Into their gluttonous maws.

but wrong,

You do yourselves

To stir me up; let me pass quietly:
Believe't, my lord and I have made an end;
I have no more to reckon, he to spend.

Luc. Serv. Ay, but this answer will not serve.
Flav.

"Tis not so base as you; for

If 'twill not serve,

you serve knaves.

[Exit.

1 Var. Serv. How! what does his cashier'd wor

ship mutter?

2 Var. Serv. No matter what; he's poor, and that's revenge enough. Who can speak broader than he that has no house to put his head in? such may rail against great buildings.

Enter SERVILIUS.

Tit. O, here's Servilius; now we shall know

some answer.

Ser. If I might beseech you, gentlemen, to repair some other hour, I should derive much from it: for, take it on my soul, my lord leans wondrously to discontent. His comfortable temper has forsook him; he is much out of health, and keeps his chamber.

Luc. Serv. Many do keep their chambers, are not sick:

And, if it be so far beyond his health,

Methinks, he should the sooner pay his debts,
And make a clear way to the gods.

Ser.

Good gods!

Tit. We cannot take this for an answer, sir. Flam. [Within.] Servilius, help!-my lord! my

lord!

Enter TIMON, in a rage; FLAMINIUS following.

Tim. What, are my doors oppos'd against my passage?

Have I been ever free, and must my house
Be my retentive enemy, my gaol?

The place, which I have feasted, does it now,
Like all mankind, show me an iron heart?
Luc. Serv. Put in now, Titus.

Tit. My lord, here is my bill.
Luc. Serv. Here's mine.

Hor. Serv. And mine, my lord.

Both Var. Serv. And ours, my lord.

Phi. All our bills.

Tim. Knock me down with 'emб: cleave me to

the girdle.

Luc. Serv. Alas! my lord,

Tim. Cut my heart in sums.

Tit. Mine fifty talents.

Tim. Tell out my

blood.

Luc. Serv. Five thousand crowns, my lord.
Tim. Five thousand drops pays that.-

What yours?—and yours?

1 Var. Serv, My lord,

2 Var. Serv. My lord,

Tim. Tear me, take me, and the gods fall upon

you!

[Exit. throw

Hor. 'Faith, I perceive our masters may their caps at their money; these debts may well be called desperate ones, for a madman owes 'em.

[Exeunt.

6 Timon quibbles. They present their written bills; he catches at the word, and alludes to bills or battle-axes. The word is so played upon in As You Like It. See vol. iii. p. 117.

Re-enter TIMON and FLAVIUS.

Tim. They have e'en put my breath from me, the slaves:

Creditors!-devils.

Flav. My dear lord,

Tim. What if it should be so?

Flav. My lord,

Tim. I'll have it so:-My steward!

Flav. Here, my lord.

Tim. So fitly? Go, bid all my friends again, Lucius, Lucullus, and Sempronius; all7:

I'll once more feast the rascals.

Flav.
O, my lord,
You only speak from your distracted soul;
There is not so much left, to furnish out
A moderate table.

Tim.

Be't not in thy care; go,

I charge thee; invite them all: let in the tide Of knaves once more; my cook and I'll provide. [Exeunt.

SCENE V. The same. The Senate-House.

The Senate sitting. Enter ALCIBIADES, attended. 1 Sen. My lord, you have my voice to it; the fault's Bloody; 'tis necessary he should die :

Nothing emboldens sin so much as mercy.

2 Sen. Most true; the law shall bruise him. Alcib. Honour, health, and compassion to the senate!

7 The first folio reads:

Lucius, Lucullus, and Sempronius, Ullorxa all.'

What is meant by this strange corruption it is perhaps now vain to conjecture. Malone retains this strange word; and Steevens banters him pleasantly enough upon his pertinacious adherence to the text of the first folio.

1 Sen. Now, captain?

Alcib. I am an humble suitor to your virtues; For pity is the virtue of the law,

And none but tyrants use it cruelly.

It pleases time, and fortune, to lie heavy
Upon a friend of mine, who, in hot blood,
Hath stepp'd into the law, which is past depth
To those that, without heed, do plunge into it.
He is a man, setting his fate aside1,

Of comely virtues:

Nor did he soil the fact with cowardice

(An honour in him which buys out his fault);
But, with a noble fury, and fair spirit,
Seeing his reputation touch'd to death,
He did oppose his foe:

And with such sober and unnoted passion
He did behave his anger, ere 'twas spent,
As if he had but prov'd an argument.

1 i. e. putting this action of his, which was predetermined by fate, out of the question.

2 The folio reads:

And with such sober and unnoted passion
He did behoove his anger ere 'twas spent.'

This Warburton changed for behave his anger,' which he explains govern, manage his anger. It is said the verb to behoove is only used impersonally with it; otherwise the old reading might mean, 'he did so fit or become his anger, ere it was spent with such sober and unnoted [i. e. unmarked] passion, that it seemed as if,' &c. Perhaps we might read:

And with such sober and unnoted passion

He did behood [i. e. hide, conceal] his anger,' &c. Shakspeare uses to hood for to hide more than once. Romeo and Juliet, Act iii. Sc. 2:

O Come, civil night

Hood my unman'd blood bating in my cheeks
With thy black mantle.'

And in the Merchant of Venice, Act ii. Sc. 2:—

Thus in

'While grace is saying, hood mine eyes thus with my hat.' In defence of Warburton's reading it should be remarked, how

1 Sen. You undergo too strict a paradox3, Striving to make an ugly deed look fair:

Your words have took such pains, as if they labour'd

To bring manslaughter into form, set quarrelling
Upon the head of valour; which, indeed,
Is valour misbegot, and came into the world
When sects and factions were newly born:
He's truly valiant, that can wisely suffer

The worst that man can breathe1; and make his wrongs

His outsides; wear them like his raiment, carelessly; And ne'er prefer his injuries to his heart,

To bring it into danger.

If wrongs be evils, and enforce us kill,
What folly 'tis to hazard life for ill!
Alcib. My lord,-

Το

1 Sen. You cannot make gross sins look clear; revenge is no valour, but to bear.

Alcib. My lords, then, under favour, pardon me, If I speak like a captain.

Why do fond men expose themselves to battle,
And not endure all threatnings? sleep upon it,
And let the foes quietly cut their throats,
Without repugnancy? but if there be

Such valour in the bearing, what make we

ever, that behave is used in the same singular manner in Sir W. Davenant's Just Italian, 1630:

'How well my stars behave their influence.'

And again:

You an Italian, sir, and thus
Behave the knowledge of disgrace.

So Spenser, in his Faerie Queene, b. i. c. iii. :—

But who his limbs with labour, and his mind
Behaves with cares, cannot so easy miss.'

3 You undertake a paradox too hard.

4 i. e. utter.