1 Sen. I hope, it remains not unkindly with your Lordship, that I return'd you an empty meffenger. Tim. O Sir, let it not trouble you. 2. Sen. My noble Lord. Tim. Ah, my good friend, what cheer? z Sen. Moft honourable Lord, that when your lordship t'other fo unfortunate a beggar. Fim. Think not on't, Sir. [The banquet brought in. I'm e'en fick of fhame, day fent to me, I was 2 Sen. If you had fent but two hours before. Fim. Let it not cumber your better remembrance. Come, bring in all together. 2 Sen. All cover'd dishes! →Sen. Royal cheer, F warrant you. 3 Sen. Doubt not that, if money and the season can yield it. 1 Sen. How do you? what's the news? 3 Sen. Alcibiades is banifh'd hear you of it ♪ Both. Alcibiades banish'd! 3 Sen. "Tis fo, be fure of it. 1 Sen. How? how? 2 Sen. I pray you, upon what? Tim. My worthy friends, will you draw near? 3 Se. I'll tell ye more anon. Here's a noble feaft toward. 2 Sen. This is the old man ftill. 3 Sen. Will't hold? will't hold ? 2 Sen. It does, but time will, and fo 3 Sen. I do conceive. Tim. Each man to his ftool, with that fpur as he would to the lip of his miftrefs: your diet fhall be in all places alike. Make not a city-feaft of it, to let the meat cool ere we can agree upon the first place. Sit, fit. The Gods require our thanks. You great Benefactors, Sprinkle our fociety with thankfulness. For your own gifts make yourselves prais'd; but referve ftill to give, left your Deities be defpifed. Lend to each man enough, that one need not lend to another. For were your Godbeads to borrow of men, men would forfake the Gods. Make the meat beloved, more than the man that gives it. Let no affembly of twenty be without a score of villains. If there fit twelve women at the table, let a dozen of them be as they are-the rest of your fees, 10 Gods, the fenators of Athens, together with the common lag of people, what is amifs in them, you Gods, make fuitable for deftruction. For thefe my friends as they are to me nothing, so in nothing bless them, and to nothing are they welcome. Uncover, dogs, and lap. Some Speak. What does his Lordship mean? Tim. May you a better feast never behold, สร You knot of mouth-friends: fmoke, and lukewarm water, ९ Cruft you quite o'er!-what, doft thou go? Throwing the dishes at them, and drives, 'em out of Man and Beaft, the infinite Malady [Exit. Cruft you quite o'er!] In what Senfe could the Senators be called minute Jacks of Man and Beaft? The Post juft before calls them Vapours; and certainly means to enforce that Image, by faying, they were Jacks not of a Minute's Truft, or Dependence. Then what could the infinite Malady fignify, without fomething fubjoined to give us a clearer Idea of it? As I point the Paffage, it plainly means, May the whole Catalogue, the infinite Number of Diftempers, that have ever invaded either Man or Beaft, all be joined to plague you. Re-enter the Senators. 1 Sen. How now, my Lords? 2 Sen. Know you the quality of Lord Timon's fury! 3 Sen. Pha! did you fee my cap? 4 Sen. I've loft my gown. i Sen. He's but a mad Lord, and nought but humour fways him. He gave me a jewel th' other day, and now he has beat it out of my cap. Did you fee my jewel? 2 Sen. Did you see my cap? 3 Sen. Here 'tis. 4 Sen. Here lies my gown. 1 Sen. Let's make no stay. 2 Sen. Lord Timon's mad. 3 Sen. I feel't upon my bones. 4 Sen. One day he gives us diamonds, next day ftones. [Exeunt. A C T IV. SCENE, without the walls of Athens. L Enter TI MO N. ET me look back upon thee, O thou wall, That girdleft in those wolves! dive in the earth, And fence not Athens! Matrons, turn incontinent; Obedience fail in children; flaves and fools Pluck the grave wrinkled Senate from the bench, And minifter in their fteads: to general filths Convert o'th' inftant, green Virginity! Do't in your parents' eyes. Bankrupts, hold faft; Rather than render back, out with your knives, (16) (16) -Bankrupts, bold fast, Rather than render back; out with your Knives, And cut your Truflers' throats.] Thus has this Paffage hitherto been moft abfurdly pointed; even by the poetical Editors, Mr. Rowe, and Mr. Pope. I had reformed the Pointing; but am, however, to make my Acknowledgments to fome anonymous Gentleman, who by Letter advifed me to point it as I have done in the Text. And And cut your trufters' throats. Bound fervants, steal›. On Athens, ripe for ftroke! Thou cold Sciatica, Take thou that too, with multiplying banns; [Exit. SCENE changes to TIMON's House. "H Enter Flavius, with two or three Servants. 15.Ear you, good mafter steward, where's our mafter? Are we undone, caft off, nothing remaining? ve Flav. Alack, my fellows, what should I say to you? Let me be recorded by the righteous Gods, G5 I am I am as poor as you. Serv. Such a house broke! So noble a mafter fall'n! all gone! and not 2 Serv. As we do turn our backs From our companion, thrown into his So his familiars to his buried fortunes grave, Slink all away; leave their false vows with him, With his disease of all-fhun'd poverty, Walks, like contempt, alone. -More of our fellows. Enter other Servants. Flav. All broken implements of a ruin'd house! 3 Serv. Yet do our hearts wear Timon's livery, That fee I by our faces; we are fellows ftill, Serving alike in forrow. Leak'd is our bark, And we poor mates, ftand on the dying deck, Hearing the furges threat: we must all part Into the fea of air. Flav. Good fellows all, The latest of my wealth I'll fhare amongst you, [He gives them money; they embrace, and part feveral ways, To have his pomp, and all what fate compounds, When |