2 Lord. If you had sent but two hours before,Tim. Let it not cumber your better remembrance. -Come, bring in all together.

2 Lord. All covered dishes!

1 Lord. Royal cheer, I warrant you.

3 Lord. Doubt not that, if money and the season

can yield it.

1 Lord. How do you? what's the news?

3 Lord. Alcibiades is banish'd: Hear you of it? 1 & 2 Lord. Alcibiades banished!

3 Lord. 'Tis so, be sure of it.

1 Lord. How? how?

2 Lord. I pray you, upon what?

Tim. My worthy friends, will you draw near? 3 Lord. I'll tell you more anon. feast toward.

2 Lord. This is the old man still.

3 Lord. Will't hold? will't hold?

Here's a noble

2 Lord. It does: but time will-and so3 Lord. I do conceive.

Tim. Each man to his stool, with that spur as he would to the lip of his mistress: your diet shall be in all places alike. Make not a city feast of it, to let the meat cool ere we can agree upon the first place: Sit, sit. The gods require our thanks.

You great benefactors, sprinkle our society with thankfulness. For your own gifts, make yourselves praised: but reserve still to give, lest your deities be despised. Lend to each man enough, that one need not lend to another; for, were your godheads to borrow of men, men would forsake the gods. Make the meal be beloved, more than the man that gives it. Let no assembly of twenty be without a score of villains: If there sit twelve women at the table, let a dozen of them be-as they are.-The rest of your fees, O gods,-the senators of Athens, together with the common lag' of people,—what is amiss in them, you gods, make suitable for destruction. For these my present friends,-as they are to me nothing, so in nothing bless them, and to nothing they are

welcome.

Uncover, dogs, and lap.

[The Dishes uncovered are full of warm water.

Some speak. What does his lordship mean? Some other. I know not.

Tim. May you a better feast never behold, You knot of mouth-friends! smoke, and luke-warın water,

Is your perfection. This is Timon's last;
Who stuck and spangled you with flatteries,
Washes it off, and sprinkles in your faces

[Throwing water in their faces.
Your reeky villany. Live loath'd and long,
Most smiling, smooth, detested parasites,
Courteous destroyers, aflable wolves, meek bears,
You fools of fortune, trencher-friends, time's dies,
Cap and knee slaves, vapors, and minute-jacks!
Or man and beast, the infinite malady
Crust you quite o'er!-What, dost thou go?
Soft, take thy physic first-thou too,-and thou ;—
[Throws the Dishes at them, and drives

them out.

Stay, I will lend thee money, borrow none.--
What, all in motion? Henceforth be no feast,
Whereat a villain's not a welcome guest.
Burn, house! sink, Athens! henceforth hated be
Of Timon, man, and all humanity!
[Exit.
Re-enter the Lords, with other Lords and Senators.
1 Lord. How now, my lords?

2 Lord. Know you the quality of lord Timon's fury?

3 Lord. Pish! did you see my cap? 4 Lord. I have lost my gown.

3 Lord. He's but a mad lord, and nought but humor sways him. He gave me a jewel the other day, and now he has beat it out of my hat:-Did you see my jewel?

4 Lord. Did you see my cap? 2 Lord. Here 'tis.

4 Lord. Here lies my gown. 1 Lord. Let's make no stay. 2 Lord. Lord Timon's mad. 3 Lord.

I feel't upon my bones. 4 Lord. One day he gives us diamonds, next day stones. [Exeunt.

SCENE I.-Without the Walls of Athens.

Enter TIMON.

Tim. Let me look back upon thee, O thou wall That girdlest in those wolves! Dive in the earth, And fence not Athens! Matrons, turn incontinent! Obedience fail in children! slaves and fools, Pluck the grave wrinkled senate from the bench, And minister in their steads! to general filths6 Convert, o' the instant, green virginity! Do 't in your parents' eyes! bankrupts, hold fast; Rather than render back, out with your knives, And cut your trusters' throats! bound servants,steal! Large-handed robbers your grave masters are; And pill by law! maid, to thy master's bed: Thy mistress is o' the brothel! son of sixteen, Pluck the lin'd crutch from the old limping sire, With it beat out his brains! piety, and fear, Religion to the gods, peace, justice, truth, Domestic awe, night-rest, and neighborhood, Instruction, manners, mysteries, and trades, Degrees, observances, customs, and laws, Decline to your confounding contraries, And yet confusion live!-Plagues, incident to men, Your potent and infectious fevers heap On Athens, ripe for stroke! thou cold sciatica, Cripple our senators, that their limbs may halt As lamely as their manners! lust and liberty? Creep in the minds and marrows of our youth; That 'gainst the stream of virtue they may strive, And drown themselves in riot! itches, blains, Sow all the Athenian bosoms; and their crop Be general leprosy! breath infect breath; That their society, as their friendship, may Be merely poison! Nothing I'll bear from thee, But nakedness, thou détestable town!

Take thou that too, with multiplying bans !9
Timon will to the woods; where he shall find
The unkindest beast more kinder than mankind
The gods confound (hear me, ye good gods all)
The Athenians both within and out that wall!
And grant, as Timon grows, his hate may grow
To the whole race of mankind, high and low!
Amen.
[Exit.
SCENE II-Athens. A Room in Timon's
House.

Enter FLAVIUS, with two or three Servants.

1 Serv. Hear you, master steward, where's our master?

Are we undone? cast off? nothing remaining?
Flav. Alack, my fellows,what should I say to you?
Let me be recorded by the righteous gods,

I am as poor as you.
1 Serv.
Such a house broke!
So noble a master fallen! All gone! and not
One friend. to take his fortune by the arm,
And go along with him!
2 Serv.
As we do turn our backs
From our companion, thrown into his grave;
So his familiars to his buried fortunes
Slink all away; leave their false vows with him,
Like empty purses pick'd: and his poor self,
A dedicated beggar to the air,

With his disease of all-shunn'd poverty,
Walks, like contempt, alone.-More of our fellows.
Enter other Servants.

Flav. All broken implements of a ruin'd house. 3 Serv Yet do our hearts wear Timon's livery, That see I by our faces; we are fellows still,

Jacks of the clock; like those of St. Dunstan's church, in Fleet street. 9 Accumulated curses.

[Exeunt Servants.

O, the fierce! wretchedness that glory brings us!
Who would not wish to be from wealth exempt,
Since riches point to misery and contempt?
Who'd be so mock'd with glory? or to live
But in a dream of friendship?"

To have his pomp, and all what state compounds,
But only painted like his varnish'd friends!
Poor honest lord, brought low by his own heart,
Undone by goodness! Strange, unusual blood,2
When a man's worst sin is, he does too much good!
Who then dares to be half so kind again?
For bounty, that makes gods, does still mar men.
My dearest lord,-bless'd, to be most accurs'd,
Rich, only to be wretched;-thy great fortunes
Are made thy chief afflictions. Alas, kind lord!
He's flung in rage from this ungrateful seat
Of monstrous friends: nor has he with him to
Supply his life, or that which can command it.
I'll follow, and inquire him out;
I'll serve his mind with my best will;
Whilst I have gold, I'll be his steward still. [Exit.

SCENE III-The Woods.

Enter TIMON.

Tim. O blessed breeding sun, draw from the earth
Rotten humidity; below thy sister's orb
Infect the air! Twinn'd brothers of one womb,-
Whose procreation, residence, and birth,
Scarce is dividant,-touch them with several for-
tunes;

The greater scorns the lesser: Not nature,
To whom all sores lay siege, can bear great fortune,
But by contempt of nature.

Raise me this beggar, and denude that lord;
The senator shall bear contempt hereditary,

The beggar native honor.

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,
And say, This man's a flatterer? If one be,
So are they all; for every grize of fortune
Is smooth'd by that below: the learned pate
Ducks to the golden fool: All is oblique;
There's nothing level in our cursed natures,
But direct villany. Therefore be abhorr'd
All feasts, societies, and throngs of men!
His semblable, yea, himself, Timon disdains:
Destruction fang4 mankind!-Earth, yield me
(Digging.

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, I am no idle votarist. Roots, you clear heavens! Thus 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,
And give them title, knee, and approbation,
With senators on the bench: this is it,
That makes the wappen'd' widow wed again;
She, whom the spital-house, and ulcerous sores,
Would cast the gorge at, this embalms and spices
To the April day again. Come, damned earth,
a Propensity, disposition.

Hasty, precipitate.

Bet by is here used for without.

4 Seize. gripe.

Sorrowful.

i.. Gold restores her to all the sweetness and fresh

ness of youth.

That art thyself a man?

Tim. I am misanthropos, and hate mankind. For thy part, I do wish thou wert a dog, That I might love thee something.

I know thee well:

Alcib.
But in thy fortunes am unlearn'd and strange.
Tim. I know thee too; and more than that I
know thee,

I not desire to know. Follow thy drum;
With man's blood paint the ground, gules, gules:
Religious canons, civil laws are cruel;

Then what should war be? This fell whore of thine
Hath in her more destruction than thy sword,
For all her cherubin look.
Phr.
Thy lips rot off!
Tim. I will not kiss thee; then the rot returns
To thine own lips again.

Alcib. How came the noble Timon to this change?
Tim. As the moon does, by wanting light to give:
But then renew I could not, like the moon;
There were no suns to borrow of.

Alcib.

Noble Timon,

None, but to

What friendship may I do thee?
Tim.
Maintain my opinion.
Alcib.
What is it, Timon?
Tim. Promise me friendship,but perform none: If
Thou wilt not promise, the gods plague thee, for
Thou art a man! If thou dost perform,coniound thee,
For thou'rt a man!

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.
Tim. As thine is now, held with a brace of hariots.
Timan. Is this the Athenian minion, whom the
world
Voiced so regardfully?

Tim.

Timan.

Art thou Timandra!

Yes.

Tim. Be a whore still! they love thee not, that use thee;

Give them diseases, leaving with thee their lust.
Make use of thy salt hours: season the slaves
For tubs,and baths; bring down rose-cheeked youth
To the tub-fast, and the diet.7

Timan.
Hang thee, monster!
Alcib. Pardon him, sweet Timandra; for his wits
Are drown'd and lost in his calamities.--
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 neighbor 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. 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 honor'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 trenchants sword; for those milk-
paps,

That through the window-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,9 whom the oracle

Hath doubtfully pronounced thy throat shall cut,
And mince it sans remorse: swear against objects:2
Put armor 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 à jot. There's gold to pay thy soldiers:
Make large confusion; and, thy fury spent,
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.

Tem. Dost thou, or dost thou not, heaven's curse upon thee!

Phr. & 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 :3 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 your 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!

Phr. & 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 quillets1 shrilly: hoar the flamen,
That scolds against the quality of flesh,
And not believes himself: down with the nose,
Down with it flat; take the bridge quite away
Of him, that his particular to foresee,

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!

Phr. & Timan. More counsel with more money, bounteous Timon.

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

Alcib Strike up the drum towards Athens. Farewell, 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. Strike.

We but offend him.

[Drum beats. Exit ALCIBIADES, PHRYNIA, and TIMANDRA.

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,5
With all the abhorred births below crisps 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,
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 marble mansion all above
Never presented!-0, a root,-Dear thanks!
Dry up thy marrows, vines, and plough-torn leas:
Whereof ingrateful man, with liquorish draughts,
And morsels 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; From change of fortune. Why this spade? this A poor unmanly melancholy, sprung place?

This slave-like habit, and these looks of care?
Thy flatterers yet wear silk, drink wine, lie soft,
Hug their discas'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'It observe,
Blow off thy cap; praise his most vicious strain,
Thou gav'st thine ears, like tapsters, that bid wel-
And call it excellent; thou wast told thus;

come,

To knaves, and all approachers; 'Tis most just, That thou turn rascal; hadst thou wealth again, Rascals should have'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
Will put thy shirt on warm? Will these moss'd trees,
That the bleak air, thy boisterous chamberlain,
That have outliv'd the eagle, page thy heels,
And skip when thou point'st out? Will the cold

brook,

Candied with ice, caudle thy morning taste,
To cure thy o'ernight surfeit? call the creatures,-
of wreakful heaven; whose bare unhoused trunks,
Whose naked natures live in all the spite
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. Tim.

Why?

Thou flatter'st misery. Apem. I flatter not; but say thou art a caitill. 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?

Ay.

Apem. 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 uncertain pomp, is crown'd before;7 The one is filling still, never complete; The other at high wish: Best state, contentless, The serpent called the blind-worm. • Curved. i.e. Arrives sooner at the completion of its wishes.

Hath a distracted and most wretched being,
Worse than the worst, content.

Thou shouldst desire to die, being miserable,
Tim. Not by his breaths that is more miserable.
Thou art a slave, whom Fortune's tender arm
With favor never clasp'd; but bred a dog.
Hadst thou, like us, from our first swath proceeded,
The sweet degrees that this brief world affords
To such as may the passive drugs of it
Freely command,thou wouldst have plunged thyself
In gen'ral riot; melted down thy youth
In different beds of lusts; and never learn'd
The icy precepts of respect, but follow'd
The sugar'd game before thee. But myself
Who had the world as my confectionary;
The mouths, the tongues, the eyes and hearts of men
At duty, more than I could frame employment;
That numberless upon me stuck, as leaves
Do on the oak, have with one winter's brush
Fell from their boughs, and left me open, bare
For every storm that blows;-I to bear this,
That never knew but better, is some burden:
Thy nature did commence in sufferance, time
Hath made thee hard in't. Why should'st thou hate
men!

They never flatter'd thee. What hast thou given?
If thou wilt curse,-thy father, that poor rag,
Must be thy subject; who, in spite, put stuff
To some she-beggar, and compounded thee,
Poor rogue hereditary. Hence! be gone!-
If thou hadst not been born the worst of men
Thou hadst been a knave, and flatterer.
Apem.
Art thou proud yet?

Tim. Ay, that I am not thee.

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 wouldst thou have to Athens? Tim. Thee thither in a whirlwind. If thou wilt, Tell them there I have gold; look, so I have. Apem. Here is no use for gold. Tim. The best and truest; For here it sleeps and does no hired harm. Apem. Where ly'st o'nights, Timon? Tim. Under that's above me. Where feed'st thou o'days, Apemantus? Apem. Where my stomach finds meat; or, rather, where I eat it.

Tim. 'Would poison were obedient, and knew my mind!

Apem. Where wouldst thou send it?
Tim. To sauce thy dishes.

Apem. The middle of humanity thou never knewest, but the extremity of both ends; When thou wast in thy gilt, and thy perfume, they mocked thee for too much curiosity; in thy rags thou knowest none, but art despised for the contrary. There's a medlar for thee, eat it.

Tim. On what I hate, I feed not.
Apem. Dost hate a medlar?

Tim. Ay, though it look like thee. Apem. An thou hadst hated meddlers sooner, thou shouldst 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?

Apem. Give it the beasts, to be rid of the men. Tim. Wouldst thou have thyself fall in the con fusion 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 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 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 wouldst be killed by the horse: wert thou a horse, thou wouldst 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 couldst thou be, that wert not subject to a beast? and what a beast art thou already, that seest not thy loss in transformation?

Apem. If thou couldst please me with speaking to me, thou mightst 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 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 cap3 of all the fools alive. Tim. 'Would thou wert clean enough to spit

upon.

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'll beat thee,--but I should infect my hands.
Apem. I would, my tongue could rot them off!
Tim. Away, thou issue of a mangy dog!
Choler does kill me, that thou art alive;
I swoon to see thee.
Apem.
Tim.

'Would thou would'st burst!
A way,
[Throws a Stone at him.

Thou tedious rogue! I am sorry, I shall lose
A stone by thee.

Apem. Tim. Apem. Tim.

Beast!

Slave!

Toad!

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 Thy grave-stone daily; make thine epitaph, That death in me at others' lives may laugh. O thou sweet king-killer, and dear divorce

[Looking on the Gold. 'Twixt natural son and sire! thou bright deliler Of Hymen's purest bed! thou valiant Mars! Thou ever young, fresh, lov'd, and delicate woer, 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 virt
Set them into confounding odds, that beasts
May have the world in empire!
Apem.
'Would 'twere s
But not till I am dead!-I'll say, thou hast gold,
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 qu [Exit APEMAN TUS.

From infancy.

lion.

Remoteness; the being placed at a distance from the The top, the principal. 4 Touchstone.