"Hadst thou, like us”—There is in this speech a sullen haughtiness, and malignant dignity, suitable at once to the lord and the man-hater. The impatience with which he bears to have his luxury reproached by one that never had luxury within his reach, is natural and graceful. There is in a letter, written by the Earl of Essex, just before his execution, to another nobleman, a passage somewhat resembling this, with which, I believe, every reader will be pleased, though it is so serious and solemn that it can scarcely be inserted without irreverence: God grant your lordship may quickly feel the comfort I now enjoy in my unfeigned conversion, but that you may never feel the torments I have suffered for my long delaying it. I had none but divines to call upon me, to whom I said, if my ambition could have entered into their narrow breasts, they would not have been so humble; or if my delights had been once tasted by them, they would not have been so precise. But your lordship hath one to call upon you, that knoweth what it is you now enjoy; and what the greatest fruit and end is of all contentment that this world can afford. Think, therefore, dear earl, that I have staked and buoyed all the ways of pleasure unto you, and left them as seamarks for you to keep the channel of religious virtue. For shut your eyes never so long, they must be open at the last, and then you must say with me, there is no peace to the ungodly.'"-JOHNSON. - from our first SWATH"-i. e. From infancy. "Swath" is the dress of a new-born child. "all the passive DRUGGES"-I have here varied from all the modern editions, by retaining the old spelling, for the purpose of distinguishing it from drugs in our modern sense-drugge being an ancient variation of drudge. I should have preferred modernizing it into drudges, but there is so much of harsh and irregular metre in this play, that here, where the author has poured forth a continuous strain of animated rhythm, it would be insufferable to vary it for the sake of modernizing a word. “Thou hadst been a knave, and flatterer"-" Dryden has quoted two verses of Virgil to show how well he could have written satires. Shakespeare has here given a specimen of the same power, by a line bitter beyond all bitterness, in which Timon tells Apemantus that he had not virtue enough for the vices which he condemns. Dr. Warburton explains worst by lowest, which somewhat weakens the sense, and yet leaves it sufficiently vigorous. I have heard Mr. Burke commend the subtilty of discrimination with which Shakespeare distinguishes the present character of Timon from that of Apemantus, whom to vulgar eyes he would now resemble." -JOHNSON. "they mocked thee for too much CURIOSITY"-The word "curiosity" is here used in the sense of finical delicacy. So in Jervas Markham's "English Arcadia," (1606 :)—“ For all those eye-charming graces, of which with such curiosity she hath boasted." And in Hobby's translation of Castiglione's "Cortegiano," (1556 :)—" A waiting-gentlewoman should flee affection or curiosity." "Curiosity" is here inserted as a synonyme to affection, which means affectation. "wert thou the unicorn"-"The account given of the unicorn is this: that he and the lion being enemies by nature, as soon as the lion sees the unicorn he betakes himself to a tree. The unicorn in his fury, and with all the swiftness of his course, running at him, sticks his. horn fast in the tree, and then the lion falls upon him and kills him." (Gesner's "History of Animals.")-HANMER. "O thou TOUCH of hearts"-i. e. Touchstone of hearts. "you want much of MEN"-"The old copy reads:Your greatest want is, you want much of meat. fitting you as human creatures.) Stevens says, perhaps we should read: Your greatest want is, you want much of me. Your greatest want is that you expect supplies from me, of whom you can reasonably expect nothing. Your necessities are indeed desperate, when you apply to one in my situation. Dr. Farmer would point the passage differently; thus: Your greatest want is, you want much. Of meat Why should you want, etc. Johnson thinks the old reading is the true one, saying that Timon tells them their greatest want is that, like other men, the want much of meat; then telling them where meat may be had, he asks, Want! why want?' I have adopted Hanmer's reading, which is surely the true one, being exactly in the spirit of Timon's sarcastic bitterness, and supported by what he subsequently says. After telling them where food may be had which will sustain nature, the thieves say, 'We cannot live on grass, on berries, and on water.' Timon replies, Nor on the beasts, the birds, and fishes; you must eat men.' There is a double meaning implied in 'you want much of men,' which is obvious, and much in Shakespeare's manner." -SINGER. With Mr. Singer, I have adopted this emendation, against the authority of the other editions. "You want much of meat," is very tame in sense, and strange in expression. The other reading is quite in the manner of Timon's bitter pleasantry, the risus Sardonicus, playing upon words-" want much of men" being antithetically opposed to "men that much do want." 11 -the earth hath roots:' "Vile olus, et duris hærentia mora rubetis, I do not suppose these to be imitations, but only to be similar thoughts on similar occasions."-JOHNSON. As close a resemblance as this may be traced in some admirable lines, in the beginning of the first satire (book iii.) of Hall's "Satires," which, as they were published in 1598, Shakespeare could not but have read, as the popular work of a distinguished contemporary, who, at the probable date of the composition of TIMON, was making his way to high honours in the church. In contrasting modern luxury with ancient simplicity, Hall says: Time was that, whiles the autum-fall did last, * * Their only cellar was the neighbour brook, The American reader will observe, in these spirited lines, the Old-English use and origin of our Americanism of fall for autumn. The thoughts here are too obvious to every poetical mind to have been the subject of direct and intentional imitation; yet the use of the same language and order of images indicates the probability that the language of the earlier poet had suggested that of the dramatist, while that of Hall again is more immediately amplified from Juvenal. - since you PROTEST to do't"-The ordinary reading is profess. There appears no necessity for the change, for either word may be used in the sense of to declare openly. "The moon into SALT TEARS"-"The moon is called the moist star in HAMLET, and the Poet, in the last scene of the TEM PEST, has shown that he was acquainted with her influence on the tides. The watery beams of the moon are spoken of in ROMEO AND JULIET. The sea is, therefore, said to resolve her into 'salt tears,' in allusion to the flow of the tides, and perhaps of her influence upon the weather, which she is said to govern. There is an allusion to the lachrymose nature of the planet in the following apposite passage in KING RICHARD III. : That I. being govern'd by the wat'ry moon, May bring forth plenteous tears to drown the world. In the play of Albumazar,' the original of which is Lo Astrologo, by Baptista Porta, (printed at Venice, in 1606,) there is a passage which contains similar examples of thievery, beginning, 'The world's a theatre of theft,' etc. And the ode of Anacreon, which seems to have furnished the first idea of all similar passages, had been Englished by John Southern, from the French of Ronsard, previous to 1589."-SINGER. "Have uncheck'd theft"-i. e. The laws, being powerful, have their theft unchecked. "'Tis in the MALICE OF MANKIND, that he thus advises us; not to have us thrive in our mystery"-The "malice of mankind" means here Timon's malicious hatred of mankind. "He does not give us this advice to pursue our trade of stealing, etc., from any good-will to us, or a desire that we should thrive in our profession; but merely from the malicious enmity that he bears to the human race." "there is no time so miserable, but a man may be TRUE"-The second thief has just said he will give over his trade. It is time enough for that, says the first thief: let us wait till Athens is at peace. There is no hour of a man's life so wretched, but he always has it in his power to become a "true" (i. e. an honest) man. "How RARELY does it meet with this time's guise""Rarely" does not mean seldom, in our modern sense, but as anciently used, for admirably, excellently. "It almost turns my dangerous nature WILD"-This is the original text. It is like Lear's "This way madness lies." "Dangerous" is used for unsafe, subject to danger; as we still say, "a dangerous voyage." Timon, in an excited and half-frantic state of mind, indignant at all mankind, is startled by unexpected kindness, which he says almost makes him mad. It strikes me as a touch of the same discriminating and experienced observation of the "variable weather of the mind,"-the reason goaded by misery, and verging to insanity,that furnished material for all the great Poet's portraitures of the disturbed or shattered intellect. Warburton proposed, and several of the best critics have approved of, the emendation of mild for wild, because such unexpected fidelity was likely to soothe and mollify the inisanthrope's temper. It is not in unison with the spirit of the passage. "Enter Poet and Painter"-Johnson has truly remarked upon the inconvenience of commencing the fifth act here, as the Poet and Painter were in sight of Apemantus before he quitted the scene. He suspected some transposition of the scenes, as they have come down to us; but the difficulty is to arrange them otherwise than as at present, and to begin act v. at any other point. The divisions are modern, not being marked in the folio of 1623, nor in any subsequent edition in that form. seen.' has been the usual modern stage-direction at the opening of the act; but although he may be supposed to have overheard them, it is to be concluded that he here comes forward, and shows himself to the audience, though still unseen by the Poet and Painter. All that Timon says, therefore, in this part of the scene, is aside."-COLLIER. "before BLACK-CORNER'D night"-Stevens says that this means only "night which is obscure as a dark corner," a meaning the Poet could scarcely have had. The phrase is dark in every sense, being, in all probability, a misprint for some epithet which we cannot certainly ascertain. Black-coned, black-covered, and blackcurtained night, have all been proposed. The last is of "night's black mantle," and "night's pitchy mantle." the most probable, the Poet having elsewhere spoken "Thou draw'st a COUNTERFEIT"-A "counterfeit" was an old word of frequent use for a portrait. Few readers can forgetfair Portia's counterfeit. "You have DONE work for me"-"This is the ordinary reading. Malone says, For the insertion of the word done, which it is manifest was omitted by the negligence of the compositor, I am answerable. Timon in this line addresses the Painter, whom he before called, excellent workman: in the next, the Poet.' It appears to us that this is a hasty correction. Timon has overheard both the Poet and the Painter declaring that they have nothing to present to him at that time but promises, and it is with bitter irony that he says, 'excellent workman.' In the same sarcastic spirit he now says, 'You have work for me-there's payment.'" -KNIGHT. Of its own fall, restraining aid to Timon," etc. That is-Becomes sensible that it is about to fall by withholding aid from Timon. "-to make their sorrowed RENDER"-" Render" is confession. So in CYMBELINE, (act iv. scene 4 :)may drive us to a render Where we have lived. "Together with a recompense more fruitful"-i. e. A recompense so large that the offence they have com into the scale, cannot counterpoise it. Enter TIMON, from his Cave"-"So the stage-direc-mitted, though every dram of that offence should be put tion in the old copies, from which it seems unnecessary to deviate. Timon is usually represented as in sight during the introductory dialogue between the Poet and Painter: Enter Poet and Painter; Timon behind, un "My long SICKNESS"-i. e. "The disease of life begins to promise me a period."-JOHNSON. "I have a tree, which grows here in my close"-The story of Timon was familiar to unlearned readers, in Shakespeare's day, through various popular sources. One of the variations of his story, best known to a popular audience, was that contained in the collection by Paynter, entitled the "Palace of Pleasure," (1575.) It is as follows, which the reader will perceive describes a common-place cynic, very different from the Poet's generous-spirited Timon, driven to misanthropy by base ingratitude: "Of the strange and beastly nature of Timon of Athens, enemy to mankind, with his death, burial, and epitaph. "All the beasts of the world do apply themselves to other beasts of their kind, Timon of Athens only excepted: of whose strange nature Plutarch is astonied, in the life of Marcus Antonius. Plato and Aristophanes do report his marvellous nature, because he was a man but by shape only: in qualities he was the capital enemy of mankind, which he confessed frankly utterly to abhor and hate. He dwelt alone in a little cabin, in the fields, not far from Athens, separated from all neighbours and company: he never went to the city, or to any other habitable place, except he was constrained. He could not abide any man's company and conversation: he was never seen to go to any man's house, nor yet would suffer them to come to him. At the same time there was in Athens another of like quality, called Apemantus, of the very same nature, different from the natural kind of man, and lodged likewise in the middle of the fields. On a day they two being alone together at dinner, Apemantus said unto him, O, Timon, what a pleasant feast is this! and what a merry company are we, being no more but thou and I! Nay, (quoth Timon,) it would be a merry banquet indeed, if there were none here but myself!' Wherein he showed how like a beast (indeed) he was; for he could not abide any other man, being not able to suffer the company of him which was of like nature. And if by chance he happened to go to Athens, it was only to speak with Alcibiades, who then was an excellent captain there, whereat many did marvel; and therefore Apemantus demanded of him, why he spake to no man but to Alcibiades. I speak to him sometimes, (said Timon,) because I know that by his occasion the Athenians shall receive great hurt and trouble.' Which words many times he told to Alcibiades himself. "He had a garden adjoining to his house in the fields, wherein was a fig-tree, whereupon many desperate men ordinarily did hang themselves; in place whereof he purposed to set up a house, and therefore was forced to cut it down. For which cause he went to Athens, and in the market-place he called the people about him, saying that he had news to tell them. When the people understood that he was about to make a discourse unto them, which was wont to speak to no man, they marvelled, and the citizens on every part of the city ran to hear him; to whom he said, that he purposed to cut down his fig-tree to build a house upon the place where it stood. Wherefore, (quoth he,) if there be any man among you all in this company that is disposed to hang himself, let him come betimes before it be cut down.' Having thus bestowed this charity among the people, he returned to his lodging, where he lived a certain time after without alteration of nature; and because that nature changed not in his life-time, he would not suffer that death should alter or vary the same: for like as he lived a beastly and churlish life, even so he required to have his funeral done after that manner. By his last will he ordained himself to be interred upon the seashore, that the waves and surges might beat and vex his dead carcase. Yea, and that if it were possible, his desire was to be buried in the depth of the sea; causing an epitaph to be made, wherein were described the qualities of his brutish life. Plutarch also reporteth another to be made by Callimachus, much like to that which Timon made himself, whose own soundeth to this effect in English verse: My wretched catife days, In waltring waves of swel- The gods thee do confound." "with his EMBOSSED froth"-i. e. Swollen, foaming froth. As elsewhere noted, "embossed" was a hunting term, applied to the deer when hard run, and foaming; and this might have been in the Poet's mind. But a boss, or bubble of water, as "when it raineth, or the pot seetheth," was familiar Old-English. It, therefore, refers to the sea's swelling foam. SCENE IV. "Some beast REAR'D this"-The old copies have read for "rear'd." Johnson was in favour of read, instead of "rear'd," which was substituted by Theobald. It would, however, be strange for the Soldier to call upon a beast to read that which, he tells us just afterwards, he could not read himself. SCENE V. "with our TRAVERS'D arms"-i. e. Arms across. The same image occurs in the TEMPEST: His arms in this sad knot. -that they wanted CUNNING"-i. e. Knowledge; the etymological meaning of the word, and used as in the liturgical version of the Psalms-Saxon, connan, (to know.) The line, like many others, is wrongly printed in parenthesis, in the old copies. "RENDERED to your public laws"-The original folio reads, and the modern editions retain, "but shall be remedied;" the second folio has "remedied by,"neither of which gives any determinate sense. I have no doubt that it is an error of the printer of the old manuscript, as "rendered" is the most probable word. Remitted, and remanded, have been proposed by others, giving the same sense; but the words are less in the manner of the Poet's age. "The remarks of Schlegel are worthy of the writer, although his estimate of the character of Timon is more severe than is warranted by the incidents of the drama : "Of all the works of Shakespeare, TIMON OF ATHENS possesses most the character of a satire: a laughing satire, in the picture of the parasites and flatterers; and a Juvenalian, in the bitterness and the imprecations of Timon against the ingratitude of a false world. The story is treated in a very simple manner, and is definitely divided into large masses. In the first act, the joyous life of Timon; his noble and hospitable extravagance, and the throng of every description of suitors of him: in the second and third acts, his embarrassment, and the trial which he is thereby reduced to make of his supposed friends, who all desert him in the hour of need: in the fourth and fifth acts, Timon's flight to the woods, his misanthropical melancholy, and his death. The only thing which may be called an episode is the banishment of Alcibiades, and his return by force of arms. However, they are both examples of ingratitude: the one, of a state towards its defender; and the other, of private friends to their benefactor. As the merits of the general towards his fellow-citizens suppose more strength of character than those of the generous prodigal, their respective behaviours are no less different: Timon frets himself to death; Alcibiades regains his lost dignity by violence. but in the humility of not perceiving that he really was so, in the boundless and unsuspecting generosity of his disposition. Timon is not to be considered an object of imitation; but it is plain that, had he not thought as well of others as of himself, he would not have been overwhelmed with horror and astonishment on the discovery of his fatal mistake."-Illust. Shak. "TIMON OF ATHENS is cast as it were in the same mould as LEAR; it is the same essential character, the "If the Poet very properly sides with Timon against same generosity more from wanton ostentation than the common practice of the world, he is, on the other love of others, the same fierce rage under the smart of hand, by no means disposed to spare Timon. Timon ingratitude, the same rousing up, in that tempest, of was a fool in his generosity; he is a madman in his dis- powers that had slumbered unsuspected in some deep content; he is every where wanting in the wisdom recess of the soul; for had Timon or Lear known that which enables men in all things to observe the due philosophy of human nature in their calmer moments measure. Although the truth of his extravagant feel- which fury brought forth, they would never have had ings is proved by his death, and though, when he digs such terrible occasion to display it. The thoughtless up a treasure, he spurns at the wealth which seems to confidence of Lear in his children has something in it solicit him, we yet see distinctly enough that the vanity far more touching than the self-beggary of Timon: of wishing to be singular, in both parts of the play, had though both one and the other have prototypes enough some share in his liberal self-forgetfulness, as well as in in real life. And as we give the old king more of our his anchoretical seclusion. This is particularly evident || pity, so a more intense abhorrence accompanies his in the incomparable scene where the cynic Apemantus daughters and the worse characters of that drama, than visits Timon in the wilderness. They have a sort of we spare for the miserable sycophants of the Athenian. competition with each other in their trade of misanthro- Their thanklessness is anticipated, and springs from the py: the cynic reproaches the impoverished Timon with very nature of their calling; it verges on the beaten having been merely driven by necessity to take to the way road of comedy. In this play there is neither a female of living which he had been long following of his own personage, except two courtesans, who hardly speak, free choice; and Timon cannot bear the thought of nor any prominent character, (the honest steward is not being merely an imitator of the cynic. As in this sub- such,) redeemed by virtue enough to be estimable; for ject, the effect could only be produced by an accumula- the cynic Apemantus is but a cynic, and ill replaces the tion of similar features, in the variety of the shades an noble Kent of the other drama. The fable, if fable it amazing degree of understanding has been displayed by can be called, is so extraordinarily deficient in actionShakespeare. What a powerfully diversified concert a fault of which Shakespeare is not guilty in any other of flatteries, and empty testimonies of devotedness! It instance that we may wonder a little how he should is highly amusing to see the suitors, whom the ruined have seen in the single delineation of Timon a countercircumstances of their patron had dispersed, immediately balance for the manifold objections to this subject. flock to him again when they learn that he has been revisited by fortune. In the speeches of Timon after he is undeceived, all the hostile figures of language are exhausted; it is a dictionary of eloquent imprecation.'SCHLEGEL. "Alas! the error of hapless Timon lay not (as the critic supposes) in 'the vanity of wishing to be singular,' * # "Timon is less read and less pleasing than the great majority of Shakespeare's plays; but it abounds with signs of his geuius. Schlegel observes that of all his works it is that which has most satire; comic in representation of the parasites, indignant and Juvenalian in the bursts of Timon himself."-HALLAM. |