Apem. 'Faith, for the worft is filthy; and would not hold taking, I doubt me. Tim. Ladies, there is an idle banquet attends you 7. Please you to dispose yourselves. All Lad. Moft thankfully, my lord. Tim. Flavius, Flav. My lord. [Exeunt CUPID, and Ladies. Tim. The little cafket bring me hither. Elfe I should tell him,-Well,-i'faith, I should, [Afide. When all's spent, he'd be crofs'd then, an he could®. That man might ne'er be wretched for his mind'. [Exit, and returns, with the cafket. 1. Lord. Where be our men? Serv. Here, my lord, in readiness. 2. Lord. Our horfes. Tim. O my friends, I have one word I believe the meaning is, "You have conceived the fairest of us," (to ufe the words of Lucullus in a fubfequent scene ;) you have estimated us too highly, perhaps above our deferts. So Spenfer, F.2. B. VI. c.9: "He would commend his guift, and make the beft." MALONE. there is an idle banquet attends you.] So, in Romeo and Juliet : "We have a foolish trifling fupper towards." STEEVENS. 7 be'd be crofs'd then, an be could.] The poet does not mean here, that he would be crofs'd in humour, but that he would have his hand crofs'd with money, if he could. He is playing on the word, and alluding to our old filver penny, ufed before King Edward the firft's time, which had a crofs on the reverse with a creafe, that it might be more easily broke into halves and quarters, half-pence and farthings. Fom this penny, and other pieces, was our common expreffion derived, I bave not a cross about me; i. e. not a piece of money. THEOBALD. The poet certainly meant this equivoque, but one of the fenfes intended to be conveyed was, he will then too late with that it were poffible to undo what he had done: he will in vain lament that I did not thwart him in his career of prodigality. MALONE. 9 — eyes bebind ;] To fee the miferies that are following her. JOHNSON. 1 — fer his mind.] For nobleness of soul. JOHNSON. To if. To fay to you:-Look you, my good lord, I muft 1. Lord. I am fo far already in your gifts,- Enter a Servant. Serv. My lord, there are certain nobles of the fenate Newly alighted, and come to vifit you. Tim. They are fairly welcome. Flav. I beseech your honour, Vouchsafe me a word; it does concern you near. To fhew them entertainment. Flav. I fcarce know how. Enter another Servant. [Afide. 2. Serv. May it please your honour, lord Lucius, Out of his free love, hath prefented to you Four milk-white horfes, trapt in filver. Tim. I fhall accept them fairly: let the prefents 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 fent your honour two brace of greyhounds. Tim. I'll hunt with him; And let them be receiv'd, Not without fair reward. Flav. [Afide.] What will this come to? He commands us to provide, and give great gifts, And all out of an empty coffer. Nor will he know his purfe; or yield me this, 2 to Advance this jewel;] To prefer it; to raise it to honour by wearing it. JOHNSON. To To fhew him what a beggar his heart is, That what he speaks is all in debt, he owes Happier is he that has no friend to feed, Tim. You do yourselves [Exit. Much wrong, you bate too much of your own merits :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 foul of bounty! Tim. And now I remember, my lord, you gave good words the other day of a bay courfer I rode on: it is yours, because you liked it. 2. Lord. O, I befeech you, pardon me, my lord, In that. Tim. You may take my word, my lord; I know, no man Can juftly praise, but what he does affect: I weigh my friend's affection with mine own; All Lords. O, none so welcome. Tim. I take all and your several visitations 3 I tell you true.] The old copy reads I'll tell you true. The correction was made by Dr. Johnfon. MALONE. 4-'tis not enough to give; Methinks, I could deal kingdoms-] What I have already given, fays Timon, is not fufficient on the occafion: Methinks I could deal kingdoms, i. e. I could difpenfe them on every fide with an ungrudging distribution, like that with which I could deal out cards, STEEVENS. Thou Thou art a foldier, therefore feldom rich, Alc. Ay, defiled land, my lord. 1. Lord. We are fo virtuously bound,Tim. And fo am I to you. 2. Lord. So infinite endear'd, Tim. All to you .-Lights, more lights.] 1. Lord. The best of happiness, Honour, and fortunes, keep with you, lord Timon! Tim. Ready for his friends. [Exeunt ALCIBIADES, Lords, &c. Apem. What a coil's here! Serving of becks, and jutting out of bums! That 5 Ay, defiled land,-] This is the old reading, which apparently depends on a very low quibble. Alcibiades is told, that bis eftate lietb in a pitch'd field. Now pitch, as Falstaff fays, dotb defile. Alcibiades therefore replies, that his estate lies in defiled land. This, as it happened, was not understood, and all the editors published: I defy land,-. JOHNSON. I being always printed in the old copy for Ay, the editor of the fecond folio made the abfurd alteration mentioned by Dr. Johnson. MALONE. 6 All to you.] i. e. all good wishes, or all happiness to you. So, Macbeth: "All to all." STEEVENS. 1 7 Serving of becks,] Beck means a falutation made with the head. So Milton: "Nods and becks, and wreathed fmiles." To ferve a beck, is to offer a falutation. JOHNSON. To ferve 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." In Merry Tricks or Ram-Alley, 1611, I find the fame word: "I had my winks, my becks, treads on the to:." Again, in Heywood's Rape of Lucrece, 1630: wanton looks, "And privy becks, favouring incontinence." Vol. VIII. D Again, That are given for 'em. Friendship's full of dregs: Apem. No, I'll nothing: for, If I should be brib'd too, there would be none left Wilt give away thyfelf in paper shortly 9: What need thefe feafts, pomps, and vain-glories? Tim. Nay, an you begin to rail on fociety once, I am fworn, not to give regard to you. Farewel; and come with better mufick. Apem. So ; [Exit. Thou wilt not hear me now,-thou shalt not then, I'll lock Thy heaven' from thee. O, that men's ears should be To counsel deaf, but not to flattery! [Exit. ◆gain, in Lylly'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 fignifications. In Drayton's Polyolbion, it is enumerated among the appellations of fmall ftreams of water. In Shakspeare's Antony and Cleopatra, it has its common meaning-a fign of invitation made by the band. In Timon, it appears to denote a bow, and in Lylly's play, a nod of dignity or command. STEEVENS. See Surrey's Poems, p. 29: "And with a becke full lowe he bowed at her feete. TYRWHITT. I doubt, whether their legs, &c.] He plays upon the word leg, as it fignifies a limb and a bow or act of obeisance. JoHNSON. See Vol..V. P. 180, n. 4. MALONE. 9- I fear me, thou Wilt give away thyself in paper shortly:] i. e. be ruined by his fecurities entered into. WARBURTON. 1 Thy beaven-] The pleasure of being flattered. JOHNSON. Apemantus never intended in any event to flatter Timon, nor did Timon expect any flattery from him. By his beaven, he means good advice, the only thing by which he could be saved. The following lines confirm this explanation. Mason. ACT |