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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 loved 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.

Timon.

Let all my land be sold.

Flav. 'Tis all engaged, 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?

Timon. 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!

Timon.

You tell me true.

Flav. If you suspect my husbandry or falshood, Call me before the exactest auditors, And set me on the proof. So the gods bless me, When all our offices 1 have been oppress'd

With riotous feeders; when our vaults have wept With drunken spilth of wine; when every room Hath blazed with lights, and 'bray'd with minstrelsy;

1 Apartments allotted to culinary purposes, &c.

I have retired me to a wasteful cock,1
And set mine eyes at flow.

Timon.

Pr'ythee, 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.

Timon.

Come, sermon me no farther;

No villanous 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 2 of hearts by borrowing,
Men and men's fortunes could I frankly use,
As I can bid thee speak.

Flav.

Assurance bless your thoughts! Timon. And, in some sort, these wants of mine

are crown'd,3

i. e. a cockloft, or garret lying in waste.'- Warburton.

[blocks in formation]

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, ho!-Flaminius! Servilius!

Enter FLAMINIUS, SERVILIUS, and other Servants.

Ser. My lord, my lord,

Timon. I will despatch you severally.-You, to lord Lucius;- -to lord Lucullus you; I hunted with his honor 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.

Timon. Go you, sir, [to another Servant.] to the

senators,

(Of whom, even to the state's best health, I have Deserved 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 1 way)
To them to use your signet and your name;
But they do shake their heads, and I am here
No richer in return.

Timon.

Is 't true? can it be?

1 Compendious.

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 honor-

able,

But yet they could have wish'd-they know not

but

Something hath been amiss-a noble nature

May catch a wrench :—would all were well!—'tis pity::

And so, intending 1 other serious matters,

After distasteful looks, and these hard fractions,2
With certain half-caps, and cold-moving nods,

They froze me into silence.

Timon. You gods, reward them !— I pr'ythee, man, look cheerly: these old fellows Have their ingratitude in them hereditary : Their blood is caked, 'tis cold, it seldom flows; 'Tis 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 Servant.] Pr'ythee, [to Flavius.] be not sad;

3

Thou art true and honest; ingeniously I speak,
No blame belongs to thee.-[to a Servant.] Venti-

dius lately

Buried his father; by whose death, he 's stepp'd

1 Attending to.
3 For ingenuously.

2 Abrupt remarks.

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 Flavius.] give it these fellows,

To whom 'tis instant due. Ne'er speak, or think, That Timon's fortunes 'mongst his friends can sink. Flav. I would, I could not think it. That thought is bounty's foe;

Being free1 itself, it thinks all others so. [Exeunt.

ACT II I.

SCENE I.

The same. A room in Lucullus's house.

FLAMINIUS waiting. Enter a SERVANT to him. Ser. I have told my lord of you; he is coming down to you.

Flam. I thank

you,

sir.

Enter LUCUllus.

Ser. Here's my lord.

Lucul. [aside.] One of lord Timon's men? a gift,

1 Liberal.

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