Apem.

Come with me, fool, come.

Fool.

I do not always follow lover, elder brother, and woman; sometime the philosopher ^note.

Flav.
Pray you, walk near: I'll speak with you anon. ^note [Exeunt ^note Servants. ^note

Tim.
You make me marvel; wherefore ^note, ere this time,
Had you not fully laid my state before me,
That I might so have rated my expense
As I had leave of means?

Flav.
You would not hear me, ^note
At many leisures I proposed ^note.

Tim.
Go to:
Perchance some single vantages you took,
When my indisposition put you back;
And that unaptness made your ^note minister,
Thus to excuse yourself.

Flav.
O my good lord,
At many times I brought in my accounts,
Laid them before you; you ^note would throw them off,
And say, you found ^note them in mine honesty.
When for some trifling present you have bid me
Return so much, I have ^note shook my head and wept;

Yea, 'gainst the 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 loved ^note lord,
Though you hear ^note now, too late ^note!—yet now's a time ^note—
The greatest of your ^note having lacks a half
To pay your ^note present debts.

Tim.
Let all my land be sold.

Flav.
'Tis all engaged, some forfeited and gone,
And what remains will hardly stop the mouth
Of present dues: the future comes ^note apace:
What shall defend the interim? and at length
How goes ^note our reckoning?

Tim.
To Lacedæmon did my land extend.

Flav.
O my good lord, the world is but a word ^{note note}:
Were it all yours to give it in a breath,
How quickly were it gone!

Tim.
You tell me true.

Flav.
If you suspect my husbandry or falsehood ^note,
Call me before the exactest auditors,
And set me on the proof. So the gods bless me,
When all our offices have been oppress'd
With riotous feeders, when our vaults have wept
With drunken spilth of wine, when every room
Hath blazed with lights and bray'd with minstrelsy,
I have retired me to ^note a wasteful cock ^note,

And ^note set mine eyes at flow.

Tim.
Prithee, no more.

Flav.
Heavens, have I said, the bounty of this lord!
How many prodigal bits have slaves and peasants
This night englutted! Who ^note is not Timon's ^note?
What heart, head, sword, force, means, but is Lord ^note Timon's?
Great Timon, noble, worthy, royal Timon ^note!
Ah, when the means are gone that buy this praise,
The breath is gone whereof this praise is made:
Feast-won ^note, fast-lost ^note; one cloud of winter showers,
These flies are couch'd.

Tim.
Come, sermon me no further:
No villanous bounty yet hath pass'd my heart ^note;
Unwisely, not ignobly, have I given.
Why dost thou weep? Canst thou the ^note conscience lack,
To think I shall lack friends? Secure thy heart;
If I would broach the vessels of my love
And try the argument ^note of hearts by borrowing,
Men and men's fortunes could I frankly use
As I can ^note bid thee speak.

Flav.
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; I am ^note wealthy in my friends ^note.
Within there! Flaminius ^note! Servilius!

^noteEnter ^note Flaminius, Servilius, and other Servants.

Servants.

My lord? my lord?

Tim.

I will dispatch you severally: 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 ^note toward a supply of money: let the request be fifty talents. ^note

Flam.
As you have said, my Lord.

Flav. [Aside ^note]
Lord Lucius and Lucullus ^note? hum! ^note

Tim.
Go you, sir, to the senators ^note—
Of whom, even to the state's best health, ^note I have
Deserved this hearing—bid 'em send o' the instant
A thousand talents to me.

Flav.
I have ^note been bold,
For that I knew it the most general 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?

Flav.
They answer, in a joint and corporate voice,
That now they are at fall, want treasure ^note, cannot
Do what they would; are sorry—you are honourable,—
But yet they could have wish'd—they know not— ^note
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 ^note nods

They froze me into silence.

Tim.
You gods, reward them!
Prithee ^note, man, look cheerly. These old fellows
Have their ingratitude in them ^note hereditary:
Their blood is caked, 'tis cold, it seldom flows;
'Tis lack of kindly warmth they are not kind;
And nature, as it grows again toward earth,
Is fashion'd for the journey, dull and heavy. [To a Serv. ^note]
Go to Ventidius. [To Flav. ^note] Prithee, be not sad;
Thou art ^note true and honest ^note; ingeniously ^note I speak,
No blame belongs to thee. [To Serv. ^note] Ventidius lately
Buried his father, by whose death he 's stepp'd
Into a great estate: when he was poor,
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. [Exit Serv. ^note] [To Flav. ^note] That had, give't ^note these fellows
To whom 'tis instant due. Ne'er ^note speak or think
That Timon's fortunes 'mong ^note his friends can sink.

Flav.
I would I could not think it ^note: that thought is ^note bounty's foe ^note; ^note
Being free itself, it thinks all others so. [Exeunt.

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