ACT IV. TIMON'S EXECRATION OF THE ATHENIANS. SCENE.-Without the walls of Athens. Let me look back upon thee, O thou wall, That girdlest in those wolves! Dive in the earth, And fence not Athens! Matrons, turn incontinent! Obedience fail in children! slaves, and fools, Pluck the grave wrinkled senate from the bench, And minister in their stead! to general filths* Convert o' the instant, green virginity! Do't in your parent's eyes! bankrupts, hold fast; On Athens, ripe for stroke! thou cold soiatica, * Common sewers. ti. e. Contrarieties, whose nature it is to waste or destroy each other. For libertinism. A FRIEND FORSAKEN. As we do turn our backs From our companion, thrown into his grave: Slink all away; leave their false vows with him With his disease of all-shunn'd poverty, ON GOLD. Earth, yield me roots! [Digging. Who seeks for better of thee, sauce his palate With thy most operant poison! What is here? Gold? yellow, glittering, precious gold? No, gods, I am no idle votarist.* Roots, you clear heavens! Thus much of this, will make black, white; foul, fair; Wrong, right; base, noble; old, young; coward, valiant. Ha, you gods! why this? What this, you gods? Why this Will lug your priests and servants from your sides, Will knit and break religions; bless the accurs'd; * No insincere or inconstant supplicant. Gold will not serve me instead of roots. + Sorrowful. i. e. Gold restores her to all the sweetness and freshness of youth. TIMON TO ALCIBIADES. Go on,-here's gold,-go on; Be as a planetary plague, when Jove Will o'er some high-vic'd city hang his poison Pity not honour'd age for his white beard, Herself's a bawd: Let not the virgin's cheek Set them down horrible traitors: Spare not the babe, Hath doubtfully pronounc'd thy throat shall cut, And mince it sans remorse: Swear against objects;§ Put armour on thine ears, and on thine eyes; Whose proof nor yells of mothers, maids, nor babes, Nor sight of priests in holy vestments bleeding, Shall pierce a jot. There's gold to pay thy soldiers: Make large confusion; and, thy fury spent, Confounded be thyself! Speak not, be gone. TO THE COURTESANS. Consumption sow In hollow bones of man; strike their sharp shins, Nor sound his quillets shrilly; hear the flamen, And not believes himself: down with the nose, Smells from the general weal: make curl'd-pate ruffians bald; And let the unscar'd braggarts of the war Derive some pain from you. * Cutting. + Without pity. † An allusion to the tale of Cedipus Si. e. Against objects of charity and compassion. !! Subtilties. HIS REFLECTIONS ON THE EARTH. That nature, being sick of man's unkindness, The gilded newt, and eyeless venom'd wormt Never presented!-0, a root,-Dear thanks! HIS DISCOURSE WITH APEMANTUS. Apem. This is in thee a nature but affected. A poor unmanly melancholy, sprung From change of fortune. Why this spade? this place? This slave-like habit? and these looks of care? Be thou a flatterer now, and seek to thrive *Boundless surface. The serpent called the blind worm. + Bent § i. e. Their diseased perfumed mistresses. > Blow off thy cap; praise his most vicious strain, Thou gav'st thine ears, like tapsters, that bid wel come, To knaves, and all approachers; 'Tis most just, A madman so long, now a fool: What think'st That have outliv'd the eagle, page thy heels, And skip when thou point'sť out. Will the cold brook, Candied with ice, caudle thy morning taste, To cure thy o'ernight's surfeit? call the creatures,---Whose naked natures live in all the spite Of wreakful heaven; whose bare unhoused trunks, Answer mere nature,-bid them flatter thee; * Tim. 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,* proceeded Freely command, thou would'st have plung'd thyself In general riot; melted down thy youth + The cold admonitions of cautious prudence. |