Tim. Would'st thou have thyself fall in the con- | Thy grave-stone daily; make thine epitaph, 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 forment 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 should'st 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: wert thou a bear, thou would'st be kill'd by the horse: wert thou a horse, thou would'st be seized by the leopard: wert thou a leopard, thou wert german to the lion,2 and the spots of thy kindred were jurors on thy life: all thy safety were remotion, and thy defence, absence. What beast could'st thou be, that were not subject to a beast? and what a beast art thou already, that seest not thy loss in transformation? 3 'Twixt natural son and sire! thou bright defiler To every purpose! O thou touch' of hearts! Tim. Tim. Thy back, I pr'ythee. Throng'd to? Ay. Apem. If thou could'st please me with speaking to me, thou might'st have hit upon it here: The More things like men?-Eat, Timon, and abhor 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. upon. Apem. Toad! Tim. Rogue, rogue, rogue! 1 Alluding to the unicorn's being sometimes over. come from striking his horn into a tree in his furious pursuit of an enemy See Gesner's History of Animals, and Julius Cæsar. Act ii. Sc. 1. 2 This seems to imply that the lion bears, like the Turk, no brother near the throne.' 3 Both Steevens and Malone are wrong planation of remotion here; which is neither from place to place,' nor remoteness;' but away, removing afar off. Remotio.' 4 i. e. the top, the principal. 5 See Act iii. Sc. 4. 6 Warburton remarks that the imagery quisitely beautiful and sublime. 7 Touch for touchstone: them. Enter Thieves.* 1 Thief. Where should he have this gold? It is mainder: The mere want of gold, and the fallingsome poor fragment, some slender ort of his refrom of his friends, drove him into this melancholy. 2 Thief. It is noised, he hath a mass of treasure. care not for't, he will supply us easily; If he covet3 Thief. Let us make the assay upon him; if he ously 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. 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. Why should you want? Behold the eart hath roots; Within this mile break forth a hundred springs : water, As beasts, and birds, and fishes. Tim. Nor on the beasts themselves, the birds, and You must eat men. Yet thanks I must you con, should read : in their ex-Your greatest want is that you expect supplies from me, 'Your greatest want is, you want much of me.' removing of whom you can reasonably expect nothing. Your removing necessities are indeed desperate, when you apply to one of whom you can reasonably expect nothing. Your in my situation. Dr. Farmer would point the passage differently, thus: te is ex 'O Buckingham, now do I play the tou To try if thou be'st current gold.' 8 The old copy reads, Enter the Bandit. 9 The old copy reads: 'Your greatest want is, you want much 'Your greatest want is, you want much. Of meat Why should you want,' &c. 10 Limited professions are allowed professions. Thus in Macbeth : 'I'll make so bold to call, for 'tis my limited service. I will request the reader to correct my explanation of limited in Macbeth, where I have unintentionally allowed the old glossarial explanation to star 1, which interprets it appointed. Here's gold: Go, suck the subtle pfood of the grape Amen. 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.3 [Exeunt Thieves. Enter FLAVIUS. Flav. O you gods! Is yon despis'd and ruinous man my lord? What viler thing upon the earth, than friends, Tim. What, dost thou weep?-Come nearer :then I love thee, Because thou art a woman, and disclaim'st Flav. I beg of you to know me, good my lord, To accept my grief, and, whilst this poor wealth lasts, To entertain me as your steward still. Tim. Had I a steward so true, so just, and now So comfortable? It almost turns My dangerous nature mild." Let me behold Thy face. Surely this man was born of woman.Forgive my general and exceptless rashness, You perpetual-sober gods! I do proclaim One honest man,-mistake me not, but one : No more, I pray,-and he is a steward.How fain would I have hated all mankind, And thou redeem'st thyself: But all, save thee, I fell with curses. Methinks thou art more honest now, than wise, For, by oppressing and betraying me, Thou might'st have sooner got another service: For many so arrive at second masters, Upon their first lord's neck. But tell me true (For I must ever doubt, though ne'er so sure,) Is not thy kindness subtle, covetous, If not9 a usuring kindness; and as rich men deal gifts, Expecting in return twenty for one? Flav. No, my most worthy master, in whose breast benefit that points to me, Either in hope, or present, I'd exchange For this one wish, That you had power and wealth Those that would mischief me, than those that do! To requite me, by making rich yourself. He has caught me in his eye: I will present Have you forgot me, thee. I know thee not: I ne'er had honest man 1 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 watery beams of the moon are spoken of in Romeo and Juliet. 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. There is an allusion to the lachrymose nature of the planet in the following apposite passage in King Richard III :--- That I, being govern'd by the wat'ry moon, May bring forth plenteous tears to drown the world.' 2 i. e. compost, manure. 3There is no hour in a man's life so wretched but ne always has it in his power to become true, i. e. honest.' 4 An ulteration of honour, is an alteration of an bonourable state to a state of disgrace. 5 How rarely, i.e. how admirably. So in Much Ado About Nothing, Act iii. Sc. 1, 'how rurely featur'd.' 6 i. c. desired. Friends ard enemies here mean those who profess friendship and profess enmity. The proverb 'Defend me from my friends, and from my Tim. Look thee, 'tis so!-Thou singly honest man, Here, take :-the gods out of my misery And may diseases lick up their false bloods! O, let me stay, And comfort you, my master. ACT V. SCENE I. The same. Before Timon's Cave. Enter Poet and Painter;1 TIMON behind, unseen. Pain. As I took note of the place, it cannot be far where he abides. . Poet. What's to be thought of him? Does the rumour hold for true, that he is so full of gold? Pain. Certain: Álcibiades reports it; Phrynia and Timandra had gold of him : he likewise enriched poor straggling soldiers with great quantity: 'Tis said, he gave unto his steward a mighty sum. Poet. Then this breaking of his has been but a try for his friends. Pain. Nothing else; you shall see him a palm in Athens again, and flourish with the highest. Therefore, 'tis not amiss, we tender our loves to him, in this supposed distress of his: it will show honestly in us; and is very likely to load our purposes with what they travel for, if it be a just and true report that goes of his having. Poet. What have you now to present unto him? Pain. Nothing at this time but my visitation: only I will promise him an excellent piece. Poet. I must serve him so too; tell him of an intent that's coming toward him. Pain. Good as the best. Promising is the very air o' the time it opens the eyes of expectation; performance is ever the duller for his act; and, but in the plainer and simpler kind of people, the deed of saying2 is quite out of use. To promise is most courtly and fashionable: performance is a kind of will or testament, which argues a great sickness in his judgment that makes it. Tim. Excellent workman! Thou canst not paint a man so bad as is thyself. Poet. I am thinking, what I shall say I have provided for him: It must be a personating of himself: a satire against the softness of prosperity; with a discovery of the infinite flatteries, that follow youth and opulency. Tim. Must thou needs stand for a villain in thine own work? Wilt thou whip thine own faults in other men? Do so, I have gold for thee. Poet. Nay, let's seek him : Then do we sin against our own estate, Pain. True; 1 The poet and painter were within view when Apemantus parted from Timon; they must therefore be supposed to have been wandering about the woods in search of Timon's cave, and to have heard in the interim the particulars of Timon's bounty to the thieves and the steward. 'But (as Malone observes) Shakspeare was not attentive to these minute particulars, and if he and the audience knew these circumstances, he would not scruple to attribute the knowledge to persons who perhaps had not yet an opportunity of acquiring it.' 2 The doing of that we have said we would do. Thus in Hamlet : 'As he in his peculiar act and force 3 Personating for representing simply. The subject of this projected satire was T'mon's case, not his person. | Not all the whips of heaven are large enough—. Whose starlike nobleness gave life and influence Pain. Tim. Let it go naked, men may see't the better: You, that are honest, by being what you are, Make them best seen, and known. He, and myself, Have travell'd in the great shower of your gifts, And sweetly felt it. Tim. Aye, you are honest men, Pain. We are hither come to offer you our ser vice. Tim. Most honest men! Why, how shall I requite you? Can you eat roots, and drink cold water? no. I am sure you have: speak truth; you are honest Both. Doubt it not, worthy lord. Tim. There's ne'er a one of you but trusts a knave, That mightily deceives you. Both. Do we, my lord? Tim. Ay, and you hear him cog, see him dissemble, Know his gross patchery, love him, feed him, Pain. I know none such, my lord. Nor I. Tim. Look you, I love you well; I'll give you gold, Rid me these villains from your companies: Both. Name them, my lord, let's know them. Tim. You that way, and you this, but two in company : Each man apart, all single and alone, 4 Black-corner'd night. Many conjectures have been offered about this passage, which appears to me a corruption of the text. Some have proposed to read black-coned, alluding to the conical form of the earth's shadow; others black-crown'd, and black-cover'd. It appears to me that it should be black-curtain'd. We have the blanket of the dark,' in Macbeth, 'Night's black mantle,' in the Third Part of King Henry VI. and the First Part of the same drama: night is fled, Whose pitchy mantle overveil'd the earth.' I cannot think with Steevens that 'Night as obscure as a dark corner,' is meant. 5 It should be remembered that a portrait was called a counterfeit. 6 i. e. complete, a finished villain. 7 i. e. a jakes Yet an arch llain keeps him company.1 You have done work for me, there's payment: You are an alchymist, make gold of that: [Exit, beating and driving them out. SCENE II. The same. Enter FLAVIUS, and two Senators. And send forth us, to make the sorrow'd render,' Tim. us: You witch me in it Flav. It is in vain that you would speak with Of Alcibiades the approaches wild ; Timon; For he is set so only to himself, That nothing but himself, which looks like man, Is friendly with him. 1 Sen. Bring us to his cave: O, forget 1 Sen. 2 Sen. A lack of Timon's aid, hath sense withal 1 The plain and simple meaning of this is, 'where each of you is, a villain must be in his company, because you are both of you arch villains,' therefore a villain goes with you every where. Thus in Promos and Cassandra, 1578, Go, and a knave with thee.' 2 The word done is omitted by accident in the old copy. This line is addressed to the painter, the next to the poet. 3 With one united voice of affection. So in Sternhold's version of the hundredth Psalm. "With one consent let all the earth.' 4 Which should he and. It is now vain to inquire whether the mistake be attributable to the poet, or to a careless transcriber or printer, but in such a glaring error as this, it is but charitable to suppose of the last. 5 The Athenians have a sense of the danger of their own fall by the arms of Alcibiades, by their withholding aid that should have been given to Timon. 6 Render is confession. So in Cymbeline, Act iv. ac. 4 may drive us to a render Where we have liv’d.' 2 Sen. And shakes his threat'ning sword Against the walls of Athens. 1 Sen. Therefore, Timon,Tim. Well, sir, I will; therefore, I will, sir Thus, If Alcibiades kill my countrymen, And take our goodly aged men by the beards, Of contumelious, beastly, mad-brain'd war; I cannot choose but tell him, that-I care not, So I leave you Flav. As common bruit12 doth put it. Tim. 7 Allowed here signifies confirmed. To approve or confirme. Ratum habere aliquid.' Baret. This word is generally used by our old writers in the sense of ap proved, and I am doubtful whether it has been rightly explained in other places in these dramas by licensed. An allowed fool, I think, means an approved fool, a confirmed fool. 8 This image may have been caught from Psalm lxxx. 13. 9 A whittle is a clasp knife. The word is still previncially in use. 10 The prosperous gods' undoubtedly here mean the propitious or favourable gods, Dii secundi. Thus ir. Othello, Act i. Sc. 3. "To my unfolding lend your prosperous ear.' In which passage the quarto of 1622 reads 'a gracious ear.' 11 He means 'the disease of life begins to promise me a period.' 12 Report, rumour. 13 Compare this part of Timon's speech with pa of the celebrated soliloquy in Hamlet. That nature's fragile vessel doth sustain I'll teach them to prevent wild Alcibiades' wrath. find him. Tim. Come not to me again: but say to Athens, 2 Sen. Our hope in him is dead: let us return, It requires swift foot. . [Exeunt. Enter Two SCENE IV. The Woods. Timon's Cave, and a 5 Timon is dead, who hath outstretch'd his span : What's on this tomb I cannot read; the character [Ext Our captain hath in every figure skill Enter Senators on the Walls. breath'd 6 Our sufferance vainly: Now the time is flush,7 1 Sen. 1 Sen. Thou hast painfully discover'd; are his We sent to thee; to give thy rages balm, files 1 Sen. Enter Senators from TIMON. Here come our brothers. To wipe out our ingratitude with loves 2 Sen. So did we woo These walls of ours Were not erected by their hands, from whom should fall 3 Sen. No talk of Timon, nothing of him expect.-emendation is Warburton's. It is evident that the solThe enemies' drum is heard, and fearful scouring Doth choke the air with dust: in and prepare; Ours is the fall, I fear, our foes, the snare. [Exeunt. 1 This was suggested by a passage in Plutarch's Life of Antony, where it is said Timon addressed the people of Athens in similar terms from the public tribune in the market-place. See also The Palace of Pleasure, vol. i. Nov. 23. 2 The first folio reads who. It was altered to which in the second folio. Malone reads whom, saying it refers to Timon, and not to his grave; as appears from The Palace of Pleasure:- By his last will he ordained himself to be interred upon the seashore, that the waves and surges might beate and vexe his dead carcas.' 5 The old copy hasSome beast read this.' The dier, when he first sees Timon's everlasting dwelling, does not know it to be a tomb. He concludes Timon must be dead, because he receives no answer. It is evident that when he utters the words some beast, &c. he has not seen the inscription. What can this be? (says the soldier,) Timon is certainly dead: Some beast must have rear'd this; a man could not live in it. Yes, he is dead sure enough, and this must be his tomb; What is this writing upon it?' 6 Travers'd arms are arms crossed. The image occurs in The Tempest : 'His arms in this sad knot, 7 Flush is mature, ripe, or come to full perfection 8 Their refers to griefs. To give thy rages balm. must be considered as parenthetical. 9 i. e. by promising him a competent subsistence. 10 'The motives that you first went out,' i. e. those who Embossed froth is foaming, puffed or blown up froth.made the motion for your exile. This word is used in Among our ancestors a boss or a bubble of water when it raineth, or the pot seetheth,' were used indif ferently. 3 So in Twelfth Night, Act v. Sc. 1: 'Whom thou in terms so bloody and so dear Hast made thy enemies.' 4 This passage Steevens, with great reason, considers corrupt, the awkward repetition of the verb made, and the obscurity of the whole, countenance his opinion. Might we not read : 'Yet our old love had a particular force, the same manner in Troilus and Cressida : her wanton spirits look out At every joint and motive of her body.' 'Shame that they wanted, coming in excess Johnson perhaps was not aware of the old meaning of |