Entreat you, honour me so much, as to
Advance this jewel; 1

Accept it, and wear it, kind my lord.

1 Lord. I am so far already in your gifts, All. So are we all.

Enter a Servant.

Serv. My lord, there are certain nobles of the senate Newly alighted, and come to visit you.

Tim. They are fairly welcome.

Flav.

I beseech your honour,

Vouchsafe me a word; it does concern you near.
Tim. Near; why then another time I'll hear thee:
I pr'ythee, let us be provided

To show them entertainment.

Flav.

I scarce know how.

[Aside.

Enter another Servant.

2 Serv. May it please your honour, the Lord Lucius, Out of his free love, hath presented to you

Four milk-white horses, trapp'd in silver.

Tim. I shall accept them fairly: let the presents

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 sent your honour two brace of greyhounds.

Tim. I'll hunt with him; and let them be receiv'd, Not without fair reward.

Advance this jewel;] To prefer it; to raise it to honour by wearing it. JOHNSON.

Flav. [aside.]

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 purse; or yield me this,
To shew him what a beggar his heart is,
Being of no power to make his wishes good;
His promises fly so beyond his state,
That what he speaks is all in debt, he owes
For every word; he is so kind, that he now
Pays interest for't: his land's put to their books,
Well, 'would I were gently put out of office,

Before I were forc'd out!

Happier is he that has no friend to feed,

Than such as do even enemies exceed.

I bleed inwardly for my lord.

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 soul of bounty!

Tim. And now I remember me, my lord, you gave Good words the other day of a bay courser

I rode on it is yours, because you lik❜d it!

+2 Lord. I beseech you, pardon me, my lord, in that. Tim. You may take my word, my lord; I know no

man

Can justly praise, but what he does affect:

I weigh my friend's affection with mine own;

I'll tell you true. I'll call on you.

All Lords.

None so welcome.

Tim. I take all and your several visitations
So kind to heart, 'tis not enough to give;

Methinks, I could deal kingdoms to my friends,
And ne'er be weary. - Alcibiades,

Thou art a soldier, therefore seldom rich,

It comes in charity to thee: for all thy living

Is 'mongst the dead: and all the lands thou hast
Lie in a pitch'd field.

Tim. All to you. 2-Lights, more lights.

The best of happiness,

1 Lord. Honour, and fortunes, keep with you, lord Timon!

Tim. Ready for his friends.

[Exeunt ALCIBIADES, Lords, &c.

What a coil's here!

Apem. Serving of becks 3, and jutting out of bums! I doubt whether their legs be worth the sums That are given for 'em. Friendship's full of dregs: Methinks, false hearts should never have sound legs. Thus honest fools lay out their wealth on court'sies. Tim. Now, Apemantus, if thou wert not sullen, I'd be good to thee.

Арет.

No, I'll nothing: for,

If I should be brib'd too, there would be none left

To rail upon thee; and then thou would'st sin the faster. Thou giv'st so long, Timon, I fear me, thou

4

Wilt give away thyself in paper shortly: *

What need these feasts, pomps, and vain glories?

Tim.

An you begin to rail on society once,
I am sworn, not to give regard to you.
Farewell; and come with better musick.

So;

Nay,

[Exit.

Арет. Thou'lt not hear me now, thou shalt not then, I'll lock

All to you.] i. e. all good wishes, or all happiness to you.

3 Serving of becks,] Beck means a salutation made with the head. To serve a beck is to offer a salutation.

Wilt give away thyself in paper shortly:] i. e. be ruined by his securities entered into.

Thy heaven from thee. O, that men's ears should be To counsel deaf, but not to flattery!

[Exit.

ACT II.

SCENE I. The same.

A Room in a Senator's

House.

Enter a Senator, with Papers in his Hand.

Sen. And late, five thousand to Varro; and to Isidore He owes nine thousand; besides my former sum, Which makes it five and twenty. Still in motion Of raging waste? It cannot hold; it will not. If I want gold, steal but a beggar's dog, And give it Timon, why, the dog coins gold: If I would sell my horse, and buy twenty more Better than he, why, give my horse to Timon, Ask nothing, give it him, it foals me, straight, And able horses: No porter at his gate; But rather one that smiles, and still invites All that It cannot hold; no reason by. pass Can found his state in safety 6. Caphis, ho!

Caph.

Enter CAPHIS.

Here, sir; What is your pleasure?

Sen. Get on your cloak, and haste you to lord Timon; Impórtune him for my monies; be not ceas'd7

With slight denial; nor then silenc'd, when

5 Thy heaven -] By his heaven he means good advice; the only thing by which he could be saved.

6

no reason

Can found his state in safety.] Reason cannot find his fortune to have any safe or solid foundation.

1

be not ceas'd] i. e. stopped.

Commend me to your master and the cap

Plays in the right hand, thus: - but tell him, sirrah,
My uses cry to me, I must serve my turn

Out of mine own; his days and times are past,
And my reliances on his fracted dates

Have smit my credit : I love, and honour him;
But must not break my back, to heal his finger:
Immediate are my needs; and my relief
Must not be toss'd and turn'd to me in words,
But find supply immediate. Get you gone:
Put on a most importunate aspéct,

A visage of demand; for, I do fear,
When every feather sticks in his own wing,
Lord Timon will be left a naked gull, † .
Which flashes now a phoenix. Get you gone.
Caph. I go, sir.

Sen. I go, sir?-take the bonds along with you,
And have the dates in compt.

Enter FLAVIUS, with many Bills in his Hand. ·

Flav. No care, no stop! so senseless of expence,
That he will neither know how to maintain it,
Nor cease his flow of riot: Takes no account
How things go from him; nor resumes no care
Of what is to continue; Never mind

Was to be so unwise, to be so kind. 8

All nestling birds, in quite an unfledged state, are so called in Cheshire, and, perhaps, elsewhere.

Was to be so unwise, to be so kind.] Nothing can be worse, or more obscurely expressed and all for the sake of a wretched rhyme.