The Life Of Timon Of Athens

1 Enter Timon in the woods.
2 TIMON.
3 O blessed breeding sun, draw from the earth
4 Rotten humidity, below thy sister’s orb
5 Infect the air! Twinned brothers of one womb,
6 Whose procreation, residence and birth
7 Scarce is dividant, touch them with several fortunes,
8 The greater scorns the lesser. Not nature,
9 To whom all sores lay siege, can bear great fortune
10 But by contempt of nature.
11 Raise me this beggar, and deny’t that lord;
12 The senator shall bear contempt hereditary,
13 The beggar native honour.
14 It is the pasture lards the rother’s sides,
15 The want that makes him lean. Who dares, who dares
16 In purity of manhood stand upright
17 And say, “This man’s a flatterer”? If one be,
18 So are they all, for every grece of fortune
19 Is smoothed by that below. The learned pate
20 Ducks to the golden fool. All’s obliquy.
21 There’s nothing level in our cursed natures
22 But direct villainy. Therefore be abhorred
23 All feasts, societies, and throngs of men!
24 His semblable, yea, himself, Timon disdains.
25 Destruction fang mankind! Earth, yield me roots!
26 [_Digs in the earth._]
27 Who seeks for better of thee, sauce his palate
28 With thy most operant poison! What is here?
29 Gold? Yellow, glittering, precious gold?
30 No, gods, I am no idle votarist.
31 Roots, you clear heavens! Thus much of this will make
32 Black white, foul fair, wrong right,
33 Base noble, old young, coward valiant.
34 Ha, you gods, why this? What this, you gods? Why, this
35 Will lug your priests and servants from your sides,
36 Pluck stout men’s pillows from below their heads.
37 This yellow slave
38 Will knit and break religions, bless th’ accursed,
39 Make the hoar leprosy adored, place thieves
40 And give them title, knee, and approbation
41 With senators on the bench. This is it
42 That makes the wappened widow wed again;
43 She whom the spittle-house and ulcerous sores
44 Would cast the gorge at, this embalms and spices
45 To th’ April day again. Come, damned earth,
46 Thou common whore of mankind, that puts odds
47 Among the rout of nations, I will make thee
48 Do thy right nature.
49 [_March afar off._]
50 Ha? A drum? Thou’rt quick,
51 But yet I’ll bury thee. Thou’lt go, strong thief,
52 When gouty keepers of thee cannot stand.
53 Nay, stay thou out for earnest.
54 [_Keeping some gold._]
55 Enter Alcibiades with drum and fife, in warlike manner, and Phrynia and
56 Timandra.
57 ALCIBIADES.
58 What art thou there? Speak.
59 TIMON.
60 A beast, as thou art. The canker gnaw thy heart
61 For showing me again the eyes of man!
62 ALCIBIADES.
63 What is thy name? Is man so hateful to thee
64 That art thyself a man?
65 TIMON.
66 I am Misanthropos and hate mankind.
67 For thy part, I do wish thou wert a dog,
68 That I might love thee something.
69 ALCIBIADES.
70 I know thee well,
71 But in thy fortunes am unlearned and strange.
72 TIMON.
73 I know thee too, and more than that I know thee
74 I not desire to know. Follow thy drum,
75 With man’s blood paint the ground gules, gules.
76 Religious canons, civil laws are cruel,
77 Then what should war be? This fell whore of thine
78 Hath in her more destruction than thy sword,
79 For all her cherubin look.
80 PHRYNIA.
81 Thy lips rot off!
82 TIMON.
83 I will not kiss thee, then the rot returns
84 To thine own lips again.
85 ALCIBIADES.
86 How came the noble Timon to this change?
87 TIMON.
88 As the moon does, by wanting light to give.
89 But then renew I could not like the moon;
90 There were no suns to borrow of.
91 ALCIBIADES.
92 Noble Timon,
93 What friendship may I do thee?
94 TIMON.
95 None, but to maintain my opinion.
96 ALCIBIADES.
97 What is it, Timon?
98 TIMON.
99 Promise me friendship, but perform none. If thou wilt not promise, the
100 gods plague thee, for thou art a man. If thou dost perform, confound
101 thee, for thou art a man.
102 ALCIBIADES.
103 I have heard in some sort of thy miseries.
104 TIMON.
105 Thou saw’st them when I had prosperity.
106 ALCIBIADES.
107 I see them now; then was a blessed time.
108 TIMON.
109 As thine is now, held with a brace of harlots.
110 TIMANDRA.
111 Is this th’ Athenian minion whom the world
112 Voiced so regardfully?
113 TIMON.
114 Art thou Timandra?
115 TIMANDRA.
116 Yes.
117 TIMON.
118 Be a whore still, they love thee not that use thee;
119 Give them diseases, leaving with thee their lust.
120 Make use of thy salt hours. Season the slaves
121 For tubs and baths, bring down rose-cheeked youth
122 To the tub-fast and the diet.
123 TIMANDRA.
124 Hang thee, monster!
125 ALCIBIADES.
126 Pardon him, sweet Timandra, for his wits
127 Are drowned and lost in his calamities.
128 I have but little gold of late, brave Timon,
129 The want whereof doth daily make revolt
130 In my penurious band. I have heard and grieved
131 How cursed Athens, mindless of thy worth,
132 Forgetting thy great deeds when neighbour states,
133 But for thy sword and fortune, trod upon them—
134 TIMON.
135 I prithee, beat thy drum and get thee gone.
136 ALCIBIADES.
137 I am thy friend and pity thee, dear Timon.
138 TIMON.
139 How dost thou pity him whom thou dost trouble?
140 I had rather be alone.
141 ALCIBIADES.
142 Why, fare thee well.
143 Here is some gold for thee.
144 TIMON.
145 Keep it, I cannot eat it.
146 ALCIBIADES.
147 When I have laid proud Athens on a heap—
148 TIMON.
149 Warr’st thou ’gainst Athens?
150 ALCIBIADES.
151 Ay, Timon, and have cause.
152 TIMON.
153 The gods confound them all in thy conquest,
154 And thee after, when thou hast conquered!
155 ALCIBIADES.
156 Why me, Timon?
157 TIMON.
158 That by killing of villains
159 Thou wast born to conquer my country.
160 Put up thy gold. Go on, here’s gold, go on.
161 Be as a planetary plague when Jove
162 Will o’er some high-viced city hang his poison
163 In the sick air. Let not thy sword skip one.
164 Pity not honoured age for his white beard;
165 He is an usurer. Strike me the counterfeit matron;
166 It is her habit only that is honest,
167 Herself’s a bawd. Let not the virgin’s cheek
168 Make soft thy trenchant sword, for those milk paps
169 That through the window-bars bore at men’s eyes,
170 Are not within the leaf of pity writ,
171 But set them down horrible traitors. Spare not the babe,
172 Whose dimpled smiles from fools exhaust their mercy;
173 Think it a bastard whom the oracle
174 Hath doubtfully pronounced thy throat shall cut,
175 And mince it sans remorse. Swear against objects;
176 Put armour on thine ears and on thine eyes,
177 Whose proof nor yells of mothers, maids, nor babes,
178 Nor sight of priests in holy vestments bleeding,
179 Shall pierce a jot. There’s gold to pay thy soldiers.
180 Make large confusion and, thy fury spent,
181 Confounded be thyself! Speak not, be gone.
182 ALCIBIADES.
183 Hast thou gold yet? I’ll take the gold thou giv’st me,
184 Not all thy counsel.
185 TIMON.
186 Dost thou or dost thou not, heaven’s curse upon thee!
187 PHRYNIA AND TIMANDRA.
188 Give us some gold, good Timon.
189 Hast thou more?
190 TIMON.
191 Enough to make a whore forswear her trade,
192 And to make whores a bawd. Hold up, you sluts,
193 Your aprons mountant. You are not oathable,
194 Although I know you’ll swear—terribly swear
195 Into strong shudders and to heavenly agues
196 Th’ immortal gods that hear you. Spare your oaths,
197 I’ll trust to your conditions. Be whores still,
198 And he whose pious breath seeks to convert you,
199 Be strong in whore, allure him, burn him up;
200 Let your close fire predominate his smoke,
201 And be no turncoats. Yet may your pains six months,
202 Be quite contrary. And thatch your poor thin roofs
203 With burdens of the dead—some that were hanged,
204 No matter; wear them, betray with them. Whore still,
205 Paint till a horse may mire upon your face.
206 A pox of wrinkles!
207 PHRYNIA AND TIMANDRA.
208 Well, more gold. What then?
209 Believe’t that we’ll do anything for gold.
210 TIMON.
211 Consumptions sow
212 In hollow bones of man; strike their sharp shins,
213 And mar men’s spurring. Crack the lawyer’s voice,
214 That he may never more false title plead
215 Nor sound his quillets shrilly. Hoar the flamen,
216 That scolds against the quality of flesh
217 And not believes himself. Down with the nose,
218 Down with it flat, take the bridge quite away
219 Of him that, his particular to foresee,
220 Smells from the general weal. Make curled-pate ruffians bald,
221 And let the unscarred braggarts of the war
222 Derive some pain from you. Plague all,
223 That your activity may defeat and quell
224 The source of all erection. There’s more gold.
225 Do you damn others, and let this damn you,
226 And ditches grave you all!
227 PHRYNIA AND TIMANDRA.
228 More counsel with more money, bounteous Timon.
229 TIMON.
230 More whore, more mischief first! I have given you earnest.
231 ALCIBIADES.
232 Strike up the drum towards Athens. Farewell, Timon.
233 If I thrive well, I’ll visit thee again.
234 TIMON.
235 If I hope well, I’ll never see thee more.
236 ALCIBIADES.
237 I never did thee harm.
238 TIMON.
239 Yes, thou spok’st well of me.
240 ALCIBIADES.
241 Call’st thou that harm?
242 TIMON.
243 Men daily find it. Get thee away, and take
244 Thy beagles with thee.
245 ALCIBIADES.
246 We but offend him. Strike.
247 [_Drum beats. Exeunt all but Timon._]
248 TIMON.
249 That nature, being sick of man’s unkindness,
250 Should yet be hungry! [_He digs_.] Common mother, thou,
251 Whose womb unmeasurable and infinite breast
252 Teems and feeds all; whose selfsame mettle
253 Whereof thy proud child, arrogant man, is puffed,
254 Engenders the black toad and adder blue,
255 The gilded newt and eyeless venomed worm,
256 With all the abhorred births below crisp heaven
257 Whereon Hyperion’s quickening fire doth shine:
258 Yield him who all thy human sons doth hate,
259 From forth thy plenteous bosom, one poor root!
260 Ensear thy fertile and conceptious womb,
261 Let it no more bring out ingrateful man.
262 Go great with tigers, dragons, wolves, and bears;
263 Teem with new monsters, whom thy upward face
264 Hath to the marbled mansion all above
265 Never presented. O, a root, dear thanks!
266 Dry up thy marrows, vines and plough-torn leas,
267 Whereof ingrateful man, with liquorish draughts
268 And morsels unctuous greases his pure mind,
269 That from it all consideration slips—
270 Enter Apemantus.
271 More man? Plague, plague!
272 APEMANTUS.
273 I was directed hither. Men report
274 Thou dost affect my manners and dost use them.
275 TIMON.
276 ’Tis, then, because thou dost not keep a dog
277 Whom I would imitate. Consumption catch thee!
278 APEMANTUS.
279 This is in thee a nature but infected,
280 A poor unmanly melancholy sprung
281 From change of fortune. Why this spade, this place?
282 This slave-like habit and these looks of care?
283 Thy flatterers yet wear silk, drink wine, lie soft,
284 Hug their diseased perfumes, and have forgot
285 That ever Timon was. Shame not these woods
286 By putting on the cunning of a carper.
287 Be thou a flatterer now, and seek to thrive
288 By that which has undone thee. Hinge thy knee
289 And let his very breath whom thou’lt observe
290 Blow off thy cap; praise his most vicious strain,
291 And call it excellent. Thou wast told thus;
292 Thou gav’st thine ears, like tapsters that bade welcome,
293 To knaves and all approachers. ’Tis most just
294 That thou turn rascal; had’st thou wealth again,
295 Rascals should have’t. Do not assume my likeness.
296 TIMON.
297 Were I like thee, I’d throw away myself.
298 APEMANTUS.
299 Thou hast cast away thyself, being like thyself
300 A madman so long, now a fool. What, think’st
301 That the bleak air, thy boisterous chamberlain,
302 Will put thy shirt on warm? Will these mossed trees,
303 That have outlived the eagle, page thy heels
304 And skip when thou point’st out? Will the cold brook,
305 Candied with ice, caudle thy morning taste
306 To cure thy o’ernight’s surfeit? Call the creatures
307 Whose naked natures live in all the spite
308 Of wreakful heaven, whose bare unhoused trunks,
309 To the conflicting elements exposed,
310 Answer mere nature, bid them flatter thee.
311 O, thou shalt find—
312 TIMON.
313 A fool of thee. Depart.
314 APEMANTUS.
315 I love thee better now than e’er I did.
316 TIMON.
317 I hate thee worse.
318 APEMANTUS.
319 Why?
320 TIMON.
321 Thou flatter’st misery.
322 APEMANTUS.
323 I flatter not, but say thou art a caitiff.
324 TIMON.
325 Why dost thou seek me out?
326 APEMANTUS.
327 To vex thee.
328 TIMON.
329 Always a villain’s office or a fool’s.
330 Dost please thyself in’t?
331 APEMANTUS.
332 Ay.
333 TIMON.
334 What, a knave too?
335 APEMANTUS.
336 If thou didst put this sour cold habit on
337 To castigate thy pride, ’twere well; but thou
338 Dost it enforcedly. Thou’dst courtier be again
339 Wert thou not beggar. Willing misery
340 Outlives incertain pomp, is crowned before;
341 The one is filling still, never complete,
342 The other, at high wish. Best state, contentless,
343 Hath a distracted and most wretched being,
344 Worse than the worst, content.
345 Thou shouldst desire to die, being miserable.
346 TIMON.
347 Not by his breath that is more miserable.
348 Thou art a slave whom Fortune’s tender arm
349 With favour never clasped, but bred a dog.
350 Hadst thou, like us from our first swath, proceeded
351 The sweet degrees that this brief world affords
352 To such as may the passive drugs of it
353 Freely command, thou wouldst have plunged thyself
354 In general riot, melted down thy youth
355 In different beds of lust and never learned
356 The icy precepts of respect, but followed
357 The sugared game before thee. But myself—
358 Who had the world as my confectionary,
359 The mouths, the tongues, the eyes and hearts of men
360 At duty, more than I could frame employment,
361 That numberless upon me stuck as leaves
362 Do on the oak, have with one winter’s brush
363 Fell from their boughs and left me open, bare
364 For every storm that blows—I to bear this,
365 That never knew but better, is some burden.
366 Thy nature did commence in sufferance, time
367 Hath made thee hard in’t. Why shouldst thou hate men?
368 They never flattered thee. What hast thou given?
369 If thou wilt curse, thy father, that poor rag,
370 Must be thy subject, who in spite put stuff
371 To some she-beggar and compounded thee
372 Poor rogue hereditary. Hence, be gone!
373 If thou hadst not been born the worst of men,
374 Thou hadst been a knave and flatterer.
375 APEMANTUS.
376 Art thou proud yet?
377 TIMON.
378 Ay, that I am not thee.
379 APEMANTUS.
380 I, that I was no prodigal.
381 TIMON.
382 I, that I am one now.
383 Were all the wealth I have shut up in thee,
384 I’d give thee leave to hang it. Get thee gone.
385 That the whole life of Athens were in this!
386 Thus would I eat it.
387 [_Eats a root._]
388 APEMANTUS.
389 Here, I will mend thy feast.
390 TIMON.
391 First mend my company, take away thyself.
392 APEMANTUS.
393 So I shall mend mine own, by th’ lack of thine.
394 TIMON.
395 ’Tis not well mended so, it is but botched.
396 If not, I would it were.
397 APEMANTUS.
398 What wouldst thou have to Athens?
399 TIMON.
400 Thee thither in a whirlwind. If thou wilt,
401 Tell them there I have gold. Look, so I have.
402 APEMANTUS.
403 Here is no use for gold.
404 TIMON.
405 The best and truest,
406 For here it sleeps and does no hired harm.
407 APEMANTUS.
408 Where liest a-nights, Timon?
409 TIMON.
410 Under that’s above me. Where feed’st thou a-days, Apemantus?
411 APEMANTUS.
412 Where my stomach finds meat, or rather where I eat it.
413 TIMON.
414 Would poison were obedient and knew my mind!
415 APEMANTUS.
416 Where wouldst thou send it?
417 TIMON.
418 To sauce thy dishes.
419 APEMANTUS.
420 The middle of humanity thou never knewest, but the extremity of both
421 ends. When thou wast in thy gilt and thy perfume, they mocked thee for
422 too much curiosity; in thy rags thou know’st none, but art despised for
423 the contrary. There’s a medlar for thee. Eat it.
424 TIMON.
425 On what I hate I feed not.
426 APEMANTUS.
427 Dost hate a medlar?
428 TIMON.
429 Ay, though it look like thee.
430 APEMANTUS.
431 An thou’dst hated medlars sooner, thou shouldst have loved thyself
432 better now. What man didst thou ever know unthrift that was beloved
433 after his means?
434 TIMON.
435 Who, without those means thou talk’st of, didst thou ever know beloved?
436 APEMANTUS.
437 Myself.
438 TIMON.
439 I understand thee. Thou hadst some means to keep a dog.
440 APEMANTUS.
441 What things in the world canst thou nearest compare to thy flatterers?
442 TIMON.
443 Women nearest; but men—men are the things themselves. What wouldst thou
444 do with the world, Apemantus, if it lay in thy power?
445 APEMANTUS.
446 Give it the beasts, to be rid of the men.
447 TIMON.
448 Wouldst thou have thyself fall in the confusion of men and remain a
449 beast with the beasts?
450 APEMANTUS.
451 Ay, Timon.
452 TIMON.
453 A beastly ambition, which the gods grant thee t’ attain to. If thou
454 wert the lion, the fox would beguile thee; if thou wert the lamb, the
455 fox would eat thee; if thou wert the fox, the lion would suspect thee
456 when peradventure thou wert accused by the ass; if thou wert the ass,
457 thy dulness would torment thee, and still thou lived’st but as a
458 breakfast to the wolf; if thou wert the wolf, thy greediness would
459 afflict thee, and oft thou shouldst hazard thy life for thy dinner.
460 Wert thou the unicorn, pride and wrath would confound thee and make
461 thine own self the conquest of thy fury; wert thou a bear, thou wouldst
462 be killed by the horse; wert thou a horse, thou wouldst be seized by
463 the leopard; wert thou a leopard, thou wert germane to the lion, and
464 the spots of thy kindred were jurors on thy life. All thy safety were
465 remotion, and thy defence absence. What beast couldst thou be that were
466 not subject to a beast? And what beast art thou already that seest not
467 thy loss in transformation!
468 APEMANTUS.
469 If thou couldst please me with speaking to me, thou mightst have hit
470 upon it here. The commonwealth of Athens is become a forest of beasts.
471 TIMON.
472 How has the ass broke the wall, that thou art out of the city?
473 APEMANTUS.
474 Yonder comes a poet and a painter. The plague of company light upon
475 thee! I will fear to catch it, and give way. When I know not what else
476 to do, I’ll see thee again.
477 TIMON.
478 When there is nothing living but thee, thou shalt be welcome. I had
479 rather be a beggar’s dog than Apemantus.
480 APEMANTUS.
481 Thou art the cap of all the fools alive.
482 TIMON.
483 Would thou wert clean enough to spit upon!
484 APEMANTUS.
485 A plague on thee! Thou art too bad to curse.
486 TIMON.
487 All villains that do stand by thee are pure.
488 APEMANTUS.
489 There is no leprosy but what thou speak’st.
490 TIMON.
491 If I name thee,
492 I’ll beat thee, but I should infect my hands.
493 APEMANTUS.
494 I would my tongue could rot them off!
495 TIMON.
496 Away, thou issue of a mangy dog!
497 Choler does kill me that thou art alive.
498 I swoon to see thee.
499 APEMANTUS.
500 Would thou wouldst burst!
501 TIMON.
502 Away, thou tedious rogue!
503 I am sorry I shall lose a stone by thee.
504 [_Throws a stone at him._]
505 APEMANTUS.
506 Beast!
507 TIMON.
508 Slave!
509 APEMANTUS.
510 Toad!
511 TIMON.
512 Rogue, rogue, rogue!
513 I am sick of this false world, and will love nought
514 But even the mere necessities upon’t.
515 Then, Timon, presently prepare thy grave.
516 Lie where the light foam of the sea may beat
517 Thy gravestone daily. Make thine epitaph,
518 That death in me at others’ lives may laugh.
519 [_To the gold._] O thou sweet king-killer and dear divorce
520 ’Twixt natural son and sire; thou bright defiler
521 Of Hymen’s purest bed, thou valiant Mars;
522 Thou ever young, fresh, loved, and delicate wooer,
523 Whose blush doth thaw the consecrated snow
524 That lies on Dian’s lap; thou visible god,
525 That solder’st close impossibilities
526 And mak’st them kiss, that speak’st with every tongue
527 To every purpose! O thou touch of hearts,
528 Think thy slave man rebels, and by thy virtue
529 Set them into confounding odds, that beasts
530 May have the world in empire!
531 APEMANTUS.
532 Would ’twere so!
533 But not till I am dead. I’ll say thou’st gold;
534 Thou wilt be thronged to shortly.
535 TIMON.
536 Thronged to?
537 APEMANTUS.
538 Ay.
539 TIMON.
540 Thy back, I prithee.
541 APEMANTUS.
542 Live and love thy misery.
543 TIMON.
544 Long live so, and so die! I am quit.
545 APEMANTUS.
546 More things like men. Eat, Timon, and abhor them.
547 [_Exit Apemantus._]
548 Enter Banditti.
549 FIRST BANDIT.
550 Where should he have this gold? It is some poor fragment, some slender
551 ort of his remainder. The mere want of gold and the falling-from of his
552 friends drove him into this melancholy.
553 SECOND BANDIT.
554 It is noised he hath a mass of treasure.
555 THIRD BANDIT.
556 Let us make the assay upon him. If he care not for’t, he will supply us
557 easily; if he covetously reserve it, how shall’s get it?
558 SECOND BANDIT.
559 True, for he bears it not about him. ’Tis hid.
560 FIRST BANDIT.
561 Is not this he?
562 BANDITTI.
563 Where?
564 SECOND BANDIT.
565 ’Tis his description.
566 THIRD BANDIT.
567 He; I know him.
568 BANDITTI.
569 Save thee, Timon!
570 TIMON.
571 Now, thieves?
572 BANDITTI.
573 Soldiers, not thieves.
574 TIMON.
575 Both too, and women’s sons.
576 BANDITTI.
577 We are not thieves, but men that much do want.
578 TIMON.
579 Your greatest want is, you want much of meat.
580 Why should you want? Behold, the earth hath roots,
581 Within this mile break forth a hundred springs,
582 The oaks bear mast, the briars scarlet hips,
583 The bounteous housewife Nature on each bush
584 Lays her full mess before you. Want? Why want?
585 FIRST BANDIT.
586 We cannot live on grass, on berries, water,
587 As beasts and birds and fishes.
588 TIMON.
589 Nor on the beasts themselves, the birds, and fishes;
590 You must eat men. Yet thanks I must you con
591 That you are thieves professed, that you work not
592 In holier shapes, for there is boundless theft
593 In limited professions. Rascal thieves,
594 Here’s gold. Go, suck the subtle blood o’ th’ grape
595 Till the high fever seethe your blood to froth,
596 And so scape hanging. Trust not the physician;
597 His antidotes are poison, and he slays
598 More than you rob. Take wealth and lives together,
599 Do villainy, do, since you protest to do’t,
600 Like workmen. I’ll example you with thievery.
601 The sun’s a thief and with his great attraction
602 Robs the vast sea; the moon’s an arrant thief,
603 And her pale fire she snatches from the sun;
604 The sea’s a thief, whose liquid surge resolves
605 The moon into salt tears; the earth’s a thief,
606 That feeds and breeds by a composture stol’n
607 From general excrement. Each thing’s a thief.
608 The laws, your curb and whip, in their rough power
609 Has unchecked theft. Love not yourselves; away!
610 Rob one another. There’s more gold. Cut throats,
611 All that you meet are thieves. To Athens go,
612 Break open shops, nothing can you steal
613 But thieves do lose it. Steal no less for this I give you,
614 And gold confound you howsoe’er! Amen.
615 THIRD BANDIT.
616 Has almost charmed me from my profession by persuading me to it.
617 FIRST BANDIT.
618 ’Tis in the malice of mankind that he thus advises us, not to have us
619 thrive in our mystery.
620 SECOND BANDIT.
621 I’ll believe him as an enemy and give over my trade.
622 FIRST BANDIT.
623 Let us first see peace in Athens. There is no time so miserable but a
624 man may be true.
625 [_Exeunt Banditti._]
626 Enter Flavius.
627 FLAVIUS.
628 O you gods!
629 Is yond despised and ruinous man my lord?
630 Full of decay and failing? O monument
631 And wonder of good deeds evilly bestowed!
632 What an alteration of honour has desperate want made!
633 What viler thing upon the earth than friends
634 Who can bring noblest minds to basest ends!
635 How rarely does it meet with this time’s guise,
636 When man was wished to love his enemies!
637 Grant I may ever love, and rather woo
638 Those that would mischief me than those that do!
639 He has caught me in his eye. I will present
640 My honest grief unto him and as my lord
641 Still serve him with my life.—My dearest master!
642 TIMON.
643 Away! What art thou?
644 FLAVIUS.
645 Have you forgot me, sir?
646 TIMON.
647 Why dost ask that? I have forgot all men.
648 Then, if thou grant’st thou’rt a man, I have forgot thee.
649 FLAVIUS.
650 An honest poor servant of yours.
651 TIMON.
652 Then I know thee not.
653 I never had honest man about me. I; all
654 I kept were knaves to serve in meat to villains.
655 FLAVIUS.
656 The gods are witness,
657 Ne’er did poor steward wear a truer grief
658 For his undone lord than mine eyes for you.
659 TIMON.
660 What, dost thou weep? Come nearer then. I love thee
661 Because thou art a woman and disclaim’st
662 Flinty mankind, whose eyes do never give
663 But thorough lust and laughter. Pity’s sleeping.
664 Strange times that weep with laughing, not with weeping!
665 FLAVIUS.
666 I beg of you to know me, good my lord,
667 T’ accept my grief, and whilst this poor wealth lasts
668 To entertain me as your steward still.
669 TIMON.
670 Had I a steward
671 So true, so just, and now so comfortable?
672 It almost turns my dangerous nature mild.
673 Let me behold thy face. Surely this man
674 Was born of woman.
675 Forgive my general and exceptless rashness,
676 You perpetual sober gods! I do proclaim
677 One honest man, mistake me not, but one;
678 No more, I pray, and he’s a steward.
679 How fain would I have hated all mankind,
680 And thou redeem’st thyself. But all, save thee,
681 I fell with curses.
682 Methinks thou art more honest now than wise,
683 For by oppressing and betraying me
684 Thou mightst have sooner got another service;
685 For many so arrive at second masters
686 Upon their first lord’s neck. But tell me true—
687 For I must ever doubt, though ne’er so sure—
688 Is not thy kindness subtle, covetous,
689 A usuring kindness and as rich men deal gifts,
690 Expecting in return twenty for one?
691 FLAVIUS.
692 No, my most worthy master, in whose breast
693 Doubt and suspect, alas, are placed too late.
694 You should have feared false times when you did feast,
695 Suspect still comes where an estate is least.
696 That which I show, heaven knows, is merely love,
697 Duty and zeal to your unmatched mind,
698 Care of your food and living. And believe it,
699 My most honoured lord,
700 For any benefit that points to me,
701 Either in hope or present, I’d exchange
702 For this one wish, that you had power and wealth
703 To requite me by making rich yourself.
704 TIMON.
705 Look thee, ’tis so! Thou singly honest man,
706 Here, take. The gods out of my misery
707 Have sent thee treasure. Go, live rich and happy,
708 But thus conditioned: thou shalt build from men;
709 Hate all, curse all, show charity to none,
710 But let the famished flesh slide from the bone
711 Ere thou relieve the beggar; give to dogs
712 What thou deniest to men; let prisons swallow ’em,
713 Debts wither ’em to nothing; be men like blasted woods,
714 And may diseases lick up their false bloods!
715 And so farewell and thrive.
716 FLAVIUS.
717 O, let me stay
718 And comfort you, my master.
719 TIMON.
720 If thou hat’st curses,
721 Stay not. Fly whilst thou’rt blest and free.
722 Ne’er see thou man, and let me ne’er see thee.
723 [_Exeunt severally._]