Both. Beseech your honour,

To make it known to us.

Tim. You'll take it ill.

Both. Most thankfully, my lord.

Tim. Will you, indeed?

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 assured,

That he's a made-up + villain.

Pain. I know none such, my lord.

Poet. Nor I.

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 company:

Each man apart, all single and alone,

Yet an arch-villain keeps him company.

[To the PAINTER.

[To the POET.

If, where thou art, two villains shall not be.
Come not near him.-If thou wouldst not reside
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:-
Out, rascal dogs!

[Exit, beating and driving them out.

SCENE II.-The same.

Enter FLAVIUS and two SENATORS.

Flav. It is in vain that you would speak with Timon;

For he is set so only to himself,

That nothing but himself, which looks like man,

Is friendly with him.

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 framed 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.

Flav. Here is his cave.

Peace and content be here! Lord Timon! Timon!
Look out, and speak to friends: The Athenians,

* Roguery.

VOL. IV.

† Finished.
N

* Jakes.

By two of their most reverend senate, greet thee:
Speak to them, noble Timon.

Enter TIMON.

Tim. Thou sun, that comfort'st, burn!-Speak, and be hang'd: For each true word, a blister! and each false

Be as a caut'rizing to the root o' the tongue,

Consuming it with speaking!

1 Sen. Worthy Timon

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 plague, Could I but catch it for them.

1 Sen. O, forget

What we are sorry for ourselves in thee.

The senators, with one consent* of love

Entreat thee back to Athens; who have thought

On special dignities, which vacant lie

For thy best use and wearing.

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
Of its own fall, restraining aid to Timon;
And send forth us, to make their sorrow'd render,t
Together with a recompense more fruitful

Than their offence can weigh down by the dram;
Ay, even such heaps and sums of love and wealth,
As shall to thee blot out what wrongs were theirs,
And write in thee the figures of their love,
Ever to read them thine.

Tim. You witch me in it;

Surprise me to the very brink of tears:
Lend me a fool's heart, and a woman's eyes,
And I'll beweep these comforts, worthy senators.

1 Sen. Therefore, so please thee to return with us,
And of our Athens (thine, and ours) to take
The captainship, thou shalt be met with thanks,
Allow'd with absolute power, and thy good name
Live with authority:-so soon we shall drive back
Of Alcibiades the approaches wild;

Who, like a boar too savage, doth root up
His country's peace.

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,

That Timon cares not. But if he sack fair Athens,

And take our goodly aged men by the beards,

* One united voice.

+ Confession.

Licensed.

Giving our holy virgins to the stain

Of contumelious, beastly, mad-brain'd war;

Then, let him know,-and tell him, Timon speaks it,
In pity of our aged, and our youth,

I cannot choose but tell him, that I care not,

And let him tak't at worst; for their knives care not,
While you have throats to answer: for myself,
There's not a whittle* in the unruly camp,

But I do prize it at my love, before

The reverend'st throat in Athens. So I leave you
To the protection of the prosperous gods,+
As thieves to keepers.

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. We speak in vain.

Tim. But yet I love my country; and am not One that rejoices in the common wreck,

As common bruit doth put it.

1 Sen. That's well spoke.

Tim. Commend me to my loving countrymen,

1 Sen. These words become your lips as they pass through

them.

2 Sen. And enter in our ears like great triúmphers

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

In life's uncertain voyage, I will some kindness do them:
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;

* Knife.

+ I. e. the gods, who are the authors of the prosperity of mankind. I.e. my long disease, life, is about to end, and nothingness will be From highest to lowest.

everything to me.

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. [Exit 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 deart peril.

1 Sen. It requires swift foot.

SCENE III.-The Walls of Athens.

Enter two SENATORS, and a MESSENGER.

1 Sen. Thou hast painfully discover'd; are his files As full as thy report?

Mess. I have spoke the least:

Besides, his expedition promises

Present approach.

[Exeunt.

2 Sen. We stand much hazard, if they bring not Timon. Mess. I met a courier, one mine ancient friend;

Whom, though in general part we were opposed,

Yet our old love made a particular force,

And made us speak like friends:-this man was riding
From Alcibiades to Timon's cave,

With letters of entreaty, which imported

His fellowship i' the cause against your city,
In part for his sake moved.

Enter SENATORS from TIMON

1 Sen. Here come our brothers.

2 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.

SCENE IV-The Woods.

[Exeunt.

TIMON'S Cave, and a Tomb-stone

seen.

Enter a SOLDIER, seeking TIMON.

Sol. 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
I'll take with wax.

Our captain hath in every figure skill;

An aged interpreter, though young in days:
Before proud Athens he's set down by this,
Whose fall the mark of his ambition is.

[Exit.

I. e. his army as large.

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.
Till now you have gone on, and fill'd the time
With all licentious measure, making your wills
The scope of justice; till now, myself, and such
As slept within the shadow of your power,

Have wander❜d with our traversed arms,* and breathed
Our sufferance vainly: Now the time is flush,t
When crouching marrow, in the bearer strong,
Cries, of itself, No more: now breathless wrong,.
Shall sit and pant in your great chairs of ease;
And pursy insolence shall break his wind,
With fear and horrid flight.

1 Sen. Noble and young,

When thy first griefs were but a mere conceit,
Ere thou hadst power, or we had cause of fear,
We sent to thee; to give thy rages balm,
To wipe out our ingratitude with loves
Above their quantity.

2 Sen. So did we woo

Transformed Timon to our city's love,

By humble message, and by promised means;
We were not all unkind, nor all deserve

The common stroke of war.

1 Sen. These walls of ours

Were not erected by their hands, from whom

You have received your griefs: nor are they such,

Than these great towers, trophies, and schools should fall

For private faults in them.

2 Sen. Nor are they living,

Who were the motives that you first went out;

Shame that they wanted cunning, in excess

Hath broke their hearts. March, noble lord,

Into our city with thy banners spread :

By decimation, and a tithed death

(If thy revenges hunger for that food,

Which nature loathes), take thou the destined tenth;
And by the hazard of the spotted die,

Let die the spotted.

1 Sen. All have not offended;

For those that were, it is not square, ‡ to take,
On those that are, revenges: crimes, like lands,
Are not inherited. Then, dear countryman,
Bring in thy ranks, but leave without thy rage:
Spare thy Athenian cradle, and those kin,
Which, in the bluster of thy wrath, must fall,
With those that have offended: like a shepherd,

* Arms across.

† Mature.

+ Equitable.