Ifid. [To Var.] There's the fool hangs on your back already.

Apem. No, thou ftand'ft fingle, thou art not on him yet.

Caph. Where's the fool now?

Apem. He laft afked the queftion.

4 Poor rogues',

and ufurers' men! bawds between gold and want!
All. What are we, Apemantus ?
Apem. Affes.

All. Why?

Apem. That you ask me what you are, and do not know yourselves.--Speak to 'em, fool.

Fool. How do you, gentlemen?

All. Gramercies, good fool: how does your miftrefs?

Fool. She's e'en fetting on water to fcald fuch chickens as you are. Would, we could fee you at

Corinth.

Apem. Good! gramercy!

Enter

4 Poor rogues', and ufurers' men! bawds, &c.] This is faid fo abruptly, that I am inclined to think it mifplaced, and would regulate the paffage thus:

Caph. Where's the fool norv?.

Apem. He laft afk'd the question.
All. What are we, Apimantus?
Apem. Alfes.

All. Why?

Apem. That you ask me what you are, and do not know yourjelves. Poor rogues', and ujurers' men! bards between gold and want! Speak, &c.

Thus every word will have its proper place. It is likely that the paffage tranfpofed was forgot in the copy, and inserted in the margin, perhaps a little befide the proper place, which the tranfcriber wanting either skill or care to obferve, wrote it where it now ftands.

5 She's e'en fetting on water to fald, &c.] The old difeafe got at Corinth was the brenning, and a fense one of its first symptoms.

JOHNSON. name for the of falding is JOHNSON.

• 'Would we could fee you at Corinth.] A cant name for a bawdy

X 3

houfe,

Enter Page.

Fool. Look you, here comes my master's page. Page. [To the Fool] Why, how now, captain? what do you in this wife company?-How doft thou, Apemantus?

Apem. 'Would I had a rod in my mouth, that I might anfwer thee profitably.

Page. Pr'ythee, Apemantus, read me the fuperfcription of thefe letters; I know not which is which. Apem. Can't not read ?

Page. No.

Apem. There will little learning die then, that day thou art hang'd. This is to lord Timon; this to Alcibiades. Go; thou waft born a bastard, and thou'lt die a bawd.

Page. Thou waft whelp'd a dog; and thou shalt famith, a dog's death. Anfwer not, I am gone. [Exit. Apem. Even fo, thou out-run'ft grace. Fool, I will go with you to lord Timon's. Fool. Will you leave me there?

Apem. If Timon ftay at home. -You three ferve three ufurers? All. Ay; 'would they ferv'd us!

Apem. So would I, -as good a trick as ever hangman ferv'd thief.

Fool. Are you three ufurers' men?

All. Ay, fool.

houfe, I fuppofe, from the diffolutenefs of that ancient Greek city; of which Alexander ab Alexandro has these words: CoRINTHI Super mille proftitutæ in templo Veneris affiduæ degere, & inflammata libidine quæftui meretricio operam dare, et velut facrorum miniflre Dea famulari folebant. Milton in his Apology for Smeltym nuus, fays, Or fearching for me at the Bordellos, where, it may be, be bas loft himself, and raps up, without pity, the fage and rheumatick old prelutefs, awith all her young Corinthian laity, to enquire for fuch a

oke.

WARBURTON.

Fool

Fool. I think, no ufurer but has a fool to his fervant. My miftrefs is one, and I am her fool. When men come to borrow of your mafters, they approach fadly, and go away merry; but they enter my miftrefs's house merrily, and go away fadly. The reafon of this?

Var. I could render one.

Apem. Do it then, that we may account thee a whore-mafter, and a knave; which notwithstanding, thou fhalt be no lefs efteem'd.

Var. What is a whore-mafter, fool?

Fool. A fool in good clothes, and fomething like thee. 'Tis a spirit: fometimes it appears like a lord; fometimes like a lawyer, fometimes like a philofopher, with two ftones more than's artificial one. He is very often like a knight; and generally in ali hapes that man goes up and down in, from fourscore to thirteen, this spirit walks in.

Var. Thou art not altogether a fool.

Fool. Nor thou altogether a wife man: as much foolery as I have, fo much wit thou lack'ft.

Apem. That anfwer might have become Apemantus. All. Afide, afide; here comes lord Timon.

Enter Timon and Flavius.

Apem. Come with me, fool, come.

Fool. I do not always follow lover, elder brother, and woman; fometimes the philosopher.

bis artificial one.] Meaning the celebrated philofopher's stone, which was in thofe times much talked of. Sir Thomas Smith was one of thofe who loft confiderable fums in feeking of it. JOHNSON.

Sir Richard Steele was one of the last eminent men who entertained hopes of being fuccefsful in this pufuit. His laboratory was at Poplar, a village near London, and is now converted into a garden house. STEEVENS.

Flav. Pray you, walk near.

anon.

I'll fpeak with you [Exeunt Creditors, Apemantus, and Fool.

Tim. You make me marvel: Wherefore, ere this

time,

Had you not fully laid my ftate before me;
That I might fo have rated my expence,

As I had leave of means?

Flav. You would not hear me,
At many leifures I propos'd.
Tim. Go to:

Perchance, fome fingle vantages you took,
When my indifpofition put you back;
And that unaptness made your minifter
Thus to excuse yourself.

Flav. O my good lord!

At many times I brought in my accounts,
Laid them before you; you would throw them off,
And fay, you found them in my honesty.

When, for fome trifling prefent, you have bid me
Return fo much, I have fhook my head, and wept;
Yea, 'gainst the authority of manners, pray'd you
To hold your hand more clofe. I did endure
Not seldom, nor no flight, checks; when I have
Prompted you, in the ebb of your estate,

And your great flow of debts. My dear-lov'd lord, ? Though you hear now, yet now's too late a time;

tions have all

male your minifter] So the original. The later edi

-made you minifter.

JOHNSON.

? Though you hear now too late, yet now's a time ;] i. e. Tho' it be now too late to retrieve your former fortunes, yet it is not too late, to prevent by the affiftance of your friends, your future miferies. Had the Oxford editor understood the fenfe, he would not have altered the text to,

Though you bear me now, yet now's too late a time.

WARBURTON.

I think Hanmer right, and have received his emendation.

JOHNSON.

The

The greatest of your having lacks a half
To pay your prefent debts.

Tim. Let all my land be fold.

Flav. 'Tis all engag'd; fome forfeited and gone; And what remains will hardly ftop the mouth

Of prefent dues: the future comes apace :

What fhall defend the interim? and at length
How goes our reckoning?

Tim. To Lacedæmon did my land extend.
Flav. O my good lord, the world is but a word;
Were it all yours, to give it in a breath,

How quickly were it gone?

Tim. You tell me true.

Flav. If you fufpect my husbandry, or falfhood, Call me before the exactest auditors,

And fet me on the proof. So the Gods blefs me,
When all our offices have been opprest

With riotous feeders; when our vaults have wept
With drunken fpilth of wine; when every room
Hath blaz'd with lights, and bray'd with minftrelfy;
and at length

1

How goes our reckoning ?]

This fteward talks very wildly. The lord indeed might have afked, what a lord feldom knows,

How goes our reckoning?

But the steward was too well fatisfied in that matter. I would read therefore,

Hold good our reckoning?

The Oxford editor would appropriate this emendation to himself, by altering it to make good. WARBURTON.

It is common enough, and the commentator knows it is common to propofe interrogatively, that of which neither the fpeaker nor the hearer has any doubt. The present reading may therefore stand. JOHNSON. 20 my good lord, the world is but a world ;] The folio reads,

-but a word;

And this is the right. The meaning is, as the world itself may comprised in a word, you might give it away in a breath. WARBURTON.

be