From our companion, thrown into his grave; Slink all away; leave their false vows with him, With his disease of all-shunn'd poverty, Infect the air! Twinn'd brothers of one womb,--- The greater scorns the lesser. Not nature, Walks, like contempt, alone.-More of our fellows. But by contempt of nature: Enter other Servants. Flav. All broken implements of a ruin'd house. Flav. Good fellows all, Nay, put out all your hands. To have his pomp, and all what state compounds, I'll ever serve his mind with my best will; SCENE III. The Woods. Enter TIMON. Tim. O blessed breeding sun, draw from the earth Rotten humidity; below thy sister's orb 1 So those who were familiar to his buried fortunes, who in the most ample manner participated them, slink all away,' &c. 2 This conceit occurs again in King Lear : 'Fairest Cordelia, thou art most rich, being poor. Johnson observes, that Nothing contributes more to the exaltation of Timon's character than the zeal and fidelity of his servants; nothing but real virtue can be honored by domestics; nothing but impartial kindness can gain affection from dependants.' 3 Fierce here means vehement. 4 Blood is here used for passion, propensity, affection. Malone asserts that blood is used for natural propensity or disposition throughout these plays; but he has not given a single instance, while we have many passages where it can mean nothing but passion or fection. Raise me this beggar, and deny't' that lord; It is the pasture lards the brother's sides, In purity of manhood stand upright, Ha, you gods! why this? What this, you gods? Will lug your priests and servants from your sides;" Will knit and break religions; bless the accurs'd, But yet I'll bury thee: Thou'lt go, strong thief, meaning of the passage as it now stands is, 'Men are 9 This man does not refer to any particular person, but to any supposed individual. So in As You Like It: Who can come in and say that I mean her, When such a one as she such is her neighbours.' 10 Grize, step or degree. 11 i. e. seize, gripe. 12 No insincere or inconstant supplicant: gold will not af-serve me instead of roots. 5 That is, the moon's- this sublunary world. 6 Brother, when his fortune is enlarged, will scorn brother: such is the general depravity of mankind. Not even beings besieged with misery can bear good fortune without contemning their fellow creatures, above whom accident has elevated them. But is here used in its exceptive sense, and signifies without. 7 This is the reading of the old copy. Steevens reads 'denude. It has been said that there is no antecedent to which 'deny it can be referred. I think that it clearly refers to great fortune in the preceding sentence, with which I have now connected it, by placing a colon instead of a period at nature. The construction will be, Raise me this beggar to great fortune, and deny it to that lord,' &c. 8 The folio of 1623 reads: It is the pastour lards the brother's sides, The second folio changes leave to leane The probable 13 You clear heavens, is you pure heavens. So in Lear: the clearest gods, who make them honours Of men's impossibilities, have preserv'd thee.' 14 Aristophanes, in his Plutus, makes the priest of Jupiter desert his service to live with Plutus. 15 This alludes to an old custom of drawing away the pillow from under the heads of men, in their last agonies, to accelerate their departure. 16 It is not clear what is meant by trappen'd in this passage; perhaps worn out, debilitated. ́În Fletcher's Two Noble Kinsmen, (which tradition says was written in conjunction with Shakspeare,) we have uncappered in a contrary sense. 17 Restores to all the freshness and sweetness of youth. Youth is called by the old poets the April of man's life.' Young Fenton, in the Merry Wives of Windsor, smells April and May.' 18 i. e. lie in the earth, where nature laid thee; thou`rt quick, means thou hast life and motion in thee. I know thee well; I not desire to know. Follow thy drum; Phr. Thy lips rot off! Tim. I will not kiss thee; then the rot returns Alcib. How came the noble Timon to this change? Alcib. Maintain my opinion. Noble Timon, None, but to Alcib. I have heard in some sort of thy miseries. world Voic'd so regardfully? Tim. Art thou Timandra? Yes. Tim. Be a whore still! they love thee not, that Give them diseases, leaving with thee their lust. Timan. Hang thee, monster! Are drown'd and lost in his calamities.- 1 This alludes to the old erroneous prevalent opinion, 'She took not diet nor the sweat in season.' 3 Warburton justly observes, that this passage is wonderfully sublime and picturesque.' The same image occurs in King Richard II. 'Devouring pestilence hangs in our air.' 4 Cutting. Alcib. Why, fare thee well: Keep't, I cannot eat it. Here's some gold for thee. Alcib. When I have laid proud Athens on a heap, Tim. Warr'st thou against Athens? Alcib. Ay, Timon, and have cause. Tim. The gods confound them all i' thy conquest; and Thee after, when thou hast conquer'd! Alcib. Why me, Timon? Tim. That, Put up thy gold; Go on,-here's gold,-go on; Whose dimpled smiles from fools exhaust their Think it a bastard, whom the oracle Tim. Dost thou, or dost thou not, heaven's curse Phr. & Timan. Give us some gold, good Timon: Hast thou more? Tim. Enough to make a whore forswear her trade, Be quite contrary:10 And thatch your poor thin roofs 6 An allusion to the tale of Œdipus. in Troilus and Cressida, Ulysses says:- "For Hector, in his blaze of wrath, subscribes S That is, 'enough to make whores leave whoring, 9 Conditions for dispositions. 5 By window-bars the poet probably means 'the part- Paint till a horse may mire A pox of wrinkles! upon your face: With burdens of the dead ;-some that were hang'd,' | Let it no more bring out ingrateful man! Phr. & Timan. Well, more gold;-What then?-Dry up thy marrows, vines, and plough-torn leas; Tim. Consumptions sow In hollow bones of man; strike their sharp shins, Smells from the general weal:4 make curl'd-pate And let the unscarr'd braggarts of the war Phr. & Timan. More counsel with more money, bounteous Timon. Tim. More whore, more mischief first; I have given you earnest. Alcib, Strike up the drum, towards Athens. Farewell, Timon; If I thrive well, I'll visit thee again. Tim. If I hope well, I'll never see thee more. Tim. Yes, thou spok'st well of me. Alcib. Strike. We but offend him.- 9 1 The fashion of periwigs for women, which Stowe informs us were brought into England about the time of the massacre of Paris,' seems to have been a fertile source of satire. Stubbes, in his Anatomy of Abuses, says that it was dangerous for any child to wander, as nothing was more common than for women to entice such as had fine locks into private places, and there to cut them off. 2 Quillets are subtleties, nice and frivolous distinctions. See Hamlet, Act v. Sc. 1. More man? Plague! plague! Apem. I was directed hither: Men report, place? This slavelike habit? and these looks of care? Dry up in her the organs of increase.' 3 The old copy reads hoar the flamen,' which Steevens suggests may mean, give him the hoary leprosy. I have not scrupled to insert Upton's reading of hoarse into the text, because I think the whole construction of Again To the speech shows that is the word the poet wrote. afflict him with leprosy would not prevent his scolding, to deprive him of his voice by hoarseness might. 4 To foresee his particular' is to provide for his private advantage, for which he leaves the right scent of public good.' 5 To grave is to bury. The word is now obsolete, but was familiar to our old writers. Thus Chapman in his version of the fifteenth Iliad : the throtes of dogs shall grave His manless limbs.' 6 This image (as Warburton ingeniously supposes) would almost make one imagine that Shakspeare was acquainted with some personifications of nature similar to the ancient statues of Diana Ephesia Multimammia. 7 The serpent which we, from the smallness of the eye, call the blind-worm, and the Latins cacilia. So in Macbeth : Adder's fork and blind-worm's sting,' Now by yon marble heaven.' 11 i. e. their diseased perfumed mistresses. Thus in Othello : Tis such another fit chew; marry, a perfum'd one.' 12 Cunning of a carper' is the fastidiousness of a critic. Shame not these words, says Apemantus, by coming here to find fault. Carping momuses was a general term for ill-natured critics. Beatrice's sarcastic raillery is thus designated by Ursula in Much Ado About Nothing :- Why sure such carping is not commendable.' 13 To crook the pregnant hinges of the knee.' Hamlet. 14 Aquila Senectus is a proverb. Tuberville, in his Book of Falconry, 1575, says that the great age of this bird has been ascertained from the circumstance of its always building its eyrie or nest in the same place. 15 And with presented nakedness outface The winds." King Lear, Act ii. Sc. & TIMON OF ATHENS. Apem. I love thee better now than e'er I did. Tim. I hate thee worse. Apem. Why? Apem. I flatter not; but say, thou art a caitiff. To vex thee. Tim. Always a villain's office, or a fool's. Dost please thyself in't? Apem. Tim. Ay. What! a knave too? The other, at high wish: Best state, contentless, Thou should'st desire to die, being miserable. Tim. Not by his breath,2 that is more miserable. pro The sweet degrees that this brief world affords men At duty, more than I could frame employment; They never flatter'd thee: What hast thou given? Tim. Ay, that I am not thee. 1 To have wishes crowned is to have them completed, to be content. The highest fortunes, if contentless, have a wretched being, worse than that of the most abject fortune accompanied by content. Apem. 207 [Eating Here; I will mend thy feast. a root. Tim. First mend my company, take away thyself. [Offering him something. Apem. So I shall mend mine own, by the lack of thine. Tim. "Tis not well mended so, it is but botch'd; If not, I would it were. Apem. What would'st thou have to Athens? Tim. Thee thither in a whirlwind. If thou wilt, Tell them there I have gold; look, so I have. Apem. Here is no use for gold. Tim. The best, and truest: For here it sleeps, and does no hired harm. Apem. Where my stomach finds meat; or, rather, where I eat it. Tim. 'Would poison were obedient, and knew my Apem. Where would'st thou send it? Apem. The middle of humanity thou never knew- Tim. On what I hate, I feed not. Tim. Ay, though it look like thee. Apem. An thou hadst hated meddlers sooner, thou should'st have loved thyself better now. Tim. I understand thee; thou hadst some means to keep a dog. Apem. What things in the world canst thou nearest compare to thy flatterers? Tim. Women nearest; but men, men are the things themselves. What would'st thou do with the world, Apemantus, if it lay in thy power? Apem. Give it the beasts, to be rid of the men. Drug or drugge, is only a variation of the orthography 2 By his breath means by his voice, i. e. suffrage. 3 i. e. from infaney, from the first swathe band with which a new-born infant is enveloped. There is in this speech a sullen haughtiness and malignant dignity, suitable at once to the lord and the man-hater. The impatience with which he bears to have his luxury reproached by one that never had luxury within his reach, is natural and graceful.' Johnson. O si sic omnia. In the conception and expression of this note (says Mr. Pye) we trace the mind and the pen of the author; a collection of such notes by Johnson would have been well he could have written satires. Shakspeare has indeed a commentary worthy the critic and the poet.here given a specimen of the same power, by a line bit8 Dryden has quoted two verses of Virgil to show how Johnson has adduced a passage somewhat resembling ter beyond all bitterness, in which Timon tells Apemanthis from a letter written by the unfortunate favourite of tus that he had not virtue enough for the vices which he Elizabeth, the Earl of Essex, just before his execution. condemns. Dr. Warburton explains worst by lorest, 'I had none but divines to call upon me, to whom I said, which somewhat weakens the sense, and yet leaves it if my ambition could have entered into their narrow sufficiently vigorous. hearts, they would not have been so humble; or if my delights had been once tasted by them, they would not crimination with which Shakspeare distinguishes the have been so precise. The rest of this admirable let-present character of Timon from that of Apeinantys, I have heard Mr. Burke commend the subtlety of dia ter is, as Johnson justly observes, too serious and solema to be inserted here without irreverence." whom, to vulgar eyes, he would seem to resemble. very likely to make a deep impression upon Shakspeare's mind. But indeed no one can read it without einotion. Johnsen copied his extract from Birch's MeJohnson. moirs of Queen Elizabeth, and has erroneously printed deceivers for divines. It was Baret explamis it picked diligence, Accuratus corporia cultus. A waiting gentlewoman should flee affection or 9 Curiosity is scrupulous exactness, finical niceness. curiosity,' (i. e. affectation or overniceness.)-It some times means scrupulous anxiety, precision. Tim. Would'st thou have thyself fall in the confusion of men, and remain a beast with the beasts? Apem. Ay, Timon. 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 torment 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, 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? : Thy grave-stone daily make thine epitaph, [Looking on the gold. Tim. Thy back, I pr'ythee. Apem. Throng'd to? Ay. Live and love thy misery! Tim. Long live so, and so die!-I am quit.- 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 abber 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. Toad! Rogue, rogue, rogue! [APEMANTUS retreats backward as going. I am sick of this false world; and will love nought But even the mere necessities upon it. Then, Timon, presently prepare thy grave; Lie where the light foam of the sea may beat 1 Alluding to the unicorn's being sometimes over. come from striking his horn into a tree in his furious pursuit of an eneiny See Gesner's History of Animals, and Julius Cæsar, Act ii. Sc. 1. them. Enter Thieves. 1 Thief. Where should he have this gold? It is some poor fragment, some slender ort of his remainder: The mere want of gold, and the fallingfrom of his friends, drove him into this melancholy. 2 Thief. It is noised, he hath a mass of treasure. 3 Thief. Let us make the assay upon him; if he care not for't, he will supply us easily; If he covetously 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. You must eat men. Yet thanks I must you con, That you are thieves profess'd; that you work not In holier shapes: for there is boundless theft In limited 10 professions. Rascal thieves, Theobald proposed 'you want much of meet,' i, e. much of what you ought to be, much of the qualities befitting you as human creatures. Steevens says, perhaps we 3 Both Steevens and Malone are wrong in their ex-Your greatest want is that you expect supplies from me, "Your greatest want is, you want much of me.' planation of remotion here; which is neither removing of whom you can reasonably expect nothing. Your from place to place,' nor remoteness;' but removing necessities are indeed desperate, when you apply to one away, removing afar off. Remotio.' in my situation. Dr. Farmer would point the passage differently, thus: 2 This seems to imply that the lion bears, like the Turk, no brother near the throne." 4 i. e. the top, the principal. 5 See Act iii. Sc. 4. 6 Warburton remarks that the imagery here is ex quisitely beautiful and sublime. 7 Touch for touchstone: 'O Buckingham, now do I play the touch, To try if thou be'st current gold.' 8 The old copy reads, Enter the Banditti. 9 The old copy reads: 'Your greatest want is, you want much of meat. should read : "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 stand, which interprets it appointed. |