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; all: I'll once more feast the rascals. Flav. O my lord, You only speak from your distracted soul; 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't; 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. Alc. Honour, health, and compassion to the senate! 1 Sen. Now, captain? Alc. 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 Of comely virtues : Nor did he soil the fact with cowardice; (An honour in him, which buys out his fault,) And with such sober and unnoted passion He did behave his anger, ere 'twas spent, 1 Sen. You undergo too strict a paradox, Striving to make an ugly deed look fair: Your words have took such pains, as if they labour'd Is valour misbegot, and came into the world He's truly valiant, that can wisely suffer The worst that man can breathe; and make his wrongs To bring it into danger. If wrongs be evils, and enforce us kill, What folly 'tis, to hazard life for ill? Alc. My lord, 1 Sen. You cannot make grofs sins look clear; To revenge is no valour, but to bear. Alc. My lords, then, under favour, pardon me, Why do fond men expose themselves to battle, That stay at home, if bearing carry it; And the afs, more captain than the lion; the felon, 1 1 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 gust; But who is man, that is not angry 2 Sen. You breathe in vain. ? At Lacedæmon, and Byzantium, 1 Sen. What's that? Alc. Why, I say, my lords, he has 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? Drowns him, and takes his valour prisoner: Alc. Hard fate! he might have died in war. (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: 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. Alc. Must it be so? it must not be. My lords, I do beseech you, know me. 2 Sen. How? Alc. 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: 1 Sen. Do you dare our anger? 'Tis in few words, but spacious in effect; We banish thee for ever. Alc. 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, He shall be executed presently. [Exeunt Senators. Alc. Now the gods keep you old enough; that you may live |