Ha, you gods! why this? What this, you gods? Will lug your priests and fervants from your fides; Will knit and break religions; blefs the accurs'd; But yet I'll bury thee: Thou'lt go, strong thief, [heart, Alc. What art thou there? fpeak. Alc. What is thy name? Is man fo hateful to That art thyfelf 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; Tim. Art thou Tymandra? Tyman. Yes. Tim. Be a whore ftill! they love thee not, tha Give them difeafes, leaving with thee their luft. To the tub-faft", and the diet. Tyman. Hang thee, monster! Alc. Pardon him, fweet Tymandra; for his wits I have but little gold of late, brave Timon, But in thy fortunes am unlearn'd and strange. I not defire to know. Follow thy drum: With man's blood paint the ground, gules, gules: Then what should war be? This fell whore of 40 thine gone. Alc. I am thy friend, and pity thee, dear Timon. Tim. How doft thou pity him, whom thou doft trouble? I had rather be alone. Alc. Why, fare thee well: Tim. Keep it, I cannot eat it. Alc. When I have laid proud Athens on a heap, Alc. Ay, Timon, and have caufe. Tim. The gods confound them all in thy con- Thee after, when thou haft conquer'd! Tim. That, by killing of villains, thou waft born Put up thy gold; Go on,-here's gold,-go on; i.e. men who have strength yet remaining to ftruggle 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 fays, 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 hospital. She it is whom gold embalms and Spices to the April day again: i. e. gold reftores her to all the freshness and fweetness of youth. the earth where nature laid thee. 5 Thou haft life and motion in thee. 6 This alludes to the 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 tinence required. Hence the term of the tub-faft. The dies was likewife a customary term for the regimen prefcribed in thefe cafes. 4 Lie in Will Will o'er fome high-vic'd city hang his poison That through the window-bars bore at men's eyes, Set them down horrible traitors: Spare not the babe, Think it a baftard, whom the oracle [trade, 30 Tim. Enough to make a whore forfwear her I'll truft to your conditions 5: Be whores ftill; 35 10 Pbr. and Tym. More counsel, with more money, bounteous Timon. Tim. More whore, more mischief first; I have Alc. Strike up the drum towards Athens. If I thrive well, I'll vifit thee again. Tim. If I hope well, I'll never fee thee more. Tim. Yes, thou spok'st well of me. Alc. Call'st thou that harm? Tim. Men daily find it. Get thee away, and take thy beagles with thee. [Drum beats. Exeunt Alcibiades, unkindness, Should yet be hungry! -Common mother, thou Be quite contrary: And thatch your poor thin No matter:-wear them, betray with them: whore 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. 5 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 discipline neceffary 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 fays, Make falfe bair, &c. Mr. Steevens however conceives the meaning to be only this: "Yet for half the year at leaft, may you suffer fuch punishment as is inflicted on barlots in boufes of correction.” 8 1 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 be 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. ༢༦༣ Let it no more bring out ingrateful man! 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, sprung From change of fortune. Why this spade? 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 seek 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 moft 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; hadft 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; 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 20In 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 ftuck, 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 haft thou given A madman fo long, now a fool; What, think'ft Anfwer meer nature,bid them flatter thee; Tim. A fool of thee: Depart. Apem. I love thee better now than e'er I did. rip.m. Why? Tim. Thou flatter'ft mifery. Apem. I flatter not; but fay, thou art a caitift. Tim. Why doft thou feek me out? 451 Apem. To vex thee. 55 Tim. Always a villain's office, or a fool's. Doft please thyself in 't? Apem. Ay. The cunning of a carper means the infidious art of a critic. 2 That is, Beft ftates contentlefs have a wretched being, a being worfe than that of the worst ftates that are content. 3 By bis breath is probably meant bis fentence. 4 Alluding to the word Cynic, of which sect Apemantus was. From infancy. Swath is the drefs of a new-born child. 6 Respect, according to Mr. Steevens, means the qu'en dat on the regard of Athens, that strongeft reftraint on licentioufnefs: the i y precept, i, e. that tool hot blood. Tell Tell them there I have gold; look, fo I have. Tim. The beft, and trueft: For here it fleeps, and does no hired harm. Tim. Under that's above me. Apem. Where my stomach finds meat; or, rather, where I eat it. to me, thou might'ft have hit upon it here: The commonwealth of Athens is become a foreft of beafts, Tim. How has the afs broke the wall, that thou 5 art out of the city? Tim. 'Would poison were obedient, and knew 10 my mind! Apem. Where wouldst thou fend it ? Tim. To fauce thy dishes. Apem. The middle of humanity thou never 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 elfe to do, I'll fee 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 3 of all the fools alive. Apem. Thou art too bad to curfe. knewest, but the extremity of both ends: When 15 A plague on thee! Tim. On what I hate, I feed not. Tim. Ay, though it look like thee. Tim. All villains, that do ftand by thee, are pure. 20I'll beat thee,-but I fhould infect my hands. Apem. An thou hadft hated medlars fooner,| thou shouldst have lov'd thyself better now. What man didst thou ever know unthrift, that was be-25 lov'd after his means? Tim. Who, without thofe means thou talk'ft of, didst thou ever know belov'd? Apem. Myfelf. Tim. I understand thee; thou had'ft fome means 30 to keep a dog. Apem. What things in the world canst thou nearest compare to thy flatterers? Tim. Women neareft; but men, men are the things themselves. What wouldst thou do with 35 the world, Apemantus, if it lay in thy power? Apem. Give it the beafts, to be rid of the men. Tim. Wouldst thou have thyself fall in the confufion of men, and remain a beast with the beafts? Apem. Ay, Timon. Apem. 'Would thou wouldst burst! Thou tedious rogue! I am forry, I fhall lofe Apem. Beaft! Tim. Slave! Apem. Toad! Tim. Rogue, rogue, rogue! [Apemantus retreats backward, as going. I am fick of this falfe world; and will love nought 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 fufpect thee, when, peradventure, thou 45 wert accus'd by the afs: if thou wert the afs, thy dulnefs would torment thee; and still thou liv'dft but as a breakfast to the wolf: if thou wert the wolf, thy greediness would afflict thee, and oft thou fhouldft hazard thy life for thy dinner: wert thon 50 the unicorn, pride and wrath would confound thee, and make thine own felf the conqueft of thy fury: wert thou a bear, thou wouldst be kill'd by the horfe: wert thou a horfe, thou would be feiz'd by the leopard; wert thou a leopard, thou wert 55 german to the lion, and the fpots of thy kindred were jurors on thy life: all thy fafety were remotion 2; and thy defence, abfence. What beaft couldst thou be, that were not subject to a beast ?| and what a beast art thou already, and feeft not thy 60 lofs in transformation? Apem. If thou couldst please me with speaking Tim. Throng'd to? Арет. Ау. Tim. Thy back, I pr'ythee. i. e. for too much finical delicacy. i, e. removal from place to place. principal. 4 Touch for touchftene. 3G 4 3 i. e. the top, the More More things like men?-Eat, Timon, and abhor] them. Enter Thieves. 1 Thief. Where should he have this gold? It is fome poor fragment, fome flender ort of his remainder: The meer want of gold, and the fallingfrom of his friends, drove him into this melancholy. 2 Thief. It is nois'd, he hath a mass of treasure. 3 Thief. Let us make the affay upon him; if he 10 Like workmen: I'll example you with thievery. care not for't, he will fupply us eafily; If he covetoufly referve it, how fhall's get it? 2 Thief. True; for he bears it not about him, 'tis hid. The fun's a thief, and with his great attraction And her pale fire she snatches from the fun; Tim. Your greatest want is, you want much of 25 You must eat men. 1 Thief. 'Tis in the malice of mankind, that he thus advifes us; not to have us thrive in our mystery. 2 Thief. I'll believe him as an enemy, and give over my trade. 1 Thief. Let us firft fee peace in Athens: There is no time fo miferable, but a man may be [Exeunt. Yet thanks I must you con 1,135ltrue. Flav. The Woods, and Timon's Cave. Enter Flavius. YOU gods! Is yon defpis'd and ruinous man my Full of decay and failing? O monument V. Defperate want made! What viler thing upon the earth, than friends, To con thanks is a very common expreffion among our old dramatic writers. 2 Limited, for legal. 3 Mr. Tollett comments on this paffage thus: "The man is the governefs of the floods, but cannot be refolved by the furges of the fea. This feems inconteftible, and therefore an alteration of the text appears to be neceffary. I propofe to read :—whose liquid furge refolves the main into falt tears ;—i. e. refolves the main land or the continent into fea. In Bacon, and alfo in Shakspeare's King Lear, act III. fc. 1, main occurs in this fignification. Earth melting to fea is not an uncommon idea in our poets. "Melt earth to fea, fea flow to air." I might add, that in Chaucer, mone, which is very near to the traces of the old reading, feems to mean the globe of the earth, or a map of it, from the French, monde, the world; but I think main is the true reading here, and might easily be mistaken for moon by a hafty tranfcriber, or a carelefs printer, who might have in their thoughts the morn, which is mentioned in a preceding line." Rarely, for fitly; not for feldom. 5 We should read cvill'd. 6 The fenfe is, "Let me rather woo or carefs thofe that would mischief, that profefs to mean me mischief, than those that really do me mischief under false professions of kindness.” 4 Still |