Varro.
Cap.
Good evening, Varro; what, you come for money?
Var.
Is't not your business too?
Cap.
It is; and yours too, Isidore?
Isid.
It is so.
Cap.
Would we were all discharg'd.
Var.
I fear it.
Cap.
Here comes the lord.
Enter Timon, and his train.
Tim.
So soon as dinner's done, we'll forth again.
My Alcibiades.—Well, what's your will?
[They present their bills.
Cap.
My lord, here is a note of certain dues.
Tim.
Dues? whence are you?
Cap.
Of Athens here, my lord.
Tim.
Go to my Steward.
Cap.
Please it your lordship, he hath put me off
To the succession of new days, this month:
My master is awak'd by great occasion,
To call upon his own; and humbly prays you,
That with your other noble parts you'll suit,
In giving him his Right.
-- 245 --
Tim.
Mine honest friend,
I pr'ythee, but repair to me next morning.
Cap.
Nay, good my lord.
Tim.
Contain thy self, good friend.
Var.
One Varro's servant, my good lord—
Isid.
From Isidore, he prays your speedy payment—
Cap.
If you did know, my lord, my master's wants—
Var.
'Twas due on forfeiture, my lord, six weeks, and past.—
Isid.
Your Steward puts me off, my lord, and I
Am sent expressly to your lordship.
Tim.
Give me breath:—
I do beseech you, good my lords, keep on,
[Ex. lords.
I'll wait upon you instantly.—Come hither:
How goes the world, that I am thus encountred
With clam'rous claims of debt, of broken bonds,
And the detention of long-since-due debts,
Against my honour?
Fla.
Please you, gentlemen,
The time is unagreeable to this business:
Your importunity cease, 'till after dinner;
That I may make his lordship understand
Wherefore you are not paid.
Tim.
Do so, my friends; see them well entertain'd.
[Exit Tim.
Fla.
Pray, draw near.
[Exit Fla.
Enter Apemantus, and Fool.
Cap.
Stay, stay, here comes the Fool with Apemantus,
let's have some sport with 'em.
Var.
Hang him, he'll abuse us.
Isid.
A plague upon him, dog.
Var.
How dost, fool?
Apem.
Dost dialogue with thy shadow?
Var.
I speak not to thee.
Apem.
No, 'tis to thy self. Come away.
Isid.
There's the fool hangs on your back already.
Apem.
No, thou stand'st single, thou art not on him
yet.
Cap.
Where's the fool now?
-- 246 --
Apem.
He last ask'd the question. Poor rogues, and
usurers men! bawds between gold and want!
All.
What are we, Apemantus?
Apem.
Asses.
All.
Why?
Apem.
That you ask me what you are, and do not know
your selves. Speak to 'em, fool.
Fool.
How do you, gentlemen?
All.
Gramercies, good fool: how does your mistress?
Fool.
She's e'en setting on water to scald such chickens
as you are. 'Would, we could see you at Corinth.
Apem.
Good! gramercy!
Enter Page.
Fool.
Look you, here comes my mistress's page.
Page.
Why how now, captain? what do you in this
wise company? how dost thou, Apemantus?
Apem.
'Would, I had a rod in my mouth, that I might
answer thee profitably.
Page.
Pr'ythee, Apemantus, read me the superscription
of these letters; I know not which is which.
Apem.
Canst not read?
Page.
No.
Apem.
There will little learning die then, that day thou
art hang'd. This is to lord Timon, this to Alcibiades. Go,
thou wast born a bastard, and thou'lt die a bawd.
Page.
Thou wast whelpt a dog, and thou shalt famish,
a dog's death. Answer not, I am gone.
[Exit.
Apem.
Ev'n so thou out-run'st grace.
Fool, I will go with you to lord Timon's.
Fool.
Will you leave me there?
Apem.
If Timon stay at home—
You three serve three usurers?
All.
I would, they serv'd us.
Apem.
So would I—as good a trick as ever hangman
serv'd thief.
Fool.
Are you three usurers men?
All.
Ay, fool.
Fool.
I think, no usurer but has a fool to his servant.
My mistress is one, and I am her fool; when men come
-- 247 --
to borrow of your masters, they approach sadly, and go
away merrily; but they enter my mistress's house merrily,
and go away sadly. The reason of this?
Var.
I could render one.
Apem.
Do it then, that we may account thee a whore-master,
and a knave; which notwithstanding, thou shalt
be no less esteem'd.
Var.
What is a whore-master, fool?
Fool.
A fool in good clothes, and something like thee.
'Tis a Spirit; sometimes it appears like a lord, sometimes
like a lawyer, sometimes like a philosopher, with two
stones more than's artificial one. He is very often like a
knight; and generally, in all shapes that man goes up
and down in, from fourscore to thirteen, this Spirit walks
in.
Var.
Thou art not altogether a fool.
Fool.
Nor thou altogether a wise man; as much foolery
as I have, so much wit thou lack'st.
Apem.
That answer might have become Apemantus.
All.
Aside, aside, here comes lord Timon.
Enter Timon and Flavius.
Apem.
Come with me, fool, come.
Fool.
I do not always follow lover, elder brother, and
woman; sometime, the philosopher.
Fla.
Pray you walk near, I'll speak with you anon.
[Exeunt Creditors, Apemantus, and Fool.
Tim.
You make me marvel; wherefore, ere this time,
Had you not fully laid my state before me?
That I might so have rated my expence,
As I had leave of means.
Fla.
You would not hear me:
At many leisures I propos'd.
Tim.
Go to:
Perchance, some single vantages you took,
When my indisposition put you back:
And that unaptness made you minister
Thus to excuse your self.
Fla.
O my good lord,
At many times I brought in my accounts,
-- 248 --
Laid them before you; you would throw them off,
And say, you found them in mine honesty.
When, for some trifling Present, you have bid me
Return so much, I've shook my head, and wept;
Yea, 'gainst th' authority of manners, pray'd you
To hold your hand more close. I did endure
Not seldom, nor no slight, checks; when I have
Prompted you in the ebb of your estate,
And your great flow of debts. My dear-lov'd lord,
Though you hear now too late, yet now's a time;
The greatest of your Having lacks a half
To pay your present debts.
Tim.
Let all my land be sold.
Fla.
'Tis all engag'd, Some forfeited and gone:
And what remains will hardly stop the mouth
Of present dues; the future comes apace:
What shall defend the interim, and at length
How goes our reck'ning?(14) note
Tim.
To Lacedæmon did my land extend.
Fla.
O my good lord, the world is but a world;
Were it all yours, to give it in a breath,
How quickly were it gone!
Tim.
You tell me true.
Fla.
If you suspect my husbandry or falshood;
Call me before th' exactest Auditors,
And set me on the proof. So the Gods bless me,
When all our Offices have been opprest
With riotous feeders; when our vaults have wept
-- 249 --
With drunken spilth of wine; when every room
Hath blaz'd with lights, and bray'd with minstrelsie;
I have retir'd me to a wasteful cock,
And set mine eyes at flow.
Tim.
Pr'ythee, no more.
Fla.
Heav'ns! have I said, the bounty of this lord!
How many prodigal bits have slaves and peasants
This night englutted! who now is not Timon's?
What heart, head, sword, force, means, but is lord Timon's?
Great Timon, noble, worthy, royal Timon's?
Ah! when the means are gone, that buy this praise,
The breath is gone whereof this praise is made:
Feast-won, fast-lost: one cloud of winter showres,
These flies are coucht.
Tim.
Come, sermon me no further.
No villainous bounty yet hath past my heart;
Unwisely, not ignobly, have I given.
Why dost thou weep? canst thou the conscience lack,
To think I shall lack friends? secure thy heart;
If I would broach the vessels of my love,
And try the arguments of hearts by borrowing,
Men and men's fortunes could I frankly use,
As I can bid thee speak.
Fla.
Assurance bless your thoughts!
Tim.
And in some sort these wants of mine are crown'd,
That I account them blessings; for by these
Shall I try friends. You shall perceive how you
Mistake my fortunes: in my friends I'm wealthy.
Within there, Ho! Flaminius, Servilius!
Enter Flaminius, Servilius, and other servants.
Serv.
My lord, my lord.
Tim.
I will dispatch you sev'rally.
You to lord Lucius—to lord Lucullus you, I hunted with
his Honour to day—you to Sempronius—commend me to
their loves; and I am proud, say, that my occasions have
found time to use 'em toward a supply of mony; let the
request be fifty talents.
Flam.
As you have said, my lord.
Fla.
Lord Lucius and Lucullus? hum—
-- 250 --
Tim.
Go, you, Sir, to the Senators;
[To Flavius.
Of whom, even to the State's best health, I have
Deserv'd this hearing; bid 'em send o'th' instant
A thousand talents to me.
Fla.
I've been bold,
(For that I knew it the most gen'ral way)
To them to use your signet and your name;
But they do shake their heads, and I am here
No richer in Return.
Tim.
Is't true? can't be?
Fla.
They answer in a joint and corporate voice,
That now they are at Fall, want Treasure, cannot
Do what they would; are sorry—You are honourable—
But yet they could have wisht—they know not—
Something hath been amiss—a noble nature
May catch a wrench—would all were well—'tis pity—
And so intending other serious matters,
After distasteful looks, and these hard fractions,
With certain half-caps, and cold-moving nods,(15) note
They froze me into silence.
Tim.
You Gods reward them!
I pr'ythee, man, look cheerly. These old fellows
Have their Ingratitude in them hereditary:
Their blood is cak'd, 'tis cold, it seldom flows,
'Tis lack of kindly warmth, they are not kind;
And nature, as it grows again tow'rd earth,
Is fashion'd for the journey, dull and heavy.
Go to Ventidius—pr'ythee, be not sad,
Thou'rt true, and just; ingenuously I speak,
No Blame belongs to thee: Ventidius lately
Bury'd his father, by whose death he's stepp'd
Into a great estate; when he was poor,
-- 251 --
Imprison'd, and in scarcity of friends,
I clear'd him with five talents. Greet him from me;
Bid him suppose, some good necessity
Touches his friend, which craves to be remember'd
With those five talents. That had, give't these fellows
To whom 'tis instant due. Ne'er speak, or think,
That Timon's fortunes 'mong his friends can sink.
Stew.
Would, I could not: that thought is bounty's foe;
Being free it self, it thinks all others so.
[Exeunt.
Lewis Theobald [1733], The works of Shakespeare: in seven volumes. Collated with the Oldest Copies, and Corrected; With notes, Explanatory and Critical; By Mr. Theobald (Printed for A. Bettesworth and C. Hitch [and] J. Tonson [etc.], London) [word count] [S11201].
