I have retired me to "a wafteful cock,
And set mine eyes at Aow.

Tim. Pr’ythee, no more.
Flav. Heavens! have I said, the bounty of this

lord!
How many prodigal bits have Naves and peasants
This night englutted! Who is not Timon's ?
What heart, head, sword, force, means, but is lord

Timon's ?
Great Timon's, noble, worthy, royal Timon's ?
Ah! when the means are gone that buy this praise,
The breath is gone whereof this praise is made:
Feaft-won, faft-loft; one cloud of winter showers,
These flies are couch'd.

Tim. Come, sermon me no further:
No villainous bounty yet hath past my heart;}
Unwisely, not ignobly, have I given.
Why doit thou weep? Can'st thou the conscience lack,
To think I shall lack friends ? Secure thy heart;
If I would broach the vessels of my love,

,
* And try the arguments of hearts by borrowing,

Men,

a wafotel cock,] i. e. a cocklift, a garret. And a waffeful cock, signifies a garret lying in watte, neglected, put to no use.

HANMER. Hanmer's explanation is received by Dr.Warburton, yet I think them both apparently mistaken. A waftiful cock is a cock or pipe with a turning stopple running to waste. In this sense, both the terms have their usual meaning; but I know not that cock is ever used for cockloft, or wajiful for lying ix wafle, or that lying in waste is at all a phrase.

JOHNSON 3 No villainous bounty yet hath past my heart;

Uawisely, not ignobly, bave I given.) Every reader must rejoice in this circumstance of comfort which presents it felf to Timon, who, tho' beggar'd thro' want of pradence, consoles himself with reflection that his ruin was not brought on by the pursuit of guilty pleasures. STBEVENS.

4 And try the arguments--- ] Ar; aments for natures. WARE.

How arguments Thould land for natures I do not see. But the licentiousness of our author forces us often upon far fetched expo.

fitions.

Men, and men's fortunes, could I frankly use,
As I can bid thee speak.

Flav. Assurance bless your thoughts !
Tim. And, in some fort, these wants of mine are

crown'd,
That I account them blessings; for by these,
Shall I cry friends. You shall perceive how you
Mistake

my

fortunes: I am wealthy in my friends, Within there, Flaminius ! Servilius!

Enter Flaminius, Servilius, and other Servants. Serv. My lord, my lord, — Tim. I will dispatch you severally. You to lord

Lucius.
To lord Lucullus you; I hunted with his
Honour to-day.-- You to Sempronius.-
Commend me to their loves; and, I am proud, say,
That my occasions have found time to use them
Toward a supply of money: let the request
Be fifty talents.

Flam. As you have said, my lord.
Flav. Lord Lucius and Lucullus ? hum !

Tim. Go you, sir, to the senators, [To Flavius,
(Of whom, even to the state's best health, I have
Deserv'd this hearing) bid 'em send o’the instant
A thousand talents to me.

Flav. I've been bold,
(For that I knew it the most general way)
To them to use your signet and your name ;
But they do shake their heads, and I am here
No richer in return.

Stions. Arguments may mean contents, as the arguments of a book ; or for evidences and proofs.

JOHNSON. S-I knew it the most gen'ral way) General is not speedy, but compendious, the way to try many at a time.

JOHNSON.

Tim. Is't true? can't be?

Flav. They answer in a joint and corporate voice, That now they are at fall, want treasure, cannot Do what they would; are sorry-You are honour.

able, But yet they could have wish'd,

--They know not,-Something hath been amiss,-a noble nature May catch a wrench,-'Would all were well,—'Tis

pity, And so, “intending other serious matters, After diftasteful looks, ? and these hard fractions, With certain & half-caps, and cold-moving nods, They froze me into silence.

Tim. You Gods reward them ! I prythee man look cheerly. These old fellwş 'Have their ingratitude in them hereditary; Tbeir blood is cak'd, 'tis cold, it seldom flows; 'Tis lack of kindly warmth, they are not kind;

1

7

8

6 Intending is regarding, turning their notice to other things.

JOHNSON. So in the Spanish Curate of Beaumont and Fletcher,

Good fir, intend this business.” Steevens. -and tbese hard fractions,] An equivocal allusion to fractions in decimal arithmetic. So Flavius had, like Littlewit, in Bartholomew-Fair, a conceit left in his misery.

WARBURTON. This is, I think, no conceit in the head of Flavius, who, by frations, means broken hints, interrupted sentences, abrupt remarks.

JOHNSON half caps, -— ] A half cap is a cap slightly moved, not

JOHNSON. cold-moving nods,] All the editions exhibit these as two distinct adjectives, to the prejudice of the author's meaning; but they must be joined by an hyphen, and make a compound adjec, tive out of a substantive and a particle, and then we have the truc sense of the place ; cold-moving, cold-provoking; nods: so discou. raging, that they chilled the very ardor of our petition, and froze us into filence.

THEOBALD. Have their ingratude in them hereditary:] Hereditary, for by na. tural constitution. But fome distempers of natural conftitution being called bereditary, he calls their ingratitude so. WARB.

And

put off,

9

And nature as it grows again toward earth,
Is fashion'd for the journey, dull and heavy."
Go to Ventidius, -Pr’ythee, be not sad,
Thou art true, and honest; ingenuously I speak,
No blame belongs to thee:-Ventidius lately
Bury'd his father ; by whose death he's stepp'd
Into a great estate : when he was poor,
Imprison'd, and in scarcity of friends,
I clear'd him with five talents. Greet him from me;
Bid him suppose, some good necessity
Touches his friend, which craves to be remember'd
With those five talents. That had, give it these fellows
To whom 'tis instant due. Ne'er speak, or think,
That Timon's fortune's 'mong his friends can sink.

Stew. 3 I would, I could not think it.
That thought is bounty's foe;
Being + free itself, it thinks all other fo. [Exeunt.

• And nature, as it grows again toward earib,

Is fashion'd for the journey, dull and beavy.-] The same thought occurs in The Wife for a Montb of Beaumont and Fletcher:

Bofide, the fair soul's old too, it grows covetous,
" Which shows all honour is departed from us,
“ And we are earth again.”

Srebyens. 3'Would I could not :-) The original edition has,

I would, I could not think it, that thought, &c. It has been changed, to mend the numbers, without authority.

JOHNSON. + Free, is liberal, not parsimonious.

JOHNSON

ACT

IH

A CT III.

III. SCENE I.

Lucullus's house in Athens.
Flaminius waiting. Enter a Servant to him.

SERVANT.
Have told my lord of you ; he is coming down to

you.
Flam. I thank

you,

Enter Lucullus.
Serv. Here's

my

lord. Lucul. [Afide.] One of lord Timon's men? a gift, I warrant. Why, this hits right: I dreamt of a silver bason and ewer to night. Flaminius, honest Flaminius, you are very respectively* welcome, fir.–Fill me fome wine.-And how does that honourable, complete, free-hearted gentleman of Athens, thy very bountiful good lord and master ?

Flam. His health is well, sir.

Lucul. I am right glad that his health is well, for: and what hast thou there under thy'cloak, pretty Flaminius?

Flam. 'Faith, nothing but an empty box, fir ; which, in my lord's behalf, I come to entreat your honour to supply: who having great and instant occafion to use fifty talents, hath sent to your lordship to furnish him; nothing doubting your present affiftance therein.

Lucul. La, la, la, la, Nothing doubting says he? alas, good lord ! A noble gentleman 'cis, if he would not keep so good a house. Many a time and often I ha' din'd with him, and told him on’t; and come again to supper to him, of purpose to have him spend less : and yet he would embrace no counsel, very respectively welcome, &c.] i.e. refpe&tfully. So in K. Joba, “ Besides, 'tis too respective, &c.". STEEVENS.

take