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I have but little gold of late, brave Timon,
The want whereof doth daily make revolt
In my penurious band: I have heard, and griev'd,
How cursed Athens, mindless of thy worth,
Forgetting thy great deeds, when neighbour states,
But for thy sword and fortune, trod upon them,-
Tim. I pr'ythee, beat thy drum, and get thee gone.
Alcib. I am thy friend, and pity thee, dear Timon.
Tim. How dost thou pity him, whom thou dost trouble?
I 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 ?

Alcib. Ay, Timon, and have cause.

Tim. The gods confound them all i'thy conquest; and Thee after, when thou hast conquer'd!

Alcib. Why me, Timon?

Tim. That,

By killing villains, thou wast born to conquer
My country.

Put up thy gold; Go on,-here's gold,—go on ;

Be as a planetary plague, when Jove

Will o'er some high-vic'd city hang his poison

In the sick air." Let not thy sword skip one :

Pity not honour'd age for his white beard,

He's an usurer: Strike me the counterfeit matron ;
It is her habit only that is honest,

Herself's a bawd: Let not the virgin's cheek
Make soft thy trenchant sword; for those milk-paps,
That through the wondow-bars bore at men's eyes,
Are not within the leaf of pity writ,

Set them down horrible traitors: Spare not the babe,
Whose dimpled smiles from fools exhaust their mercy;
Think it a bastard, whom the oracle

Hath doubtfully pronounc'd thy throat shall cut,
And mince it sans remorse: Swear against objects;
Put armour on thine ears, and on thine eyes;
Whose proof, nor yells of mothers, maids, nor babes,
Nor sight of priests in holy vestments bleeding,
Shall pierce a jot. There's gold to pay thy soldiers :
Make large confusion; and, thy fury spent,

[7] This is wonderfully sublime and picturesque. WARBURTON.
[8] An allusion to the tale of Oedipus. WARBURTON.

Confounded be thyself! Speak not, be gone.

Alcib. Hast thou gold yet? I'll take the gold thou giv'st

me,

Not all thy counsel.

Tim. Dost thou, or dost thou not, heaven's curse upon

thee!

Phry. and Timan. Give us some gold, good Timon:
Hast thou more?

Tim. Enough to make a whore forswear her trade,
And to make whores, a bawd. Hold up, you sluts,
Your aprons mountant: You are not oathable,—
Although, I know, you'll swear, terribly swear,
Into strong shudders, and to heavenly agues,
The immortal gods that hear you,-spare your oaths,
I'll trust to your conditions ; Be whores still;
And he whose pious breath seeks to convert you,
Be strong in whore, allure him, burn him up;
Let your close fire predominate his smoke,

And be no turncoats: Yet may your pains, six months,
Be quite contrary: And thatch you poor thin roofs
With burdens of the dead ;-some that were hang'd,
No matter wear them, betray with them: whore still
Paint till a horse may mire upon your face :

A pox of wrinkles !

Phry. and Timan. Well, more gold;-What then?— Believe't, that we'll do any thing for gold.

Tim. Consumptions sow

In hollow bones of man; strike their sharp shins,

And mar men's spurring. Crack the lawyer's voice,
That he may never more false title plead,

Nor sound his quillets shrilly: Hoar the flamen,3

That scolds against the quality of flesh,

And not believes himself: down with his nose,
Down with it flat; take the bridge quite away
Of him, that his particular to foresee,

[9] You need not swear to continue whores, I will trust to your inclinations. JOHNSON.

[1] I believe this means,---" Yet for half the year at least, may you suffer such punishment as is inflicted on strumpets in houses of correction." STEEVENS.

[2] About the year 1595, when the fashion was first introduced in England of wearing more hair than was ever the produce of a single head, it was dangerous for any child to go about, as nothing was more common than for women to entice such as had fine locks into private places, and there to cut them off. I have this information from Stubbs' Anatomy of Abuses, which I have often quoted on the article of dress. STEEVENS.

[3] This may mean, Give the flamen the hoar leprosy. As before in this play, "Make the hoar leprosy ador'd.” STEEVENS.

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Smells from the general weal: Make curl'd-pate ruffians

bald;

And let the unscarr'd braggarts of the war

Derive some pain from you: Plague all;
That your activity may defeat and quell

The source of all erection.-There's more gold :—
Do you damn others, and let this damn you,

And ditches grave you all!

Phry. and Timan. More counsel with more money, bounteous Timon.

Tim. More whore, more mischief first; I have given

your earnest.

Alcib. Srike up the drum towards Athens.

Timon;

If I thrive well, I'll visit thee again.

Tim. If I hope well, I'll never see thee more.

Alcib. I never did thee harm.

Tim. Yes, thou spok'st well of me.

Alcib. Call'st thou that harm?

Tim. Men daily find it such. Get thee away,

And take thy beagles with thee.

Alcib. We but offend him.

Strike.

Farewell,

[Drum beats. Exe. ALCIB. PHRY. and TIMA. Tim. That nature, being sick of man's unkindness, Should yet be hungry!-Common mother, thou, [Digging. Whose womb unmeasurable, and infinite breast,

Teems, and feeds all; whose self-same mettle,
Whereof, thy proud child, arrogant man, is puff'd,
Engenders the black toad, and adder blue,
The gilded newt, and eyeless venom'd worm,"
With all the abhorred births below crisp heaven'
Whereon Hyperion's quickening fire doth shine;
Yield him, who all thy human sons doth hate,
From forth thy plenteous bosom, one poor root'
Ensear thy fertile and conceptious womb,

[4] The metaphor is apparently incongruous, but the sense is good. To foresee his particular, is to provide for his private advantage, for which he leaves the right scent of public good. In hunting, when hares have cross'd one another, it is common for some of the hounds to smell from the general weal, and foresee their own particular. Shakespeare, who appears to have been a skilful sportsman, and has alluded often to falconry, perhaps, alludes here to hunting. JOHNSON.

[5] To grave is to entomb. The word is now obsolete, though sometimes used by Shakespeare and his contemporary authors. To ungrave, was likewise to turn out of a grave.

STEEVENS.

[6] Eyeless venom'd worm-the serpent, which we, from the smallness of his eyes, call the blind worm and the Latin, cecilia. JOHNSON.

[7] By crisp, perhaps Shakespeare means curl'd, from the appearance of the clouds. In the Tempest, Ariel talks of riding

"On the curl'd clouds."

STEEVENS.

Let it no more bring out ingrateful man!

Go great with tigers, dragons, wolves, and bears ;
Teem with new monsters, whom thy upward face
Hath to the marbled mansion all above
Never presented !-O, a root,-Dear thanks!
Dry up thy marrows, vines, and plough-torn leas
Whereof ingrateful man, with liquorish draughts,
And morsel unctuous, greases his pure mind,
That from it all consideration slips !-
Enter APEMANTUS.

More man? plague! plague!

;

Apem. I was directed hither. Men report,
Thou dost affect my manners, and dost use them.
Tim. 'Tis then, because thou dost not keep a dog
Whom I would imitate : Consumption catch thee!
Apem. This is in thee a nature but affected;

A poor unmanly melancholy, sprung

From change of fortune. Why this spade? this place?
This slave-like habit? and these looks of care?
Thy flatterers yet wear silk, drink wine, lie soft ;
Hug their diseas'd perfumes, and have forgot
That ever Timon was. Shame not these woods,
By putting on the cunning of a carper.'
Be thou a flatterer now, and seek to thrive
By that which has undone thee: hinge thy knee,
And let his very breath, whom thou❜lt observe,
Blow off thy cap; praise his most vicious strain,
And call it excellent: Thou wast told thus ;
Thou gav'st thine ears, like tapsters, that bid welcome
To knaves, and all approachers: 'Tis most just,
That thou turn rascal; hadst thou wealth again,
Rascals should hav't. Do not assume my likeness.
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
That the bleak air, thy boisterous chamberlain,
Will put thy shirt on warm? Will these moss'd trees,
That have out-liv'd the eagle, page thy heels,

[8] The sense is this; "O nature! cease to produce men, ensear thy womb; but if thou wilt continue to produce them, at least cease to pamper them; dry up thy marrows, on which they fatten with unctuous morsels, thy vines, which give them liquorish draughts, and thy plough-torn leas." JOHNSON.

[9] Diseased, perfumed mistresses. MALONE.

[1] The cunning of a carper is the insidious art of a critick. Shame not these woods by coming here to find fault. STEEVENS.

[2] Aquila senectus is a proverb. The great age of this bird has been ascertained

And skip when thou point'st out? Will the cold brook,
Candied with ice, caudle thy morning taste,

To cure thy o'er-night's surfeit? call the creatures,-
Whose naked natures live in all the spite

Of wreakful heaven; whose bare unhoused trunks,
To the conflicting elements expos'd,

Answer mere nature,-bid them flatter thee;
O! thou shalt find

Tim. A fool of thee: Depart.

Apem. I love thee better now than e'er I did.
Tim. I hate thee worse.

Apem. Why?

Tim. Thou flatter'st misery.

Apem. I flatter not; but say, thou art a caitiff.

Tim. Why dost thou seek me out?

Apem. To vex thee.

Tim. Always a villain's office, or a fool's. Dost please thyself in't?

Apem. Ay.

Tim. What! a knave too?

Apem. If thou didst put this sour-cold habit on
To castigate thy pride, 'twere well: but thou
Dost it enforcedly; thou'dst courtier be again,
Wert thou not beggar. Willing misery
Outlives incertain pomp, is crown'd before :3
The one is filling still, never complete ;

The other, at high wish. Best state, contentless,
Hath a distracted and most wretched being,
Worse than the worst, content.*

Thou shouldst desire to die, being miserable.

Tim. Not by his breath, that is more miserable.
Thou art a slave, whom Fortune's tender arm
With favour never clasp'd; but bred a dog.
'Hadst thou, like us, from our first swath,7 proceeded

5

from the circumstance of its always building its eyrie or nest in the same place. STEEVENS.

[S] Arrives sooner at high wish; that is, at the completion of its wishes. JOHNS. 4 Best states contentless have a wretched being, worse than that of the worst states that are content. JOHNSON.

[5] Alluding to the word Cynic, of which sect Apemantus was. WARBURTON. [6] There is in this speech a sullen haughtiness, and malignant dignity, suitable at once to the lord and the man-hater. The impatience with which he bears to have his luxury reproached by one that never had luxury within his reach, is natural and graceful.----There is in a letter, written by the earl of Essex, just before his execu tion, to another nobleman, a passage somewhat resembling this, with which, I believe every reader will be pleased, though it is so serious and solemn that it can scarcely be inserted without irreverence. " God grant your lordship may quickly feel the com

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