The Life Of Timon Of Athens

1 Enter Flavius with many bills in his hand.
2 FLAVIUS.
3 No care, no stop, so senseless of expense,
4 That he will neither know how to maintain it
5 Nor cease his flow of riot. Takes no account
6 How things go from him, nor resumes no care
7 Of what is to continue. Never mind
8 Was to be so unwise, to be so kind.
9 What shall be done? He will not hear till feel.
10 I must be round with him, now he comes from hunting.
11 Fie, fie, fie, fie!
12 Enter Caphis and the Servants of Isidore and Varro.
13 CAPHIS.
14 Good even, Varro. What, you come for money?
15 VARRO’S SERVANT.
16 Is’t not your business too?
17 CAPHIS.
18 It is. And yours too, Isidore?
19 ISIDORE’S SERVANT.
20 It is so.
21 CAPHIS.
22 Would we were all discharged!
23 VARRO’S SERVANT.
24 I fear it.
25 CAPHIS.
26 Here comes the lord.
27 Enter Timon and his train with Alcibiades
28 TIMON.
29 So soon as dinner’s done, we’ll forth again,
30 My Alcibiades. With me? What is your will?
31 CAPHIS.
32 My lord, here is a note of certain dues.
33 TIMON.
34 Dues? Whence are you?
35 CAPHIS.
36 Of Athens here, my lord.
37 TIMON.
38 Go to my steward.
39 CAPHIS.
40 Please it your lordship, he hath put me off
41 To the succession of new days this month.
42 My master is awaked by great occasion
43 To call upon his own and humbly prays you
44 That with your other noble parts you’ll suit
45 In giving him his right.
46 TIMON.
47 Mine honest friend,
48 I prithee but repair to me next morning.
49 CAPHIS.
50 Nay, good my lord—
51 TIMON.
52 Contain thyself, good friend.
53 VARRO’S SERVANT.
54 One Varro’s servant, my good lord—
55 ISIDORE’S SERVANT.
56 From Isidore. He humbly prays your speedy payment.
57 CAPHIS.
58 If you did know, my lord, my master’s wants—
59 VARRO’S SERVANT.
60 ’Twas due on forfeiture, my lord, six weeks and past.
61 ISIDORE’S SERVANT.
62 Your steward puts me off, my lord, and I
63 Am sent expressly to your lordship.
64 TIMON.
65 Give me breath.
66 I do beseech you, good my lords, keep on,
67 I’ll wait upon you instantly.
68 [_Exeunt Alcibiades and Timon’s train._]
69 [_To Flavius_.] Come hither. Pray you,
70 How goes the world, that I am thus encountered
71 With clamorous demands of debt, broken bonds,
72 And the detention of long-since-due debts
73 Against my honour?
74 FLAVIUS.
75 Please you, gentlemen,
76 The time is unagreeable to this business.
77 Your importunacy cease till after dinner,
78 That I may make his lordship understand
79 Wherefore you are not paid.
80 TIMON.
81 Do so, my friends.
82 See them well entertained.
83 [_Exit._]
84 FLAVIUS.
85 Pray, draw near.
86 [_Exit._]
87 Enter Apemantus and Fool.
88 CAPHIS.
89 Stay, stay, here comes the fool with Apemantus.
90 Let’s ha’ some sport with ’em.
91 VARRO’S SERVANT.
92 Hang him, he’ll abuse us.
93 ISIDORE’S SERVANT.
94 A plague upon him, dog!
95 VARRO’S SERVANT.
96 How dost, fool?
97 APEMANTUS.
98 Dost dialogue with thy shadow?
99 VARRO’S SERVANT.
100 I speak not to thee.
101 APEMANTUS.
102 No, ’tis to thyself.
103 [_To the Fool_.] Come away.
104 ISIDORE’S SERVANT.
105 [_To Varro’s servant_.] There’s the fool hangs on your back already.
106 APEMANTUS.
107 No, thou stand’st single; thou’rt not on him yet.
108 CAPHIS.
109 Where’s the fool now?
110 APEMANTUS.
111 He last asked the question. Poor rogues and usurers’ men, bawds between
112 gold and want.
113 ALL SERVANTS.
114 What are we, Apemantus?
115 APEMANTUS.
116 Asses.
117 ALL SERVANTS.
118 Why?
119 APEMANTUS.
120 That you ask me what you are, and do not know yourselves. Speak to ’em,
121 fool.
122 FOOL.
123 How do you, gentlemen?
124 ALL SERVANTS.
125 Gramercies, good fool. How does your mistress?
126 FOOL.
127 She’s e’en setting on water to scald such chickens as you are. Would we
128 could see you at Corinth!
129 APEMANTUS.
130 Good, gramercy.
131 Enter Page.
132 FOOL.
133 Look you, here comes my mistress’ page.
134 PAGE.
135 [_To the Fool_.] Why, how now, captain? What do you in this wise
136 company? How dost thou, Apemantus?
137 APEMANTUS.
138 Would I had a rod in my mouth, that I might answer thee profitably.
139 PAGE.
140 Prithee, Apemantus, read me the superscription of these letters. I know
141 not which is which.
142 APEMANTUS.
143 Canst not read?
144 PAGE.
145 No.
146 APEMANTUS.
147 There will little learning die, then, that day thou art hanged. This is
148 to Lord Timon, this to Alcibiades. Go, thou wast born a bastard, and
149 thou’lt die a bawd.
150 PAGE.
151 Thou wast whelped a dog, and thou shalt famish a dog’s death. Answer
152 not; I am gone.
153 [_Exit Page._]
154 APEMANTUS.
155 E’en so thou outrunn’st grace. Fool, I will go with you to Lord
156 Timon’s.
157 FOOL.
158 Will you leave me there?
159 APEMANTUS.
160 If Timon stay at home.—You three serve three usurers?
161 ALL SERVANTS.
162 Ay, would they served us!
163 APEMANTUS.
164 So would I—as good a trick as ever hangman served thief.
165 FOOL.
166 Are you three usurers’ men?
167 ALL SERVANTS.
168 Ay, fool.
169 FOOL.
170 I think no usurer but has a fool to his servant. My mistress is one,
171 and I am her fool. When men come to borrow of your masters, they
172 approach sadly and go away merry, but they enter my mistress’s house
173 merrily and go away sadly. The reason of this?
174 VARRO’S SERVANT.
175 I could render one.
176 APEMANTUS.
177 Do it then, that we may account thee a whoremaster and a knave, which
178 notwithstanding, thou shalt be no less esteemed.
179 VARRO’S SERVANT.
180 What is a whoremaster, fool?
181 FOOL.
182 A fool in good clothes, and something like thee. ’Tis a spirit;
183 sometime ’t appears like a lord, sometime like a lawyer, sometime like
184 a philosopher, with two stones more than’s artificial one. He is very
185 often like a knight; and generally, in all shapes that man goes up and
186 down in from fourscore to thirteen, this spirit walks in.
187 VARRO’S SERVANT.
188 Thou art not altogether a fool.
189 FOOL.
190 Nor thou altogether a wise man. As much foolery as I have, so much wit
191 thou lack’st.
192 APEMANTUS.
193 That answer might have become Apemantus.
194 VARRO’S SERVANT.
195 Aside, aside, here comes Lord Timon.
196 Enter Timon and Flavius.
197 APEMANTUS.
198 Come with me, fool, come.
199 FOOL.
200 I do not always follow lover, elder brother, and woman; sometime the
201 philosopher.
202 [_Exeunt Apemantus and Fool._]
203 FLAVIUS.
204 Pray you walk near. I’ll speak with you anon.
205 [_Exeunt Servants._]
206 TIMON.
207 You make me marvel wherefore ere this time
208 Had you not fully laid my state before me,
209 That I might so have rated my expense
210 As I had leave of means.
211 FLAVIUS.
212 You would not hear me,
213 At many leisures I proposed.
214 TIMON.
215 Go to.
216 Perchance some single vantages you took
217 When my indisposition put you back,
218 And that unaptness made your minister
219 Thus to excuse yourself.
220 FLAVIUS.
221 O my good lord,
222 At many times I brought in my accounts,
223 Laid them before you; you would throw them off
224 And say you found them in mine honesty.
225 When for some trifling present you have bid me
226 Return so much, I have shook my head and wept,
227 Yea, ’gainst th’ authority of manners, prayed you
228 To hold your hand more close. I did endure
229 Not seldom nor no slight checks, when I have
230 Prompted you in the ebb of your estate
231 And your great flow of debts. My loved lord,
232 Though you hear now, too late, yet now’s a time.
233 The greatest of your having lacks a half
234 To pay your present debts.
235 TIMON.
236 Let all my land be sold.
237 FLAVIUS.
238 ’Tis all engaged, some forfeited and gone,
239 And what remains will hardly stop the mouth
240 Of present dues; the future comes apace.
241 What shall defend the interim? And at length
242 How goes our reckoning?
243 TIMON.
244 To Lacedaemon did my land extend.
245 FLAVIUS.
246 O my good lord, the world is but a word;
247 Were it all yours to give it in a breath,
248 How quickly were it gone!
249 TIMON.
250 You tell me true.
251 FLAVIUS.
252 If you suspect my husbandry or falsehood,
253 Call me before th’ exactest auditors
254 And set me on the proof. So the gods bless me,
255 When all our offices have been oppressed
256 With riotous feeders, when our vaults have wept
257 With drunken spilth of wine, when every room
258 Hath blazed with lights and brayed with minstrelsy,
259 I have retired me to a wasteful cock
260 And set mine eyes at flow.
261 TIMON.
262 Prithee, no more.
263 FLAVIUS.
264 Heavens, have I said, the bounty of this lord!
265 How many prodigal bits have slaves and peasants
266 This night englutted? Who is not Timon’s?
267 What heart, head, sword, force, means, but is Lord Timon’s?
268 Great Timon, noble, worthy, royal Timon!
269 Ah, when the means are gone that buy this praise,
270 The breath is gone whereof this praise is made.
271 Feast-won, fast-lost; one cloud of winter showers,
272 These flies are couched.
273 TIMON.
274 Come, sermon me no further.
275 No villainous bounty yet hath passed my heart;
276 Unwisely, not ignobly, have I given.
277 Why dost thou weep? Canst thou the conscience lack
278 To think I shall lack friends? Secure thy heart.
279 If I would broach the vessels of my love
280 And try the argument of hearts by borrowing,
281 Men and men’s fortunes could I frankly use
282 As I can bid thee speak.
283 FLAVIUS.
284 Assurance bless your thoughts!
285 TIMON.
286 And in some sort these wants of mine are crowned,
287 That I account them blessings. For by these
288 Shall I try friends. You shall perceive how you
289 Mistake my fortunes. I am wealthy in my friends.
290 Within there! Flaminius! Servilius!
291 Enter Flaminius, Servilius and a third Servant.
292 SERVANTS.
293 My lord, my lord.
294 TIMON.
295 I will dispatch you severally. [_To Servilius_.] You to Lord Lucius;
296 [_To Flaminius_.] to Lord Lucullus you, I hunted with his honour today;
297 [_To the third Servant_.] you to Sempronius. Commend me to their loves;
298 and I am proud, say, that my occasions have found time to use ’em
299 toward a supply of money. Let the request be fifty talents.
300 FLAMINIUS.
301 As you have said, my lord.
302 [_Exeunt Servants._]
303 FLAVIUS.
304 [_Aside_.] Lord Lucius and Lucullus? Humh!
305 TIMON.
306 Go you, sir, to the senators,
307 Of whom, even to the state’s best health, I have
308 Deserved this hearing, Bid ’em send o’ th’ instant
309 A thousand talents to me.
310 FLAVIUS.
311 I have been bold—
312 For that I knew it the most general way—
313 To them to use your signet and your name,
314 But they do shake their heads, and I am here
315 No richer in return.
316 TIMON.
317 Is’t true? Can’t be?
318 FLAVIUS.
319 They answer in a joint and corporate voice
320 That now they are at fall, want treasure, cannot
321 Do what they would, are sorry. You are honourable,
322 But yet they could have wished—they know not—
323 Something hath been amiss—a noble nature
324 May catch a wrench—would all were well—’tis pity.
325 And so, intending other serious matters,
326 After distasteful looks and these hard fractions,
327 With certain half-caps and cold-moving nods
328 They froze me into silence.
329 TIMON.
330 You gods, reward them!
331 Prithee, man, look cheerly. These old fellows
332 Have their ingratitude in them hereditary.
333 Their blood is caked, ’tis cold, it seldom flows;
334 ’Tis lack of kindly warmth they are not kind;
335 And nature, as it grows again toward earth,
336 Is fashioned for the journey, dull and heavy.
337 Go to Ventidius. Prithee, be not sad,
338 Thou art true and honest, ingenuously I speak,
339 No blame belongs to thee. Ventidius lately
340 Buried his father, by whose death he’s stepped
341 Into a great estate. When he was poor,
342 Imprisoned and in scarcity of friends,
343 I cleared him with five talents. Greet him from me,
344 Bid him suppose some good necessity
345 Touches his friend, which craves to be remembered
346 With those five talents. That had, give’t these fellows
347 To whom ’tis instant due. Ne’er speak, or think
348 That Timon’s fortunes ’mong his friends can sink.
349 [_Exit._]
350 FLAVIUS.
351 I would I could not think it.
352 That thought is bounty’s foe;
353 Being free itself, it thinks all others so.
354 [_Exit._]