SCENE I.-The same. Before Timon's Cave. Enter Poet and Painter; TIMON behind, unseen. Pain. As I took note of the place, it cannot be far where he abides. 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; Phrynia and Timandra had gold of him : he likewise enriched poor straggling soldiers with great quantity: 'Tis said, he gave unto his steward a 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 shew 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, or 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, Tim. I'll meet you at the turn. What a god's gold, That he is worshipp'd in a baser temple, Than where swine feed! 'Tis thou that rigg'st the bark, and plough'st the foam; Settlest admired reverence in a slave: To thee be worship! and thy saints for aye [Advancing. Tim. Let it go naked, men may see't the better: You, that are honest, by being what you are, Make them best seen, and known. Pain. He, and myself, Have travell'd in the great shower of your gifts, And sweetly felt it. Tim. Ay, you are honest men. Pain. We are hither come to offer you our service. Tim. Most honest men! Why, how shall I requite Can you eat roots, and drink cold water? no. [you? Both. What we can do, we'll do, to do you service. Tim. You are honest men: You have heard that I Both. Doubt it not, worthy lord. Tim. There's ne'er a one of you but trusts a knave, That mightily deceives you. Both. Do we, my lord? Tim. Ay, and you hear him cog, see him dissemble, Know his gross patchery, love him, feed him, Keep in your bosom: yet remain assur'd, That he's a made-up villain. Nor I. Pain. I know none such, my lord. Poet. Tim. Look you, I love you well; I'll give you gold, Rid me these villains from your companies: Hang them, or stab them, drown them in a draught, Confound them by some course, and come to me, I'll give you gold enough. Both. Name them, my lord, let's know them. Tim. You that way, and you this, but two in comEach man apart, all single and alone, [pany :Yet an arch-villain keeps him company. If where thou art, two villains shall not be, [To the Painter. Come not near him.-If thou would'st not reside [To the Poet. But where one villain is, then him abandon.Hence! pack! there's gold, ye came for gold, ye slaves: You have done work for me, there's payment: Hence' : You are an alchymist, make gold of that : That-Timon cares not. But if he sack fair Ataens, Out, rascal dogs! [Exit, beating and driving them out. And take our goodly aged men by the beards, SCENE II.-The same. Enter FLAVIUS and Two Senators. Flav. It is in vain that you would speak with Timon; That nothing but himself, which looks like man, 1 Sen. Bring us to his cave: It is our part, and promise to the Athenians To speak with Timon. 2 Sen. At all times alike Men are not still the same: 'Twas time, and griefs, That fram'd him thus: time, with his fairer hand, Offering the fortunes of his former days, The former man may make him: Bring us to him, And chance it as it may. Here is his cave. Flav. Peace and content be here! Lord Timon! Timon! Look out, and speak to friends: The Athenians, By two of their most reverend senate, greet thee: Speak to them, noble Timon. 1 Sen. Tim. Of none but such as you, and you of Timon. 2 Sen. The senators of Athens greet thee, Timon. Tim. I thank them; and would send them back the Could I but catch it for them. [plague, 1 Sen. 2 Sen. They confess, Toward thee, forgetfulness too general, gross: Which now the public body,-which doth seldom Play the recanter,-feeling in itself A lack of Timon's aid, hath sense withal Tim. You witch me in it; Who, like a boar too savage, doth root up 2 Sen. And shakes his threat'ning sword Against the walls of Athens. 1 Sen. Therefore, Timon,— Tim. Well, sir, I will; therefore, I will, sir; Thus,— If Alcibiades kill my countrymen, Let Alcibiades know this of Timon Giving our holy virgins to the stain Of contumelious, beastly, mad-brain'd war; But I do prize it at my love, before The reverend'st throat in Athens. So I leave you Flav. Stay not, all's in vain. Tim. Why, I was writing of my epitaph, It will be seen to-morrow: My long sickness Of health, and living, now begins to mend, And nothing brings me all things. Go, live still; Be Alcibiades your plague, you his, And last so long enough! 1 Sen. 1 Sen. through them. 2 Sen. And enter in our ears, like great triumphers In their applauding gates. Tim. Commend me to them; And tell them, that, to ease them of their griefs, Their fears of hostile strokes, their aches, losses, Their pangs of love, with other incident throes That nature's fragile vessel doth sustain [them: In life's uncertain voyage, I will some kindness do I'll teach them to prevent wild Alcibiades' wrath. 2 Sen. I like this well, he will return again. Tim. I have a tree, which grows here in my close, That mine own use invites me to cut down, And shortly must I fell it; Tell my friends, Tell Athens, in the sequence of degree, From high to low throughout, that whoso please To stop affliction, let him take his haste, Come hither, ere my tree hath felt the axe, And hang himself:-I pray you, do my greeting. Flav. Trouble him no further, thus you still shall find him. Tim. Come not to me again: but say to Athens, Timon hath made his everlasting mansion Upon the beached verge of the salt flood; Which once a day with his embossed froth The turbulent surge shall cover; thither come, And let my grave-stone be your oracle.Lips, let sour words go by, and language end: What is amiss, plague and infection mend! Graves, only be men's works; and death, their gain! Sun, hide thy beams! Timon hath done his reign. [Erit TIMON. 1 Sen. His discontents are unremoveably Coupled to nature. 2 Sen. Our hope in him is dead let us return, And strain what other means is left unto us In our dear peril. 1 Sen. 1 Sen. Enter Senators from TIMON. Here come our brothers. 3 Sen. No talk of Timon, nothing of him expect. The enemies' drum is heard, and fearful scouring Doth choke the air with dust: In, and prepare; Ours is the fall, I fear; our foes the snare. [Exeunt. SCENE IV.-The Woods. Timon's Cave, and a Tomb-stone seen. Enter a Soldier, seeking TIMON. Sold. By all description this should be the place. Who's here? speak, ho!-No answer?-What is this? Timon is dead, who hath outstretch'd his span : Some beast rear'd this; there does not live a man. Dead, sure; and this his grave.- What's on this tomb I cannot read; the character Our captain hath in every figure skill; [Exit. SCENE V.-Before the walls of Athens. Trumpets sound. Enter ALCIBIADES and Forces. Alcib. Sound to this coward and lascivious town Our terrible approach. [A parley sounded. Enter Senators on the walls. 1 Sen. 2 Sen. So did we woo Transformed Timon to our city's love, By humble message, and by promis'd means; 1 Sen. These walls of ours Were not erected by their hands, from whom You have receiv'd your griefs: nor are they such That these great towers, trophies, and schools should For private faults in them. [fall 2 Sen. Nor are they living, For those that were, it is not square, to take, 2 Sen. 1 Sen. Set but thy foot Against our rampir'd gates, and they shall ope; So thou wilt send thy gentle heart before, To say thou'lt enter friendly. 2 Sen. Throw thy glove; Or any token of thine honour else, Alcib. Then there's my glove; Descend, and open your uncharged ports; Those enemies of Timon's, and mine own, Whom you yourselves shall set out for reproof, Fall, and no more: and,-to atone your fears With my more noble meaning,-not a man Shall pass his quarter, or offend the stream Of regular justice in your city's bounds, But shall be remedied, to your public laws, At heaviest answer. Both. 'Tis most nobly spoken. Sol. My noble general, Timon is dead; Alcib. [Reads.] Here lies a wretched corse, of wretched soul bereft : [left! Seek not my name: A plague consume you wicked caitiffs Here lie I Timon; who, alive, all living men did hate: Pass by, and curse thy fill; but pass and stay not here These well express in thee thy latter spirits: [thy gait. Though thou abhorr'dst in us our human griefs, Scorn'dst our brain's flow, and those our droplets which From niggard nature fall, yet rich conceit Taught thee to make vast Neptune weep for aye On thy low grave, on faults forgiven. Dead Is noble Timon; of whose memory Hereafter more. Bring me into your city, And I will use the olive with my sword: Make war breed peace; make peace stint war; make Prescribe to other, as each other's leech. [each Let our drums strike. [Exeunt. THE play of Timon is a domestic tragedy, and therefore strongly fastens on the attention of the reader. In the plan there is not much art, but the incidents are natural, and the characters various and exact. The catastrophe affords a very powerful warning against that ostentatious liberality, which scatters bounty, but confers no benetits, and buys flattery, but not friend ship.-JOHNSON. CORIOLANUS. THIS inimitable play was neither entered at Stationers' Hall, nor printed, till 1623. It was probably written in 1609, or 1610. The author derived his materials from Plutarch's Life of Coriolanus, which he evidently read in North's translation; and, Cit. Resolved, resolved. from which he has taken many passages with only such slight alterations as were necessary to throw them into blank verse. The play comprehends a period of about four years, commencing with the secession to the Mons Sacer in the year of Rome 261, and ending with the death of Coriolanus, A. U. C. 266. 2 Cit. Consider you what services he has done for his country? 1 Cit. Very well; and could be content to give him good report for't, but that he pays himself with being proud. 2 Cit. Nay, but speak not maliciously. 1 Cit. I say unto you, what he hath done famously, he did it to that end; though soft conscienc'd men can be content to say, it was for his country, he did it to please his mother, and to be partly proud; which he is, even to the altitude of his virtue. 2 Cit. What he cannot help in his nature, you account a vice in him: You must in no way say, he is covetous. 1 Cit. If I must not, I need not be barren of accusations; he hath faults, with surplus, to tire in repetition. [Shouts within.] What shouts are these? The other side o' the city is risen: Why stay we prating here? to the Capitol. Cit. Come, come. 1 Cit. Soft; who comes here? Enter MENENIUS AGRIPPA. 2 Cit. Worthy Menenius Agrippa; one that hath always loved the people. 1 Cit. He's one honest enough; 'Would, all the rest were so! Men. What work's, my countrymen, in hand? Where go you With bats and clubs? The matter? Speak, I pray you. 1 Cit. Our business is not unknown to the senate; they have had inkling, this fortnight, what we intend to do, which now we'll shew 'em in deeds. They say, poor suitors have strong breaths; they shall know, we have strong arms too. Men. Why, masters, my good friends, mine honest Will you undo yourselves? [neighbours, 1 Cit. We cannot, sir, we are undone already. Men. I tell you, friends, most charitable care 1 Cit. First you know, Caius Marcius is chief ene- Have the patricians of you. For your wants, my to the people. Cit. We know't, we know't. 1 Cit. Let us kill him, and we'll have corn at our own price. Is't a verdict? Cit. No more talking on't let it be done: away, away. 2 Cit. One word, good citizens. 1 Cit. We are accounted poor citizens; the patricians good: What authority surfeits on, would relieve us; If they would yield us but the superfluity, while it were wholesome, we might guess, they relieved us humanely; but they think, we are too dear: the leanness that afflicts us, the object of our misery, is an inventory to particularize their abundance; our sufferance is a gain to them.-Let us revenge this with our pikes, ere we become rakes: for the gods know, I speak this in hunger for bread, not in thirst for revenge. 2 Cit. Would you proceed especially against Caius Marcius? Cit. Against him first; he's a very dog to the commonalty. Your suffering in this dearth, you may as well 1 Cit. Care for us!-True, indeed!—They ne'er cared for us yet. Suffer us to famish, and their storehouses crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to support usurers: repeal daily any wholesome act established against the rich; and provide more piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and there's all the love they bear us. Mex. Either you must Confess yourselves wondrous malicious, 1 Cit. Well, I'll hear it, sir: yet you must not think to fob off our disgrace with a tale: but, an 't please you, deliver. Men. There was a time, when all the body's members I' the midst o' the body, idle and inactive, Like labour with the rest; where the other instruments 1 Cit. Well, sir, what answer made the belly? To the discontented members, the mutinous parts 1 Cit. Men. What! What then? 1 Cit. The former agents, if they did complain, What could the belly answer? Men. I will tell you; Note me this, good friend; Even to the court, the heart,-to the seat o' the brain; And no way from yourselves.-What do you think? 1 Cit. I the great toe? Why the great toe? But make you ready your stiff bats and clubs; Mar. Thanks.-What's the matter, you dissen- That rubbing the poor itch of your opinion, We have ever your good word. flatter Beneath abhorring.—What would you have, you curs, Or hailstone in the sun. Your virtue is, [ye? To make him worthy, whose offence subdues him, Mar. Hang 'em! They say? They'll sit by the fire, and presume to know What's done i' the Capitol who's like to rise, Who thrives, and who declines: side factions, and give out [enough? Conjectural marriages; making parties strong, Men. Nay, these are almost thoroughly persuaded; Mar. They are dissolved: Hang 'em! They said, they were an-hungry; sigh'd forth proverbs ; That, hunger broke stone walls; that, dogs must eat; sent not |