Timan. Hang thee, monster! Alcib. Pardon him, sweet Timandra; for his wits Are drown'd and lost in his calamities. I have but little gold of late, brave Timon, Tim. I pr'ythee, beat thy drum, and get thee gone. I had rather be alone. Alcib. Why, fare thee well: Here's some gold for thee. Keep 't, I cannot eat it. Tim. Alcib. Alcib. Tim. That, Why me, Timon? By killing villains, thou wast born to conquer My country. Put up thy gold; Go on,-here 's gold,—go on; In the Latin comedy of Cornelianum Dolium, which was probably written by T. Randolph, there is a frontispiece representing the sweating-tub, which from the name of the unfortunate patient, was afterwards called Cornelius's tub, as appears from the Dictionaries of Cotgrave and Howel. Some account of the sweating-tub with a cut of it may be seen in Ambrose Paraus's Works, by Johnson, p. 48. Another very particular representation of it may be likewise found in the Recueil de Proverbes par Jacques Lag. niet, with the following lines: "Pour un petit plaisir je soufre mille maux; Je fais contre un hyver deux este ci me semble: "Partout le corps je sue, et ma machoir tremble; "Je ne croy jamais voir la fin de mes travaux." For another print of this tub, see Holmes's Academy of Armory. 4 Douce. trod upon them,] Sir Thomas Hanmer reads—had trod upon them. Shakspeare was not thus minutely accurate. Malone. Will o'er some high-vic'd city hang his poison He's an usurer: Strike me the counterfeit matron; Herself 's a bawd: Let not the virgin's cheek 5 Be as a planetary plague, when Fove Will o'er some high-vic'd city hang his poison In the sick air:] This is wonderfully sublime and picturesque. Warburton. We meet with the same image in King Richard II: or suppose Devouring pestilence hangs in our air." Malone. The same idea occurs in Chapman's version of the sixth Iliad: and therefore hangs, I fear, "A plague above him." Steevens. 6 thy trenchant sword;] So, in Philemon Holland's transla tion of the ninth Book of Pliny's Natural History, 1601, p. 237: they all to cut and hacke them with their trenchant teeth; —.” See note on Macbeth, Vol. VII. Steevens. 7 That through the window-bars bore at men's eyes,] The virgin that shows her bosom through the lattice of her chamber, Johnson. Dr. Johnson's explanation is almost confirmed by the following passage in Cymbeline: 66 or let her beauty "Look through a casement to allure false hearts, Shakspeare at the same time might aim a stroke at this indecency in the wantons of his own time, which is also animadverted on by several contemporary dramatists. So, in the ancient interlude of The Repentance of Marie Magdalene, 1567: "Your garment must be worne alway, "That your white pappes may be seene if you may.-"If young gentlemen may see your white skin, "It will allure them to love, and soon bring them in. "Both damsels and wives use many such feates. "I know them that will lay out their faire teates." All this is addressed to Mary Magdalen. Steevens. I do not believe any particular satire was here intended. Lady Suffolk, Lady Somerset, and many of the celebrated beauties of the time of James I, are thus represented in their pictures; nor were they, I imagine, thought more reprehensible than the ladies of the present day, who from the same extravagant pursuit of what is called fashion, run into an opposite extreme. Malone. I have not hitherto met with any ancient portrait of a modest Are not within the leaf of pity writ, Set them downs horrible traitors: Spare not the babe, Hath doubtfully pronounc'd thy throat2 shall cut, Alcib. Hast thou gold yet? I'll take the gold thou giv'st me, Not all thy counsel. Tim. Dost thou, or dost thou not, heaven's curse upon thee! English woman, in which the papille exerta were exhibited as described on the present occasion by Shakspeare; for he alludes not only to what he has called in his celebrated Song, "the hills of snow," but to the "pinks that grow" upon their summits. I believe we should read nearly thus: nor those milk-paps, That through the widow's barb bore at men's eyes, Steevens. The use of the doubled negative is so common in Shakspeare, that it is unnecessary to support it by instances. The barbe, I believe, was a kind of veil. Cressida, in Chaucer, who appears as a widow, is described as wearing a barbe. Troilus and Cressida, Book II, v. 110, in which place Caxton's edition (as I learn from the Glossary) reads-wimple, which certainly signifies a veil, and was probably substituted as a synonymous word for barbe, the more antiquated reading of the manuscripts. Unbarbed is used by Shakspeare for uncovered, in Coriolanus, Act III, sc. v: "Must I go show them my unbarbed sconce?” See also Leland's Collectanea, Vol. V, p. 317, new edit. where the ladies, mourning at the funeral of Queen Mary, are mentioned as having their barbes above their chinnes. Tyrwhitt. 8 Set them down -] Old copy, in defiance of metre 9 But set them down. Steevens. exhaust their mercy;] For exhaust, Sir Thomas Hanmer, and after him Dr. Warburton, read-extort; but exhaust herc signifies literally to draw forth. Johnson. 1 bastard,] An allusion to the tale of Oedipus. Johnson. thy throat-] Old copy-the throat. Corrected by Mr. Pope. Malone. 2 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.3 Hold 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: 5 Be whores still; And he whose pious breath seeks to convert you, Be strong in whore, allure him, burn him up; your close fire predominate his smoke, Let And be no turncoats:6 Yet may your pains, six months, Be quite contrary:7 And thatch your poor thin roofs 3 And to make whores, a bawd.] That is, enough to make ♣ whore leave whoring, and a bawd leave making whores. Johnson. 4 The immortal gods that hear you,] The same thought is found! in Antony and Cleopatra, Act I, sc. iii: "Though you with swearing shake the throned gods." Again, in The Winter's Tale: "Though you would seek to unsphere the stars with oaths." Steevens. 5 I'll trust to your conditions:] You need not swear to continue whores, I will trust to your inclinations. Johnson. See Vol. IX, p. 374, n. 9. Malone. Timon, I believe, does not mean their dispositions but their vocations, and accordingly conjures them to be whores still. M. Mason. 6 And be no turncoats:] By an old statute, those women who lived in a state of prostitution, were, among other articles concerning their dress, enjoined to wear their garments, with the wrong-side outward, on pain of forfeiting them. Perhaps there is in this passage a reference to it. Henley. I do not perceive how this explanation of-turncoat, will accord with Timon's train of reasoning; yet the antiquary may perhaps derive satisfaction from that which affords no assistance to the Steevens. commentator. 7 Yet may your pains, six months, Be quite contrary:] This is obscure, partly from the ambiguity of the word pains, and partly from the generality of the expression. The meaning is this: he had said before, follow constantly your trade of debauchery: that is (says he) for six months in the year Let the other six be employed in quite contrary pains and labour, namely, in the severe discipline necessary for the repair of those disorders that your debaucheries occasion, in order to fit you anew to the trade; and thus let the whole year be spent in With burdens of the dead;-some that were hang'd, these different occupations. On this account he goes on, and says, Make false hair, &c. Warburton. The explanation is ingenious, but I think it very remote, and would willingly bring the author and his readers to meet on ea sier terms. We may read: Yet may your pains six months Be quite contraried: -. Timon is wishing ill to mankind, but is afraid lest the whores should imagine that he wishes well to them; to obviate which he lets them know, that he imprecates upon them influence enough to plague others, and disappointments enough to plague themselves. He wishes that they may do all possible mischief, and yet take pains six months of the year in vain. In this sense there is a connection of this line with the next. Finding your pains contraried, try new expedients, thatch your thin roofs, and paint. To contrary is an old verb. Latimer relates, that when he went to court, he was advised not to contrary the King. Johnson. If Dr. Johnson's explanation be right, which I do not believe, the present words appear to me to admit it, as well as the reading he would introduce. Such unnecessary deviations from the text should ever be avoided. Dr. Warburton's is a very natural interpretation, which cannot often be said of the expositions of that commentator. The words that follow fully support it: "And thatch your poor thin roofs," &c. i. e. after you have lost the greater part of your hair by disease, and the medicines that for six months you have been obliged to take, then procure an artificial covering, &c. Malone. I believe this means,-Yet for half the year at least, may you suffer such punishment as is inflicted on harlots in houses of correction. Steevens. These words should be inclosed in a parenthesis. Johnson wishes to connect them with the following sentences, but that cannot be, as they contain an imprecation, and the following lines contain an instruction. Timon is giving instructions to those women; but, in the middle of his instructions, his misanthropy breaks forth in an imprecation against them. I have no objection to the reading of contraried, instead of contrary, but it does not seem to be necessary. M. Mason. 8 thatch your poor thin roofs &c.] About the year 1595, when the fashion became general in England of wearing a greater quantity of hair than was ever the produce of a single head, 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. I have this information from Stubbes's Anatomie of Abuses, which I have often quoted on the article of dress. To this fashion the writers of Shakspeare's age do not appear to have been reconciled. So, in A Mad World my Masters |