By putting on the cunning of a carper.
Be thou a flatt'rer now, and feek to thrive
By that which has undone thee; hinge thy knee,
And let his very breath whom thou'lt obferve
Blow off thy cap; praife his moft vicious ftrain,
And call it excellent. Thou waft told thus :
Thou gav'ft thine ears, like tapfters, that bid welcome
To knaves, and all approachers: 'Tis most jutt
That thou turn rafcal: hadft thou wealth again,
Rafcals fhould have't. Do not affume my likeness.
Tim. Were I like thee, I'd throw away myself.
Apem. Thou'ft caft away thyfelf, being like thyself,
So long a madman, now a fool. What, think'ft thou,
That the bleak air, thy boisterous chamberlain,
Will put thy fhirt on warm? will these moift trees
That have out-liv'd the eagle, page thy heels,
And skip when thou point'ft out? will the cold brook,
Candied with ice, cawdle thy morning tafte

To cure thy o'er-night's furfeit? Call the creatures,
Whofe naked natures live in all the fpight

Of wreakful heav'n, whofe bare unhoufed trunks,
To the conflicting elements expos'd,

Answer mere nature; bid them flatter thee;
Oh! 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 flatt'reft mifery.

Apem. I flatter not; but fay, thou art a caitiff.
Tim. Why dost thou feek me out?

Apem. To vex thee.

Tim. Always a villain's office, or a fool's.

Doft please thyfelf in't? (29)

To caftigate thy pride, 'twere well; but thou
Do't it enforcedly thou'dft courtier be,
Wert thou not beggar,-

(29) Tim. Always a villain's office, or a fool's.

Doft pleafe thyself in't?

Apem. 4y.

H 5

Apem

Mr. Warburton.

Tim

Apem. Ay.

Tim. What! a knave too?

Apem. If thou didst put this fower cold habit on
To caftigate thy pride, 'twere well; but thou
Doft it enforcedly: thou'dft courtier be,
Wert thou not beggar. Willing mifery
Out-lives in certain pomp; is crown'd before:
The one is filling ftill, never compleat;

The other, at high with: Beft ftates, contentless,
Have a distracted and moft wretched being:
Worfe than the worst, content.

Thou shouldft defire to die, being miferable.
Tim. Not by his breath, that is more miferable.
Thou art a flave, whom fortune's tender arm
With favour never clafpt; but bred a dog.
Hadft thou, like us, from our firft fwath proceeded
Through fweet degrees that this brief world affords,
To fuch, as may the paffive drugs of it

Freely command; thou wouldst have plung'd thyfelf
In general riot, melted down thy youth
In different beds of luft, and never learn'd
The icy precepts of refpect, but followed
The fugar'd game before thee. But myself,
Who had the world as my confectionary,

The mouths, the tongues, the eyes, the hearts of men
At duty, more than I could frame employments;
That numberless upon me ftuck, as leaves
Do on the oak; have with one winter's brush
Fall'n from their boughs, and left me open, bare
For every ftorm that blows. I to bear this,
That never knew but better, is fome burden.

Tm. What! a knave too?] Mr. Warburton proposes a correction here, which, tho' it oppofes the reading of all the printed copies, has great juftrefs and propriety in it. He would read;

What! and know't too?

The reafoning of the text, as it flands in the books, is, in fome fort, concluding backward: or rather making a knave's and villain's office different: which, furely, is abfurd. The correction quite removes the abfurdity, and gives this fenfible rebuke. "What! do'ft thou please thyfelf in vexing me, and at the fame time know it to be the office of a villain or fool?"

Thy

Thy nature did commence in fuff'rance, time
Hath made thee hard in't. Why shouldst thou hate men ↑
They never flatter'd thee. What haft thou given
If thou wilt curfe, thy father, that poor rag,
Muft be thy fubject; who in fpight put ftuff
To fome fhe-beggar, and compounded thee
Poor rogue hereditary. Hence! be gone-
If thou hadst not been born the worst of men,
Thou hadst been knave and flatterer.

Apem. Art thou proud yet?
Tim. Ay, that I am not thee.
Apem. I, that I was no prodigal.
Tim. I, that I am one now.

Were all the wealth I have, fhut up in thee,
I'd give the leave to hang it. Get thee gone-
That the whole life of Athens were in this!
Thus would I eat it.

Apem. Here, I will mend thy feaft.

[Eating a root..

Tim. First mend my company, take away thyself. (30) Apem. So I fhall mend my own, by th' lack of thine. Tim. 'Tis not well mended fo, it is but botcht; 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 ufe for gold,

Tim. The best and trueft:

For here it fleeps, and does no hired harm.
Apem. Where ly'ft o' nights, Timon?
Tim. Under that's above me.

Where feed'it thou o'days, Apemantus ?

Apem. Where my ftomach finds meat; or, rather, where I eat it.

Tim. Would poifon were obedient, and knew my mind! Apem. Where wouldst thou fend it ?

Tim. To fauce thy dishes.

(30) Firft mend thy company,----] Thus the old copies; but common fenfe and the whole tenour of the context warrant that it should he---my company.---I obferve, Mr. Rowe in his 8vo edition of our poet has likewife made this correction.

Apem

Apem. The middle of humanity thou never kneweft, but the extremity of both ends. When thou waft in thy gilt, and thy perfume, they mockt thee for too much curiofity; in thy rags thou knoweft none, but art defpis'd for the contrary. There's a medlar for thee,

eat it.

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

Tim. Ay, though it look like thee.

Apem. An th'hadit hated medlers fooner, thou shouldft have loved thyfelf better now. What man didft thou ever know unthrift, that was beloved after his means ?

Tim. Who, without thofe means thou talk'ft of, didst thou ever know beloved?

Apem. Myfelf.

Tim. I understand thee, thou hadft fome means to keep a dog.

Apem. What things in the world canft thou nearest compare to thy flatterers?

Tim. Women neareft; but men, men are the things them felves. What wouldst thou do with the world, Apemantus, if it lay in thy power?

Apem. Give it the beafts, to be rid of the men.

Tim. Wouldst thou have thyself fall in the confufion of men, or remain a beast with the beasts?

Apem. Ay, Timon.

Tim. A beaftly ambition, which the gods grant thee t' attain to! If thou wert a lion, the fox would beguile thee; if thou wert the lamb, the fox would eat thee; if thou wert the fox, the lion would fufpect thee, when, peradventure, thou wert accus'd by the afs; if thou wert the afs, thy dulness would torment thee; and ftill thou liv'dit but as a breakfast to the wolf. If thou wert' the wolf, thy greediness would affli&t thee; and oft thou fhould hazard thy life for thy dinner. Wert thou the unicorn, pride and wrath would confound thee, and make thine own felf the conqueft of thy fury. Wert thou a bear, thou wouldst be kill'd by the horse; wert thou a horse, thou wouldst be feized by the leopard; wert thou a leopard, thou wert german to the lion, and

the

the fpots of thy kindred were jurors on thy life. All thy fafety were remotion, and thy defence abfence. What beaft couldst thou be, that were not fubject to a beast? and what a beast art thou already, and feeft not thy lofs in transformation!

Apem. If thou couldst pleafe me with fpeaking to me, thou might'ft have hit upon it here. The commonwealth of Athens is become a foreft of beafts.

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

Apem. Yonder comes a poet, and a painter. (31) 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 fee thee again.

Tim. When there is nothing living but thee, thou fhalt 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 fpit upon.
A plague on thee! (32)

Apem. Thou art too bad to curse.

Tim. All villains, that do ftand by thee, are pure. Apem. There is no leprofy 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 iffue of a mangy dog!

(31) Apem. Yonder comes a poet, &c.] Apemantus is fuppos'd to look out here, and to see the poet and painter at a distance, as traverfing the woods in quest of Timon.. This preparation of fcenary Mr. Pope did not conceive; and therefore, I don't know by what authority, has peremptorily thrown out fome part, and tranfpofed another part of this and the next fpeech to the place where Apemantus goes off. None of the old books countenance fuch a tranfpofition.

(32) A plague on thee!

Apem. -Thou art too bad to curfe] In the former editions, this whole verfe was placed to Apemantus: by which, abfurdly, he was made to curfe Timon, and immediately to fubjoin that he was too bad to curfe. In my SHAKESPEARE reftor'd I gave the former part of the hemiftich to Timon, and the latter part to Apemantus; as it is now regulated in the text: and Mr. Pope, in his last edition, has vouchfaf'd to embrace this regulation.

Choler