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Or a barlot, for her weeping;
Or a dog, that feems a fleeping;
Or a keeper with my freedom;
Or my friends, if I should need 'em.
Amen. So fall to't:

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Rich men fin, and I eat root. [Eats and drinks. Much good dich thy good heart, Apemantus!

Tim. Captain Alcibiades, your heart's in the field now. Alc. My heart is ever at your service, my lord.

Tim. You had rather be at a breakfast of enemies, than a dinner of friends.

Alc. So they were bleeding new, my lord, there's no meat like them; I could with my best friend at fuch a feaft.

Apem. 'Would all thofe flatterers were thine enemies then; that then thou might'ft kill 'em, and bid me to 'em. 1. Lord. Might we but have that happiness, my lord, that you would once use our hearts, whereby we might express fome part of our zeals, we should think ourselves for ever perfect®.

Tim. O, no doubt, my good friends, but the gods themselves have provided that I shall have much help from you: How had you been my friends elfe? why have you that charitable title from thoufands, did not you chiefly belong to my heart?? I have told more of you to myself, than you can with modefty speak in your own

➡ for ever perfe&t.] That is, arrived at the perfection of happinefs. JOHNSON.

9 wby bave you that charitable title frem thousands, did not you ebiefly belong to my beart?] Charitable fignifies, dear, endearing. So Milton:

"Relations dear, and all the charities

"Of father, fon, and brother—”.

Alms, in English, are called charities, and from thence we may collect that our ancestors knew well in what the virtue of alms-giving confifted; not in the af, but the difpofition. WARBURTON.

The meaning is probably this. Why are you distinguished from thousands by that title of endearment, was there not a particular connection and intercourse of tendernefs between you and me. JOHNSON.

behalf;

behalf; and thus far I confirm you'. O, you gods, think I, what need we have any friends, if we fhould never have need of them? they were the most needless creatures living, fhould we ne'er have use for them: and would most resemble sweet inftruments hung up in cafes, that keep their founds to themselves. Why, I have often wifh'd myself poorer, that I might come nearer to you. We are born to do benefits: and what better or properer can we call our own, than the riches of our friends? O, what a precious comfort 'tis, to have fo many, like brothers, commanding one another's fortunes! O joy, e'en made away ere it can be born 3! Mine eyes cannot hold out water, methinks 4: to forget their faults, I drink to you.

Apem. Thou weep'ft to make them drink 5, Timon. 2. Lord. Joy had the like conception in our eyes, And, at that inftant, like a babe sprung up.

Арет.

1 I confirm you.] I fix your characters firmly in my own mind. JOHNSON. were the most needlefs creatures living, should we ne'er have use for them: and-] This paffage I have restored from the old copy. STEEVENS.

2

30 joy, c'en made away ere it can be born!] Tears being the effect both of joy and grief, fupplied our author with an opportunity of conceit, which he feldom fails to indulge. Timon, weeping with a kind of tender pleasure, cries out, O joy, e'en made away, deftroyed, turned to tears, before it can be born, before it can be fully poffeffed. JOHNSON.

So, in Romeo and Juliet:

"Thefe violent delights have violent ends,
"And in their triumph die."

The old copy has-joys. It was corrected by Mr. Rowe. MALONE. 4 Mine eyes cannot bold out water, methinks :] Perhaps the true reading is this, Mine eyes cannot bold out; they water. Merbinks, to forget their faults, I will drink to you. Or it may be explained without any change. Mine eyes cannot hold out water, that is, cannot keep water from breaking in upon them. JOHNSON.

5 to make them drink,] The covert fenfe of Apemantus is, what tbou lefest, they get. JOHNSON.

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like a babe-] That is, a weeping babe. JOHNSON.

I queftion if Shakspeare meant the propriety of allufion to be carried

Apem. Ho, ho! I laugh to think that babe a baftard. 3. Lord. I promise you, my lord, you mov'd me much. Apem. Much?! [Tucket founded. Tim. What means that trump?-How now?

Enter a Servant.

Serv. Please you, my lord, there are certain ladies moft defirous of admittance.

Tim. Ladies? What are their wills?

Serv. There comes with them a fore-runner, my lord, which bears that office, to fignify their pleasures. Tim. I pray, let them be admitted.

Enter CUPID.

Cup. Hail to thee, worthy Timon;—and to all That of his bounties tafte!-The five beft fenfes Acknowledge thee their patron; and come freely To gratulate thy plenteous bofom:

The ear, tafte, touch, smell, all pleas'd from thy table rife;

They

quite fo far. To look for babies in the eyes of another, is no uncommon expreffion. So, in Love's Miftrefs, by Heywood, 1636:

"Joy'd in his looks, look'd babies in his eyes.'

Again, in the Loyal Subject, by B. and Fletcher :

Can you look babies, sister,

"In the young gallant's eyes?" STEEVENS.

Does not Lucullus dwell on Timon's metaphor by referring to circumstances preceding the birth, and mean, joy was conceived in their eyes, and sprung up there, like the motion of a babe in the womb? TOLLET.

The word conception in the preceding line fhews, I think, that Mr. Tollet's interpretation of this paffage is the true one. MALONE. 7 Much!] Apemantus means to fay, That's extraordinary. Much was formerly an expression of admiration. See Vol. III. p. 208, n. 8. MALONE,

8 The ear, tafte, touch, smell, all pleas'd from thy table rife;] The old copy reads:

There tafte, touch, all, &c.

The word There was corrected, and the word fmell inferted by Dr. Warburton. He and the subsequent editors omit the word all; but omiffion is the most dangerous mode of emendation. The corrupted word There shews that The ear was intended to be contracted into one

fyllable;

They only now come but to feast thine eyes.

Tim. They are welcome all; let them have kind ad. mittance:

Mufick, make their welcome.

[Exit CUPID.

1. Lord. You fee, my lord, how ample you are belov'd.

Mufick. Re-enter CUPID, with a masque of Ladies as Amazons, with lutes in their hands, dancing, and playing.

Apem. Hey day! what a sweep of vanity comes this way!

They dance they are mad women.

Like madness is the glory of this life,
As this pomp fhews to a little oil, and root 2.

fyllable; and table alfo was probably used as taking up only the time of a monofyllable. MALONE.

The five fenfes, Timon, acknowledge thee their patron; four of them, viz. the bearing, tafle, touch, and smell, are all feafted at thy board; and thefe ladies come with me to entertain your fight in a mafque. Mailinger, in his Duke of Millaine, copied the paffage from Shakspeare; and apparently before it was thus corrupted; where, Speaking of a banquet, he fays:

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All that may be bad

"To please the eye, the ear, tafte, touch, or smell,
"Are carefully provided." WARBURTON.

9 Mufick, make their welcome.] Perhaps the poet wrote:

Mufick, make known their welcome.

So, in Macbeth:

"We will require her welcome,

"Pronounce it for me, fir, to all our friends." STEEVENT.

• They dance!] I believe They dance to be a marginal note only; and perhaps we should read,

Thefe are mad women.

TYRWHITT.

2 Like madness is the glory of this life,

As this pomp fhews to a little oil, and root.] The glory of this life is very near to madness, as may be made appear from this pomp, exhibited in a place where a philofopher is feeding on oil and roots. When we fee by example how few are the neceffaries of life, we learn what madnefs there is in fo much fuperfluity. JOHNSON.

The word like in this place does not exprefs refemblance, but equality. Apemantus does not mean to fay that the glory of this life was like madness, but it was just as much madness in the eye of reafon, as the pomp appeared to be, when compared to the frugal repast of a philofopher. MASON.

We

We make ourselves fools, to difport ourselves;
And fpend our flatteries, to drink those men,
Upon whofe age we void it up again,

With poisonous fpite, and envy. Who lives, that's not
Depraved, or depraves? who dies, that bears

Not one fpurn to their graves of their friends' gift3?
I fhould fear, thofe, that dance before me now,
Would one day ftamp upon me: It has been done;
Men shut their doors against a setting fun.

The Lords rife from table, with much adoring of Timon; and, to fhew their loves, each fingles out an Amazon, and all dance, men with women, a lofty ftrain or twe to the hautboys, and ceafe.

Tim. You have done our pleasures much

ladies,

Set a fair fashion on our entertainment,
Which was not half fo beautiful and kind;
You have added worth unto it, and luftre,
And entertain'd me with mine own device +;
I am to thank you for it.

grace, fair

1. Lady. My lord, you take us even at the best.

Apem 3 of their friends' gift?] That is, given them by their friends. JOHNSON.

• mine own device ;] The mask appears to have been defign'd by Timon to furprife his guefts. JOHNSON.

51. Lady. My lord;] This fpeech, which in the old copy is given to the firft lord, has been transferred to the first lady, on the fuggestion of Dr. Johnfon, who obferves that L only was probably fet down in the Mr. His conjecture is well founded; for that abbreviation is used in the old copy in this very scene, and in many other places. Mr. Edwards and Mr. Heath, as Mr. Steevens has remarked, proposed the fame emendation. The next speech, however coarfe the allufion couched under the word taking may be, puts the matter beyond a doubt. MALONE.

-even at the beft.] Perhaps we should read,

ever at the best.

So, A&t III. fc. vi.

Ever at the beft. TYRWHITT."

Take us even at the beft, I believe, means, you have seen the best we can do. They are fuppofed to be hired dancers, and therefore there is no impropriety in fuch a confeffion. STEEVENS.

I believe

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