ACT IISCENE I. Athens. A room in a senator’s houseEnter aSenatorwith papers.SENATOR.And late five thousand. To Varro and to IsidoreHe owes nine thousand, besides my former sum,Which makes it five-and-twenty. Still in motionOf raging waste! It cannot hold; it will not.If I want gold, steal but a beggar’s dogAnd give it Timon, why, the dog coins gold.If I would sell my horse, and buy twenty moreBetter than he, why, give my horse to Timon—Ask nothing, give it him—it foals me straight,And able horses. No porter at his gate,But rather one that smiles and still invitesAll that pass by. It cannot hold; no reasonCan sound his state in safety. Caphis, ho!Caphis, I say!EnterCaphis.CAPHIS.Here, sir, what is your pleasure?SENATOR.Get on your cloak and haste you to Lord Timon.Importune him for my moneys; be not ceasedWith slight denial, nor then silenced when“Commend me to your master”, and the capPlays in the right hand, thus; but tell him,My uses cry to me, I must serve my turnOut of mine own, his days and times are past,And my reliances on his fracted datesHave smit my credit. I love and honour him,But must not break my back to heal his finger.Immediate are my needs, and my reliefMust not be tossed and turned to me in words,But find supply immediate. Get you gone.Put on a most importunate aspect,A visage of demand, for I do fearWhen every feather sticks in his own wing,Lord Timon will be left a naked gull,Which flashes now a phoenix. Get you gone.CAPHIS.I go, sir.SENATOR.Take the bonds along with you,And have the dates in. Come.CAPHIS.I will, sir.SENATOR.Go.[Exeunt.]SCENE II. The same. A hall in Timon’s houseEnterFlaviuswith many bills in his hand.FLAVIUS.No care, no stop, so senseless of expense,That he will neither know how to maintain itNor cease his flow of riot. Takes no accountHow things go from him, nor resumes no careOf what is to continue. Never mindWas to be so unwise, to be so kind.What shall be done? He will not hear till feel.I must be round with him, now he comes from hunting.Fie, fie, fie, fie!EnterCaphisand theServantsofIsidoreandVarro.CAPHIS.Good even, Varro. What, you come for money?VARRO’S SERVANT.Is’t not your business too?CAPHIS.It is. And yours too, Isidore?ISIDORE’S SERVANT.It is so.CAPHIS.Would we were all discharged!VARRO’S SERVANT.I fear it.CAPHIS.Here comes the lord.EnterTimonand his train withAlcibiadesTIMON.So soon as dinner’s done, we’ll forth again,My Alcibiades. With me? What is your will?CAPHIS.My lord, here is a note of certain dues.TIMON.Dues? Whence are you?CAPHIS.Of Athens here, my lord.TIMON.Go to my steward.CAPHIS.Please it your lordship, he hath put me offTo the succession of new days this month.My master is awaked by great occasionTo call upon his own and humbly prays youThat with your other noble parts you’ll suitIn giving him his right.TIMON.Mine honest friend,I prithee but repair to me next morning.CAPHIS.Nay, good my lord—TIMON.Contain thyself, good friend.VARRO’S SERVANT.One Varro’s servant, my good lord—ISIDORE’S SERVANT.From Isidore. He humbly prays your speedy payment.CAPHIS.If you did know, my lord, my master’s wants—VARRO’S SERVANT.’Twas due on forfeiture, my lord, six weeks and past.ISIDORE’S SERVANT.Your steward puts me off, my lord, and IAm sent expressly to your lordship.TIMON.Give me breath.I do beseech you, good my lords, keep on,I’ll wait upon you instantly.[ExeuntAlcibiadesand Timon’s train.][To Flavius.] Come hither. Pray you,How goes the world, that I am thus encounteredWith clamorous demands of debt, broken bonds,And the detention of long-since-due debtsAgainst my honour?FLAVIUS.Please you, gentlemen,The time is unagreeable to this business.Your importunacy cease till after dinner,That I may make his lordship understandWherefore you are not paid.TIMON.Do so, my friends.See them well entertained.[Exit.]FLAVIUS.Pray, draw near.[Exit.]EnterApemantusandFool.CAPHIS.Stay, stay, here comes the fool with Apemantus.Let’s ha’ some sport with ’em.VARRO’S SERVANT.Hang him, he’ll abuse us.ISIDORE’S SERVANT.A plague upon him, dog!VARRO’S SERVANT.How dost, fool?APEMANTUS.Dost dialogue with thy shadow?VARRO’S SERVANT.I speak not to thee.APEMANTUS.No, ’tis to thyself.[To the Fool.] Come away.ISIDORE’S SERVANT.[To Varro’s servant.] There’s the fool hangs on your back already.APEMANTUS.No, thou stand’st single; thou’rt not on him yet.CAPHIS.Where’s the fool now?APEMANTUS.He last asked the question. Poor rogues and usurers’ men, bawds between gold and want.ALL SERVANTS.What are we, Apemantus?APEMANTUS.Asses.ALL SERVANTS.Why?APEMANTUS.That you ask me what you are, and do not know yourselves. Speak to ’em, fool.FOOL.How do you, gentlemen?ALL SERVANTS.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!APEMANTUS.Good, gramercy.EnterPage.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?APEMANTUS.Would I had a rod in my mouth, that I might answer thee profitably.PAGE.Prithee, Apemantus, read me the superscription of these letters. I know not which is which.APEMANTUS.Canst not read?PAGE.No.APEMANTUS.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.[ExitPage.]APEMANTUS.E’en so thou outrunn’st grace. Fool, I will go with you to Lord Timon’s.FOOL.Will you leave me there?APEMANTUS.If Timon stay at home.—You three serve three usurers?ALL SERVANTS.Ay, would they served us!APEMANTUS.So would I—as good a trick as ever hangman served thief.FOOL.Are you three usurers’ men?ALL SERVANTS.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’s house merrily and go away sadly. The reason of this?VARRO’S SERVANT.I could render one.APEMANTUS.Do it then, that we may account thee a whoremaster and a knave, which notwithstanding, thou shalt be no less esteemed.VARRO’S SERVANT.What is a whoremaster, fool?FOOL.A fool in good clothes, and something like thee. ’Tis a spirit; sometime ’t appears like a lord, sometime like a lawyer, sometime like a philosopher, with two stones more than’s 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.VARRO’S SERVANT.Thou art not altogether a fool.FOOL.Nor thou altogether a wise man. As much foolery as I have, so much wit thou lack’st.APEMANTUS.That answer might have become Apemantus.VARRO’S SERVANT.Aside, aside, here comes Lord Timon.EnterTimonandFlavius.APEMANTUS.Come with me, fool, come.FOOL.I do not always follow lover, elder brother, and woman; sometime the philosopher.[ExeuntApemantusandFool.]FLAVIUS.Pray you walk near. I’ll speak with you anon.[ExeuntServants.]TIMON.You make me marvel wherefore ere this timeHad you not fully laid my state before me,That I might so have rated my expenseAs I had leave of means.FLAVIUS.You would not hear me,At many leisures I proposed.TIMON.Go to.Perchance some single vantages you tookWhen my indisposition put you back,And that unaptness made your ministerThus to excuse yourself.FLAVIUS.O my good lord,At many times I brought in my accounts,Laid them before you; you would throw them offAnd say you found them in mine honesty.When for some trifling present you have bid meReturn so much, I have shook my head and wept,Yea, ’gainst th’ authority of manners, prayed youTo hold your hand more close. I did endureNot seldom nor no slight checks, when I havePrompted you in the ebb of your estateAnd your great flow of debts. My loved lord,Though you hear now, too late, yet now’s a time.The greatest of your having lacks a halfTo pay your present debts.TIMON.Let all my land be sold.FLAVIUS.’Tis all engaged, some forfeited and gone,And what remains will hardly stop the mouthOf present dues; the future comes apace.What shall defend the interim? And at lengthHow goes our reckoning?TIMON.To Lacedaemon did my land extend.FLAVIUS.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!TIMON.You tell me true.FLAVIUS.If you suspect my husbandry or falsehood,Call me before th’ exactest auditorsAnd set me on the proof. So the gods bless me,When all our offices have been oppressedWith riotous feeders, when our vaults have weptWith drunken spilth of wine, when every roomHath blazed with lights and brayed with minstrelsy,I have retired me to a wasteful cockAnd set mine eyes at flow.TIMON.Prithee, no more.FLAVIUS.Heavens, have I said, the bounty of this lord!How many prodigal bits have slaves and peasantsThis 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.TIMON.Come, sermon me no further.No villainous bounty yet hath passed my heart;Unwisely, not ignobly, have I given.Why dost thou weep? Canst thou the conscience lackTo think I shall lack friends? Secure thy heart.If I would broach the vessels of my loveAnd try the argument of hearts by borrowing,Men and men’s fortunes could I frankly useAs I can bid thee speak.FLAVIUS.Assurance bless your thoughts!TIMON.And in some sort these wants of mine are crowned,That I account them blessings. For by theseShall I try friends. You shall perceive how youMistake my fortunes. I am wealthy in my friends.Within there! Flaminius! Servilius!EnterFlaminius, Serviliusand a thirdServant.SERVANTS.My lord, my lord.TIMON.I will dispatch you severally. [To Servilius.] You to Lord Lucius; [To Flaminius.] to Lord Lucullus you, I hunted with his honour today; [To the third Servant.] you to Sempronius. Commend me to their loves; and I am proud, say, that my occasions have found time to use ’em toward a supply of money. Let the request be fifty talents.FLAMINIUS.As you have said, my lord.[ExeuntServants.]FLAVIUS.[Aside.] Lord Lucius and Lucullus? Humh!TIMON.Go you, sir, to the senators,Of whom, even to the state’s best health, I haveDeserved this hearing, Bid ’em send o’ th’ instantA thousand talents to me.FLAVIUS.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 hereNo richer in return.TIMON.Is’t true? Can’t be?FLAVIUS.They answer in a joint and corporate voiceThat now they are at fall, want treasure, cannotDo what they would, are sorry. You are honourable,But yet they could have wished—they know not—Something hath been amiss—a noble natureMay catch a wrench—would all were well—’tis pity.And so, intending other serious matters,After distasteful looks and these hard fractions,With certain half-caps and cold-moving nodsThey froze me into silence.TIMON.You gods, reward them!Prithee, man, look cheerly. These old fellowsHave 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. Prithee, be not sad,Thou art true and honest, ingenuously I speak,No blame belongs to thee. Ventidius latelyBuried his father, by whose death he’s steppedInto 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 necessityTouches his friend, which craves to be rememberedWith those five talents. That had, give’t these fellowsTo whom ’tis instant due. Ne’er speak, or thinkThat Timon’s fortunes ’mong his friends can sink.[Exit.]FLAVIUS.I would I could not think it.That thought is bounty’s foe;Being free itself, it thinks all others so.[Exit.]
Enter aSenatorwith papers.
SENATOR.And late five thousand. To Varro and to IsidoreHe owes nine thousand, besides my former sum,Which makes it five-and-twenty. Still in motionOf raging waste! It cannot hold; it will not.If I want gold, steal but a beggar’s dogAnd give it Timon, why, the dog coins gold.If I would sell my horse, and buy twenty moreBetter than he, why, give my horse to Timon—Ask nothing, give it him—it foals me straight,And able horses. No porter at his gate,But rather one that smiles and still invitesAll that pass by. It cannot hold; no reasonCan sound his state in safety. Caphis, ho!Caphis, I say!
EnterCaphis.
CAPHIS.Here, sir, what is your pleasure?
SENATOR.Get on your cloak and haste you to Lord Timon.Importune him for my moneys; be not ceasedWith slight denial, nor then silenced when“Commend me to your master”, and the capPlays in the right hand, thus; but tell him,My uses cry to me, I must serve my turnOut of mine own, his days and times are past,And my reliances on his fracted datesHave smit my credit. I love and honour him,But must not break my back to heal his finger.Immediate are my needs, and my reliefMust not be tossed and turned to me in words,But find supply immediate. Get you gone.Put on a most importunate aspect,A visage of demand, for I do fearWhen every feather sticks in his own wing,Lord Timon will be left a naked gull,Which flashes now a phoenix. Get you gone.
CAPHIS.I go, sir.
SENATOR.Take the bonds along with you,And have the dates in. Come.
CAPHIS.I will, sir.
SENATOR.Go.
[Exeunt.]
EnterFlaviuswith many bills in his hand.
FLAVIUS.No care, no stop, so senseless of expense,That he will neither know how to maintain itNor cease his flow of riot. Takes no accountHow things go from him, nor resumes no careOf what is to continue. Never mindWas to be so unwise, to be so kind.What shall be done? He will not hear till feel.I must be round with him, now he comes from hunting.Fie, fie, fie, fie!
EnterCaphisand theServantsofIsidoreandVarro.
CAPHIS.Good even, Varro. What, you come for money?
VARRO’S SERVANT.Is’t not your business too?
CAPHIS.It is. And yours too, Isidore?
ISIDORE’S SERVANT.It is so.
CAPHIS.Would we were all discharged!
VARRO’S SERVANT.I fear it.
CAPHIS.Here comes the lord.
EnterTimonand his train withAlcibiades
TIMON.So soon as dinner’s done, we’ll forth again,My Alcibiades. With me? What is your will?
CAPHIS.My lord, here is a note of certain dues.
TIMON.Dues? Whence are you?
CAPHIS.Of Athens here, my lord.
TIMON.Go to my steward.
CAPHIS.Please it your lordship, he hath put me offTo the succession of new days this month.My master is awaked by great occasionTo call upon his own and humbly prays youThat with your other noble parts you’ll suitIn giving him his right.
TIMON.Mine honest friend,I prithee but repair to me next morning.
CAPHIS.Nay, good my lord—
TIMON.Contain thyself, good friend.
VARRO’S SERVANT.One Varro’s servant, my good lord—
ISIDORE’S SERVANT.From Isidore. He humbly prays your speedy payment.
CAPHIS.If you did know, my lord, my master’s wants—
VARRO’S SERVANT.’Twas due on forfeiture, my lord, six weeks and past.
ISIDORE’S SERVANT.Your steward puts me off, my lord, and IAm sent expressly to your lordship.
TIMON.Give me breath.I do beseech you, good my lords, keep on,I’ll wait upon you instantly.
[ExeuntAlcibiadesand Timon’s train.]
[To Flavius.] Come hither. Pray you,How goes the world, that I am thus encounteredWith clamorous demands of debt, broken bonds,And the detention of long-since-due debtsAgainst my honour?
FLAVIUS.Please you, gentlemen,The time is unagreeable to this business.Your importunacy cease till after dinner,That I may make his lordship understandWherefore you are not paid.
TIMON.Do so, my friends.See them well entertained.
[Exit.]
FLAVIUS.Pray, draw near.
[Exit.]
EnterApemantusandFool.
CAPHIS.Stay, stay, here comes the fool with Apemantus.Let’s ha’ some sport with ’em.
VARRO’S SERVANT.Hang him, he’ll abuse us.
ISIDORE’S SERVANT.A plague upon him, dog!
VARRO’S SERVANT.How dost, fool?
APEMANTUS.Dost dialogue with thy shadow?
VARRO’S SERVANT.I speak not to thee.
APEMANTUS.No, ’tis to thyself.[To the Fool.] Come away.
ISIDORE’S SERVANT.[To Varro’s servant.] There’s the fool hangs on your back already.
APEMANTUS.No, thou stand’st single; thou’rt not on him yet.
CAPHIS.Where’s the fool now?
APEMANTUS.He last asked the question. Poor rogues and usurers’ men, bawds between gold and want.
ALL SERVANTS.What are we, Apemantus?
APEMANTUS.Asses.
ALL SERVANTS.Why?
APEMANTUS.That you ask me what you are, and do not know yourselves. Speak to ’em, fool.
FOOL.How do you, gentlemen?
ALL SERVANTS.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!
APEMANTUS.Good, gramercy.
EnterPage.
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?
APEMANTUS.Would I had a rod in my mouth, that I might answer thee profitably.
PAGE.Prithee, Apemantus, read me the superscription of these letters. I know not which is which.
APEMANTUS.Canst not read?
PAGE.No.
APEMANTUS.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.
[ExitPage.]
APEMANTUS.E’en so thou outrunn’st grace. Fool, I will go with you to Lord Timon’s.
FOOL.Will you leave me there?
APEMANTUS.If Timon stay at home.—You three serve three usurers?
ALL SERVANTS.Ay, would they served us!
APEMANTUS.So would I—as good a trick as ever hangman served thief.
FOOL.Are you three usurers’ men?
ALL SERVANTS.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’s house merrily and go away sadly. The reason of this?
VARRO’S SERVANT.I could render one.
APEMANTUS.Do it then, that we may account thee a whoremaster and a knave, which notwithstanding, thou shalt be no less esteemed.
VARRO’S SERVANT.What is a whoremaster, fool?
FOOL.A fool in good clothes, and something like thee. ’Tis a spirit; sometime ’t appears like a lord, sometime like a lawyer, sometime like a philosopher, with two stones more than’s 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.
VARRO’S SERVANT.Thou art not altogether a fool.
FOOL.Nor thou altogether a wise man. As much foolery as I have, so much wit thou lack’st.
APEMANTUS.That answer might have become Apemantus.
VARRO’S SERVANT.Aside, aside, here comes Lord Timon.
EnterTimonandFlavius.
APEMANTUS.Come with me, fool, come.
FOOL.I do not always follow lover, elder brother, and woman; sometime the philosopher.
[ExeuntApemantusandFool.]
FLAVIUS.Pray you walk near. I’ll speak with you anon.
[ExeuntServants.]
TIMON.You make me marvel wherefore ere this timeHad you not fully laid my state before me,That I might so have rated my expenseAs I had leave of means.
FLAVIUS.You would not hear me,At many leisures I proposed.
TIMON.Go to.Perchance some single vantages you tookWhen my indisposition put you back,And that unaptness made your ministerThus to excuse yourself.
FLAVIUS.O my good lord,At many times I brought in my accounts,Laid them before you; you would throw them offAnd say you found them in mine honesty.When for some trifling present you have bid meReturn so much, I have shook my head and wept,Yea, ’gainst th’ authority of manners, prayed youTo hold your hand more close. I did endureNot seldom nor no slight checks, when I havePrompted you in the ebb of your estateAnd your great flow of debts. My loved lord,Though you hear now, too late, yet now’s a time.The greatest of your having lacks a halfTo pay your present debts.
TIMON.Let all my land be sold.
FLAVIUS.’Tis all engaged, some forfeited and gone,And what remains will hardly stop the mouthOf present dues; the future comes apace.What shall defend the interim? And at lengthHow goes our reckoning?
TIMON.To Lacedaemon did my land extend.
FLAVIUS.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!
TIMON.You tell me true.
FLAVIUS.If you suspect my husbandry or falsehood,Call me before th’ exactest auditorsAnd set me on the proof. So the gods bless me,When all our offices have been oppressedWith riotous feeders, when our vaults have weptWith drunken spilth of wine, when every roomHath blazed with lights and brayed with minstrelsy,I have retired me to a wasteful cockAnd set mine eyes at flow.
TIMON.Prithee, no more.
FLAVIUS.Heavens, have I said, the bounty of this lord!How many prodigal bits have slaves and peasantsThis 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.
TIMON.Come, sermon me no further.No villainous bounty yet hath passed my heart;Unwisely, not ignobly, have I given.Why dost thou weep? Canst thou the conscience lackTo think I shall lack friends? Secure thy heart.If I would broach the vessels of my loveAnd try the argument of hearts by borrowing,Men and men’s fortunes could I frankly useAs I can bid thee speak.
FLAVIUS.Assurance bless your thoughts!
TIMON.And in some sort these wants of mine are crowned,That I account them blessings. For by theseShall I try friends. You shall perceive how youMistake my fortunes. I am wealthy in my friends.Within there! Flaminius! Servilius!
EnterFlaminius, Serviliusand a thirdServant.
SERVANTS.My lord, my lord.
TIMON.I will dispatch you severally. [To Servilius.] You to Lord Lucius; [To Flaminius.] to Lord Lucullus you, I hunted with his honour today; [To the third Servant.] you to Sempronius. Commend me to their loves; and I am proud, say, that my occasions have found time to use ’em toward a supply of money. Let the request be fifty talents.
FLAMINIUS.As you have said, my lord.
[ExeuntServants.]
FLAVIUS.[Aside.] Lord Lucius and Lucullus? Humh!
TIMON.Go you, sir, to the senators,Of whom, even to the state’s best health, I haveDeserved this hearing, Bid ’em send o’ th’ instantA thousand talents to me.
FLAVIUS.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 hereNo richer in return.
TIMON.Is’t true? Can’t be?
FLAVIUS.They answer in a joint and corporate voiceThat now they are at fall, want treasure, cannotDo what they would, are sorry. You are honourable,But yet they could have wished—they know not—Something hath been amiss—a noble natureMay catch a wrench—would all were well—’tis pity.And so, intending other serious matters,After distasteful looks and these hard fractions,With certain half-caps and cold-moving nodsThey froze me into silence.
TIMON.You gods, reward them!Prithee, man, look cheerly. These old fellowsHave 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. Prithee, be not sad,Thou art true and honest, ingenuously I speak,No blame belongs to thee. Ventidius latelyBuried his father, by whose death he’s steppedInto 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 necessityTouches his friend, which craves to be rememberedWith those five talents. That had, give’t these fellowsTo whom ’tis instant due. Ne’er speak, or thinkThat Timon’s fortunes ’mong his friends can sink.
[Exit.]
FLAVIUS.I would I could not think it.That thought is bounty’s foe;Being free itself, it thinks all others so.
[Exit.]