on; Herself's a bawd: Let not the virgin's cheek paps, That through the window-bars bore at men's eyes, Are not within the leaf of pity writ, But set them down horrible traitors: Spare not the babe Whose dimpled smiles from fools exhaust their mercy: Think it a bastard, whom the oracle Not all thy counsel. Tim. Dost thou, or dost thou not, heaven's curse upon thee! Phr. & Timan. Give us some gold, good Timon: Hast thou more? Tim. Enough to make a whore forswear her trade, And to make whores, a bawd. Hoid up, you sluts, Your aprons mountant: You are not oathable.Although, I know, you'll swear, terribly swear, Into strong shudders, and to heavenly agues, The immortal gods that hear you,-spare your oaths I'll trust to your conditions: Be whores still; And he whose pious breath seeks to convert you, Be strong in whore, allure him, burn him up; Let your close fire predominate his smoke, And be no turncoats: Yet may your pains, six months, Be quite contrary: 10 And thatch your poor thin roofs breasts, in a passage he has cited from Weaver's Plantagenet's Tragical Story, but it seems to me doubtful. I can hardly think the passage warrants Johnson's explanation, The virgin shows her bosom through the lattice of her chamber.' 6 An allusion to the tale of Edipus. 7 i. e. against objects of charity and compassion. Su in Troilus and Cressida, Ulysses says:'For Hector, in his blaze of wrath, subscribes To tender objects.' 8 That is, 'enough to make whores leave whoring, and a bawd leave making whores.' 9 Conditions for dispositions. By window-bars the poet probably means 'the part. let, gorget, or kerchief, which women put about their 10 The meaning of this passage appears to be as Stee neck, and pin down over their paps,' sometimes called vens explains it-Timon had been exhorting them to a niced, and translated Mamillare or fascia pectoralis: follow constantly their trade of debauchery, but he inand described as made of fine linen: from its semitrans-terrupts himself and imprecates upon them that for half parency arose the simile of window bars. This is the the year their pains may be quite contrary, that they best explanation I have to offer. The late Mr. Boswell may suffer such punishment as is usually inflicted upon thought that windows were used to signify a woman's harlots. He then continues his exhortations.' With burdens of the dead;-some that were hang'd,' | Let it no more bring out ingrateful man! No matter wear them, betray with them: whore still; Paint till a horse may mire upon your face: Phr. & Timan. Well, more gold;-What then?Believe't, that we'll do any thing for gold. Tim. Consumptions sow In hollow bones of man; strike their sharp shins, And let the unscarr'd braggarts of the war Phr. & Timan. More counsel with more money, bounteous Timon. Tim. More whore, more mischief first; I have given you earnest. Alcib. Strike up the drum, towards Athens. Farewell, Timon; If I thrive well, I'll visit thee again. Tim. If I hope well, I'll never see thee more. Tim. Yes, thou spok'st well of me. We but offend him.[Drum beats. Exeunt ALCIBIADES, PHRYNIA, and TIMANDRA. Tim. That nature, being sick of man's unkindness, Should yet be hungry!-Common mother, thou, [Digging. Whose womb unmeasurable, and infinite breast, 9 1 The fashion of periwigs for women, which Stowe informs us were brought into England about the time of the massacre of Paris,' seems to have been a fertile source of satire. Stubbes, in his Anatomy of Abuses, says that it was dangerous for any child to wander, as nothing was more common than for women to entice such as had fine locks into private places, and there to cut them off. 2 Quillets are subtleties, nice and frivolous distinctions. See Hamlet, Act v. Sc. 1. Go great with tigers, dragons, wolves, and bears; 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 dost not keep a dog Whom I would imitate. Consumption catch thee Apem. This is in thee a nature but affected; A poor unmanly melancholy, sprung From change of fortune. Why this spade? this place? This slavelike habit? and these looks of care? come, 13 To knaves and all approachers: "Tis most jus, That thou turn rascal; hadst thou wealth again, Rascals should have't. Do not assume my likeness. Tim. Were I like thee, I'd throw away myself. Apem Thou hast cast away thyself, being like thyself; A madman so long, now a fool: What, think'st That the bleak air, thy boisterous chamberlain, Will put thy shirt on warm? Will these moss'd trees, That have outliv'd the eagle, 14 page thy heels, Candied with ice, caudle thy morning taste, A fool of thee: Depart. 8 Perhaps Shakspeare meant curled (which was sy. nonymous with crisp) from the appearance of the clouds in the Tempest, Ariel talks of sitting on the curl'a clouds.' Chaucer, in his House of Fame, says :'Her heare that was oundie and crips." i. e. wary and curled. Again, in the Philosopher's Satires, by Robert Anton - Her face as beauteous as the crisped morn.' 9 So in King Lear : Dry up in her the organs of increase.' 10 Thus Milton, b. iii. 1. 564 :--Through the pure marble air.' in Othello: 3 The old copy reads 'hoar the flamen,' which Steevens suggests may mean, give him the hoary leprosy." I have not scrupled to insert Upton's reading of hoarse into the text, because I think the whole construction of Again the speech shows that is the word the poet wrote. To afflict him with leprosy would not prevent his scolding, to deprive him of his voice by hoarseness might. 4 To foresee his particular' is to provide for his private advantage, for which he leaves the right scent of public good.' 5 To grave is to bury. The word is now obsolete, but was familiar to our old writers. Thus Chapman in his version of the fifteenth Iliad : the throtes of dogs shall grave His manless limbs.' 6 This image (as Warburton ingeniously supposes) would almost make one imagine that Shakspeare was acquainted with some personifications of nature similar to the ancient statues of Diana Ephesia Multimammia. 7 The serpent which we, from the smallness of the eye, call the blind-worm, and the Latins cæcilia. So in Macbeth : 'Adder's fork and blind-worm's sting' Now by yon marble heaven.' 11 i. e. their diseased perfumed mistresses. Thus in Othello : Tis such another fit chew; marry, a perfum❜d one.' 12 Cunning of a carper' is the fastidiousness of a critic. Shame not these words, says Apemantus, by coming here to find fault. Carping momuses was a general term for ill-natured critics. Beatrice's sarcastic raillery is thus designated by Ursula in Much Ado About Nothing :- Why sure such carping is not commendable.' 13 To crook the pregnant hinges of the knee. Hamlet Apem. Tim. Ay. What! a knave too? Apem. If thou didst put this sour cold habit on To castigate thy pride, 'twere well: but thou Dost it enforcedly; thou'dst courtier be again, Wert thou not beggar. Willing misery Outlives incertain pomp, is crown'd before:1 The one is filling still, never complete; The other, at high wish: Best state, contentless, Hath a distracted and most wretched being, Worse than the worst, content. Thou should'st desire to die, being miserable. Tim. Not by his breath, that is more miserable. Thou art a slave, whom Fortune's tender arm With favour never clasp'd; but bred a dog. Hadst thou, like us, from our first swath, ceeded pro The sweet degrees that this brief world affords The mouths, the tongues, the eyes, and hearts of men ;* At duty, more than I could frame employment They never flatter'd thee: What hast thou given? men, Art thou proud yet? Tim. Ay, that I am not thee. To have wishes crowned is to have them completed, to be content. The highest fortunes, if contentless, have a wretched being, worse than that of the most abject fortune accompanied by content. 2 By his breath means by his voice, i. e. suffrage. 3 i. e. from infancy, from the first swathe-band with which a new-born infant is enveloped. There is in this speech a sullen haughtiness and malignant dignity, suitable at once to the lord and the man-hater. The impatience with which he bears to have his luxury reproached by one that never had luxury within his reach, is natural and graceful.' Johnson. Ŏ si sic omnia. In the conception and expression of this note (says Mr. Pye) we trace the mind and the pen of the author; a collection of such notes by Johnson would have been indeed a commentary worthy the critic and the poet. Johnson has adduced a passage somewhat resembling this from a letter written by the unfortunate favourite of Elizabeth, the Earl of Essex, just before his execution. I had none but divines to call upon me, to whom I said, if my ambition could have entered into their narrow hearts, they would not have been so humble; or if my delights had been once tasted by them, they would not have been so precise.' The rest of this admirable letter is, as Johnson justly observes, too serious and so lemn to be inserted here without irreverence.' It was very likely to make a deep impression upon Shakspeare's mind. But indeed no one can read it without emotion. Johnson copied his extract from Birch's Memoirs of Queen Elizabeth, and has erroneously printed deceivers for divines For here it sleeps, and does no hired harm. Tim. 'Would poison were obedient, and knew my mind! Apem. Where would'st thou send it? Apem. The middle of humanity thou never knewest, but the extremity of both ends: When thou wast in thy gilt, and thy perfume, they mocked thee for too much curiosity; in thy rags thou knowest none, but art despised for the contrary. There's a medlar for thee, eat it. Tim. On what I hate, I feed not. Tim. Ay, though it look like thee. Apem. An thou hadst hated meddlers sooner, thou should'st have loved thyself better pow. What man didst thou ever know unthrift, that was beloved after his means? Tim. Who, without those means thou talkest of, didst thou ever know beloved? Apem. Myself. Tim. I understand thee; thou hadst some means to keep a dog. Apem. What things in the world canst thou nearest compare to thy flatterers? Tim. Women nearest; but men, men are the things themselves. What would'st thou do with the world, Apemantus, if it lay in thy power? Apem. Give it the beasts, to be rid of the men. 4 The old copy reads The passive drugges of it.' Drug or drugge, is only a variation of the orthography of drudge, as appears by Baret's Alvearie. 5 The cold admonitions of cautious prudence. Respect is regardful consideration: Reason and respect Makes livers pale, and lustihood deject.' Troilus and Cressida. 6 i. e. more than I could frame employment for. 7 'O summer friendship, Whose flatt'ring leaves that shadow'd us in our Prosperity, with the least gust drop off In the autumn of adversity.' Massinger's Maid of Honour. 8 Dryden has quoted two verses of Virgil to show how well he could have written satires. Shakspeare has here given a specimen of the same power, by a line bit ter beyond all bitterness, in which Timon tells Apeman tus that he had not virtue enough for the vices which ho condemns. Dr. Warburton explains worst by lowest, which somewhat weakens the sense, and yet leaves it sufficiently vigorous. I have heard Mr. Burke commend the subtlety of dis crimination with which Shakspeare distinguishes the present character of Timon from that of Apemantus, whom, to vulgar eyes, he would seem to resembla Johnson. 9 Curiosity is scrupulous exactness, finical niceness Baret explains it picked diligence, Accuratus corporis cultus. A waiting gentlewoman should flee affection or curiosity,' (ì. e. affectation or overniceness -It some. times means scrupulous anxiety, precision 208 Tim. Would'st thou have thyself fall in the confusion of men, and remain a beast with the beasts? Apem. Ay, Timon. Tim. A beastly ambition, which the gods grant thee to attain to! If thou wert the lion, the fox would beguile thee: if thou wert the lamb, the fox would eat thee: if thou wert the fox, the lion would suspect thee, when, peradventure, thou wert accused by the ass: if thou wert the ass, thy dulness would forment thee; and still thou livedst but as a breakfast to the wolf: if thou wert the wolf, thy greediness would afflict thee, and oft thou should'st hazard thy life for thy dinner: wert thou the unicorn, pride and wrath would confound thee, and make thine own self the conquest of thy fury: wert thou a bear, thou would'st be kill'd by the horse: wert thou a horse, thou would'st be seized by the leopard wert thou a leopard, thou wert german to the lion, and the spots of thy kindred were jurors on thy life: all thy safety were remoWhat beast tion, and thy defence, absence. could'st thou be, that were not subject to a beast? and what a beast art thou already, that seest not thy loss in transformation? 2 Apem. If thou could'st please me with speaking to me, thou might'st have hit upon it here: The commonwealth of Athens is become a forest of beasts. Tim. How has the ass broke the wall, that thou art out of the city? Apem. Yonder comes a poet and a painter: The plague of company light upon thee! I will fear to catch it, and give way: When I know not what else to do, I'll see thee again. Tim. When there is nothing living but thee, thou shalt be welcome, I had rather be a beggar's dog, than Apemantus. Apem. Thou art the cap of all the fools alive. Tim. 'Would thou wert clean enough to spit upon. Apem. A plague on thee, thou art too bad to 2 This seems to imply that the lion bears, like the Turk, no brother near the throne.' Thy grave-stone daily make thine epitaph, [Looking on the gold. But not till I am dead!-I'll say thou hast gold: Tim. Thy back, I pr'ythee. Throng'd to? Ay. them. Enter Thieves." 1 Thief. Where should he have this gold? It is some poor fragment, some slender ort of his remainder: The mere want of gold, and the fallingfrom of his friends, drove him into this melancholy. 2 Thief. It is noised, he hath a mass of treasure. 3 Thief. Let us make the assay upon him; if he If he covetcare not for't, he will supply us easily; ously reserve it, how shall's get it? 2 Thief. True; for hc.bears it not about him, 'tis hid. 1 Thief. Is not this he? Thieves. Where? 2 Thief. "Tis his description. Thieves. Soldiers, not thieves. Tim. Both too; and women's sons. Thieves. We are not thieves, but men that much do want. Tim. Your greatest want is, you want much of men. Why should you want? Behold the earth hath roots; Within this mile break forth a hundred springs : As beasts, and birds, and fishes. Tim. Nor on the beasts themselves, the birds, and You must eat men. Yet thanks I must you con, 'Your greatest want is, you want much of me.' 3 Both Steevens and Malone are wrong in their ex-Your greatest want is that you expect supplies from me, planation of remotion here; which is neither removing of whom you can reasonably expect nothing. Your from place to place,' nor remoteness;' but 'removing necessities are indeed desperate, when you apply to one away, removing afar off. Remotio.' in my situation. Dr. Farmer would point the passage differently, thus: 4 i. e. the top, the principal. 5 See Act iii. Sc. 4. 6 Warburton remarks that the imagery here is ex quisitely beautiful and sublime. 7 Touch for touchstone: 'O Buckingham, now do I play the touch, 9 The old copy reads, "Enter the Banditti. 9 The old copy reads: 'Your greatest want is, you want much of meat.' 'Your greatest want is, you want much. Of meat Why should you want,' &c. 10 Limited professions are allowed professions. Thus in Macbeth : 'I'll make so bold to call, for 'tis my limited service." I will request the reader to correct my explanation of li mited in Macbeth, where I have unintentionally allowed the old glossarial explanation to stand, which interprets it appointed. Here's gold: Go, suck the subtle blood of the grape | 1 Thief. "Tis in the malice of mankind, that he thus advises us; not to have us thrive in our mys Is yon despis'd and ruinous man my lord? What viler thing upon the earth, than friends, Tim. What, dost thou weep?-Come nearer :- Because thou art a woman, and disclaim'st Flav. I beg of you to know me, good my lord, Tim. Had I a steward so true, so just, and now My dangerous nature mild. Let me behold Methinks thou art more honest now, than wise; If not a usuring kindness; and as rich men deal Expecting in return twenty for one? Flav. No, my most worthy inaster, in whose breast Doubt and suspect, alas, are plac'd too late: feast: Suspect still comes where an estate is least. That which I show, heaven knows, is merely love, Care of your food and living: and, believe it, For any benefit that points to me, Either in hope, or present, I'd exchange For this one wish, That you had power and wealth Those that would mischief me, than those that do! To requite me, by making rich yourself. He has caught me in his eye: I will present thee. Flav. An honest poor servant of yours. I know thee not: I ne'er had honest man Then The gods are witness, 1 The moon is called the moist star in Hamlet, and the poet in the last scene of The Tempest has shown that he was acquainted with her influence on the tides. The watery beams of the moon are spoken of in Romeo and Juliet. The sea is therefore said to resolve her into salt tears, in allusion to the flow of the tides, and perhaps of her influence upon the weather, which she is said to govern. There is an allusion to the lachrymose nature of the planet in the following apposite passage in King Richard III: That I, being govern'd by the warry moon, May bring forth plenteous tears to drown the world.' 2 i. e. compost, manure. 3 There is no hour in a man's life so wretched but he always has it in his power to become true, i. e. honest.' 4 An alteration of honour, is an alteration of an bonourable state to a state of disgrace. 5 How rarely, i.e. how admirably. So in Much Ado About Nothing, Act iii. Sc. 1, how rarely featur’d.' 6 i. e. desired. Friends and enemies here mean those who profess friendship and profess enmity. The proverb 'Defend me from my friends, and from my Tim. Look thee, 'tis so!-Thou singly honest man, Here, take :-the gods out of my misery And may diseases lick up their false bloods! Flav. O, let me stay, And comfort you, my master. |
