ACT IV. SCENE 1. Without the walls of Athens. Enter Timon. Tim. Let me look back upon me, 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, And minister in their steads! to general filths* Convert o'the instant, green virginity! Do't in your parents' eyes! bankrupts, hold fast; Large handed robbers your grave masters are, On Athens, ripe for stroke! thou cold sciataca, * Common sewers. + i. e. Contrarieties, whose nature it is to waste or destroy each other For libertinism. Be general leprosy! breath infect breath; Take thou that too, with multiplying banns* ! [Exit. SCENE II. Athens. A room in Timon's house. Enter Flavius, with two or three Servants. 1 Serv. Hear you, master steward, where's our master? Are we undone? cast off? nothing remaining? Flav. Alack, my fellows, what should I say to you? Let me be recorded by the righteous gods, I am as poor as you. 1 Serv. Such a house broke! So noble a master fallen! All gone! and not 2 Serv. As we do turn our backs From our companion, thrown into his grave; So his familiars to his buried fortunes Slink all away; leave their false vows with him, With his disease of all-shunn'd poverty, Walks, like contempt, alone.-More of our fellows. * Accumulated curses. Enter other Servants. Flav. All broken implements of a ruin'd house. 3 Serv. Yet do our hearts wear Timon's livery, That see I by our faces; we are fellows still, Serving alike in sorrow: Leak'd is our bark And we, poor mates, stand on the dying deck, Hearing the surges threat: we must all part Into this sea of air. Flav. Good fellows all, ; The latest of my wealth I'll share amongst you. Nay, put out all your hands. [Giving them money. Not one word more : parting poor. [Exeunt Servants. To have his pomp, and all what state compounds, For bounty, that makes gods, does still mar men. I'll ever serve his mind with my best will; Whilst I have gold, I'll be his steward still. [Exit. *Hasty, precipitate. + Propensity, disposition. |