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 encountered
With clamorous demands of date-broke bonds,
And the detention of long-since-due debts,
Against my honor?

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.

See them well entertained.

Flav.

Do so, my friends.

[Exit TIMON.

I 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 art 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. 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. 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? 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 outrun'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. Ay; 'would they served us!

Apem. So would I, as good a trick as ever hangman served thief.

Fool. Are you three usurers' men?

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 I have, so much wit thou lackest.

As much foolery

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.

At many leisures I proposed.

You would not hear me,

Go to.

Tim.
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, prayed 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 dear-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 engaged, 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 the exactest auditors,

And set me on the proof. So the gods bless me,
When all our offices have been oppressed

With riotous feeders; when our vaults have wept
With drunken spilth of wine; when every room
Hath blazed with lights, and brayed with minstrelsy;
I have retired me to a wasteful cock,

And set mine eyes at flow.

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 couched.

Tim.

Come, sermon me no further.

No villanous bounty yet hath passed 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 crowned, 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, ho!-Flaminius, Servilius!

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

Honor to-day;-You to Sempronius;

Commend me to their loves; and, I am proud to 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 lord Lucullus? humph!

[Aside. Tim. Go you, sir, [To another Serv.] to the senators, (Of whom, even to the state's best health, I have Deserved 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 it 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 honorable,— But yet they could have wished-they know not-but Something hath been amissa noble nature

May catch a wrench-would all were well-'tis pityAnd 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!-
I pr'ythee, man, look cheerly. These old fellows
Have their ingratitude in them 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 fashioned for the journey, dull, and heavy.—
Go to, Ventidius, [To a Serv.]-'P'rythee, [To FLAVIUS,]
be not sad;

Thou art true and honest; ingenuously I speak,
No blame belongs to thee;-[To Serv.] Ventidius lately
Buried his father; by whose death, he's stepped
Into a great estate. When he was poor,

Imprisoned, and in scarcity of friends,

I cleared him with five talents. Greet him from me; Bid him suppose, some good necessity

Touches his friend, which craves to be remembered

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.