TIMON, a noble Athenian. LUCIUS, } Lords, and Flatterers of Timon. VENTIDIUS, one of Timon's false Friends. Two Servants of Varro, and the Servant of Isidore; two of Timon's Creditors. Cupid and Maskers. Three Strangers. PHRYNIA,1 } Mistresses to Alcibiades. Other Lords, Senators, Officers, Soldiers, Thieves, and Attendants. SCENE, ATHENS; and the Woods adjoining. 1 Phrynia,] (or as this name should have been written by Shakspeare, Phryne,) was an Athenian courtezan so exquisitely beautiful, that when her judges were proceeding to condemn her for numerous and enormous offences, a sight of her bosom (which as we learn from Quintilian, had been artfully denuded by her advocate,) disarmed the court of its severity, and secured her life from the sentence of the law. STEEVENS. TIMON OF ATHENS. ACT I. SCENE I. - Athens. A Hall in Timon's House. Enter Poet, Painter, Jeweller, Merchant, and Others, at several Doors. Good day, sir. Pain. Poet. I am glad you are well. Poet. I have not seen you long; How goes the world? Pain. It wears, sir, as it grows. Poet. Ay, that's well known: See, But what particular rarity? what strange, Jew. Nay, that's most fix'd. Mer. A most incomparable man; breath'd, as it were,' To an untirable and continuate goodness: He passes.2 1 breath'd, as it were,] Breathed is inured by constant practice; so trained as not to be wearied. To breathe a horse, is to exercise him for the course. JOHNSON. 2 He passes.] i. e. exceeds, goes beyond common bounds. Mer. O, pray, let's see't: For the lord Timon, sir? Jew. If he will touch the estimate: But, for that-Poet. When we for recompense have prais'd the vile, It stains the glory in that happy verse Which aptly sings the good. Mer. 'Tis a good form. [Looking at the jewel. Jew. And rich: here is a water, look you. Pain. You are rapt, sir, in some work, some dedi From whence 'tis nourished: The fire i'the flint Each bound it chafes. Pain. A picture, sir. forth? What have you there? - And when+ comes your book Poet. Upon the heels of my presentment, sir. Let's see your piece. Pain. "Tis a good piece. Poet. So tis: this comes off well and excellent. Poet. grace Admirable: How this Speaks his own standing! what a mental power 3 touch the estimate:] Come up to the price. 4 When we for recompense, &c.] We must here suppose the poet busy in reading in his own work; and that these three lines are the introduction of the poem addressed to Timon, which he afterwards gives the painter an account of. WARBURTON. - and, like the current, flies Each bound it chafes.] This jumble of incongruous images seems to have been designed, and put into the mouth of the poetaster, that the reader might appreciate his talents: his language therefore should not be considered in the abstract. + Mr. Malone omits And. This eye shoots forth how big imagination Moves in this lip! to the dumbness of the gesture One might interpret. Pain. It is a pretty mocking of the life. Here is a touch; is't good? Poet. It tutors nature: artificial strife 6 I'll say of it, Lives in these touches, livelier than life. Enter certain Senators, and pass over. Pain. How this lord's follow'd! Poet. The senators of Athens: - Happy men! Pain. Look, more! Poet. You see this confluence, this great flood of visitors. I have, in this rough work, shap'd out a man, But flies an eagle flight, bold, and forth on, Pain. How shall I understand you? Poet. I'll unbolt' to you. You see how all conditions, how all minds, (As well of glib and slippery creatures, as 6 artificial strife —] Strife is the contest of art with nature. 7 Halts not particularly,] My design does not stop at any single character. JOHNSON. 8 In a wide sea of war:] Anciently they wrote upon waxen tables with an iron style. 9— no levell'd malice, &c.] To level is to aim, to point the shot at a mark. Shakspeare's meaning is, my poem is not a satire written with any particular view, or levelled at any single person; I fly like an eagle into the general expanse of life, and leave not, by any private mischief, the trace of my passage. 1 · I'll unbolt —] I'll open, I'll explain. JOHNSON. Of grave and austere quality,) tender down Pain. I saw them speak together. Poet. Sir, I have upon a high and pleasant hill, Feign'd Fortune to be thron'd: The base o'the mount Is rank'd with all deserts, all kind of natures, That labour on the bosom of this sphere To propagate their states: amongst them all, Whose eyes are on this sovereign lady fix'd, One do I personate of lord Timon's frame, Whom Fortune with her ivory hand wafts to her; Whose present grace to present slaves and servants Translates his rivals. Pain. 5 'Tis conceiv'd to scope. Poet. Nay, sir, but hear me on: All those which were his fellows but of late, 3 rank'd with all deserts,] Cover'd with ranks of all kinds of men. JOHNSON. To propagate their states:] To advance or improve their various conditions of life. JOHNSON. 5-conceiv'd to scope.] Properly imagined, appositely, to the purpose. JOHNSON. In our condition.] Condition for art. |