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3 Serv. Please you, my lord, that honorable gentleman, lord Lucullus, entreats your company to-morrow to hunt with him; and has sent your honor two brace of greyhounds.

Tim. I'll hunt with him; and let them be received, Not without fair reward.

Flav. [Aside.]

What will this come to?

He commands us to provide, and give

Great gifts, and all out of an empty coffer.
Nor will he know his purse; or yield me this,
To show him what a beggar his heart is,
Being of no power to make his wishes good;
His promises fly so beyond his state,

That what he speaks is all in debt; he owes
For every word; he is so kind, that he now
Pays interest for't; his land's put to their books.
Well, 'would I were gently put out of office,
Before I were forced out!

Happier is he that has no friend to feed,
Than such as do even enemies exceed.

I bleed inwardly for my lord.

Tim.

[Exit.

You do yourselves Much wrong; you bate too much of your own merits.Here, my lord, a trifle of our love.

2 Lord. With more than common thanks I will receive it.

3 Lord. O, he is the very soul of bounty!

Tim. And now I remember, my lord, you gave Good words the other day of a bay courser

I rode on; it is yours, because you liked it.

2 Lord. I beseech you, pardon me, my lord, in

that.

Tim. You may take my word, my lord; I know, no

man

Can justly praise but what he does affect.

I weigh my friend's affection with mine own;
I'll tell you true. I'll call on you.

All Lords.

None so welcome.

Tim. I take all and your several visitations

So kind to heart, 'tis not enough to give;
Methinks I could deal kingdoms to my friends,
And ne'er be weary.-Alcibiades,

Thou art a soldier, therefore seldom rich,

It comes in charity to thee: for all thy living
Is 'mongst the dead; and all the lands thou hast
Lie in a pitched field.

Alcib.

Ay, defiled land, my lord. 1 Lord. We are so virtuously bound,Tim.

Am I to you.

2 Lord.

So infinitely endeared

Tim. All to you.'-Lights, more lights.

And so

The best of happiness,

1 Lord. Honor, and fortunes, keep with you, lord Timon! Tim. Ready for his friends.

[Exeunt ALCIBIADES, Lords, &c.

What a coil's here!

Apem. Serving of becks, and jutting out of bums! I doubt whether their legs be worth the sums That are given for 'em. Friendship's full of dregs; Methinks false hearts should never have sound legs. Thus honest fools lay out their wealth on courtesies. Tim. Now, Apemantus, if thou wert not sullen, I'd be good to thee.

Apem. No, I'll nothing; for, if I should be bribed too, there would be none left to rail upon thee; and then thou wouldst sin the faster. Thou givest so long, Timon, I fear me, thou wilt give away thyself in paper shortly. What need these feasts, pomps, and vain glories?

Tim. Nay, an you begin to rail on am sworn not to give regard to you. come with better music.

society once, I Farewell; and [Exit.

1 That is, "all good wishes to you," or "all happiness attend you."

2 He plays upon the word leg, as it signifies a limb, and a bow or act of obeisance.

3 Warburton explained this, " be ruined by his securities entered into." Dr. Farmer would read proper, i. e. I suppose, in propria persona.

Apem. So;-thou'lt not hear me now,-thou shalt

not then, I'll lock thy heaven' from thee.

O that men's ears should be

To counsel deaf, but not to flattery!

[Exit.

ACT II.

SCENE I. Athens. A Room in a Senator's House.

Enter a Senator, with papers in his hand.

Sen. And late, five thousand to Varro; and to Isidore He owes nine thousand; besides my former sum, Which makes it five-and-twenty.-Still in motion Of raging waste? It cannot hold; it will not. If I want gold, steal but a beggar's dog, And give it Timon, why the dog coins gold. If I would sell my horse, and buy twenty more Better than he, why, give my horse to Timon, Ask nothing, give it him, it foals me straight, And able horses. No porter at his gate; But rather one that smiles, and still invites All that pass by. It cannot hold; no reason Can sound his state in safety.3 Caphis, ho! Caphis, I say!

Enter CAPHIS.

Caph.

Here, sir; what is your pleasure?

Sen. Get on your cloak, and haste you to lord Timon ; Importune him for my moneys; be not ceased' With slight denial; nor then silenced, whenCommend me to your master-and the cap

Plays in the right hand, thus :-but tell him, sirrah,

1 By his heaven he means good advice; the only thing by which he could be saved.

2 Sternness was the characteristic of a porter.

3 Johnson altered this to "found his state in safety." But the reading of the folio is evidently sound, which will bear explanation thus :-" No reason can proclaim his state in safety, or not dangerous.”

4 Be not stayed or stopped.

My uses cry to me, I must serve my turn
Out of mine own; his days and times are past,
And my reliances on his fracted dates

Have smit my credit. I love and honor him;
But must not break my back, to heal his finger.
Immediate are my needs; and my relief
Must not be tossed and turned to me in words,
But find supply immediate. Get you gone.
Put on a most importunate aspéct,

A visage of demand; for, I do fear,
When every feather sticks in his own wing,
Lord Timon will be left a naked gull,'

Which flashes now a phoenix. Get you gone.
Caph. I go, sir.

Sen. I go, sir?-take the bonds along with you, And have the dates in compt.

Caph.

Sen.

I will, sir.

Go.

[Exeunt.

SCENE II. The same. A Hall in Timon's House.

Enter FLAVIUS, with many bills in his hand. Flav. No care, no stop! so senseless of expense, That he will neither know how to maintain it, Nor cease his flow of riot; takes no account How things go from him; nor resumes no care Of what is to continue. Never mind

Was to be so unwise, to be so kind.3

What shall be done? He will not hear, till feel;

I must be round with him now he comes from hunting. Fie, fie, fie, fie!

1 This passage has been thus explained by Wilbraham, in his Glossary of words used in Cheshire:-" Gull, s. a naked gull; so are called all nestling birds in quite an unfledged state."

2 Which for who. The pronoun relative, applied to things, is frequently used for the pronoun relative applied to persons, by old writers, and does not seem to have been thought a grammatical error. It is still preserved

in the Lord's prayer.

3 This is elliptically expressed :

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Was [made] to be so unwise [in order] to be so kind."

Enter CAPHIS, and the Servants of ISIDORE and Varro.

Caph.

You come for money ?
Var. Serv.

Good even,1 Varro. What,

Is't not your business too?

It is so.

Caph. It is;-And yours too, Isidore?

Isid. Serv.

Caph. 'Would we were all discharged!

Var. Serv.

Caph. Here comes the lord.

I fear it.

Enter TIMON, ALCIBIADES, and Lords, &c.

Tim. So soon as dinner's done, we'll forth again, My Alcibiades. With me? What's your will? Caph. My lord, here is a note of certain dues. Tim. Dues? Whence are you ?

Caph.

Tim. Go to my steward.

Of Athens, here, my lord.

Caph. Please it your lordship, he hath put me off To the succession of new days this month.

My master is awaked by great occasion,
To call upon his own; and humbly prays you,
That with your other noble parts you'll suit,
In giving him his right.

Mine honest friend,

Tim.
I pr'ythee, but repair to me next morning.

Caph. Nay, good my lord,

Contain thyself, good friend.

Tim.
Var. Serv. One Varro's servant, my good lord,-

Isid. Serv.

He humbly prays your speedy payment,

From Isidore;

Caph. If you did know, my lord, my master's

wants,

Var. Serv. 'Twas due on forfeiture, my lord, six weeks,

And past,

1 Good even, or good den, was the usual salutation from noon.

2 i. e. to hunting; in our author's time it was the custom to hunt as well after dinner as before.

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