IIM,,fr-°UTHERN BRANCH
UNIVERSITY OP CALIFORNIA LIBRARY
LOS ANGELES. CALIF.
THE
PLAYS
OF
WILLIAM SHAKSPEARE.
VOLUME THE NINETEENTH.
CONTAINING
TIMON OF ATHENS. OTHELLO.
LONDON:
Printed for J. Nichols and Son ; F. C. and J. Rivington ; J. Stockdale ; W. Lowndes; G. Wilkie and J. Robinson; T. Egerton; J. Walker; Scatcherd and Letterman; W. Clarke and Sons; J. Barker; J. Cuthell; R. Lea; Lackington and Co. ; J. Deig-hton ; J. White and Co. ; B. Crosby and Co. ; W. Earle ; J. Gray and Son ; Longman and Co. ; Cadell and Davies; J. Harding; R. H. Evans; J. Booker; S. Bagster; J.Mawman; Black and Co.; J. Black; J. Richardson; J. Booth; Newman and Co.; R. Pheney; R. Scholey; J. Murray; J. Asperne; J. Faulder; R. Baldwin ; Cradock and Joy ; Sharpe and Hailes ; Johnson and Co. ; Gale and Co. ; G. Robinson ; C. Brown ; and Wilson and Son, York.
3035
1813.
V,
TIMON OF ATHENS.*
VOL. xix. B
* TIMON OF ATHENS.] The story of the Misanthrope is told in almost every collection of the time, and particularly in two books, with which Shakspeare was intimately acquainted; the Palace of Pleasure, and the English Plutarch. Indeed from a passage in an old play, called Jack Drum's Entertainment, I conjecture that he had before made his appearance on the stage.
FARMER.
The passage in Jack Drum's Entertainment, or Pasquil and Katherine, 1601, is this :
" Come, I'll be as sociable as Timon of Athens."
But the allusion is so slight, that it might as well have been borrowed from Plutarch or the novel.
Mr. Strutt the engraver, to whom our antiquaries are under no inconsiderable obligations, has in his possession a MS. play on this subject. It appears to have been written, or transcribed, about the year 1600. There is a scene in it resembling Shak- speare's banquet given by Timon to his flatterers. Instead of tvarm ixater he sets before them stones painted like artichokes, and afterwards beats them out of the room. He then retires to the woods, attended by his faithful steward, who, (like Kent in King Lear) has disguised himself to continue his services to his master. Timon, in the last Act, is followed by his fickle mistress, &c. after he was reported to have discovered a hidden treasure by digging. The piece itself (though it appears to be the work of an academick) is a wretched one. The persons dramatis are as follows :
" The actors names. 44 Timon.
" Laches, his faithful servant. " Eutrapelus, a dissolute young man. " Gelasimus, a cittie heyre. " Pseudocheus, a lying travailer. " Demeas, an orator.
" Philargurus, a covetous churlish ould man. " Hermogenes, a {idler. " Abyssus, a usurer. " Lollio, a cuntrey clowne, Philargurus sonne.
Stilpo, 1 Two lying philosophers.
" bpeusippus, 3 J
" Grunnio, a lean servant of Philargurus. " Obba, Tymon's butler. " Poedio, Gelasimus page. " Two Serjeants. " A sailor.
" Callimela, Philargurus daughter. " Blatte, her prattling nurse.
« SCENE, Athens." STEF.VENS.
Shakspeare undoubtedly formed this play on the passage in Plutarch's Life of Antony relative to Timon, and not on the twenty-eighth novel of the first volume of Painter's Palace of Pleasure; because he is there merely described as " a man- hater, of a strange and beastly nature," without any cause as- signed ; whereas Plutarch furnished our author with the follow- ing hint to work upon : " Antonius forsook the citie, and com- panie of his friendes, — saying, that he would lead Timon's life, because he had the like wrong offered him, that was offered unto Timon; andybr the unthankfulness of those he had done good unto, and whom he tooke to be hisfriendes, he mas angry with all men, and ivould trust no man."
To the manuscript play mentioned by Mr. Steevens, our au- thor, I have no doubt, was also indebted for some other circum- stances. Here he found the faithful steward, the banquet-scene, and the story of Timon's being possessed of great sums of gold which he had dug up in the woods : a circumstance which he could not have had from Lucian, there being then no translation of the dialogue that relates to this subject.
Spon says, there is a building near Athens, yet remaining, called Timon 's Tower.
Timon of Athens was written, I imagine, in the year 1610. See An Attempt to ascertain the Order of Shakspeare s Plays, Vol. II. MALONE.
B 2
PERSONS REPRESENTED.
Timon, a noble Athenian.
Lucius, }
Lucullus, > Lords, and Flatterers of Timon.
Sempronius, j
Ventidius, one of Timon' 's false Friends.
Apemantus, a churlish Philosopher.
Alcibiades, an Athenian General.
Flavius, Steward to Timon.
Flaminius, "J
Lucilius, > Timon's Servants.
Servilius, )
Caphis,
Philotus, Titus,
Servants to Timon's Creditors.
Lucius,
Hortensius,
Two Servants o/"Varro, and the Servant of Isidore;
two qjfTimon's Creditors. Cupid and Maskers. Three Strangers. Poet, Painter, Jeweller, and Merchant. An old Athenian. A Page. A Fool.
Mistresses to Alcibiades.
Other Lords, Senators, Officers, Soldiers, Thieves, and Attendants.
SCENE, Athens ; and the Woods adjoining.
1 Phrynia,~\ (or, as this name should have been written by Shakspeare, Phryne, ) was an Athenian courtezan so exquisitely beautiful, that when her judges were proceeding to condemn her for numerous and enormous offences, a sight of her bosom (which, as we learn from Quintilian, had been artfully denuded by her advocate,) disarmed the court of its severity, and secured her life from the sentence of the law, STEEVEN*.
TIMON OF ATHENS.
ACT I. SCENE I.
Athens. A Hall in Timon's House.
Enter Poet, Painter, Jeweller, Merchant,2 and Others, at several Doors.
POET. Good day, sir.3
PAIN. I am glad you are well.
POET. I have not seen you long ; How goes the world ?
PAIN. It wears, sir, as it grows.
POET. Ay, that's well known :
But what particular rarity ?4 what strange,
8 Jeweller, Merchant,'] In the old copy : Enter &c.
Merchant and Mercer, fyc. STEEVENS.
3 Poet. Good day, sz'r.J It would be less abrupt to begin the play thus :
Poet. Good day.
Pain. Good day, sir : / am glad you re ivell. FARMER.
The present deficiency in the metre also pleads strongly in behalf of the supplemental words proposed by Dr. Farmer.
STEEVENS.
4 But tvhat particular rarity? &c.] I cannot but think that this passage is at present in confusion. The poet asks a question, and stays not for an answer, nor has his question any apparent drift or consequence. I would range the passage thus :
6 TIMON OF ATHENS. ACT i.
Which manifold record not matches ? See, Magick of bounty ! all these spirits thy power Hath conjur'd to attend. I know the merchant.
PAIN. I know them both ; t' other's a jeweller.
MER. O, 'tis a worthy lord !
JEW. Nay, that's most fix'd.
MER. A most incomparable man ; breath'd, as it
were, To an untirable and continuate goodness :5
Poet. Ay, that's well known. But what particular rarity ? what so strange, That manifold record not matches ? Pain. See!
Poet. Magick of bounty ! &c.
It may not be improperly observed here, that as there is only ene copy of this play, no help can be had from collation, and more liberty must be allowed to conjecture. JOHNSON.
Johnson supposes that there is some error in this passage, be- cause the Poet asks a question, and stays not for an answer ; and therefore suggests a new arrangement of it. But there is nothing more common in real life than questions asked in that manner. And with respect to his proposed arrangement, I can by no means approve of it ; for as the Poet and the Painter are going to pay their court to Timon, it would be strange if the latter should point out to the former, as a particular rarity, which manifold record could not match, a merchant and a jeweller, who came there on the same errand. M. MASON.
The Poet is led by what the Painter has said, to ask whether any thing very strange and unparalleled had lately happened, without any expectation that any such had happened ; — and is prevented from waiting for an answer by observing so many con- jured by Timon's bounty to attend. " See, Magick of bounty !" &c. This surely is very natural. MALONE.
5 breath'd, as it were,
To an untirable and continuate goodness :] Breathed is inured by constant practice; so trained as not to be wearied. To breathe, a horse, is to exercise him for the course. JOHNSON. So, in Hamlet :
" It is the breathing time of day with me." STEEVENS.
sc. i. TIMON OF ATHENS. 7
He passes.6 JEW. I have a jewel here.7
MER. O, pray, let's see't : For the lord Timon,
sir?
JEW. If he will touch the estimate:8 But, for that
POET. When we for recompense9 have prats' d the
vile,
It stains the glory in that happy verse Which aptly sings the good.
MER. 'Tis a good form.
[Looking at the Jewel.
JEW. And rich : here is a water, look you.
PAIN. You are rapt, sir, in some work, some de- dication To the great lord.
continuate — ] This word is used by many ancient
English writers. Thus, by Chapman, in his version of the fourth Book of the Odyssey :
" Her handmaids join'd in a continuate yell." Again, in the tenth Book :
" environ'd round
" With one continuate rock : — ." STEEVENS.
6 He passes.] i. e. exceeds, goes beyond common bounds. So, in The Merry Wives of Windsor :
" Why this passes, master Ford." STEEVENS.
7 He passes.
I have a jewel here.~\ The syllable wanting in this line, might be restored by reading —
He passes. — Look, / have a jewel here. STEEVENS.
s touch the estimate:'] Come up to the price.
JOHNSON.
9 When we for recompense &c.] We must here suppose the Poet busy in reading in his own work ; and that these three lines are the introduction of the poem addressed to Timon, which he afterwards gives the Painter an account of. WARBURTON.
8 TIMON OF ATHENS. ACT i.
POET. A thing slipp'd idly from me.
Our poesy is as a gum, which oozes1 From whence 'tis nourished : The fire i'the flint Shows not, till it be struck ; our gentle flame Provokes itself, and, like the current, flies Each bound it chafes.2 What have you there ?
1 , which oozes — ] The folio copy reads — which uses.
The modern editors have given it — which issues. JOHNSON.
Gum and issues were inserted by Mr. Pope ; oozes by Dr. Johnson. MALONE.
The two oldest copies read —
Our poesie is as a gowne which uses. STEEVENS.
* and, like a current, Jlies
Each bound it chafes.] Thus the folio reads, and rightly. In later editions — chases. WARBURTON.
This speech of the Poet is very obscure. He seems to boast the copiousness and facility of his vein, by declaring that verses drop from a poet as gums from odoriferous trees, and that his flame kindles itself without the violence necessary to elicit sparkles from the flint. What follows next ? that it, like a cur- rent, Jlies each bound it chafes. This may mean, that it expands itself notwithstanding all obstructions ; but the images in the comparison are so ill sorted, and the effect so obscurely expressed, that I cannot but think something omitted that connected the last sentence with the former. It is well known that the players often shorten speeches to quicken the representation : and it may be suspected, that they sometimes performed their ampu- tations with more haste than judgment. JOHNSON.
Perhaps the sense is, that having touched on one subject, it Jlies off in quest of 'another. The old copy seems to read —
Each bound it chases.
The letters^/ andy are not always to be distinguished from each other, especially when the types have been much worn, as in the first folio. If chases be the true reading, it is best explained by the " — se sequiturque fagitque — " of the Roman poet. Somewhat similar occurs in The Tempest :
" Do chase the ebbing Neptune, and dojly him
" When he pursues." STEEVENS.
The obscurity of this passage arises merely from the mistake of the editors, who have joined in one, what was intended by
sc. i. TIMON OF ATHENS. 9
PAIN. A picture, sir. — And when comes your book forth?3
POET. Upon the heels* of my presentment,5 sir. Let's see your piece.
PAIN. JTis a good piece.6
Shakspeare as two distinct sentences. — It should be pointed thus, and then the sense will be evident:
our gentle Jlame
Provokes itself, and like the current flies ;
Each bound it chafes.
Our gentle flame animates itself; it flies like a current; and every obstacle serves but to increase its force. M. MASON.
In Julius Ccesar we have —
" The troubled Tiber chafing with her shores, — ." Again, in The Legend of Pierce Gaveston, b}^ Michael Drayton, 1594:
" Like as the ocean, chafing with his bounds, " With raging billowesjfo'es against the rocks, " And to the shore sends forth his hideous sounds," &c.
MALONE.
This jumble of incongruous images, seems to have been de- signed, and put into the mouth of the Poetaster, that the reader might appreciate his talents : his language therefore should not be considered in the abstract. HENLEY.
3 And when comes your book forth f] And was supplied
by Sir T. Hanmer, to perfect the measure. STEEVENS.
4 Upon the heels &c.] As soon as my book has been presented to lord Timon. JOHNSON.
appear to have been all Timons.
" I did determine not to have dedicated my play to any body, because forty shillings I care not for, and above, few or none will bestow on these matters." Preface to A Woman is a Wea- thercock, by N. Field, 1612. STEEVENS.
It should, however, be remembered, that forty shillings at that time were equal to at least six, perhaps eight, pounds at this day. MALONE.
' 'Tis a good piece. ~] As the metre is here defective, it is not improbable that our author originally wrote — ' Tis a good piece, indeed.
10 TIMON OF ATHENS. ACT i.
POET. So 'tis: this comes off well and excellent.7 PAIN. Indifferent.
POET. Admirable : How this grace
Speaks his own standing!8 what a mental power
So, in The Winter's Tale:
" Tis grace indeed" STEEVENS.
7 this comes off well and excellent.'] The meaning is,
the figure rises well from the canvas. C'est lien releve.
JOHNSON.
What is meant by this term of applause I do not exactly know. It occurs again in The Widow, by Ben Jonson, Fletcher, and Middleton :
" It comes o^very fair yet."
Again, in A Trick to catch the Old One, 1608 : " Put a good tale in his ear, so that it comes off cleanly, and there's a horse and man for us. I warrant thee.' Again, in the first part of Marston's Antonio and Mellida :
" Fla. Faith, the song will seem to come o^hardly.
" Catz. Troth, not a whit, if you seem to come ojf quickly." STEEVENS.
s How this grace
Speaks his own standing!] This relates to the attitude of the figure, and means that it stands judiciously on its own cen- tre. And not only so, but that it has a graceful standing like- wise. Of which the poet in Hamlet, speaking of another picture, says :
" A station, like the herald Mercury,
" New-lighted on a heaven-kissing hill."
which lines Milton seems to have had in view, where he says of Raphael :
" At once on th' eastern cliff" of Paradise
" He lights, and to his proper shape returns.
" Like Maia's son he stood." WARBURTON.
This sentence seems to me obscure, and, however explained, not very forcible. This grace speaks his own standing, is only, The gracefulness of this figure show how it stands. I am inclined to think something corrupted. It would be more natural and clear thus :
Hotv this standing
Speaks his own graces !
How this posture displays its own gracefulness. But I will in- dulge conjecture further, and propose to read :
sc.i. TIMON OF ATHENS. 11
This eye shoots forth ! how big imagination Moves in this lip ! to the dumbness of the gesture One might interpret.9
PAIN. It is a pretty mocking of the life. Here is a touch ; Is't good?
POET. I'll say of it,
HOIK this grace
Speaks understanding! what a mental power This eye shoots forth ! JOHNSON.
The passage, to my apprehension at least, speaks its own mean- ing* which is, how the graceful attitude of this figure proclaims that it stands firm on its centre, or gives evidence in favour of its own fixure. Grace is introduced as bearing witness to pro- priety. A similar expression occurs in Cymbeline, Act II. sc. iv :
" never saw I figures
" So likely to report themselves" STEEVENS.
I cannot reconcile myself to Johnson's or Warburton's expla- nations of this passage, which are such as the words cannot pos- sibly imply. I am rather inclined to suppose, that the figure alluded to was a representation of one of the Graces, and, as they are always supposed to be females, should read the passage thus :
How this Grace (with a capital G)
Speaks its own standing !
This slight alteration removes every difficulty, for Steevens's ex-« planation of the latter words is clearly right ; and there is sureljr but little difference between its and his in the trace of th e letters.
This amendment is strongly supported by the pronoun thi s, prefixed to the word Grace, as it proves that what the Po et pointed out was some real object, not merely an abstract idea-
M. MASO.K.
•to the dumbness of the gesture
One might interpret.] The figure, though dumb, seems to have a capacity of speech. The allusion is to the puppet-sho tvs, or motions, as they were termed in our author's time. The per- son who spoke for the puppets was called an interpreter. S ee a note on Hamlet, Act III. sc. v. MA LONE.
Rather — one might venture to supply words to such intelligi- ble action. Such significant gesture ascertains the sentinaents that should accompany it. STEEVENS.
12 TIMON OF ATHENS. ACT i.
It tutors nature : artificial strife1 Lives in these touches, livelier than life.
Enter certain Senators, and pass over.
PAIN. How this lord's followed !
POET. The senators of Athens : — Happy men !2
1 artificial strife — ] Strife for action or motion.
WARBURTON. Strife is either the contest of art with nature :
" Hie ille est Raphael, timuit, quo sospite vinci " Rerum magna parens, & moriente mori." or it is the contrast of forms or opposition of colours. JOHNSON.
So, under the print of Noah Bridges, by Faithorne : " Faithorne, with nature at a noble strife, " Hath paid the author a great share of life." &c.
STEEVENS.
And Ben Jonson, on the head of Shakspeare by Droeshout : " This figure which thou here seest put, " It was for gentle Shakspeare cut : " Wherein the graver had a strife " With nature, to out-doo the life" HENLEY.
That artificial strife means, as Dr. Johnson has explained it, the contest of art with nature, and not the contrast of forms or opposition of colours, may appear from our author's Venus and Adonis, where the same thought is more clearly expressed : " Look, when a painter would surpass the life, " In limning out a well-proportion'd steed, " His art with nature's workmanship at strife, " As if the dead the living should exceed ; " So did this horse excell," &c.
In Dray ton's Mortimeriadox, printed I believe in 1596, (after- wards entitled The Barons' Wars,] there are two lines nearly resembling these :
" Done for the last with such exceeding life,
" As art therein with nature were at strife." MALONE.
9 Happy men!] Mr. Theobald reads — happy man; and
certainly the emendation is sufficiently plausible, though the old reading may well stand. MALONE.
The text is right. The Poet envies or admires the felicity of
sc. i. TIMON OF ATHENS. 13
PAIN. Look, more !
POET. You see this confluence, this great flood
of visitors.3
I have, in this rough work, shap'd out a man, Whom this beneath world4 doth embrace and hug With amplest entertainment : My free drift Halts not particularly,5 but moves itself In a wide sea of wax :6 no levell'd malice7
the senators in being Timon's friends, and familiarly admitted to his table, to partake of his good cheer, and experience the ef- fects of his bounty. RITSON.
3 this confluence, this great flood of visitors."]
Mane salutantum totis vomit cedibus undam. JOHNSON.
4 this beneath world — ] So, in Measure for Measure,
we have — " This under generation ;" and in King Richard II: " — the lower world." STEEVENS.
5 Halts not particularly, ~\ My design does not stop at any single character. JOHNSON.
6 In a wide sea of wax:'] Anciently they wrote upon waxen tables with an iron style. HANMER.
I once thought with Sir T. Hanmer, that this was only an allusion to the Roman practice of writing with a style ou waxen tablets; but it appears that the same custom prevailed in Eng- land about the year 1395, and might have been heard of by Shak- speare. It seems also to be pointed out by implication in many of our old collegiate establishments. See Warton's History of English Poetry, Vol. III. p. 151. STEEVENS.
Mr. Astle observes in his very ingenious work On the Origin and Progress of Writing, quarto, 1784-, that " the practice of writing on table-books covered with wax was not entirely laid aside till the commencement ofthefburteenth century." AsShak- speare, I believe, was not a very profound English antiquary, it is surely improbable that he should have had any knowledge of a practice which had been disused for more than two centuries before he was born. The Roman practice li£ might have learned from Golding's translation of the ninth Book of Ovid's Metamor- phoses :
" Her right hand holds the pen, her left doth hold the emptie waxe," &c. MALONE.
7 no levell'd malice &c.] To level is to aim, to point
14 TIMON OF ATHENS. ACT i.
Infects one comma in the course I hold ; But flies an eagle flight, bold, and forth on. Leaving no tract behind.
PAIN. How shall I understand you ?
POET. I'll unbolt8 to you,
You see how all conditions, how all minds, (As well of glib and slippery creatures,9 as Of grave and austere quality,) tender down Their services to lord Timon : his large fortune, Upon his good and gracious nature hanging, Subdues and properties to his love and tendance All sorts of hearts ; l yea, from the glass-fac'd flat- terer2
To Apemantus, that few things loves better Than to abhor himself: even he drops down The knee before him,3 and returns in peace
the shot at a mark. Shakspeare's meaning is, my poem is not a satire written with any particular view, or levelled at any single person ; I fly like an eagle into the general expanse of life, and leave not, by any private mischief, the trace of my passage.
JOHNSON.
8 Til unbolt — ] I'll open, I'll explain. JOHNSON.
9 glib and slippery creatures,'] Sir T. Hanmer, and Dr.
Warburton after him, read — natures. Slippery is smooth, un- resisting. JOHNSON.
1 Subdues
All sorts o/"hearts;] So, in Othello: " My heart's subdued " Even to the very quality of my lord." STEEVENS.
2 glass-fac'd flatterer — ] That shows in his look, as by
reflection, the looks of his patron. JOHNSON.
3 even he drops down &c.] Either Shakspeare meant to
put a falsehood into the mouth of his Poet, or had not yet tho- roughly planned the character of Apemantus; for in the ensuing scenes, his behaviour is as cynical to Timon as to his followers.
STEEVENS.
The Poet, seeing that Apemantus paid frequent visits to
sc. i. TIMON OF ATHENS. 15
Most rich in Timon's nod. PAIX. I saw them speak together.4
POET. Sir, I have upon a high and pleasant hill, Feign' d Fortune to be thron'd : The base o'the
mount
Is rank'd with all deserts,5 all kind of natures, That labour, on the bosom of this sphere To propagate their states:6 amongst them all, Whose eyes are on this sovereign lady7 fix'd, One do I personate of lord Timon's frame, Whom Fortune with her ivory hand wafts to her ; Whose present grace to present slaves and servants Translates his rivals.
PAIN. JTis conceiv'd to scope.8
This throne, this Fortune, and this hill, methinks, With one man beckon'd from the rest below, Bowing his head against the steepy mount
Timon, naturally concluded that he was equally courteous with his other guests. RITSON.
4 I saiv them speak together.] The word — together, which only serves to interrupt the measure, is, I believe, an interpolation, being occasionally omitted by our author, as unnecessary to sense, on similar occasions. Thus, in Measure for Measure: " — Bring me to hear them speak ;" i. e. to speak together, to converse. Again, in another of our author's plays : " When spoke you last ?" Nor is the same phraseology, at this hour, out of use. STEEVENS.
s rank'd 'with all deserts,^ Cover' d tvith ranks of all
kinds of men. JOHN SON.
6 To propagate their states :~\ To advance or improve their various conditions of life. JOHNSON.
Feign'd Fortune to be thron'd:-
— on this sovereign lady &>c.~\ So, in The Tempest:
" bountiful fortune,
" Now my dear lady" &c. MALONE.
conceived to scope."} Properly imagined, appositely, to
the purpose. JOHNSON.
16 TIMON OF ATHENS. ACT i.
To climb his happiness, would be well express* d In our condition.9
POET. Nay, sir, but hear me on :
All those which were his fellows but of late, (Some better than his value,) on the moment Follow his strides, his lobbies fill with tendance, Rain sacrificial whisperings in his ear,1 Make sacred even his stirrop, and through him Drink the free air.2
9 In our condiPibn.] Condition for art. WARBURTON.
1 Rain sacrificial whisperings in his car,] The sense is obvious, and means, in general, flattering him. The particular kind of flattery may be collected from the circumstance of its being offered up in whispers: which shows it was the calumniating those whom Timon hated or envied, or whose vices were opposite to his own. This offering up, to the person flattered, the mur- dered reputation of others, Shakspeare, with the utmost beauty of thought and expression, calls sacrificial whisperings, alluding to the victims offered up to idols. WARBURTON.
Whisperings attended with such respect and veneration as ac- company sacrifices to the gods. Such, I suppose, is the mean- ing. MALONE.
By sacrificial tahisperingSy I should simply understand whis- perings of officious servility, the incense of the worshipping pa- rasite to the patron as to a god. These whisperings might pro- bably immolate reputations for the most part, but I should not reduce the epithet in question to that notion here. Mr. Gray has excellently expressed in his Elegy these sacrificial offerings to the great from the poetick tribe :
" To heap the shrine of luxury and pride " With incense kindled at the muse's flame."
WAKEFIELD.
9 through him
Drink the free air.'] That is, catch his breath in affected fondness. JOHNSON.
A similar phrase occurs in Ben Jonson's Every Man in his Humour; " By this air, the most divine tobacco I ever drank!" To drink, in both these instances, signifies to inhale.
STEEVENS.
ac. I. TIMON OF ATHENS. 17
PAIN. Ay, marry, what of these ?
POET. When Fortune, in her shift and change
of mood,
Spurns down her late belov'd, all his dependants, Which labour* d after him to the mountain's top, Even on their knees and hands, let him slip down,3 Not one accompanying his declining foot.
PAIN. JTis common : A thousand moral paintings I can show,4 That shall demonstrate these quick blows of for- tune5
Dr. Johnson's explanation appears to me highly unnatural and unsatisfactory. " To drink the air," like the haustus cetherios of Virgil, is merely a poetical phrase for drain the air, or breathe. To " drink the free air," therefore, " through another," is to breathe freely at his will only ; so as to depend on him for the privilege of life : not even to breathe freely without his per- mission. WAKEFIELD.
So, in our author's Venus and Adonis:
" His nostrils drink the air." Again, in The Tempest:
" I drink the air before me." MALONE.
3 let him slip doivn,~\ The old copy reads:
•let him sit down.
The emendation was made by Mr. Rowe. STEEVENS.
* A thousand moral paintings I can shoiv,~] Shakspeare seems to intend in this dialogue to express some competition between the two great arts of imitation. Whatever the poet declares himself to have shown, the painter thinks he could have shown better. JOHNSON.
5 these quick blows of fortune — ] [ Old copy— -fortune's — ]
This was the phraseology of Shakspcare's time, as I have already observed in a note on King John, Vol. X. p. 372, n. 8. The modern editors read, more elegantly, — of fortune. The altera- tion was first made in the second folio, from ignorance of Shak- speare's diction. MALONE.
Though I cannot impute such a correction to the ignorance of he person who made it, I can easily suppose what is here styled he phraseology of Shakspeare, to be only the mistake of a vulgar VOL. XIX. C
18 TIMON OF ATHENS. ACT i.
More pregnantly than words. Yet you do well, To show lord Timon, that mean eyes6 have seen The foot above the head.
Trumpets sound. Enter TIMON, attended; the Ser- vant of VENTIDIUS talking with him.
TIM. Imprisoned is he, say you ?7
VEN. SERV. Ay, my good lord : five talents is his
debt;
His means most short, his creditors most strait : Your honourable letter he desires To those have shut him up ; which failing to him,8 Periods his comfort.9
TIM. Noble Ventidius ! Well ;
transcriber or printer. Had our author been constant in his use of this mode of speech (which is not the case) the propriety of Mr. Malone's remark would have been readily admitted.
STEEVENS.
0 mean eyes — ] i. e. inferior spectators. So, in Wotton's
Letter to Bacon, dated March the last, 1613: "Before their majesties, and almost as many other meaner eyes," &c.
TOLLET.
7 Imprisoned is he, say you ?"] Here we have another inter- polation destructive to the metre. Omitting — is he, we ought to read :
Imprisoned, say you. STEEVENS.
8 ivhich failing to him,] Thus the second folio. The
first omits — to him, and consequently mutilates the verse.
STEEVENS.
9 Periods his comfort. ~\ To period is, perhaps, a verb of Shak- speare's introduction into the English language. I find it, how- ever, used by Heywood, after him, in A Maidenhead well lost, 1634 :
" How easy could I period all my care." • Again, in The Country Girl, by T. B. 161-7 :
" To period our vain-grievings." STEKVEXS.
«r.-/K TIMON OF ATHENS. 19
I aii) net of that feather, to shake off My friend when he must need me.1 I do know him A gentleman, that well deserves a help, : Which he shall have : I'll pay the debt, and free him.
VEN. SERV. Your lordship ever binds him.
TIM. Commend me to him : I will send his ran-
some ;
And, being enfranchised, bid him come to me : — 'Tis not enough to help the feeble up, But to support him after.2 — Fare you well.
VEX. SERV. All happiness to your honour!3
Enter an old Athenian.
OLD ATH. Lord Timon, hear me speak. TIM. Freely, good father.
OLD ATH. Thou hast a servant nam'd Lucilius. TIM. I have so : What of him ?
1 must need me.~] i. e. when he is compelled to have need
of my assistance ; or, as Mr. Malone has more happily explained the phrase, — " cannot but want my assistance.*' STEEVENS.
* 'Tis not enough &c.] This thought is better expressed by Dr. Madden in his Elegy on Archbishop Boulter:
" More than they ask'd he gave ; and deem'd it mean " Only to help the poor — to beg again." JOHNSON.
It has been said that Dr. Johnson was paid ten guineas by Dr. Madden for correcting this poem. STEEVENS.
3 your honour!"] The common address to a lord in our
author's time, was your honour, which was indifferently used with your lordship. See any old letter, or dedication of that age ; and Vol. XIV. p. 390, where a Pursuivant, speaking to Lord Hastings, says, — " I thank your honour.1' STEEVENS.
C 2
20 TIMON OF ATHENS. ACT t.
OLD ATH. Most noble Timon, call the man be- fore thee.
TIM. Attends he here, or no ? — Lucilius ! Enter LUCILIUS.
Luc. Here, at your lordship's service.
OLD ATH. This fellow here, lord Timon, this
thy creature,
By night frequents my house. I am a man That from my first have been inclin'd to thrift ; And my estate deserves an heir more rais'd, Than one which holds^a trencher.
TIM. Well ; what further ?
OLD ATH. One only daughter have I, no kin else, On whom I may confer what I have got : The maid is fair, o'the youngest for a bride, And I have bred her at my dearest cost, In qualities of the best. This man of thine Attempts her love : I pr'ythee, noble lord, Join with me to forbid him her resort ; Myself have spoke in vain.
TIM. The man is honest.
OLD ATH. Therefore he will be, Timon :4
4 Therefore he will be, Timon :~\ The thought is closely ex- pressed, and obscure : but this seems the meaning : " If the man be honest, my lord, for that reason he will be so in this ; and not endeavour at the injustice of gaining my daughter without my consent." WARBU-RTON.
I rather think an emendation necessary, and read : Therefore well be him, Timon: His honesty rewards him in itself.
That is, " If he is honest, benc sit illi, I wish him the proper happiness of an honest man, but his honesty gives him no claim to my daughter." The first transcriber probably wrote— will be
sc. I. TIMON OF ATHENS. 21
His honesty rewards him in itself, It must not bear my daughter.5
TIM. Does she love him ?
OLD ATH. She is young, and apt : Our own precedent passions do instruct us What levity's in youth.
TIM. [To LuciLius.J Love you the maid? Luc. Ay, my good lord, and she accepts of it.
OLD ATH. If in her marriage my consent be
missing, I call the gods to witness, I will choose
with him, which the next, not understanding, changed to, — he will be. JOHNSON.
I think Dr. Warburton's explanation is best, because it exacts no change. So, in King Henry VIII:
" May he continue
" Long in his highness' favour ; and do justice " For truth's sake and his conscience"
Again, more appositely, in Cymbeline:
" This hath been
" Your faithful servant : I dare lay mine honour
" He will remain so" STEEVENS.
Therefore he will be, Timon :] Therefore he will continue to be so, and is sure of being sufficiently rewarded by the conscious- ness of virtue ; and he does not need the additional blessing of a beautiful and accomplished wife.
It has been objected, I forget by whom, if the old Athenian means to say that Lucilius will still continue to be virtuous, what occasion has he to apply to Timon to interfere relative to this marriage ? But this is making Shakspeare write by the card. The words mean undoubtedly, that he will be honest in his general conduct through life ; in every other action except that now complained of. MALONE.
5 bear my daughter, ,1 A similar expression occurs in
Othello:
" What a full fortune does the thick-lips owe, " If he can carry her thus!" STEEVENS,
M TIMON OF ATHENS. ACT i.
Mine heir from forth the beggars of the world, And dispossess her all.
TIM. How shall she be endow'd,
If she be mated with an equal husband ?6
OLD ATH. Three talents, on the present; in fu- ture, all.
TIM. This gentleman of mine hath seiVd me
long;
To build his fortunej I will strain a little, For 'tis a bond in men. Give him thy daughter : What you bestow, in him I'll counterpoise, And make him weigh with her.
OLD ATH. Most noble lord,
Pawn me to this your honour, she is his.
TIM. My hand to thee ; mine honour on my promise.
Luc. Humbly I thank your lordship : Never may That state or fortune fall into my keeping* Which is not ow'd to you !7
\TLxeunt LUCILIUS and old Athenian.
6 And dispossess her all.
Tim. Hoiv shall she be endoivd,
If she be mated luith an equal husband ?~\ The players, those avowed enemies to even a common ellipsis, have here again disordered the metre by interpolation. Will a single idea of our author's have been lost, if, omitting the useless and repeated words — she be, we should regulate the passage thus :
Ho"w shall she be Endo'vad, if mated ivith an equal husband f
STEEVENS.
• Never may
ij
That state or fortune Jail into my keeping,
Which is not ow'd to you /] The meaning is, let me never henceforth consider any thing that I possess, but as owed or due to you ; held for your service, and at your disposal. JOHNSON.
So Lady Macbeth says to Duncan :
so. i. TIMON OF ATHENS. 23
POET. Vouchsafe my labour, and long live your lordship !
TIM. I thank you; you shall hear from me anon : Go not away. — What have you there, my friend ?
PAIN. A piece of painting, which I do beseech Your lordship to accept.
TIM. Painting is welcome.
The painting is almost the natural man ; For since dishonour trafficks with man's nature, He is but outside : These pencil' d figures are Even sucli as they give out.8 I like your work j And you shall find, I like it : wait attendance Till you hear further from me.
PAIN. The gods preserve you !
TIM. Well fare you, gentlemen : Give me your
hand ;
We must needs dine together. — Sir, your jewel Hath suffer* d under praise.
JEW. What, my lord ? dispraise ?
TIM. A meer satiety of commendations. If I should pay you for't as 'tis extoll'd, It would unclew me quite.9
" Your servants ever
" Have theirs, themselves, and what is theirs, in compt, " To make their audit at your highness' pleasure, " Still to return your mv«." MALONE.
pencil'd figures are
Even such as they give out.] Pictures have no hypocrisy ; they are what they profess to be. JOHNSON.
9 unclew me quite."] To unclew is to unwind a ball of
thread. To unclew a man, is to draw out the whole mass of his fortunes. JOHNSON.
So, in The Two Gentlemen of Verona:
24 TIMON OF ATHENS. ACT i.
JEW. . My lord, 'tis rated
As those, which sell, would give : But you well
know,
Things of like value, differing in the owners, Are prized by their masters : ' believe't, dear lord, You mend the jewel by wearing it.2
TIM. Well mock'd.
MER. No, my good lord ; he speaks the common
tongue, Which all men speak with him.
TIM. Look, who comes here. Will you be chid ?
Enter APEMANTUS.S
JEW. We will bear, with your lordship.
MER. He'll spare none,
TIM. Good morrow to thee, gentle Apemantus !
APEM. Till I be gentle, stay for4 thy good mor- row ;
" Therefore as you unwind her love from him, — " You must provide to bottom it on me." See Vol. IV. p. 259, n. 8. STEEVENS.
1 Are prized by their master K:~] Are rated according to the esteem in which their possessor is held. JOHNSON.
* by wearing it.^\ Old copy — by the wearing it.
STEEVENS.
3 Enter Apemantus.] See this character of a cynick finely drawn by Lucian, in his Auction of the Philosophers; and how well Shakspeare has copied it. WARBURTON.
4 stay for — ] Old copy — stay t\\o\\for — With Sir
T. Hanmer I have omitted the useless thou, (which the compo- sitor's eye might have caught from the following line, ) because it disorders the metre. STEEVENS.
sc. i. TIMON OF ATHENS. 25
When thou art Timon's dog,5 and these knaves honest.
TIM. Why dost thou call them knaves? thou know'st them not.
APEM. Are they not Athenians?6 TIM. Yes.
APEM. Then I repent not. JEW. You know me, Apemantus.
APEM. Thou knowest, I do ; I call'd thee by thy name.
TIM. Thou art proud, Apemantus.
APEM. Of nothing so much, as that I am not like Timon.
5 When thou art Timon's dog,~] When thou hast gotten a better character, and instead of being Timon as thou art, shalt be changed to Timon's dog, and become more worthy kindness and salutation. JOHNSON.
This is spoken SSIKTIKUJC, as Mr. Upton says, somewhere: — striking his hand on his breast.
" Wot you who named me first the kinge's dogge?" says Aristippus in Damon and Pythias. FARMER.
Apemantus, I think, means to say, that Timon is not to re- ceive a gentle good morrow from him till that shall happen which never will happen; till Timon is transformed to tlje shape of his dog, and his knavish followers become honest men. Stay for thy good morrow, says he, till I be gentle, which will happen at the same time when thou art Timon's dog, &c. i. e. never.
MALONE.
Mr. Malone has justly explained the drift of Apemantus. Such another reply occurs in Troilus and Cressida, where Ulysses, desirous to avoid a kiss from Cressida, says to her; give me one — " When Helen is a maid again," &c. STEEVENS.
6 Are they not Athenians?'] The very imperfect state in which the ancient copy of this play has reached us, leaves a doubt whe- ther several short speeches in the present scene were designed for verse or prose. I have therefore made no attempt at regu- lation. STEEVENS.
26 TIMON OF ATHENS. AC? i.
TlM. Whither art going ?
APEM. To knock out an honest Athenian's brains.
TIM. That's a deed thou'lt die for.
APEM. Right, if doing nothing be death by the law.
TIM. How likest thou this picture, Apemantus?
APEM. The best, for the innocence.
TIM. Wrought he not well, that painted it ?
APEM. He wrought better, that made thepainterj and yet he's but a filthy piece of work.
PAIN. You are a dog.7
APEM. Thy mother's of my generation : What's she, if I be a dog ?
TIM. Wilt dine with me, Apemantus ?
APEM. No ; I eat not lords.
TIM. An thou should' st, thou'dst anger ladies.
APEM. O, they eat lords ; so they come by great bellies.
TIM. That's a lascivious apprehension.
APEM. So thou apprehend'st it : Take it for thy labour.
TIM. How dost thou like this jewel, Apemantus?
APEM. Not so well as plain-dealing,8 which will not cost a man a doit-.
TIM. What dost thou think 'tis worth ?
7 Pain. You are a dog.~] This speech, which is given to the Painter in the old editions, in the modern ones must have been transferred to the Poet by mistake : it evidently belongs to the former. RITSON.
8 Not so tvell as plain-dealing,'] Alluding to the proverb: " Plain dealing is ajetvel, but they that use it die beggars."
STEEVENS.
sc. i. TIMON OF ATHENS. 27
APEM. Not worth my thinking. — How now, poet?
POET. How now, philosopher ?
APEM. Thou liest.
POET. Art not one ?
APEM. Yes.
POET. Then I lie not.
APEM. Art not a poet ?
POET. Yes.
APEM. Then thou liest : look in thy last work, where thou hast feign'd him a worthy fellow.
POET. That's not feign'd, he is so.
APEM. Yes, he is worthy of thee, and to pay thee for thy labour : He, that loves to be flattered, is worthy o'the flatterer. Heavens, that I were a lord!
TIM. What would'st do then, Apemantus ?
APEM. Even as Apemantus does now, hate a lord with my heart.
TIM. What, thyself? APEM. Ay. TIM. Wherefore ?
APEM. That I had no angry wit to be a lord.-' — Art not thou a merchant ?
9 That I had no angry uit to be a lord.~] This reading is ab- surd, and unintelligible. But, as I have restored the text :
That I had so hungry a wit to be a lord,
it is satirical enough of conscience, viz. I would hate myself, for having no more wit than to covet so insignificant a title. In the same sense, Shakspeare uses lean-fitted in his King Richard If: " And thou a lunatick, lean-witted fool."
WARBURTON.
The meaning may be, — I should hate myself for patiently en-
28 TIMON OF ATHENS. ACTI.
MER. Ay, Apemantus.
APEM. Traffick confound thee, if the gods will not!
MER. If traffick do it, the gods do it.
APEM. Traffick's thy god, and thy god confound thee !
during to be a lord. This is ill enough expressed. Perhaps some happy change may set it right. I have tried, and can do nothing, yet I cannot heartily concur with Dr. Warburton.
JOHNSON. Mr. Heath reads :
That I had so wrong'd my ivit to be a lord. But the passage before us, is, in my opinion, irremediably cor- rupted. STEEVENS.
Perhaps the compositor has transposed the words, and they should be read thus :
Angry that I had no tuit, — to be a lord. Or,
Angry to lie a lord, — that I had no ivit. BLACKSTONE.
Perhaps we should read :
That I had an angry wish to be a lord;
Meaning, that he would hate himself for having wished in his anger to become a lord. — For it is in anger that he says : " Heavens, that I were a lord !" M. MASON.
I believe Shakspeare was thinking of the common expression — he has wit in his anger; and that the difficulty arises here, as in many other places, from the original editor's paying no atten- tion to abrupt sentences. Our author, I suppose, wrote : That I had no angry ivit. — To be a lord! Art thou, £c.
Apemantus is asked, why after having wished to be a lord, he should hate himself. He replies, — For this reason ; that I had no ivit [or discretion] in my anger, but was absurd enough to wish myself one of that set of men, whom I despise. He then exclaims with indignation — To be a lord! — Such is my conjec- ture, in which however I have not so much confidence as to de- part from the mode in which this passage has been hitherto ex- hibited. MALONE.
sc. i. TIMON OF ATHENS. 29
Trumpets sound. Enter a Servant.
TIM. What trumpet's that ?
SERF. 'Tis Alcibiades, and
Some twenty horse, all of companionship.1
TIM. Pray, entertain them ; give them guide to
us. — \_Exeunt some Attendants.
You must needs dine with me : — Go not you hence,
Till I have thank'd you ; and, when dinner's done,2
Show me this piece. — I am joyful of your sights. —
Enter ALCIBIADES, with his Company*
Most welcome, sir ! {They salute.
APEM. So, so ; there ! —
Aches contract and starve your supple joints ! — That there should be small love 'mongst these
sweet knaves,
And all this court'sy ! The strain of man's bred out Into baboon and monkey.3
ALCIB. Sir, you have sav'd my longing, and I feed Most hungrily on your sight.
TIM. Right welcome, sir :
1 all of 'companionship. ,] This expression does not mean
barely that they all belong to one company, but that they are all such as Alcibiades honours with his acquaintance, and sets on a level tvith himself. STEEVENS.
* and, tvhen dinner's done,~\ And, which is wanting in
the first folio, is supplied by the second. STEEVENS.
The strain of man's bred out
Into baboon and monkey.'] Man is exhausted and degenerated j his strain or lineage is worn down into a monkey. JOHNSON.
30 TIMON OF ATHENS. ACTI.
Ere we depart,4 we'll share a bounteous time In different pleasures. Pray you, let us in.
\_Exeunt all but APEMANTUS.
Enter Two Lords.
1 LORD. What time a day is't, Apemantus ? APEM. Time to be honest.
1 LORD. That time serves still.
APEM. The most accursed thou,5 that still omit'st it.
2 LORD. Thou art going to lord Timon's feast.
APEM,: Ay ; to see meat fill knaves, and wine heat fools.
2 LORD. Fare thee well, fare thee well. APEM. Thou art a fool, to bid me farewell twice. 2 LORD. Why, Apemantus ?
APEM. Shouldst have kept one to thyself, for I mean to give thee none.
4 Ere lue depart,] Who depart? Though Alcibiades was to leave Timon, Timon was not to depart. Common sense favours my emendation. THEOBALD.
Mr. Theobald proposes — do part. Common sense may favour it, but an acquaintance with the language of Shakspeare would not have been quite so propitious to his emendation. Depart and part have the same meaning. So, in King John :
" Hath willingly departed with a part."
i. e. hath willingly parted with a part of the thing in question. See Vol. X. p. 407, n. 5. STEEVENS.
* The most accursed thou,"] Read :
The more accursed thou, . RITSON.
So, in The Two Gentlemen of Verona :
** The more degenerate and base art thou—."
STEEVENS.
sc. r. TIMON OF ATHENS. Si
1 LORD. Hang thyself.
APEM. No, I will do nothing at thy bidding ; make thy requests to thy friend.
2 LORD. Away, unpeaceable dog, or I'll spurn thee hence.
APEM. I will fly, like a dog, the heels of the ass.
[Exit.
1 LORD. He's opposite to humanity. Come, shall
we in,
And taste lord Timon's bounty ? he outgoes The very heart of kindness.
2 LORD. He pours it out ; Plutus, the god of
gold,
Is but his steward : no meed,6 but he repays Sevenfold above itself; no gift to him, But breeds the giver a return exceeding All use of quittance.7
1 LORD. The noblest mind he carries, That ever governed, man.
2 LORD. Long may he live in fortunes ! Shall we
in?
l LORD. I'll keep you company. [Exeunt*
6 no meed,] Meed, which in general signifies reward or
recompense, in this place seems to mean desert. So, in Hey- wood's Silver Age, 1613 :
" And yet thy body meeds a better grave." i. e. deserves. Again, in a comedy called Look about you, 1600:
" Thou shalt be rich in honour, full of speed ;
" Thou shalt win foes by fear, and friends by meed" See Vol. XIV. p. 49, n. 6. STEEVENS.
7 All use of quittance.^ i. e. all the customary returns made in discharge of obligations. WARBURTON.
32 TIMON OF ATHENS. ACT I.
SCENE II.
The same. A Room of State in Timon's House.
Hautboys playing loud Mustek. A great Banquet served in; FLAVIUS and others attending; then enter TIMON, ALCIBIADES, Lucius, LUCULLUS, SEMPRONIUS, and other Athenian Senators, with VENTIDIUS, and Attendants. Then comes, dropping after all, APEMANTUS, discontentedly*
VEN. Most honoured Timon, Jt hath pleased the
gods remember9
My father's age, and call him to long peace. He is gone happy, and has left me rich : Then, as in grateful virtue I am bound To your free heart, I do return those talents, Doubled, with thanks, and service, from whose help I deriv'd liberty.
TIM. O, by no means,
Honest Ventidius : you mistake my love ; I gave it freely ever ; and there's none
8 discontentedly, .] The ancient stage-direction adds — like
/himself. STEEVENS.
9 Most honoured Timon, 't hath pleas'd the gods remember — ] The old copy reads — to remember. But I have omitted, for the sake of metre, and in conformity to our author's practice on other occasions, the adverb — to. Thus, in Kino- Henry VIII. Act IV. sc. ii. Vol. XV. p. 166:
" Patience, is that letter
" I caus'd you write, yet sent away ?"
Every one must be aware that the particle — to was purposely left out, before the verb — write. STEEVENS.
ac. n. TIMON OF ATHENS. S3
Can truly say, he gives, if he receives :
If our betters play at that game, we must not dare
To imitate them ; Faults that are rich, are fair.1
1 If our letters play at that game, ive must not dare
To imitate them; Faults that are rich, are fair. ~\ These two lines are absurdly given to Timon. They should be read thus:
Tim. If our letters play at that game, tve must not.
Apem. Dare to imitate them. Faults that are rich are
fair.
This is said satirically, and in character. It was a sober reflection in Timon ; who by our letters meant the gods, which require to be repaid for benefits received ; but it would be impiety in men to expect the same observance for the trifling good they do. Apemantus, agreeably to his character, perverts this sentiment; as if Timon had spoke of earthly grandeur and potentates, who expect largest returns for their favours ; and therefore, ironically replies as above. WARBURTON.
I cannot see that these lines are more proper in any other mouth than Timon's, to whose character of generosity and con- descension they are very suitable. To suppose that by our letters are meant the gods, is very harsh, because to imitate the gods has been hitherto reckoned the highest pitch of human virtue. The whole is a trite and obvious thought, uttered by Timon with a kind of affected modesty. If I would make any alteration, it should be only to reform the numbers thus :
Our letters play that game ; we must not dare T' imitate them: faults that are rich are fair.
JOHNSON.
The faults of rich persons, and which contribute to the in- crease of riches, wear a plausible appearance, and as the world goes are thought fair ; but they are faults notwithstanding.
HEATH.
Dr. Warburton with his usual love of innovation, transfers the last word of the first of these lines, and the whole of the second to Apemantus. Mr. Heath has justly observed that this cannot have been Shakspeare's intention, for thus Apemantus would be made to address Timon personally, who must therefore have seen and heard him ; whereas it appears from a subsequent speech that Timon had not yet taken notice of him, as he salutes him with some surprize —
" O, Apemantus ! — you are welcome." VOL. XIX. D
34 TIMON OF ATHENS. ACT i.
FEN. A noble spirit.
[They all stand ceremoniously looking on TIMON.
TIM. Nay, my lords, ceremony
Was but devis'd at first, to set a gloss On faint deeds, hollow welcomes, Recanting goodness, sorry ere 'tis shown ; But where there is true friendship, there needs none. Pray, sit ; more welcome are ye to my fortunes, Than my fortunes to me. [ They sit.
1 LORD. My lord, we always have confess'd it.
APEM. Ho, ho, confess'd it ? hang'd it, have you not?2
TIM. O, Apemantus ! — you are welcome.
APEM. No,
You shall not make me welcome : I come to have thee thrust me out of doors.
TIM. Fye, thou art a churl ; you have got a
humour there
Does not become a man, 'tis much to blame : — They say, my lords, that3 ira furor brevis est,
The term — our betters, being used by the inferior classes of men when they speak of their superiors in the state, Shakspeare uses these words, with his usual laxity, to express persons of high rank and fortune. MALONE.
. So, in King Lear, Act III. sc. vi. Edgar says, (referring to- the distracted king) :
" When we our betters see bearing our woes,
" We scarcely think our miseries our foes." STEEVENS.
* confess? d it ? hang'd it, have you not ?~] There seems
to be some allusion here to a common proverbial saying of Shak- speare's time : " Confess and be hang'd." See Othello, Act IV. sc. i. MALONE.
3 They say, my lords, that — ] That was inserted by Sir T. Hanmer, for the sake of metre. STEEVENS.
sc. it. TIMON OF ATHENS. 35
But yond' man's ever angry.4 Go, let him have a table by himself; For he does neither affect company, Nor is he fit for it, indeed.
APEM. Let me stay at thine own peril,5 Timon j I come to observe ; I give thee warning on't.
TIM. I take no heed of thee ; thou art an Athe- nian ; therefore welcome : I myself would have no power:6 pr'ythee, let my meat make thee silent.
4 But yond' man's ever angry."] The old copy has — very angry; which can hardly be right. The emendation now adopted was made by Mr. Rowe. MALONE.
Perhaps we should read — But yon man's very anger; i. e. anger itself, which always maintains its violence. STEEVENS.
5 at thine own peril,] The old copy reads — at thine
apperil. I have not been able to find such a word in any Dic- tionary, nor is it reconcileable to etymology. I have therefore adopted an emendation made by Mr. Steevens. MALONE.
Apperil, the reading of the old editions, may be right, though no other instance of it has been, or possibly can be produced. It is, however, in actual use in the metropolis, at this day.
RITSON.
6 / myself would have no power:] If this be the true
reading, the sense is, — all Athenians are "welcome to share my
fortune : I would myself have no exclusive right or power in this house. Perhaps we might read, — / myself would have no poor. I would have every Athenian consider himself as joint possessor of my fortune. JOHNSON.
I understand Timon's meaning to be : / myself would have no power to make thee silent, but I wish thou would'st let my meat make thee silent. Timon, like a polite landlord, disclaims all power over the meanest or most troublesome of his guests.
TYRWHITT.
These words refer to what follows, not to that which precedes. / claim no extraordinary power in right of my being master of the house : I wish not by my commands to impose silence on any one: but though I myself do not enjoin you to silence, let my meat stop your mouth. MALONE.
D 2
36 TIMON OF ATHENS. ACT I.
*. I scorn thy meat ; 'twould choke me, for
I should
Ne'er flatter thee.7 — O you gods ! what a number Of men eat Timon, and he sees them not ! It grieves me, to see so many dip their meat In one man's blood ;8 and all the madness is, He cheers them up too.
I wonder, men dare trust themselves with men : Methinks, they should invite them without knives ;9 Good for their meat, and safer for their lives. There's much example for't ; the fellow, that Sits next him now, partsbread with him, and pledges The breath of him in undivided draught, Is the readiest man to kill him : it has been prov'd. If I
Were a huge man, I should fear to drink at meals ; Lest they should spy my windpipe's dangerous
notes r1 Great men should drink with harness2 on their
throats.
7 / scorn ihy meat ; 'twould choke me, for / should
Ne'er fatter thee."] The meaning is, — I could not swallow thy meat, tor I could not pay for it with flattery ; and what was given me with an ill will would stick in my throat. JOHNSON.
For has here perhaps the signification of because. So, in Othello :
" - Haply, for I am black." MALONE.
• 50 many dip their meat
In one man's blood;"] The allusion is to a pack of hounds trained to pursuit by being gratified with the blood of an animal which they kill, and the wonder is that the animal on which they are feeding cheers them to the chase. JOHNSON.
9 Methinks, they should invite them without knives ;"] It was the custom in our author's time for every guest to bring his own knife, which he occasionally whetted on a stone that hung be- hind the door. One of these whetstones may be seen in Parkin- son's Museum. They were strangers, at that period, to the use KIT SON.
"windpipe's dangerous notes :] The notes of the wind-
sc. ii. TIMON OF ATHENS. 37
TIM. My lord, in heart ;3 and let the health go
round.
2 LORD. Let it flow this way, my good lord. APEM. Flow this way !
A brave fellow ! — he keeps his tides well. Timon, Those healths4 will make thee, and thy state, look ill.
pipe seem to be only the indications which show where the windpipe is. JOHNSON.
Shakspeare is very fond of making use of musical terms, when he is speaking of the human body, and windpipe and notes savour strongly of a quibble. STEEVENS.
- ivith harness — ] i.e. armour. See Vol. X. p. C25±,
n. 6. STEEVENS.
3 My lord, in heart;'] That is, my lord's health with sincerity, An emendation has been proposed thus :
My love in heart ;
but it is not necessary. JOHNSON.
So, in Chaucer's Knightes Tale, 2685 :
" And was all his in chere, as his in herte." Again, in Sir Amyas Poulet's letter to Sir Francis Walsingham, refusing to have any hand in the assassination of Mary Queen
of Scots : " he [Sir Drue Drury] forbeareth to make any
particular answer, but subscribeth in heart to my opinion." Again, in King Henry IV. Part I. Act IV. sc. i :
" in heart desiring still
" You may behold," &c. Again, in Loves Labour s Lost, Act V. sc. ii :
" Dost thou not wish in heart,
" The chain were longer, and the letter short?"
STEEVENS. Timon,
Those healths — ~] This speech, except the concluding cou- plet, is printed as prose in the old copy; nor could it be exhibited as verse but by transferring the word Timon, which follows — look ill, to its present place. The transposition was made by Mr. Capell. The word might have been an interlineation, and so have been misplaced. Yet, after all, I suspect many of the speeches in this play, which the modern editors have exhibited in a loose kind of metre, were intended by the author as prose ; in which form they appear in the old copy. MALONE.
S8 TIMON OF ATHENS. ACT i.
Here's that, which is too weak to be a sinner, Honest water, which ne'er left man i'the mire : This, and my food, are equals ; there's no odds. Feasts are too proud to give thanks to the gods.
APEMANTUS'S GRACE.
Immortal gods, I crave no pelf; I pray for no man, but myself: Grant I may never prove so fond, To trust man on his oath or bond; Or a harlot, for her weeping; Or a dog, that seems a sleeping ; Or a keeper with my freedom; Or my friends, if I should need 'em. Amen. So fall to't: Rich men sinf and I eat root.
\_Eats and drinks. Much good dich thy good heart, Apemantus !
TIM. Captain Alcibiades, your heart's in the field now.
ALCIB. My heart is ever at your service, my lord.
TIM. You had rather be at a breakfast of ene- mies, than a dinner of friends.
ALCIB. So they were bleeding-new, my lord, there's no meat like them j I could wish my best friend at such a feast.
APEM. 'Would all those flatterers were thine enemies then ; that then thou might'st kill 'em, and bid me to 'em.
1 LORD. Might we but have that happiness, my lord, that you would once use our hearts, whereby
* Rich men sin,] Dr. Farmer proposes to read— sing. REED.
sc. if. TIMON OF ATHENS. 39
we might express some part of our zeals, we should think ourselves for ever perfect.6
TIM. O, no doubt, my good friends, but the gods themselves have provided that I shall have much help from you : How had you been my friends else ? why have you that charitable title from thou- sands, did you not chiefly belong to my heart ?7 I have told more of you to myself, than you can with modesty speak in your own behalf; and thus far I confirm you.8 O, you gods, think I, what need we have any friends, if we should never have need of them ? they were the most needless creatures living, should we ne'er have use for them : and9 would most resemble sweet instruments hung up in cases, that keep their sounds to themselves. Why,
-for ever perfect."] That is, arrived at the perfection
of happiness. JOHNSON.
So, in Macbeth:
" Then comes my fit again ; I had else been perfect; — "
STEEVENS.
7 Hoiv had you been my friends else ? 'why have you that cha- ritable title from thousands, did you not chiefly belong to my heart ?] Charitable signifies, dear, endearing. So, Milton :
" Relations dear, and all the charities
" Of father, son, and brother ."
Alms, in English, are called charities, and from thence we may collect that our ancestors knew well in what the virtue of alms- giving consisted ; not in the act, but in the disposition.
WARBURTON.
The meaning is probably this : — Why are you distinguished from thousands by that title of endearment, was there not a par- ticular connection and intercourse of tenderness between you and me ? JOHNSON.
8 1 confirm you.~] I fix your characters firmly in my
own mind. JOHNSON.
9 they were the moat needless creatures living, should tee
ne'er have use for them: and — ] This passage I have restored from the old copy. STEEVENS.
40 T1MON OF ATHENS. ACT i.
I have often wished myself poorer, that I might come nearer to you. We are born to do benefits : and what better or properer can we call our own, than the riches of our friends ? O, what a precious comfort 'tis, to have so many, like brothers, com- manding one another's fortunes ! O joy, e'en made away ere it can be born ! l Mine eyes cannot hold out water, methinks:2 to forget their faults, I drink to you.
APEM. Thou weepest to make them drink,3 Ti- mon.
2 LORD. Joy had the like conception in our eyes, And, at that instant, like a babe4 sprung up.
1 O joy, een made away ere it can be born!~\ Tears being the effect both of joy and grief, supplied our author with an oppor- tunity of conceit, which he seldom fails to indulge. Timon, weeping with a kind of tender pleasure, cries out, 0 joy, e'en made away, destroyed, turned to tears, before it can be born, before it can be fully possessed. JOHNSON.
So, in Romeo and Juliet:
" These violent delights have violent ends, " And in their triumphs die." The old copy has — -joys. It was corrected by Mr. Rowe.
MALONE.
2 Mine eyes cannot hold out water, methinks .•] In the original edition the words stand thus : Mine eyes cannot hold out water, methinks. To forget their faults, I drink to you. Perhaps the true reading is this: Mine eyes cannot hold out; they water. Methinks, to forget their faults, I will drink to you. Or it may be explained without any change. Mine eyes cannot hold out water, that is, cannot keep water from breaking in upon them.
JOHNSON.
3 to make them drink,'] Sir T. Hanmer reads — to make
them drink tlice ; and is followed by Dr. Warburton, I think, without sufficient reason. The covert sense of Apemantus is, ivJiat ihoii lusest, they get. JOHNSON.
4 like a bale — J That is, a weeping babe.. JOHNSON.
I question if Shakspeare meant the propriety of allusion to be carried quite so far. To look for babies in the eyes of another,
K. ii. TIMON OF ATHENS. 41
APEM. Ho, ho ! I laugh to think that babe a bastard.
3 LORD. I promise you, my lord, you mov'd me much.
APEM. Much!5 [Tucket sounded.
TIM. What means that trump ? — How now ?
Enter a Servant.
SERV. Please you, my lord, there are certain ladies most desirous of admittance.
is no uncommon expression. Thus, among the anonymous pieces in Lord Surrey's Poems, 1557:
" In eche of her two cristall eyes
" Smileth a naked boye." Again, in Love's Mistress, by Heywood, 1636 :
" Joy'd in his looks, look'd babies in his eyes." Again, in The Christian turn'd Turk, 1612: " She makes him sing songs to her, looks fortunes in his fists, and babies in his eyes."
Again, in Churchyard's Tragicatt Discours of a dolorous Gen~ tleivoman, 1593:
" Men will not lookefor babes in hollow eyen."
STEEVENS.
Does not Lucullus dwell on Timon's metaphor by referring to circumstances preceding the birth, and means joy was con- ceived in their eyes, and sprung up there, like the motion of a babe in the womb ? TOLLET.
The word conception, in the preceding line, shows, I think, that Mr. Toilet's interpretation of this passage is the true one. We have a similar imagery in Troilus and Cressida :
" and, almost like the gods,
" Does thoughts unveil in their dumb cradles."
MALONE.
5 Much!'] Apcmantus means to say, — That's extraordinary. Much was formerly an expression of admiration. See Vol. VIII. p. 150, n. 8. MALONE.
Much ! is frequently used, as here, ironically, and with some, indication of contempt. STEEVENS.
42 TIMON OF ATHENS. ACT i.
TIM. Ladies ? What are their wills ?
SERV. There comes with them a forerunner, my lord, which bears that office, to signify their pleasures.
TlM. I pray, let them be admitted.
Enter CUPID.
CUP. Hail to thee, worthy Timon; — and to all That of his bounties taste ! — The five best senses Acknowledge thee their patron ; and come freely To gratulate thy plenteous bosom: The ear, Taste, touch, smell, all pleas'd from thy table rise;(i They only now come but to feast thine eyes.
" The ear, &c.] In former copies —
There taste, touch, all pleas'd from thy table rise,
They only now .
1\\efive senses are talked of by Cupid, but three of them only are made out ; and those in a very heavy unintelligible manner. It is plain therefore we should read —
Th' ear, taste, touch, smell, pleas'd from thy table rise,
These only notv &c.
i. e. the five senses, Timon, acknowledge thee their patron ; four of them, viz. the hearing, taste, touch, and smell, are all feasted at thy board; and these ladies come with me to entertain your sight in a masque. Massinger, in his Duke of Millaine, copied the passage from Shakspeare; and apparently before it was thus corrupted ; where, speaking of a banquet, he says —
" All that may be had
" To please the eye, the ear, taste, touch, or smell,
" Are carefully provided." WARBURTON.
Dr. Warburton and the subsequent editors omit the word — all; but omission is the most dangerous mode of emendation. The corrupted word — There, shows that — The ear was intended to be contracted into one syllable; and table also was probably used as taking up only the time of a monosyllable. MALONE.
Perhaps the present arrangement of the foregoing words, ren- ders monosyllabification needless. STEEVENS.
sc. ii. TIMON OF ATHENS. 43
TIM. They are welcome all; let them have
kind admittance : Musick, make their welcome.7 [Exit CUPID.
1 LORD. You see, my lord, how ample you are belov'd.
Musick. Re-enter CUPID, with a masque o/Ladies as Amazons, 'with Lutes in their Hands, dancing, and playing.
APEM. Hey day, what a sweep of vanity comes
this way !
They dance !8 they are mad women. Like madness is the glory of this life, As this pomp shows to a little oil, and root.9
7 Musick, make their •welcome.'] Perhaps, the poet wrote :
Musick, make known their welcome. So, in Macbeth :
" We will require her welcome, —
" Pronounce it for me, sir, to all our friends."
STEEVENS.
8 They dance!'] I believe They dance to be a marginal note only; and perhaps we should read:
These are mad women. TYRWHITT.
They dance ! they are mad women.] Shakspeare seems to have borrowed this idea from the puritanical writers of his own time. Thus in Stubbes's Anatomic of Abuses, 8vo. 1583: "Dauncers thought to be mad men." " And as in all feasts and pastimes dauncing is the last, so it is the extream of all other vice : And again, there were (saith Ludovicus Vives) from far countries certain men brought into our parts of the world, who when they saw men daunce, ran away marvelously affraid, crying out and thinking them to have been mad," &c.
Perhaps the thought originated from the following passage from Cicero pro Murena, 6: " Nemo enim fere saltat sobrius, nisi forte insanit." STEEYEXS.
9 Like madness is the glory of this life,
As this pomp shows to a little oil, and root.~\ The glory of this life is very near to madness, as may be made appear from
44 TIMON OF ATHENS. ACT i.
We make ourselves fools, to disport ourselves ; And spend our flatteries, to drink those men, Upon whose age we void it up again, With poisonous spite, and envy. Who lives, that's
not
Depraved, or depraves ? who dies, that bears Not one spurn to their graves of their friends' gift?1 I should fear, those, that dance before me now, Would one day stamp upon me : It has been done ; Men shut their doors against a setting sun.
The Lords rise from Table, with much adoring of TIMON ; and, to show their loves, each singles out an Amazon, and all dance, Men with Women, a lofty Strain or two to the Hautboys, and cease.
TIM. You have done our pleasures much grace,
fair ladies,2
Set a fair fashion on our entertainment, Which was not half so beautiful and kind ; You have added worth unto't, and lively lustre,3
this pomp, exhibited in a place where a philosopher is feeding on oil and roots. When we see by example how few are the ne- ^cessaries of life, we learn what madness there is in so much su- 'perfluity. JOHNSON.
The word like in this place does not express resemblance, but equality. Apemantus does not mean to say that the glory of this life was like madness, but it was just as much madness in the eye of reason, as the pomp appeared to be, when compared to the frugal repast of a philosopher. M. MASON.
1 of their friends gift f~\ That is, given them by their
friends. JOHNSON.
2 fair ladies,'} I should wish to read, for the sake of
metre— fairest ladies. Fair, however, may be here used as a dissyllable. STEEVENS.
3 lively lustre,^ For the epithet — lively, we are indebted
to the second folio: it is wanting in the first. STEEVENS.
sc. n. TIMON OF ATHENS. 45
And entertain'd me with mine own device j4 I am to thank you for it.
1 LADY. My lord,5 you take us even at the best.fi
APEM. 'Faith, for the worst is filthy ; and would not hold taking,7 I doubt me.
TIM. Ladies, there is an idle banquet
4 mine own device ;~] The mask appears to have been
designed by Timon to surprize his guests. JOHNSON.
* 1 Lady. My lord, &c.~] In the old copy this speech is given to the 1 Lord. I have ventured to change it to the 1 Lady, as Mr. Edwards and Mr. Heath, as well as Dr. Johnson, concur in the emendation. STEEVENS.
The conjecture of Dr. Johnson, who observes, that L only was probably set down in the MS. is well founded ; for that ab- breviation is used in the old copy in this very scene, and in many other places. The next speech, however coarse the allusion couched under the word talcing may be, put the matter beyond a doubt. MALONE.
6 even at the lest."} Perhaps we should read :
ever at the best.
So, Act III. sc. vi :
" Ever at the best.'' TYRWHITT.
Take us even at the best, I believe, means, you have seen the best we can do. They are supposed to be hired dancers, and therefore there is no impropriety in such a confession. Mr. Ma- lone's subsequent explanation, however, pleases me better than my own. STEEVENS.
I believe the meaning is, " You have conceived the fairest of us," (to use the words ofLucullus in a subsequent scene,) you have estimated us too highly, perhaps above our deserts. So, in Spenser's Fairy Queen, B. VI. c. ix :
" He would commend his guift, and make the Lest.1"
MALONE.
7 would not hold taking,] i. e. bear handling, words
which are employed to the same purpose in King Henry IV. Part II:
" A rotten case abides no handling." STEEVEX*.
46 TIMON OF ATHENS. ACT t.
Attends you:8 Please you to dispose yourselves* ALL LAD. Most thankfully, my lord.
[Exeunt CUPID, and Ladies*
TIM. Flavins,
FLAV. My lord.
TIM. The little casket bring me hither.
FLAV. Yes, my lord. — More jewels yet ! There is no crossing him in his humour j 9 \_Aside* Else I should tell him, — Well, — i'faith, I should, Whenall's spent, he'd be cross'd then, an he could.1 'Tis pity, bounty had not eyes behind;2 That man might ne'er be wretched for his mind.3 [Exit, and returns 'with the Casket.
* there is an idle banquet
Attends you :] So, in Romeo and Juliet :
" We have & foolish trifling supper towards."
STEEVENS* 9 There is no crossing him in his humour }~\ Read:
There is no crossing him in this his humour. RITSON.
1 hed be cross'd then, an he could.~] The poet does not
mean here, that he would be crossed in humour, but that he would have his hand crossed with money, if he could. He is playing on the word, and alluding to our old silver penny, used before King Edward the First's time, which had a cross on the reverse with a crease, that it might be more easily broke into halves and quarters, half-pence and farthings. From this penny, and other pieces, was our common expression derived, — / have not a cross about me ; i. e. not a piece of money* THEOBALD.
So, in As you like it : " — yet I should bear no cross, if I did bear you ; for, I think you have no money in your purse."
STEEVENS.
The poet certainly meant this equivoque, but one of the senses intended to be conveyed was, he will then too late wish that it were possible to undo what he had done : he will in vain la- ment that I did not [cross or] thwart him in his career of prodi- gality. MA LONE.
2 had not eyes behind ; ~] To see the miseries that are
following her. JOHNSON.
sc. ii. TIMON OF ATHENS. 47
1 LORD. Where be our men ?
SERF. Here, my lord, in readiness.
2 LORD. Our horses.
TIM. O my friends, I have one word
To say to you : — Look you, my good lord, I must Entreat you, honour me so much, as to Advance this jewel;4 Accept, and5 wear it, kind my lord.
1 LORD. I am so far already in your gifts, — ALL. So are we all.
Enter a Servant,
SERV. My lord, there are certain nobles of the
senate Newly alighted, and come to visit you.
TIM. They are fairly welcome.
FLAV. I beseech your honour,
Vouchsafe me a word; it does concern you near.
TIM. Near? why then another time I'll hear thee :
Persius has a similar idea, Sat. I :
" cui viverejas est
" Occipiti cseco." STEEVENS.
3 for his mind.~\ For nobleness of soul. JOHNSON.
to
Advance this jewel ;~] To prefer it ; to raise it to honour by rearing it. JOHNSON.
5 Accept, and Sfc.~] Thus the second folio. The first — unme- trically, — Accept it . STEEVENS.
So, the Jeweller says in the preceding scene :
" Things of like value, differing in the owners,
" Are prized by their masters : believe it, dear lord,
" You mend the jewel by wearing it." M. MASON.
48 TIMON OF ATHENS. ACT r.
I pr'ythee, let us be provided6 To show them entertainment.
FLAV, I scarce know how.
[Aside.
2 SERF. May it please your honour, the lord
Lucius,
Out of his free love, hath presented to you Four milk-white horses, trapp'd in silver.
TIM. I shall accept them fairly : let the presents
Enter a third Servant.
Be worthily entertain' d. — How now, what news ?
3 SERV. Please you, my lord, that honourable gentleman, lord Lucullus, entreats your company to-morrow to hunt with him ; and has sent your honour two brace of greyhounds.
TIM. I'll hunt with him ; And let them be re-
ceiv'd, Not without fair reward.
FLAV. [Aside."] What will this come to ?
He commands us to provide, and give great gifts, And all out of an empty coffer.7 —
6 I pr'ythee, let us be provided — ] As the measure is here imperfect, we may reasonably suppose our author to have written :
/ pr'ythee, let us be provided straight — . So, in Hamlet:
" Make her grave straight'* i. e. immediately. STEEVENS.
7 And all out of an empty coffer. ~\ Read:
And all the while out of an empty coffer. RITSON.
se.-ii: TIMON OF ATHENS. 49
Nor will he know his purse ; or yield me this, To show him what a beggar his heart is, Being of no power to make his wishes good ; His promises fly so beyond his state, That what he speaks is all in debt, he owes For every word ; he is so kind, that he now Pays interest for't ; his land's put to their books. Well, 'would I were gently put out of office, Before I were forc'd out ! Happier is he that has no friend to feed, Than such as do even enemies exceed. I bleed inwardly for my lord. [Exit.
TIM. You do yourselves
Much wrong, you bate too much of your own me- rits : — Here, my lord, a trifle of our love.
2 LORD. With more than common thanks I will
receive it.
3 LORD. O, he is the very soul of bounty !
TIM. And now I remember me,8 my lord, you
gave
Good words the other day of a bay courser I rode on : it is yours, because you lik'd it.
2 LORD. I beseech you,9 pardon me, my lord, in that.
8 remember me,] I have added — me, for the sake of the
measure. So, in King Richard III:
" I do remember me, — Henry the sixth " Did prophecy ." STEEVENS.
9 I beseech you,~\ Old copy, unmetrically —
O, / beseech you, .
The player editors have been liberal of their tragick O's, to the frequent injury of our author's measure. For the same reason I have expelled this exclamation from the beginning of the next speech but one. STEEVENS.
.50 TIMON OF ATHENS. ACT i.
TIM. You may take my word, my lord ; I know,
no man
Can justly praise, but what he does affect : I weigh my friend's affection with mine own ; I'll tell you true.1 I'll call on you.
ALL LORDS. None so welcome.
TIM. I take all and your several visitations So kind to heart, 'tis not enough to give ; Methinks, I could deal kingdoms2 to my friends, And ne'er be weary. — Alcibiades, Thou art a soldier, therefore seldom rich, It comes in charity to thee : for all thy living Is 'mongst the dead ; and all the lands thou hast Lie in a pitch'd field.
ALOIS. Ay, defiled land,3 my lord.
1 I'll tell you true.'] Dr. Johnson reads, — I tell you &c. in- which he has been heedlessly followed : for though the change does not affect the sense of the passage, it is quite unnecessary, as may be proved by numerous instances in our author's dialogue. Thus, in the first line of King Henry V :
" My lord, I'll tell you, that self bill is urg'd ."
Again, in King John :
" /'// tell thce, Hubert, half my power, this night — ."
STEEVENS.
z 'tis not enough to give;
Methinks, / could deal kingdoms — ] Thus the passage stood in all the editions before Sir T. Hanmer's, who restored — My thanks. JOHNSON.
I have displaced the words inserted by Sir T. Hanmer. What I have already given, says Timon, is not sufficient on the oc- casion : Methinks I could deal kingdoms, i. e. could dispense them on every side with an ungrudging distribution, like that with which I could deal out cards. STEEVENS.
3 Ay, defiled land, ] '/, — is the old reading, which apparently depends on a very low quibble. Alcibiades is told, that his estate lies in a pitch'd field. Now pitch, as Falstaff says, doth defile. Alcibiades therefore replies, that his estate lies in defiled land.
sc.ii. TIMON OF ATHENS. 51
1 LORD. We are so virtuously bound,
TIM. And so
Am I to you.
2 LORD. So infinitely endear' d,
TIM. All to you.4 — Lights, more lights.
1 LORD. The best of happiness,
Honour, and fortunes, keep with you, lord limon !
TIM. Ready for his friends.5
\_Exeunt ALCIBIADES, Lords, fyc.
APEM. What a coil's here !
Serving of becks,6 and jutting out of bums ! I doubt whether their legs7 be worth the sums
This, as it happened, was not understood, and all the editors published —
/ defy land, . JOHNSON.
I being always printed in the old copy for Ay, the editor of the second folio made the absurd alteration mentioned by Dr. Johnson. MALONE.
4 All to you.] i. e. all good wishes, or all happiness to you. So, Macbeth:
" All to all.'* STEEVENS.
3 Ready for his friends.] I suppose, for the sake of enforcing the sense, as well as restoring the measure, we should read : Ready ever for his friends, STEEVENS.
6 Serving of becks,] Beck means a salutation made with the head. So, Milton :
" Nods and becks, and wreathed smiles." To serve a beck, is to offer a salutation. JOHNSON.
To serve a beck, means, I believe, to pay a courtly obedience to a nod. Thus, in The Death of Robert Earl of Huntington, 1601:
" And with a low beck
" Prevent a sharp check." Again, in The Play of the Four P's, 1569:
" Then I to every soul again,
" Did give a beck them to retain." In Ram- Alley, or Merry Tricks, 1611, I find the same word:
" I had my winks, my becks, treads on the toe."
E 2
.52 TIMON OF ATHENS. ACT i.
That are given for 'em. Friendship's full of dregs : Methinks, false hearts should never have sound legs. Thus honest fools layout their wealth on court' sies.
TIM. Now, Apemantus, if thou wert not sullen, I'd be good to thee.
APEM. No, I'll nothing : for,
If I should be brib'd too, there would be none' left To rail upon thee ; and then thou would'st sin the
faster.
Thou giv'st so long, Timon, I fear me, thou Wilt give away thyself in paper shortly : 8
Again, in Heywood's Rape ofLucrece, 1630:
" • wanton looks,
" And privy becks, savouring incontinence.'* Again, in Lyly's Woman in the Moon, 1597 :
" And he that with a beck controuls the heavens." It happens then that the word beck has no less than four distinct significations. In Drayton's Polyolbion, it is enumerated among the appellations of small streams of -water. In Shakspeare's Antomj and Cleopatra, it has its common reading — a sign of invitation made by the hand. In Timon , it appears to denote a bow, and in Lyly's play, a nod of dignity or command; as well as in Marius and Sylla, 1594 :
" Yea Sylla with a beck could break thy neck." Again, in the interlude of Jacob and Esau, 1568:
" For what, O Lord, is so possible to man's judgment
" Which thou canst notwith a beck perform incontinent?"
STEEVENS. See Surrey's Poems, p. 29 :
" And with a becke full lowe he bowed at her feete."
TYRWHITT.
7 / doubt whether their legs #c.3 He plays upon the word leg, as it signifies a limby and a bow or act of obeisance.
JOHNSON. See Vol. XL p. 302, n. 5. MALONE.
* I fear me, thou
Wilt give aivay thyself in paper shortly :] i. e. be ruined by his securities entered into. WARBURTON.
Dr. Farmer would read — in proper. So, in William Roy's Satire against Wolsey :
K. IT. TIMON OF ATHENS. S3
What need these feasts, pomps, and vain glories ? TIM. Nay,
An you begin to rail on society once, J am sworn, not to give regard to you. Farewell ; and come with better musick. [Exit.
APEM. So ; —
Thou'lt not hear me now, — thou shalt not then,
I'll lock9 Thy heaven * from thee. O, that men's ears should
be To counsel deaf, but not to flattery ! \_E,xit.
" their order
" Is to have nothynge in proper,
" But to use all thynges in commune" &c. STEEVENS.
9 Thou It not hear me note, — thou shalt not then, Til lock — ] The measure will be restored by the omission of an unnecessary word — me:
Thou'lt not hear now, — thou shalt not then, Pll lock — .
STEEVENS. 1 Thy heaven — ] The pleasure of being flattered. JOHNSON.
Apemantus never intended, at any event, to flatter Timon, nor did Timon expect any flattery from him. By his heaven he means good advice, the only thing by which he could be saved. The following lines confirm this explanation. M. MASON.
54, TIMON OF ATHENS. ACT n.
ACT II. SCENE I.
The same. A Room in a Senator's House. Enter a Senator, with Papers in his Hand.
SEN. And late, five thousand to Varro ; and to
Isidore
He owes nine thousand ; besides my former sum, Which makes it five and twenty. — Still in motion Of raging waste ? It cannot hold ; it will not. If I want gold, steal but a beggar's dog, And give it Timon, why, the dog coins gold : If I would sell my horse, and buy twenty2 more Better than he, why, give my horse to Timon, Ask nothing, give it him, it foals me, straight, And able horses :3 No porter at his gate ;
twenty — ] Mr. Theobald has — ten. Dr. Fanner pro-
poses to read — twain. REED.
3 Ask nothing, give it him, it foals me, straight, And able horses:] Mr. Theobald reads: Ten able horses. STEEVENS.
'* If I want gold ( says the Senator) let me steal a beggar's dog, and give it Timon, the dog coins me gold. If I would sell my horse, and had a mind to buy ten better instead of him; why, I need but give my horse to Timon, to gain this point ; and it presently fetches me an horse.'" But is that gaining the point proposed ? The first folio reads :
And able horses:
Which reading, joined to the reasoning of the passage, gave me the hint for this emendation. THEOBALD.
The passage which Mr. Theobald would alter, means only this : " If I give my horse to Timon, it immediately foals, and not only produces more, but able horses." The same construction
sc. /. TIMON OF ATHENS. 55
But rather one that smiles, and still invites4 All that pass by. It cannot hold ; no reason Can found his state in safety.5 Caphis, ho ! Caphis, I say !
occurs in Muck Ado about Nothing: " — and men are only turned into tongue, and trim ones too."
Something similar occurs also in Beaumont and Fletcher's Humorous Lieutenant :
" some twenty, young and handsome,
" As also able maids, for the court service." STEEVENS.
Perhaps the letters of the word me were transposed at the press. Shakspeare might have written :
it foals 'em straight
And able horses.
If there be no corruption in the text, the word twenty in the preceding line, is understood here after me.
We have had this sentiment differently expressed in the pre- ceding Act:
" — — • no meed but he repays " Seven-fold above itself; no gift to him, " But breeds the giver a return exceeding " All use of quittance." MALONE.
"* No porter at his gate;
But rather one that smiles, and still invites — ] I imagine that a line is lost here, in which the behaviour of a surly porter was described. JOHNSON.
There is no occasion to suppose the loss of a line. Sternness was the characteristick of a porter. There appeared at Killing- worth castle, [1575] " a porter tall of parson, big of lim, and steam of countinauns." FARMER.
So also, in A Knight's Conjuring &c. by Decker: " You mistake, if you imagine that Plutoes porter is like one of those big fellowes that stand like gyants at Lordes gates &c. — yet hee's as surly as those key-turners are." STEEVENS.
The word — one, in the second line, does not refer to porter, but means a person. He has no stern forbidding porter at his gate, to keep people out, but a person who invites them in.
M. MASON.
no reason
Can found his state in safety.'] [Old copy — found."] The supposed meaning of this must be, — No reason, by sounding, fathoming, or trying, his state, can find it safe. But as the
.56 TIMON OF ATHENS. ACT n.
Enter CAPHIS.
CAPH. Here, sir ; What is your pleasure ?
SEN. Get on your cloak, and haste you to lord
Tim on ;
Importune him for my monies ; be not ceas'd6 With slight denial ; nor then silenc'd, when — Commend me to your master — and the cap Plays in the right hand, thus : — but tell him, sir- rah,7
My uses cry to me, I must serve my turn Out of mine own ; his days and times are past, And my reliances on his fracted dates Have smit my credit : I love, and honour him ; But must not break my back, to heal his finger : Immediate are my needs j and my relief
words stand, they imply, that no reason can safely sound his state. I read thus :
no reason
Can found his state in safety.
Reason cannot find his fortune to have any safe or solid foun- dation.
The types of the first printer of this play were so worn and defaced, that f and f are not always to be distinguished.
JOHNSON.
The following passage in Macbeth affords countenance to Dr. Johnson's emendation :
" Whole as the marble, founded as the rock ; ."
STEEVENS.
6 be not ceas'd — ] i. e. stopped. So, in Claudius Ti- berius Nero, 1607 :
" Why should Tiberius' liberty be ceased;" Again, in The Valiant Welchman, 1615:
" — pity thy people's wrongs,
" And cease the clamours both of old and young."
STEEVENS.
7 sirrah,~] was added for the sake of the metre by the
editor of the second folio. MALONE.
sc. i. TIMON OF ATHENS. 57
Must not be toss'd and turn'd to me in words, But find supply immediate. Get you gone : Put on a most importunate aspect, A visage of demand ; for, I do fear, When every feather sticks in his own wing, Lord Timon will be left a naked gull,8 Which flashes9 now a phoenix. Get you gone.
CAPH. I go, sir.
SEN. I go, sir ? l — take the bonds along with you, And have the dates in compt.2
CAPH. I will, sir.
SJEN". Go.
\_~Exeunt.
8 -. a naked gull,] A gull is a bird as remarkable for the
poverty of its feathers, as a phoenix is supposed to be for the richness of its plumage. STEEVENS.
9 Whichjlashes &c.] Which, the pronoun relative, relating to things, is frequently used, as in this instance, by Shakspeare, instead of who, the pronoun relative, applied to persons. The use of the former instead of the latter is still preserved in the Lord's prayer. STEEVENS.
1 Caph. I go, sir.
Sen. I go, sir?^\ This last speech is not a captious repetition of what Caphis said, but a further injunction to him to go. /, in all the old dramatick writers, stands for — ay, as it does in this place. M. MASON.
I have left Mr. M. Mason's opinion before the reader, though I do not heartily concur in it. STEEVENS.
s take the bonds along with you,
And nave the dates in compt.] [Old copy — And have the dates in. Come.] Certainly, ever since bonds were given, the date was put in when the bond was entered into : and these bonds Timon had already given, and the time limited for their payment was lapsed. The Senator's charge to his servant must be to the tenour as I have amended the text ; Take good notice of the dates, for the better computation of the interest due upon them. THEOBALD.
58 TIMON OF ATHENS. ACT n.
SCENE II.
The same. A Hall in Timon's House.
Enter FLAVIUS, with many Bills in his Hand.
FLAV. No care, no stop ! so senseless of expence, That he will neither know how to maintain it, Nor cease his flow of riot: Takes no account How things go from him ; nor resumes no care Of what is to continue ; Never mind Was to be so unwise, to be so kind.3 What shall be done ? He will not hear, till feel : I must be round with him, now he comes from
hunting. Fye, fye, fye, fye !
Mr. Theobald's emendation may be supported by the follow- ing instance in Macbeth :
" Have theirs, themselves, and what is theirs, in compt."
STEEVENS.
3 Never mind
Was to be so unwise, to be so kind.~] Nothing can be worse, or more obscurely expressed : and all for the sake of a wretched rhyme. To make it sense and grammar, it should be supplied thus:
— — Never mind
Was [made] to be so unwise, [in order] to be so kind. i. e. Nature, in order to make a profuse mind, never before en- dowed any man with so large a share of folly. WAIIBURTON.
Of this mode of expression, conversation affords many exam- ples : " I was always to be blamed, whatever happened." — " I am in the lottery, but I was always to draw blanks."
JOHNSON.
.sc. ii. TIMON OF ATHENS. 59
Enter CAPHIS, and the Servants of ISIDORE and VARRO.
CAPH. Good even, Varro:4 What,
You come for money ?
FAR. SERV. Is't not your business too ?
4 Good even, Varro .•] It is observable, that this good evening as before dinner : for Timon tells Alcibiades, that they will go forth again, as soon as dinner's done, which may prove that by dinner our author meant not the ccena of ancient times, but the mid-day's repast. I do not suppose the passage corrupt : such inadvertencies neither author nor editor can escape.
There is another remark to be made. Varro and Isidore sink a few lines afterwards into the servants of Varro and Isidore. Whether servants, in our author's time, took the names of their masters, I know not. Perhaps it is a slip of negligence.
JOHNSON.
In the old copy it stands : " Enter Caphis, Isidore, and Varro"
STEEVENS.
In like manner in the fourth scene of the next Act the servant of Lucius is called by his master's name ; but our author's inten- tion is sufficiently manifested by the stage-direction in the fourth scene of the third Act, where we find in the first folio, (p. 86, col. 2, ) " Enter Varro's man, meeting others." I have therefore always annexed Serv. to the name of the master. MA LONE.
Good even, or, as it is sometimes less accurately written, Good den, was the usual salutation from noon, the moment that good morrow became improper. This appears plainly from the following passage in Romeo and Juliet, Act II. sc. iv :
" Nurse. God ye good morrow, gentlemen.
** Mercutio. God ye good den, fair gentlewoman.
" Nur. Is it good den ?
" Merc. 'Tis no less I tell you; for the hand of the
dial is now upon the of noon"
So, in Hamlet's greeting to Marcellus, Act I. sc. i. Sir T. Hanmer and Dr. Warburton, not being aware, I presume, of this wide sense of Good even, have altered it to Good morning ; without any necessity, as from the course of the incidents, pre- cedent and subsequent, the day may well be supposed to be turned of noon. TYRWHITT.
60 TIMON OF ATHENS. ACT n.
CAPH. It is ; — And yours too, Isidore ?
ISID. SERF. It is so.
CAPH. 'Would we were all discharged!
FAR. SERV. I fear it.
CAPH. Here comes the lord.
Enter TIMON, ALCIBIADES, and Lords, &;c.
TIM. So soon as dinner's done, we'll forth again,5 My Alcibiades. — With me ? Wliat's your will ?
CAPH. My lord, here is a note of certain dues. TIM. Dues ? Whence are you ? CAPH. Of Athens here, my lord.
TIM. Go to my steward.
CAPH. Please it your lordship, he hath put me off To the succession of new days this month ; My master is awak'd by great occasion, To call upon his own ; and humbly prays you, That with your other noble parts you'll suit,6
* . tve1 II forth again,'} i. e. to hunting, from which diver- sion, we find by Flavius's speech, he was just returned. It may be here observed, that in our author's time it was the custom to hunt aswellafter dinner as before. Thus, in Laneham's Account of the Entertainment at Kenehwrth Castle, we find, that Queen Elizabeth always, while there, hunted in the afternoon : " Mon- day was hot, and therefore her highness kept,in 'till jive aclok in the evening; what time it pleaz'd her to ryde forth into the chase, to hunt the hart of fors ; which found anon, and after sore chased," &c. Again: " Munday the 18th of this July, the weather being hot, her highness kept the castle for coolness 'till about Jive a clok, her majesty in the chase hunted the hart (as before) of forz," &c. So, in Tancred and Gismund, 1592: " lie means this evening in the park to hunt." REED.
6 That frith your other nolle parts you'll suit,"] i. e. that you will behave on this occasion in a manner consistent with your other noble qualities. STEEVENS.
sc. ii. TIMON OF ATHENS. 61
In giving him his right.
TIM. Mine honest friend,
I pr'ythee, but repair to me next morning.
CAPH. Nay, good my lord,
TIM. Contain thyself, good friend.
JKdE.feKF.OneVarro's servant, my good lord, —
ISID. SERV. From Isidore ; He humbly prays your speedy payment,7
CAPH. If you did know, my lord, my master's wants,
VAR. SERF. 'Twas due on forfeiture, my lord,
six weeks, And past,
ISID. SERF. Your steward puts me off, my lord; And I am sent expressly to your lordship.
TIM. Give me breath :
I do beseech you, good my lords, keep on ;
[Exeunt ALCIBIADES and Lords. I'll wait upon you instantly. — Come hither, pray you. \_To FLAVIUS.
How goes the world, that I am thus encounter' d With clamorous demands of date-broke bonds,8
17 He humbly prays your speedy payment,"] As our author does not appear to have meant that the servant of Isidore should be less civil than those of the other lords, it is natural to conceive that this line, at present imperfect, originally stood thus : He humbly prays your lordship's speedy payment.
STEEVENS,
8 of date-broke bonds,"] The old copy has :
of debt, broken bonds.
Mr. Malone very judiciously reads — date-broken. For the sake of measure, I have omitted the last letter of the second word. So, in Much Ado about Nothing: " I have broke [i. e. broke;*] with her father." STEEVENS.
To the present emendation T should not have ventured to give
62 TIMON OF ATHENS. ACT if.
And the detention of long-since-due debts, Against my honour ?
FLAV. Please you, gentlemen,
The time is unagreeable to this business : Your importunacy cease, till after dinner ; That I may make his lordship understand Wherefore you are not paid.
TIM. Do so, my friends :
See them well entertain'd. [Exit TIMON.
FLAV. I pray, draw near.
\_Exit FLAVIUS.
Enter APEMANTUS and a Fool.9
CAPH. Stay, stay, here comes the fool with Apemantus; let's have some sport with 5em.
VAR. SERF. Hang him, he'll abuse us. ISID. SERV. A plague upon him, dog ! VAR. SERV. How dost, fool ? APEM. Dost dialogue with thy shadow ?
a place in the text, but that some change is absolutely necessary, and this appears to be established beyond a doubt by a former line in the preceding scene:
" And my reliances on his fracted dates." The transcriber's ear deceived him here as in many other places. Sir Thomas Hanmer and the subsequent editors evaded the dif- ficulty by omitting the corrupted word — debt. MALONE.
9 Enter Apemantus and a Fool.] I suspect some scene to be lost, in which the entrance of the Fool, and the page that fol- lows him, was prepared by some introductory dialogue, in which the audience was informed that they were the fool and page of Phrynia, Timandra, or some other courtezan, upon the knowledge of which depends the greater part of the ensuing jo- cularity. JOHNSON.
sc. II. TIMON OF ATHENS. 63
VAR. SERV. I speak not to thee.
APEM. No ; 'tis to thyself, — Come away.
[To the Fool.
ISID. SERV. [To VAR. Serv.] There's the fool hangs on your back already.
APEM. No, thou stand' st single, thou art not on him yet.
CAPH. Where's the fool now ?
APEM. He last asked the question. — Poor rogues, and usurers' men ! bawds between gold and want! l
ALL SERV. What are we, Apemantus? APEM. Asses. ALL SERV. Why ?
APEM. That you ask me what you are, and do not know yourselves. — Speak to 'em, fool.
FOOL. How do you, gentlemen ?
1 Poor rogues, and usurers1 men ! batvds &c.] This is said so abruptly, that I am inclined to think it misplaced, and would re- gulate the passage thus :
Caph. Where's the fool nfftu ?
Apem. He last asked the question.
All. What are tee, Apemantus ?
Apem. Asses.
All. Why?
Apem. That you ask me ivhat you are, and do not know your* selves. Poor rogues, and usurers' men! batvds between gold and want ! Speak &c.
Thus every word will have its proper place. It is likely that the passage transposed was forgot in the copy, and inserted in the margin, perhaps a little beside the proper place, which the transcriber wanting either skill or care to observe, wrote it where it now stands. JOHNSON.
The transposition proposed by Dr. Johnson is unnecessary. Apemantus does not address these words to any of the others, but mutters them to himself; so that they do not enter into the dialogue, or compose apart of it. M. MASON.
64 TIMON OF ATHENS. ACT n.
ALL SERV. Gramercies, good fool : How does your mistress ?
FOOL. She's e'en setting on water to scald such chickens as you are.2 'Would, we could see you at Corinth.3
APEM. Good! gramercy.
Enter Page* FOOL. Look you, here comes my mistress' page.*
8 Site's e'en setting on 'water to scald #c.] The old name for the disease got at Corinth was the brenning, and a sense of scald- ing is one of its first symptoms. JOHNSON.
The same thought occurs in The Old Law, by Massinger :
" look parboil'd,
" As if they came from Cupid's scalding house." Handle Holme, in his Academy of Arms and Blazon, B. III. ch. ii. p. 441, has also the following passage : " He beareth Argent; a Doctor's tub (otherwise called a Cleansing Tub,) Sable, Hooped, Or. In this pockifyed, and such diseased persons, are for a certain time put into, not to boyl up to an heighth, but to parboil" &c. STEEVENS.
It was anciently the practice, and in inns perhaps still continues, to scald off the feathers of poultry, instead of plucking them. Chaucer hath referred to it in his Romaunt of the Rose, 6820 : " Without scalding they hem^>w/fe." HENLEY.
3 'Would, ive could see you at Corinth.] A cant name for a bawdy-house, I suppose, from the dissoluteness of that ancient Greek city ; of which Alexander ab Alexandro has these words : " Et CORINTHI supra mille prostitutas in templo Vcneris assidue degere, et inflammata Ubidine qucestui meretricio operam dare, et velut sacrorum ministras Dece famulari." Milton, in his Apology for Smectymnuus, says : " Or searching for me at the Bordellos, where, it may be, he has lost himself, and raps up, without pity, the sage and rheumatick old prelatess, with all her young Corinthian laity, to enquire for such a one."
WARBURTON.
See Vol. XI. p. 270, n. 7, MALONE,
4 my mistress' page.~] In the first passage this Fool speaks
of his sister, in the second [as exhibited in the modern editions]
sc. ii. TIMON OF ATHENS. 65
PAGE. [To the Fool.] Why, how now, captain ? what do you in this wise company ? — How dost thou, Apemantus?
APEM. 'Would I had a rod in my mouth, that I might answer thee profitably.
PAGE. Pr'ythee, Apemantus, read me the super- scription of these letters ; I know not which is which.
APEM. Canst not read ? PAGE. No.
APEM. There will little learning die then, that day thou art hanged. This is to lord Timon ; this to Alcibiades. Go ; thou wast born a bastard, and thou'lt die a bawd.
PAGE. Thou wast whelped a dog ; and thou shalt famish, a dog's death. Answer not, I am gone.
[Exit Page.
of his mistress. In the old copy it is master in both places. It should rather, perhaps, be mistress in both, as it is in a following and a preceding passage :
'* All. How does your mistress?"
" Fool. My mistress is one, and I am her fool."
STEEVENS.
I have not hesitated to print mistress in both places. Master was frequently printed in the old copy instead of mistress, and vice versa, from the ancient mode of writing an M only, which stood in the MSS. of Shakspeare's time either for the one or the other ; and the copyist or printer completed the word without attending to the context. This abbreviation is found in Coriola- nus, folio, 1623, p. 21 :
" Where's Cotus ? My M. calls for him." Again, more appositely, in The Merchant of Venice, 1623: " What ho, M. [Master"] Lorenzo, and M. [Mistress]
Lorenzo."
In Vol. IX. p. 54, n. 8 ; and Vol. XIII. p. 205, n. 2 ; are found corruptions similar to the present, in consequence of the printer's completing the abbreviated word of the MS. improperly.
MALONE. VOL. XIX. F
66 TIMON OF ATHENS. ACT IL
APEM. Even so thou out-run'st grace. Fool, I will go with you to lord Timon's.
FOOL. Will you leave me there ?
APEM. If Timon stay at home. — You three serve three usurers ?
ALL SERF. Ay ; 'would they served us !
APEM. So would I, — as good a trick as ever hangman served thief.
FOOL. Are you three usurers' men ? ALL SERF. Ay, fool.
FOOL. I think, no usurer but has a fool to his servant : My mistress is one, and I am her fool. When men come to borrow of your masters, they approach sadly, and go away merry; but they enter my mistress' house5 merrily, and go away sadly : The reason of this ?
VAR. SERF. I could render one.
APEM. Do it then, that we may account thee a whoremaster, and a knave ; which notwithstanding, thou shalt be no less esteemed.
VAR. SERV. What is a whoremaster, fool ?
FOOL. A fool in good clothes, and something like thee. 'Tis a spirit : sometime, it appears like a lord ; sometime, like a lawyer ; sometime, like a philosopher, with two stones more than his artifi- cial one :6 He is very often like a knight j and, ge-
4 my mistress' house — ] Here again the old copy reads —
master's. I have corrected it for the reason already assigned. The context puts the matter beyond a doubt. Mr. Theobald, I find, had silently made the same emendation ; but in subsequent editions the corrupt reading of the old copy was again restored.
MALONE.
6 his artificial one:"] Meaning the celebrated philoso- pher's stone, which was in those times much talked of. Sir Tho-
sc. ii. TIMON OF ATHENS. 67
nerally in all shapes, that man goes up and down in, from fourscore to thirteen, this spirit walks in.
FAR. SERV. Thou art not altogether a fool.
FOOL. Nor thou altogether a wise man: as much foolery as I have, so much wit thou lackest.
APEM. That answer might have become Ape- mantus.
ALL SERV. Aside, aside j here comes lord Timon.
Re-enter TIMON and FLAVIUS.
APEM. Come, with me, fool, come.
FOOL. I do not always follow lover, elder brother, and woman ; sometime, the philosopher.
[Exeunt APEMANTUS and Fool.
FLAV. 'Pray you, walk near ; I'll speak with you anon. [Exeunt Serv.
TIM. You make me marvel : Wherefore, ere this
time,
Had you not fully laid my state before me ; That I might so have rated my expence, As I had leave of means ?
FLAV. You would not hear me,
At many leisures I proposed.
TIM. Go to :
Perchance, some single vantages you took, When my indisposition put you back j
mas Smith was one of those who lost considerable sums in seek- ing of it. JOHNSON.
Sir Richard Steele was one of the last eminent men who en- tertained hopes of being successful in this pursuit. His labora- tory was at Poplar, a village near London, and is now converted into a garden house. STEEVENS.
F 2
68 TIMON OF ATHENS. ACT n.
And that unaptness made your minister,7 Thus to excuse yourself.
FLAF. O my good lord !
At many times I brought in my accounts, Laid them before you ; you would throw them off* And say, you found them in mine honesty. When, for some trifling present, you have bid me Return so much,8 1 have shook my head, and wept; Yea, 'gainst the authority of manners, pray'd you To hold your hand more close : I did endure Not seldom, nor no slight checks ; when I have Prompted you, in the ebb of your estate, And your great flow of debts. My dear-lov' d lord,9 Though you hear now, (too late!) yet now's a time,1
-made your minister,] So the original. The second
folio and the later editions have all :
made you minister. JOHNSON.
The construction is : — And made that unaptness your minister.
MALONE.
* Return so much,] He does not mean so great a sum, but a certain sum, as it might happen to be. Our author frequently uses this kind of expression. See a note on the words — " with so many talents," p. 84, n. 3. MALONE.
9 My dear-/ouW lord,~] Thus the second folio. The first
omits the epithet — dear, and consequently vitiates the measure.
STEEVENS.
1 Though you hear now, (too late!] yet no'afs a time,'} i. e. Though it be now too late to retrieve your former fortunes, yet it is not too late to prevent by the assistance of your friends, your future miseries. Had the Oxford editor understood the sense, he would not have altered the text to, —
Though you hear me now, yet note's too late a time.
WARBURTON.
I think Sir Thomas Hanmer right, and have received his emendation. JOHNSON.
The old reading is not properly explained by Dr. Warburton. " Though I tell you this (says Flavius) at too late a period, perhaps, for the information to be of any service to you, yet late as it is, it is necessary that you should be acquainted with it/*
ac. ii. TIMON OF ATHENS. 69
The greatest of your having lacks a half To pay your present debts.
TIM. Let all my land be sold.2
FLAV. 'Tis all engag'd, some forfeited and gone; And what remains will hardly stop the mouth Of present dues : the future comes apace : What shall defend the interim ? and at length How goes our reckoning?3
It is evident, that the steward had very little hope of assistance from his master's friends. RITSON.
Though you now at last listen to my remonstrances, yet now your affairs are in such a state that the whole of your remaining fortune will scarce pay half your debts. You are therefore wise too late. MALONE.
* The greatest of your having lacks a half To pay your present debts.
Tim. Let all my land be sold.] The
redundancy of measure in this passage persuades me that it stood originally thus :
Your greatest having lacks a half to pay Your present debts. Tim. Let all my land be sold. STEEVENS.
3 and at length
How goes our reckoning?] This Steward talks very wildly. The Lord indeed might have asked, what a Lord seldom knows :
HOIJD goes our reckoning?
But the Steward was too well satisfied in that matter. I would read therefore :
Hold good our reckoning ? WARBURTON.
It is common enough, and the commentator knows it is com- mon to propose, interrogatively, that of which neither the speaker nor the hearer has any doubt. The present reading may there- fore stand. JOHNSON.
How will you be able to subsist in the time intervening be- tween the payment of the present demands (which your whole substance will hardly satisfy) and the claim of future dues, for which you have no fund whatsoever ; and finally on the settle- ment of all accounts in what a wretched plight will you be ?
MALONE.
70 TIMON OF ATHENS. ACT u.
TIM. To Lacedaemon did my land extend.
FLAV. O my good lord, the world is but a word;4 Were it all yours to give it in a breath, How quickly were it gone ?
TIM. You tell me true.
FLAV. If you suspect my husbandry, or false- hood,
Call me before the exactest auditors, And set me on the proof. So the gods bless me, When all our offices5 have been oppressed With riotous feeders ; 6 when our vaults have wept With drunken spilth of wine ; when every room Hath blaz'd with lights, and bray'd with min- strelsy ; I have retir'd me to a wasteful cock,7
4 0 my good lord, the world is but a word ;] The meaning is, as the world itself may be comprised in a word, you might give it away in a breath. WARBURTON.
3 our offices — ] i. e. the apartments allotted to culinary
purposes, the reception of domesticks, &c. Thus, in Macbeth :
" Sent forth great largess to your offices."
Would Duncan have sent largess to any but servants? See Vol. X. p. 94-, n. 8. It appears that what we now call offices, were anciently called houses of office. So, in Chaucer's Clerkes Tale,v. 8140, Mr. Tyrwhitt's edition:
" Houses of office stuffed with plentee
" Ther mayst thou see of dcinteous vittaile."
STEEVENS.
f> With riotous feeders ;] Feeders are servants, whose low de- baucheries are practised in the offices of a house. See a note on Antony and Cleopatra, Act III. sc. xi : " — one who looks on
feeders?* STEEVENS.
7 a wasteful cock,~\ i. e. a cockloft, a garret. And a
wasteful cock, signifies a garret lying in waste, neglected, put to no use. HANMER.
Sir Thomas Hanmer's explanation is received by Dr. Warbur- ton, yet I think them both apparently mistaken. A wasteful cock is a cock or pipe with a turning stopple running to waste.
«?. ii. TIMON OF ATHENS. 71
And set mine eyes at flow.
TIM. Pr'ythee, no more.
FLAV. Heavens, have I said, the bounty of this
lord!
How many prodigal bits have slaves, and peasants, This night englutted! Who is not Timon's?8 What heart, head, sword, force, means, but is lord
Timon's ?
Great Timon, noble, worthy, royal Timon ? Ah ! when the means are gone, that buy this praise, The breath is gone whereof this praise is made : Feast-won, fast-lost ; one cloud of winter showers, These flies are couch'd.
TIM. Come, sermon me no further :
No villainous bounty yet hath pass'd my heart ; Unwisely, not ignobly, have I given.9
In this sense, both the terms have their usual meaning ; but I know not that cock is ever used for cockloft, or wasteful for lying in waste, or that lying in waste is at all a phrase. JOHNSON.
Whatever be the meaning of the present passage, it is certain, that lying in waste is still a very common phrase. FARMER.
A wasteful cock is what we now call a waste pipe; a pipe which is continually running, and thereby prevents the overflow of cisterns, and other reservoirs, by carrying off their superfluous water. This circumstance served to keep the idea of Timon's unceasing prodigality in the mind of the Steward, while its re- moteness from the scenes of luxury within the house, was favour- able to meditation. COLLINS.
The reader will have a perfect notion of the method taken by Mr. Pope in his edition, when he is informed that, for wasteful cock, that editor reads — lonely room. MALONE.
8 Who is not Timon's ?"] 1 suppose we ought to read, for the sake of measure :
Who is not lord Timon's? STEEVENS.
9 No villainous bounty yet hathpass'd my heart ; Unwisely, not ignobly, have I <mrw.] Every reader must
rejoice in this circumstance of comfort which presents itself to
72 TIMON OF ATHENS. ACT n.
Why dost thou weep ? Canst thou the conscience
lack,
To think I shall lack friends ? Secure thy heart ; If I would broach the vessels of my love, And try the argument1 of hearts by borrowing, Men, and men's fortunes, could I frankly use, As I can bid thee speak.2
FLAV. Assurance bless your thoughts !
TIM. And, in some sort, these wants of mine are
crown'd,3
That I account them blessings ; for by these Shall I try friends : You shall perceive, how you Mistake my fortunes ; I am wealthy in my friends.
Timon, who, although beggar'd through want of prudence, con- soles himself with reflection that his ruin was not brought on by the pursuit of guilty pleasures. STEEVENS.
1 And try the argument — ] The licentiousness of our author forces us often upon far-fetched expositions. Arguments may mean contents, as the arguments of a book ; or evidences and proofs. JOHNSON.
The matter contained in a poem or play was in our author's time commonly thus denominated. The contents of his Rape of Lucrece, which he certainly published himself, he calls The Ar- gument. Hence undoubtedly his use of the word. If I would, says Timon, by borrowing, try of what men's hearts are composed, what they have in them, &c. The old copy reads — argument; not, as Dr. Johnson supposed — arguments. MALONE.
So, in Hamlet: " Have you heard the argument? Is there no offence in it ?" Many more instances to the same purpose might be subjoined. STEEVENS.
* As I can lid thee speak."] Thus the old copy; but it being clear from the overloaded measure that these words are a play- house interpolation, I would not hesitate to omit them. They are understood, though not expressed. STEEVENS.
3 croivn'd,~] i. e. dignified, adorned, made respectable.
So, in King Henry VIII:
" And yet no day without a deed to crown it."
STEEVENS.
sc. ii. TIMON OF ATHENS. 73
Within there, hoi4 — Flaminius!5 Servilius!
Enter FLAMINIUS, SERVILIUS, and other Servants.
SEW. My lord, my lord,
TIM. I will despatch you severally. — You, to
lord Lucius, —
To lord Lucullus you ; I hunted with his Honour to-day ; — You, to Sempronius ; Commend me to their loves ; and, I am proud, say, That my occasions have found time to use them Toward a supply of money : let the request Be fifty talents.
FLAM. As you have said, my lord.
FLAV. Lord Lucius, and lord Lucullus?6 humph L
\_Aside.
TIM. Go you, sir, \_To another Serv.J to the se- nators,7
(Of whom, even to the state's best health, I have Deserv'd this hearing,) bid 'em send o'the instant A thousand talents to me.
FLAV. I have been bold,
4 Within there, ho !] Ho, was supplied by Sir Thomas Han- mer. The frequency of Shakspeare's use of this interjection, needs no examples. STEEVENS.
4 Flaminius!'] The old copy has — Flavius. The cor- rection was made by Mr. Rowe. The error probably arose from Fla. only being set down in the MS. MALOXE.
6 lord Lucullus ?~\ As the Steward is repeating the words
of Timon, I have not scrupled to supply the title lord, which is wanting in the old copy, though necessary to the metre.
STEEVENS.
7 Go you, sir, to the senators,"] To complete the line, we might read, as in the first scene of this play :
the senators of Athens. STEEVENS,
74 TIMON OF ATHENS. ACT n.
(For that I knew it the most general way,8) To them to use your signet, and your name ; But they do shake their heads, and I am here No richer in return.
TIM. Is't true ? can it be ?
FLAV. They answer, in a joint and corporate
voice,
That now they are at fall,9 want treasure, cannot Do what they would ; are sorry — you are honour-
able, — But yet they could have wish'd — they know not —
but1
Something hath been amiss — a noble nature May catch a wrench — would all were well — 'tis
pity—
And so, intending2 other serious matters, After distasteful looks, and these hard fractions,3
8 ''I knew it thz most general tuff?/,] General is not speedy,
but compendious, the way to try many at a time. JOHNSON.
9 at fall, ] i. e. at an ebb. STEEVENS.
1 but — ] was supplied by Sir Thomas Hanmer, to com- plete the verse. STEEVENS.
2 intending — ] is regarding, turning their notice to other
things. JOHNSON.
To intend and to attend had anciently the same meaning. So, in The Spanish Curate of Beaumont and Fletcher :
" Good sir, intend this business." See Vol. IV. p. 469, n. 5. STEEVENS. So, in Wits, Fits, and Fancies, &c. 1595: " Tell this man that I am going to dinner to my lord maior, and that I cannot now intend his tittle-tattle." Again, in Pasquil's Night-Cap, a poem, 1623 : " For we have many secret ways to spend, " Which are not fit our husbands should intend."
MALONE.
3 and these hard fractions,] Flavius, by fractions, means
broken hints, interrupted sentences, abrupt remarks.
JOHNSON.
8c.n. TIMON OF ATHENS. 73
With certain half-caps,4 and cold-moving nods,5 They froze me into silence.
TIM. You gods, reward them ! —
I pr'ythee, man, look cheerly ; These old fellows Have their ingratitude in them hereditary : G Their blood is cak'd, 'tis cold, it seldom flows ; 'Tis lack of kindly warmth, they are not kind ; And nature, as it grows again toward earth, Is fashion'd for the journey, dull, and heavy.7 — Go to Ventidius,— [To a Serv.] Pr'ythee, [To
FLAVIUS,] be not sad,
Thou art true, and honest ; ingeniously8 1 speak, No blame belongs to thee : — [To Serv.] Ventidius lately
4 half-caps^] A half-cap is a cap slightly moved, not
put off. JOHNSON.
* cold-moving nods,~\ By cold-moving I do not under- stand with Mr. Theobald, chilling or cold-producing nods, but a slight motion of the head, without any warmth or cordiality.
Cold-moving is the same as coldly-moving. So — -perpetual sober gods, for perpetually sober ; lazy-pacing clouds ; — loving- jealous— flattering sweet, &c. Such distant and uncourteous salutations are properly termed cold-moving, as proceeding from a cold and unfriendly disposition. MALONE.
6 Have their ingratitude in them hereditary:] Hereditary. for by natural constitution. But some distempers of natural con- stitution being called hereditary, he calls their ingratitude so.
WARBURTOST.
7 And nature, as it grows again toward earth,
Is fashion* d for the journey, dull, and heavy. ,] The same thought occurs in The Wife for a Month, by Beaumont and Fletcher :
" Beside, the fair soul's old too, it grows covetous, " Which shows all honour is departed from us, " And we are earth again."
pariterque senescere meniem. Lucret. I.
STEEVENS,
8 ingeniously — ] Ingenious was anciently used instead
of ingenuous. So, in The Taming of the Shrew:
" A course of learning and ingenious studies." REED.
76 TIMON OF ATHENS. ACT u.
Buried his father ; by whose death, he's stepp'd
Into a great estate : when he was poor,
Imprison'd, and in scarcity of friends,
I clear' d him with five talents : Greet him from me ;
Bid him suppose, some good necessity
Touches his friend,9 which craves to be remember' d
With those five talents: — that had, — [To FLAV.]
give it these fellows
To whom 'tis instant due. Ne'er speak, or think, That Timon's fortunes 'mong his friends can sink.
FLAV. I would, I could not think it;1 That
thought is bounty's foe ; Being free2 itself, it thinks all others so. \_Exeunt.
0 Bid him suppose, some good necessity
Touches hisjriendy"] Good, as it may afford Ventidius an opportunity of exercising his bounty, and relieving his friend, in return for his former kindness : — or, some honest necessity, not the consequence of a villainous and ignoble bounty. I rather think this latter is the meaning. MA LONE.
So afterwards :
** If his occasion were not virtuous,
" I should not urge it half so faithfully." STEEVENS.
1 / ivould, I could not think it; 8$c.~\ I concur in opinion with some former editors, that the words — think it, should be omitted. Every reader will mentally insert them from the speech of Timon, though they are not expressed in that of Flavius. The laws of metre, in my judgment, should supersede the authority of the players, who appear in many instances to have taken a designed ellipsis for an error of omission, to the repeated injury of our author's versification. I would read :
/ "would, I could not : That thought's bounty's foe — .
STEEVENS.
free — ] is liberal, not parsimonious, JOHNSON.
ACT m. TIMON OF ATHENS. 77
ACT III. SCENE I.
The same. A Room in Lucullus's House. FLAMINIUS waiting. Enter a Servant to Mm.
SERF. I have told my lord of you, he is coming down to you.
FLAM. I thank you, sir.
'Enter LUCULLUS.
SERF. Here's my lord.
LUCUL. \_Aside.~\ One of lord Timon's men r a gift, I warrant. Why, this hits right; I dreamt of a silver bason and ewer3 to-night. Flaminius,
3 a silver bason and ewer — ] These utensils of silver
being much in request in Shakspeare's time, he has, as usual, not scrupled to place them in the house of an Athenian noble- man. So again, in The Taming of the Shrew:
" my house within the city
" Is richly furnished with plate and gold ; " Basons and ewers to lave her dainty hands." See Vol. IX. p. 133, n. 1. MALONE.
Our author, I believe, has introduced basons and ewers where they would certainly have been found. The Romans appear to have had them ; and the forms of their utensils were generally copied from those of Greece.
These utensils are not unfrequently mentioned by Homer. Thus, in Chapman's version of the twenty-fourth Iliad:
" This said, the chamber-maid that held the ewre and
basin by,
" He bade powre water on his hands : — ." Again, in the fifteenth Odyssey, by the same translator :
78 TIMON OF ATHENS. ACT m.
honest Flaminius ; you are very respectively wel- come, sir.4 — Fill me some wine. — \jExit Servant.] And how does that honourable complete, free- hearted gentleman of Athens, thy very bountiful good lord and master ?
FLAM. His health is well, sir.
LUCUL. I am right glad that his health is well, sir : And what hast thou there under thy cloak, pretty Flaminius ?
FLAM. 'Faith, nothing but an empty box, sir ; which, in my lord's behalf, I come to entreat your honour to supply ; who, having great and instant occasion to use fifty talents, hath sent to your lord- ship to furnish him ; nothing doubting your pre- sent assistance therein.
LUCUL. La, la, la, la, — nothing doubting, says he ? alas, good lord ! a noble gentleman 'tis, if he would not keep so good a house. Many a time and often I have dined with him, and told him on't ; and come again to supper to him, of purpose to have him spend less : and yet he would embrace no counsel, take no warning by my coming. Every man has his fault, and honesty is his ; 5 I have told Jiim on't, but I could never get him from it.
" The handmaid water brought, and gave to stream " From out a fair and golden euier to them, " From whose hands, to a silver cauldron, fled " The troubled wave." STEEVENS.
4 very respectively welcome, sir.~\ i. e. respectfully. So,
in King John :
" 'Tis too respective" &c. See Vol. X. p. 359, n. 4. STEEVENS.
* Every man has his fault, and honesty is his;~\ Honesty does not here mean probity, but liberality, M. MASON.
sc. i. TJMON OF ATHENS. 79
Re-enter Servant, with Wine.
SERF. Please your lordship, here is the wine.
iC7CC7L.riaminius,I have noted thee always wise, Kerens to thee.
FLAM. Your lordship speaks your pleasure.
LUCUL. I have observed thee always for a toward- ly prompt spirit, — give thee thy due, — and one that, knows what belongs to reason : and canst use the time well, if the time use thee well : good parts in- thee. — Get you gone, sirrah. — [To the Servant, wha goes out.~] — Draw nearer, honest Flaminius. Thy lord's a bountiful gentleman : but thou art wise \ and thou knowest well enough, although thou comest to me, that this is no time to lend money , especially upon bare friendship, without security. Here's three solidares6 for thee ; good boy, wink at me, and say, thou saw'st me not. Fare thee well.
FLAM. Is't possible, the world should so much- differ ;
And we alive, that liv'd ?7 Fly, damned baseness* To him that worships thee.
[Throwing the Money away.
LUCUL. Ha ! Now I see, thou art a fool, and fit for thy master. [Exit LUCULLUS.
FLAM. May these add to the number that may
scald thee ! Let molten coin be thy damnation,8
c three solidares — ] I believe this coin is from the mint
of the poet. STEEVENS.
7 And ive alive, that liv'd ?] i. e. And we who were alive then, alive now. As much as to say, in so short a time.
WARBURTON".
s Let molten coin be thy damnation,"] Perhaps the poet alludes
SO TIMON OF ATHENS, ACT IIL
Thou disease of a friend,9 and not himself! Has friendship such a faint and milky heart, It turns in less than two nights ? * O you gods, I feel my master's passion ! 2 This slave Unto his honour,3 has my lord's meat in him : Why should it thrive, and turn to nutriment, When he is turn'd to poison ? O, may diseases only work upon't !
to the punishment inflicted on M. Aqtiilius by Mithridates. In The Shepherd's Calendar, however, Lazarus declares himself to have seen in hell " a great number of wide cauldrons and kettles, full of boyling lead and oyle, with other hot metals molten, in the which were plunged and dipped the covetous men and women, for to fulfill and replenish them of their insatiate covetise."
Again, in an ancient bl. 1* ballad, entitled, The Dead Mans Song:
" And ladles full of melted gold " Were poured downe their throotes."
Mr. M. Mason thinks that Flaminius more " probably alludes to the story of Marcus Crassus and the Parthians, who are said to have poured molten gold down his throat, as a reproach and punishment for his avarice." STEEVENS.
9 Thou disease of ' ajriend,~\ So, in King Lear:
" my daughter ;
" Or rather, a disease" &c. STEEVENS.
1 It turns in less than two nights ?~\ Alluding to the turning or acescence of milk. JOHNSON.
2 passion !~\ i. e. suffering. So, in Macbeth:
" You shall offend him, and extend his passion." i. e. prolong his suffering. STEEVENS.
3 Unto his honour,] Thus the old copy. What Flaminius seems to mean is, — This slave (to the honour of his character) has, &c. The modern editors read — Unto this hour, which may be right. STEEVENS.
I should have no doubt in preferring the modern reading, unto this hour, as it is by far the stronger expression, so probably the right one. M. MASON.
Mr. Ritson is of the same opinion. STEEVENS.
sc. i. TIMON OF ATHENS. 81
And, when he is sick to death,4 let not that part of
nature5
Which my lord paid for, be of any power To expel sickness, but prolong his hour !6 [Exit.
4 to death,"] If these words, which derange the metre,
were omitted, would the sentiment of Flaminius be impaired ?
STEEVENS.
s of nature — ] So the common copies. Sir Thomas
Hanmer reads — nurture. JOHNSON.
Of nature is surely the most expressive reading. Flaminius considers that nutriment which Lucullus had for a length of time received at Timon's table, as constituting a great part of his animal system. STEEVENS.
6 his hour!~\ i. e. the hour of sickness. His for its.
STEEVENS.
His in almost every scene of these plays is used for its, but here, I think, " his hour" relates to Lucullus, and means his life.
If my notion be well founded, we must understand that the Steward wishes that the life of Lucullus may be prolonged only for the purpose of his being miserable; that sickness may "play the torturer by small and small," and " have him nine whole years in killing." — " Live loath'd and long!" says Timon in a subsequent scene ; and again :
" Decline to your confounding contraries, " And yet confusion live .'"
This indeed is nearly the meaning, if, with Mr. Steevens, we understand his hour to mean the hour of sickness : and it must be owned that a line in Hamlet adds support to his interpreta- tion :
" This physick but prolongs thy sickly days." MALONE.
Mr. Malone's interpretation may receive further suoport from a passage in Coriolanus, where Menenius says to the Roman Sentinel : " Be that you are, long; and your misery increase with your age." STEEVENS.
VOL. XIX.
82 SIMON OF ATHENS. ACT m.
SCENE II.
The same. A puUick Place. Enter Lucius, with Three Strangers.
Luc. Who, the lord Timon? he is my very good friend, and an honourable gentleman.
1 STRAN. We know him for no less,7 though we are but strangers to him. But I can tell you one thing, my lord, and which I hear from common rumours ; now lord Timon's happy hours are done8 and past, and his estate shrinks from him.
Luc. Fye no, do not believe it j he cannot want for money.
2 STRAN. But believe you this, my lord, that, not long ago, one of his men was with the lord Lucullus, to borrow so many talents ; 9 nay, urged
7 We know him for no less,~] That is, "we know him by report to be no less than you represent him, though we are strangers to his person. JOHNSON.
To /moto, in the present, and several other instances, is used by our author for — to acknowledge. So, in Coriolanus, Act V. sc. v:
*' You are to know
" That prosperously I have attempted, and " With bloody passage led your wars — ." £c.
STEEVENS.
8 are done — ] i. e. consumed. See Vol. XIII. p. 129,
n. 5. MALONE.
9 to borrow so many talents;"] Such is the reading of the
old copy. The modern editors read arbitrarily— -Jifty talents. So many is not an uncommon colloquial expression for an inde- finite number. The Stranger might not know the exact sum.
STEEVENS.
sc. ir. TIMON OF ATHENS. 83
extremely for* t, and showed what necessity belong- ed to't, and yet was denied.
Luc. How?
2 STRAN. I tell you, denied, my lord.
Luc. What a strange case was that? now, before the gods, I am ashamed on't. Denied that ho- nourable man ? there was very little honour showed in't. For my own part, I must needs confess, I have received some small kindnesses from him, as money, plate, jewels, and such like trifles, nothing comparing to his ; yet, had he mistook him, and sent to me,1 I should ne'er have denied his oc- casion so many talents."
So, Queen Elizabeth to one of her parliaments : " And for me, it shall be sufficient that a marble stone declare that a queen having reigned such a time, [i. e. the time that she should have reigned, whatever time that might happen to be,] lived and died a virgin."
So, Holinshed : " The bishop commanded his servant to bring him the book bound in white vellum, lying in his study, in such a place." We should now write in a certain place.
Again, in the Account-book, kept by Empson in the time of Henry the Seventh, and quoted by Bacon in his History of that king:
*' Item, Received of such a one five marks, for a pardon to be procured, and if the pardon do not pass, the money to be re- paid."
" He sold so muck of his estate, when he came of age," (meaning a certain portion of his estate,) is yet the phraseology of Scotland. MALOXE.
1 yet, had he mistook Mm, and sent to mc,~\ We should
read: mislook'd him, i. e. overlooked, neglected to send to him.
WARBURTON.
I rather read, yet had he not mistook him, and sent to me.
JOHNSOK.
Mr. Edwards proposes to read — yet had he missed him. Lucius has just declared that he had had fewer presents from Tiraon, than Lucullus had received, who therefore ought to have been the first to assist him. Yet, says he, had Timon mistook him, or
G 2
84 TIMON OF ATHENS. ACT m.
Enter SERVILIUS.
SER. See, by good hap, yonder's my lord ; I have sweat to see his honour. — My honoured lord, —
[To Lucius.
Luc. Servilius ! you are kindly met, sir. Fare thee well : — Commend me to thy honourable-vir- tuous lord, my very exquisite friend.
SER. May it please your honour, my lord hath sent
Luc. Ha ! what has he sent? I am. so much en- deared to that lord ; he's ever sending : How shall I thank him, thinkest thou ? And what has he sent now ?
SER. He has only sent his present occasion now, my lord ; requesting your lordship to supply his in- stant use with so many talents.3
overlooked that circumstance, and sent to me, I should not have denied &c. STEEVENS.
That is, " had he (Timon) mistaken himself and sent to me, I would ne'er" &c. He means to insinuate that it would have been a kind of mistake in Timon to apply to a person who had received such trifling favours from him, in preference to Lucul- lus, who had received much greater; but if Timon had made that mistake, he should not have denied him so many talents.
M. MASON.
Had lie mistook him, means, had he by mistake thought him under less obligations than me, and sent to me accordingly.
HEATH.
I think with Mr. Steevens that Jiim relates to Timon, and that mistook him is a reflective participle. MA LONE.
* denied his occasion so many talents.'] i. e. a certain
number of talents, such a number us he might happen to want. This passage, as well as a former, (see n. 9, p. 82,) shows that the text below is not corrupt. M ALONE.
,-• ' ?"x-ith so many talent*,"} Such again is the reading with
sc. ii. TIMON OF ATHENS. 85
Luc. I know, his lordship is but merry with me ; He cannot want fifty-five hundred talents.
SER. But in the mean time he wants less, my lord. If his occasion were not virtuous,4 I should not urge it half so faithfully.5
Luc. Dost thou speak seriously, Servilius ?
SER. Upon my soul, 'tis true, sir.
Luc. What a wicked beast was I, to disfurnish myself against such a good time, when I might have shown myself honourable ? how unluckily it hap- pened, that I should purchase the dav before for a
which the old copy supplies us. Probably the exact number of talents wanted was not expressly set down by Shakspeare. If this was the case, the player who represented the character, spoke of the first number that was uppermost in his mind ; and the printer, who copied from the playhouse books, put down an in- definite for the definite sum, which remained unspecified. The modern editors read again in this instance, Jifty talents. Per- haps the Servant brought a note with him which he tendered to Lucullus. STEEVENS.
There is, I am confident, no error. I have met with this kind of phraseology in many books of Shakspeare's age. In Julius CtEsar we have the phrase used here. Lucilius siiys to his ad- versary :
" There is 50 much, that thou wilt kill me straight."
MALONE.
4 If his occasion lucre not virtuous,] Virtuous for strong, for- cible, pressing. WARBURTON.
The meaning may more naturally be — If he did not want it for a good use. JOHNSON.
Dr. Johnson's explication is certainly right. — We had before : " Some good necessity touches his friend." MALONE.
6 half so faithfully.] Faithfully for fervently. Therefore,
without more ado, the Oxford editor alters the text to fervently. But he might have seen, that Shakspeare M&e&faithfuMy for fer- vently, as in the former part of the sentence he had used virtuous for forcible. WARBURTON.
Zeal or fervour usually attending fidelity. MALONE.
36 TIMON OF ATHENS. ACT in.
little part, and undo a great deal of honour ?6 — Servilius, now before the gods, I am not able to do't ; the more beast, I say : — I was sending to use lord Timon myself, these gentlemen can witness; but I would not, for the wealth of Athens, I had done it now. Commend me bountifully to his good lordship ; and I hope, his honour will con- ceive the fairest of me, because I have no power to
6 That I should purchase the day le fore for a little part, and undo a great deal ofhonour?~] Though there is a seeming plau- sible antithesis in the terms, I am very well assured they are cor- rupt at the bottom. For a little part of what ? Honour is the only substantive that follows in the sentence. How much is the antithesis improved by the sense which my emendation gives ? ** That I should purchase for a little dirt, and undo a great deal of honour !" THEOBALD.
This emendation is received, like all others, by Sir Thomas Hanmer, but neglected by Dr. Warburton. I think Theobald right in suspecting a corruption ; nor is his emendation inju- dicious, though perhaps we may better read, purchase the day before for a little park. JOHNSON.
I am satisfied with the old reading, which is sufficiently in our author's manner. By purchasing what brought me but little honour, I have lost the more honourable opportunity of supply- ing the wants of my friend. Dr. Farmer, however, suspects a quibble between honour in its common acceptation, and honour (i. e. the lordship of a place,) in a legal sense. See Jacob's Dictionary. STEEVENS.
I am neither satisfied with the amendments proposed, or with Steevens's explanation of the present reading ; and have little doubt but we should read " purchase for a little port" instead of part, and the meaning will then be — " How unlucky was I to have purchased, but the day before, out of a little vanity, and by that means disabled myself from doing an honourable action." Port means show, or magnificence* M. MASON.
I believe Dr. Johnson's reading is the true one. I once sus- pected the phrase " purchasejfor/*' but a more attentive exami- nation of our author's works and those of his contemporaries, has shown me the folly of suspecting corruptions in the text, merely because it exhibits a different phraseology from that used at this day. MAI.ONK.
sc. u. TIMON OF ATHENS. 87
be kind : — And tell him this from me, I count it one of my greatest afflictions, say, that I cannot pleasure such an honourable gentleman. Good Ser- vilius, will you befriend me so far, as to use mine own words to him ?
SER. Yes, sir, I shall.
Luc. I will look you out a good turn, Servilius. —
[Eacit SERVILIUS.
True, as you said, Timon is shrunk, indeed ; And he, that's once denied, will hardly speed.
\_Exit Lucius.
1 STRAN. Do you observe this, Hostilius ?7
2 STRAN. Ay, too well. 1 STRAN. Why this
Is the world's soul; and just of the same piece Is every flatterer's spirit.8 Who can call him
' Do you observe this, Hostilius?'] I am willing to believe, for the sake of metre, that our author wrote: Observe you this, Hostilius ?
Ay, too ivell. STEEVENS.
s -flatterer's spirit.] This is Dr. Warburton's emendation.
The other [modern] editions read:
Why, this is the "world's soul ;
And just of the same piece is every flatterer's sport. Mr. Upton has not unluckily transposed the two final words, thus:
Why, this is the taorld's sport ;
Of the same piece is every flatterer's soul.
The passage is not so obscure as to provoke so much enquiry. This, says he, is the soul or spirit of the world: every flatterer plays the same game, makes sport with the confidence of his friend. JOHNSON.
Mr. M. Mason prefers the amendment of Dr. Warburton to the transposition of Mr. Upton. STEEVENS.
The emendation, spirit, belongs not to Dr. Warburton, but to Mr. Theobald. The word was frequently pronounced as one syllable, and sometimes, I think, written sprite. Hence the
88 TIMON OF ATHENS. AGT m.
His friend, that dips in the same dish?9 for, in My knowing, Timon has been this lord's father, And kept his credit with his purse ; Supported his estate ; nay, Timon's money Has paid his men their wages : He ne'er drinks, But Timon's silver treads upon his- lip ; And yet, (O, see the monstrousness of man When he looks out in an ungrateful shape !) He does deny him, in respect of his,1 What charitable men afford to beggars.
3 STRAN. Religion groans at it.
1 STRAN. For mine own part,
I never tasted Timon in my life, Nor came any of his bounties over me, To mark me for his friend ; yet, I protest, For his right noble mind, illustrious virtue, And honourable carriage, Had his necessity made use of me,
corruption was easy ; whilst on the other hand it is highly impro- bable that two words so distant from each other as soul and sport [or spirit^ should change places. Mr. Upton did not take the trouble to look into the old copy; but finding soul and sport the final words of two lines in Mr. Pope's and the subsequent edi- tions, took it for granted they held the same situation in the original edition, which we see was not the case. I do not believe this speech was intended by the author for averse. MA LONE.
9 that dips in the same dish f] This phrase is scriptural :
" He that dippeth his hand with me in the dish." St. Matthew, xxvi. 23. STEEVENS.
in respect of his,~\ i. e. considering Timon's claim for
what he asks. WARBURTON.
In respect of his fortune : what Lucius denies to Timon is in proportion to what Lucius possesses, less than the usual alms given by good men to beggars. JOHNSON.
Does not his refer to the lip of Timon ? — Though Lucius him- self drink from a silver cup which was Timon's gift to him, he refuses to Timon, in return, drink from any cup. HENLEY.
ac.n. TIMON OF ATHENS. 89
I would have put my wealth into donation, And the best half should have returned to him,2
3 I would have put my wealth into donation,
And the best half should have return'd to him,"] Sir Thomas Hanmer reads :
/ would have put my wealth into partition,
And the best half should have attorn'd to him, .
Dr. Warburton receives attorn' 'd. The only difficulty is in the word return'd, which, since he had receiv'd nothing from him, cannot be used but in a very low and licentious meaning.
JOHNSON.
Had his necessity made use of me, I would have put my for- tune into a condition to be alienated, and the best half of what I had gained myself, or received from others, should have found its way to him. Either such licentious exposition must be al- lowed, or the passage remain in obscurity, as some readers may not choose to receive Sir Thomas Hanmer's emendation.
The following lines, however, in Hamlet, Act II. sc. ii. per- suade me that my explanation of— put my wealth into donation — is somewhat doubtful :
" Put your dread pleasures more into command
" Than to entreaty." Again, in Cymbeline, Act III. sc. iv :
" And mad'st me put into contempt the suits
*' Of princely fellows," &c.
Perhaps the Stranger means to say, I would have treated my wealth as a present originally received from him, and on this occasion have returned him the half of that whole for which I supposed myself to be indebted to his bounty. Lady Macbeth has nearly the same sentiment :
" in compt
" To make their audit at your highness' pleasure,
" Still to return your own" STEEVENS.
The difficulty of this passage arises from the word returned. Warburton proposes to read attorn9 d ; but that word always relates to persons, not to things. It is the tenant that attorns, not the lands. The meaning of the passage appears to be this : — " Though I never tasted of Timon's bounty, yet I have such an esteem for his virtue, that had he applied to me, I should have considered my wealth as proceeding from his donation, and have returned half of it to him again." To put his wealth into donation, means, to put it down in account as a donation, to suppose it a donation. M. MASON.
90 TIMON OF ATHENS. ACT m.
So much I love his heart : But, I perceive, Men must learn now with pity to dispense : For policy sits above conscience. \_Exeunt.
SCENE III.
The same. A Room in Sempronius's House. Enter SEMPRONIUS, and a Servant o/^Timon's.
SEM. Must he needs trouble me in't ? Humph !
'Bove all others ?
He might have tried lord Lucius, or Lucullus ; And now Ventidius is wealthy too,
I have no doubt that the latter very happy interpretation given by Mr. Steevens is the true one. Though (says the speaker) I never tasted Timon's bounty in my life, I would have supposed my whole fortune to have been a gift from him, &c. So, in the common phrase, — Put yourself [i. e. suppose yourself] in my place. The passages quoted by Mr. Steevens fully support the phrase — into donation.
" Returned to him" necessarily includes the idea of having come from him, and therefore cannot mean simply— -found its tvay, the interpretation first given by Mr. Steevens. MALONE.
I am dissatisfied with my former explanation ; which arose from my inattention to a sense in which our author very fre- quently uses the verb — to return; i. e. to reply. Thus, in King Richard II:
" Northumberland, say — thus the king returns; ."
Again, in Troilus and Cressida:
" Returns to eluding fortune :" i. e. replies to it. Again, in King Henry V :
" The Dauphin
** Returns us- — that his powers are not yet ready." The sense of the passage before us therefore will be : — The best half of my wealth should' have been the reply I would have made to Timon : I would have answered his requisition with the best half of what I am worth. STEEVENS.
sc. in. TIMON OF ATHENS. 91
Whom he redeem'd from prison :3 All these three4 Owe their estates unto him.
SERV. O my lord,
They have all been touch'd,5 and found base metal ;
for They have all denied him.
SEM. How ! have they denied him ?
Has Ventidius6 and Lucullus denied him ? And does he send to me ? Three ? humph ! — It shows but little love or judgment in him. Must I be his last refuge ? His friends, like phy- sicians,
3 And notu Ventidius is "wealthy too.
Whom he redeem'd from prison '.•] This circumstance like- wise occurs in the anonymous unpublished comedy of Timon: " O yee ingrateful ! have I freed yee " From bonds in prison, to requite me thus, " To trample ore mee in my misery ?" MALONE.
4 these three — ] The word three was inserted by Sir T.
Hanmer to complete the measure ; as was the exclamation O, for the same reason, in the following speech. STEEVENS.
s They have all been touch'd,] That is, tried, alluding to the touchstone. JOHNSON.
So, in King Richard III:
" O Buckingham, now do I play the touch, " To try, if thou be current gold, indeed."
STECVENS.
6 Has Ventidius &c.] With this mutilated and therefore rugged speech no ear accustomed to harmony can be satisfied. Sir Thomas Hanmer thus reforms the first part of it :
Have Lucius, and Ventidius, and Lucidlus,
Denied him all ? and does he send to me? Yet we might better, I think, read with a later editor:
Denied him, say you ? and does he send to me ?
Three ? humph ! . It shows £c.
But I can only point out metrical dilapidations which I profess my inability to repair. STEEVEXS.
92 TIMON OF ATHENS. ACT m.
Thrive, give him over ;7 Must I take the cure upon
me ?
7 His friends, like physicians,
Thrive, give him ovcr;~] Sir Thomas Hanmer reads, try'd, plausibly enough. Instead of three proposed by Mr. Pope, I should read thrice. But perhaps the old reading is the true.
JOHNSON.
Perhaps we should read — shriv'd. They give him over shriv'd; that is, prepared for immediate death by shrift. TYRWHITT.
Perhaps the following passage in Webster's Dutchcss of Malfy, is the best comment after all :
" Physicians thus
" With their hands full of money, use to give o'er " Their patients."
The passage will then mean: — " His friends, like physicians, thrive by his bounty and fees, and either relinquish, and forsake him, or give his case up as desperate." To give over in The Taming of the Shrew has no reference to the irremediable con- dition of a patient, but simply means to leave, to forsake, to quit: " And therefore let me be thus bold with you " To give you over at this first encounter, " Unless you will accompany me thither." STE EVENS.
The editor of the second folio, the first and principal corruptcr of these plays, for Thrive, substituted Thriv'd, on which the conjectures of Sir Thomas Hanmer and Mr. Tyrwhitt were founded.
The passage quoted by Mr. Steevens from The DutcJiess of Malfy, is a strong confirmation of the old reading; for Webster appears both in that and in another piece of his ( The White Devil) to have frequently imitated Shakspeare. Thus, in The Dutchess of Malfy, we find:
" Use me well, you were best ;
" What I have done, I have done ; I'll confess nothing." Apparently from Othello :
" Demand me nothing ; what you know, you know ;
" From this time forth I never will speak word." Again, the Cardinal, speaking to his mistress Julia, who had importuned him to disclose the cause of his melancholy, says :
" Satisfy thy longing;
" The only way to make thee keep thy counsel,
" Is, not to tell thee." So, in King Henry IF. Part I:
so. m. TIMON OF ATHENS. 93
He has much disgrac'd me in't ; I am angry at him, That might have known my place : I see no sense
for't,
But his occasions might have woo'd me first ; For, in my conscience, I was the first man That e'er receiv'd gift from him : And does he think so backwardly of me now, That I'll requite it last ? No : So it may prove An argument of laughter to the rest,
" for secrecy
" No lady closer ; for I well believe
" Thou wilt not utter what thou dost not know." Again, in The White Devil:
" Terrify babes, my lord, with painted devils.'* So, in Macbeth:
" 'tis the eye of childhood
" That fears a painted devil." Again, in The White Devil:
" the secret of my prince,
" Which I will wear i'th' inside of my heart" Copied, I think, from these lines of Hamlet :
" Give me the man
" That is not passion's slave, andxl will tvear him
" In my heart's core, ay, in my heart of heart." The White Devil was not printed till 1612. Hamlet had ap- peared in 1604. See also another imitation quoted in a note on Cymbeline, Act IV. sc. iii. ; and the last scene of the fourth Act of The Dutchess of Malfy, which seems to have been copied from our author's King John, Act IV. sc. ii.
The Dutchess of Malfy had certainly appeared before 1619, for Burbage, who died in that year, acted in it ; I believe, be- fore 1616, for I imagine it is the play alluded to in Ben Jonson's Prologue to Every Man in his Humour, printed in that year :
" To make a child new-swaddled to proceed
" Man," &c.
So that probably the lines above cited from Webster's play by Mr. Steevens, were copied from Timon before it was in print ; for it first appeared in the folio, 1623. Hence we may conclude, that thrive was not an error of the press, but our author's origin- al word, which Webster imitated, not from the printed book, but from the representation of the play, or the MS. copy. It is observable, that in this piece of Webster's, the duchess,
94 TIMON OF ATHENS. ACT ni.
And I amongst the lords be thought a fool.8 I had rather than the worth of thrice the sum, He had sent to me first, but for my mind's sake ; I had such a courage9 to do him good. But now
return,
And with their faint reply this answer join ; Who bates mine honour, shall not know my coin.
\JExit,
SERV. Excellent ! ' Your lordship's a goodly villain. The devil knew not what he did, when he made man politick; he crossed himself by't: and I can- not think, but, in the end, the villainies of man will set him clear.2 How fairly this lord strives to ap-
who, like Desdemona, is strangled, revives after long seeming dead, speaks a few words, and then dies. MALONE.
8 And I amongst the lords be thought a fool.'] [Old copy — and 'mongst lords be thought a fool.~\ The personal pronoun was in- serted by the editor of the second folio. MALONE.
I have changed the position of the personal pronoun, and added the for the sake of metre, which, in too many parts of this play, is incorrigible. STEEVENS.
9 1 had such fi courage — ] Such an ardour, such an eager desire. JOHNSON.
1 Excellent ! &c.] I suppose the former part of this speech to have been originally written in verse, as well as the latter; though the players have printed it as prose (omitting several syllables necessary to the metre): it cannot now be restored without such additions as no editor is at liberty to insert in the text. STEEVENS.
I suspect no omission whatsoever here. MALONE.
* The devil knew not what he did, when he made man politick; he crossed himself bi/t : and I cannot think, but, in the end, the villainies of man ivifl set him clear.] I cannot but think, that the negative not has intruded into this passage, and the reader will think so too, when he reads Dr. Warburton's explanation of the next words. JOHNSON.
will set him clear.'] Set him clear does not mean acquit
him before heaven ; for then the devil must be supposed to know what he did ; but it signifies puzzle him, outdo him at his own Aveapons. WARBURTON.
sc. m. TIMON OF ATHENS. 95
pear foul ! takes virtuous copies to be wicked ; like
How the devil, or any other being, should be set clear by be- ing puzzled and outdone, the commentator has not explained. When in a croud we would have an opening made, we say, Stand clear, that is, out of the way of danger. With some affi- nity to this use, though not without great harshness, to set clear, may be to set aside. But I believe the original corruption is the insertion of the negative, which was obtruded by some transcri- ber, who supposed crossed to mean thwarted, when it meant, exempted from evil. The use of crossing by way of protection or purification, was probably not worn out in Shakspeare's time. The sense of set clear is now easy ; he has no longer the guilt of tempting man. To cross himself may mean, in a very familiar sense, to clear his score, to get out of debt, to quit his reckoning. He knew not 'what he did, may mean, he knew not how much good he was doing himself. There is no need of emendation.
JOHNSON.
Perhaps Dr. Warburton's explanation is the true one. Clear is an adverb, or so used ; and Dr. Johnson's Dictionary observes, that to set means, in Addison, to embarrass, to distress, to per- plex.— If then the devil made men politick, he has thwarted his own interest, because the superior cunning of man will at last puzzle him, or be above the reach of his temptations.
TOLLET.
Johnson's explanation of this passage is nearly right ; but I don't see how the insertion of the negative injures the sense, or why that should be considered as a corruption. Servilius means to say, that the devil did not foresee the advantage that would arise to himself from thence, when he made men politick. He redeemed himself by it ; for men will, in the end, become so much more villainous than he is, that they will set him clear; he will appear innocent when compared to them. Johnson has rightly explained the words, " he crossed himself by it." — So, in Cymbeline, Posthumus says of himself —
" It is I
" That all the abhorred things o'the earth amend, " By being worse than they." M. MASON.
The meaning, I think, is this: — The devil did not know "what he was about, [how much his reputation for wickedness would be diminished] ivhen he made man crafty and interested ; he thwarted himself by it; [by thus raising up rivals to contend with him in iniquity, and at length to surpass him ;] and I can- not but think that at last the enormities of mankind will rise to-
96 TIMON OF ATHENS. ACT m.
those that, under hot ardent zeal, would set whole
realms on fire.3
Of such a nature is his politick love.
This was my lord's best hope ; now all are fled,
Save the gods only:4 Now his friends are dead,
such a height, 'as to make even Satan himself, in comparison, appear (what he would least of all wish to be) spotless and innocent.
Clear is in many other places used by our author and the con- temporary writers, for innocent. So, in The Tempest:
" nothing but heart's sorrow,
" And a clear life ensuing.'* Again, in Macbeth:
" —This Duncan
" Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been
" So clear in his great office, — ." Again, in the play before us :
" Roots, ye clear gods !" Again, in Marlowe's Lust's Dominion, 1657:
" 1 know myself am clear
" As is the new-born infant." MALONE.
The devil's folly in making man politick, is to appear in this, that he will, at the long run, be too many for his old master, and get free of his bonds. The villainies of man are to set himself clear, not the devil, to whom he is supposed to be in thraldom.
RITSON.
Concerning this difficult passage, I claim no other merit than that of having left before the reader the notes of all the com- mentators. I myself am in the state of Dr. Warburton's devil, — puzzled, instead of being set clear by them. STEEVENS.
3 takes virtuous copies to bp iviclced ; like those &c.] This
is a reflection on the Puritans of that time. These people were then set upon the project of new-modelling the ecclesiastical and civil government according to scripture rules and exam- ples ; which makes him say, that under zeal for the word of God, they Mould set whole realms on fire. So, Sempronius pretended to that warm affection and generous jealousy of friendship, that is affronted, if any other be applied to before it. At best the similitude is an aukward one ; but it fitted the audience, though not the speaker. WARBURTON.
4 Save the gods only .•] Old copy — Save only the gods. The transposition is Sir Thomas Hanmer's. STEEVEN?.
sc. iv. TIMON OF ATHENS. 97
Doors, that were ne'er acquainted with their wards
Many a bounteous year, must be employ'd
Now to guard sure their master.
And this is all a liberal course allows ;
Who cannot keep his wealth, must keep his house.
SCENE IV.
The same. A Hall in Timon's House.
Enter Two Servants of VARRO, and the Servant of Lucius, meeting TITUS, HORTENSIUS, and other Servants to TIMON'S Creditors, 'waiting his coming out.
FAR. SERV. Well met ; good-morrow, Titus and Hortensius.
TIT. The like to you, kind Varro.
HOR. Lucius ?
What, do we meet together ?
Luc. SERV. Ay, and, I think,
One business does command us all ; for mine Is money.
TIT. So is theirs and ours.
5 keep his house.'] i.e. keep within doors for fear of
duns. JOHNSON.
So, in Measure for Measure, Act III. sc. ii : " You will turn good husband now, Pompey ; you will keep the house."
STEEVENS,
VOL. XIX. H
98 TIMON OF ATHENS. ACT m,
Enter PHILOTUS.
Luc. SERV. And sir
Philotus too !
Pm. Good day at once.
Luc. SERV. Welcome, good brother.
What do you think the hour ?
Pm. Labouring for nine.
Luc. SERV. So much ?
Pm. Is not my lord seen yet ?
Luc. SERV. Not yet.
PHI. I wonder on't; he was wont to shine at seven.
Luc. SERV. Ay, but the days are waxed shorter
with him :
You must consider, that a prodigal course Is like the sun's;6 but not, like his, recoverable. I fear,
'Tis deepest winter in lord Timon's purse ; That is, one may reach deep enough, and yet Find little.7
Pm. I am of your fear for that.
6 . a prodigal course
Is like the sun's;~\ That is, like him in blaze and splendor. Soles occidere ci redirc possunt. Catull. JOHNSON.
Theobald, and the subsequent editors, elegantly enough, but without necessity, read — a prodigal's course. We have the same phrase as that in the text in the last couplet of the preced- ing scene :
" And this is all a liberal course allows." MALONE.
7 reach deep enough, and yet
Find little.'] Still, perhaps, alluding to the effects of winter, during which some animals are obliged to seek their scanty pro- vision through a depth of snow. STEEVENS.
sc. iv. TIMON OF ATHENS. 99
TIT. I'll show you how to observe a strange event. Your lord sends now for money.
HOR. Most true, he does.
TIT. And he wears jewels now of Timon' s gift, For which I wait for money.
HOR. It is against my heart.
Luc. SERV. Mark, how strange it shows,
Timon in this should pay more than he owes : And e'en as if your lord should wear rich jewels, And send for money for 'em.
HOR. I am weary of this charge,8 the gods can
witness :
I know, my lord hath spent of Timon's wealth, And now ingratitude makes it worse than stealth.
1 FAR. SERV. Yes, mine's three thousand crowns: What's yours ?
Luc. SERV. Five thousand mine.
1 VAR. SERV. 'Tis much deep : and it should seem
by the sum,
Your master's confidence was above mine ; Else, surely, his had equall'd.9
3 / am iveary of this charge,"] That is, of this commission? of this employment. JOHNSON.
9 Else, surely, his had equalled.'] Should it not be, Else, surely, mine had equalled. JOHNSON.
The meaning of the passage is evidently and simply this : Your master, it seems, had more confidence in lord Timon than mine, otherwise his (i.e. my master's) debt (i.e. the money due to him from Timon) would certainly have been as great as your master's (i. e. as the money which Timon owes to your master ;) that is, my master being as rich as yours, could and would have advanced Timon as large a sum as your master has advanced him, if he, (my master) had thought it prudent to do so.
RlTSOK.
The meaning may be, " The confidential friendship subsisting
H 2
100 TIMON OF ATHENS. ACT in.
Enter FLAMINIUS.
TIT. One of lord Timon's men.
Luc. SERV. Flaminius ! sir, a word : 'Pray, is my lord ready to come forth ?
between your master [Lucius] and Timon, was greater than that subsisting between my master [Varro] and Timon ; else surely the sum borrowed by Timon from your master had been equal to, and no greater than, the sum borrowed from mine ; and this equality would have been produced by the application made to my master being raised from three thousand crowns to Jive thousand."
Two sums of unequal magnitude may be reduced to an equality, as well by addition to the lesser sum, as by subtraction from the greater. Thus, if A has applied to B for ten pounds, and to C for five, and C requests that he may lend A precisely the same sum as he shall be furnished with by B, this may be done, either by C's augmenting his loan, and lending ten pounds as well as B, or by B's diminishing his loan, and, like C, lending only five pounds. The words of Varro 's servant therefore may mean, Else surely the same sums had been borrowed by Timon from both our masters.
I have preserved this interpretation, because I once thought it probable, and because it may strike others as just. But the true explication I believe is this (which I also formerly proposed). His may refer to mine. " It should seem that the confidential friendship subsisting between your master and Timon, was greater than that subsisting between Timon and my master ; else surely his sum, i. e. the sum borrowed from my master, [the last ante- cedent] had been as large as the sum borrowed from yours."
The former interpretation (though I think it wrong,) I have stated thus precisely, and exactly in substance as it appeared several years ago, (though the expression is a little varied,) be- cause a REMARKER [Mr. Ritson] has endeavoured to represent it as unintelligible.
This Remarker, however, it is observable, after saying, that he shall take no notice of such see-saiv conjectures, with great gravity proposes a comment evidently formed on the latter of them, as an original interpretation of his own, on which the reader may safely rely. MA LONE.
It must be perfectly clear, that the Remarker could not be
sc. iv. TIMON OF ATHENS. 101
FLAM. No, indeed, he is not.
TIT. We attend his lordship ; 'pray, signify so much.
FLAM. I need not tell him that ; he knows, you are too diligent. [Exit FLAMINIUS.
Enter FLAVIUS in a Cloak, miiffled.
Luc. SERF. Ha! is not that his steward muffled
so? He goes away in a cloud : call him, call him.
TIT. Do you hear, sir ?
1 VAR. SERV. By your leave, sir,
FLAV. What do you ask of me, my friend ? TIT. We wait for certain money here, sir.
FLAV. Ay,
If money were as certain as your waiting, 'Twere sure enough. Why then preferred you not Your sums and bills, when your false masters eat Of my lord's meat ? Then they could smile, and
fawn
Upon his debts, and take down th' interest Into their gluttonous maws. You do yourselves but
wrong,
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.
indebted to a note which, so far as it is intelligible, seems dia- metrically opposite to his idea. It is equally so, that the editor [Mr. Malone] has availed himself of the above Remark, to vary the expression of his conjecture, and give it a sense it would otherwise never have had. B.ITSON.
102 TIMON OF ATHENS. ACTIII.
FLAV. If 'twill not,1
'Tis not so base as you j for you serve knaves.
1 FAR. SERF. How ! what does his cashier'd worship 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.2
TIT. O, here's Servilius ; now we shall know Some answer.
SER. If I might beseech you, gentlemenr
To repair some other hour, I should much Derive from it : 3 for, take it on my soul, My lord leans wond'rously 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,
1 If'twill not,'] Old copy — If 'twill not serve. I have ven- tured to omit the useless repetition of the verb — serve, because it injures the metre. STEEVENS.
2 Enter Servilius.] It may be observed that Shakspeare has un- skilfully filled his Greek story with Roman names. JOHNSON.
3 • - / should much Derive from it : &c.] Old copy :
— — — — - — — / should
Derive much from it : &c.
For this slight transposition, by which the metre is restored, I am answerable. STEEVENS.
so. IY. TIMON OF ATHENS. 103
And make a clear way to the gods.
SEE. Good gods !
TIT. We cannot take this for an answer,4 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. SERF. Put in now, Titus.
TIT. My lord, here is my bill.
Luc. SERF. Here's mine.
HOR. SERF. And mine, my lord.5
BOTH FAR. SERF. And ours, mv lord.
* */
Pm. All our bills.
4 for an anstver,~] The article an, which is deficient in
the old copy, was supplied by Sir Thomas Hanmer.
STEEVENS.
s ITor. Serv. And mine, mif lord.~\ In the old copy this speech is given to Varro. I have given it to the servant of Plortensius, (who would naturally prefer his claim among the rest,) because to the following speech in the old copy is prefixed, 2. Var. which from the words spoken [And ours, my lord.] meant, I conceive, the two servants of Varro. In the modern editions this latter speech is given to Caphis, who is not upon the stage.
MALONE.
This whole scene perhaps was strictly metrical, when it came from Shakspeare ; but the present state-of it is such, that it can- not be restored but by greater violence than an editor may be allowed to employ. 1 have therefore given it without the least attempt at arrangement. STEEVENS.
104 TIMON OF ATHENS. ACT m.
TIM. Knock me down with 'em :6 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 FAR. SERF. My lord,
2 FAR. SERV. My lord,
TIM. Tear me, take me, and the gods fall upon you ! [Exit.
HOE. 'Faith, I perceive our masters may throw their caps at their money ; these debts may well be called desperate ones, for a madman owes 'em.
\_Exeunt.
Re-enter TIMON and FLAVIUS.
TIM. They have e'en put my breath from me, the
slaves : Creditors ! — devils.
FLAV. My dear lord,-
r' Knock me doivn "with 'em:~] Timon quibbles. They present their written bills; he catches at the word, and alludes to the bills or battle-axes, which the ancient soldiery carried, and were still used by the watch in Shakspeare's time. See the scene between Dogberry, &c. in Much Ado about Nothing, Vol. VI. p. 96, n. 1. Again, in Hey wood's If you kno'w not me you know Nobody, 1633, Second Part, Sir John Gresham says to his cre- ditors : " Friends, you cannot beat me down with your bills.'" Again, in Decker's Guls Hornbook, 1609: " — they durst not strike down their customers with large bills." STEEVENS.
sc. m TIMON OF ATHENS. 105
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.7
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,
7 So fitly ? Go, bid all my friends again, Lucius, Lucullus, and Sempronius; all: I'll once more feast the rascals."] Thus the second folio; except that, by an apparent error of the press, we have^— • add instead of and.
The first folio reads :
Lucius, Lucidlus, and Sempronius Vllorxa : allt
* Pll once more feast tlie rascals.
Regularity of metre alone would be sufficient to decide in favour of the present text, which, with the second folio, rejects the fortuitous and unmeaning aggregate of letters — Vllorxa. This Ullorxa, however, seems to have been considered as one of the " inestimable stones, unvalued jewels," which " emblaze the forehead" of that august publication, the folio 1623 ; and has been set, with becoming care, in the text of Mr. Malone. For my own part, like the cock in the fable, I am content to leave this gem on the stercoraceous spot where it was discovered. — Ullorxa (a name unacknowledged by Athens or Rome) must (if meant to have been introduced at all) have been a corruption as gross as others that occur in the same book, where we find Bil- lingsgate instead of Basing-stoke; Epton instead of Hyperion; and an ace instead of Ate. Types, indeed, shook out of a hat, or shot from a dice-box, would often assume forms as legitimate as the proper names transmitted to us by Messieurs Flemings, Condell, and C°. who very probably did not accustom themselves to spell even their own appellations with accuracy, or always in the same manner. STEEYENS.
106 TIMON OF ATHENS. ACT m.
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.8 ALCIB. Honour, health, and compassion to the
senate !
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 aside,9
8 shall bruise him.] The old copy reads — shall bruise
'em. The same mistake has happened often in these plays. In a subsequent line in this scene we have in the old copy — with him, instead of — with 'em. For the correction, which is fully justified by the context, I am answerable. MALONE.
Sir Thomas Hanmer also reads — bruise him. STEEVENS.
9 setting his fate aside,'] i. e. putting this action of his,
which was pre-determined by fate, out of the question.
STEEVENS.
sc. v. TIMON OF ATHENS. 107
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,2
As if he had but prov'd an argument.
1 He is a man, &c.] I have printed these lines after the ori- ginal copy, except that, for an honour, it is there, and honour. All the latter editions deviate unwarrantably from the original, and give the lines thus :
He is a man, setting his fault aside,
Of virtuous honour, which buys out his Jault ;
Nor did he soil &c. JOHNSON.
This licentious alteration of the text, with a thousand others of the same kind, was made by Mr. Pope. MALONE.
* And with such sober and unnoted passion
He did beha\e his anger, ere 'twas spent, &c.] Unnoted for common, bounded. Behave, for curb, manage.
WARBURTON. I would rather read :
and unnoted passion
He did behave, ere was his anger spent.
Unnoted passion means, I believe, an uncommon command of his passion, such a one as has not hitherto been observed. Be- have his anger may, however, be right. In Sir W. D' Avenant's play of The Jmt Italian, 1630, behave is used in as singular ««i manner :
" How well my stars behave their influence." Again :
« You an Italian, sir, and thus
" Behave the knowledge of disgrace!" In both these instances, to behave is to manage. STEEVENS.
" Unnoted passion," I believe, means a passion operating inwardly, but not accompanied with any external or boisterous appearances ; so regulated and subdued, that no spectator could note, or observe, its operation.
The old copy reads — He did behoove &c. which does not afford any very clear meaning. Behave, which Dr. Warburton inter-
108 TIMON OF ATHENS. ACT m.
I SEW. You undergo too strict a paradox,3 Striving to make an ugly deed look fair : Your words have took such pains, as if they la-
bour'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 breathe;4 and make his
wrongs
prets manage, was introduced by Mr. Howe. I doubt the text is not yet right. Our author so very frequently converts nouns into verbs, that I have sometimes thought he might have written — " He did behalve his anger," — i. e. suppress it. So, Milton :
" yet put he not forth all his strength,
" But check'd it mid-way."
Behave, however, is used by Spenser, in his Fairy Queen, B. I. c. iii. in a sense that will suit sufficiently with the passage before us :
" But who his limbs with labours, and his mind
" Behaves with cares, cannot so easy miss." To behave certainly had formerly a very different signification from that in which it is now used. Cole, in his Dictionary, 1679, renders it by tracto, which he interprets to govern, or manage. MALONE.
On second consideration, the sense of this passage, (however perversely expressed on account of rhyme,) maybe this: " He managed his anger with such sober and unnoted passion [i. e. suf- fering, forbearance,] before it was spent, [i. e. before that dispo- sition to endure the insult he had received, was exhausted,] that it seemed as if he had been only engaged in supporting an argu- ment he had advanced in conversation." Passion may as well be used to signify suffering, as any violent commotion of the mind: and that our author was aware of this, may be inferred from his introduction of the Latin phrase — " hysterica passio," in King Lear. See also Vol. XVI. p. 264-, n. 7. STEEVENS.
3 You undergo too strict a paradox,^ You undertake a paradox too hard. JOHXSON.
* that man can breathe ;] i. e. can utter. So afterwards :
" You breathe in vain."
ac. v. TIMON OF ATHENS. 109
His outsides ; wear them like his raiment, care- lessly ;
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 ?
ALOIS. My lord,
1 SEN. You cannot make gross sins look clear ; To 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?5 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 Abroad ?G why then, women are more valiant, That stay at home, if bearing carry it ; And th5 ass, more captain than the lion ; the felon,7
Again, in Hamlet:
" Having ever seen, in the prenominate crimes, " The youth you breathe of, guilty." STEEVENS.
5 threatnings ?~] Old copy — threats. This slight, but
judicious change, is Sir Thomas Hanmer's. In the next line but one, he also added, for the sake of metre, — but — . STEEVENS.
e what make we
Abroad?^ What do we, or what have ice to do in the fold.
JOHNSON. See Vol. V. p. 162, n. 5. MALONE.
7 And th' ass, more captain than the lion; &c.] Here is an- other arbitrary regulation, [the omission of — captain'] the ori- ginal reads thus :
"what make we
Abroad? why then, women are more valiant
That stay at home, if bearing carry it:
And the ass, more captain than the lion,
The fellow, loaden with irons, wiser than the judge,
If wisdom &c.
no TIMON OF ATHENS* ACT m.
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 gust;8
I think it may be better adjusted thus :
what make ice
Abroad? why then the "women are more valiant
That stay at home;
If bearing carry it, then is the ass
More captain than the lion; and the felon
Loaden with irons, wiser &c. JOHNSON.
//"bearing carry it ,-] Dr. Johnson when he proposed to
connect this hemistich with the following line instead of the pre- ceding words, seems to have forgot one of our author's favourite propensities. I have no doubt that the present arrangement is right.
Mr. Pope, who rejected whatever he did not like, omitted the words — more captain. They are supported by what Alcibiades has already said :
" My lords, then, under favour, pardon me,
" If I speak like a captain ."
and by Shakspeare's 66th Sonnet, where the word captain is used with at least as much harshness as in the text:
" And captive good attending captain ill." Again, in another of his Sonnets :
" Like stones of worth they thinly placed are,
" Or captain jewels in the carkanet."
Dr. Johnson with great probability proposes to readjelon instead of fellow. MALONE.
The word captain has been very injudiciously restored. That it cannot be the author's is evident from its spoiling what will otherwise be a metrical line. Nor is his using it elsewhere any proof that he meant to use it here. RITSON.
I have not scrupled to insert Dr. Johnson's emendation, felon, for fellow in the text ; but do not perceive how the line can be- come strictly metrical by the omission of the word — captain, unless, with Sir Thomas Hanmer, we transpose the conjunction — and, and read :
The ass more than the lion, and the felon, .
STEEVENS.
8 sins extremest gust;] Gust, for aggravation.
WARBURTON.
ac. v. TIMON OF ATHENS. ill
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.
ALCIS. In vain ? his service done
At Lacedasmon, and Byzantium, Were a sufficient briber for his life.
1 SEN. What's that ?
ALCIS. Why, I say,1 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,2 he
Gust is here in its common sense ; the utmost degree of appe* tite for sin. JOHNSON.
I believe gust means rashness. The allusion may be to a sudden gust qfivind. STEEVENS.
So we say, it was clone in a sudden gust of passion.
MALONE.
9 — — by mercy, 'tis most Just.'] By mercy is meant equity. But we must read :
— 'tis made just. WARBURTON.
Mercy is not put for equity. If such explanation be allowed, what can be difficult ? The meaning is, 1 call mercy herself to witness, that defensive violence is just. JOHNSON.
The meaning, I think, is, Homicide in our own defence, by a merciful and lenient interpretation of the laws, is considered as justifiable. MALONE.
Dr. Johnson's explanation is the more spirited ; but a passage in King John should seem to countenance that of Mr. Malone : " Some sins do bear their privilege on earth, " And so doth yours ." STEEVENS.
1 Why, I say,'] The personal pronoun was inserted by the editor of the second folio. MALONE.
with 'em,] The folio — with Am. JOHNSOX.
112 TIMON OF ATHENS. ACT m.
Is a sworn rioter :3 h'as a sin that often Drowns him, and takes his valour prisoner : If there were no foes, that were enough alone4 To overcome him : in that beastly fury He has been known to commit outrages, And cherish factions : 'Tis inferred to us, His days are foul, and his drink dangerous.
1 SEX. 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 pawn5 my victories, all My honour to you, upon his good returns. If by this crime he owes the law his life, Why, let the war receiv't in valiant gore ; For law is strict, and war is nothing more.
1 SEN. We are for law, he dies j urge it no more,
The correction was made by the editor of the second folio.
MALONE.
3 Is a sworn rioter:] A sworn rioter is a man who practises riot, as if he had by an oath made it his duty. JOHNSON.
The expression, a sworn rioter, seems to be similar to that of sworn brothers. See Vol. XII. p. 320, n. 2. MALONE.
4 alone — ] This word was judiciously supplied by Sir
Thomas Hanmer, to complete the measure. Thus, in All's well that ends well:
" Good alone
" Is good ." STEEVENS*
•your reverend ages lone
Security, I'll pawn #c.] He charges them obliquely with being usurers. JOHNSON.
So afterwards :
" • banish usury
" That makes the senate ugly." MALONI;.
sc. r. TIMON OF ATHENS. us
On height of our displeasure : Friend, or brother, He forfeits his own blood, that spills another.
ALCIS. Must it be so? it must not be. My lords, I do beseech you, know me.
2 SEN. How ?
ALCIS. Call me to your remembrances.6
3 SEN. What ?
ALOIS. I cannot think, but your age has forgot
me;
It could not else be, I should prove so base,7 To sue, and be denied such common grace : My wounds ache at you.
1 SEN. Do you dare our anger ?
'Tis in few words, but spacious in effect j8 We banish thee for ever.
ALOIS. 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,9 He shall be executed presently. [_Exeunt Senators.
— remembrances'] is here used as a word of five syllables.
In the singular number it occurs as a quadrisyllable only. See Twelfth-Night, Act I. sc. i :
" And lasting in her sad remembrance" STEEVENS.
7 - / should prove so base,] Base for dishonoured.
WARBURTON.
8 Do you dare our anger?
'Tis in jeiu words, but spacious in effects'] This reading may pass, but perhaps the author wrote :
-- our anger
in words, but spacious in effect. JOHNSON. Andt not to swell our spirit,'] I believe, means, not to put VOL. XIX. I
114 TIMON OF ATHENS. ACT m.
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?1 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. JTis honour, with most lands to be at odds ;2 Soldiers should brook as little wrongs, as gods.
{Exit.
ourselves into any tumour of rage, take our definitive resolution.
So, in King Henry VIII. Act III. sc. i :
" The hearts of princes kiss obedience,
" So much they love it ; but, to stubborn spirits,
" They sivell and grow as terrible as storms."
STEEVENS.
1 ha! banishment ?3 Thus the second folio. Its ever- blundering predecessor omits the interjection, ha! and conse- quently spoils the metre. — The same exclamation occurs in Romeo and Juliet;
" Ha! banishment? be merciful, say — death-
STEEVENS.
• and lay for hearts.
9Tis honour, laith most lands to be at odds;~\ But surely even in a soldier's sense of honour, there is very little in being at odds \vith all about him; which shows rather a quarrelsome disposition than a valiant one. Besides, this was not Alcibiades's case. He was only fallen out with the Athenians. A phrase in the fore- going line will direct us to the right reading. I will lay, says he, for hearts; which is a metaphor taken from card-play, and sig- nifies to game deep and boldly. It is plain then the figure was continued in ths following line, which should be read thus :
'Tis honour ivith most hands to be at odds; i e. to fight upon odds, or at disadvantage ; as he must do against
sc. n. - TIMON OF ATHENS. 115
SCENE VI. A magnificent Room in Timon's House.
Mustek. Tables set out: Servants attending. Enter divers Lords,3 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.
the united strength of Athens ; and this, by soldiers, is account- ed honourable. Shakspeare uses the same metaphor on the same occasion, in Coriolanus:
" He lurck'd all swords." WARBURTON.
I think hands is very properly substituted for lands. In the foregoing line, for, lay for hearts, I would read, play for hearts.
JOHNSON.
I do not conceive that to lay for hearts is a metaphor taken from card-play, or that lay should be changed into play. We should now say, to lay out for hearts, i. e. the affections of the people ; but lay is used singly, as it is here, by Jonson, in The Devil is an Ass, [Mr. Whalley's edition] Vol. IV. p. 33: " Lay