TIMON OF ATHENS.

ACT I.

SCENE I. Athens. A Hall in Timon's House. Enter Poet, Painter, Jeweller, Merchant, and Others, at several Doors.

Poet. GOOD day, sir.

Pain.

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: But what particular rarity? what strange, Which manifold record not matches? See, Magic of bounty! all these spirits thy power Hath conjur'd to attend. I know the merchant. Pain. I know them both; t'other's a jeweller. Mer. O, 'tis a worthy lord!

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.

Jew. I have a jewel here.

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 recompence 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 dedication

To the great lord.
Poet.

A thing slipp'd idly from me. Our poesy is as a gum, which oozes

From whence 'tis nourished: The fire i'the flint Shows not, till it be struck; our gentle flame Provokes itself, and, like the current, flies Each bound it chafes. What have you there? Pain. A picture, sir.-And when comes your book forth?

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. Pain. Indifferent.

Poet. Admirable: How this grace Speaks his own standing! what a mental power 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.

I'll say of it,

It tutors nature: artificial strife

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,
Whom this beneath world doth embrace and hug
With amplest entertainment: My free drift
Halts not particularly, but moves itself
In a wide sea of wax: no levell'd malice
Infects one comma in the course I hold;
But flies an eagle flight, bold, and forth on,
Leaving no tract behind.

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 of grave and austere quality), tender down

Their services to Lord Timon: his large fortune,
Upon his good and gracious nature hanging,
Subdues and properties to his love and tendance
All sorts of hearts; yea, from the glass-fac'd
flatterer

To Apemantus, that few things loves better
Than to abhor himself: even he drops down
The knee before him, and returns in peace
Most rich in Timon's nod.

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

monnt

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 ser-

vants

Translates his rivals.

Pain.

'Tis conceiv'd to scope. This throne, this Fortune, and this hill, methinks, With one man beckon'd from the rest below, Bowing his head against the steepy mount To climb his happiness, would be well express'd In our condition.

Poet. Nay, sir, but hear me on: All those which were his fellows, but of late (Some better than his value), on the moment Follow his strides, his lobbies fill with tendance, Rain sacrificial whisperings in his ear, Make sacred even his stirrop, and through him Drink the free air.

Pain.

Ay, marry, what of these? Poet. When Fortune, in her shift and change of mood,

Spurns down her late belov'd, all his dependants, Which labour'd after him to the mountain's top, Even on their knees and hands, let him slip

down,

Not one accompanying his declining foot.
Pain. 'Tis common:

A thousand moral paintings I can show,

That shall demonstrate these quick blows of

fortune

More pregnantly than words. Yet you do well,
To show Lord Timon, that mean eyes have seen
The foot above the head.

Trumpets sound. Enter TIMON, attended: the Ser-
vant of VENTIDIUS talking with him.
Tim.
Imprison'd is he, say you?
Ven. Serv. Ay, my good lord: five talents is

his debt;

His means most short, his creditors most strait: Your honourable letter he desires

To those have shut him up; which failing to him, Periods his comfort.

Tim.

Noble Ventidius! Well;

I am not of that feather to shake off

My friend when he must need me. I do know

him

A gentleman, that well deserves a help, Which he shall have: I'll pay the debt, and free him.

Ven. Serv. Your lordship ever binds him. Tim. Commend me to him: I will send his ransome;

And, being enfranchis'd, bid him come to me;-
'Tis not enough to help the feeble up,
But to support him after.-Fare you well.
Ven. Serv. All happiness to your honour!

Enter an old Athenian.

Old Ath. Lord Timon, hear me speak.

[Exit.

Tim.
Freely, good father.
Old Ath. Thou hast a servant nam'd Lucilius.
Tim. I have so: What of him?

Old Ath. Most noble Timon, call the man be-
fore thee.

Tim. Attends he here, or no? Lucilius!

Enter LUCILIUS.

Luc. Here, at your lordship's service.

Old Ath. This fellow here, Lord Timon, this thy creature,

By night frequents my house. I am a man That from my first have been inclin❜d to thrift;

And

my estate deserves an heir more rais'd, Than one which holds a trencher.

Tim.

Well: what further? Old Ath. One only daughter have I, no kin else, On whom I may confer what I have got: The maid is fair, o' the youngest for a bride, And I have bred her at my dearest cost, In qualities of the best. This man of thine Attempts her love: I pr'ythee, noble lord, Join with me to forbid him her resort; Myself have spoke in vain.

Tim.

The man is honest.

Old Ath. Therefore he will be, Timon:
His honesty rewards him in itself,
It must not bear my daughter.

Tim.

Does she love him?"

Old Ath. She is young, and apt:
Our own precedent passions do instruct us
What levity's in youth.

Tim. [To LUCILIUS.] Love you the maid?
Luc. Ay, my good lord, and she accepts of it.
Old Ath. If in her marriage my consent be
missing,

I call the gods to witness, I will choose
Mine heir from forth the beggars of the world,
And dispossess her all.

Tim.

How shall she be endow'd, If she be mated with an equal husband? Old Ath. Three talents, on the present; in future, all.

Tim. This gentleman of mine hath serv'd me long;

To build his fortune, I will strain a little,
For 'tis a bond in men. Give him thy daughter:
What you bestow, in him I'll counterpoise,
And make him weigh with her.

Old Ath.
Most noble lord,
Pawn me to this your honour, she is his.
Tim. My hand to thee; mine honour on my
promise.

[may Luc. Humbly I thank your lordship: Never That state or fortune fall into my keeping, Which is not ow'd to you!

[Exeunt LUCILIUS and old Athenian. Poet. Vouchsafe my labour, and long live your lordship!

VOL. VI.