Hearing you were retir'd, your friends fall'n off, 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. Pain. He, and myself, Have travell'd in the great shower of your gifts, And sweetly felt it. Tim. 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: I 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 terfeit 5 Best in all Athens: thou art, indeed, the best; Pain. So, so, my lord. Tim. Even so, sir, as I say:-And, for thy fiction, [To the Poet. Why, thy verse swells with stuff so fine and smooth, 5 It should be remembered that a portrait was called a counterfeit. That thou art even natural in thine art. But, for all this, my honest natur'd friends, Marry, 'tis not monstrous in you; neither wish I, Both. To make it known to us. Tim. Beseech your honour, You'll take it ill. Will you, indeed? Both. Most thankfully, my lord. Both. Doubt it not, worthy lord. Tim. There's ne'er a one of you but trusts a knave, That mightily deceives you. Both. Do we, my lord? Tim. Ay, and you hear him cog, see him dissemble, Know his gross patchery, love him, feed him; That he's a made-up villain 6. 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, Yet an arch villain keeps him company 3. 6 i. e. a complete, a finished villain. 7 i. e. a jakes. 8 The plain and simple meaning of this is where each of you is, a villain must be in his company, because you are both of you arch villains,' therefore a villain goes with you everywhere. Thus in Promos and Cassandra, 1578, Go, and a knave with thee.' If, where thou art, two villains shall not be, [To the Painter. Come not near him.-If thou wouldst not reside [To the Poet. But where one villain is, then him abandon.— Hence! pack! there's gold, ye came for gold, ye slaves: You have done work for me, there's payment: Hence 9! You are an alchymist, make gold of that : Out, rascal dogs! [Exit, beating and driving them out. SCENE II. The same. Enter FLAVIUS, and two Senators. Flav. It is in vain that you would speak with Timon; For he is set so only to himself, That nothing but himself, which looks like man, 1 Sen. Bring us to his cave: It is our part, and promise to the Athenians, To speak with Timon. At all times alike 2 Sen. Men are not still the same: "Twas time, and griefs, That fram'd him thus: time, with his fairer hand, Offering the fortunes of his former days, The former man may make him: Bring us to him, And chance it as it may. Flav. Here is his cave.Peace and content be here! Lord Timon! Timon! Look out, and speak to friends: The Athenians, By two of their most reverend senate, greet thee: Speak to them, noble Timon. 9 The word done is omitted by accident in the old copy. This line is addressed to the painter, the next to the poet. Enter TIMON. Tim. Thou sun, that comfort'st, burn!-Speak, For each true word, a blister! and each false 1 Sen. Worthy Timon— Tim. Of none but such as you, and you of Timon. 2 Sen. The senators of Athens greet thee, Timon. Tim. I thank them; and would send them back the plague, Could I but catch it for them. 1 Sen. O, forget What we are sorry for ourselves in thee. The senators, with one consent of love1, For thy best use and wearing. 2 Sen. They confess, Toward thee, forgetfulness too general, gross: Which now the publick body,—which doth seldom Play the recanter,-feeling in itself A lack of Timon's aid, hath sense withal Of its own fall 3, restraining aid to Timon; And send forth us, to make their sorrowed render*, 1 With one united voice of affection. So in Sternhold's version of the hundredth Psalm.- 'With one consent let all the earth.' 2 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. 3 The Athenians have a sense of the danger of their own fall by the arms of Alcibiades, by their withholding aid that should have been given to Timon. 4 Render is confession. So in Cymbeline, Act iv. Sc. 4: may drive us to a render Where we have liv'd.' Together with a recompense more fruitful Than their offence can weigh down by the dram; Ay, even such heaps and sums of love and wealth, As shall to thee blot out what wrongs were theirs, And write in thee the figures of their love, Ever to read them thine. Tim. You witch me in it; Lend me a fool's heart, and a woman's eyes, Who, like a boar too savage, doth root up 2 Sen. And shakes his threat'ning sword Against the walls of Athens. 1 Sen. Therefore, Timon, Tim. Well, sir, I will; therefore, I will, sir; Thus, If Alcibiades kill my countrymen, Let Alcibiades know this of Timon, That-Timon cares not. But if he sack fair Athens, Of contumelious, beastly, mad-brain'd war; 5 Allowed here signifies confirmed. To approove or confirme. Ratum habere aliquid.' Baret. This word is generally used by our old writers in the sense of approved, and I am doubtful whether it has been rightly explained in other places of these dramas by licensed. An allowed fool, I think, means an approved fool, a confirmed fool. See vol. i. p. 223, vol. ii. p. 396. 6 This image may have been caught from Psalm 1xxx. 13. |