Tim. Will you, indeed?

Both. Doubt it not, worthy lord.

Tim. There's ne'er a one of you but trusts a knave, That mightily deceives you.

Both. Do we, my lord?

Tim. Ay, and you hear him cog, see him dissemble, Know his gross patchery, love him, feed him, Keep in your bosom : yet remain assur'd,

That he's a made-up villain."

Pain. I know none such, my lord.

Poet. Nor I.

9

Tim. Look you, I love you well; I'll give you gold, Rid me these villains from your companies : Hang them, or stab them, drown them in a draught, Confound them by some course, and come to me, I'll give you gold enough.

Both. Name them, my lord, let's know them.

Tim. You that way, and you this, but two in company : -Each man apart, all single and alone,

Yet an arch-villain keeps him company.

If, where thou art, two villains shall not be.

[To the Painter. Come not near him.-If thou wouldst not reside

[To the Poet.

But where one villain is, then him abandon.-
Hence pack! there's gold, ye came for gold, ye slaves:
You have done work for me, there's payment:
You are an alchymist, make gold of that :--

Out, rascal dogs!

The same.

[Exit, beating and driving them out.

SCENE II.

Enter FLAVIUS, and two Senators.

Flav. It is in vain that you would speak with Timon;

For he is set so only to himself,

That nothing but himself, which looks like man,

Is friendly with him.

1 Sen. Bring us to his cave:

It is our part, and promise to the Athenians,

To speak with Timon.

3 Sen. At all times alike

[8] A complete, a finished villain. MASON.

9 That is, in the jakes.

JOHNSON.

[1] Do you go that way, and you this, and yet still each of you will have two in your company: each of you, though single and alone, will be accompanied by an arch villain.

MALONE,

Men are not still the same: 'Twas time, and griefs,
That fram'd him thus: Time, with his fairer hand,
Offering the fortunes of his former days,

The former man may make him: Bring us to him,
And chance it as it may.

Flav. Here is his cave.

Peace and content be here! lord Timon! Timon!
Look out, and speak to friends: The Athenians,
By two of their most reverend senate, greet thee :
Speak to them, noble Timon.

Enter TIMON.

Tim. Thou sun, that comfort'st, burn!--Speak, and be hang'd:

For each true word, a blister! and each false

Be as a cauterizing to the root o'the tongue,
Consuming it with speaking!

1 Sen. Worthy Timon,

Tim. Of none but such as you, and you of Timon. 2 Sen. The senators of Athens greet thee, Timon. Tim. I thank them; and would send them back the plague,

Could I but catch it for them.

1 Sen. O, forget

What we are sorry for ourselves in thee.

The senators, with one consent of love,

Entreat thee back to Athens; who have thought

On special dignities, which vacant lie

For thy best use and wearing.

2 Sen. They confess,

Toward thee, forgetfulness too general, gross :
Which now the public body,-which doth seldom
Play the recanter,-feeling in itself

A lack of Timon's aid, hath sense withal
Of its own fall, restraining aid to Timon;
And send forth us, to make their sorrowed render,
Together with a recompense more fruitful
Than their offence can weigh down by the dram ;3
Ay, even such heaps and sums of love and wealth,
As shall to thee blot out what wrongs were theirs,

.3

[2] The Athenians had sense, that is, felt the danger of their own fall, by the arms of Alcibiades. JOHNSON.

[8] A recompense so large, that the offence they have omitted, though every dram of that offence should be put into the scale, cannot counterpoise it. The recompense will outweigh the offence, which, instead of weighing down the scale in which it is placed, will kick the beam. MALONE.

And write in thee the figures of their love,
Ever to read them thine.

Tim. You witch me in it;

Surprize me to the very brink of tears:
Lend me a fool's heart, and a woman's eyes,
And I'll beweep these comforts, worthy senators.

1 Sen. Therefore, so please thee to return with us,
And of our Athens (thine, and ours,) to take
The captainship, thou shalt be met with thanks,
Allow'd with absolute power, and thy good name.
Live with authority :-So soon we shall drive back
Of Alcibiades the approaches wild;

Who, like a boar too savage, doth root up

His country's peace.

2 Sen. And shakes his threat'ning sword Against the walls of Athens.

1 Sen. Therefore, Timon,

Tim. Well, sir, I will; therefore, I will, sir; Thus,If Alcibiades kill my countrymen,

Let Alcibiades know this of Timon,

That-Timon cares not. But if he sack fair Athens,
And take our goodly aged men by the beards,

Giving our holy virgins to the stain

Of contumelious, beastly, mad-brain'd war;

Then, let him know,--and tell him, Timon speaks it,
In pity of our aged, and our youth,

I cannot choose but tell him, that-I care not,
And let him take't at worst; for their knives care not,
While you have throats to answer: for myself,
There's not a whittle in the unruly camp,*

But I do prize it at my love, before

The reverend'st throat in Athens. So I leave you
To the protection of the prosperous gods,
As thieves to keepers.

Flav. Stay not, all's in vain.

Tim. Why, I was writing of my epitaph,
It will be seen to-morrow; my long sickness
Of health, and living, now begins to mend,'
And nothing brings me all things. Go, live still;
Be Alcibiades your plague, you his,

And last so long enough!

1 Sen. We speak in vain.

[4] A whittle is still in many places the common name for a pocket clasp knife, such as children use.

STEEVENS.

[5] The disease of life begins to promise me a period,

JOHNSON.

Tim. But yet I love my country; and am not
One that rejoices in the common wreck,
As common bruit doth put it.

1 Sen. That's well spoke.

Tim. Commend me to my loving countrymen,-

1 Sen. These words become your lips as they pass through them.

2 Sen. And enter in our ears, like great triúmphers In their applauding gates.

Tim. Commend me to them;

And tell them, that, to ease them of their griefs,
Their fears of hostile strokes, their aches, losses,
Their pangs
of love, with other incident throes
That nature's fragile vessel doth sustain

In life's uncertain voyage, I will some kindness do them :
I'll teach them to prevent wild Alcibiades' wrath.

6

2 Sen. I like this well, he will return again.
Tim. I have a tree, which grows here in my close,
That mine own use invites me to cut down,
And shortly must I fell it; Tell my friends,
Tell Athens, in the sequence of degree,
From high to low throughout, that whoso please
To stop affliction, let him take his haste,
Come hither, ere my tree halth felt the axe,
And hang himself:-I pray you, do my greeting.

Flav. Trouble him no further, thus you still shall find him.
Tim. Come not to me again: but say to Athens,
Timon hath made his everlasting mansion

Upon the beached verge of the salt flood;
Which once a day with his embossed froth
The turbulent surge shall cover; thither come,
And let my grave-stone be your oracle.-
Lips, let sour words go by, and language end :
What is amiss, plague and infection mend!

Graves only be men's works; and death, their gain !
Sun, hide thy beams! Timon hath done his reign. [Ex. TIM.
1 Sen. His discontents are unremoveably

Coupled to nature.

2 Sen. Our hope in him is dead: Let us return, And strain what other means is left unto us

In our dear peril.7

1 Sen. It requires swift foot.

[Exeunt.

[6] Methodically, from highest to lowest. JOHNSON.

Dear, in Shakespeare's language, is dire, dreadful. So in Hamlet,
"Would I had met my dearest foe in heaven."

MALONE

SCENE III.

The Walls of Athens. Enter two Senators, and a Messenger.

1 Sen. Thou hast painfully discover'd; are his files As full as thy report?

Mes. I have spoke the least: Besides, his expedition promises Present approach.

2 Sen. We stand much hazard, if they bring not Timon. Mes. I met a courier, one mine ancient friend ;Whom, though in general part we were oppos'd,

Yet our old love made a particular force,

And made us speak like friends :-this man was riding From Alcibiades to Timon's cave,

With letters of entreaty, which imported

His fellowship i'the cause against your city,
In part for his sake mov'd.

Enter Senators from TIMON.

1 Sen. Here come our brothers.

3 Sen. No talk of Timon, nothing of him expect.The enemies' drum. is heard, and fearful scouring Doth choke the air with dust: In, and prepare ; Ours is the fall, I fear, our foes the snare.

SCENE IV.

The Woods. TIMON's Cave, and a Tombstone seen, a Soldier, seeking TIMON.

Sol. By all description this should be the place.

[Exeunt.

Enter

Who's here? speak, ho!-No answer ?--What is this?
Timon is dead, who hath outstrech'd his span:
Some beast rear'd this; there does not live a man.

Dead, sure; and this his grave.

What's on this tomb I cannot read; the character

I'll take with wax: Our captain hath in every figure skiH;
An ag'd interpreter, though young in days:
Before proud Athens he's set down by this,
Whose fall the mark of his ambition is.

[Exit.

[8] I am fully convinced that this, and many other passages of our author, have been irretrievably corrupted by transcribers or printers, and could not have proceed. ed in their present state from Shakespeare; for what we cannot understau in the closet, must have been wholly useless on the stage. The awkward repetition of the word made, strongly countenances my present observation. STEEVENS,

VOL. VIII.

L 2