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Tim. Would'st thou have thyself fall in the con- | Thy grave-stone daily; make thine epitaph,
fusion of men, and remain a beast with the beasts? | That death in me at others' lives may laugh.
Apem. Ay, Timon.
O thou sweet king-killer, and dear divorce

Tim. A beastly ambition, which the_gods_grant thee to attain to! If thou wert the lion, the fox would beguile thee: if thou wert the lamb, the fox would eat thee: if thou wert the fox, the lion would suspect thee, when, peradventure, thou wert accused by the ass: if thou wert the ass, thy dulness would forment thee; and still thou livedst but as a breakfast to the wolf: if thou wert the wolf, thy greediness would afflict thee, and oft thou should'st hazard thy life for thy dinner: wert thou the unicorn, pride and wrath would confound thee, and make thine own self the conquest of thy fury: wert thou a bear, thou would'st be kill'd by the horse: wert thou a horse, thou would'st be seized by the leopard: wert thou a leopard, thou wert german to the lion,2 and the spots of thy kindred were jurors on thy life: all thy safety were remotion, and thy defence, absence. What beast could'st thou be, that were not subject to a beast? and what a beast art thou already, that seest not thy loss in transformation?

3

'Twixt natural son and sire! thou bright defiler
[Looking on the gold.
Of Hymen's purest bed! thou valiant Mars!
Thou ever young, fresh, lov'd, and delicate wooer,
Whose blush doth thaw the consecrated snow
That lies on Dian's lap ! thou visible god,
That solder'st close impossibilities,
And mak'st them kiss! that speak'st with every
tongue,

To every purpose! O thou touch' of hearts!
Think, thy slave man rebels; and by thy virtue
Set them into confounding odds, that beasts
May have the world in empire!
But not till I am dead!-I'll say thou hast gold:
Арет.
'Would 'twere so
Thou wilt be throng'd to shortly.

Tim.
Apem.

Tim. Thy back, I pr'ythee.
Apem.

Throng'd to?

Ay.
Live and love thy misery!
Tim. Long live so, and so die!-I am quit.-
[Exit APEMANTUS.

Apem. If thou could'st please me with speaking to me, thou might'st have hit upon it here: The More things like men?-Eat, Timon, and abhor commonwealth of Athens is become a forest of beasts.

Tim. How has the ass broke the wall, that thou art out of the city?

Apem. Yonder comes a poet and a painter: The plague of company light upon thee! I will fear to catch it, and give way: When I know not what else to do, I'll see thee again.

Tim. When there is nothing living but thee, thou shalt be welcome. I had rather be a beggar's dog, than Apemantus.

Apem. Thou art the cap of all the fools alive.
Tim. 'Would thou wert clean enough to spit

upon.

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Apem.

Toad!

Tim.

Rogue, rogue, rogue!
[APEMANTUS retreats backward as going.
I am sick of this false world; and will love nought
But even the mere necessities upon it.
Then, Timon, presently prepare thy grave;
Lie where the light foam of the sea may beat

1 Alluding to the unicorn's being sometimes over. come from striking his horn into a tree in his furious pursuit of an enemy See Gesner's History of Animals,

and Julius Cæsar. Act ii. Sc. 1.

2 This seems to imply that the lion bears, like the Turk, no brother near the throne.'

3 Both Steevens and Malone are wrong planation of remotion here; which is neither from place to place,' nor remoteness;' but away, removing afar off. Remotio.' 4 i. e. the top, the principal.

5 See Act iii. Sc. 4.

6 Warburton remarks that the imagery quisitely beautiful and sublime.

7 Touch for touchstone:

them.

Enter Thieves.*

1 Thief. Where should he have this gold? It is mainder: The mere want of gold, and the fallingsome poor fragment, some slender ort of his refrom of his friends, drove him into this melancholy.

2 Thief. It is noised, he hath a mass of treasure. care not for't, he will supply us easily; If he covet3 Thief. Let us make the assay upon him; if he ously reserve it, how shall's get it?

2 Thief. True; for he.bears it not about him. 'tis hid.

1 Thief. Is not this he?

Thieves. Where?

2 Thief. 'Tis his description.
3 Thief. He; I know him.
Thieves. Save thee, Timon.
Tim. Now, thieves?

Thieves. Soldiers, not thieves.

Tim. Both too; and women's sons.

Thieves. We are not thieves, but men that much do want.

Tim. Your greatest want is, you want much of

men.

Why should you want? Behold the eart hath

roots;

Within this mile break forth a hundred springs :
The bounteous housewife, nature, on each bush
The oaks bear mast, the briars scarlet hips:
Lays her full mess before you. Want? why want!
I Thief. We cannot live on grass, on berries,

water,

As beasts, and birds, and fishes.

Tim. Nor on the beasts themselves, the birds, and
fishes.

You must eat men. Yet thanks I must you con,
That you are thieves profess'd; that you work not
In holier shapes: for there is boundless theft
In limited1o professions. Rascal thieves,
Theobald proposed 'you want much of meet,' i. e. much
of what you ought to be, much of the qualities befitting
you as human creatures. Steevens says, perhaps we

should read :

in their ex-Your greatest want is that you expect supplies from me, 'Your greatest want is, you want much of me.' removing of whom you can reasonably expect nothing. Your removing necessities are indeed desperate, when you apply to one of whom you can reasonably expect nothing. Your in my situation. Dr. Farmer would point the passage differently, thus:

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te is ex

'O Buckingham, now do I play the tou To try if thou be'st current gold.'

8 The old copy reads, Enter the Bandit.

9 The old copy reads:

'Your greatest want is, you want much

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'Your greatest want is, you want much. Of meat Why should you want,' &c.

10 Limited professions are allowed professions. Thus in Macbeth :

'I'll make so bold to call, for 'tis my limited service. I will request the reader to correct my explanation of limited in Macbeth, where I have unintentionally allowed the old glossarial explanation to star 1, which interprets it appointed.

Here's gold: Go, suck the subtle pfood of the grape
Fill the high fever seethe your blood to froth,
And so 'scape hanging: trust not the physician;
His antidotes are poison, and he slays
More than you rob: take wealth and lives together;
Do villany, do, since you profess to do't,
Like workmen. I'll example you with thievery:
The sun's a thief, and with his great attraction
Robs the vast sea: the moon's an arrant thief,
And her pale fire she snatches from the sun :
The sea's a thief, whose liquid surge resolves
The moon into salt tears: the earth's a thief,
That feeds and breeds by a composture2 stol'n
From general excrement: each thing's a thief;
The laws, your curb and whip, in their rough power
Have uncheck'd theft. Love not yourselves: away;
Rob one another. There's more gold: Cut throats;
All that you meet are thieves: To Athens, go,
Break open shops; for nothing can you steal,
But thieves do lose it: Steal not less, for this
I give you; and gold confound you howsoever!
[TIMON retires to his Cave.
3 Thief. He has almost charmed me from my
profession, by persuading me to it.

Amen.

1 Thief. 'Tis in the malice of mankind, that he thus advises us; not to have us thrive in our mystery.

2 Thief. I'll believe him as an enemy, and give over my trade.

1 Thief. Let us first see peace in Athens: There is no time so miserable, but a man may be true.3 [Exeunt Thieves.

Enter FLAVIUS.

Flav. O you gods!

Is yon despis'd and ruinous man my lord?
Full of decay and failing? O monument
And wonder of good deeds evilly bestow'd!
What an alteration of honour4 has
Desperate want made!

What viler thing upon the earth, than friends,
Who can bring noblest minds to basest ends!
How rarely does it meet with this time's guise,
When man was wish'd to love his enemies :
Grant, I may ever love, and rather woo

Tim. What, dost thou weep?-Come nearer :then I love thee,

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Because thou art a woman, and disclaim'st
Flinty mankind; whose eyes do never give,"
But thorough lust and laughter. Pity's sleeping
Strange times, that weep with laughing, not with
weeping!

Flav. I beg of you to know me, good my lord, To accept my grief, and, whilst this poor wealth lasts, To entertain me as your steward still.

Tim. Had I a steward so true, so just, and now So comfortable? It almost turns My dangerous nature mild." Let me behold Thy face. Surely this man was born of woman.Forgive my general and exceptless rashness, You perpetual-sober gods! I do proclaim One honest man,-mistake me not, but one : No more, I pray,-and he is a steward.How fain would I have hated all mankind, And thou redeem'st thyself: But all, save thee, I fell with curses. Methinks thou art more honest now, than wise, For, by oppressing and betraying me, Thou might'st have sooner got another service: For many so arrive at second masters, Upon their first lord's neck. But tell me true (For I must ever doubt, though ne'er so sure,) Is not thy kindness subtle, covetous,

If not9 a usuring kindness; and as rich men deal gifts,

Expecting in return twenty for one?

Flav. No, my most worthy master, in whose

breast

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benefit that points to me,

Either in hope, or present, I'd exchange

For this one wish, That

you had power and wealth

Those that would mischief me, than those that do! To requite me, by making rich yourself.

He has caught me in his eye: I will present
My honest grief unto him; and, as my lord,
Shall serve him with my life.-My dearest master!
TIMON comes forward from his Cave.
Tim. Away! what art thou?
Flav.

Have you forgot me,
sir?
Tim. Why dost ask that? I have forgot all men;
Then, if thou grant'st thou'rt a man, I have forgot

thee.

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I know thee not: I ne'er had honest man
About me, I; all that I kept were knaves,
To serve in meat to villains.
Flav.
The gods are witness,
Ne'er did poor steward wear a truer grief
For his undone lord, than mine eyes for you.

1 The moon is called the moist star in Hamlet, and the poet in the last scene of The Tempest has shown that he was acquainted with her influence on the tides. The watery beams of the moon are spoken of in Romeo and Juliet. The sea is therefore said to resolve her into salt tears, in allusion to the flow of the tides, and perhaps of her influence upon the weather, which she is said to govern. There is an allusion to the lachrymose nature of the planet in the following apposite passage in King Richard III :---

That I, being govern'd by the wat'ry moon, May bring forth plenteous tears to drown the world.' 2 i. e. compost, manure.

3There is no hour in a man's life so wretched but ne always has it in his power to become true, i. e. honest.' 4 An ulteration of honour, is an alteration of an bonourable state to a state of disgrace.

5 How rarely, i.e. how admirably. So in Much Ado About Nothing, Act iii. Sc. 1, 'how rurely featur'd.' 6 i. c. desired. Friends ard enemies here mean those who profess friendship and profess enmity. The proverb 'Defend me from my friends, and from my

Tim. Look thee, 'tis so!-Thou singly honest

man,

Here, take :-the gods out of my misery
Have sent thee treasure. Go, live rich, and happy:
But thus condition'd; Thou shalt build from men
Hate all, curse all: show charity to none;
But let the famish'd flesh slide from the bone,
Ere thou relieve the beggar: give to dogs
What thou deny'st to men; let prisons swallow them,
Debts wither them to nothing: Be men like blasted
woods,

And may diseases lick up their false bloods!
And so farewell, and thrive.
Flav.

O, let me stay,

And comfort you, my master.
Tim.
If thou hat'st
Curses, stay not; fly whilst thou'rt bless'd and free:
Ne'er see thou man, and let me ne'er see thee.
[Exeunt severally.

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ACT V.

SCENE I. The same. Before Timon's Cave. Enter Poet and Painter;1 TIMON behind, unseen. Pain. As I took note of the place, it cannot be far where he abides.

.

Poet. What's to be thought of him? Does the rumour hold for true, that he is so full of gold? Pain. Certain: Álcibiades reports it; Phrynia and Timandra had gold of him : he likewise enriched poor straggling soldiers with great quantity: 'Tis said, he gave unto his steward a mighty sum. Poet. Then this breaking of his has been but a try for his friends.

Pain. Nothing else; you shall see him a palm in Athens again, and flourish with the highest. Therefore, 'tis not amiss, we tender our loves to him, in this supposed distress of his: it will show honestly in us; and is very likely to load our purposes with what they travel for, if it be a just and true report that goes of his having.

Poet. What have you now to present unto him? Pain. Nothing at this time but my visitation: only I will promise him an excellent piece.

Poet. I must serve him so too; tell him of an intent that's coming toward him.

Pain. Good as the best. Promising is the very air o' the time it opens the eyes of expectation; performance is ever the duller for his act; and, but in the plainer and simpler kind of people, the deed of saying2 is quite out of use. To promise is most courtly and fashionable: performance is a kind of will or testament, which argues a great sickness in his judgment that makes it.

Tim. Excellent workman! Thou canst not paint a man so bad as is thyself.

Poet. I am thinking, what I shall say I have provided for him: It must be a personating of himself: a satire against the softness of prosperity; with a discovery of the infinite flatteries, that follow youth and opulency.

Tim. Must thou needs stand for a villain in thine own work? Wilt thou whip thine own faults in other men? Do so, I have gold for thee.

Poet. Nay, let's seek him :

Then do we sin against our own estate,
When we may profit meet, and come too late.

Pain. True;

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1 The poet and painter were within view when Apemantus parted from Timon; they must therefore be supposed to have been wandering about the woods in search of Timon's cave, and to have heard in the interim the particulars of Timon's bounty to the thieves and the steward. 'But (as Malone observes) Shakspeare was not attentive to these minute particulars, and if he and the audience knew these circumstances, he would not scruple to attribute the knowledge to persons who perhaps had not yet an opportunity of acquiring it.'

2 The doing of that we have said we would do. Thus in Hamlet :

'As he in his peculiar act and force
May give his saying deed.'

3 Personating for representing simply. The subject of this projected satire was T'mon's case, not his person.

|

Not all the whips of heaven are large enough—.
What! to you!

Whose starlike nobleness gave life and influence
To their whole being! I'm rapt, and cannot cover
The monstrous bulk of this ingratitude
With any size of words.

Pain.

Tim. Let it go naked, men may see't the better: You, that are honest, by being what you are, Make them best seen, and known. He, and myself, Have travell'd in the great shower of your gifts, And sweetly felt it. Tim. Aye, you are honest men, Pain. We are hither come to offer you our ser vice.

Tim. Most honest men! Why, how shall I requite you?

Can you eat roots, and drink cold water? no.
Both. What we can do, we'll do, to do you service.
Tim. You are honest men: You have heard that
I have gold:

I

am sure you have: speak truth; you are honest

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Both. Doubt it not, worthy lord. Tim. There's ne'er a one of you but trusts a knave,

That mightily deceives you.

Both.

Do we, my lord?

Tim. Ay, and you hear him cog, see him dissemble,

Know his gross patchery, love him, feed him,
Keep in your bosom: yet remain assur'd,
That he's a made-up villain."

Pain. I know none such, my lord.
Poet.

Nor I.

Tim. Look you, I love you well; I'll give you gold,

Rid me these villains from your companies:
Hang them, or stab them, drown them in a draught,
Confound them by some course, and come to me,
I'll give you gold enough.

Both. Name them, my lord, let's know them. Tim. You that way, and you this, but two in company :

Each man apart, all single and alone,

4 Black-corner'd night. Many conjectures have been offered about this passage, which appears to me a corruption of the text. Some have proposed to read black-coned, alluding to the conical form of the earth's shadow; others black-crown'd, and black-cover'd. It appears to me that it should be black-curtain'd. We have the blanket of the dark,' in Macbeth, 'Night's black mantle,' in the Third Part of King Henry VI. and the First Part of the same drama:

night is fled,

Whose pitchy mantle overveil'd the earth.'

I cannot think with Steevens that 'Night as obscure as a dark corner,' is meant.

5 It should be remembered that a portrait was called

a counterfeit.

6 i. e. complete, a finished villain.

7 i. e. a jakes

Yet an arch llain keeps him company.1
If, where thou art, two villains shall not be,
[To the Painter.
Come not near him.--If thou wouldst not reside
[To the Poet.
But where one villain is, then him abandon.-
Hence! pack! there's gold, ye came for gold, ye
slaves:

You have done work for me, there's payment:
hence !2

You are an alchymist, make gold of that:
Out, rascal dogs!

[Exit, beating and driving them out. SCENE II. The same. Enter FLAVIUS, and two Senators.

And send forth us, to make the sorrow'd render,'
Together with a recompense more fruitful
Than their offence can weigh down by the dram,
Ay, even such heaps and sums of love and wealth,
As shall to thee blot out what wrongs were theirs,
And write in thee the figures of their love,
Ever to read them thině.

Tim.

us:

You witch me in it
Surprise me to the very brink of tears:
Lend me a fool's heart, and a woman's eyes,
And I'll beweep these comforts, worthy senators.
1 Sen. Therefore, so please thee to return with
And of our Athens (thine, and ours) to take
The captainship, thou shalt be met with thanks,
Allow'd' with absolute power, and thy good name
Live with authority :-so soon we shall drive back
Who, like a boar too savage, doth root up
His country's peace.

Flav. It is in vain that you would speak with Of Alcibiades the approaches wild ;

Timon;

For he is set so only to himself,

That nothing but himself, which looks like man,

Is friendly with him.

1 Sen.

Bring us to his cave:

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O, forget

1 Sen.
What we are sorry for ourselves in thee.
The senators, with one consent of love,3
Entreat thee back to Athens; who have thought
On special dignities, which vacant lie
For thy best use and wearing.

2 Sen.
They confess,
Toward thee, forgetfulness too general, gross:
Which now the public body,-which doth seldom
Play the recanter,-feeling in itself

A lack of Timon's aid, hath sense withal
Of it's own fall," restraining aid to Timon;

1 The plain and simple meaning of this is, 'where each of you is, a villain must be in his company, because you are both of you arch villains,' therefore a villain goes with you every where. Thus in Promos and Cassandra, 1578, Go, and a knave with thee.'

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2 The word done is omitted by accident in the old copy. This line is addressed to the painter, the next to the poet.

3 With one united voice of affection. So in Sternhold's version of the hundredth Psalm.

"With one consent let all the earth.'

4 Which should he and. It is now vain to inquire whether the mistake be attributable to the poet, or to a careless transcriber or printer, but in such a glaring error as this, it is but charitable to suppose of the last.

5 The Athenians have a sense of the danger of their own fall by the arms of Alcibiades, by their withholding aid that should have been given to Timon.

6 Render is confession. So in Cymbeline, Act iv. ac. 4 may drive us to a render Where we have liv’d.'

2 Sen.

And shakes his threat'ning sword Against the walls of Athens.

1 Sen.

Therefore, Timon,Tim. Well, sir, I will; therefore, I will, sir

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,
The reverend'st throat in Athens.
But I do prize it at my love, before
To the protection of the prosperous gods,1o
As thieves to keepers.

So I leave you

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,11 and living, now begins to mend,
And nothing brings me all things. Go, live stil!;
Be Alcibiades your plague, you his,
And last so long enough!
1 Sen.
We speak in vain.
Tim. But yet I love my country; and am not
One that rejoices in the common wreck,

As common bruit12 doth put it.
1 Sen.
That's well spoke
Tim. Commend me to my loving countrymen,-
1 Sen. These words become your lips as they
pass through them.
2 Sen. And enter in our ears, like great triumphers
In their applauding gates.

Tim.
Commend me to them;
And tell them, that to ease them of their griefs,
Their fears of hostile strokes, their aches, losses,
Their pangs of love,13 with other incident throes

7 Allowed here signifies confirmed. To approve or confirme. Ratum habere aliquid.' Baret. This word is generally used by our old writers in the sense of ap proved, and I am doubtful whether it has been rightly explained in other places in these dramas by licensed. An allowed fool, I think, means an approved fool, a confirmed fool.

8 This image may have been caught from Psalm lxxx. 13.

9 A whittle is a clasp knife. The word is still previncially in use.

10 The prosperous gods' undoubtedly here mean the propitious or favourable gods, Dii secundi. Thus ir. Othello, Act i. Sc. 3.

"To my unfolding lend your prosperous ear.' In which passage the quarto of 1622 reads 'a gracious ear.' 11 He means 'the disease of life begins to promise me a period.'

12 Report, rumour.

13 Compare this part of Timon's speech with pa of the celebrated soliloquy in Hamlet.

That nature's fragile vessel doth sustain
In life's uncertain voyage, I will some kindness do
them:

I'll teach them to prevent wild Alcibiades' wrath.
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.
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;
Whom once a day with his embossed froth2
The turbulent surge shall cover;
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 dear3 peril.
1 Sen.
SCENE III. The Walls of Athens.
Senators and a Messenger.

It requires swift foot.

.

[Exeunt.

Enter Two

SCENE IV. The Woods. Timon's Cave, and a
Tombstone seen. Enter a Soldier, seeking Timon.
Sol. By all description this should be the place.
Who's here? speak, ho!-No answer?-What is
this?

5

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.

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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.
SCENE V. Before the Walls of Athens. Trum-
pets 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
Have wander'd with our travers'd arms, and
As slept within the shadow of your power,

breath'd

6

Our sufferance vainly: Now the time is flush,7
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;
With fear and horrid flight.
And pursy insolence shall break his wind,
Noble and young,

1 Sen.
When thy first griefs were but a mere conceit,
Ere thou hadst power, or we had cause of fear,

1 Sen. Thou hast painfully discover'd; are his We sent to thee; to give thy rages balm,

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1 Sen.

Enter Senators from TIMON.

Here come our brothers.

To wipe out our ingratitude with loves
Above their quantity.*

2 Sen.

So did we woo
Transformed Timon to our city's love,
We were not all unkind, nor all deserve
By humble message, and by promis'd means
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,11 in excess
Hath broke their hearts. March, noble lord,

3 Sen. No talk of Timon, nothing of him expect.-emendation is Warburton's. It is evident that the solThe 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.

1 This was suggested by a passage in Plutarch's Life of Antony, where it is said Timon addressed the people of Athens in similar terms from the public tribune in the market-place. See also The Palace of Pleasure, vol. i. Nov. 23.

2 The first folio reads who. It was altered to which in the second folio. Malone reads whom, saying it refers to Timon, and not to his grave; as appears from The Palace of Pleasure:- By his last will he ordained himself to be interred upon the seashore, that the waves and surges might beate and vexe his dead

carcas.'

5 The old copy hasSome beast read this.' The dier, when he first sees Timon's everlasting dwelling, does not know it to be a tomb. He concludes Timon must be dead, because he receives no answer. It is evident that when he utters the words some beast, &c. he has not seen the inscription. What can this be? (says the soldier,) Timon is certainly dead: Some beast must have rear'd this; a man could not live in it. Yes, he is dead sure enough, and this must be his tomb; What is this writing upon it?' 6 Travers'd arms are arms crossed. The image occurs in The Tempest :

'His arms in this sad knot,

7 Flush is mature, ripe, or come to full perfection 8 Their refers to griefs. To give thy rages balm. must be considered as parenthetical.

9 i. e. by promising him a competent subsistence. 10 'The motives that you first went out,' i. e. those who Embossed froth is foaming, puffed or blown up froth.made the motion for your exile. This word is used in Among our ancestors a boss or a bubble of water when it raineth, or the pot seetheth,' were used indif ferently.

3 So in Twelfth Night, Act v. Sc. 1:

'Whom thou in terms so bloody and so dear Hast made thy enemies.'

4 This passage Steevens, with great reason, considers corrupt, the awkward repetition of the verb made, and the obscurity of the whole, countenance his opinion. Might we not read :

'Yet our old love had a particular force,
And marle us speak like friends.'

the same manner in Troilus and Cressida :

her wanton spirits look out

At every joint and motive of her body.'
11 Cunning is used in its old sense of skill or wisdom,
extremity of shame that they wanted wisdom in procur-
ing your banishment hath broke their hearts. Theo-
bald had nearly thus interpreted the passage; and
Johnson thought he could improve it by reading

'Shame that they wanted, coming in excess
Hath broke their hearts.'

Johnson perhaps was not aware of the old meaning of
cunning.

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