He humbly prays your speedy payment,— Caph. If you did know, my lord, my mafter's wants,Var. Serv. 'Twas due on forfeiture, my lord, fix weeks, And paft. Ifid. Serv. Your fteward puts me off, my lord; And I am fent exprefsly to your lordship. Tim. Give me breath : I do beseech you, good my lords, keep on; [Exeunt ALCIBIADES, and Lords. I'll wait upon you inftantly.-Come hither, pray you. [to Flavius. How Flav. Please you, gentlemen, The time is unagreeable to this bufinefs: Tim. Do fo, my friends: See them well entertain'd. Flav. Pray draw near. [Exit TIMON. [Exit FLAVIUS. Enter APEMANTUS, and a Fools. Caph. Stay, ftay, here comes the fool with Apemantus; let's have some sport with 'em. 4-of date-broken bonds,] The old copy reads-of debt broken bonds. For the emendation now made I am anfwerable; to which I fhould not have ventured to give a place in the text, but that some emendation is abfolutely neceffary, and this appears to be established beyond a doubt by a former line in the preceding fcene: "And my reliances on his fracted dates." The tranfcriber's ear deceived him here as in many other places. Sir Thomas Hanmer and the fubfequent editors evaded the difficulty by omitting the corrupted word, debt. MALONE. 5 Enter Apemantus, and a Fool.] I fufpect fome fcene to be loft, in which the entrance of the fool, and the page that follows him, was prepared by fome introductory dialogue, in which the audience was informed that they were the fool and page of Phrynia, Timandra, or fome other courtefan, upon the knowledge of which depends the greater part of the enfuing jocularity. JOHNSON. Var. Serv. Hang him, he'll abuse us. Apem. Doft dialogue with thy fhadow? Apem. No, 'tis to thyfelf.-Come away. [To the Fool. Ifid. Serv. [to Var. Serv.] There's the fool hangs on your back already. Apem. No, thou ftand'ft fingle, thou art not on him yet. Caph. Where's the fool now? Apem. He laft afk'd the queftion.-Poor rogues, and ufurers' men! bawds between gold and want! All Serv. What are we, Apemantus? Apem. Afles. All Serv. Why? Apem. That you ask me, what you are, and do not know yourselves.-Speak to 'em, fool. Fool. How do you, gentlemen? All Serv. Gramercies, good fool: How does your mistress? 6 Poor rogues, and ufurers' men! bawds, &c.] This is faid fo abruptly, that I am inclined to think it misplaced, and would regulate the paffage thus: Caph. Where's the fool now? All. Why? Apem. That you ask me what you are, and do not know yourfelves. Poor rogues, and ufurers" men! bawds between gold and want! Speak, &c. Thus every word will have its proper place. It is likely that the paffage tranfpofed was forgot in the copy, and inferted in the margin, perhaps, a little befide the proper place, which the tranfcriber wanting either skill or care to obferve, wrote it where it now ftands. JOHNSON. The tranfpofition propofed is unneceffary. Apemantus does not addrefs thefe words to any of the others, but mutters them to himfelf; fo that they do not enter into the dialogue or compofe a part of it. MASON. Fool. Fool. She's e'en fetting on water to scald such chickens as you are'. 'Would, we could see you at Corinth 3.. Apem. Good! gramercy. Enter Page. Fool. Look you, here comes my mistress' page. Page. [to the Fool.] Why, how now, captain? what do you in this wife company?-How dost thou, Apemantus ? 7 She's e'en fetting on water to scald, &c.] The old name for the difeafe got at Corinth was the brenning, and a fenfe of fcalding is one of its firft fymptoms. JOHNSON. The fame thought appears in the Old Law, by Maffinger: "look parboil'd "As if they came from Cupid's fealding house." STEEVENS, 8 Would we could fee you at Corintb.] A cant name for a bawdyhoufe, I fuppofe, from the diffoluteness of that ancient Greek city; of which Alexander ab Alexandro has thefe words: "CORINTHI Jum per mille profiituta in templo Veneris affidua degere, & inflammata libidine quaftui meretricio operam dare, et velut facrorum miniftræ Deæ famulari jolebant." Milton, in his Apology for Smellymnuus, lays: "Or fearching for me at the Bordellos, where, it may be, he has lost himself, and raps up, without pity, the fage and rheumatick old prelatefs, with all her young Corinthian laity, to enquire for such a one." WARBURTON. See Vol. V. p. 164, n. 2. MALONE. my miftrefs' page.] In the firft paffage the Fool fpeaks of his mafter, in the fecond [as exhibited in the modern editions] of his iftrefs. In the old copy it is mafter in both places. It should rather, perhaps, be miftrefs in both, as it is in a following and a preceding paffage : "All. How does your mistress ?". "Fool. My miftrefs is one, and I am her fool." STEEVENS. I have not hesitated to print miftrefs in both places. Mafier was frequently printed in the old copy instead of mifrefs, and vice versa, from the ancient mode of writing an M only, which ftood in the Mís. of Shakspeare's time either for the one or the other; and the copyist or printer completed the word without attending to the context. This abbreviation is found in Coriolanus, folio, 1623, p. 21: "Where's Cotus? My M. calls for him." Again, more appofitely, in the The Merchant of Venice, 1623: "What ho, M. [Maßter] Lorenzo, and M. [Miftrefs] Lorenzo." In Vol. III. p. 267, n. 4, and Vol. VI. p. 130, n. 6, are found corruptions fimilar to the prefent, in confequence of the printer's completing the abbreviated word of the M. improperly. MALONE. Apem. Apem. 'Would I had a rod in my mouth that I might anfwer thee profitably. Page. Pr'ythee, Apemantus, read me the fuperfcription of thefe letters; I know not which is which. Apem. Canft not read? Page. No. Apem. There will little learning die then, that day thou art hang'd. This is to lord Timon; this to Alcibiades. Go; thou waft born a baftard, and thou'lt die a bawd. Page. Thou waft whelp'd a dog; and thou shalt famish, a dog's death. Anfwer not, I am gone. Apem. Even fo, thou out-run'ft grace. with you to lord Timon's. Fool. Will you leave me there? [Exit. Fool, I will go Apem. If Timon ftay at home.-You three ferve three ufurers? All Serv. Ay; 'would they served us! Apem. So would I,-as good a trick as ever hangman ferved thief. Fool. Are you three usurers' men? All Serv. Ay, fool. Fool. I think, no ufurer but has a fool to his fervant : My mistress is one, and I am her fool. When men come to borrow of your mafters, they approach fadly, and go away merry; but they enter my miftrefs' house merrily, and go away fadly: The reason of this? Var. Serv. I could render one. Apem. Do it then, that we may account thee a whoremafter, and a knave; which notwithstanding, thou shalt be no less esteemed. Var. Serv. What is a whore-master, fool? Fool. A fool in good clothes, and fomething like thee. 'Tis a spirit: fometime, it appears like a lord; fome my miftrefs' house-] Here again the old copy reads--mafter's. I have corrected it for the reafon already affigned. The context puts the matter beyond a doubt. Mr. Theobald, I find, had filently made the fame emendation; but in fubfequent editions the corrupt reading of the old copy was again restored. MALONE. time, like a lawyer; fometime, like a philofopher, with two ftones more than his artificial one 2: He is very often like a knight; and, generally, in all fhapes, that man goes up and down in, from fourscore to thirteen, this fpirit walks in. Var. Serv. Thou art not altogether a fool. Fool. Nor thou altogether a wife man: as much foolery as I have, fo much wit thou lack'st. Apem. That answer might have become Apemantus. Re-enter TIMON, and FLAVIUS. Apem. Come with me, fool, come. Fool. I do not always follow lover, elder brother, and woman; fometime, the philofopher. [Exeunt APEMANTUS and Fool. Fla. Pray you, walk near; I'll speak with you anon, [Exeunt Serv. Tim. You make me marvel: Wherefore, ere this time, Had you not fully laid my ftate before me; As I had leave of means? Flar. You would not hear me, At many leifures I propos'd. Perchance, fome fingle vantages you took, Flav. O my good lord! At many times I brought in my accounts, Laid them before you; you would throw them off, 2- bis artificial one:] Meaning the celebrated philofopher's ftone, which was in thofe times much talked of. Sir Thomas Smith was one of those who loft confiderable fums in seeking of it. JOHNSON. Sir Richard Steele was one of the laft eminent men who entertained hopes of being fuccessful in this purfuit. His laboratory was at Poplar, a village near London, and is now converted into a garden houfe. STEEV. 3- made your minifter,] The conftruction is: And made that unapenefs your minifter, MALONE. When, |