I have but little gold of late, brave Timon, Alcib. Why, fare thee well: 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 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 ; Herself's a bawd: Let not the virgin's cheek Set them down horrible traitors: Spare not the babe, Hath doubtfully pronounc'd thy throat shall cut, [7] This is wonderfully sublime and picturesque. 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: Tim. Enough to make a whore forswear her trade, And be no turncoats: Yet may your pains, six months, 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, Nor sound his quillets shrilly: Hoar the flamen,3 That scolds against the quality of flesh, And not believes himself: down with his nose, [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. 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; The source of all erection.-There's more gold :— 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, [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 ; More man? plague! plague! ; Apem. I was directed hither. Men report, A poor unmanly melancholy, sprung From change of fortune. Why this spade? this place? Apem. Thou hast cast away thyself, being like thyself; [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, To cure thy o'er-night's surfeit? call the creatures,- Of wreakful heaven; whose bare unhoused trunks, Answer mere nature,-bid them flatter thee; Tim. A fool of thee: Depart. Apem. I love thee better now than e'er I did. 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 The other, at high wish. Best state, contentless, Thou shouldst desire to die, being miserable. Tim. Not by his breath, that is more miserable. 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 |