Of comely virtues:

Nor did he soil the fact with cowardice;
(An honour in him which buys out his fault),
But, with a noble fury, and fair spirit,
Seeing his reputation touch'd to death,
He did oppose his foe:

And with such sober and unnoted passion t
He did behave his anger, ere 'twas spent,
As it he had but proved an argument.

1 Sen. You undergo too strict a paradox §, Striving to make an ugly deed look fair: Your words have took such pains, as if they

bour'd

To bring manslaughter into form, set quarrelling
Upon the head of valour; which, indeed,
Is valour misbegot, and came into the world
When sects and factions were newly born:
He's truly valiant, that can wisely suffer

If there were no foes, that were enough alone
To overcome lum: in that beastly fury
He has been known to commit outrages,
And cherish factions: 'tis inferr'd to us,
His days are foul, and his drink dangerous.
1 Sen. He dies.

Alcib. Hard fate! he might have died in war.
My lords, if not for any parts in him

(Though his right arm might purchase his own time,
And be in debt to none), yet, more to move you,
Take my deserts to his, and join them both:
And, for I know, your reverend ages love
Security, I'll pawn my victories, all
My honour to you, upon his good returns.
If by this crime he owes the law his life,
Why, let the war receive't in valiant gore;
For law is strict, and war is nothing more.

1 Sen. We are for law, he dies; urge it no more,
On height of our displeasure: friend, or brother,
He forfeits his own blood, that spills another.
Alcib. Must it be so? It must no be. My lords,

I do beseech you, know me.

2 Sen. How?

Alcib. Call me to your remembrances.

3 Sen. What?

Alcib. I cannot think, but your age has forgot

me;

The worst that man can breathe; and make his wrongs

His outsides; wear them like his raiment, carelessly;

And ne'er prefer his injuries to his heart,
To bring it into danger.

If wrongs be evils, and enforce us kill,
What folly 'tis, to hazard life for ill?
Alcib. My lord,-

1 Sen. You cannot make gross sins look clear; To revenge is no valour, but to bear.

Alcib. My lords, then, under favour, pardon me, If I speak like a captain.

Why do fond men expose themselves to battle,
And not endure all threat'nings? sleep upon it,
And let the foes quietly cut their throats,
Without repugnancy? but if there be
Such valour in the bearing, what make we
Abroad? why then, women are more valiant,
That stay at home, if bearing carry it;

And th' ass, more captain than the lion; the felon,
Loaden with irons, wiser than the judge,
If wisdom be in suffering. O my lords,
As you are great, be pitifully good:

Who cannot condemn rashness in cold blood?
To kill, I grant, is sin's extremest gust ¶;
But, in defence, by mercy, 'tis most just
To be in anger, is impiety;

But who is man, that is not angry?
Weigh but the crime with this.

2 Sen. You breathe in vain.

Alcib. In vain? his service done

At Lacedæmon, and Byzantium,
Were a sufficient briber for his life.

1 sen. What's that?

Alcib. Why, I say, my lords, h'as done fair service,

And slain in fight many of your enemies:
How full of valour did he bear himself
In the last conflict, and made plenteous wounds?
2 Sen. He has made too much plenty with 'em, he
Is a sworn rioter: b'as a sin that often
Drowns him, and takes his valour prisoner:

i. e. Putting this action of his, which was predetermined by fate, out of the question.

i. e. Passion so subdued, that no spectator could

note its operation.

Manage, govern.

You undertake a paradox too hard.

What have we to do in the field.

For aggravation.

Homicide in our defence, by a merciful interpretation of the law, is considered justifiable.'

Alcib. Banish me?

Banish your dotage; banish usury,
That makes the senate ugly.

1 Sen. If, after two days' shine, Athens contain thee,

Attend our weightier judgment. And, not to swell our spirit +,

He shall be executed presently.

[Exeunt Sen. Alcib. Now the gods keep you old enough; that you may live

Only in bone, that none may look on you!

I am worse than mad: I have kept back their foes,
While they have told their money, and let out
Their coin upon large interest; I myself,

Rich only in large hurts;-All those, for this?
Is this the balsam, that the usuring senate
Pours into captains' wounds? Ha! banishment?
It comes not ill; I hate not to be banish'd;
It is a cause worthy my spleen and fury,
That I may strike at Athens. I'll cheer up
My discontented troops, and lay for hearts,
'Tis honour, with most lands to be at odds;
Soldiers should brook as little wrongs as gods.

{Exit.

SCENE VI.—A magnificent Room in Timon's House, Music.-Tables set out :-Servants attending. Enter divers LORDS, at several Doors.

1 Lord. The good time of day to you, Sir.

2 Lord. I also wish it to you. I think, this ho nourable lord did but try us this other day.

1 Lord. Upon that were my thoughts tiring §, when we encounter'd: I hope, it is not so low with him, as he made it seem in the trial of his several friends.

2 Lord. It should not be, by the persuasion of his new feasting.

1 Lord. I should think so: he hath sent me an earnest inviting, which many my near occasions did urge me to put off; but he hath conjured me beyond them, and I must needs appear.

2 Lord. In like manner was I in debt to my importunate business, but he would not hear my excuse. 1 am sorry, when he sent to borrow of me, that my provision was out.

1 Lord. I am sick of that grief too, as I understand how all things go.

2 Lord. Every man here's so. What would he

have borrow'd of you?

1 Lord. A thousand pieces. 2 Lord. A thousand pieces!

For dishonoured.

+.e. Not to put ourselves in any tumour of rage. We should how say-to lay out for hearts; i. e. the affections of the people.

To tire on a thing meant, to be idly employed

on it.

1 Lord. What of you?
3 Lord. He sent to me, Sir,-Here he comes.

Enter TIMON, and Attendants.

Tim. With all my heart, gentlemen both :-And how fare you?

1 Lord. Ever at the best, hearing well of your lordship.

2 Lord. The swallow follows not summer more withing, than we your lordship.

Tim. [Aside.] Nor more willingly leaves winter; such sunimer birds are men.-Gentlemen, our dinser will not recompense this long stay feast your ears with the music awhile; if they will fare so harshly on the trumpet's sound: we shall to't presently.

1 Lord. I hope, it remains not unkindly with your lordship, that I return'd you an empty mes

senger.

Tim. O, Sir, let it not trouble you. 2 Lord. My noble lord,-

Tim. Ah, my good friend! What cheer?

[The Banquet brought in. 2 Lord. My most honourable lord, I am e'en sck of shame, that, when your lordship this other day sent to me, I was so unfortunate a beggar. Tim. Think not on't, Sir.

2 Lord. If you had sent but two hours before.Tim. Let it not cumber your better remem brance.-Come, bring in all together.

2 Lord. All cover'd dishes!

1 Lord. Royal cheer, I warrant you.

3 Lord. Doubt not that, if money, and the seaSon, can yield it.

1 Lord. How do you? What's the news?

& Lord. Alcibiades is banish'd Hear you of it? 1 & 2 Lord. Alcibiades banish'd!

3 Lord. 'Tis so, be sure of it.

1 Lord. How? how?

2 Lord. I pray you, upon what?

Tim. My worthy friends, will you draw near? 3 Lord. I'll tell you more anon. Here's a noble

feast toward.

2 Lord. This is the old man still.

3 Lord. Will't hold? Will't hold ?

2 Lord. It does: but time will-and so

3 Lord. I do conceive.

Tim. Each man to his stool, with that spur as he

would to the lip of his mistress: your diet shall be in all places alike. Make not a city feast of it, to let the meat cool ere we can agree upon the first place: sit, sit. The gods require our thanks.

You great benefactors, sprinkle our society with thankfulness. For your own gifts, make yourselves praised: but reserve still to give, lest your deities be despised. Lend to each man enough, that one need not lend to another: for, were your godheads to borrow of men, men would forsake the gods. Make the meat be beloved, more than the man that gives it. Let no assembly of twenty be without a score of villains: if there sit twelve women at the table, let a dozen of them be-as they are.-The rest of your fees, O gods, the senators of Athens, together with the common lag of people,-what is amiss in them, you gods make suitable for destruction. For these my present friends,—as they are to me nothing, so in nothing bless them, and to nothing they are welcome. Uncover, dogs, and lap.

[The dishes uncovered are full of warm water. Some speak. What does his lordship mean? Some other. I know not.

Tim. May you a better feast never behold, You knot of mouth-friends! Smoke, and lukewarm water

Is your perfection. This is Timon's last;
Who stuck and spangled you with flatteries,
Washes it off, and sprinkles in your faces

[Throwing Water in their Faces.
Your reeking villainy. Live loth'd, and long,
Most smiling, smooth, detested parasites,
Courteous destroyers, affable wolves, meek bears,
You fools of fortune, trencher-friends, time's fliest,
Cap and knee slaves, vapours, and minute-jacks!
Of man, and beast, the infinite malady
Crust you quite o'er!-What, dost thou go?

Soft, take thy physic first-thou too,-and thou ;[Throws the Dishes at thm, and drives them out.

Stay, I will lend thee money, borrow none.-
What, all in motion? Henceforth be no feast,
Whereat a villain's not a we come guest.
Burn, house; sink, Athens! Henceforth hated be
Of Timon, man, and all humanity!
[Exit.

Re-enter the LORDS, with other LORDS and Senators. 1 Lord. How now, my lords?

2 Lord. Know you the quality of Lord Timon's fury? 3 Lord. Pish! Did you see my cap? 4 Lord. I have lost my gown.

3 Lord. He's but a mad lord, and no ught but humour sways him. He gave me a jewel the other day, and now he has beat it out of my hat:-Did you see my jewel?

4 Lord. Did you see my cap?

2 Lord. Here 'tis.

4 Lord. Here lies my gown.
1 Lord. Let's make no stay.

2 Lord. Lord Timon's mad.
3 Lord. I feel't upon my bones.

4 Lord. One day he gives us diamonds, next day [Exeunt.

stones.

ACT IV.

SCENE I-Without the Walls of Athens.

Enter TIMON.

Tim. 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 steads! to general filths Convert o' the instant, green virginity! Do't in your parents' eyes! bankrupts, hold fast; Rather than render Lack, out with your knives, And cut your trusters' throats! bound servants,

steal!

Large handed robbers your grave masters are,
And pill by law! maid, to thy master's bed;
Thy mistress is o' the brothel! son of sixteen,
Pluck the lined crutch from the old limping sire,
With it beat out his brains! piety, and fear,
Religion to the gods, peace, justice, truth,
Domestic awe, night-rest, and neighbourhood,-
Instruction, manners, mysteries, and trades,
Degrees, observances, customs, and laws,
Decline to your confounding contraries +,
And yet confusion live!-Plagues, incident to men,
Your potent and infectious fevers heap
On Athens, ripe for stroke! thou cold sciatica,
Cripple our senators, that their limbs may halt
As lamely as their manners! lust and liberty
Creep in the minds and marrows of our youth;
That 'gainst the stream of virtue they may strive,
And drown themselves in riot! itches, blains,
Sow all the Athenian bosoms; and their crop
Be general leprosy ! breath infect breath ;
That their society, as their friendship, may
Be merely poison! Nothing I'll bear from thee,
But nakedness, thou detestable town!
Take thou that too, with multiplying banns!
Timon will to the woods; where he shall find
The unkindest beast more kinder than mankind.
The gods confound (hear me, you good gods all),
The Athenians both within and out that wall!
And grant, as Timon grows, his hate may grow
To the whole race of mankind, high, and low!
Amen.
[Exit.
SCENE II-Athens.-A Room in Timon's House.
Enter FLAVIUS, with two or three SERVANTS.
1 Serv. Hear you, master steward, where's our

master?

Are we undone ? Cast off? Nothing remaining? Flav. Alack, my fellows, what should I say to

you?

Let me be recorded by the righteous gods,

I am as poor as you.

1 Serv. Such a house broke !

So noble a master fallen! All gone! and not

• Common sewers.

i. e. Contrarieties, whose nature it is to waste or destroy each other.

For libertinism,

Accumulated curses.

Timan. Hang thee, monster!

Tim. That,

killing villains, thou wast born to conquer My country.

Pat up thy gold; go on,-here's gold,-go on;
Be as a planetary plague, when Jove
Will o'er some high-viced city hang his poison
In the sick air: let not thy sword skip one:
Pity not honour'd age for his white beard,
He's an usurer: strike me the counterfeit matron;
It is her habit only that is honest,
Herself's a bawd: let not the virgin's cheek
Make soft thy trenchant sword; for those milk-
paps,

That through the window-bars bore at men's eyes, Are not within the leaf of pity writ,

Set them down horrible traitors: spare not the babe,

Whose dimpled smiles from fools exhaust their mercy;

Think it a bastard, whom the oracle

Hath doubtfully pronounced thy throat shall cnt,
Ana mince itsans remorse 1: swear against objects;
Pet 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.
Alcib. Hast thou gold yet? I'll take the gold
thou givest me,

Not all thy counsel.

Tim. Dost thou, or dost thou not, heaven's curse upon thee!

Phr. & Timan. Give as some gold, good Timon: Hast thou more?

Tim. Enough to make a whore forswear her trade,

And to make whores, a bawd. Hold up, you sluts,
Your aprons mountant: you are not oathable,-
Although, I know, you'll swear, terribly swear,
Isto 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: and thatch your poor thin roofs
With burdens of the dead ;-some that were hang'd,
No matter wear them, betray with them: whore
still;

Paint till a horse may mire upon your face:
A pox of wrinkles!

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,

Nor sound his quillets shrilly: hoar the famen,
That scolds against the quality of flesh,
And not believes himself: down with the nose,
Down with it flat; take the bridge quite away
Of him, that his particular to foresee,
Smells from the general weal: make curl'd-pate
ruffians bald;

And let the unscarr'd braggarts of the war
Derive some pain from you: plague all;
That your activity may defeat and quell
The source of all erection.-There's more gold :—
Do you damn others, and let this damn you,
And ditches grave † you all!

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.
Alcib. I never did thee harm.

Tim. Yes, thou spokest well of me.
Alcib. Call'st thou that harm?

Tim. Men daily find it such. Get thee away,
And take thy beagles with thee.
Alcib. We but offend him.-
Strike.

[Drums 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,
Teems, and feeds all; whose self same mettle,
Whereof thy proud child, arrogant man, is puff'd,
Engenders the black toad, and adder blue,
The gilded newt, and eyeless venom'd worm ý,
With all the abhorred births below crisp heaven
Whereon Hyperion's quickening fire doth shine;
Yield him, who all thy human sons doth hate,
From forth thy plenteous bosom, one poor root!
Ensear thy fertile and conceptions womb,
Let it no more bring out ingrateful man!
Go great with tigers, dragons, wolves, and bears;
Teem with new monsters, whom thy upward face
Hath to the marbled mansion all above
Never presented !-0, a root,-Dear thanks!
Dry up thy marrows, vines, and plough-torn leas;
Whereof ingrateful man, with liquorish draughts,
And morsels unctuous, greases his pure mind,
That from it all consideration slips I
Enter APEMANTUS.

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 theel 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? Thy flatterers yet wear silk, drink wine, lie soft; Hug their diseased perfumes ¶, and have forgot That ever Timon was. Shame not these woods, By putting on the cunning of a carper*•. 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 observe, Blow off thy cap; praise his most vicious strain, And call it excellent: thou wast told thus; Thou gavest thine ears, like tapsters, that bid wel

come,

That have outlived the eagle, page thy heels, And skip when thou point'st out? Will the cold brook,

Candied with ice, caudle thy morning taste, To cure thy o'er-night's surfeit? Call the tures,

Whose naked natures live in all the spite

Of wreakful heaven; whose bare unhoused trunks,
To the conflicting elements exposed,
Answer mere nature,-bid them flatter thee;
O! thou shalt find--

Tim. A fool of thee: Depart.

Apem. I love thee better now than e'er I did.
Tim. I hate thee worse.

Apem. Why?

Tim. Thou flatter't misery.

Apem. I flatter not; but say, thou art a caitiff. Tim. Why dost thou seek me out?

Apem. To vex thee.

Tim. Always a villain's office, or a fool's. Dost please thyself in't ?

Apem. Ay.

Tim. What a knave too?

Apem. If thou didst put this sour cold habit on To castigate thy pride, 'twere well; but thon Dost it enforcedly; thou'dst courtier be again, Wert thou not beggar. Willing misery. Outlives incertain pomp, is crown'd before⚫ : The one is filling sull, never complete; The other, at high wish: best state, contentless, Hath a distracted and most wretched being, Worse than the worst, content.

Thou shouldst 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‡, pro-
ceeded

The sweet degrees that this brief world affords
To such as may the passive drugs of it
Freely command, thou wouldst have plunged thy
self

In general riot; melted down thy youth
In different beds of lust; and never learn'd
The icy precepts of respect, but follow'd
The sugar'd game before thee. But myself,
Who had the world as my confectionary;
The mouths, the tongues, the eyes, and hearts of

men

At duty, more than I could frame employment;
That numberless upon me stuck, as leaves
Do on the oak, have with one winter's brush
Fell from their boughs, and left me open, bare
For every storm that blows;-I, to bear this,
That never knew but better, is some burden:
Thy nature did commence in sufferance, time
Hath made thee hard in't. Why shouldst thou
hate men?

They never flatter'd thee: What hast thon given?
If thou wilt curse,-thy father, that poor rag,
Must be thy subject; who, in spite put stuff
To some she beggar, and compounded thee
Poor rogue hereditary. Hence! be gone!-
If thou hadst not been born the worst of men,
Thou hadst been a knave, and flatterer.
Apem. Art thou proud yet?

Tim. Ay, that I am not thee.

Apem. I, that I was

No prodigal.

Tim. I, that I am one now;

Were all the wealth I have, shut up in thee,
I'd give thee leave to hang it. Get thee gone.-
That the whole life of Athens were in this!
Thus would I eat it.

[Eating a Root.

Apem. Here: I will mend thy feast.
[Offering him something.
Tim. First mend my company, take away thyself.
Apem. So I shall mend mine own, by the lack

of thine.

Tim. 'Would poison were obedient, .and knew my mind!

Apem. Where wouldst thou send it?

Tim. To sauce thy dishes.

Apem. The middle of humanity thou never knewest, but the extremity of both ends: when thou wast in thy gilt, and thy perfume, they mock'd 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.
Apem. Dost hate a medlar?

Tim. Ay, though it look like thee.

Apem. An thou hadst hated meddlers sooner, thou shouldst have loved thyself better now. 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 wouldst thou do with the world, Apemantus, if it lay in thy power?

Apem. Give it the beasts, to be rid of the men. Tim. Wouldst 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 thon 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 dalness would torment 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 shouldst 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 wouldst be kill'd by the horse; wert thou a horse, thou wouldst be seized by the leopard; wert thou a leopard, thon wert german to the lion, and the spots of thy kindred were jurors on thy life: all thy safety were remo tion ; and thy defence, absence. What beast couldst thou be, that were not subject to a beast ? And what a beast art thou already, that seest not thy less in transformation?

Apem. If thou couldst 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 whet 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. Thon 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

curse.

Tim. All villains, that do stand by thee, are

pure.

Apem. There is no leprosy but what thou speak'st.
Tim. If I name thee.-

I'll beat thee,-but I should infect my hands.
Apem. I would, my tongue could rot them off t
Tim. Away, thou issue of a mangy dog!
Choler does kill me, that thou art alive;
I swoon to see thee.

Apem. Would thou wouldst burst!
Tim. Away,

Thou tedious rogue! I am sorry, I shall lose
A stone by thee!

[Throws a Stone at him.

For too much finical delicacy.

+ Remoteness, the being placed at a distance

The cold admonitions of cautious prudence.

The top, the principal.