Fool. Are you three usurers' men?
All Serv. Ay, fool.

Fool. I think no usurer but has a fool to his servant: My mistress is one, and I am her fool. When men come to borrow of your masters, they approach sadly, and go away merry; but they enter my mistress' house merrily, and go away sadly: The reason of this?

Var. Serv. I could render one.

Apem. Do it then, that we may account thee a whoremaster and a knave; which notwithstanding, thou shalt be no less esteemed.

Var. Serv. What is a whoremaster, fool?

Fool. A fool in good clothes, and something like thee. "T is a spirit: sometime it appears like a lord; sometime like a lawyer; sometime like a philosopher, with two stones more than his artificial one: He is very often like a knight, and, generally, in all shapes that man goes up and down in, from fourscore to thirteen, this spirit walks in.

Var. Serv. Thou art not altogether a fool.

Fool. Nor thou altogether a wise man: as much foolery as I have, so much wit thou lackest.

Apem. That answer might have become Apemantus. All Serv. Aside, aside; here comes lord Timon.

Re-enter TIMON and FLAVIUS.

Apem. Come with me, fool, come.

Fool. I do not always follow lover, elder brother, and woman; sometime, the philosopher.

[Exeunt APEMANTUS and Fool. Flav. 'Pray you, walk near; I'll speak with you [Exeunt Serv. Tim. You make me marvel: Wherefore, ere this

anon.

time,

Had you not fully laid my state before me;
That I might so have rated my expense,
As I had leave of means?

VOL. IX.

I

Flav.

You would not hear me,

At many leisures I propos'd.

Tim.

Go to:

Perchance, some single vantages you took,
When my indisposition put you back;
And that unaptness made your minister,a
Thus to excuse yourself.

Flav.

O my good lord!
At many times I brought in my accounts;
Laid them before you; you would throw them off,
And say, you found them in mine honesty.
When, for some trifling present, you have bid me
Return so much, I have shook my head, and wept :
Yea, 'gainst the authority of manners, pray'd you
To hold your hand more close: I did endure
Not seldom, nor no slight checks; when I have
Prompted you, in the ebb of your estate,

And your great flow of debts. My lov'd lord,
Though you hear now, (too late!) yet now 's a time,
The greatest of your having lacks a half

To pay your present debts.

Tim.

Let all my land be sold.
Flav. T is all engag'd, some forfeited and gone;
And what remains will hardly stop the mouth
Of present dues: the future comes apace :
What shall defend the interim? and at length
How goes our reckoning?

Tim. To Lacedæmon did my land extend.
Flav. O my good lord, the world is but a word;
Were it all yours, to give it in a breath,

How quickly were it gone?

Tim.

You tell me true.

Flav. If you suspect my husbandry, or falsehood, Call me before the exactest auditors,

And set me on the proof. So the gods bless me,

a The meaning of this construction is,-perchance you made that unaptness your minister.

a

When all our offices have been oppress'd

With riotous feeders; when our vaults have wept
With drunken spilth of wine; when every room
Hath blaz'd with lights, and bray'd with minstrelsy;
I have retir'd me to a wasteful cock,

And set mine eyes at flow.

Tim.

Prithee, no more.

Flav. Heavens, have I said, the bounty of this lord!

How many prodigal bits have slaves, and peasants,
This night englutted! Who is not Timon's?

What heart, head, sword, force, means, but is lord
Timon's?

Great Timon, noble, worthy, royal Timon?

Ah! when the means are gone that buy this praise,
The breath is gone whereof this praise is made:
Feast-won, fast-lost; one cloud of winter showers,
These flies are couch'd.

Tim.

Come, sermon me no further: No villainous bounty yet hath pass'd my heart; Unwisely, not ignobly, have I given.

Why dost thou weep? Canst thou the conscience lack
To think I shall lack friends? Secure thy heart;
If I would broach the vessels of my love,
And try the argument of hearts by borrowing,
Men, and men's fortunes, could I frankly use,
As I can bid thee speak.

Flav.

Assurance bless your thoughts! Tim. And, in some sort, these wants of mine are crown'd,

That I account them blessings; for by these

Shall I try friends: You shall perceive, how you
Mistake my fortunes; I am wealthy in my friends.
Within there!-Flaminius! Servilius!

a Offices. These are not the apartments for servants, in our present acceptation of the term, but rooms of hospitality.

Enter FLAMINIUS, SERVILIUS, and other Servants. Serv. My lord, my lord,—

Tim. I will despatch you severally.-You to lord Lucius, to lord Lucullus you; I hunted with his honour to-day;-you, to Sempronius: Commend me to their loves; and, I am proud, say, that my occasions have found time to use them toward a supply of money: let the request be fifty talents.

Flam. As you have said, my lord.

Flav. Lord Lucius, and Lucullus? humph! [Aside. Tim. Go you, sir, [to another Serv.] to the senators, (Of whom, even to the state's best health, I have Deserv'd this hearing,) bid 'em send o' the instant A thousand talents to me.

Flav.

I have been bold,
(For that I knew it the most general way,)
To them to use your signet, and your name;
But they do shake their heads, and I am here
No richer in return.

Tim.

Is 't true? can 't be?

Flav. They answer, in a joint and corporate voice, That now they are at fall, want treasure, cannot Do what they would; are sorry-you are honourable,— But yet they could have wish'd-they know notSomething hath been amiss-a noble nature

May catch a wrench-would all were well-'t is pity-
And so, intending other serious matters,

After distasteful looks, and these hard fractions,
With certain half-caps, and cold-moving nods,
They froze me into silence.

Tim. You gods, reward them! 'Prithee, man, look cheerly! These old fellows Have their ingratitude in them hereditary : Their blood is cak'd, 't is cold, it seldom flows; "T is lack of kindly warmth, they are not kind; And nature, as it grows again toward earth,

Is fashion'd for the journey, dull, and heavy. Go to Ventidius,-[to a Serv.] 'Prithee, [to FLAVIUS] be not sad,

Thou art true and honest; ingeniously I speak,

No blame belongs to thee:-[to Serv.] Ventidius lately
Buried his father; by whose death he 's stepp'd
Into a great estate: when he was poor,
Imprison'd, and in scarcity of friends,

I clear'd him with five talents. Greet him from me;
Bid him suppose some good necessity

Touches his friend, which craves to be remember'd With those five talents :-that had, [to FLAV.] give 't

these fellows

To whom 't is instant due. Ne'er speak, or think
That Timon's fortunes 'mong his friends can sink.

Flav. I would I could not think it: That thought is bounty's foe;

Being free itself it thinks all others so.

[Exeunt.