Flav.

What will this come to? [Aside. 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 shew 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 lands 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. You do yourselves

[Exit.

Much wrong, you bate too much of your own

2nd 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 friends' affection with mine own;
I'll tell you true. I'll call on you.

All Lords. O, none so welcome.

Tim. I take all and your several visitations So kind to heart, 't is 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.

Thus honest fools lay out their wealth on court'sies. Tim. Now, Apemantus, if thou wert not sullen, I would 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 giv❜st 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 society once, I am sworn not to give regard to you. Farewell: and come with better music. Apem. So; thou 'lt not hear me now;-thou shalt not, then; I'll lock

[Exit.

Thy heaven from thee. O, that men's ears should

be

To counsel deaf, but not to flattery!

[Exit.

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. Caphis, hoa!
Caphis, I say!

Caph.

Enter CAPHIS.

Here, sir: what is your pleasure? Sen. Get on your cloak, and haste you to lord Timon;

Impórtune him for my monies; be not ceased
With slight denial; nor then silenced, when-
"Commend me to your master," and the cap
Plays in the right hand thus :-but tell him, sirrah,
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 honour 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.

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.

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!

Enter CAPHIS, and the Servants of ISIDORE and

Isid. Serv. A plague upon him, dog!

Var. Serv. How dost, fool?

Apem. Dost dialogue with thy shadow?
Var. Serv. I speak not to thee.
Apem. No; 'tis to thyself.-Come away.
[To the Fool.

Isid. Serv. [To VARRO's Servant]. There's the fool hangs on your back already.

Apem. No, thou stand'st single; thou art not on him yet.

Caph. Where's the fool now?

Apem. He last asked the question. - Poor rogues, and usurers' men! bawds between gold and want!

All Servants. What are we, Apemantus?

Apem. If Timon stay at home.-You three serve three usurers?

All Serv. Ay; 'would they served us! Apem. So would I,—as good a trick as ever hangman served thief.

Fool. Are you three usurers' men?
All Serv. Ay, fool.

Fool. I think, no usurer but has a fool to his servant: my mistress is one, and I am her fool. When men come to borrow of your masters, they approach sadly, and go away merry; but they enter my mistress' house merrily, and go away sadly. The reason of this?

Var. Serv. I could render one.

Apem. Do it, then, that we may account thee a whoremaster and a knave; which, notwithstanding, thou shalt be no less esteemed.

Var. Serv. What is a whoremaster, fool? Fool. A fool in good clothes, and something like thee. 'Tis a spirit: sometime it appears like a lord; sometime like a lawyer; sometime like a philosopher, with two stones more than his artificial one he is very often like a knight; and, gene

At many times I brought in my accounts,
Laid them before you; you would throw them off,
And say, you found them in mine honesty.
When, for some trifling present, you have bid me
Return so much, I have shook my head and wept;
Yea, 'gainst the authority of manners, prayed 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 dear-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,

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. Serv. My lord, my lord,—

Tim. I will despatch you severally.-You to lord Lucius,

To lord Lucullus you; I hunted with his
Honour 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.

Tim. 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.

(For that I knew it the most general way) To them to use your signet and your name;

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 honourable,―

But yet they could have wished-they know notSomething hath been amiss-a noble nature May catch a wrench-would all were well-'t is pity

And so, intending other serious matters,

After distasteful looks, and these hard fractions, With certain half-caps, and cold-moving nods, They froze me into silence.

And nature, as it grows again towards earth, Is fashioned for the journey, dull and heavy.Go to Ventidius [To a Servant]:-Pr'y thee, be not sad; [TO FLAVIUS. Thou art true and honest; ingenuously I speak, No blame belongs to thee :-[To Servant] Ventidius lately

Buried his father; by whose death, he's stepped Into a great estate: when he was poor, Imprisoned, and in scarcity of friends,

I cleared him with five talents: greet him from me;

Bid him suppose some good necessity
Touches his friend, which craves to be remembered
With those five talents:-that had [To FLAVIUS],
give it these fellows

To whom 't is instant due. Ne'er speak, or think,
That Timon's fortunes 'mong his friends can sink.

Flav. I would I could not think: that thought

is bounty's foe;

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