VENTIDIUS, one of Timon's false Friends.

APEMANTUS, a churlish Philosopher.

ALCIBIADES, an Athenian Captain.

FLAVIUS, Steward to Timon.

Servants of Ventidius, Varro, and Isidore: two of Timon's

Creditors.

Cupid and Maskers. Three Strangers.
Poet, Painter, Jeweller, and Merchant.
An old Athenian. A Page. A Fool.

PHRYNIA,

TIMANDRA,

Mistresses to Alcibiades.

Lords, Senators, Officers, Soldiers, Thieves, and Attendants.

SCENE, Athens; and the Woods adjoining.

1 Appended, with some omissions, to the play in the folio, 1623.

TIMON OF ATHENS.

ACT I, SCENE I.

Athens. A Hall in TIMON's House,

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

Poet. Good day, sir.

Pain. I am glad y'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. Oh! 'tis 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—

[Showing it.

Mer. Oh! pray, let's see't. For the lord Timon, sir?
Jew. If he will touch the estimate; but, for that-
Poet. "When we for recompence' have prais'd the vile,

1 He PASSES.] As we now say, He surpasses or exceeds. Shakespeare uses "continuate" (of the preceding line) in "Othello," A. iii. sc. 4, if indeed it be not there a misprint for convenient of course, it here means of an enduring and persevering goodness. The word occurs in other good authors.

2 "When we for recómpence, &c.] "We must here suppose (says Warburton) the poet busy in reading in his own work; and that these three lines are the in

It stains the glory in that happy verse
Which aptly sings the good."

Mer.

'Tis a good form.

Jew. And rich: here is a water, look ye.

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 issues"

From whence 'tis nourish'd: 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. 'Tis a good piece.

Poet. So 'tis this comes off well, and excellent.
Pain. Indifferent.

Poet.

[Showing it.

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'll say of it,

It tutors nature: artificial strife

Lives in these touches, livelier than life.

Enter certain Senators, who pass over the stage.

Pain. How this lord is follow'd!

Poet. The senators of Athens :-happy men!

Pain. Look, more!

Poet. You see this confluence, this great flood of visitors.

troduction of the poem addressed to Timon, which he afterwards gives the Painter an account of." Possibly it is only a reflection by the Poet.

3

as a GUM, which ISSUES] The old copy, "as a gown which uses." Pope changed gown to " 'gum," and we obtain "issues" from the corr. fo. 1632: Johnson suggested oozes, which may be right, but seems to express too slow a process for what the speaker tells us had "slipped idly" from him.

Each bound it CHAFES.] All the folios read chases for "chafes:" the last is no doubt right, and in the corr. fo. 1632 chases is amended to "chafes:" the error was occasioned by the letter f having been mistaken by the printer for the long s. No copy of the folio, 1623, that we have ever seen, reads "chafes."

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 verse: no levell'd malice
Infects one comma in the course I hold,
But flies an eagle flight, bold, and forth on,
Leaving no track behind.

Pain. How shall I understand you?

Poet. I will 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 kind 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.

"Tis conceiv'd to scope.

a

5 In a wide sea of VERSE:] "In a wide sea of war" in the folios; but " wide sea of wax was perhaps never before heard of, while "a wide sea of verse is a figure of speech both natural and intelligible, as regards its flow, its swell, and its power. The word "verse" is derived from the corr. fo. 1632, and the adoption of it renders it needless to resort to the overstrained notion, that Shakespeare referred to the ancient mode of writing with a style upon wax tables: hitherto such has necessarily been the explanation. "Verse" might ensily have been misread waxe, which was then frequently spelt with a final e: it is not however so printed in the old copies. The Poet had written his production in “verse," and we feel sure that it is the true text. Prof. Mommsen entertained no doubt upon the point, when he rendered "in a wide sea of verse" very happily In weitem Versemeer.

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 knees and hands, let him slip down',
Not one accompanying his declining foot.

Pain. 'Tis 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 his comfort.

Tim.

Noble Ventidius! Well;

6 Drink the free air.] "To drink the air (says Wakefield), like the haustos ætherios of Virgil, is merely a poetical phrase for draw the air, or breathe. To 'drink the free air,' therefore, through another, is to breathe freely at his will only."

7 Even on their knees and HANDS, let him SLIP down.] The folio reads hand, and sit for "slip." The emendation was made by Rowe, and it is warranted by the corr. fo. 1632.

8

talking with him.] The old stage-direction is, "Trumpets sound. Enter lord Timon, addressing himself courteously to every suitor."