Here's gold: Go, suck the subtle blood of the grape
Till the high fever seethe your blood to froth,
And so 'scape hanging: trust not the physician;
His antidotes are poison, and he slays
More than you rob: take wealth and lives together;
Do villany, do, since you profess to do't,
Like workmen. I'll example you with thievery :
The sun's a thief, and with his great attraction
Robs the vast sea: the moon's an arrant thief,
And her pale fire she snatches from the sun:
The sea's a thief, whose liquid surge resolves
The moon into salt tears: the earth's a thief,
That feeds and breeds by a composture stol'n
From general excrement: each thing's a thief;
The laws, your curb and whip, in their rough power
Have uncheck'd theft. Love not yourselves: away;
Rob one another. There's more gold: Cut throats;
All that you meet are thieves: To Athens, go,
Break open shops; for nothing can you steal,
But thieves do lose it: Steal not less, for this
I give you; and gold confound you howsoever!
Amen.
[TIMON retires to his Cave.
3 Thief. He has almost charmed me from my
profession, by persuading me to it.

1 Thief. "Tis in the malice of mankind, that he thus advises us; not to have us thrive in our mys

terv.

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 you despis'd and ruinous man my lord?
Full of decay and failing? O monument
And wonder of good deeds evilly bestow'd!
What an alteration of honour+ has
Desperate want made!

What viler thing upon the earth, than friends,
Who can bring noblest minds to basest ends!
How rarely does it meet with this time's guise,
When man was wish'd to love his enemies;
Grant, I may ever love, and rather woo

Tim. What, dost thou weep?--Come nearer :-
then I love thee,

Because thou art a woman, and disclaim'st
Flinty mankind; whose eyes do never give,"
But thorough lust and laughter. Pity's sleeping;
Strange times, that weep with laughing, not with
weeping!

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,

not a usuring kindness; and as rich men deal
gifts,

Expecting in return twenty for one?

Flav. No, my most worthy master, in whose

breast

Suspect still comes where an estate is least.

That which I show, heaven knows, is merely love,
Duty and zeal to your unmatched mind,

Care of your food and living: and, believe it,
My most honour'd lord,

For any 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
My honest grief unto him; and, as my lord,
Sall serve him with my life.-My dearest master!
TIMON comes forward from his Cave.
Tim. Away! what art thou?
Flav.
Have you forgot me, sir?
Tim. Why dost ask that? I have forgot all men;
Then, if thou grant'st thou'rt a man, I have forgot

thee.

Flav. An honest poor servant of yours.
Tim.

I know thee not: I ne'er had honest man
About me, I; all that I kept were knaves,
To serve in meat to villains.
Flav.

Then

The gods are witness,
Ne'er did poor steward wear a truer grief
For his undone lord, than mine eyes for you.

I 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 warry moon, May bring forth plenteous tears to drown the world. 2 i. e. compost, manure. 3 There is no hour in a man's life so wretched but he always has it in his power to become true, i. e. honest.' 4 An alteration of honour, is an alteration of an honourable state to a state of disgrace.

5 How rarely, i. e. how admirably. So in Much Ado About Nothing, Act iii. Sc. 1, how rarely featur'd.' 6 i. c. desired. Friends and enemies here nean 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,

10

Here, take the gods out of my misery
Have sent thee treasure. Go, live rich, and happy:
But thus condition'd; Thou shalt build from men ;'
Hate all, curse all: show charity to none;
But let the famish'd flesh slide from the bone,
Ere thou relieve the beggar: give to dogs
What thou deny'st to men; let pri ons swallow them,
Debts wither them to nothing: Be men like blasted
woods,

And may diseases lick up their false bloods!
And so farewell, and thrive.

Flav.

O, let me stay,

And comfort you, my master.
Tim.
If thou hat'st
Curses, stay not; fly whilst thou'rt bless'd and free:
Ne'er see thou man, and let me ne'er see thee.
[Exeunt severally.

210

ACT V.

SCENE I. The same. Before Timon's Cave.
Enter Poet and Painter;' TIMON behind, unseen.
Pain. As I took note of the place, it cannot be
fur 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: Alcibiades 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 with in us; and is very likely to load our purposes what they travel for, if it be a just and true report that goes of his having.

my

Not all the whips of heaven are large enough—
What! to you!

Whose starlike nobleness gave life and influence
To their whole being! I'm rapt, and cannot cover
The monstrous bulk of this ingratitude
With any size of words.

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,
great shower of your gifts,

Pain.

Have travell'd in the
And sweetly felt it.
Tim.

Poet. What have you now to present unto him? I Pain. Nothing at this time but 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 saying 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 personating3 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,
When we may profit meet, and come too late.
Pain. True;

When the day serves, before black-corner'd night,4
Find what thou want'st by free and offer'd light.
Come.

Tim. I'll meet you at the turn. What a god's gold,
That he is worship'd in a baser temple,
Than where swine feed!

'Tis thou that rigg'st the bark, and plough'st the

foam;

Settlest admired reverence in a slave:
To thee be worship! and thy saints for aye
Be crown'd with plagues, that thee alone obey!
'Fit I do meet them.

[Advancing.

Poet. Hail, worthy Timon!
Pain.
Our late noble master.
Tim. Have I once liv'd to see two honest men?
Poet. Sir,

Having often of your open bounty tasted,
Hearing you were retir'd, your friends fall'n off,
Whose thankless natures-O abhorred spirits!

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

May give his saying deed.

3 Personating for representing simply. The subject of this projected satire was Timon's case, not his person.

Aye, you are honest men. Pain. We are hither come to offer you our service.

Tim. Most honest men! Why, how shall I re-
quite you?

Can you eat roots, and drink cold water? no.
Both. What we can do, we'll do, to do you service.
Tim. You are honest men: You have heard that
I have gold:

am sure you have: speak truth; you are honest

men.

Pain. So it is said, my noble lord: but therefore Came not my friend, nor I.

Tim. Good honest men :-Thou draw'st a coun-
terfeits

Best in all Athens: thou art, indeed, the best;
Thou counterfeit'st most lively.

Pain.
So, so, my lord.
Tim. Even so, sir, as I say :-And for thy fic-
tion,
[To the Poet.
thy verse swells with stuff so fine and
smooth,

Why,

I

That thou art even natural in thine art.—
But, for all this, my honest natur'd friends,
must needs say you have a little fault :
Marry, 'tis not monstrous in you; neither wish 1,
You take much pains to mend.
Beseech your honour,

Both.

To make it known to us.

Tim.

You'll take it ill.

Both. Most thankfully, my lord.
Tim.

Will you, indeed?

Both. Doubt it not, worthy lord.
Tim. There's ne'er a one of you but trusts a
knave,

That mightily deceives you.

Do we, my lord?

Both.
Tim. Ay, and you hear him cog, see him dissem-

ble,

Know his gross patchery, love him, feed him,
Keep in your bosom: yet remain assur'd,
That he's a made-up villain.

Pain. I know none such, my lord.

Poet.

Nor I.

Tim. Look you, I love you well; I'll give you
gold,

Rid me these villains from your companies:
Hang them, or stab them, drown them in a draught,*
Confound them by some course, and come to me,
I'll give you gold enough.

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 Some have proposed to read corruption of the text. 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 :

1 The plain and simple meaning of this is, where 7 Allowed here signifies confirmed. To approve or each of you is, a villain must be in his company, because confirme. Ratum habere aliquid.' Baret. This word you are both of you arch villains,' therefore a villain is generally used by our old writers in the sense of apgoes with you every where. Thus in Promos and Cas-proved, and I am doubtful whether it has been righdy sandra, 1578, Go, and a knare with thee.' explained in other places in these dramas by licensed. An allowed fool, I think, means an approved fool, a confirmed fool.

2 The word done is omitted by accident in the old copy. This line is addressed to the painter, the next to the port.

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 be 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 | ear." aid that should have been given to Timon.

6 Render is confession. So in Cymbeline, Act iv. a period.' Sc. 4:

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 use invites me to cut down,
And shortly must I fell it; Tell my friends,
Tell Athens, in the sequence of degree,
From high to low throughout, that whoso please
To stop affliction, let him take his haste,
Come hither, ere my tree hath felt the axe,
And hang himself:'-I pray you, do my greeting.
Flav. Trouble him no further, thus you still shall
find him.

Tim. Come not to me again: but say to Athens,
Timon hath made his everlasting mansion
Upon the beached verge of the salt flood;
Whom once a day with his embossed froth2
The turbulent surge shall cover; thither come,
And let my grave-stone be your oracle.-
Lips, let sour words go by, and language end:
What is amiss, plague and infection mend!
Graves only be men's works; and death their gain!
Sun, hide thy beams! Timon hath done his reign.
[Exit TIMON.

1 Sen. His discontents are unremoveably Coupled to nature.

2 Sen. Our hope in him is dead: let us return, And strain what other means is left unto us In our dear3 peril.

1 Sen.
It requires swift foot.
SCENE III. The Walls of Athens.
Senators and a Messenger.

[Exeunt.

Enter Two

SCENE IV. The Woods. Timon's Cave, and a
Tombstone seen. Enter a Soldier, seeking Timon.
Sol. By all description this should be the place.
Who's here? speak, ho!-No answer?-What is
this?

Timon is dead, who hath outstretch'd his span:
Some beast rear'd this; there does not live a man.
Dead, sure ; 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, though young in days:
Whose fall the mark of his ambition is.
Before proud Athens he's set down by this,

[Exit.

SCENE V. Before the Walls of Athens. Trum
pets sound. Enter ALCIBIADES, and Forces.
Alcib. Sound to this coward and lascivious town
Our terrible approach.
[A parley sounded.

Enter Senators on the Walls.
Till now you have gone on, and fill'd the time
With all licentious measure, making your wills
The scope
of justice; till now, myself, and such
As slept within the shadow of your power,
Have wander'd with our travers'd arms, and
breath'd

Our sufferance vainly: Now the time is flush,7
When crouching marrow, in the bearer strong,
Cries, of itself, No more: now breathless wrong
Shall sit and pant in your great chairs of ease;
With fear and horrid flight.
And pursy insolence shall break his wind,
1 Sen.
Noble and young,
When thy first griefs were but a mere conceit,
Ere thou hadst power, or we had cause of fear,

1 Sen. Thou hast painfully discover'd; are his We sent to thee; to give thy rages balm,

files

As full as thy report?

Mess.

I have spoke the least:
Besides, his expedition promises
Present approach.

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

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

And made us speak like friends :-this man was
riding

From Alcibiades to Timon's cave,
With letters of entreaty, which imported
His fellowship i' the cause against your city,
In part for his sake mov'd.

Enter Senators from TIMON.

1 Sen. Here come our brothers. 3 Sen. No talk of Timon, nothing of him expect.The 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. 28.

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.'

Embossed froth is foaming, puffed or blown up froth. 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."

To wipe out our ingratitude with loves
Above their quantity."

2 Sen.
So did we woo
Transformed Timon to our city's love,
We were not all unkind, nor all deserve
By humble message, and by promis'd means;

The common stroke of war.

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

should fall
For private faults in them.
2 Sen.
Nor are they living,
Who were the motives that you first went out;10
Shame, that they wanted cunning," in excess
Hath broke their hearts. March, noble lord,

5 The old copy has Some beast read this. The emendation is Warburton's. It is evident that the soldier, 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 not.

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 made the motion for your exile. This word is used in the same manner in Troilus and Cressida :—

her wanton spirits look out

At every joint and motive of her body.' 11 Cunning is used in its old sense of skill or wisdom, extremity of shame that they wanted wisdom in procuring your banishment hath broke their hearts. Theo.

4 This passage Steevens, with great reason, consi-bald had nearly thus interpreted the passage; and ders 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, And marle us speak like friends.'

Johnson thought he could improve it by reading-
'Shame that they wanted, coming in excess
Hath broke their hearts.'

Johnson perhaps was not aware of the old meaning of
cunning.

Which nature loathes,) take thou the destin'd tenth; Entomb'd upon the very hem o' the sea:
And by the hazard of the spotted die,

CORIOLANUS.

PRELIMINARY REMARKS.

He hated flattery; and his sovereign contempt for the people arose from having witnessed their pussillanimity; though he loved the bubble reputation,' and would have grappled with fate for honour, he hated the breath of vulgar applause as the reek o' the rotten fens.'

He knew that his actions must command the good opinion of men; but his modesty shrunk from their