Jew. Nay, that's most fix'd. Mer. A most incomparable man; breath'd, as it were, To an untirable and continuate goodness: He passes3. I have a jewel here. Mer. O, pray, let's see't: For the Lord Timon, sir? Jew. If he will touch the estimate1: But, for that Poets. When we for recompense have prais'd the vile, It stains the glory in that happy verse Which aptly sings the good. Mer. 'Tis a good form. [Looking at the Jewel. Jew. And rich: here is a water, look you. Pain. You are rapt, sir, in some work, some dedication To the great lord. Poet. Our poesy is a gum, A thing slipp'd idly from me. which oozes 6 From whence 'tis nourished: The fire i'the flint Breath'd is exercised, inured by constant practice, so trained as not to be wearied. To breathe a horse is to exercise him for the course: continuate for continued course. He passes, i. e. exceeds or goes beyond common bounds. Why this passes, Master Ford.' Merry Wives of Windsor. 4 Touch the estimate, that is, come up to the price. 5 We must here suppose the poet busy in reciting part of his own work; and that these three lines are the introduction of the poem addressed to Timon. 6 The old copies read: 'Our poesie is a gowne which uses.' Provokes itself, and, like the current, flies Poet. Upon the heels of my presentment, sir. Let's see your piece. Pain. 'Tis a good piece. Poet. So 'tis: this comes off well 9 and excellent. Pain. Indifferent. Poet. Admirable: How this grace Speaks his own standing 10! what a mental power This eye shoots forth! how big imagination Moves in this lip! to the dumbness of the gesture One might interpret 11. Pain. It is a pretty mocking of the life. Here is a touch; Is't good? Poet. I'll say of it, It tutors nature: artificial strife 12 Lives in these touches, livelier than life. 7 It is not certain whether this word is chafes or chases in the folio. I think the former is the true reading. The poetaster means that the vein of a poet flows spontaneously, like the current of a river, and flies from each bound that chafes it in its course, as scorning all impediment, and requiring no excitement. In Julius Cæsar we have : 8 i. e. The troubled Tiber chafing with her shores.' e. as soon as my book has been presented to Timon. 9 This comes off well apparently means this is cleverly done, or this piece is well executed. The phrase is used in Measure for Measure ironically. See vol ii. p. 23, note 12. 10 How the graceful attitude of this figure proclaims that it stands firm on its centre, or gives evidence in favour of its own fixure. Grace is introduced as bearing witness to propriety. 11 One might venture to supply words to such intelligible action. Such significant gesture ascertains the sentiments that should accompany it. So in Cymbeline, Act ii. Sc. 4: -never saw I pictures So likely to report themselves.' 12 i. e. the contest of art with nature. This was a very common mode of expressing the excellence of a painter. Shakspeare has it again more clearly expressed in his Venus and Adonis:His art with nature's workmanship at strife.' Enter certain Senators, and pass over. Pain. How this lord's follow'd! Poet. The senators of Athens:-Happy men! Pain. Look, more! Poet. You see this confluence, this great flood of visitors 13. I have, in this rough work, shap'd out a man, Pain. How shall I understand you?. Poet. I'll unbolt 17 to you. You see how all conditions, how all minds (As well of glib and slippery creatures, as Of grave and austere quality), tender down Their services to Lord Timon: his large fortune, Upon his good and gracious nature hanging, Subdues and properties 18 to his love and tendance All sorts of hearts; yea, from the glass-fac'd flatterer 19 To Apemantus, that few things loves better 13 Mane salutantum totis vomit ædibus undam.' 14 So in Measure for Measure we have, This under generation; and in King Richard III. the lower world. 15 My design does not stop at any particular character. 16 An allusion to the Roman practice of writing with a style on tablets, covered with wax: a custom which also prevailed in England until about the close of the fourteenth century. 17 i. e. open, explain. 18 i. e. subjects and appropriates. 19 One who shows by reflection the looks of his patron. The poet was mistaken in the character of Apemantus; but seeing that he paid frequent visits to Timon, he naturally concluded that he was equally courteous with his other guests. Than to abhor himself: even he drops down Pain. I saw them speak together. Poet. Sir, I have upon a high and pleasant hill, Feign'd Fortune to be thron'd: The base o'the mount Is rank'd with all deserts, all kind of natures, That labour on the bosom of this sphere To propagate their states 20: amongst them all, Whose eyes are on this sovereign lady fix'd, One do I personate of Lord Timon's frame, Whom Fortune with her ivory hand wafts to her: Whose present grace to present slaves and servants Translates his rivals. Pain. 'Tis conceiv'd to scope 21. This throne, this Fortune, and this hill, methinks, Poet. Nay, sir, but hear me on: All those which were his fellows but of late (Some better than his value), on the moment Follow his strides, his lobbies fill with tendance, Rain sacrificial whisperings in his ear 23, 20 i. e. to improve or promote their conditions. See vol. ii. p. 14, note 6. 21 i. e. extensively imagined, largely conceived. 22 i. e. in our art, in painting. Condition was used for profession, quality; façon de faire. See vol. i. p. 145, note 14. 23 Whisperings of officious servility, the incense of the worshiping parasite to the patron as a god. Gray has excellently expressed in his Elegy these sacrificial offerings to the great from the poetic tribe : To heap the shrine of luxury and pride Make sacred even his stirrop, and through him Pain. Ay, marry, what of these? Poet. When Fortune, in her shift and change of 1 mood, Spurns down her late belov'd, all his dependants, Which labour'd after him to the mountain's top, Even on their knees and hands, let him slip down, Not one accompanying his declining foot. Pain. "Tis common: A thousand moral paintings I can show, That shall demonstrate these quick blows of fortune More pregnantly than words. Yet you do well, To show Lord Timon, that mean eyes The foot above the head. 25 have seen Trumpets sound. Enter TIMON, attended; the Servant of VENTIDIUS talking with him. Tim. Imprison'd is he, say you? Ven. Serv. Ay, my good lord: five talents is his debt; His means most short, his creditors most strait: To those have shut him up; which failing to him, Tim. Noble Ventidius! Well; 24. To drink the air,' like the haustos ætherios of Virgil, is merely a poetic phrase for draw the air, or breathe. To drink the free air,' therefore, through another,' is to breathe freely at his will only, so as to depend on him for the privilege of life; not even to breathe freely without his permission. 25 i. e. inferior spectators. 26 To period is perhaps a verb of Shakspeare's coinage. It is used by Heywood, after him, in A Maidenhead Well Lost, 1634: 'How easy could I period all my care.' And in The Country Girl, by T. B. 1647: To period our vain grieving." |