Tim. O blessed breeding sun, draw from the With man's blood paint the ground, gules, Raise me this beggar, and denude that lord; It is the pasture lards the brother's sides, The want that makes him lean. Who dares, who dares, In purity of manhood stand upright, roots! Who seeks for better of thee, sauce his palate With thy most operant poison! What is here ? Gold? yellow, glittering, precious gold? No, gods, [vens ! I am no idle votarist. Roots, you clear heaThus much of this, will make black white; foul, fair; Wrong, right; base, noble; old, young; coward, valiant. Ha, you gods! why this? What this, you gods? Why this Will lug your priests and servants from your sides; Pluck stout men's pillows from below their heads : This yellow slave Will knit and break religions; bless the accurs'd; Make the hoar leprosy ador'd; place thieves, To the April day again. ** Come, damned earth, Thou common whore of mankind, that put'st odds Among the rout of nations, I will make thee Do thy right nature.—[March afar off.]-Ha! a drum ?-Thou'rt quick, But yet I'll bury thee: Thou'lt go, strong thief, When gouty keepers of thee cannot stand :Nay, stay thou out for earnest. [Keeping some gold. Alcib. I have heard in some sort of thy miseries. Tim. Thou saw'st them, when I had prosperity. Alcib. I see them now; then was a blessed time. Give them diseases, leaving with thee their lust. Timan. Hang thee, monster! Are drown'd and lost in his calamities.- How cursed Athens, mindless of thy worth, had rather be alone. Alcib. Why, fare thee well: Here's some gold for thee. Tim. Keep't, I cannot eat it. Alcib. When I have laid proud Athens on a heap, Tim. Warr'st thou 'gainst Athens ? Tim. The gods confound them all i'thy conquest; and Thee after, when thou hast conquer'd! Tim. That, By killing villains, thou wast born to conquer • Used in the cure of a peculiar disorder Pat up thy gold. Go on,-here's gold,-go on; Let not the virgin's cheek paps, That through the window-bars bore at men's eyes, Set them down horrible traitors. Spare not the Put armour on thine ears, and on thine eyes; Nor sight of priests in holy vestments bleeding, diers; Make large confusion: and, thy fury spent, Tim. More whore, more mischief first; I have Alcib. Strike up the drum towards Athens. If I thrive well, I'll visit thee again. Tim. If I hope well, I'll never see thee more. Tim. Yes, thou spok'st well of me. Strike. Get thee away [Drum beats. Exeunt ALCIBIADES. Engenders the black toad, and adder blue, heaven Whereon Hyperion's quickening fire doth shine; Not all thy counsel. Tim. Dost thou, or dost thou not, heaven's curse upon thee ! mon: Hast thou more ? Tim. Enough to make a whore forswear her oaths, It trast to your conditions. Be whores still; No matter wear them, betray with them: whore Paint till a horse may mire upon your face: Pr. & Timan. then ! Well, more gold ;-What Believ't, that we'll do any thing for gold. Tim. Consumptions sow Apem. This is in thee a nature but affected! That ever Timon was. This slave-like habit? and these looks of care? In bellow bones of man; strike their sharp shins, That be may never more false title plead, flamen, That scoids against the quality of flesh, Suzeils from the general weal: make curl'd-pate ruffians bald; And let the unscarr'd braggarts of the war Ph. & Timan. More counsel with more money, bounteous Timon. Alluding to Jocasta, the wife of the Leary leprosy. Tim. Were I like thee, I'd throw away myself. Apem. Thou hast cast away thyself, being like thyself; A madman so long, now a fool: What think'st trees, That have outliv'd the eagle, page thy heels, brook, • Bonndless surface. Apem. Ay. Tim. What! a knave too? Apem. If thou didst put this sour cold habit on Thou should'st desire to die, being miserable. Thou art a slave, whom Fortune's tender arm The sweet degrees that this brief world affords In general riot; melted down thy youth of men At duty, more than I could frame employment; They never flatter'd thee: What hast thou given? Apem. Art thou proud yet? Tim. Ay, that I am not thee. No prodigal. Tim. 1, that I am one now; Were all the wealth I have, shut up in thee, [Eating a root. Tim. Thee thither in a whirlwind. If thou Tell them there I have gold: look, so I have. Tim. The best and truest: For here it sleeps, and does no hired harm. Tim. Under that's above me. Where feed'st thou o'days, Apemantus ? Tim. 'Would poison were obedient, and knew my mind! Apem. Where would'st thou send it? Apem. The middle of humanity thou never Tim. Ay, though it look like thee. Apem. An thou had'st hated medlers sooner, thou should'st have loved thyself better now. What man didst thou ever know unthrift, that was beloved after his means? Tim. Who, without those means thou talkest of, didst thou ever know beloved ? Apcm. Myself. Tim. I understand thee; thou hadst some means to keep a dog. Apem. What things in the world canst thou nearest compare to thy flatterers ! Tim. Women nearest; but men, men are the things themselves. What would'st thou do with the world, Apemautus, if it lay in thy power? Apem. Give it the beasts, to be rid of the men. Tim. Would'st thou have thyself fall in the confusion of men, and remain a beast with the beasts ? Apem. Ay, Timon: 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 for 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 torment 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 shouldst 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 killed 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, 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 ? Apem. If thou could'st please me with speaking to me, thou migh'tst have hit upon it here: The 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 Tim. First mend my company, take away thy-fear to catch it, and give way: When I know not self. Apem. So I shall mend mine own, by the lack of thine. Tim. 'Tis not well mended so, it is but botch'd; If not, I would it were. Apem. What would'st thon have to Athens ? • Arrives sooner at the completion of its wishes. 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. For too much finical delicacy. 1 I. e. In being placed at a distance from the lion. The top. ATHENS Tim. 'Would thou wert clean enough to spit проп. Apem. A plague on thee, thou art too bad to curse. Tim. All villains, that do stand by thee, are pure. Apem. There is no leprosy but what thou speak'st. Tim. If I name thee. I'd beat thee,-but I should infect my hands. I swoon to see thee. Apem. 'Would thou would'st burst! Thou tedious rogue! I am sorry I shall lose A stone by thee. Apem. Beast! Than. Slave! Apem. Toad! Tim. Rogue, rogue, rogue! But even the mere necessities upon it. Whose blush doth thaw the consecrated snow To every purpose! O thou touch of hearts! Apem. 'Would 'twere so ; But not till I am dead!—I'll say, thou hast gold: Tim. Throng'd to! Apem. Ay. 7. Thy back, I pr’ythee. this mile break forth a hundred springs want? Thief. We cannot live on grass, on berries, You must eat men. not In holier shapes: for there is boundless theft grape, Till the high fever seeth your blood to froth, 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 o'er my trade. 1 Thief. Let us first see peace in Athens; There is no time so miserable, but a man may [Exeunt THIEVES. be true. T. Long live so, and so die !-I am quit.-Is [Exit APEMANTUS. More things like men ?-Eat, Timon, and abhor them. Enter FLAVIUS. Flav. O you gods! yon despis'd and ruinous man my lord? What viler thing upon the earth, than friends, [do ! When man was wish'd to love his enemies: Graut, 1 may ever love, and rather woo 2 Thief. It is noised, he hath a mass of trea-Those that would mischief me, than those that Thief. Let us make the assay upon him: if be care not for't, he will supply us easily; If he CLIPINESly reserve it, how shall's get it? Thief. True; for he bears it not about him 1 Trief. Is not this he? Protes. Where? 2 Tef. Tis his description. T.NEERS. Soldiers, not thieves. We are not thieves, but men that T.. Your greatest want is, you want much of meat, He has caught me in his eye: I will present master! my life. My dearest Ne'er did poor steward wear a truer grief Because thou art a woman, and disclaim'st Poet. What's to be thought of him? Does the rumour hold for true, that he is so full of gold? Pain. Certain : Alcibiades reports it; Phrynla and Timandra had gold of him: he likewise enriched poor straggling soldiers with great But thorough lust and laughter. Pity's sleep-quantity: 'Tis said, he gave unto his steward a ing: Strange times, that weep with laughing, not with weeping! Flav. I beg of you to know me, good my [lasts, lord, To accept my grief, and whilst this poor wealth 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 wild. Let me behold man. Forgive my general and exceptless rashness, Expecting in return twenty for one? Flau. No, my most worthy master, in whose breast Doubt and suspect, alas, are plac'd too late: Suspect still comes where an estate is least. Duty and zeal to your unmatched mind, Care of your food and living: and, believe it, For any benefit that points to me, 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 saying is quite out of use. To promise is most courtly and fashionable: performance is a kind of will and 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 the day serves, before black-corner'd night, For this one wish, That you had power and Find what thou want'st by free and offer'd light. wealth To requite me, by making rich yourself. Tim. Look thee, 'tis so!-Thou singly honest Debts wither them: Be men like blasted woods, Flar. O let me stay, And comfort you, my master. Curses, stay not: fly, whilst thou'rt bless'd and Ne'er see thou man, and let me ne'er see thee. [Exeunt severally. ACT V. SCENE 1.-The same.-Before TIMON's Cave. seen, Come. Tim. I'll meet you at the turn. What a god's gold, That he is worshipp'd in a baser temple, 'Tis thou that rigg'st the bark, and plough'st the foam; Settlest admired reverence in a slave: Poet. Hail, worthy Timon! Tim. Have I once liv'd to see two honest men ? You, that are honest, by being what you are, Pain. As I took note of the place, it cannot Have travell'd in the great shower of your gifts be far where he abides. And sweetly felt it. • Away from the abodes of men, • The doing of what we have said we would do. |