In pity of our aged, and our youth,

I cannot choose but tell him, that-I care not,
And let him tak't at worst; for their knives care not,
While you have throats to answer; for myself,
There's not a whittle7 in the unruly camp,

But I do prize it at my love, before

So I leave

you

The reverend'st throat in Athens.
To the protection of the prosperous gods,
As thieves to keepers.

Flav.

Stay not, all's in vain.

Tim. Why, I was writing of my epitaph, It will be seen to-morrow; My long sickness Of health 9, and living, now begins to mend, And nothing brings me all things. Go, live still; Be Alcibiades your plague, you his, And last so long enough!

1 Sen.

We speak in vain. Tim. But yet I love my country; and am not One that rejoices in the common wreck,

As common bruit 10 doth put it.

1 Sen. That's well spoke. Tim. Commend me to my loving countrymen,— 1 Sen. These words become your lips as they pass

through them.

2 Sen. And enter in our ears, like great triumphers In their applauding gates.

7 A whittle is a clasp knife. The word is still provincially

in use.

8.

The prosperous gods' undoubtedly here mean the propitious or favourable gods, Dii secundi. Thus in Othello, Act i. Sc. 3:

To my unfolding lend your prosperous ear.'

In which passage the quarto of 1622 reads a gracious ear.' So in The Winter's Tale, Act ii. Sc. 3:

Sir, be prosperous

In more than this deed doth require.'

9 He means the disease of life begins to promise me a period.' 10 Report, rumour.

Tim. Commend me to them; And tell them, that, to ease them of their griefs, Their fears of hostile strokes, their aches, losses, Their pangs of love 11, with other incident throes That nature's fragile vessel doth sustain

In life's uncertain voyage, I will some kindness do them:

close,

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
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 12:-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 froth 13 The turbulent surge shall cover; thither come,

11 Compare this part of Timon's speech with part of the celebrated soliloquy in Hamlet.

12 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.

13 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 himselfe to be interred upon the sea shore, that the waves and surges might beate and vexe his dead carcas.'

Embossed froth is foaming, puffed or blown up froth. See vol, iii. p. 342, note 7. Among our ancestors' a boss or a bubble of water when it raineth, or the pot seetheth,' were used indifferently.

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 dear1 peril.

1 Sen.

It requires swift foot. [Exeunt.

SCENE III. The Walls of Athens.

Enter Two Senators, and a Messenger. 1 Sen. Thou hast painfully discover'd; are his 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 friends1:—this man was riding

14 So in Twelfth Night, Act v. Sc. 1, vol. i. p. 382:'Whom thou in terms so bloody and so dear

Hast made thy enemies.'

See note on that passage. Again, in Love's Labour's Lost, vol. ii. p. 411:

'Deaf'd with the clamour of their own dear groans.'

1 This passage Steevens, with great reason, considers corrupt, the awkward repetition of the verb made, and the obscurity of the whole, countenances his opinion. Might we not read:'Yet our old love had a particular force,

And made us speak like friends.'

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.

1 Sen.

Enter Senators from TIMON.

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.

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 this1; 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:
Before proud Athens he's set down by this,
Whose fall the mark of his ambition is.

[Exit.

1 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?'

SCENE V. Before the Walls of Athens.

Trumpets 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 1, and breath'd

Our sufferance vainly: Now the time is flush2,
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;
And pursy insolence shall break his wind,
With fear and horrid flight.

1 Sen.
Noble and young,
When thy first griefs were but a mere conceit,
Ere thou hadst power, or we had cause of fear,
We sent to thee; to give thy rages balm,

To wipe out our ingratitude with loves

Above their quantity 3.

So did we woo

2 Sen. Transformed Timon to our city's love,

By humble message, and by promis'd means *;

1 Travers'd arms are arms crossed. The image occurs in The Tempest ::

'His arms in this sad knot.'

2 Flush is mature, ripe, or come to full perfection.

3 Their refers to griefs. To give thy rages balm' must be considered as parenthetical.

4i. e, by promising him a competent subsistence.