Each man apart, all single and alone,
Yet an arch-villain keeps him company.
If, where thou art, two villains shall not be,

[To the Painter. Come not near him.-If thou would'st not reside

[To the Poet. But where one villain is, then him abandon.Hence! pack! there 's gold, ye came for gold, ye slaves: You have done work for me, there 's payment:7 Hence! You are an alchymist, make gold of that:—

Out, rascal dogs! [Exit, beating and driving them out.

There are not two words more frequently mistaken for each other, in the printing of these plays, than but and not. I have no doubt but that mistake obtains in this passage, and that we should read it thus:

—not two in company:

Each man apart,

M. Mason.

You that way, and you this, but two in company:
Each man apart, all single, and alone,

Yet an arch-villain keeps him company.] The first of these lines has been rendered obscure by false pointing; that is, by connecting the words, "but two in company," with the subsequent line, instead of connecting them with the preceding hemistich. The second and third line are put in apposition with the first line, and are merely an illustration of the assertion contained in it. Do you (says Timon) go that way, and you this, and yet still each of you will have two in your company: each of you, though single and alone, will be accompanied by an arch-villain. Each man, being himself a villain, will take a villain along with him, and so each of you will have two in company. It is a mere quibble founded on the word company. See the former speech, in which Timon exhorts each of them to "" hang or stab the villain in his company," i. e. himself. The passage quoted by Mr. Steevens from Promos and Cassandra, puts the meaning beyond a doubt. Malone.

7 You have done work &c.] For the insertion of the word done, which, it is manifest, was omitted by the negligence of the compositor, I am answerable. Timon in this line addresses the Painter, whom he before called "excellent workman;" in the next the Poet. Malone.

I had rather read:

You've work'd for me, there is your payment: Hence!

Steevens

SCENE II.

The same.

Enter FLAVIUS, and Two Senators.

Flav. It is in vain that you would speak with Timon For he is set so only to himself,

That nothing, but himself, which looks like man,

Is friendly with him.

1 Sen.

Bring us to his cave:

It is our part, and promise to the Athenians,
To speak with Timon.

2 Sen.

At all times alike

Men are not still the same: 'Twas time, and griefs,
That fram'd him thus: time, with his fairer hand,
Offering the fortunes of his former days,

The former man may make him: Bring us to him,
And chance it as it may.

Flav.

Here is his cave.

Peace and content be here! Lord Timon! Timon!
Look out, and speak to friends: The Athenians,
By two of their most reverend senate, greet thee:
Speak to them, noble Timon.

Enter TIMON.

Tim. Thou sun, that comfort'st, burn!8-Speak, and be hang'd:

For each true word, a blister! and each false
Be as a caut'rizing to the root o' the tongue,
Consuming it with speaking!

Worthy Timon,

Tim. Of none but such as you, and you of Timon.

8 Thou sun, that comfort'st, burn!] "Thine eyes," says King

Lear to Regan, "do comfort, and not burn."

A similar wish occurs in Antony and Cleopatra:

"O, sun,

"Burn the great sphere thou mov'st in!" Steevens.

9 —a caut'rizing ] The old copy reads-cantherizing; the poet might have written, cancering

Steevens.

To cauterize was a word of our author's time; being found in Bullokar's English Expositor, octavo, 1616, where it is explained, "To burn to a sore." It is the word of the old copy, with the u changed to an n, which has happened in almost every one of these plays. Malone.

2 Sen. The senators of Athens greet thee, Timon.

Tim. I thank them; and would send them back the

plague,

Could I but catch it for them.

1 Sen.

O, forget

What we are sorry for ourselves in thee.

The senators, with one consent of love,1

Entreat thee back to Athens; who have thought
On special dignities, which vacant lie

For thy best use and wearing.

2 Sen.

They confess,

Toward thee, forgetfulness too general, gross:

Which now the publick body,2—which doth seldom
Play the recanter,-feeling in itself

A lack of Timon's aid, hath sense withal

4

Of its own fall, restraining aid to Timon;
And send forth us, to make their sorrowed render, 5

1

with one consent of love,] With one united voice of affection. So, in Sternhold's translation of the 100th Psalm:

"With one consent let all the earth."

All our old writers spell the word improperly, consent, without regard to its etymology, concentus. Malone.

This sense of the word consent, or concent, was originally pointed out and ascertained in a note on the first scene of The First Part of King Henry VI. See Vol. X, p. 10, n. 4. Steevens.

2 Which now the publick body,] Thus the old copy, ungrammatically certainly, but our author frequently thus begins a sentence, and concludes it without attending to what has gone before: for which perhaps the carelessness and ardour of colloquial language may be an apology. See Vol. II, p. 15, n. 4. So afterwards in the third scene of this Act:

"Whom, though in general part we were oppos'd,

"Yet our old love made a particular force,

"And made us speak like friends."

See also the Poet's last speech in p. 441.-Sir Thomas Hanner and the subsequent editors read here more correctly-And now the publick body, &c. but by what oversight could Which be printed instead of And? Malone.

The mistake might have been that of the transcriber, not the printer. Steevens.

3 Of its own fall,] The Athenians had sense, that is, felt the danger of their own fall, by the arms of Alcibiades. Johnson.

4

restraining aid to Timon;] I think it should be refraining aid, that is, with-holding aid that should have been given to TiJohnson.

'mon.

Where is the difference? To restrain, and to refrain, both mean to with-hold. M. Mason.

Together with a recompense more fruitful
Than their offence can weigh down by the dram ;6
Ay, even such heaps and sums of love and wealth,
As shall to thee blot out what wrongs were theirs,
And write in thee the figures of their love,

Ever to read them thine.

Tim.

You witch me in it;

Surprize me to the very brink of tears:

Lend me a fool's heart, and a woman's eyes,
And I'll be weep these comforts, worthy senators.
1 Sen. Therefore, so please thee to return with us,
And of our Athens (thinc, and ours,) to take
The captainship, thou shalt be met with thanks,
Allow'd with absolute power, and thy good name
Live with authority: :-so soon we shall drive back
Of Alcibiades the approaches wild;

Who, like a boar too savage, doth root up3

5

sorrowed render,] Thus the old copy. Render is confession. So, in Cymbeline, Act IV, sc. iv:

66

may drive us to a render

"Where we have liv'd."

The modern editors read-tender.

Steevens.

6 Than their offence can weigh down by the dram;] This, which was in the former editions, can scarcely be right, and yet, I know not whether my reading will be thought to rectify it. I take the meaning to be, We will give thee a recompense that our offences cannot outweigh, heaps of wealth down by the dram, or delivered according to the exactest measure. A little disorder may perhaps have happened in transcribing, which may be reformed by reading:

Ay, co'n such heaps,

And sums of love and wealth, down by the dram,

As shall to thee

Johnson.

The speaker means, a recompense that shall more than counterpoise their offences, though weighed with the most scrupulous exactness. M. Mason.

A recompense so large, that the offence they have committed, though every dram of that offence should be put into the scale, cannot counterpoise it. The recompense will outweigh the of fence, which, instead of weighing down the scale in which it is placed, will kick the beam. Malone.

7 Allow'd with absolute power,] Allowed is licensed, privileged, uncontrolled. So of a buffoon, in Love's Labour's Lost, it is said, that he is allowed, that is, at liberty to say what he will, a privileged scoffer. Johnson.

8 like a boar too savage, doth root up-] This image might

His country's peace.

2 Sen.

And shakes his threat'ning sword`

Therefore, Timon,

Against the walls of Athens.

1 Sen.

Tim. Well, sir, I will; therefore, I will, sir; Thus,— If Alcibiades kill my countrymen,

Let Alcibiades know this of Timon,

That-Timon cares not. But if he sack fair Athens,
And take our goodly aged men by the beards,
Giving our holy virgins to the stain

Of contumelious, beastly, mad-brain'd war;
Then, let him know,—and, tell him, Timon speaks it,
In pity of our aged, and our youth,

I cannot choose but tell him, that-I care not,
And let him tak 't at worst; for their knives care not,
While you have throats to answer: for myself,
There's not a whittle in the unruly camp,9

But I do prize it at my love, before

The reverend'st throat in Athens. So I leave you
To the protection of the prosperous gods,1

As thieves to keepers.

Flav.

Stay not, all's in vain.

Tim. Why, I was writing of my epitaph,

It will be seen to-morrow; My long sickness?

have been caught from Psalm lxxx, 13: "The wild boar out of the wood doth root it up," &c. Steevens.

9 There's not a whittle in the unruly camp,] A whittle is still in the midland counties the common name for a pocket clasp knife, such as children use. Chaucer speaks of a "Sheffield thwittell." Steevens.

1 of the prosperous gods,] I believe prosperous is used here with our poet's usual laxity, in an active, instead of a passive, sense: the gods who are the authors of the prosperity of mankind. So, in Othello:

"To my unfolding lend a prosperous ear."

I leave you, says Timon, to the protection of the gods, the great distributors of prosperity, that they may so keep and guard you, as jailors do thieves; i. e. for final punishment. Malone.

I do not see why the epithet-prosperous, may not be employed here with its common signification, and mean-the gods who are prosperous in all their undertakings. Our author, elsewhere, has blessed gods, clear gods, &c. Steevens.

2

My long sickness] The disease of life begins to promise me a period. Johnson.