Phr.& Timan. Well, more gold;—What then?— Believe't, that we'll do any thing for gold.

Tim. Consumptions sow

In hollow bones of man; strike their sharp shins, And mar men's spurring. Crack the lawyer's voice, That he may never more false title plead,

Nor sound his quillets 26 shrilly: hoarse the flamen 27,
That scolds again the quality of flesh,

And not believes himself: down with the nose,
Down with it flat; take the bridge quite away
Of him, that his particular to foresee,

Smells from the general weal 28: make curl'd pate ruffians bald;

And let the unscarr'd braggarts of the war
Derive some pain from you: Plague all;
That your activity may defeat and quell
The source of all erection.-There's more gold:-
Do you damn others, and let this damn you,
And ditches grave 29 you all!

Phr. & Timan. More counsel with more money, bounteous Timon.

Tim. More whore, more mischief first; I have given you earnest.

26 Quillets are subtleties, nice and frivolous distinctions. See Hamlet, Act v. Sc. 1.

27 The old copy reads 'hoar the flamen,' which Steevens suggests may mean, give him the hoary leprosy. I have not scrupled to insert Upton's reading of hoarse into the text, because I think the whole construction of the speech shows that is the word the poet wrote. To afflict him with leprosy would not prevent his scolding, to deprive him of his voice by hoarseness might.

28 To 'foresee his particular' is to provide for his private advantage, for which he leaves the right scent of public good.' 29 To grave is to bury. The word is now obsolete, but was familiar to our old writers. Thus Chapman in his version of the fifteenth Iliad:

-

the throtes of dogs shall grave

His manless limbs.'

See vol. v. p. 64, note 11.

Alcib. Strike up the drum towards Athens. Fare

well, Timon;

If I thrive well, I'll visit thee again.

Tim. If I hope well, I'll never see thee more.
Alcib. I never did thee harm.

Tim. Yes, thou spok'st well of me.
Alcib.

Call'st thou that harm?

Tim. Men daily find it such.

And take thy beagles with thee.

Alcib. Strike.

We but offend him.

[Drum beats. Exeunt ALCIBIADES, PHRYNIA, and TIMANDRA.

Tim. That nature, being sick of man's unkindness, Should yet be hungry!-Common mother, thou, [Digging.

Whose womb unmeasurable, and infinite breast 30,
Teems, and feeds all; whose self-same mettle,
Whereof thy proud child, arrogant man, is puff'd,
Engenders the black toad, and adder blue,
The gilded newt, and eyeless venom'd worm 31,
With all the abhorred births below crisp 32 heaven
Whereon Hyperion's quickening fire doth shine;
Yield him, who all thy human sons doth hate,

30 This image (as Warburton ingeniously supposes) would almost make one imagine that Shakspeare was acquainted with some personifications of nature similar to the ancient statues of Diana Ephesia Multimammia. Hesiod calls the earth rai Ευρυστερνος.

31 The serpent which we, from the smallness of the eye, call the blind-worm, and the Latins cæcilia. So in Macbeth :

'Adder's fork and blind-worm's sting.'

32 Perhaps Shakspeare meant curled (which was synonymous with crisp) from the appearance of the clouds. In The Tempest Ariel talks of sitting on the curl'd clouds.' Chaucer, in his House of Fame, says:―

'Her heare that was oundie and crips.'

i. e. wavy and curled. Again, in The Philosopher's Satires, by Robert Anton:

'Her face as beauteous as the crisped morn.'

From forth thy plenteous bosom, one poor root!
Ensear thy fertile and conceptious womb 33,
Let it no more bring out ingrateful man!

Go great with tigers, dragons, wolves, and bears;
Teem with new monsters, whom thy upward face
Hath to the marbled mansion all above 34

Never presented !—O, a root,—Dear thanks!
Dry up thy marrows, vines, and plough-torn leas;
Whereof ingrateful man, with liquorish draughts,
And morsels unctuous, greases his pure
mind,
That from it all consideration slips!

Enter APEMANTUS.

More man? Plague! plague!

Apem. I was directed hither: Men report,
Thou dost affect my manners, and dost use them.
Tim. 'Tis then, because thou dost not keep a dog
Whom I would imitate. Consumption catch thee!
Apem. This is in thee a nature but affected;
A poor unmanly melancholy, sprung

From change of fortune. Why this spade? this place?
This slavelike habit? and these looks of care?
Thy flatterers yet wear silk, drink wine, lie soft;
Hug their diseas'd perfumes 35, and have forgot
That ever Timon was. Shame not these woods,
By putting on the cunning of a carper 36.

33 So in King Lear:

Dry up in her the organs of encrease.'

34 Thus Milton, b. iii. l. 564 :

Through the pure marble air.'

Again in Othello :

'Now by yon marble heaven.'

35 i. e. their diseased perfumed mistresses. Thus in Othello:'Tis such another fitchew; marry, a perfum'd one.'

36

Cunning of a carper' is the fastidiousness of a critic. Shame not these woods, says Apemantus, by coming here to find fault. Carping momuses was a general term for ill natured critics. Beatrice's sarcastic raillery is thus designated by Ursula in Much Ado About Nothing :

·

Why sure such carping is not commendable.'

Be thou a flatterer now, and seek to thrive
By that which has undone thee: hinge thy knee 37,
And let his very breath, whom thou'❜lt observe,
Blow off thy cap; praise his most vicious strain,
And call it excellent: Thou wast told thus ;
Thou gav'st thine ears, like tapsters, that bid welcome,
To knaves, and all approachers: "Tis most just,
That thou turn rascal; hadst thou wealth again,
Rascals should have't. Do not assume my likeness.
Tim. Were I like thee, I'd throw away myself.
Apem. Thou hast cast away thyself, being like
thyself;

A madman so long, now a fool: What, think'st
That the bleak air, thy boisterous chamberlain,
Will put thy shirt on warm? Will these moss'd trees,
That have outliv'd the eagle 38, page thy heels,

And skip when thou point'st out? Will the cold brook,

Candied with ice, caudle thy morning taste,
To cure thy o'er-night's surfeit? call the creatures,
Whose naked natures live in all the spite

Of wreakful heaven; whose bare unhoused trunks,
To the conflicting elements expos'd,

Answer mere nature 39,-bid them flatter thee;

O! thou shalt find

Tim.

A fool of thee: Depart.

Apem. I love thee better now than e'er I did.
Tim. I hate thee worse.

Thou flatter'st misery.

Apem. I flatter not; but say, thou art a caitiff.

Hamlet.

37 To crook the pregnant hinges of the knee.' 38 Aquila Senectus is a proverb. Tuberville, in his Book of Falconry, 1575, 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.

39

And with presented nakedness outface
The winds.'

King Lear, Act ii. Sc. 3.

Tim. Why dost thou seek me out?

Apem.

To vex thee.

Tim. Always a villain's office, or a fool's. Dost please thyself in't?

Apem.

Tim.

Ay.

What! a knave too?

Apem. If thou didst put this sour cold habit on To castigate thy pride, 'twere well: but thou Dost it enforcedly; thou'dst courtier be again, Wert thou not beggar. Willing misery Outlives incertain pomp, is crown'd before 40: The one is filling still, never complete;

The other, at high wish: Best state, contentless,
Hath a distracted and most wretched being,
Worse than the worst, content.

Thou should'st desire to die, being miserable.
Tim. Not by his breath 41, that is more miserable.
Thou art a slave, whom Fortune's tender arm
With favour never clasp'd; but bred a dog.
Hadst thou, like us, from our first swath +2,
ceeded

, pro

40 To have wishes crowned is to have them completed, to be content. The highest fortunes, if contentless, have a wretched being, worse than that of the most abject fortune accompanied by content.

41 By his breath means by his voice, i. e. his suffrage.

42 i. e. from infancy, from the first swathe-band with which a new born infant is enveloped. There is in this speech a sullen haughtiness and malignant dignity, suitable at once to the lord and the manhater. The impatience with which he bears to have his luxury reproached by one that never had luxury within his reach, is natural and graceful.' JOHNSON. O si sic omnia. In the conception and expression of this note (says Mr. Pye) we trace the mind and the pen of the author; a collection of such notes by Johnson would have been indeed a commentary worthy the critic and the poet. Johnson has adduced a passage somewhat resembling this from a letter written by the unfortunate favourite of Elizabeth, the Earl of Essex, just before his execution. I had none but divines to call upon me, to whom I said, if my ambition could have entered into their narrow hearts, they