Tim. Commend me to my loving countrymen. 1 Sen. Thele words become your lips, as they pass thro' them.

2 Sen. And enter in our ears, like great triumphers In their applauding gates.

Tim. Commend me to them;

And tell them, that to eafe them of their griefs,
Their fears of hoftile ftrokes, their aches, loffes,
Their pangs of love, with other incident throes,
That nature's fragile veffel doth sustain

In life's uncertain voyage, I will fome kindness do

them.

I'll teach them to prevent wild Alcibiades' wrath.
2 Sen. I like this well, he will return again.
Tim. I have a tree, which grows here in my close,
That mine own ufe invites me to cut down,
And shortly muft I fell it. Tell my friends,
Tell Athens, in the fequence of degree,
From high to low throughout, that whofo please
To stop affliction, let him take his haste;
Come hither, ere my tree hath felt the ax,
And hang himself:-I pray you, do my greeting.
Flav. Trouble him no further, thus you ftill fhall
find him.

Tim. Come not to me again: but say to Athens,
Timon hath made his everlasting manfion
Upon the beached verge of the falt flood;
Which once a day with his emboffed froth
The turbulent furge fhall cover.

Thither come,

And let my grave-ftone be your oracle.-
Lips, let four words go by, and language end :
What is amifs, plague and infection mend!

3 —in the fequence of degree,] Methodically, from highest to

lowest.

JOHNSON.

Graves only be mens' works, and death their gain! Sun, hide thy beams! Timon hath done his reign. [Exit Timon. 1 Sen. His difcontents are unremoveably

Coupled to nature.

2 Sen. Our hope in him is dead. Let us return, And ftrain what other means is left unto us

? In our dear peril.

1 Sen. It requires swift foot.

[Exeunt.

Enter two other Senators with a Messenger.

I Sen. Thou haft painfully discovered: Are his files

As full as thy report?

Mef. I have spoke the leaft: Befides, his expedition promises Prefent approach.

2 Sen. We stand much hazard, if they bring not Timon.

Mef. I met a courier, one mine ancient friend;' Who, though in general part we were oppos'd, Yet our old love made a particular force,

And made us fpeak like friends. This man was riding From Alcibiades to Timon's cave,

With letters of intreaty, which imported

His fellowship i' the cause against your city, part for his fake mov'd.

In

In our dear peril.] So the folios, and rightly. The Oxford editor alters dear to dread, not knowing that dear, in the language of that time, fignified dread, and is fo ufed by Shakespeare in numberless places. WARBURTON. -one mine ancient friend ;] Mr. Upton would read, once mine ancient friend.

STEEVENS.

Entr

Enter the other Senators,

1 Sen. Here come our brothers.

3 Sen. No talk of Timon, nothing of him expect.The enemies' drum is heard, and fearful fcouring Doth choak the air with duft. In, and prepare; Our's is the fall, I fear, our foe's the fnare. [Exeunt,

SCENE V.

Changes to the woods.

Enter a Soldier, seeking Timon.

Sol. By all defcription, this should be the place. Who's here? speak, ho.-No anfwer?-What is this? Timon is dead, who hath out-ftretch'd his span; * Some beast read this; here does not live a man,

Some beaft read this; here does not live a man.] Some beast read what? The foldier had yet only feen the rude pile of earth heap'd up for Timon's grave, and not the infcription upon it. We should read,

Some beaft rear'd this;

The foldier feeking, by order, for Timon, fees fuch an irregular mole, as he concludes must have been the workmanship of fome beaft inhabiting the woods; and fuch a cavity as muft either have been so over-arched, or happened by the cafual falling in of the ground. WARBURTON.

Notwithstanding this remark, I believe the old reading to be the right. The foldier had only feen the rude heap of earth. He had evidently feen fomething that told him Timon was dead; and what could tell that but his tomb? The tomb he fees, and the infcription upon it, which not being able to read, and finding none to read it for him, he exclaims peevishly, fome beast read this, for it must be read, and in this place it cannot be read by man.

There is fomething elaborately unskilful in the contrivance of fending a foldier, who cannot read, to take the epitaph in wax, only that it may close the play by being read with more folemnity in the last scene.

JOHNSON.

Dead,

Dead, fure, and this his grave. What's on this tomb
I cannot read; the character I'll take with wax;
Our captain hath in every figure skill;
An ag'd interpreter, tho' young in days :
Before proud Athens he's fet down by this,
Whofe fall the mark of his ambition is.

[Exit.

Trumpets found. Enter Alcibiades with his powers.

Alc. Sound to this coward and lafcivious town
Our terrible approach.

[Sound a parley. The Senators appear upon the walls.
Till now you have gone on, and fill'd the time
With all licentious measure, making your wills
The scope of juftice. Till now myself, and fuch
As flept within the fhadow of your power,

Have wander❜d with our 'traverst arms, and breath'd
Our fufferance vainly. Now the time is flush,
" When crouching marrow, in the bearer ftrong,
Cries, of itfelf, no more: now breathlefs wrong
Shall fit and pant in your great chairs of ease;
And purfy infolence fhall break his wind
With fear and horrid flight.

3-traverst arms-] Arms acrofs.

are grown,

JOHNSON.

-the time is flufb.] A bird is flush when his feathers and he can leave the neft. Flub is mature. JOHNSON. 5 When crouching marrow, in the bearer ftrong,

Cries of itself, no more :— -}

The marrow was fuppofed to be the original of ftrength. The image is from a camel kneeling to take up his load, who rifes immediately when he finds he has as much laid on as he can bear.

WARBURTON.

1 Sen. Noble and young,

When thy first griefs were but a meer conceit,
Ere thou hadst power, or we had cause to fear,
We fent to thee; to give thy rages balm,
To wipe out our ingratitude, with loves
• Above their quantity.

2 Sen. So did we woo?
Transformed Timon to our city's love,
By humble meffage, and by promis'd means,
We were not all unkind, nor all deserve
The common stroke of war.

I Sen. These walls of ours

Were not erected by their hands, from whom
You have receiv'd your griefs: nor are they fuch,
That these great towers, trophies, and schools fhould
fall

For private faults in them.

2 Sen. Nor are they living,

Who were the motives that you first went out; 'Shame, that they wanted cunning, in excess Hath broke their hearts. March, noble lord,

• Above their quantity.] Their refers to rages.

So did we woo

Transformed Timon to our city's love

By humble mage, and by promis'd means,]

Into

WARB.

Promis'd means muft import the recruiting his funk fortunes; but this is not all. The fenate had wooed him with humble message, and promife of general reparation. This feems included in the flight change which I have made

and by promis❜d mends.

THEOBALD.

Dr. Warburton agrees with Mr. Theobald, but the old reading may well ftand.

JOHNSON.

i. e. in other terms,-Shame, that they were not the cunningeft men alive, hath been the cause of their death. For cunning in ex

cefs