Varro.
Caph.
Good even, Varro9 note. What!
You come for money?
Var. Serv.
Is't not your business too?
Caph.
It is.—And yours too, Isidore?
Isid. Serv.
It is so.
Caph.
Would we were all discharg'd!
Var. Serv.
I fear it.
Caph.
Here comes the lord.
Enter Timon, Alcibiades, and Lords, &c.
Tim.
So soon as dinner's done, we'll forth again,
-- 528 --
My Alcibiades.—With me! what is your will?
Caph.
My lord, here is a note of certain dues.
Tim.
Dues! Whence are you?
Caph.
Of Athens here, my lord.
Tim.
Go to my steward.
Caph.
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.
Tim.
Mine honest friend,
I pr'ythee, but repair to me next morning.
Caph.
Nay, good my lord,—
Tim.
Contain thyself, good friend.
Var. Serv.
One Varro's servant, my good lord,—
Isid. Serv.
From Isidore:
He humbly prays your speedy payment,—
Caph.
If you did know, my lord, my master's wants,—
Var. Serv.
'Twas due on forfeiture, my lord, six weeks,
And past,—
Isid. Serv.
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;
[Exeunt Alcibiades and Lords.
I'll wait upon you instantly.—Come hither: pray you,
[To Flavius.
How goes the world, that I am thus encounter'd
With clamorous demands of debt, broken bonds1 note,
And the detention of long-since-due debts,
Against my honour?
-- 529 --
Flav.
Please you, gentlemen,
The time is unagreeable to this business:
Your importunacy 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 Timon.
Flav.
Pray, draw near.
[Exit Flavius.
Enter Apemantus and a Fool.
Caph.
Stay, stay; here comes the fool with Apemantus:
let's have some sport with 'em.
Var. Serv.
Hang him, he'll abuse us.
Isid. Serv.
A plague upon him, dog!
Var. Serv.
How dost, fool?
Apem.
Dost dialogue with thy shadow?
Var. Serv.
I speak not to thee.
Apem.
No; 'tis to thyself.—Come away.
[To the Fool.
Isid. Serv. [To Var. Serv.]
There's the fool hangs
on your back already.
Apem.
No, thou stand'st single; thou'rt not on him
yet.
Caph.
Where's the fool now?
Apem.
He last asked the question.—Poor rogues,
and usurers' men; bawds between gold and want.
All Serv.
What are we, Apemantus?
Apem.
Asses.
All Serv.
Why?
Apem.
That you ask me what you are, and do not
know yourselves.—Speak to 'em, fool.
Fool.
How do you, gentlemen?
All Serv.
Gramercies2 note, good fool. How does your
mistress?
-- 530 --
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' page3 note.
Page. [To the Fool.]
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 hanged. This is to lord Timon; this to Alcibiades.
Go: thou wast born a bastard, and thou'lt die
a bawd.
Page.
Thou wast whelped a dog; and thou shalt
famish, a dog's death. Answer not; I am gone.
[Exit Page.
Apem.
Even 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 Serv.
I would they served us!
Apem.
So would I,—as good a trick as ever hangman
served thief.
Fool.
Are you three usurers' men?
-- 531 --
All Serv.
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 to borrow of your masters, they approach
sadly, and go away merry; but they enter my mistress'
house merrily, and go away sadly. The reason of this?
Var. Serv.
I could render one.
Apem.
Do it, then, that we may account thee a
whoremaster, and a knave; which notwithstanding,
thou shalt be no less esteemed.
Var. Serv.
What is a whoremaster, fool?
Fool.
A fool in good clothes, and something like
thee. 'Tis a spirit: sometime it appears like a lord;
sometime like a lawyer; sometime like a philosopher,
with two stones more than his 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. Serv.
Thou art not altogether a fool.
Fool.
Nor thou altogether a wise man: as much
foolery as I have, so much wit thou lackest.
Apem.
That answer might have become Apemantus.
All Serv.
Aside, aside: here comes lord Timon.
Re-enter Timon and Flavius.
Apem.
Come, with me, fool, come.
Fool.
I do not always follow lover, elder brother, and
woman; sometime, the philosopher.
[Exeunt Apemantus and Fool.
Flav.
Pray you, walk near: I'll speak with you anon.
[Exeunt Serv.
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 expense
As I had leave of means?
Flav.
You would not hear me,
-- 532 --
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 your minister,
Thus to excuse yourself.
Flav.
O, my good lord!
At many times I brought in my accounts,
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 have 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 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.
Flav.
'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 reckoning?
Tim.
To Lacedæmon did my land extend.
Flav.
O, my good lord! the world is but a word;
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,
Call me before th' 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
-- 533 --
Hath blaz'd with lights, and bray'd with minstrelsy,
I have retir'd me to a wasteful cock,
And set mine eyes at flow4 note
.
Tim.
Pr'ythee, no more.
Flav.
Heavens, have I said, the bounty of this lord!
How many prodigal bits have slaves, and peasants,
This night englutted! Who is not Timon's?
What heart, head, sword, force, means, but is lord Timon's?
Great Timon, noble, worthy, royal Timon!
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 showers,
These flies are couch'd.
Tim.
Come, sermon me no farther.
No villainous bounty yet hath pass'd 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 argument of hearts by borrowing,
Men, and men's fortunes, could I frankly use,
As I can 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 wealthy in my friends.
Within there!—Flaminius5 note! Servilius!
-- 534 --
Enter Flaminius, Servilius, and other Servants.
Serv.
My lord, my lord,—
Tim.
I will despatch 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 them toward a supply of
money: let the request be fifty talents.
Flam.
As you have said, my lord.
Flav.
Lord Lucius, and Lucullus? humph!
Tim.
Go you, sir, [To another Serv.] to the senators,
(Of whom, even to the state's best health, I have
Deserv'd this hearing) bid 'em send o' the instant
A thousand talents to me.
Flav.
I have 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, cannot
Do what they would; are sorry—you are honourable,—
But yet they could have wish'd—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,
They froze me into silence.
Tim.
You gods, reward them!—
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 toward earth,
-- 535 --
Is fashion'd for the journey, dull, and heavy.—
Go to Ventidius,—[To a Serv.] 'Pr'ythee, [To Flavius,] be not sad,
Thou art true, and honest: ingeniously I speak6 note,
No blame belongs to thee.—[To Serv.] 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:—that had, [To Flav.] give it these fellows
To whom 'tis instant due. Ne'er speak, or think,
That Timon's fortunes 'mong his friends can sink.
Flav.
I would, I could not think it: that thought is bounty's foe;
Being free itself, it thinks all others so.
[Exeunt.
J. Payne Collier [1842–1844], The works of William Shakespeare. The text formed from an entirely new collation of the old editions: with the various readings, notes, a life of the poet, and a history of the Early English stage. By J. Payne Collier, Esq. F.S.A. In eight volumes (Whittaker & Co. [etc.], London) [word count] [S10101].
