much curiosity; in thy rags thou knowest none, but art despised for the contrary. There's a medlar for thee; eat it.

Tim. On what I hate, I feed not.
Apem. Dost hate a medlar?

Tim. Ay, though it look like thee.

Apem. An thou hadst hated meddlers sooner, thou shouldst have loved thyself better now.

What man didst thou ever know unthrift, that was beloved after his means?

Tim. Who, without those means thou talkest of, didst thou ever know beloved?

Apem. Myself.

Tim. I understand thee; thou hadst some means to keep a dog.

Apem. What things in the world canst thou nearest compare to thy flatterers?

Tim. Women nearest; but men, men are the things themselves. What wouldst thou do with the world, Apemantus, if it lay in thy power?

Apem. Give it the beasts, to be rid of the men. Tim. Wouldst thou have thyself fall in the confusion of men, and remain a beast with the beasts! Apem. Ay, Timon.

Tim. A beastly ambition, which the gods grant thee to attain to! If thou wert the lion, the fox would beguile thee: if thou wert the lamb, the fox would eat thee: if thou wert the fox, the lion would suspect thee, when, peradventure, thou wert accused by the ass if thou wert the ass, thy dulness would torment thee; and still thou livedst but as a breakfast to the wolf: if thou wert the wolf, thy greediness would afflict thee, and oft thou shouldst hazard thy life for thy dinner: wert thou the unicorn, pride and wrath would confound thee, and make thine own self the conquest of thy fury:2 wert thou a bear, thou wouldst be killed by the horse: wert thou a horse,

1 Curiosity is scrupulous exactness, finical niceness.

2 Alluding to the unicorn's being sometimes overcome from striking his horn into a tree in his furious pursuit of an enemy.

thou wouldst be seized by the leopard: wert thou a leopard, thou wert german to the lion,' and the spots of thy kindred were jurors on thy life: all thy safety were remotion; 2 and thy defence, absence. What beast couldst thou be, that were not subject to a beast? and what a beast art thou already, that seest not thy loss in transformation?

Apem. If thou couldst please me with speaking to me, thou mightst have hit upon it here. The commonwealth of Athens is become a forest of beasts. Tim. How has the ass broke the wall, that thou art out of the city?

Apem. Yonder comes a poet and a painter; the plague of company light upon thee! I will fear to catch it, and give way. When I know not what else to do, I'll see thee again.

Tim. When there is nothing living but thee, thou shalt be welcome. I had rather be a beggar's dog, than Apemantus.

Apem. Thou art the cap of all the fools alive.

3

Tim. 'Would thou wert clean enough to spit upon!
Apem. A plague on thee, thou art too bad to curse.
Tim. All villains, that do stand by thee, are pure.
Apem. There is no leprosy but what thou speak'st.
Tim. If I name thee,-

I'll beat thee, but I should infect my hands.
Apem. I would my tongue could rot them off!
Tim. Away, thou issue of a mangy dog!

Choler does kill me, that thou art alive;

I swoon to see thee.

Apem.

Tim.

Thou tedious rogue! I am sorry, I shall lose

A stone by thee.

Apem.
Tim.

'Would thou wouldst burst.

Away,

[Throws a stone at him.

Beast!

Slave!

1 This seems to imply that the lion "bears, like the Turk, no brother

near the throne."

2 ❝ Removing away, removing afar off; remotio."

3 See Act iii. Sc. 4.

Apem. Tim.

Toad!

Rogue, rogue, rogue!

[APEMANTUS retreats backward, as going.

I am sick of this false world; and will love nought
But even the mere necessities upon it.
Then, Timon, presently prepare thy grave.
Lie where the light foam of the sea may beat
Thy grave-stone daily; make thine epitaph,
That death in me at others' lives may laugh.
O thou sweet king-killer, and dear divorce

[Looking on the gold. 'Twixt natural son and sire! thou bright defiler Of Hymen's purest bed! thou valiant Mars! Thou ever young, fresh, loved, and delicate wooer, Whose blush doth thaw the consecrated snow That lies on Dian's lap! thou visible god,

That solder'st close impossibilities,

And mak'st them kiss! that speak'st with every tongue,
To every purpose! O thou touch' of hearts!

Think, thy slave man rebels; and by thy virtue
Set them into confounding odds, that beasts
May have the world in empire!
Apem.

'Would 'twere so;

But not till I am dead!-I'll say thou hast gold;
Thou wilt be thronged to shortly.

Tim.

Thronged to?

Apem.

Ay.

Tim. Thy back, I pr'ythee.

Apem.

Live and love thy misery!

[Exit APEMANTUS.

Tim. Long live so, and so die!-I_am quit.

More things like men?-Eat, Timon, and abhor them.

Enter Thieves.2

1 Thief. Where should he have this gold? It is some poor fragment, some slender ort of his remainder.

1 Touch for touchstone.

2 The old copy reads, "Enter the Banditti."

The mere want of gold, and the falling-from of his friends, drove him into this melancholy.

2 Thief. It is noised he hath a mass of treasure.

3 Thief. Let us make the assay upon him. If he care not for't, he will supply us easily; if he covetously reserve it, how shall's get it?

2 Thief. True; for he bears it not about him; 'tis hid.

1 Thief. Is not this he? Thieves. Where?

2 Thief. 'Tis his description. 3 Thief. He; I know him. Thieves. Save thee, Timon. Tim. Now, thieves?

Thieves. Soldiers, not thieves.

Tim. Both too; and women's sons.

Thieves. We are not thieves, but men that much do want.

Tim. Your greatest want is, you want much of men.1 Why should you want? Behold, the earth hath roots; Within this mile break forth a hundred springs

The oaks bear mast, the briers scarlet hips;

The bounteous housewife, nature, on each bush
Lays her full mess before you. Want? why want?
1 Thief. We cannot live on grass, on berries, water,
As beasts, and birds, and fishes.

Tim. Nor on the beasts themselves, the birds, and fishes.

You must eat men. Yet thanks I must you con,
That you are thieves professed; that you work not
In holier shapes; for there is boundless theft

1 The old copy reads:

"Your greatest want is, you want much of meat."

Theobald proposed "you want much of meet," i. e. much of what you ought to be. Steevens says, perhaps we should read :—

"Your greatest want is, you want much of me."

"Your necessities are indeed desperate, when you apply to one in my situation." Dr. Farmer would point the passage differently, thus:— "Your greatest want is, you want much. Of meat

Why should you want,” &c.

1

In limited professions. Rascal thieves,

Here's gold. Go, suck the subtle blood of the grape
Till the high fever seethe your blood to froth,

And so 'scape hanging. Trust not the physician;
His antidotes are poison, and he slays

More than you rob. Take wealth and lives together;
Do villany, do, since you profess to do't,

Like workmen. I'll example you with thievery.
The sun's a thief, and with his great attraction
Robs the vast sea; the moon's an arrant thief,
And her pale fire she snatches from the sun;
The sea's a thief, whose liquid surge resolves
The moon into salt tears; 2 the earth's a thief,
That feeds and breeds by a composture3 stolen
From general excrement; each thing's a thief;
The laws, your curb and whip, in their rough power
Have unchecked theft. Love not yourselves: away,
Rob one another. There's more gold. Cut throats;
All that you meet are thieves. To Athens, go,
Break open shops; nothing can you steal,
But thieves do lose it. Steal not less, for this
I give you; and gold confound you howsoever!
Amen.
[TIMON retires to his cave.
3 Thief. He has almost charmed me from my pro-
fession, by persuading me to it.

1 Thief. 'Tis in the malice of mankind, that he thus advises us; not to have us thrive in our mystery. 2 Thief. I'll believe him as an enemy, and give over my trade.

1 Thief. Let us first see peace in Athens. There is no time so miserable, but a man may be true.*

1 Limited professions are allowed professions.

[Exeunt Thieves.

2 The moon is called the moist star in Hamlet, and the Poet in the last scene of The Tempest has shown that he was acquainted with her influence on the tides. The sea is therefore said to resolve her into salt tears, in allusion to the flow of the tides, and perhaps of her influence upon the weather, which she is said to govern.

3 i. e. compost, manure.

4 "There is no hour in a man's life so wretched, but he always has it in his power to become true, i. e. honest."