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13 LORD. I'll tell you more anon. Here's a noble feast toward.6

2 LORD. This is the old man still.

3 LORD. Will't hold? will't hold?

2 LORD. It does: but time will and so3 LORD. I do conceive.

TIM. Each man to his stool, with that spur as he would to the lip of his mistress: your diet shall be in all places alike." Make not a city feast of it, to let the meat cool ere we can agree upon the first place: Sit, sit. The gods require our thanks.

You great benefactors, sprinkle our society with thankfulness. For your own gifts, make yourselves praised: but reserve still to give, lest your deities be despised. Lend to each man enough, that one need not lend to another: for, were your godheads to borrow of men, men would forsake the gods. Make the meat be beloved, more than the man that gives it. Let no assembly of twenty be without a score of villains: If there sit twelve women at the table, let a dozen of them be-as they are. The rest of your fees, O gods, the senators of Athens, together with the common lag of people, what is amiss in

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* Here's a noble feast toward.] i. e. in a state of readiness. So, in Romeo and Juliet:

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"We have a foolish trifling banquet towards."

STEEVENS.

your diet shall be in all places alike.] See a note on The Winter's Tale, Vol. IX. p. 236, n. 1. STEEVENS. foes.

* The rest of your fees,] We should read

We must surely read foes instead of fees. the present reading. M. MASON.

WARBURTON.

I find no sense in

9the common lag-] Old copy-leg. Corrected by Mr. Rowe. MALONE.

them, you gods make suitable for destruction. For these my present friends, as they are to me nothing, so in nothing bless them, and to nothing they are welcome.

Uncover, dogs, and lap.

[The Dishes uncovered are full of warm Water, SOME SPEAK. What does his lordship mean? SOME OTHER. I know not.

TIM. May you a better feast never behold, You knot of mouth-friends! smoke, and luke-warm

water

Is your perfection. This is Timon's last;
Who stuck and spangled you with flatteries,
Washes it off, and sprinkles in your faces

[Throwing Water in their Faces.

Your reeking villainy. Live loath'd, and long,2 Most smiling, smooth, detested parasites, Courteous destroyers, affable wolves, meek bears, You fools of fortune, trencher-friends, time's flies,

The fag-end of a web of cloth is, in some places, called the lag-end. STEEVENS.

Is your perfection.

excellence. JOHNSON.

Your perfection, is the highest of your

Live loath'd, and long,] This thought has occurred

twice before:

Again:

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let not that part

"Of nature my lord paid for, be of power
" To expel sickness, but prolong his hour."

"Gods keep you old enough," &c. STEEVENS. 3-fools of fortune, The same expression occurs in Romeo and Juliet:

"O! I am fortune's fool." STEEVENS.

'time's flies,] Flies of a season.. JOHNSON.

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Cap and knee slaves, vapours, and minute-jacks!5
Of man, and beast, the infinite malady
Crust you quite o'er!-What, dost thou go?
Soft, take thy physick first-thou too, and thou;-

[Throws the Dishes at them, and drives them

out.

Stay, I will lend thee money, borrow none.-
What, all in motion? Henceforth be no feast,
Whereat a villain's not a welcome guest.
Burn, house; sink, Athens! henceforth hated be
Of Timon, man, and all humanity!
[Exit.

Re-enter the Lords, with other Lords and Senators.

1 LORD. How now, my lords ?7

2 LORD. Know you the quality of lord Timon's

fury?

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3 LORD. Pish! did you see my cap?

4 LORD. I have lost my gown.

3 LORD. He's but a mad lord, and nought but

So, before:

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one cloud of winter showers,
"These flies are couch'd." STEEVENS.

minute-jacks!] Sir Thomas Hanmer thinks it means Jack-a-lantern, which shines and disappears in an instant. What it was I know not; but it was something of quick motion, mentioned in King Richard III. JOHNSON.

A minute-jack is what was called formerly a Jack of the clockhouse; an image whose office was the same as one of those at *St. Dunstan's church in Fleet Street. See note on King Richard III. Vol. XIV. p. 441, n. 3. STEEVENS.

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the infinite malady-] Every kind of disease incident

to man and beast. JOHNSON.

How now, my lords?] This and the next speech are spoken by the newly arrived Lords. MALONE.

humour sways him. He gave me a jewel the other day, and now he has beat it out of my hat :-Did you see my jewel?

4 LORD. Did you see my cap ?

2 LORD. Here 'tis.

4 LORD. Here lies my gown.

1 LORD. Let's make no stay.

2 LORD. Lord Timon's mad.

3 LORD.

I feel't upon my bones.

4 LORD. One day he gives us diamonds, next

day stones.*

[Exeunt.

ACT IV. SCENE I.

Without the Walls of Athens.

Enter TIMON.

TIM. Let me look back upon thee, O thou wall, That girdlest in those wolves! Dive in the earth, And fence not Athens! Matrons, turn incontinent; Obedience fail in children! slaves, and fools,

Pluck the grave wrinkled senate from the bench,

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- stones. As Timon has thrown nothing at his worthless guests, except warm water and empty dishes, I am induced, with Mr. Malone, to believe that the more ancient drama described in p. 3, had been read by our author, and that he supposed he had introduced from it the " painted stones" as part of his banquet; though in reality he had omitted them. The present mention therefore of such missiles, appears to want propriety. STEEVENS.

And minister in their steads! to general filths
Convert o'the instant, green1 virginity!
Do't in your parents' eyes! bankrupts, hold fast;
Rather than render back, out with your knives,
And cut your trusters' throats! bound servants,

steal!

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Large-handed robbers your grave masters are,
And pill by law! maid, to thy master's bed;
Thy mistress is o'the brothel! son of sixteen,
Pluck the lin'd crutch from the old limping sire,
With it beat out his brains! piety, and fear,
Religion to the gods, peace, justice, truth,
Domestick awe, night-rest, and neighbourhood,
Instruction, manners, mysteries, and trades,
Degrees, observances, customs, and laws,
Decline to your confounding contraries,
And yet confusion live! - Plagues, incident to men,

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- general filths-] i. e. common sewers. STEEVENS. -green-] i. e. immature. So, in Antony and Cleo

patra:

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"When I was green in judgment." STEEvens.

- o'the brothel!] mer reads, 'the brothel.

So the old copies. Sir Thomas Han-
JOHNSON.

One would suppose it to mean, that the mistress frequented the brothel; and so Sir Thomas Hanmer understood it. RITSON.

The meaning is, go to thy master's bed, for he is alone; thy mistress is now of the brothel; is now there. In the old copy, i'th', o'th', and a'th', are written with very little care, or rather seem to have been set down at random in different places.

MALONE.

"Of the brothel" is the true reading. So, in King Lear, Act II. sc. ii. the Steward says to Kent, " Art of the house?"

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STEEVENS.

confounding contraries,] i. e. contrarieties whose nature it is to waste or destroy each other. So, in King Henry V:

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as doth a galled rock

"O'erhang and jutty his confounded base." STEEVENS.

- yet confusion-] Sir Thomas Hanmer reads, let con

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