Abroad? why then, women are more valiant,
That stay at home, if bearing carry it;

And th' ass more captain than the lion; the felon,
Loaden with irons, wiser than the judge,

If wisdom be in suffering. O my lords,
As you are great, be pitifully good:

Who cannot condemn rashness in cold blood?
To kill, I grant, is sin's extremest gust7;
But, in defence, by mercy, 'tis most just.
To be in anger is impiety;

But who is man, that is not angry?
Weigh but the crime with this.

2 Sen. You breathe in vain.
Alcib.

In vain! his service done

At Lacedæmon, and Byzantium,
Were a sufficient briber for his life.

1 Sen. What's that?

Alcib. Why, I say, my lords, h'as done fair service, And slain in fight many of your enemies : How full of valour did he bear himself

In the last conflict, and made plenteous wounds?
2 Sen. He has made too much plenty with 'em, he
Is a sworn rioter9, h'as a sin that often

Drowns him, and takes his valour prisoner:
If there were no foes, that were enough alone
To overcome him: in that beastly fury

He has been known to commit outrages,

5 What do we, or what have we to do in the field?-See vol. i. p. 260; and vol. ii. p. 364.

6 The old copy reads 'fellow.' The alteration was made at Johnson's suggestion, perhaps without necessity. Fellow is a common term of contempt.

7 Gust here means rashness. We still say 'it was done in a gust of passion.'

8 i. e. ' I call mercy herself to witness.'

9 i. e. a man who practises riot as if he had made it an oath or duty.

And cherish factions: "Tis inferr'd to us, His days are foul, and his drink dangerous. 1 Sen. He dies.

Alcib. Hard fate! he might have died in war.
My lords, if not for any parts in him

(Though his right arm might purchase his own time,
And be in debt to none), yet, more to move you,
Take my deserts to his, and join them both:
And, for I know your reverend ages love
Security, I'll pawn my victories, all 10
My honour to you, upon his good returns.
If by this crime he owes the law his life,
Why, let the war receive't in valiant gore;
For law is strict, and war is nothing more.
1. Sen. We are for law, he dies; urge
it no more,
On height of our displeasure: Friend or brother,
He forfeits his own blood, that spills another.
Alcib. Must it be so? it must not be. My lords,
I do beseech you, know me.

2 Sen. How?

Alcib. Call me to your

3 Sen.

remembrances 11.

What?

12

Alcib. I cannot think, but your age has forgot me ; It could not else be, I should prove so base To sue, and be denied such common grace: My wounds ache at you.

1 Sen.

Do dare our anger?

you

'Tis in few words, but spacious in effect;

We banish thee for ever.

10 He charges them obliquely with being usurers. Thus in a subsequent passage:

banish usury,

That makes the senate ugly.'

11 Remembrances is here used as a word of five syllables. In the singular Shakspeare uses it as a word of four syllables only: And lasting in her sad remembrance.'

Twelfth Night, Act i. Sc. 1.

12 Base for dishonoured.

Alcib.

Banish me?

Banish your dotage; banish usury,

That makes the senate ugly.

1.Sen. If, after two days' shine, Athens contain thee, Attend our weightier judgment. And, not to swell our spirit 13,

He shall be executed presently. [Exeunt Senators. Alcib. Now the gods keep you old enough; that you may live

Only in bone, that none may look on you!

I am worse than mad: I have kept back their foes,
While they have told their money, and let out
Their coin upon large interest; I myself,

Rich only in large hurts;-All those, for this?
Is this the balsam, that the usuring senate
Pours into captains' wounds? ha! banishment?
It comes not ill; I hate not to be banish'd;
It is a cause worthy my spleen and fury,
That I may strike at Athens. I'll cheer up
My discontented troops, and lay for hearts.
"Tis honour, with most lands to be at odds 14;
Soldiers should brook as little wrongs, as gods.

[Exit.

13 This, says Steevens, I believe, means 'not to put ourselves into any tumour of rage, take our definitive resolution.' So in King Henry VIII. Act iii. Sc. 1:

The hearts of princes kiss obedience,

So much they love it; but to stubborn spirits
They swell and grow as terrible as storms.'

I think we might read with advantage :

And not to quell our spirit.'

i. e. not to repress or humble it.

14 To lay for hearts, is to endeavour to win the affections of the people. To laie for a thing before it come: prætendo.Baret. Lay for some pretty principality.'-Devil is an Ass. By 'Tis honour, with most lands to be at odds,' Alcibiades means, as states are now constituted, 'tis more honourable to be at odds with them, than to fight in their service. Some have thought the passage corrupt, and proposed to read ‘hands ;' and

others lords.'

SCENE VI.

A magnificent Room in Timon's House.

Musick. Tables set out: Servants attending.
Enter divers Lords, at several doors.

1 Lord. The good time of day to you, sir, 2 Lord. I also wish it to you. I think, this honourable lord did but try us this other day.

1 Lord. Upon that were my thoughts tiring1, when we encountered: I hope, it is not so low with him, as he made it seem in the trial of his several friends.

2 Lord. It should not be, by the persuasion of his new feasting.

1 Lord. I should think so: He hath sent me an earnest inviting, which many my near occasions did urge me to put off; but he hath conjured me beyond them, and I must needs appear.

2 Lord. In like manner was I in debt to my importunate business, but he would not hear my exI am sorry, when he sent to borrow of me, that my provision was out.

cuse.

1 Lord. I am sick of that grief too, as I understand how all things go.

2 Lord. Every man here's so.

have borrowed of you?

1 Lord. A thousand pieces.

2 Lord. A thousand pieces! 1 Lord. What of you?

What would he

3 Lord. He sent to me, sir,-Here he comes.

1 'Upon that were my thoughts feeding or most anxiously employed. To tire, from the Saxon Tiɲan, to tear, is to feed as a bird of prey does by tearing its food with its beak. So in Shakspeare's Venus and Adonis:

'Like as an empty eagle sharp by fast

Tires with her beak on feathers, flesh, and bone.'

Enter TIMON, and Attendants.

Tim. With all my heart, gentlemen both :-And how fare you?

1 Lord. Ever at the best, hearing well of your lordship.

2 Lord. The swallow follows not summer more willing, than we your lordship.

Tim. [Aside.] Nor more willingly leaves winter; such summer-birds are men.-Gentlemen, our dinner will not recompense this long stay: feast your ears with the musick awhile; if they will fare so harshly on the trumpet's sound: we shall to't presently.

1 Lord. I hope, it remains not unkindly with your lordship, that I returned you an empty mes

senger.

Tim. O, sir, let it not trouble you.

2 Lord. My noble lord,

Tim. Ah, my good friend! what cheer?

[The Banquet brought in. 2 Lord. My most honourable lord, I am e'en sick of shame, that, when your lordship this other day sent to me, I was so unfortunate a beggar. Tim. Think not on't, sir.

2 Lord. If you had sent but two hours before, Tim. Let it not cumber your better remembrance2. -Come, bring in all together.

2 i. e. your good memory.' Shakspeare and his contemporaries often use the comparative for the positive or superlative. Thus in King John:

Nay, but make haste the better foot before.'

And in Macbeth :

Again :

it hath cow'd my better part of man.'

go not my horse the better.'

So in Philemon Holland's translation of Pliny's Nat. Hist. b. ix. VOL. VIII.

H