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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.

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 triumphers 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.
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 hath felt the axe,
And hang himself: —I pray you, do my greeting.

1 "The prosperous gods" undoubtedly here mean the propitious or favorable gods, Dii secundi.

2 He means "the disease of life begins to promise me a period."

3 This was suggested by a passage in Plutarch's Life of Antony, where it is said Timon addressed the people of Athens in similar terms from the

Flav. Trouble him no further; thus

find him.

you still shall

Tim. Come not to me again: but say to Athens, Timon hath made his everlasting mansion Upon the beached verge of the salt flood; Whom once a day with his embossed froth' The turbulent surge shall cover; thither come, And let my gravestone 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. [Exit Timon

1 Sen. His discontents are unremovably 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.

1 Sen.

It requires swift foot.

[Exeunt.

SCENE III. The Walls of Athens.

Enter two Senators and a Messenger.

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

Mess.

I have spoke the least:

Besides, his expedition promises

Present approach.

2 Sen. We stand much hazard, if they bring not

Timon.

Mess. I met a courier, one mine ancient friend: Whom, though in general part we were opposed, Yet our old love made a particular force,

public tribune in the market-place. See also The Palace of Pleasure, vol. i. Nov. 28.

1 The first folio reads who. It was altered to which in the second folio. Malone reads whom, saying it refers to Timon, and not to his grave.

Embossed froth is foaming, puffed or blown up froth.

[blocks in formation]

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 moved.

1 Sen.

Enter Senators from TIMON.

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.

[Exeunt.

SCENE IV. The Woods. Timon's Cave, and a Tombstone seen.

Enter a Soldier, seeking Timon.

Sol. By all description this should be the place.
Who's here? speak, ho!-No answer?-What is this?
Timon is dead, who hath outstretched his span:
Some beast reared 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 skill;

An aged interpreter, though young in days:
Before proud Athens he's set down by this,
Whose fall the mark of his ambition is.

[Exit.

1 This passage, Steevens, with great reason, considers corrupt; the awkward repetition of the verb made, and the obscurity of the whole, countenance his opinion. Might we not read,

"Yet our old love had a particular force,

And made us speak like friends?"

2 The old copy has "Some beast read this." The emendation is Warburton's.

SCENE V. Before the Walls of Athens.

Trumpets sound. Enter ALCIBIADES, and Forces. Alcib. Sound to this coward and lascivious town Our terrible approach. [A parley sounded.

Enter Senators on the walls.

Till now you have gone on, and filled the time.
With all licentious measure, making your wills
The scope of justice; till now, myself, and such.
As slept within the shadow of your power,

Have wandered with our traversed arms,1 and breathed
Our sufferance vainly. Now the time is flush,2
When crouching marrow,3 in the bearer strong,
Cries of itself, No more: now breathless wrong
Shall sit and pant in your great chairs of ease,
And pursy insolence shall break his wind,
With fear and horrid flight.

1 Sen.
Noble and young,
When thy first griefs were but a mere conceit,
Ere thou hadst power, or we had cause of fear,
We sent to thee; to give thy rages balm,

To wipe out our ingratitude with loves

Above their quantity.'

2 Sen.

So did we woo

Transformed Timon to our city's love,

By humbled message, and by promised means;
We were not all unkind, nor all deserve

The common stroke of war.

1 Sen.

These walls of ours

Were not erected by their hands, from whom

1 Traversed arms are arms crossed.

2 Flush is mature, ripe, or come to full perfection.

3 Crouching marrow. The marrow was supposed to be the original of strength. The image is from a camel kneeling to take up his load, who rises when he finds he has as much laid on him as he can bear.

4 Their refers to griefs. "To give thy rages balm," must be considered as parenthetical.

You have received your griefs; nor are they such, That these great towers, trophies, and schools should

fall

For private faults in them.

2 Sen.
Nor are they living,
Who were the motives that you first went out;'
Shame, that they wanted cunning, in excess
Hath broke their hearts. March, noble lord,
Into our city with thy banners spread.
By decimation, and a tithed death,

(If thy revenges hunger for that food,

Which nature loathes,) take thou the destined tenth; And by the hazard of the spotted die,

Let die the spotted.

1 Sen.

All have not offended;

3

For those that were, it is not square, to take,
On those that are, revenges: crimes, like lands,
Are not inherited. Then, dear countryman,
Bring in thy ranks, but leave without thy rage.
Spare thy Athenian cradle, and those kin,
Which, in the bluster of thy wrath, must fall
With those that have offended: like a shepherd,
Approach the fold, and cull the infected forth,
But kill not all together.

2 Sen.

What thou wilt,

Thou rather shalt enforce it with thy smile,

Than hew to't with thy sword.

1 Sen.

Set but thy foot

Against our rampired gates, and they shall ope;

So thou wilt send thy gentle heart before,

To say thou'lt enter friendly.

Or

2 Sen.

Throw thy glove

any token of thine honor else,

1 i. e. those who made the motion for your exile.

2 Cunning is used in its old sense of skill or wisdom: extremity of shame that they wanted wisdom in procuring your banishment hath broke their hearts. Theobald had nearly thus interpreted the passage; and Johnson thought he could improve it by reading

"Shame that they wanted, coming in excess

Hath broke their hearts."

3 i. e. not regular.

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