My most honour'd lord, For any benefit that points to me, Either in hope or present, I'd exchange it For this one wish, that you had power and wealth Tim. Look thee, 'tis so! - Thou singly honest man, Have sent thee treasure. Go, live rich and happy, 61 But thus condition'd: Thou shalt build from men ; But let the famish'd flesh slide from the bone, Ere thou relieve the beggar: give to dogs What thou deny'st to men; let prisons swallow 'em, Debts wither 'em to nothing: be men like blasted woods, And may diseases lick up their false bloods! Curses, stay not; fly, whilst thou'rt blest and free: Ne'er see thou man, and let me ne'er see thee. [Exit Steward. TIMON retires to his cave. 61 Meaning apart, sequestered, or remote from human society. - Thus condition'd is on these conditions. ACT V. SCENE I. - The Woods. Before TIMON's Cave. Enter Poet and Painter; TIMON watching them from his cave. Pain. As I took note of the place,1 it cannot be far where he abides. Poet. What's to be thought of him? does the rumor hold for true, that he's so full of gold? Pain. Certain Alcibiades reports it; Phrynia and Timandra had gold of him; he likewise enrich'd poor straggling soldiers with great quantity; 'tis said he gave unto his steward a mighty sum. Poet. Then this breaking of his has been but a try for his friends. Pain. Nothing else: you shall see him a palm in Athens again, and flourish with the highest. Therefore 'tis not amiss we tender our loves to him, in this supposed distress of his : it will show honestly in us; and is very likely to load our purposes with what they travail for, if it be a just and true report that goes of his having. Poet. What have you now to present unto him? 1 This obviously infers that the Painter, having heard the rumour of Timon's new wealth, has before been out, alone, on a tour of exploration, to ascertain his whereabout, and perhaps also to gather more certainty touching his present condition. The Poet appears to have been rather incredulous of the rumour in question; so that he could not be induced to accompany the Painter in his quest, till that strange rumour had been further strengthened by the reports about the Steward and the Banditti who had tried to pass themselves off as "poor soldiers." Of course a period of some days must be supposed to have elapsed since Timon's enrichment of the thieves and the Steward. Pain. Nothing at this time but my visitation: only I will promise him an excellent piece. Poet. I must serve him so too; tell him of an intent that's coming toward him. Pain. Good as the best. Promising is the very air o' the time; it opens the eyes of expectation: performance is ever the duller for his act; and, but in the plainer and simpler kind of people, the deed of saying 2 is quite out of use. To promise is most courtly and fashionable: performance is a kind of will or testament which argues a great sickness in his judgment that makes it. [TIMON advances a little. Tim. [Aside.] Excellent workman! thou canst not paint a man so bad as is thyself. Poet. I am thinking what I shall say I have provided for him it must be a personating 3 of himself; a satire against the softness of prosperity, with a discovery of the infinite flatteries that follow youth and opulency. Tim. [Aside.] Must thou needs stand for a villain in thine own work? wilt thou whip thine own faults in other men? Do so, I have gold for thee. Poet. Nay, let's seek him: Then do we sin against our own estate, When we may profit meet, and come too late. Pain. True; When the day serves, before black-curtain'd night,4 Tim. [Aside.] I'll meet you at the turn. What a god's 2 That is, the doing of that which we have said we would do. 3 Not a personating in our sense of the word, but what we should call a representing. The theme of satire is to be Timon's case, not his person. 4 The image of the world being covered or curtained with blackness at night seems to have been a general favourite. So in 1 King Henry VI., ii. 2: "Night is fled, whose pitchy mantle over-veil'd the Earth." And in Macbeth, i. 5: "Nor Heaven peep through the blanket of the dark." gold, that he is worshipp'd in a baser temple than where swine feed! 'Tis thou that rigg'st the bark and plough'st the foam; Settlest admirèd reverence in a slave : To thee be worship! and thy saints for aye Be crown'd with plagues, that thee alone obey! Poet. Hail, worthy Timon! [Comes forward. Our late noble master! Tim. Have I once lived to see two honest men? Whose star-like nobleness gave life and influence With any size of words. Tim. Let it go naked, men may see't the better: You that are honest, by being what you are, Make them best seen and known. Pain. He and myself Have travell'd in the great shower of your gifts, And sweetly felt it. Tim. Ay, you're honest men. Pain. We're hither come to offer you our service. Tim. Most honest men! Why, how shall I requite you? Can you eat roots, and drink cold water? no. Both. What we can do, we'll do, to do you service. Tim. Ye're honest men: ye've heard that I have gold; I'm sure you have: speak truth; ye're honest men. Tim. Good honest men ! - Thou draw'st a counterfeit 5 Best in all Athens: thou'rt, indeed, the best ; Thou counterfeit'st most lively. Pain. So so, my lord. Tim. E'en so, sir, as I say. - And, for thy fiction, Marry, 'tis not monstrous in you; neither wish I Both. To make it known to us. Tim. Beseech your Honour You'll take it ill. Will you, indeed? Both. Most thankfully, my lord. 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,7 love him, feed him, keep Him in your bosom : yet remain assured That he's a made-up villain.8 Pain. I know none such, my lord. Poet. Nor I. Tim. Look you, I love you well; I'll give you gold, Rid me these villains from your companies: 5 An equivoque, as counterfeit was used for portrait. See vol. iii. page 174, note 24. 6 Another equivoque; one sense of natural being fool. 7 Patchery is roguery. So in Troilus and Cressida, ii. 3: Here is such patchery, such juggling, such knavery!"— To cog is to cheat, as in loading dice, to lie. See vol. ii. page 85, note 24. 8 Probably meaning a finished or complete villain. |