2 Lord. The swallow follows not summer more willingly', than we your lordship.

Tim. [Aside.] Nor more willingly leaves winter; such summer-birds are men. [To them.] Gentlemen, our dinner will not recompense this long stay: feast your ears with the music awhile, if they will fare so harshly o' the trumpet's sound; we shall to't presently.

1 Lord. I hope, it remains not unkindly with your lordship, that I returned you an empty messenger.

Tim. Oh, sir! let it not trouble you.

2 Lord. My noble lord,—

Tim. Ah! my good friend, what cheer?

[The banquet brought in.

2 Lord. My most honourable lord, I am e'en sick of shame, that when your lordship this other day sent to me, I was so unfortunate a beggar.

Tim. Think not on't, sir.

2 Lord. If you had sent but two hours before,

Tim. Let it not cumber your better remembrance.-Come, bring in all together.

it.

2 Lord. All covered dishes!

1 Lord. Royal cheer, I warrant you.

3 Lord. Doubt not that, if money, and the season can yield

1 Lord. How do you? What's the news?

3 Lord. Alcibiades is banished: hear you of it?

1 & 2 Lord. Alcibiades banished!

3 Lord. 'Tis so; be sure of it.

1 Lord. How? how?

2 Lord. I pray you, upon what?

Tim. My worthy friends, will you draw near?

3 Lord. I'll tell you more anon. Here's a noble feast toward.

2 Lord. This is the old man still.

3 Lord. Will't hold? will't hold?

2 Lord. It does; but time will—and so

3 Lord. I do conceive.

Tim. Each man to his stool, with that spur as he would to the lip of his mistress: your diet shall be in all places alike. Make not a city feast of it, to let the meat cool ere we can

2 The swallow follows not summer more WILLINGLY,] So the corr. fo. 1632, and rightly, as appears by the repetition of the adverb by Timon immediately afterwards the old copies read willing.

agree upon the first place: sit, sit. The gods require our thanks.

"You great benefactors, sprinkle our society with thankfulness. For your own gifts make yourselves praised, but reserve still to give, lest your deities be despised. Lend to each man enough, that one need not lend to another; for, were your godheads to borrow of men, men would forsake the gods. Make the meat be beloved, more than the man that gives it. Let no assembly of twenty be without a score of villains if there sit twelve women at the table, let a dozen of them be as they are.-The rest of your fees, oh gods3!— the senators of Athens, together with the common tag of people,—what is amiss in them, you gods make suitable for destruction. For these, my present friends,-as they are to me nothing, so in nothing bless them, and to nothing are they welcome."

Uncover, dogs, and lap.

[The dishes uncovered are full of warm water. Some speak. What does his lordship mean?·

Some other. I know not.

Tim. May you a better feast never behold,

You knot of mouth-friends! smoke, and luke-warm water
Is your perfection. This is Timon's last;
Who stuck and spangled you with flatteries,
Washes it off, and sprinkles in your faces

[Throwing water in their faces.
Your reeking villainy. Live loath'd, and long,
Most smiling, smooth, detested parasites,
Courteous destroyers, affable wolves, meek bears;
You fools of fortune, trencher-friends, time's flies,
Cap and knee slaves, vapours, and minute-jacks!
Of man, and beast, the infinite malady
Crust you quite o'er!-What! dost thou go?

3 The rest of your FEES, oh gods!] This may be right, and therefore we leave it; but not only is the old correction in the fo. 1632 foes for "fees," but it was Warburton's proposed amendment.

4

the common TAG of people,] It is "legge of the people" in the folio, 1623, no doubt misread for "tagge" or "tag." Shakespeare uses "tag" for the common people in "Coriolanus," A. iii. sc. 1, and in "Julius Cæsar," A. i. sc. 2, he speaks of them as "tag-rag." On the other hand, he never has lag excepting in the sense of lingering or delaying; and we are convinced therefore that the annotator on the corr. fo. 1632 was warranted in altering legge to tagge," i. e. tag of the people.

Soft, take thy physic first-thou too,-and thou:

[Throws the dishes at them, and drives them out.

Stay, I will lend thee money, borrow none.—
What, all in motion? Henceforth be no feast,
Whereat a villain's not a welcome guest.

Burn, house! sink, Athens! henceforth hated be
Of Timon, man, and all humanity!

Re-enter the Lords, with other Lords and Senators.

1 Lord. How now, my lords!

[Exit.

2 Lord. Know you the quality of lord Timon's fury?. 3 Lord. Push! did you see my cap?

4 Lord. I have lost my gown.

3 Lord. He's but a mad lord, and nought but humour sways him. He gave me a jewel the other day, and now he has beat it out of my hat :-did you see my jewel?

4 Lord. Did you see my cap?

2 Lord. Here 'tis.

4 Lord. Here lies my gown.

1 Lord. Let's make no stay.

2 Lord. Lord Timon's mad.

3 Lord.

I feel't upon my bones.

4 Lord. One day he gives us diamonds, next day stones.

[Exeunt.

ACT IV. SCENE I.

Without the Walls of Athens.

Enter TIMON.

Tim. Let me look back upon thee, oh thou wall, That girdlest in those wolves! Dive in the earth,

5 Push!] A frequent interjection, which sometimes assumed the form of pish: see "Much Ado about Nothing," A. v. sc. 1, Vol. ii. p. 69.

One day he gives us diamonds, next day STONES.] Respecting this line, and particularly the word "stones," see the Introduction, p. 209. If we suppose Shakespeare never to have heard of the academic play of "Timon," there mentioned, he may have seen or heard of some other drama on the same subject in his own day, in which also stones were employed to expel the guests: at all events, water seems but a poor substitute, even were we to believe that it was scalding, yet Timon himself calls it only "lukewarm."

VOL. V.

S

And fence not Athens! Matrons, turn incontinent;
Obedience fail in children! slaves, and fools,
Pluck the grave wrinkled senate from the bench,
And minister in their steads! to general filths
Convert o' the instant green virginity!

8

,

Do't in your parents' eyes'. Bankrupts, hold fast;
Rather than render back, out with your knives,
And cut your trusters' throats! bound servants, steal!
Large-handed robbers your grave masters are,
And pill by law: maid, to thy master's bed;
Thy mistress is o' the brothel! son of sixteen
Pluck the lin❜d crutch from thy old limping sire,
With it beat out his brains! piety, and fear,
Religion to the gods, peace, justice, truth,
Domestic awe, night-rest, and neighbourhood,
Instruction, manners, mysteries, and trades,
Degrees, observances, customs, and laws,
Decline to your confounding contraries,

And yet confusion live'.-Plagues, incident to men,
Your potent and infectious fevers heap
On Athens, ripe for stroke! thou cold sciatica,
Cripple our senators, that their limbs may halt
As lamely as their manners! lust and liberty
Creep in the minds and marrows of our youth,
That 'gainst the stream of virtue they may strive,
And drown themselves in riot! itches, blains,
Sow all the Athenian bosoms, and their crop
Be general leprosy! breath infect breath,
That their society, as their friendship, may
Be merely poison! Nothing I'll bear from thee,
But nakedness, thou detestable town!

[Casting away his garments.

10

Take thou that too, with multiplying bans "!
Timon will to the woods; where he shall find
Th' unkindest beast more kinder than mankind.
The gods confound (hear me, you good gods all)

7 Do't in YOUR parents' eyes.] Ought we not to read their for " your? ?" 8 -SON of sixteen,] The folio, 1623, reads, "some of sixteen:" corrected in the folio, 1632.

And YET confusion live.] "And let confusion live" in the corr. fo. 1632; but "yet" may be right, in the sense of still, and we do not disturb the text. Sir T. Hanmer also proposed this change.

10

with multiplying BANS!] "Bans" are curses, and to ban is to curse.

The Athenians, both within and out that wall!
And grant, as Timon grows, his hate may grow
To the whole race of mankind, high, and low!
Amen.

[Exit.

SCENE II.

Athens. A Room in TIMON'S House.

Enter FLAVIUS, with two or three Servants.

1 Serv. Hear you, master steward! where's our master ? Are we undone? cast off? nothing remaining?

Flav. Alack! my fellows, what should I say to you? Let me be recorded by the righteous gods,

I am as poor as you.

1 Serv.

Such a house broke!

So noble a master fallen! All gone, and not
One friend to take his fortune by the arm,
And go along with him!

2 Serv.

As we do turn our backs

From our companion, thrown into his grave,
So his familiars to his buried fortunes

Slink all away; leave their false vows with him,
Like empty purses pick'd; and his poor self,
A dedicated beggar to the air,

With his disease of all-shunn'd poverty,

Walks, like contempt, alone.-More of our fellows.

Enter other Servants.

Flav. All broken implements of a ruin'd house.
3 Serv. Yet do our hearts wear Timon's livery,
That see I by our faces: we are fellows still,
Serving alike in sorrow. Leak'd is our bark;
And we, poor mates, stand on the dying deck,
Hearing the surges threat: we must all part
Into this sea of air.

The latest of my wealth I'll share amongst you.
Wherever we shall meet, for Timon's sake,

Let's yet be fellows; let's shake our heads, and say,
As 'twere a knell unto our master's fortunes,