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.

[Erit.

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 humour 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.

[Ereunt.

ACT IV.

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 filths *
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,
Domestick awe, night-rest, and neighbourhood,
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 banns ! 8
Timon will to the woods; where he shall find
The unkindest beast more kinder than mankind.

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6

general filths - ) i. e. common sewers.

confounding contraries,] i. e. contrarieties whose nature it is to waste or destroy each other.

yet confusion -] Sir Thomas Hanmer reads, let confusion.

liberty — ) Liberty is here used for libertinism.

multiplying banns !) i. e. accumulated curses. Multiplying for multiplied: the active participle with a passive signification.

7

8

The gods confound (hear me, you 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.

9 Enter Flavius,] Nothing contributes more to the exaltation of Timon's character than the zeal and fidelity of his servants. No-thing but real virtue can be honoured by domesticks; nothing but impartial kindness can gain affection from dependants. VOL. VI.

GG

3 Serv. Yet do our hearts wear Timon's livery,
That see I by our faces; we are fellows still,
Serving alike in sorrow : Leak’d is our bark;
And we, poor mates, stand on the dying deck,
Hearing the surges threat: we must all part
Into this sea of air.
Flav.

Good fellows all,
The latest of my wealth I'll share amongst you.
Wherever we shall meet, for Timon's sake,
Let's yet be fellows; let's shake our heads, and say,
As 'twere a knell unto our master's fortunes,
We have seen better days. Let each take some;

[Giving them money. Nay, put out all

your

hands. Not one word more: Thus part we rich in sorrow, parting poor.

[Exeunt Servants. 0, 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?

1 Poor honest lord, brought low by his own heart; Undone by goodness! Strange, unusual blood, 2 When 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 Alung 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 enquire him out :
I'll ever 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 3 Infect the air! Twinn'd brothers of one womb, Whose procreation, residence, and birth, Scarce is dividant,--touch them with several fortunes ; 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 ;t The senator shall bear contempt hereditary, The beggar native honour. 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,

4

3

below thy sister's orb —] That is, the moon's, this sublunary world.

Not nature,
To whom all sorès lay siege, can bear great fortune,

But by contempt of nature.] Mr. M. Mason observes, that this passage

“ but by the addition of a single letter may be rendered clearly intelligible ; by merely reading natures instead of nature.” The meaning will then be — “ Not even beings reduced to the utmost extremity of wretchedness, can bear good fortune, without contemning their fellow-creatures." + " deny't that lord;" – MALONE.