But shall be remedied, to your public laws,
At heaviest answer.

Both "T is most nobly spoken.
Alcib. Descend, and keep your words.

The Senators descend, and open the gates.

Enter a Soldier.

Sol. My noble general, Timon is dead; Entombed upon the very hem o' the sea: And on his gravestone this insculpture, which With wax I brought away, whose soft impression Interprets for my poor ignorance.

ALCIBIADES reads.

"Here lies a wretched corse, of wretched soul bereft : Seek not my name. A plague consume you wicked

caitiffs left!

Here lie I, Timon; who, alive all living men did bate:

Pass by, and curse thy fill; but pass, and stay not here thy gait."

These well express in thee thy latter spirits:
Though thou abhorr'dst in us our human griefs,
Scorn'dst our brain's flow, and those our droplets
which

From niggard nature fall, yet rich conceit
Taught thee to make vast Neptune weep for aye
On thy low grave, on faults forgiven. Dead
Is noble Timon; of whose memory
Hereafter more.-Bring me into your city,
And I will use the olive with my sword:
Make war breed peace; make peace stint war;
make each

Prescribe to other, as each other's leech-
Let our drums strike.

[Exeunt.

"When we for recompense have praised the vile," &c. Act I., Scene 1.

It must be here supposed, according to the suggestion of Warburton, that the Poet is busy in reading his own work; and that these three lines are the introduction to the poem addressed to Timon, of which he afterwards gives an account to the Painter.

"Our poesy is as a gum, which oozes

From whence 'lis nourished."-Act I., Scene 1.
The original folio here reads,

"Our poesy is as a gowne, which uses," &c. Pope suggested the alteration of "gowne" to "gum," and Johnson that of "uses" to "oozes." Instances of restoration so sagacious and happy as this (and there are very many such in the received text of Shakspere), may, at least, serve to rescue the commentators generally from the common charge of utter uselessness, or something worse.

"My free drift

Halls not particularly, but moves itself
In a wide sea of wax."-Act I, Scene 1.

The Poet means to say that his design does not stop at any single character. The phrase "sea of wax" is supposed to refer to the ancient practice of writing upon waxen tables with an iron style.

"No levelled malice

Infects one comma in the course I hold;
But flies an eagle flight, bold, and forth on,
Leaving no tract behind."—Act I., Scene 1.

To level is to aim,-to point the shot at a mark. The meaning is, says Johnson, " My poem is not a satire with any particular view, or levelled at any single person: I fly like an eagle into the general expanse of life, and leave not, by any private mischief, the trace of my passage."

-" Apemantus, that few things loves better Than to abhor himself: even he drops down The knee before him."-Act I., Scene 1. Steevens remarks upon this passage, that either Shakspere meant to put a falsehood into the mouth of the Poet, or had not yet thoroughly planned the character of Apemantus; for, in the ensuing scenes, his behaviour is as cynical to Timon as to his followers. Mr. Harness, in reply, observes that the Poet, seeing that Apemantus paid frequent visits to Timon, naturally concluded that he was equally courteous with other guests.

"A thousand moral paintings I can shew,

That shall demonstrate these quick blows of Fortune More pregnantly than words."-Act I., Scene 1 "Shakspere seems to intend in this dialogue," says Johnson, "to express some competition between the two great arts of imitation. Whatever the Poet declares himself to have shewn, the Painter thinks he could have shewn better."

"TIM. The man is honest.

OLD ATH. Therefore he will be, Timon."-Act I., Scene 1. "The thought," says Warburton, "is closely expressed and obscure; but the meaning seems to be, 'If the man be VOL. II. S

honest, he will be so in this, and not endeavour at the injustice of gaining my daughter without my consent.'" Coleridge thus explains this difficult passage :-"The meaning of the first line the Poet himself explains, or rather unfolds, in the second. The man is honest.' True; and for that very cause, and with no additional or extrinsic motive, he will be so. No man can be justly called honest who is not so for honesty's sake, itself including its own reward.'"

"Never may

That state or fortune fall into my keeping Which is not owed to you!"—Act I., Scene 1. That is, "Let me never henceforth consider anything that I possess but as owed or due to you; held for your service, and at your disposal." In the same sense, Lady Macbeth says to Duncan,

"Your servants ever

Have theirs, themselves, and what is theirs, in compt,
To make their audit at your highness' pleasure,
Still to return your own."

"That I had no angry wit to be a lord."-Act I., Scene 1.

This obscure expression, which is probably corrupt, has hitherto defied all satisfactory interpretation. We may, however, conclude with Johnson, that the substantial meaning is, "I should hate myself for patiently enduring to be a lord."

"I myself would have no power: pr'y thee, let my meat make thee silent."-Act I., Scene 2.

"Timon," says Mr. Tyrwhitt, "like a polite landlord, disclaims all power over his guests. His meaning is, 'I myself would have no power to make thee silent; but, pr'y thee, let my meat perform that office.'"

"I wonder men dare trust themselves with men : Methinks they should invite them without knives." Act I., Scene 2.

It was the custom in Shakspere's time, according to Mr. Ritson, for each guest to bring his own knife, which he occasionally whetted on a stone that hung behind the door. One of these whetstones he states to have been in Parkinson's Museum.

"Entertained me with mine own device."-Act I., Scene 2. This mask appears to have been designed by Timon to entertain his guests.

"There is no crossing him in his humour;
Else I should tell him-well—i faith I should-
When all's spent, he'd be crossed then, an he could."
Act I., Scene 2.

The expression here is equivocal; in the last line, the steward means to say that, in his extremity, Timon would fain have his hand crossed with money. From the circumstance of some of the old coins bearing the impress of a cross, arose the once common phrase, "I have not a crois

"No porter at his gate;

But rather one that smiles, and still invites
All that pass by."-Act II., Scene 1.

The word "one" in the second line does not refer to "porter," but signifies a person. Roughness was the imputed characteristic of a porter. There appeared at Killingworth Castle, 1575, "a porter, tall of person, big of limb, and stern of countenance." The meaning of the text is, "He has no stern forbidding porter at his gate to keep people out, but a person who invites them in."

"Good even, Varro."-Act II., Scene 2. "Good even," or "good den," was the usual salutation from noon, the moment that "good morrow" became improper.

"So soon as dinner's done, we'll forth again." Act II., Scene 2. It was formerly the custom to hunt as well after dinner as before. From Laneham's "ACCOUNT OF THE ENTERTAINMENT AT KENILWORTH CASTLE," it appears that Queen Elizabeth, while there, hunted in the afternoon :"Monday was hot, and therefore her highness kept in till five o'clock in the evening; what time it pleased her to ride forth into the chase, to hunt the hart of force; which found anon, and after sore chased," &c. On the 18th of July there is another entry to the same effect.

"I have retired me to a wasteful cock

And set mine eyes at flow."-Act II., Scene 2.

By a "wasteful cock" is probably meant what we now call a waste-pipe; a pipe that is continually running, and thereby prevents the overflow of cisterns and other reservoirs, by carrying off their superfluous water. "This circumstance," says Steevens, "served to keep the idea of Timon's unceasing prodigality in the mind of the steward, while its remoteness from the scenes of luxury within the house, was favourable to meditation."

"Here's three solidares for thee."-Act III., Scene 1.

"Where Shakspere found this odd word," says Mr. Nares, "Is uncertain. 'Solidata' is, in low Latin, the word for the daily pay of a common soldier; and solidare' the verb expressing the act of paying it; whence comes the word 'soldier' itself. From one or the other of these, some writer had formed the English word. Or the true reading may be 'solidate,' which is precisely 'solidata' made English."

Timon, in this mock banquet, has thrown nothing at his guests but warm water and the dishes that contained it. The mention of stones in the passage cited, may be thus plausibly accounted for :-Steevens states that Mr. Strutt, the engraver, was in possession of a MS. play on this subject, which is supposed to have been an older drama than Shakspere's. There is said to have been a scene in it resembling the banquet given by Timon in the present play. Instead of warm water, he sets before his false friends stones painted like artichokes, and afterwards beats them out of the room. He then retires to the woods, attended by his faithful steward. In the last act, he is followed by his fickle mistress, &c., after being reported to have discovered a treasure by digging. Steevens states the piece to have been a wretched composition, although apparently the work of an academic. It is possible that this production may have been of some service to Shakspere: at present, no one appears to know what has become of it.

"Such a house broke!

So noble a master fallen !"-Act IV., Scene 2.

It is justly remarked by Johnson, 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 honoured by domestics; nothing but impartial kindness can gain affection from dependents.

"Not nature,

To whom all sores lay siege, can bear great fortune, But by contempt of nature.' Act IV., Scene 3.

The meaning of these and the preceding lines is probably this:-Brother, when his fortune is enlarged, will scorn brother; such is the general depravity of human nature, which, besieged as it is by misery, admonished as it is of want and imperfection, will, when elevated by fortune, despise beings of nature like its own.

"Like tapsters, that bid welcome

To knaves and all approachers."—Act IV., Scene 3.

A similar satire on tapsters occurs in the poet's "VENUS AND ADONIS:"

"Like shrill-tongued tapsters, answering every call,
Soothing the humour of fantastic wits."

"Will these mossed trees,

That have outlived the eagle, page thy heels?”
Act IV., Scene 3.

"Aquila senectus" is a proverb. Turberville 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.

"Willing misery

Outlives incertain pomp; is crowned before." Act IV., Scene 3. That is, arrives sooner at the completion of its wishes. So in a former scene of this play :

"And in some sort these wants of mine are crowned,

That I account them blessings."

And more appositely in "CYMBELINE:"

"My supreme crown of grief."

"Best state, contentless,

Hath a distracted and most wretched being; Worse than the worst, content."—Act IV., Scene 3.

The meaning is, that the best states without content have a wretched being compared with the worst states that are contented.

"Hadst thou, like us, from our first swath proceeded The sweet degrees that this brief world affords."

Act IV., Scene 3.

"There is in this speech," says Johnson, "a sullen haughtiness and malignant dignity suitable at once to the lord and the man-hater. The impatience with which Timon bears to have his luxury reproached by one that never had luxury within his reach, is natural and graceful."

In a letter written by the Earl of Essex (just before his execution) to another nobleman, there is a passage somewhat resembling that in the text:-" God grant your lordship may quickly feel the comfort I now enjoy in my unfeigned conversion, but that you may never feel the torments I have suffered for my long delaying it. I had none but divines to call upon me, to whom I said, If my ambition could have entered into their narrow breasts, they would not have been so humble; or if my delights had been once tasted by them, they would not have been so precise.' But your lordship hath one to call upon you that knoweth what it is you now enjoy, and what the greatest fruit and end is of all contentment that this world can afford."

"The icy precepts of respect."—Act IV., Scene 3. Meaning the cold admonitions of cautious pruder ce, that deliberately weighs the consequences of every action. So in "TROILUS AND CRESSIDA :"—

"Reason and respect Make livers pale, and lustihood deject."

"Dryden has quoted two verses of Virgil," observes Johnson, "to shew how well he could have written satires. Shakspere has here given a specimen of the same power, by a line bitter beyond all bitterness, in which Timon tells Apemantus that he had not virtue enough for the vices he condemns. I have heard," continues the critic, "Mr. Burke commend the subtlety of discrimination with which Shakspere distinguishes the present character of Timon from that of Apemantus, whom, to vulgar eyes, he would now resemble."

"When thou wast in thy gilt and thy perfume, they mocked thee for too much curiosity."—Act IV., Scena 3.

The word "curiosity" is here used in the sense of finical delicacy. So in Jervas Markham's "ENGLISH ARCADIA," 1666" For all those eye-charming graces, of which with such curiosity she hath boasted." And in Hobby's translation of Castiglione's "CORTEGIANO," 1556:"A waitinggentlewoman should flee affection or curiosity." "Curiosity" is here inserted as a synonyme to "affection," which means

affectation.

"Wert thou the unicorn, pride and wrath would confound thee, and make thine own self the conquest of thy fury."" Act IV., Scene 3.

The fabulous account of the unicorn states, that he and the lion being enemies by nature, as soon as the lion sees the unicorn, he betakes himself to a tree: the unicorn, in his fury, and with all the swiftness of his course, running at him, sticks his horn fast in the tree, and then the lion falls upon him and kills him.

"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."-Act V., Scene 1.

That is, the doing of that which we have said we would do, the accomplishment and performance of our promise, is for the most part out of use.

"It must be a personating of himself."—Act V., Scene 1.

The word "personating" here signifies representation. The subject of the projected satire was Timon's case, not his person.

"I have a tree which grows here in my close.”—Act V., Scene 2.

This satirical stroke appears to be founded on a passage 'n Plutarch's "LIFE OF ANTONY:"-" It is reported of him also, that this Timon on a time (the people being assembled in the market-place about despatch of some affairs), got up into the pulpit for orations, where the orators commonly use to speak unto the people; and silence being made, every man listening to hear what he would say, because it was a wonder to see him in that place, at length he began to speak in this manner :- My lords of Athens, I have a little yard in my house, where there groweth a fig-tree, on the which many citizens have hanged themselves; and because I mean to make some building upon the place, I thought good to let you all understand it, that before the fig-tree be cut down, if any of you be desperate, you may there in time go hang yourselves.""

"Now the time is flush."—Act V., Scene 5.

A bird is said to be "flush" when his feathers are grown and he can leave the nest.

"By humble message, and by promised means." Act V., Scene 5. That is, by promising him a competent subsistence. The Chief Justice says to Falstaff, "Your means are very slender, and your waste is great."

"Here lies a wretched corse," &c.—Act V., Scene 5.

This epitaph is formed out of two distinct epitaphs which appear in North's "PLUTARCH." The first couplet is said by Plutarch to have been composed by Timon himself; the second to have been written by the poet Callimachus.

The remarks of Schlegel on this fine play are subjoined. They are worthy of the writer, although we think his estimate of the character of Timon far more severe than is warranted by the incidents of the drama :—

"Of all the works of Shakspere, TIMON OF ATHENS' possesses most the character of a satire: a laughing satire, in the picture of the parasites and flatterers; and a Juvenalian, in the bitterness and the imprecations of Timon against the ingratitude of a false world. The story is treated in a very simple manner, and is definitely divided into large masses. In the first act, the joyous life of Timon; his noble and hospitable extravagance, and the throng of every description of suitors of him: in the second and third acts, his embarrassment, and the trial which he is thereby reduced to make of his supposed friends, who all desert him in the hour of need: in the fourth and fifth acts, Timon's flight to the woods, his misanthropical melancholy, and his death. The only thing which may be called an episode, is the banishment of Alcibiades, and his return by force of arms. However, they are both examples of ingratitude : the one, of a state towards its defender; and the other, of private friends to their benefactor. As the merits of the general towards his fellow-citizens suppose more strength of character than those of the generous prodigal, their respective behaviours are no less different: Timon frets himself to death; Alcibiades regains his lost dignity by violence.

"If the poet very properly sides with Timon against the common practice of the world, he is, on the other hand, by no means disposed to spare Timon. Timon was a fool in his generosity; he is a madman in his discontent; he is everywhere wanting in the wisdom which enables men in all things to observe the due measure. Although the truth of his extravagant feelings is proved by his death, and though, when he digs up a treasure, he spurns at the wealth which seems to solicit him, we yet see distinctly enough that the vanity of wishing to be singular, in both parts of the play, had some share in his liberal self-forgetfulness, as well as in his anchoretical seclusion. This is particularly evident in the incomparable scene where the cynic Apemantus visits Timon in the wilderness. They have a sort of competition with each other in their trade of misanthropy: the cynic reproaches the impoverished Timon with having been merely driven by necessity to take to the way of living which he had been long following of his own free choice; and Timon cannot bear the thought of being merely an imitator of the cynic. As in this subject the effect could only be produced by an accumulation of similar features, in the variety of the shades an amazing degree of understanding has been displayed by Shakspere. What a powerfully diversified concert of flatteries, and empty testimonies of devotedness! It is highly amusing to see the suitors whom the ruined circumstances of their patron had dispersed, immediately flock to him again when they learn that he has been revisited by fortune. In the speeches of Timon after he is undeceived, all the hostile figures of language are exhausted; it is a dictionary of eloquent imprecation."

Alas! the error of hapless Timon lay not (as the critic supposes) in "the vanity of wishing to be singular," but in the humility of not perceiving that he really was so, in the boundless and unsuspecting generosity of his disposition. Timon is not to be considered an object of imitation: but it is plain, that had he not thought as well of others as of himself, he would not have been overwhelmed with horror and astonishment on the discovery of his fatal mistake.