The sweet degrees that this brief world affords
To such as may the passive drugs of it 43
Freely command, thou would'st have plung'd thyself
In general riot; melted down thy youth
In different beds of lust; and never learn'd
The icy precepts of respect, but follow'd
The sugar'd game before thee. But myself,
Who had the world as my confectionary;

The mouths, the tongues, the eyes, and hearts of men
At duty, more than I could frame employment 45;
That numberless upon me stuck, as leaves
Do on the oak, have with one winter's brush
Fell from their boughs, and left me open, bare
For every storm that blows 46;-I, to bear this,

would not have been so humble; or if my delights had been once tasted by them, they would not have been so precise.' The rest of this admirable letter is, as Johnson justly observes, too serious and solemn to be inserted here without irreverence.' It was very likely to make a deep impression upon Shakspeare's mind. But indeed no one can read it without emotion. Johnson copied his extract from Birch's Memoirs of Queen Elizabeth, and has erroneously printed deceivers for divines.

43 The old copy reads the passive drugges of it.' Drug, or drugge, is only a variation of the orthography of drudge, as appears by Baret's Alvearie, 'A drivell drudge, or kitchin-slave,' edit. 1573: A drivell drugge, or kitchin-slave,' edit. 1581. Huloet has it' A drudge or drugge, a servant which doth all the vile service.'

44 The cold admonitions of cautious prudence. Respect is regardful consideration :—

Reason and respect

Makes livers pale, and lustihood deject.'

See vol. iii. p. 97, note 16.

Troilus and Cressida.

45 i. e. more than I could frame employment for. 'O summer friendship,

46

Whose flatt'ring leaves that shadow'd us in our
Prosperity, with the least gust drop off

In the autumn of adversity.'

Massinger's Maid of Honour.

Somewhat of the same imagery is found in Shakspeare's seventy

third Sonnet:

That never knew but better, is some burden:

Thy nature did commence in sufferance, time
Hath made thee hard in't. Why should'st thou hate
men?

They never flatter'd thee: What hast thou given?
If thou wilt curse,-thy father, that poor rag,
Must be thy subject: who, in spite, put stuff
To some she beggar, and compounded thee
Poor rogue hereditary. Hence! be gone!—
If thou hadst not been born the worst of men,
Thou hadst been a knave, and flatterer 47.

Were all the wealth I have, shut up in thee,

I'd give thee leave to hang it. Get thee gone.That the whole life of Athens were in this!

Thus would I eat it.

Apem.

[Eating a root.

Here; I will mend thy feast. [Offering him something.

Tim. First mend my company, take away thyself. Apem. So I shall mend mine own, by the lack of thine.

That time of year thou dost in me behold,
When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,
Bare ruin'd choirs in which the poor birds sing.'

47 Dryden has quoted two verses of Virgil to show how well he could have written satires. Shakspeare has here given a specimen of the same power, by a line bitter beyond all bitterness, in which Timon tells Apemantus that he had not virtue enough for the vices which he condemns. Dr. Warburton explains worst by lowest, which somewhat weakens the sense, and yet leaves it sufficiently vigorous.

I have heard Mr. Burke commend the subtlety of discrimination with which Shakspeare distinguishes the present character of Timon from that of Apemantus, whom, to vulgar eyes, he would seem to resemble. JOHNSON.

Tim. 'Tis not well mended so, it is but botch'd; If not, I would it were.

Apem. What would'st thou have to Athens? Tim. Thee thither in a whirlwind. If thou wilt, Tell them there I have gold; look, so I have. Apem. Here is no use for gold.

The best, and truest:

Tim.
For here it sleeps, and does no hired harm.
Apem. Where ly'st o'nights, Timon?

Tim.

Under that's above me.

Where feed'st thou o'days, Apemantus?

Apem. Where my stomach finds meat; or, rather,

where I eat it.

Tim. 'Would poison were obedient, and knew my mind!

Apem. Where would'st thou send it?

Tim. To sauce thy dishes.

Apem. The middle of humanity thou never knewest, but the extremity of both ends: When thou wast in thy gilt, and thy perfume, they mocked thee for too much curiosity 48; in thy rags thou knowest none, but art despised for the contrary. There's a medlar for thee, eat it.

Tim. On what I hate, I feed not. Apem. Dost hate a medlar? Tim. Ay, though it look like thee. Apem. An thou hadst hated medlers sooner, thou should'st have loved thyself better now. What man didst thou ever know unthrift, that was beloved after his means?

Tim. Who, without those means thou talkest of, didst thou ever know beloved?

48 Curiosity is scrupulous exactness, finical niceness. Baret explains it picked diligence, Accuratus corporis cultus. A waiting gentlewoman should flee affection or curiosity,' (i. e. affectation or overniceness.)-Castiglione's Courtier, by Sir Thomas Hobby, 1556. It sometimes means scrupulous anxiety, precision.

Apem. Myself.

Tim. I understand thee; thou hadst some means

to keep a dog.

Apem. What things in the world canst thou nearest compare to thy flatterers?

Tim. Women nearest; but men, men are the things themselves. What would'st thou do with the world, Apemantus, if it lay in thy power?

Apem. Give it the beasts, to be rid of the men. Tim. Would'st thou have thyself fall in the confusion of men, and remain a beast with the beasts? Apem. Ay, Timon.

Tim. A beastly ambition, which the gods grant thee to attain to! If thou wert the lion, the fox would beguile thee: if thou wert the lamb, the fox would eat thee: if thou wert the fox, the lion would suspect thee, when, peradventure, thou wert accused by the ass: if thou wert the ass, thy dulness would torment thee; and still thou livedst but as a breakfast to the wolf: if thou wert the wolf, thy greediness would afflict thee, and oft thou should'st hazard thy life for thy dinner: wert thou the unicorn, pride and wrath would confound thee, and make thine own self the conquest of thy fury 49: wert thou a bear, thou wouldst be kill'd by the horse: wert thou a horse, thou would'st be seized by the leopard: wert thou a leopard, thou wert german to the lion5o, and the spots of thy kindred were jurors on thy life: all thy safety were remotion 51, and thy defence, absence. What beast could'st thou be, that

49 Alluding to the unicorn's being sometimes overcome from striking his horn into a tree in his furious pursuit of an enemy. See Gesner's History of Animals, and Julius Cæsar, Act ii. Sc. 1, note 24.

50 This seems to imply that the lion' bears, like the Turk, no brother near the throne.'

51 Both Steevens and Malone are wrong in their explanation VOL. VIII.

K

were not subject to a beast? and what a beast art thou already, that seest not thy loss in transformation?

Apem. If thou could'st please me with speaking to me, thou might'st have hit upon it here: The commonwealth of Athens is become a forest of beasts.

Tim. How has the ass broke the wall, that thou art out of the city?

Apem. Yonder comes a poet, and a painter: The plague of company light upon thee! I will fear to catch it, and give way: When I know not what else to do, I'll see thee again.

Tim. When there is nothing living but thee, thou shalt be welcome. I had rather be a beggar's dog, than Apemantus.

Apem. Thou art the cap 52 of all the fools alive. Tim. 'Would thou wert clean enough to spit upon. Apem. A plague on thee, thou art too bad to curse. Tim. All villains, that do stand by thee, are pure 53. Apem. There is no leprosy but what thou speak'st. Tim. If I name thee,

I'll beat thee, but I should infect my hands. Apem. I would, my tongue could rot them off! Tim Away, thou issue of a mangy dog! Choler does kill me, that thou art alive;

I swoon to see thee.

Apem.

Tim.

'Would thou would'st burst!

Away,

[Throws a stone at him.

Thou tedious rogue! I am sorry, I shall lose

of remotion here; which is neither removing from place to place,' nor remoteness;' but removing away, removing afar off. Remotio.'

52 i. e. the top, the principal.

53 See Act iii. Sc. 4, note 4.