ACT VSCENE I. The woods. Before Timon’s caveEnterPoetandPainter.PAINTER.As I took note of the place, it cannot be far where he abides.POET.What’s to be thought of him? Does the rumour hold for true that he is so full of gold?PAINTER.Certain. Alcibiades reports it; Phrynia and Timandra had gold of him. He likewise enriched poor straggling soldiers with great quantity. ’Tis said he gave unto his steward a mighty sum.POET.Then this breaking of his has been but a try for his friends?PAINTER.Nothing else. You shall see him a palm in Athens again, and flourish with the highest. Therefore ’tis not amiss we tender our loves to him in this supposed distress of his. It will show honestly in us and is very likely to load our purposes with what they travail for, if it be a just and true report that goes of his having.POET.What have you now to present unto him?PAINTER.Nothing at this time but my visitation; only I will promise him an excellent piece.POET.I must serve him so too, tell him of an intent that’s coming toward him.PAINTER.Good as the best. Promising is the very air o’ th’ time; it opens the eyes of expectation. Performance is ever the duller for his act and, but in the plainer and simpler kind of people, the deed of saying is quite out of use. To promise is most courtly and fashionable; performance is a kind of will or testament which argues a great sickness in his judgment that makes it.EnterTimonfrom his cave.TIMON.[Aside.] Excellent workman! Thou canst not paint a man so bad as is thyself.POET.I am thinking what I shall say I have provided for him. It must be a personating of himself, a satire against the softness of prosperity, with a discovery of the infinite flatteries that follow youth and opulency.TIMON.[Aside.] Must thou needs stand for a villain in thine own work? Wilt thou whip thine own faults in other men? Do so, I have gold for thee.POET.Nay, let’s seek him.Then do we sin against our own estateWhen we may profit meet and come too late.PAINTER.True.When the day serves, before black-cornered night,Find what thou want’st by free and offered light.Come.TIMON.[Aside.] I’ll meet you at the turn. What a god’s gold,That he is worshipped in a baser templeThan where swine feed!’Tis thou that rigg’st the bark and plough’st the foam,Settlest admired reverence in a slave.To thee be worship, and thy saints for ayeBe crowned with plagues, that thee alone obey!Fit I meet them.[He comes forward.]POET.Hail, worthy Timon!PAINTER.Our late noble master!TIMON.Have I once lived to see two honest men?POET.Sir,Having often of your open bounty tasted,Hearing you were retired, your friends fall’n off,Whose thankless natures—O abhorred spirits!Not all the whips of heaven are large enough—What, to you,Whose star-like nobleness gave life and influenceTo their whole being? I am rapt and cannot coverThe monstrous bulk of this ingratitudeWith any size of words.TIMON.Let it go naked. Men may see’t the better.You that are honest, by being what you are,Make them best seen and known.PAINTER.He and myselfHave travailed in the great shower of your gifts,And sweetly felt it.TIMON.Ay, you are honest men.PAINTER.We are hither come to offer you our service.TIMON.Most honest men! Why, how shall I requite you?Can you eat roots and drink cold water? No?BOTH.What we can do we’ll do, to do you service.TIMON.Ye’re honest men. Ye’ve heard that I have gold,I am sure you have. Speak truth, you’re honest men.PAINTER.So it is said, my noble lord; but thereforeCame not my friend nor I.TIMON.Good honest men! [To Painter.] Thou draw’st a counterfeitBest in all Athens. Thou’rt indeed the best,Thou counterfeit’st most lively.PAINTER.So so, my lord.TIMON.E’en so, sir, as I say. [To the Poet.] And for thy fiction,Why, thy verse swells with stuff so fine and smoothThat thou art even natural in thine art.But for all this, my honest-natured friends,I must needs say you have a little fault.Marry, ’tis not monstrous in you, neither wish IYou take much pains to mend.BOTH.Beseech your honourTo make it known to us.TIMON.You’ll take it ill.BOTH.Most thankfully, my lord.TIMON.Will you indeed?BOTH.Doubt it not, worthy lord.TIMON.There’s never a one of you but trusts a knaveThat mightily deceives you.BOTH.Do we, my lord?TIMON.Ay, and you hear him cog, see him dissemble,Know his gross patchery, love him, feed him,Keep in your bosom, yet remain assuredThat he’s a made-up villain.PAINTER.I know not such, my lord.POET.Nor I.TIMON.Look you, I love you well. I’ll give you gold.Rid me these villains from your companies,Hang them or stab them, drown them in a draught,Confound them by some course, and come to me,I’ll give you gold enough.BOTH.Name them, my lord, let’s know them.TIMON.You that way, and you this, but two in company.Each man apart, all single and alone,Yet an arch-villain keeps him company.[To one.] If where thou art, two villians shall not be,Come not near him. [To the other.] If thou wouldst not resideBut where one villain is, then him abandon.Hence, pack! There’s gold. You came for gold, ye slaves.[To one.] You have work for me, there’s payment, hence![To the other.] You are an alchemist; make gold of that.Out, rascal dogs![Timondrives them out and then retires to his cave]SCENE II. The sameEnterFlaviusand twoSenators.FLAVIUS.It is vain that you would speak with Timon.For he is set so only to himselfThat nothing but himself which looks like manIs friendly with him.FIRST SENATOR.Bring us to his cave.It is our part and promise to th’ AtheniansTo speak with Timon.SECOND SENATOR.At all times alikeMen are not still the same: ’twas time and griefsThat framed him thus. Time, with his fairer hand,Offering the fortunes of his former days,The former man may make him. Bring us to himAnd chance it as it may.FLAVIUS.Here is his cave.Peace and content be here! Lord Timon! Timon,Look out and speak to friends. The AtheniansBy two of their most reverend senate greet thee.Speak to them, noble Timon.EnterTimonout of his cave.TIMON.Thou sun that comforts, burn! Speak and be hanged!For each true word, a blister, and each falseBe as a cantherizing to the root o’ th’ tongue,Consuming it with speaking.FIRST SENATOR.Worthy Timon—TIMON.Of none but such as you, and you of Timon.FIRST SENATOR.The senators of Athens greet thee, Timon.TIMON.[Aside.] I thank them and would send them back the plague,Could I but catch it for them.FIRST SENATOR.O, forgetWhat we are sorry for ourselves in thee.The senators with one consent of loveEntreat thee back to Athens, who have thoughtOn special dignities, which vacant lieFor thy best use and wearing.SECOND SENATOR.They confessToward thee forgetfulness too general gross,Which now the public body, which doth seldomPlay the recanter, feeling in itselfA lack of Timon’s aid, hath sense withalOf its own fall, restraining aid to Timon,And send forth us to make their sorrowed render,Together with a recompense more fruitfulThan their offence can weigh down by the dram,Ay, even such heaps and sums of love and wealth,As shall to thee blot out what wrongs were theirs,And write in thee the figures of their love,Ever to read them thine.TIMON.You witch me in it,Surprise me to the very brink of tears.Lend me a fool’s heart and a woman’s eyesAnd I’ll beweep these comforts, worthy senators.FIRST SENATOR.Therefore so please thee to return with us,And of our Athens, thine and ours, to takeThe captainship, thou shalt be met with thanks,Allowed with absolute power, and thy good nameLive with authority. So soon we shall drive backOf Alcibiades th’ approaches wild,Who like a boar too savage doth root upHis country’s peace.SECOND SENATOR.And shakes his threatening swordAgainst the walls of Athens.FIRST SENATOR.Therefore, Timon—TIMON.Well, sir, I will. Therefore I will, sir, thus:If Alcibiades kill my countrymen,Let Alcibiades know this of Timon,That Timon cares not. But if he sack fair AthensAnd take our goodly aged men by th’ beards,Giving our holy virgins to the stainOf contumelious, beastly, mad-brained war,Then let him know, and tell him Timon speaks it,In pity of our aged and our youth,I cannot choose but tell him that I care not;And—let him take’t at worst—for their knives care notWhile you have throats to answer. For myself,There’s not a whittle in th’ unruly campBut I do prize it at my love beforeThe reverend’st throat in Athens. So I leave youTo the protection of the prosperous gods,As thieves to keepers.FLAVIUS.Stay not, all’s in vain.TIMON.Why, I was writing of my epitaph;It will be seen tomorrow. My long sicknessOf health and living now begins to mendAnd nothing brings me all things. Go, live still,Be Alcibiades your plague, you his,And last so long enough.FIRST SENATOR.We speak in vain.TIMON.But yet I love my country and am notOne that rejoices in the common wrack,As common bruit doth put it.FIRST SENATOR.That’s well spoke.TIMON.Commend me to my loving countrymen.FIRST SENATOR.These words become your lips as they pass through them.SECOND SENATOR.And enter in our ears like great triumphersIn their applauding gates.TIMON.Commend me to them,And tell them that to ease them of their griefs,Their fears of hostile strokes, their aches, losses,Their pangs of love, with other incident throesThat nature’s fragile vessel doth sustainIn life’s uncertain voyage, I will some kindness do them;I’ll teach them to prevent wild Alcibiades’ wrath.FIRST SENATOR.[Aside.] I like this well, he will return again.TIMON.I have a tree which grows here in my closeThat mine own use invites me to cut down,And shortly must I fell it. Tell my friends,Tell Athens, in the sequence of degreeFrom high to low throughout, that whoso pleaseTo stop affliction, let him take his haste,Come hither ere my tree hath felt the axeAnd hang himself. I pray you do my greeting.FLAVIUS.Trouble him no further; thus you still shall find him.TIMON.Come not to me again, but say to AthensTimon hath made his everlasting mansionUpon the beached verge of the salt flood,Who once a day with his embossed frothThe turbulent surge shall cover; thither come,And let my gravestone be your oracle.Lips, let sour words go by, and language end:What is amiss, plague and infection mend;Graves only be men’s works and death their gain,Sun, hide thy beams, Timon hath done his reign.[ExitTimoninto his cave.]FIRST SENATOR.His discontents are unremovablyCoupled to nature.SECOND SENATOR.Our hope in him is dead. Let us returnAnd strain what other means is left unto usIn our dear peril.FIRST SENATOR.It requires swift foot.[Exeunt.]SCENE III. Before the walls of AthensEnter two otherSenators,with aMessenger.FIRST SENATOR.Thou hast painfully discovered. Are his filesAs full as thy report?MESSENGER.I have spoke the least.Besides, his expedition promisesPresent approach.SECOND SENATOR.We stand much hazard if they bring not Timon.MESSENGER.I met a courier, one mine ancient friend,Whom, though in general part we were opposed,Yet our old love made a particular forceAnd made us speak like friends. This man was ridingFrom Alcibiades to Timon’s caveWith letters of entreaty, which importedHis fellowship i’ th’ cause against your city,In part for his sake moved.Enter the otherSenatorsfromTimon.THIRD SENATOR.Here come our brothers.FIRST SENATOR.No talk of Timon, nothing of him expect.The enemy’s drum is heard, and fearful scouringDoth choke the air with dust. In, and prepare.Ours is the fall, I fear, our foe’s the snare.[Exeunt.]SCENE IV. The woods. Timon’s cave, and a rude tomb seenEnter aSoldierin the woods, seekingTimon.SOLDIER.By all description this should be the place.Who’s here? Speak, ho! No answer? What is this?Timon is dead, who hath outstretched his span.Some beast read this; there does not live a man.Dead, sure, and this his grave. What’s on this tombI cannot read. The character I’ll take with wax.Our captain hath in every figure skill,An aged interpreter, though young in days.Before proud Athens he’s set down by this,Whose fall the mark of his ambition is.[Exit.]SCENE V. Before the walls of AthensTrumpets sound. EnterAlcibiadeswith his powers before Athens.ALCIBIADES.Sound to this coward and lascivious townOur terrible approach.[A parley sounds.]TheSenatorsappear upon the walls.Till now you have gone on and filled the timeWith all licentious measure, making your willsThe scope of justice. Till now myself and suchAs slept within the shadow of your powerHave wandered with our traversed arms, and breathedOur sufferance vainly. Now the time is flush,When crouching marrow, in the bearer strongCries of itself, “No more!” Now breathless wrongShall sit and pant in your great chairs of ease,And pursy insolence shall break his windWith fear and horrid flight.FIRST SENATOR.Noble and young,When thy first griefs were but a mere conceit,Ere thou hadst power or we had cause of fear,We sent to thee to give thy rages balm,To wipe out our ingratitude with lovesAbove their quantity.SECOND SENATOR.So did we wooTransformed Timon to our city’s loveBy humble message and by promised means.We were not all unkind, nor all deserveThe common stroke of war.FIRST SENATOR.These walls of oursWere not erected by their hands from whomYou have received your griefs; nor are they suchThat these great towers, trophies, and schools should fallFor private faults in them.SECOND SENATOR.Nor are they livingWho were the motives that you first went out.Shame, that they wanted cunning, in excessHath broke their hearts. March, noble lord,Into our city with thy banners spread.By decimation and a tithed death,If thy revenges hunger for that foodWhich nature loathes, take thou the destined tenth,And by the hazard of the spotted dieLet die the spotted.FIRST SENATOR.All have not offended.For those that were, it is not square to take,On those that are, revenge. Crimes, like lands,Are not inherited. Then, dear countryman,Bring in thy ranks but leave without thy rage;Spare thy Athenian cradle and those kinWhich in the bluster of thy wrath must fallWith those that have offended. Like a shepherdApproach the fold and cull th’ infected forth,But kill not all together.SECOND SENATOR.What thou wilt,Thou rather shalt enforce it with thy smileThan hew to ’t with thy sword.FIRST SENATOR.Set but thy footAgainst our rampired gates and they shall ope,So thou wilt send thy gentle heart beforeTo say thou’lt enter friendly.SECOND SENATOR.Throw thy glove,Or any token of thine honour else,That thou wilt use the wars as thy redressAnd not as our confusion, all thy powersShall make their harbour in our town till weHave sealed thy full desire.ALCIBIADES.Then there’s my glove;Descend and open your uncharged ports.Those enemies of Timon’s and mine ownWhom you yourselves shall set out for reproofFall, and no more. And, to atone your fearsWith my more noble meaning, not a manShall pass his quarter or offend the streamOf regular justice in your city’s bounds,But shall be remedied to your public lawsAt heaviest answer.BOTH.’Tis most nobly spoken.ALCIBIADES.Descend, and keep your words.[TheSenatorsdescend.]Enter aSoldier.SOLDIER.My noble general, Timon is dead,Entombed upon the very hem o’ th’ sea,And on his gravestone this insculpture, whichWith wax I brought away, whose soft impressionInterprets for my poor ignorance.ALCIBIADES.[Reads the Epitaph.]Here lies a wretched corse, of wretched soul bereft.Seek not my name. A plague consume you, wicked caitiffs left!Here lie I, Timon, who alive all living men did hate.Pass by and curse thy fill, but pass and stay not here thy gait.These well express in thee thy latter spirits.Though thou abhorred’st in us our human griefs,Scorned’st our brains’ flow and those our droplets whichFrom niggard nature fall, yet rich conceitTaught thee to make vast Neptune weep for ayeOn thy low grave, on faults forgiven. DeadIs noble Timon, of whose memoryHereafter more. Bring me into your city,And I will use the olive with my sword,Make war breed peace, make peace stint war, make eachPrescribe to other, as each other’s leech.Let our drums strike.[Exeunt.]
EnterPoetandPainter.
PAINTER.As I took note of the place, it cannot be far where he abides.
POET.What’s to be thought of him? Does the rumour hold for true that he is so full of gold?
PAINTER.Certain. Alcibiades reports it; Phrynia and Timandra had gold of him. He likewise enriched poor straggling soldiers with great quantity. ’Tis said he gave unto his steward a mighty sum.
POET.Then this breaking of his has been but a try for his friends?
PAINTER.Nothing else. You shall see him a palm in Athens again, and flourish with the highest. Therefore ’tis not amiss we tender our loves to him in this supposed distress of his. It will show honestly in us and is very likely to load our purposes with what they travail for, if it be a just and true report that goes of his having.
POET.What have you now to present unto him?
PAINTER.Nothing at this time but my visitation; only I will promise him an excellent piece.
POET.I must serve him so too, tell him of an intent that’s coming toward him.
PAINTER.Good as the best. Promising is the very air o’ th’ time; it opens the eyes of expectation. Performance is ever the duller for his act and, but in the plainer and simpler kind of people, the deed of saying is quite out of use. To promise is most courtly and fashionable; performance is a kind of will or testament which argues a great sickness in his judgment that makes it.
EnterTimonfrom his cave.
TIMON.[Aside.] Excellent workman! Thou canst not paint a man so bad as is thyself.
POET.I am thinking what I shall say I have provided for him. It must be a personating of himself, a satire against the softness of prosperity, with a discovery of the infinite flatteries that follow youth and opulency.
TIMON.[Aside.] Must thou needs stand for a villain in thine own work? Wilt thou whip thine own faults in other men? Do so, I have gold for thee.
POET.Nay, let’s seek him.Then do we sin against our own estateWhen we may profit meet and come too late.
PAINTER.True.When the day serves, before black-cornered night,Find what thou want’st by free and offered light.Come.
TIMON.[Aside.] I’ll meet you at the turn. What a god’s gold,That he is worshipped in a baser templeThan where swine feed!’Tis thou that rigg’st the bark and plough’st the foam,Settlest admired reverence in a slave.To thee be worship, and thy saints for ayeBe crowned with plagues, that thee alone obey!Fit I meet them.
[He comes forward.]
POET.Hail, worthy Timon!
PAINTER.Our late noble master!
TIMON.Have I once lived to see two honest men?
POET.Sir,Having often of your open bounty tasted,Hearing you were retired, your friends fall’n off,Whose thankless natures—O abhorred spirits!Not all the whips of heaven are large enough—What, to you,Whose star-like nobleness gave life and influenceTo their whole being? I am rapt and cannot coverThe monstrous bulk of this ingratitudeWith any size of words.
TIMON.Let it go naked. Men may see’t the better.You that are honest, by being what you are,Make them best seen and known.
PAINTER.He and myselfHave travailed in the great shower of your gifts,And sweetly felt it.
TIMON.Ay, you are honest men.
PAINTER.We are hither come to offer you our service.
TIMON.Most honest men! Why, how shall I requite you?Can you eat roots and drink cold water? No?
BOTH.What we can do we’ll do, to do you service.
TIMON.Ye’re honest men. Ye’ve heard that I have gold,I am sure you have. Speak truth, you’re honest men.
PAINTER.So it is said, my noble lord; but thereforeCame not my friend nor I.
TIMON.Good honest men! [To Painter.] Thou draw’st a counterfeitBest in all Athens. Thou’rt indeed the best,Thou counterfeit’st most lively.
PAINTER.So so, my lord.
TIMON.E’en so, sir, as I say. [To the Poet.] And for thy fiction,Why, thy verse swells with stuff so fine and smoothThat thou art even natural in thine art.But for all this, my honest-natured friends,I must needs say you have a little fault.Marry, ’tis not monstrous in you, neither wish IYou take much pains to mend.
BOTH.Beseech your honourTo make it known to us.
TIMON.You’ll take it ill.
BOTH.Most thankfully, my lord.
TIMON.Will you indeed?
BOTH.Doubt it not, worthy lord.
TIMON.There’s never a one of you but trusts a knaveThat mightily deceives you.
BOTH.Do we, my lord?
TIMON.Ay, and you hear him cog, see him dissemble,Know his gross patchery, love him, feed him,Keep in your bosom, yet remain assuredThat he’s a made-up villain.
PAINTER.I know not such, my lord.
POET.Nor I.
TIMON.Look you, I love you well. I’ll give you gold.Rid me these villains from your companies,Hang them or stab them, drown them in a draught,Confound them by some course, and come to me,I’ll give you gold enough.
BOTH.Name them, my lord, let’s know them.
TIMON.You that way, and you this, but two in company.Each man apart, all single and alone,Yet an arch-villain keeps him company.[To one.] If where thou art, two villians shall not be,Come not near him. [To the other.] If thou wouldst not resideBut where one villain is, then him abandon.Hence, pack! There’s gold. You came for gold, ye slaves.[To one.] You have work for me, there’s payment, hence![To the other.] You are an alchemist; make gold of that.Out, rascal dogs!
[Timondrives them out and then retires to his cave]
EnterFlaviusand twoSenators.
FLAVIUS.It is vain that you would speak with Timon.For he is set so only to himselfThat nothing but himself which looks like manIs friendly with him.
FIRST SENATOR.Bring us to his cave.It is our part and promise to th’ AtheniansTo speak with Timon.
SECOND SENATOR.At all times alikeMen are not still the same: ’twas time and griefsThat framed him thus. Time, with his fairer hand,Offering the fortunes of his former days,The former man may make him. Bring us to himAnd chance it as it may.
FLAVIUS.Here is his cave.Peace and content be here! Lord Timon! Timon,Look out and speak to friends. The AtheniansBy two of their most reverend senate greet thee.Speak to them, noble Timon.
EnterTimonout of his cave.
TIMON.Thou sun that comforts, burn! Speak and be hanged!For each true word, a blister, and each falseBe as a cantherizing to the root o’ th’ tongue,Consuming it with speaking.
FIRST SENATOR.Worthy Timon—
TIMON.Of none but such as you, and you of Timon.
FIRST SENATOR.The senators of Athens greet thee, Timon.
TIMON.[Aside.] I thank them and would send them back the plague,Could I but catch it for them.
FIRST SENATOR.O, forgetWhat we are sorry for ourselves in thee.The senators with one consent of loveEntreat thee back to Athens, who have thoughtOn special dignities, which vacant lieFor thy best use and wearing.
SECOND SENATOR.They confessToward thee forgetfulness too general gross,Which now the public body, which doth seldomPlay the recanter, feeling in itselfA lack of Timon’s aid, hath sense withalOf its own fall, restraining aid to Timon,And send forth us to make their sorrowed render,Together with a recompense more fruitfulThan their offence can weigh down by the dram,Ay, even such heaps and sums of love and wealth,As shall to thee blot out what wrongs were theirs,And write in thee the figures of their love,Ever to read them thine.
TIMON.You witch me in it,Surprise me to the very brink of tears.Lend me a fool’s heart and a woman’s eyesAnd I’ll beweep these comforts, worthy senators.
FIRST SENATOR.Therefore so please thee to return with us,And of our Athens, thine and ours, to takeThe captainship, thou shalt be met with thanks,Allowed with absolute power, and thy good nameLive with authority. So soon we shall drive backOf Alcibiades th’ approaches wild,Who like a boar too savage doth root upHis country’s peace.
SECOND SENATOR.And shakes his threatening swordAgainst the walls of Athens.
FIRST SENATOR.Therefore, Timon—
TIMON.Well, sir, I will. Therefore I will, sir, thus:If Alcibiades kill my countrymen,Let Alcibiades know this of Timon,That Timon cares not. But if he sack fair AthensAnd take our goodly aged men by th’ beards,Giving our holy virgins to the stainOf contumelious, beastly, mad-brained war,Then let him know, and tell him Timon speaks it,In pity of our aged and our youth,I cannot choose but tell him that I care not;And—let him take’t at worst—for their knives care notWhile you have throats to answer. For myself,There’s not a whittle in th’ unruly campBut I do prize it at my love beforeThe reverend’st throat in Athens. So I leave youTo the protection of the prosperous gods,As thieves to keepers.
FLAVIUS.Stay not, all’s in vain.
TIMON.Why, I was writing of my epitaph;It will be seen tomorrow. My long sicknessOf health and living now begins to mendAnd nothing brings me all things. Go, live still,Be Alcibiades your plague, you his,And last so long enough.
FIRST SENATOR.We speak in vain.
TIMON.But yet I love my country and am notOne that rejoices in the common wrack,As common bruit doth put it.
FIRST SENATOR.That’s well spoke.
TIMON.Commend me to my loving countrymen.
FIRST SENATOR.These words become your lips as they pass through them.
SECOND SENATOR.And enter in our ears like great triumphersIn their applauding gates.
TIMON.Commend me to them,And tell them that to ease them of their griefs,Their fears of hostile strokes, their aches, losses,Their pangs of love, with other incident throesThat nature’s fragile vessel doth sustainIn life’s uncertain voyage, I will some kindness do them;I’ll teach them to prevent wild Alcibiades’ wrath.
FIRST SENATOR.[Aside.] I like this well, he will return again.
TIMON.I have a tree which grows here in my closeThat mine own use invites me to cut down,And shortly must I fell it. Tell my friends,Tell Athens, in the sequence of degreeFrom high to low throughout, that whoso pleaseTo stop affliction, let him take his haste,Come hither ere my tree hath felt the axeAnd hang himself. I pray you do my greeting.
FLAVIUS.Trouble him no further; thus you still shall find him.
TIMON.Come not to me again, but say to AthensTimon hath made his everlasting mansionUpon the beached verge of the salt flood,Who once a day with his embossed frothThe turbulent surge shall cover; thither come,And let my gravestone be your oracle.Lips, let sour words go by, and language end:What is amiss, plague and infection mend;Graves only be men’s works and death their gain,Sun, hide thy beams, Timon hath done his reign.
[ExitTimoninto his cave.]
FIRST SENATOR.His discontents are unremovablyCoupled to nature.
SECOND SENATOR.Our hope in him is dead. Let us returnAnd strain what other means is left unto usIn our dear peril.
FIRST SENATOR.It requires swift foot.
[Exeunt.]
Enter two otherSenators,with aMessenger.
FIRST SENATOR.Thou hast painfully discovered. Are his filesAs full as thy report?
MESSENGER.I have spoke the least.Besides, his expedition promisesPresent approach.
SECOND SENATOR.We stand much hazard if they bring not Timon.
MESSENGER.I met a courier, one mine ancient friend,Whom, though in general part we were opposed,Yet our old love made a particular forceAnd made us speak like friends. This man was ridingFrom Alcibiades to Timon’s caveWith letters of entreaty, which importedHis fellowship i’ th’ cause against your city,In part for his sake moved.
Enter the otherSenatorsfromTimon.
THIRD SENATOR.Here come our brothers.
FIRST SENATOR.No talk of Timon, nothing of him expect.The enemy’s drum is heard, and fearful scouringDoth choke the air with dust. In, and prepare.Ours is the fall, I fear, our foe’s the snare.
[Exeunt.]
Enter aSoldierin the woods, seekingTimon.
SOLDIER.By all description this should be the place.Who’s here? Speak, ho! No answer? What is this?Timon is dead, who hath outstretched his span.Some beast read this; there does not live a man.Dead, sure, and this his grave. What’s on this tombI cannot read. The character I’ll take with wax.Our captain hath in every figure skill,An aged interpreter, though young in days.Before proud Athens he’s set down by this,Whose fall the mark of his ambition is.
[Exit.]
Trumpets sound. EnterAlcibiadeswith his powers before Athens.
ALCIBIADES.Sound to this coward and lascivious townOur terrible approach.
[A parley sounds.]
TheSenatorsappear upon the walls.
Till now you have gone on and filled the timeWith all licentious measure, making your willsThe scope of justice. Till now myself and suchAs slept within the shadow of your powerHave wandered with our traversed arms, and breathedOur sufferance vainly. Now the time is flush,When crouching marrow, in the bearer strongCries of itself, “No more!” Now breathless wrongShall sit and pant in your great chairs of ease,And pursy insolence shall break his windWith fear and horrid flight.
FIRST SENATOR.Noble and young,When thy first griefs were but a mere conceit,Ere thou hadst power or we had cause of fear,We sent to thee to give thy rages balm,To wipe out our ingratitude with lovesAbove their quantity.
SECOND SENATOR.So did we wooTransformed Timon to our city’s loveBy humble message and by promised means.We were not all unkind, nor all deserveThe common stroke of war.
FIRST SENATOR.These walls of oursWere not erected by their hands from whomYou have received your griefs; nor are they suchThat these great towers, trophies, and schools should fallFor private faults in them.
SECOND SENATOR.Nor are they livingWho were the motives that you first went out.Shame, that they wanted cunning, in excessHath broke their hearts. March, noble lord,Into our city with thy banners spread.By decimation and a tithed death,If thy revenges hunger for that foodWhich nature loathes, take thou the destined tenth,And by the hazard of the spotted dieLet die the spotted.
FIRST SENATOR.All have not offended.For those that were, it is not square to take,On those that are, revenge. Crimes, like lands,Are not inherited. Then, dear countryman,Bring in thy ranks but leave without thy rage;Spare thy Athenian cradle and those kinWhich in the bluster of thy wrath must fallWith those that have offended. Like a shepherdApproach the fold and cull th’ infected forth,But kill not all together.
SECOND SENATOR.What thou wilt,Thou rather shalt enforce it with thy smileThan hew to ’t with thy sword.
FIRST SENATOR.Set but thy footAgainst our rampired gates and they shall ope,So thou wilt send thy gentle heart beforeTo say thou’lt enter friendly.
SECOND SENATOR.Throw thy glove,Or any token of thine honour else,That thou wilt use the wars as thy redressAnd not as our confusion, all thy powersShall make their harbour in our town till weHave sealed thy full desire.
ALCIBIADES.Then there’s my glove;Descend and open your uncharged ports.Those enemies of Timon’s and mine ownWhom you yourselves shall set out for reproofFall, and no more. And, to atone your fearsWith my more noble meaning, not a manShall pass his quarter or offend the streamOf regular justice in your city’s bounds,But shall be remedied to your public lawsAt heaviest answer.
BOTH.’Tis most nobly spoken.
ALCIBIADES.Descend, and keep your words.
[TheSenatorsdescend.]
Enter aSoldier.
SOLDIER.My noble general, Timon is dead,Entombed upon the very hem o’ th’ sea,And on his gravestone this insculpture, whichWith wax I brought away, whose soft impressionInterprets for my poor ignorance.
ALCIBIADES.[Reads the Epitaph.]Here lies a wretched corse, of wretched soul bereft.Seek not my name. A plague consume you, wicked caitiffs left!Here lie I, Timon, who alive all living men did hate.Pass by and curse thy fill, but pass and stay not here thy gait.These well express in thee thy latter spirits.Though thou abhorred’st in us our human griefs,Scorned’st our brains’ flow and those our droplets whichFrom niggard nature fall, yet rich conceitTaught thee to make vast Neptune weep for ayeOn thy low grave, on faults forgiven. DeadIs noble Timon, of whose memoryHereafter more. Bring me into your city,And I will use the olive with my sword,Make war breed peace, make peace stint war, make eachPrescribe to other, as each other’s leech.Let our drums strike.
[Exeunt.]