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Suspect still comes where an estate is least.
That which I show, heaven knows, is merely love,
Duty and zeal to your unmatched mind,
Care of your food and living: and, believe it,
My most honour'd lord,

For any benefit that points to me,

Either in hope, or present, I'd exchange

For this one wish, That you had power and wealth
To requite me, by making rich yourself.

Tim. Look thee,'tis so!-Thou singly honest man,
Here take:-the gods out of my misery
Have sent thee treasure. Go, live rich, and happy:
But thus condition'd; Thou shalt build from men ;*
Hate all, curse all: show charity to none;
But let the famish'd flesh slide from the bone,
Ere thou relieve the beggar: give to dogs

What thou deny'st to men; let prisons swallow them,
Debts wither them: Be men like blasted woods,

And so, farewell, and thrive.
Flav.

Those that would mischief me, than those that do! And may diseases lick up their false bloods!
He has caught me in his eye: I will present
My honest grief unto him; and, as my lord,
Still serve him with my life.-My dearest master!
Timon comes forward from his cave.

Tim. Away! what art thou?
Flav.
Have you forgot me, sir?
Tim. Why dost ask that? I have forgot all men ;
Then, if thou grant'st thou'rt man, I have forgot thee.
Flav. An honest poor servant of yours.
Tim.

Then

I know thee not: I ne'er had honest man
About me, I; all that I kept were knaves,
To serve in meat to villains.
Flax.
The gods are witness,
Ne'er did poor steward wear a truer grief
For his undone lord, than mine eyes for you.
Tim. What, dost thou weep ?-Come nearer ;—
then I love thee,

Because thou art a woman, and disclaim'st
Flinty mankind; whose eyes do never give,
But thorough lust, and laughter. Pity's sleeping:
Strange times, that weep with laughing, not with
weeping!

Flav. I beg of you to know me, good my lord,
To accept my grief, and while this poor wealth lasts,
To entertain me as your steward still.

Tim. Had I a steward so true, so just, and now So comfortable? It almost turns

My dangerous nature wild. Let me behold

O, let me stay,
And comfort you, my master.
Tim.

If thou hat'st
Curses, stay not; fly, whilst thou'rt bless'd and free:
Ne'er see thou man, and let me ne'er see thee.
[Exeunt severally.

ACT V.

SCENE I-The same. Before Timon's care.
Enter Poet and Painter; Timon behind, unseen.

Pain. As I took note of the place, it cannot be far where he abides.

Poet. What's to be thought of him? Does the rumour hold for true, that he is so full of gold?

Pain. Certain Alcibiades reports it; Phrynia and Timandra had gold of him: he likewise enrich'd poor straggling soldiers with great quantity: 'Tis said, he gave unto his steward a mighty sum. Poet. Then this breaking of his has been but a try for his friends.

Pain. Nothing else; you shall see him a palm in Athens again, and flourish with the highest. There fore, 'tis not amiss, we tender our loves to him, in this supposed distress of his: it will show honestly in us; and is very likely to load our purposes with

Thy face. Surely, this man was born of woman.-what they travel for, if it be a just and true report

Forgive my general and exceptless rashness,
Perpetual-sober gods! I do proclaim

One honest man,-mistake me not,--but one;
No more, I prav, -and he is a steward.-
How fain would I have hated all mankind,
And thon redeem'st thyself: But all, save thee,
I fell with curses.

Methinks, thou art more honest now, than wise;
For, by oppressing and betraying me,
Thou might'st have sooner got another service:
For many so arrive at second masters,
Upon their first lord's neck. But tell me true
(For I must ever doubt, though ne'er so sure,)
Is not thy kindness subtle, covetous,

If not a usuring kindness; and as rich men deal gifts,
Expecting in return twenty for one?

Flav. No, my most worthy master, in whose breast
Doubt and suspect, alas, are plac'd too late:
You should have fear'd false times, when you did
feast:

(1) An alteration of honour is an alteration of an honourable state to a state of disgrace. (2) How happily. (3) Recommended.

that goes of his having.

Poet. What have you now to present unto him? Pain. Nothing at this time but my visitation: only I will promise him an excellent piece.

Poet. I must serve him so too; tell him of an intent that's coming toward him.

Pain. Good as the best. Promising is the very air o'the time: it opens the eyes of expectation: performance is ever the duller for his act; and, but in the plainer and simpler kind of people, the deed of saving is quite out of use. To promise is most courtly and fashionable: performance is a kind of will and testament, which argues a great sickness in his judgment that makes it.

Tim. Excellent workman! Thou canst not paint a man so bad as is thyself.

Poet. I am thinking, what I shall say I have provided for him: It must be a personating of himself: a satire against the softness of prosperity; with a discovery of the infinite flatteries that follow youth and opulency.

(4) Away from human habitation.

(5) The doing of that we said we would do.

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Tim. Must thou needs stand for a villain in thine ]
own work? Wilt thou whip thine own faults in
other men? Do so, I have gold for thee.
Poet. Nay, let's seek him:

Then do we sin against our own estate,

When we may profit meet, and come too late.
Pain. True;

When the day serves, before black-corner'd night,
Find what thou want'st by free and offer'd light.
Come.

Tim. I'll meet you at the turn. What a god's
gold,

That he is worshipp'd in a baser temple,

Than where swine feed!

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Know his gross patchery, love him, feed him,
Keep in your bosom; yet remain assur'd,
That he's a made-up villain."

Pain. I know none such, my lord.
Poet.

Nor I.

Tim. Look you, I love you well; I'll give you gold,
Rid me these villains from your companies:
Hang them, or stab them, drown them in a draught,"

'Tis thou that rigg'st the bark, and plough'st the Confound them by some course, and come to me,

foam;

Settlest admired reverence in a slave:

To thee be worship! and thy saints for ave
Be crown'd with plagues, that thee alone obey!
'Fit I do meet them.

Poet. Hail, worthy Timon!
Pain.

[Advancing.

Our late noble master.
Tim. Have I once liv'd to see two honest men?
Poet. Sir,

Having often of your open bounty tasted,
Hearing you were retir'd, your friends fall'n off,
Whose thankless natures-O abhorred spirits!
Not all the whips of heaven are large enough-
What! to you!

Whose star-like nobleness gave life and influence
To their whole being! I'm rapt, and cannot cover
The monstrous bulk of this ingratitude
With any size of words.

Tim. Let it go naked, men may see't the better:
You, that are honest, by being what you are,
Make them best seen and known.
Pain.

He, and myself,
Have travell'd in the great shower of your gifts,
And sweetly felt it.

Ay, you are honest men.

Tim.
Pain. We are hither come to offer you our service.
Tim. Most honest men! Why, how shall I re-

quite you!

Can you eat roots, and drink cold water? no.
Both. What we can do, we'll do, to do you
service.

Tim. You are honest men: You have heard that
I have gold;

I am sure you have: speak truth: you are honest

men.

Pain. So it is said, my noble lord: but therefore Came not my friend, nor I.

Tim. Good honest men :-Thou draw'st a coun-
terfeit'

Best in all Athens: thou art, indeed, the best!
Thou counterfeit'st most lively.
Pain.
So, so, my lord.
Tim. Even so, sir, as I say :-And for thy fiction,
[To the Poet.
Why thy verse swells with stuff so fine and smooth,
That thou art even natural in thine art.-
But, for all this, my honest-natur'd friends,
I must needs say, you have a little fault:
Marry, 'tis not monstrous in you; neither wish I,
You take much pains to mend.
Both.

To make it known to us.

Tim.

Beseech your honour,

You'll take it ill.

Both. Most thankfully, my lord.
Tim.

I'll give you gold enough.

Both. Name them, my lord, let's know them.
Tim. You that way, and you this, but two in
company :-

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:
Hence !

You are an alchymist, make gold of that:-
Out, rascal dogs!

[Exit, beating and driving them out. 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!-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!
1 Sen.
Worthy Timon-
Tim. Of none but such as you, and you of Timon.
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
Will you, indeed? What we are sorry for ourselves in thee.
The senators, with one consent of love,

Both. Doubt it not, worthy lord.

A portrait was so called.
(2) A complete, a finished villain.

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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 public body,-Which doth seidom
Play the recanter,-feeling in itself

A lack of Timon's aid, hath sense withal
Of its own full, restraining aid to Timon;
And send forth us, to make their sorrowed render
Together with a recompense more fruitful
Than their offence can weigh down by the dram;
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;
Suprise me to the very brink of tears:
Lend me a fool's heart, and a woman's eyes,
And I'll beweep these comforts, worthy senators.
1 Sen. Therefore, so please thee to return with us,
And of our Athens (thine, 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 up
His country's peace.
2. Sen.

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I'll teach them to prevent wild Alcibiades' wrath.
2 Sen. I like this well, he will return again.
Tim. I have a tree, which grows here in my close,
That mine own use invites me to cut down,
And shortly must I fell it; Tell my friends,
Tell Athens, in the sequence of degrees,"
From high to low throughout, that whoso please
To stop affliction, let him take his haste,
Come hither, ere my tree hath felt the axe,
And hang himself:-I pray you, do my greeting.
Flav. Trouble him no further, thus you still shall
find him.

Tim. Come not to me again: but say to Athens,
Timon hath made his everlasting mansion
Upon the beached verge of the salt flood;
Which once a day with his emboss'd froth
The turbulent surge shall cover; thither come,
And let iny grave-stone be your oracle.-
Lips, let sour words go by, and language end;
What is amiss, plague and infection mend!
Graves only be men's works; and death, their gain!
Sun, hide thy beams! Timon hath done his reign.
[Exit Timon.
1 Sen. His discontents are unremoveably

And shakes his threat'ning sword Coupled to nature. Against the walls of Athens.

1 Sen.

2 Sen. Our hope in him is dead: let us return, Therefore, Timon,-And strain what other means is left unto us Tim. Well, sir, I will; therefore, I will, sir; In our dear peril. 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,

1 Sen.

It requires swift foot. [Exeunt
SCENE III-The walls of Athens. Enter two
Senators, and a Messenger.

1 Sen. Thou hast painfully discover'd ; are his files
As full as thy report?
Mess.
I have spoke the least;

Then, let him know,-and tell him Timon speaks it, Besides, his expedition promises
In pity of our aged, and our youth,

I cannos choose but tell him, that-I care not,
And let him take'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,

But I do prize it at my love, before

Present approach.

2 Sen. We stand much hazard, if they bring not

Timon.

Mess. I met a courier, once mine ancient friend ;Whom, though in general part we were oppos'd, Yet our old love made a particular force,

The reverend'st throat in Athens. So I leave you And made us speak like friends:-this man was To the protection of the prosperous gods,*

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
Of health, and living, now begins to mend,
And nothing brings me all things. Go, live still;
Be Alcibiades your plague, you his,

And last so long enough!

1 Sen.
We speak in vain.
Tim. But yet I love my country; and am not
One that rejoices in the common wreck,
As common bruit doth put it.

1 Sen.
That's well spoke.
Tim. Commend me to my loving countrymen,-
1 Sen. These words become your lips as they
pass through them.

2 Sen. And enter in our ears like great triumphers
In their applauding gates.
Tim.
Commend me to them:
And tell them, that to ease them of their griefs,
Their fears of hostile strokes, their aches, losses,

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riding

From Alcibiades to Timon's cave,
With letters of entreaty, which imported
His fellowship i'the cause against your city,
In part for his sake mov'd.

Enter Senators from Timon.

1 Sen. Here come our brothers. 3 Sen. No talk of Timon, nothing of him expect.The enemies' drum is heard, and fearful scouring Doth choke the air with dust: in and prepare; Ours is the fall, I fear, our foes the snare. [Exeunt. SCENE IV.-The woods. Timon's cave, and a tomb-stone seen. Enter a Soldier, seeking Timon.

Sol. By all description this should be the place: Who's here? speak, ho!-No answer?-What is this?

Timon is dead, who hath outstretch'd his span:
Some beast rear'd this; there does not live a man.

(5) He means-the disease of life begins to promise me a period.

(6) Report, rumour.

(7) Methodically, from highest to lowest.
(S) Swollen froth. (9) Dreadful.

Dead, sure; and this his grave.

So thou wilt send thy gentle heart before,

What's on this tomb I cannot read; the character To say, thoul't enter friendly.

I'll take with wax.

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Enter Senators on the walls.

Till now you have gone on, and filled the time
With all licentious measure, making your wills
The scope of justice; till now, myself, and such
As slept within the shadow of your power,
Have wander'd with our travers'd arms,' and
breath'd

Our sufferance vainly: Now the time is flush,2
When crouching marrow, in the bearer strong,
Cries, of itself No more; now breathless wrong
Shall sit and pant in your great chairs of ease;
And pursy insolence shall break his wind,
With fear and horrid flight.

1 Sen.
Noble and young,
When thy first griefs were but a mere conceit,
Ere thou hadst power, or we had cause to fear,
We sent to thee; to give thy rages balm,
To wipe out our ingratitude with loves
Above their quantity.

2 Sen.

So did we woo

Transformed Timon to our city's love,

By humble message, and by promis'd means;3
We were not all unkind, nor all deserve
The common stroke of war.

1 Sen.

These walls of ours
Were not erected by their hands, from whom
You have receiv'd your griefs: nor are they such,
That these great towers, trophies, and schools,
should fall

For private faults in them.

2 Sen.
Nor are they living,
Who were the motives that you first went out;
Shame, that they wanted cunning in excess
Hath broke their hearts. March, noble lord,
Into our city with thy banners spread:

By decimation, and a tithed death,

(If thy revenges hunger for that food,

2 Sen.

Throw thy glove;

Or any token of thine honour else,
That thou wilt use the wars as thy redress,
And not as our confusion; all thy powers
Snall make their harbour in our town, till we
Have seal'd thy full desire.
Descend, and open your uncharged ports;
Then there's my glove;

Alcib.

Those enemies of Timon's and mine own,
Whom you yourselves shall set out for reproof,
Fall, and no more; and,-to atone your fears
With my more noble meaning,-not a man
Shall pass his quarter, or offend the stream
Of regular justice in your city's bounds,
But shall be remedied, to your public laws,
At heaviest answer.

Both.
'Tis most nobly spoken.
Alcib. Descend, and keep your words.

The Senators descend, and open the gates. Enter a Soldier.

Sold. My noble general, Timon is dead;
Entomb'd upon the very hem o'the sea:
And on his grave-stone, this insculpture; which
With wax I brought away, whose soft impression
Interprets for my poor ignorance.

Alcib. [Reads.] Here lies a wretched corse, of
wretched soul bereft :

Seek not my name: A plague consume you wicked cailiff's left!

Here lie I Timon; who, alive, all living men did hate:

Pass by, and curse thy fill; but pass, and stay not
here thy gait.

These well express in thee thy latter spirits:
Though thou abhor'dst in us our human griefs,
Scorn'dst our brain's flow, and those our droplets

which

From niggard nature fall, vet rich conceit
Taught thee to make vast Neptune weep for aye
On thy low grave, on faults forgiven. Dead
Is noble Timon; of whose memory

Hereafter more. Bring me into your city,
And I will use the olive with my sword:
Make war breed peace; make peace stint war;
make each

Prescribe to other, as each other's leech."

Which nature loaths,) take thou the destined tenth; Let our drums strike.

And by the hazard of the spotted die,

Let die the spotted.

All have not offended;

1 Sen.
For those that were, it is not square, to take,,
On those that are, revenges: crimes, like lands,
Are not inherited. Then, dear countryman,
Bring in thy ranks, but leave without thy rage:
Spare thy Athenian cradle, and those kin,
Which, in the bluster of thy wrath, must fall
With those that have offended: like a shepherd,
Approach the fold, and cull the infected forth,
But kill not all together.

2 Sen.

What thou wilt, Thou rather shalt enforce it with thy smile, Than hew to't with thy sword.

1 Sen.

Set but thy foot Against our rampir'd gates, and they shall ope;

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[Exeunt.

The play of Timon is a domestic tragedy, and therefore strongly fastens on the attention of the reader. In the plan there is not much art, but the incidents are natural, and the characters various and exact. The catastrophe affords a very powerful warning against that ostentatious liberality, which scatters bounty, but confers no benefits, and buys flattery, but not friendship.

In this tragedy, are many passages perplexed, obscure, and probably corrupt, which I have endeavoured to rectify, or explain with due diligence; but having only one copy, cannot promise myself that my endeavours shall be much applauded. JOHNSON.

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2 Cit. One word, good citizens.

scienc'd men can be content to say, it was for his partly proud; which he is, even to the altitude of country, he did it to please his mother, and to be

his virtue.

2 Cit. What he cannot help in his nature, you account a vice in him: You must in no way say, he is covetous.

1 Cit. If I must not, I need not be barren of accusations; he hath faults, with surplus, to tire in repetition. [Shouts within.] What shouts are these? The other side o'the city is risen: Why stay we prating here? to the Capitol.

Cit, Come, come.

1 Cit. Soft; who comes here?

Enter Menenius Agrippa.

2 Cit. Worthy Menenius Agrippa; one that hath always loved the people.

1 Cit. He's one honest enough; 'Would, all the rest were so!

Men. What work's, my countrymen, in hand?
Where go you

1 Cit. We are accounted poor citizens: the patricians, good: What authority surfeits on, would relieve us; If they would yield us but the super- With bats and clubs? The matter? Speak, I pray fluity, while it were wholesome, we might guess,

you.

they relieved us humanely; but they think, we are 1 Cit. Our business is not unknown to the senate; too dear: the leanness that afflicts us, the object they have had inkling, this fortnight, what we in of our misery, is as an inventory to particularize tend to do, which now we'll show 'em in deeds. the 'r abundance; our sufferance is a gain to them.-They say, poor suitors have strong breaths; they Let us revenge this with our pikes, ere we become shall know, we have strong arms too. rakes: for the gods know, I speak this in hunger Men. Why, masters, my good friends, mine for bread, not in thirst for revenge.

2 Cit. Would you proceed especially against Caius Marcius?

Cit. Against him first; he's a very dog to the commonalty.

2 Cit. Consider you what services he has done for his country?

honest neighbours, Will you undo yourselves?

1 Cit. We cannot, sir, we are undone already. Men. I tell you, friends, most charitable care Have the patricians of you. For your wants, Your suffering in this dearth, you may as well Strike at the heaven with your staves, as lift them Against the Roman state; whose course will on The way it takes, cracking ten thousand curbs Of more strong link asunder, than can ever 2 Cit. Nay, but speak not maliciously. Appear in your impediment: For the dearth, 1 Cit. I say unto you, what he hath done fa-The gods, not the patricians, make it; and mously, he did it to that end: though soft-con

1 Cit. Very well; and could be content to give him good report for't, but that he pays himself with being proud.

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Your knees to them, not arms, must help. Alack,
You are transported by calamity

Thither where more attends you; and you slander

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