If I would broach the vessels of my love,
And try the argument 14 of hearts by borrowing,
Men and men's fortunes could I frankly use

As I can bid thee speak.

Stew.

Assurance bless your thoughts! 15

Tim. And, in some sort, these wants of mine are crown'd,16

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. —

Within there! Flavius! Servilius !

Enter FLAVIUS, SERVILIUS, and other Servants.

Servants. My lord? my lord?.

Tim. I will dispatch you severally: [To SERVIL.] you to *Lord Lucius ; [To FLAV.] to Lord Lucullus you; I hunted *with his Honour to-day ;—[To another Serv.] you to Sem*pronius commend me to their loves; and, I am proud, say, *that my occasions have found time to use 'em toward a *supply of money: let the request be fifty talents. *Flav. As you have said, my lord.

[Exit with SERVILIUS and another Servant. *Stew. [Aside.] Lord Lucius and Lucullus? hum! Tim. [To another Serv.] Go you, sir, to the Senators; Of whom, even to the State's best health, I have Deserved this hearing; bid 'em send o' the instant A thousand talents to me.

Stew.

I have been bold

[Exit Servant.

"Secure thy heart" is equivalent to make thy heart easy, that is, disburden it of care. So Shakespeare often uses the adjective secure in the sense of careless or negligent.

14 Argument for contents. The word is still used, to signify the contents of a book or a poem.

15 That is, may your confidence in others prove a blessing to you.

16 Crown'd here is dignified or made noble; raised to honour.

For that I knew it the most general 17 way
To them to use your signet and your name;
But they do shake their heads, and I am here
No richer in return.

Stew. They answer, in a joint and corporate voice,
That now they are at fall, want treasure, cannot
Do what they would; are sorry,—you are honourable,
But yet they could have wish'd they know not what ;-
Something hath been amiss, a noble nature

May catch a wrench, would all were well, 'tis pity:
And so, intending 18 other serious matters,

After distasteful looks and these hard fractions, 19
With certain half-caps and cold-moving nods
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: Their blood is caked, '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. [To another Serv.] Go to Ventidius, - [To the Stew.] Pr'ythee, be not sad,

Thou'rt true and honest; ingeniously 20 I speak,

No blame belongs to thee: [To the same Serv.] Ventidius lately

Buried his father; by whose death he's stepp'd

17 General in the sense of usual or common.

18 Intending for pretending; the two being often used interchangeably. See vol. ix. page 218, note 2.

19 Fractions here means broken hints, fragments of speech. A half-cap is a cap slightly moved, not taken off; a ceremony of respect, with a sneer lurking behind it.

20 Ingenious in its old sense of ingenuous. See vol. xiv. page 297, note 28.

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, which craves to be remember'd
With those five talents.

[Exit Serv.

[To the Stew.] That had, give't these fellows To whom 'tis instant due. Ne'er speak, or think, That Timon's fortunes 'mong his friends can sink.

Stew. I would I could not think't; that thought is

bounty's foe:

Being free itself, it thinks all others so.

[Exeunt.

ACT III.

*SCENE I.- Athens. A Room in LUCULLUS'S House.

*FLAVIUS waiting. Enter a Servant to him.

*Serv. I have told my lord of you; he is coming down *to you.

*Flav. I thank you, sir.

*Enter LUCULLUS.

*Serv. Here's my lord.

*Lucul. [Aside.] One of Lord Timon's men? a gift, I warrant. Why, this hits right; I dreamt of a silver basin and ewer to-night. - Flavius, honest Flavius; you are very *respectively welcome, sir.-Fill me some wine. [Exit *Serv.] And how does that honourable, complete, free

1

1 Respectively for respectfully. So in Defoe's Colonel Jack, 1738: "She bow'd to me very respectively."

*hearted gentleman of Athens, thy very bountiful good lord *and master?

*Flav. 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 Flavius?

*Flav. 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 lordship to furnish him, nothing doubting *your present 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 ha' 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 em*brace no counsel, take no warning by my coming. Every *man has his fault, and honesty 2 is his : I ha' told him on't, *but I could ne'er get him from't.

*Re-enter Servant, with wine.

*Serv. Please your lordship, here is the wine.

*Lucul. Flavius, I have noted thee always wise. Here's *to thee. [Drinks, and then gives him wine.

*Flav. Your lordship speaks your pleasure.

Lucul. I have observed thee always for a towardly prompt *spirit, — give thee thy due, — and one that knows what be*longs to reason; and canst use the time well, if the time use *thee well: good parts in thee. --[To Serv.] Get you gone, *sirrah. [Exit Serv.] — Draw nearer, honest Flavius. 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,

2 Honesty for liberality or generosity. So Baret: "That nobleness of spirit or honesty that free-born men have."

without security. Here's three solidares 3 for thee: good *boy, wink at me, and say thou saw'st me not. Fare thee *well.

*Flav. Is't possible the world should so much differ, *And we alive that lived?4 Fly, damnèd baseness, *To him that worships thee! [Throwing the money back. *Lucul. Ha! now I see thou art a fool, and fit for thy

master.

[Exit. *Flav. May these add to the number that may scald thee! *Let molten coin be thy damnation,5

*Thou disease of a friend, 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 !6 Why, this slave
*Unto this hour has my lord's meat in him :
*Why should it thrive, and turn to nutriment
*In him, when he is turn'd to poison? O,
*May disease only work upon't! and, when
*He's sick to death, let not that part of's nature
*Which my lord paid for be of any power

*To expel sickness, but prolong his hour!

[Exit.

3 Solidares was probably formed by the author from the Italian solido, which Florio defines "a coine called a sould or shilling."

4 Meaning, probably, "Is it possible the world should have grown so different during the time that we have lived?"

5 The covetous and avaricious were represented as being punished in Hell by having melted gold poured down their throats. So in an old ballad, The Dead Man's Song: "Ladles full of melted gold were poured down their throats."

6 Passion is here used in its original sense of suffering or anguish.

His, again, for its, referring to sickness. The speaker's imprecation is, that the meat of Timon's which Lucullus has in him, or the strength derived from it, may only serve to feed his sickness, and thus prolong its duration.