* ^noteEnter Timon.
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'th' instant, green virginity!
Do't in your parent's eyes. Bankrupts, hold fast;
Rather than render back, out with your knives,
And cut your truster's throats. Bound servants, steal;
Large-handed robbers your grave masters are,
And pill† ^note by law. Maid, to thy master's bed;
Thy mistress is o'th' brothel. Son of sixteen,
Pluck the lin'd crutch from thy old limping sire,
And with it beat his brains out! fear and piety,
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 leprosie: breath infect breath,
That their society (as their friendship) may
Be merely poison. Nothing I'll bear from thee,
But nakedness, thou detestable town!
Take thou that too, with multiplying banns:
Timon will to the woods, where he shall find
Th' unkindest beast much kinder than mankind.
The gods confound (hear me, ye good gods all)
Th' 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!* ^note [Exit.

Next section