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.

Sen.

So did we woo

Transformed Timon to our city's love,

By humble message, and by promis'd 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

You have receiv'd 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 2. 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 loaths,) take thou the destin'd tenth;
And by the hazard of the spotted die,

Let die the spotted.

1 Sen.

All have not offended;

For those that were, it is not square 3, 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,

2 Shame, that they wanted cunning, in excess

Hath broke their hearts.] Shame in excess, (i. e. extremity of shame) that they wanted cunning, (i. e. that they were not wise enough not to banish you) hath broke their hearts. 3 not square,] Not regular, not equitable.

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 rampir'd gates, and they shall ope;
So thou wilt send thy gentle heart before,

To say, thoul't enter friendly.

2 Sen.

Throw thy glove,
Or any token of thine honour else,

That thou wilt use the wars as thy redress,
And not as our confusion, all thy powers:
Shall make their harbour in our town, till we
Have seal'd thy full desire.

Then there's my glove;

Alcib.
Descend, and open your uncharged ports; *
Those enemies of Timon's, and mine own,
Whom you yourselves shall set out for reproof,
Fall, and no more: and, to atone your

With my more noble meaning 5,

fears

not a man

Shall pass his quarter, or offend the stream
Of regular justice in your city's bounds,
But shall be remedied, to your publick laws
At heaviest answer.

Both.

'Tis most nobly spoken.
Alcib. Descend, and keep your words.

The Senators descend, and open the Gates.
Enter a Soldier.

Sol. My noble general, Timon is dead;

+ "altogether." MALONE.

4

5

6

uncharged ports ;] uncharged means unattacked.
to atone your fears

With my more noble meaning,] i. e. to reconcile them to it.

not a man

Shall pass his quarter,] Not a soldier shall quit his station, or be let loose upon you; and, if any commits violence, he shall answer it regularly to the law.

Entomb'd upon the very hem o'the sea:

And, on his grave-stone, this insculpture; which
With wax I brought away, whose soft impression
Interprets for my poor ignorance.

Alcib. [reads.] Here lies a wretched corse, of wretched soul bereft:

Seek not my name: A plague consume you wicked caitiffs

left!

Here lie I Timon; who, alive, all living men did hate : Pass by, and curse thy fill; but pass, and stay not here thy gait.

These well express in thee thy latter spirits:

Though thou abhorr❜dst in us our human griefs,

Scorn'dst our brain's flow 7, and those our droplets which
From niggard nature fall, yet rich conceit
Taught thee to make vast Neptune weep for aye
On thy low grave, on faults forgiven. Dead
Is noble Timon; of whose memory

Hereafter more.

-

Bring me into your city,

And I will use the olive with my sword:

Make war breed peace; make peace stint war; make

each

Prescribe to other, as each other's leech. 8

Let our drums strike.

7 our brain's flow,] Our brain's flow is our tears.

8 leech.] i. e. physician.

[Ererunt.

9 The play of Timon is a domestick tragedy, and therefore strongly fastens on the attention of the reader. In the plan there is not much art, but the incidents are natural, and the characters various and exact. The catastrophe affords a very powerful warning against that ostentatious liberality, which scatters bounty, but confers no benefits, and buys flattery, but not friendship. JOHNSON.

CORIOLANUS.