TIMON OF ATHENS.

ACT I.

SCENE I-Athens. A Hall in Timon's House.

Enter Poet, Painter, Jeweller, Merchant, and others, at several

POET. Good day, sir.

PAIN.

doors.

I am glad you are well.

POET. I have not seen you long: How goes the world? PAIN. It wears, sir, as it grows.

Ay, that's well known:

POET.
But what particular rarity? what strange,
Which manifold record not matches?

See,

Magic of bounty! all these spirits thy power
Hath conjur'd to attend. I know the merchant.
PAIN. I know them both; th' other 's a jeweller.
MER. O, 't is a worthy lord!

JEW.

Nay, that 's most fix'd. MER. A most incomparable man; breath'd, as it were, To an untirable and continuate goodness:

He passes.

JEW. I have a jewel here.

MER. O, pray, let's see 't: For the lord Timon, sir? JEW. If he will touch the estimate: But for thatPOET. "When we for recompense have prais'd the vile, It stains the glory in that happy verse

Which aptly sings the good."

MER. 'T is 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.

A thing slipp'd idly from me.

Our poesy is as a gum, which oozes

From whence 't is nourished: The fire i' the flint
Shows not till it be struck; our gentle flame
Provokes itself, and, like the current, flies

Each bound it chafes. What have you there?

PAIN. A picture, sir.—When comes your book forth?
POET. Upon the heels of my presentment, sir.
Let's see your piece.

PAIN.

"T is a good piece.

POET. So 't is; this comes off well and excellent.
PAIN. Indifferent.

POET.

Admirable: How this grace

Speaks his own standing! what a mental power
This eye shoots forth! how big imagination
Moves in this lip! to the dumbness of the gesture
One might interpret.

PAIN. It is a pretty mocking of the life.
Here is a touch: Is 't good?

POET.

I will say of it,

It tutors nature: artificial strife

Lives in these touches, livelier than life.

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.

I have, in this rough work, shap'd out a man

Whom this beneath world doth embrace and hug

With amplest entertainment: My free drift
Halts not particularly, but moves itself
In a wide sea of wax: no levell'd malice
Infects one comma in the course I hold;
But flies an eagle flight, bold, and forth on,
Leaving no tract behind.

PAIN. How shall I understand you?
POET.

I'll unbolt 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 to his love and tendance
All sorts of hearts; yea, from the glass-fac'd flatterer
To Apemantus, that few things loves better
Than to abhor himself: even he drops down
The knee before him, and returns in peace
Most rich in Timon's nod.

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 kinds of natures, That labour on the bosom of this sphere To propagate their states: 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.

"T is conceiv'd to scope.

This throne, this Fortune, and this hill methinks,
With one man beckon'd from the rest below,
Bowing his head against the steepy mount

To climb his happiness, would be well express'd
In our condition.

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,

Make sacred even his stirrup, and through him
Drink the free air.

PAIN.

Ay, marry, what of these?

POET. When Fortune, in her shift and change of mood, Spurns down her late belov'd, all his dependants, Which labour'd after him to the mountain's top, Even on their hands and knees, let him slip down, Not one accompanying his declining foot.

PAIN. "T is common:

A thousand moral paintings I can show,

That shall demonstrate these quick blows of fortune's
More pregnantly than words. Yet you do well,

To show lord Timon that mean eyes have seen

The foot above the head.

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:

Your honourable letter he desires

To those have shut him up; which failing,
Periods bis comfort.

TIM.

Noble Ventidius! Well;

I am not of that feather, to shake off

My friend when he must need me. I do know him
A gentleman that well deserves a help,

Which he shall have: I'll pay the debt and free him.
VEN. SERV. Your lordship ever binds him.

TIM. Commend me to him: I will send his ransom;
And, being enfranchis'd, bid him come to me:-
"T is not enough to help the feeble up,

But to support him after.—Fare you well.
VEN. SERV. All happiness to your honour.

[Exit.

Enter an old Athenian.

OLD ATH. Lord Timon, hear me speak.

TIM.

Freely, good father.

OLD ATH. Thou hast a servant nam'd Lucilius.

TIM. I have so: What of him?

OLD ATH. Most noble Timon, call the man before thee. TIM. Attends he here, or no?-Lucilius!

Enter LUCILIUS.

Luc. Here, at your lordship's service.

OLD ATH. This fellow here, lord Timon, this thy creature,

By night frequents my house. I am a man

That from my first have been inclined to thrift;

And my estate deserves an heir more rais'd
Than one which holds a trencher.

TIM.

Well; what further?

OLD ATH. One only daughter have I, no kin else,
On whom I may confer what I have got:

The maid is fair, o' the youngest for a bride,
And I have bred her at my dearest cost,
In qualities of the best.

This man of thine

Attempts her love: I prithee, noble lord,
Join with me to forbid him her resort;
Myself have spoke in vain.

TIM.

The man is honest.

OLD ATH. Therefore he will be, Timon: His honesty rewards him in itself,

It must not bear my daughter.

TIM.

Does she love him?

and apt:

OLD ATH. She is young,
Our own precedent passions do instruct us

What levity 's in youth.

TIM. [TO LUCILIUS.] Love you the maid?

Luc. Ay, my good lord, and she accepts of it.

OLD ATH. If in her marriage my consent be missing,

I call the gods to witness, I will choose

Mine heir from forth the beggars of the world,

And dispossess her all.

TIM.

How shall she be endow'd,

If she be mated with an equal husband?

OLD ATH. Three talents, on the present; in future, all.
TIM. This gentleman of mine hath serv'd me long;

To build his fortune I would strain a little,

For 't is a bond in men. Give him thy daughter:
What you bestow, in him I'll counterpoise,

And make him weigh with her.

OLD ATH.

Most noble lord,

Pawn me to this your honour, she is his.

TIM. My hand to thee; mine honour on my promise.

Luc. Humbly I thank your lordship: Never may

That state or fortune fall into my keeping,

Which is not ow'd to you!

[Exeunt LUCILIUS and old Athenian.