The Same. A Hall in TIMON’S House. | |
| |
Enter FLAVIUS, with many bills in his hand. | |
| Flav. No care, no stop! so senseless of expense, | |
| That he will neither know how to maintain it, | 4 |
| Nor cease his flow of riot: takes no account | |
| How things go from him, nor resumes no care | |
| Of what is to continue: never mind | |
| Was to be so unwise, to be so kind. | 8 |
| What shall be done? He will not hear, till feel: | |
| I must be round with him, now he comes from hunting. | |
| Fie, fie, fie, fie! | |
| |
Enter CAPHIS, and the Servants of ISIDORE and VARRO. | 12 |
| Caph. Good even, Varro. What! | |
| You come for money? | |
| Var. Serv. Is ’t not your business too? | |
| Caph. It is: and yours too, Isidore? | 16 |
| Isid. Serv. It is so. | |
| Caph. Would we were all discharg’d! | |
| Var. Serv. I fear it. | |
| Caph. Here comes the lord! | 20 |
| |
Enter TIMON, ALCIBIADES, and Lords, &c. | |
| Tim. So soon as dinner’s done, we’ll forth again, | |
| My Alcibiades. With me? what is your will? | |
| Caph. My lord, here is a note of certain dues. | 24 |
| 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 | 28 |
| 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 | 32 |
| In giving him his right. | |
| Tim. Mine honest friend, | |
| I prithee, but repair to me next morning. | |
| Caph. Nay, good my lord,— | 36 |
| Tim. Contain thyself, good friend. | |
| Var. Serv. One Varro’s servant, my good lord,— | |
| Isid. Serv. From Isidore; | |
| He humbly prays your speedy payment. | 40 |
| 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; | 44 |
| And I am sent expressly to your lordship. | |
| Tim. Give me breath. | |
| I do beseech you, good my lords, keep on; | |
| I’ll wait upon you instantly. [Exeunt ALCIBIADES and Lords. | 48 |
| [To FLAVIUS.] Come hither: pray you, | |
| How goes the world, that I am thus encounter’d | |
| With clamorous demands of date-broke bonds, | |
| And the detention of long-since-due debts, | 52 |
| Against my honour? | |
| Flav. Please you, gentlemen, | |
| The time is unagreeable to this business: | |
| Your importunacy cease till after dinner, | 56 |
| That I may make his lordship understand | |
| Wherefore you are not paid. | |
| Tim. Do so, my friends. | |
| See them well entertained. [Exit. | 60 |
| Flav. Pray, draw near. [Exit. | |
| |
Enter APEMANTUS and Fool. | |
| Caph. Stay, stay; here comes the fool with Apemantus: let’s ha’ some sport with ’em. | |
| Var. Serv. Hang him, he’ll abuse us. | 64 |
| 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. | 68 |
| Apem. No; ’tis to thyself. [To the Fool.] Come away. | |
| 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? | 72 |
| 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? | 76 |
| Apem. That you ask me what you are, and do not know yourselves. Speak to ’em, fool. | |
| Fool. How do you, gentlemen? | |
| All Serv. 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! | 80 |
| Apem. Good! gramercy. | |
| |
Enter Page. | |
| Fool. Look you, here comes my mistress’ page. | |
| Page. [To the Fool.] Why, how now, captain! what do you in this wise company? How dost thou, Apemantus? | 84 |
| Apem. Would I had a rod in my mouth, that I might answer thee profitably. | |
| Page Prithee, Apemantus, read me the superscription of these letters: I know not which is which. | |
| Apem. Canst not read? | |
| Page. No. | 88 |
| 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. E’en so thou outrunn’st grace.—Fool, I will go with you to Lord Timon’s. | |
| Fool. Will you leave me there? | 92 |
| Apem. If Timon stay at home. You three serve three usurers? | |
| All Serv. Ay; would they served us! | |
| Apem. So would I, as good a trick as ever hangman served thief. | |
| Fool. Are you three usurers’ men? | 96 |
| 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. | 100 |
| Var. Serv. What is a whoremaster, fool? | |
| Fool. A fool in good clothes, and something like thee. ’Tis a spirit: sometime ’t appears like a lord; sometime like a lawyer; sometime 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. 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. | 104 |
| 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. | 108 |
| Fool. I do not always follow lover, elder brother and woman; sometimes the philosopher. [Exeunt APEMANTUS and Fool. | |
| Flav. Pray you, walk near: I’ll speak with you anon. [Exeunt Servants. | |
| Tim. You make me marvel: wherefore, ere this time, | |
| Had you not fully laid my state before me, | 112 |
| That I might so have rated my expense | |
| As I had leave of means? | |
| Flav. You would not hear me, | |
| At many leisures I propos’d. | 116 |
| Tim. Go to: | |
| Perchance some single vantages you took, | |
| When my indisposition put you back; | |
| And that unaptness made your minister, | 120 |
| 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, | 124 |
| 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 | 128 |
| 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, | 132 |
| 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. | 136 |
| 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 | 140 |
| 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, | 144 |
| How quickly were it gone! | |
| Tim. You tell me true. | |
| Flav. If you suspect my husbandry or falsehood, | |
| Call me before the exactest auditors, | 148 |
| 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 | 152 |
| Hath blaz’d with lights and bray’d with minstrelsy, | |
| I have retir’d me to a wasteful cock, | |
| And set mine eyes at flow. | |
| Tim. Prithee, no more. | 156 |
| 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? | 160 |
| 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, | 164 |
| These flies are couch’d. | |
| Tim. Come, sermon me no further; | |
| No villanous bounty yet hath pass’d my heart; | |
| Unwisely, not ignobly, have I given. | 168 |
| 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, | 172 |
| 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, | 176 |
| 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! Flaminius! Servilius! | 180 |
| |
Enter FLAMINIUS, SERVILIUS, and other Servants. | |
| Serv. 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 them toward a supply of money: let the request be fifty talents. | |
| Flam. As you have said, my lord. | 184 |
| Flav. [Aside.] Lord Lucius, and Lucullus? hum! | |
| Tim. [To another Servant.] Go you, sir, to the senators,— | |
| Of whom, even to the state’s best health, I have | |
| Deserv’d this hearing,—bid ’em send o’ the instant | 188 |
| 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; | 192 |
| 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, | 196 |
| 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 | 200 |
| 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 | 204 |
| They froze me into silence. | |
| Tim. You gods, reward them! | |
| Prithee, man, look cheerly. These old fellows | |
| Have their ingratitude in them hereditary; | 208 |
| 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, | |
| Is fashion’d for the journey, dull and heavy. | 212 |
| [To a Servant.] Go to Ventidius.—[To FLAVIUS.] Prithee, be not sad, | |
| Thou art true and honest; ingenuously I speak, | |
| No blame belongs to thee.—[To Servant.] Ventidius lately | |
| Buried his father; by whose death he’s stepp’d | 216 |
| 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 | 220 |
| Touches his friend, which craves to be remember’d | |
| With those five talents. [Exit Servant.] [To FLAVIUS.] 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. | 224 |
| Flav. I would I could not think it: that thought is bounty’s foe; | |
| Being free itself, it thinks all others so. [Exeunt. | |
