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Who, like a boar too savage, doth root up

His country's peace.

2 Sen. And shakes his threat'ning sword

Against the walls of Athens.

1 Sen. Therefore, Timon,

Flav. Trouble him no further, thus you still shall find him.

Tim. Come not to me again: but say to Athens, Timon hath made his everlasting mansion Upon the beached verge of the salt flood;

Tim. Well, sir, I will; therefore, I will, sir; Which once a day with his embossed froth

Thus,

If Alcibiades kill my countrymen,
Let Alcibiades know this of Timon,
That-Timon cares not. But if he sack fair
Athens,

And take our goodly aged men by the beards,
Giving our holy virgins to the stain

Of contumelious, beastly, mad-brain'd war; Then, let him know,-and tell him, Timon speaks it,

In pity of our aged, and our youth,

I cannot choose but tell him, that-I care not, And let him take't at worst; for their knives care not,

While you have throats to answer: for myself,
There's not a whittle in the unruly camp,
But I do prize it at my love, before

The reverend'st throat in Athens. So I leave you
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.

The turbulent surge shall cover; thither come,
And let my grave-stone 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 unremoveably
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 discover'd; 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;

Tim. But yet I love my country; and am not Whom, though in general part we were oppos'd,

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 country

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Yet our old love made a particular force,
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 mov'd.

Enter Senators from Timon.

1 Sen. 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.

I'll teach them to prevent wild Alcibiades' wrath. SCENE IV.-The woods. Timon's cave, and a

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.

tomb-stone seen.

Enter a Soldier, seeking Timon.

Sold. By all description this should be the place. Who's here? speak, ho!-No answer?-What is this?

Timon is dead, who hath outstretch'd his span: Some beast rear'd 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 ag'd interpreter, though young in days:
Before proud Athens he's set down by this,
Whose fall the mark of his ambition is. [Exit.

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 fill'd 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 wander'd with our travers'd arms, and
breath'd

Our sufferance vainly: Now the time is flush,
When crouching marrow, in the bearer strong,
Cries, of itself, No more: now breathless wrong
Shall sit and pant in your great chairs of ease;
And pursy indolence 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 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. 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 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 altogether.

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, thou'lt 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.

Alcib. Then there's my glove;
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 fears
With my more noble meaning,—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 public 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.

Sold. My noble general, Timon is dead; 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 caitiff's 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, and those our drop

lets 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.-
Let our drums strike.
[Exeunt.

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SCENE, partly in Rome; and partly in the territories of the Volscians and Antiates.

SCENE I.-Rome. A street.

ACT I.

Enter a Company of mutinous Citizens, with staves, clubs, and other weapons.

1 Cit. Before we proceed any farther, hear me speak.

Cit. Speak, speak. [Several speaking at once. 1 Cit. You are all resolved rather to die, than

to famish?

Cit. Resolved, resolved.

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Cit. No more talking on't; let it be done : away, away.

2 Cit. One word, good citizens.

1 Cit. We are accounted poor citizens; the patricians, good: What authority surfeits on, would relieve us; If they would yield us but the superfluity, while it were wholesome, we might guess, they relieved us humanely; but they think, we are too dear: the leanness that af flicts us, the object of our misery, is as an in

1 Cit. First you know, Caius Marcius is chief ventory to particularize their abundance; our enemy to the people.

Cit. We know't, we know't.

sufferance is a gain to them.-Let us revenge this with our pikes, ere we become rakes: for

1 Cit. Let us kill him, and we'll have corn at the gods know, I speak this in hunger for bread, our own price. Is't a verdict?

not in thirst for revenge.

2 Cit. Would you proceed especially against Caius Marcius?

Cit. Against him first; he's a very dog to the commonalty.

2 Cit. Consider you what services he has done for his country?

1 Cit. Very well; and could be content to give him good report for't, but that he pays himself with being proud.

2 Cit. Nay, but speak not maliciously. 1 Cit. I say unto you, what he hath done famously, he did it to that end: though soft conscienc'd men can be content to say, it was for his country, he did it to please his mother, and to be partly proud; which he is, even to the altitude of his virtue.

2 Cit. What he cannot help in his nature, you account a vice in him: You must in no way say, he is covetous.

1 Cit. If I must not, I need not be barren of accusations; he hath faults, with surplus, to tire in repetition. [Shouts within.] What shouts are these? The other side o'the city is risen: Why stay we prating here? to the Capitol. Cit. Come, come.

1 Cit. Soft; who comes here?

Enter MENENIUS AGRIPPA.

2 Cit. Worthy Menenius Agrippa; one that hath always loved the people.

1 Cit. He's one honest enough; 'Would, all the rest were so!

Men. What work's, my countrymen, in hand? Where go you

With bats and clubs? The matter? Speak, I

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Men. Why, masters, my good friends, mine honest neighbours,

Will you undo yourselves?

1 Cit. We cannot, sir, we are undone already. Men. I tell you, friends, most charitable care Have the patricians of you. For your wants, Your suffering in this dearth, you may as well Strike at the heaven with your staves, as lift them Against the Roman state; whose course will on The way it takes, cracking ten thousand curbs Of more strong link asunder, than can ever Appear in your impediment: For the dearth, The gods, not the patricians, make it ; and Your knees to them, not arms, must help. Alack, You are transported by calamity

Thither where more attends you; and you slander

The helms o'the state, who care for you like fathers,

When you curse them as enemies.

1 Cit. Care for us!-True, indeed!-They

| ne'er cared for us yet. Suffer us to famish, and their store-houses crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act established against the rich; and provide more piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and there's all the love they bear

us.

Men. Either you must

Confess yourselves wondrous malicious,
Or be accus'd of folly. I shall tell you
A pretty tale; it may be, you have heard it;
But, since it serves my purpose, I will venture
To scale't a little more.

1 Cit. Well, I'll hear it, sir: yet you must not think to fob off our disgrace with a tale: but, an't please you, deliver.

Men. There was a time, when all the body's members

Rebell'd against the belly; thus accus'd it :-
That only like a gulf it did remain
I'the midst o'the body, idle and inactive,
Still cupboarding the viand, never bearing
Like labour with the rest; where the other in-

struments

Did see, and hear, devise, instruct, walk, feel,
And, mutually participate, did minister
Unto the appetite and affection common
Of the whole body. The belly answer'd,—

1 Cit. Well, sir, what answer made the belly? Men. Sir, I shall tell you.-With a kind of

smile,

Which ne'er came from the lungs, but even thus,
(For, look you, I may make the belly smile,
As well as speak,) it tauntingly replied
To the discontented members, the mutinous parts
That envied his receipt; even so most fitly
As you malign our senators, for that
They are not such as you.

1 Cit. Your belly's answer: What!
The kingly-crowned head, the vigilant eye,
The counsellor heart, the arm our soldier,
Our steed the leg, the tongue our trumpeter,
With other muniments and petty helps
In this our fabric, if that they-

Men. What then?

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Which you do live upon and fit it is;
Because I am the storehouse, and the shop
Of the whole body: But if you do remember,
I send it through the rivers of your blood,
Even to the court, the heart,-to the seat o'the
brain;

And, through the cranks and offices of man,
The strongest nerves, and small inferior veins,
From me receive that natural competency,
Whereby they live: And though that all at once,
You, my good friends, (this says the belly,) mark

me,

1 Cit. Ay, sir; well, well.

Men. Though all at once cannot See what I do deliver out to each; Yet I can make my audit up, that all From me do back receive the flower of all, And leave me but the bran. What say you to't? 1 Cit. It was an answer: How apply you this? Men. The senators of Rome are this good belly, And

you the mutinous members: For examine Their counsels, and their cares; digest things rightly,

Touching the weal o'the common; you shall find, No public benefit which you receive,

But it proceeds, or comes, from them to you, And no way from yourselves.-What do you

think?

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Which would increase his evil. He, that depends

Upon your favours, swims with fins of lead, And hews down oaks with rushes. Hang ye! Trust ye?

With every minute you do change a mind; And call him noble, that was now your hate, Him vile, that was your garland. What's the matter,

That in these several places of the city

You cry against the noble senate, who,
Under the gods, keep you in awe, which else
Would feed on one another ?-What's their
seeking?

Men. For corn at their own rates; whereof, they say,

The city is well stor❜d.

Mar. Hang 'em! They say?

They'll sit by the fire, and presume to know What's done i'the Capitol : who's like to rise, Who thrives, and who declines: side factions, and give out

Conjectural marriages: making parties strong,
And feebling such as stand not in their liking,
Below their cobbled shoes. They say, there's
grain enough?

Would the nobility lay aside their ruth,
And let me use my sword, I'd make a quarry
With thousands of these quarter'd slaves, as high
As I could pick my lance.

Men. Nay, these are almost thoroughly persuaded;

For though abundantly they lack discretion, Yet are they passing cowardly. But, I beseech

you,

What says the other troop?

Mar. They are dissolv'd: Hang 'em! They said, they were an-hungry; sigh'd forth proverbs ;

That, hunger broke stone walls; that, dogs must eat;

That, meat was made for mouths; that, the gods sent not

Corn for the rich men only :-With these shreds They vented their complainings; which being answer'd,

And a petition granted them, a strange one, (To break the heart of generosity, And make bold power look pale,) they threw their caps

As they would hang them on the horns o'the

moon, Shouting their emulation.

Men. What is granted them?

Mar. Five tribunes, to defend their vulgar
wisdoms,

Of their own choice: One's Junius Brutus,
Sicinius Velutus, and I know not-'Sdeath!
The rabble should have first unroof'd the city,
Ere so prevail'd with me: it will in time
Win upon power, and throw forth greater themes
For insurrection's arguing.

Men. This is strange.

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