ACT II. SCENE I.

The same. 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;

-twenty-] Mr. Theobald has-ten. Dr. Farmer proposes to read twain. REED.

3 Ask nothing, give it him, it foals me, straight, And able horses:] Mr. Theobald reads:

Ten able horses. STEEVENS.

"If I want gold (says the Senator) let me steal a beggar's dog, and give it Timon, the dog coins me gold. If I would sell my horse, and had a mind to buy ten better instead of him; why, I need but give my horse to Timon, to gain this point; and it presently fetches me an horse." But is that gaining the point proposed? The first folio reads:

And able horses:

Which reading, joined to the reasoning of the passage, gave me the hint for this emendation.

THEOBALD.

The passage which Mr. Theobald would alter, means only this: "If I give my horse to Timon, it immediately foals, and not only produces more, but able horses." The same construction

T

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But rather one that smiles, and still invites
All that pass by. It cannot hold; no reason

Can found his state in safety.

Caphis, ho!

Caphis, I say!

1

occurs in Much Ado about Nothing: " -and men are only

turned into tongue, and trim ones too."

Something similar occurs also in Beaumont and Fletcher's Humorous Lieutenant:

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some twenty, young and handsome,

"As also able maids, for the court service." STEEVENS. Perhaps the letters of the word me were transposed at the press. Shakspeare might have written:

it foals 'em straight

And able horses.

If there be no corruption in the text, the word twenty in the preceding line, is understood here after me.

We have had this sentiment differently expressed in the preceding Act:

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- no meed but he repays

"Seven-fold above itself; no gift to him,
"But breeds the giver a return exceeding
" All use of quittance." MALONE.

No porter at his gate;

But rather one that smiles, and still invites-] I imagine that a line is lost here, in which the behaviour of a surly porter was described. JOHNSON.

There is no occasion to suppose the loss of a line. Sternness was the characteristick of a porter. There appeared at Killingworth castle, [1575] " a porter tall of parson, big of lim, and stearn of countinauns." FARMER.

So also, in A Knight's Conjuring &c. by Decker: "You mistake, if you imagine that Plutoes porter is like one of those big fellowes that stand like gyants at Lordes gates &c.-yet hee's as surly as those key-turners are." STEEVENS.

The word-one, in the second line, does not refer to porter, but means a person. He has no stern forbidding porter at his gate, to keep people out, but a person who invites them in.

M. MASON.

Can found his state in safety.] [Old copy-found.] The supposed meaning of this must be, -No reason, by sounding, fathoming, or trying, his state, can find it safe. But as the

Enter CAPHIS.

CAPH. Here, sir; What is your pleasure ? SEN. Get on your cloak, and haste you to lord

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Timon; Impórtune him for my monies; be not ceas'd With slight denial; nor then silenc'd, whenCommend me to your master-and the cap Plays in the right hand, thus:- but tell him, sir

rah,"

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

words stand, they imply, that no reason can safely sound his state. I read thus:

no reason

Can found his state in safety.

Reason cannot find his fortune to have any safe or solid foun

dation.

The types of the first printer of this play were so worn and defaced, that fand sare not always to be distinguished.

JOHNSON.

The following passage in Macbeth affords countenance to Dr. Johnson's emendation: " Whole as the marble, founded as the rock;"

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STEEVENS.

be not ceas'd-] i. e. stopped. So, in Claudius Ti

berius Nero, 1607:

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Why should Tiberius' liberty be ceased?"

Again, in The Valiant Welchman, 1615: pity thy people's wrongs,

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" And cease the clamours both of old and young."

STEEVENS.

sirrah, was added for the sake of the metre by the

Must not be toss'd and turn'd 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 phenix. Get you gone.
CAPH. I go, sir.

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SEN. I go, sir?'-take the bonds along with you, And have the dates in compt.2

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a naked gull,] A gull is a bird as remarkable for the poverty of its feathers, as a phœnix is supposed to be for the richness of its plumage. STEEVENS.

9 Which flashes &c.] Which, the pronoun relative, relating to things, is frequently used, as in this instance, by Shakspeare, instead of who, the pronoun relative, applied to persons. The use of the former instead of the latter is still preserved in the Lord's prayer. STEEVENS.

Caph. I go, sir.

Sen. I go, sir?] This last speech is not a captious repetition of what Caphis said, but a further injunction to him to go. I, in all the old dramatick writers, stands for-ay, as it does in this place. M. MASON.

I have left Mr. M. Mason's opinion before the reader, though I do not heartily concur in it. STEEVENS.

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take the bonds along with you,

And have the dates in compt.] [Old copy-And have the dates in. Come.] Certainly, ever since bonds were given, the date was put in when the bond was entered into: and these. bonds Timon had already given, and the time limited for their payment was lapsed. The Senator's charge to his servant must be to the tenour as I have amended the text; Take good notice of the dates, for the better computation of the interest due upon them. THEOBALD.

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 expence, 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.

Fye, fye, fye, fye!

Mr. Theobald's emendation may be supported by the following instance in Macbeth:

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"Have theirs, themselves, and what is theirs, in compt." STEEVENS.

Never mind

Was to be so unwise, to be so kind.] Nothing can be worse, or more obscurely expressed: and all for the sake of a wretched rhyme. To make it sense and grammar, it should be supplied thus:

Never mind

Was [made] to be so unwise, [in order] to be so kind. i. e. Nature, in order to make a profuse mind, never before endowed any man with so large a share of folly. WARBURTON.

Of this mode of expression, conversation affords many examples: "I was always to be blamed, whatever happened."- " I am in the lottery, but I was always to draw blanks."

JOHNSON.