Whom, though in general part we were opposed,

Yet our old love made a particular force,

And made us speak like friends: this man was riding

From Alcibiades to Timon's cave,

With letters of entreaty, which imported

His fellowship i' the cause against your city,
In part for his sake moved.

First Sen.

Here come our brothers.

Enter Senators from Timon.

10

Third Sen. No talk of Timon, nothing of him expect.

The enemies' drum is heard, and fearful scour-
ing

Doth choke the air with dust: in, and prepare:
Ours is the fall, I fear, our foes the snare.

[Exeunt.

SCENE III

The woods. Timon's cave, and a rude tomb seen. Enter a Soldier, seeking Timon.

Sold. By all description this should be the place.

7. "whom," instead of "who," owing to confusion of constructions; Pope, "Who"; Hanmer, "And"; Singer, "When," etc.-I. G. 8. “made a particular force"; Hanmer reads "had Staunton conj. "took

force with," etc.-I. G.

truce"; Bailey conj. "had

force";

"made"; this is perhaps an error due to the "made" in the next line. But it yields a fair sense: our old love formed a special influence which neutralized our political antagonism.-C. H. H.

Who's here? speak, ho! No answer! What

is this?

Timon is dead, who hath outstretch'd his span:
Some beast read this; there does not live a man.
Dead, sure; and this his grave. What's on this
tomb

I 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.

10

[Exit.

SCENE IV

Before the walls of Athens.

Trumpets sound. Enter Alcibiades with his powers.

Alcib. Sound to this coward and lascivious town Our terrible approach.

[A parley sounded.

Enter Senators upon the walls.

Till now you have gone on and fill'd the time
With all licentious measure, making your wills
The scope of justice; till now myself and such

34. These words are in all porbability the reflection of the soldier; this view is certainly more acceptable than to believe them to be a inscription placed by Timon somewhere near the tomb. Nor is it necessary, with Warburton, to change "read" into "rear'd." The soldier, seeing the tomb, infers that Timon is dead, but he cannot read the inscription; "some beast read this! there does not live a man able to do so" (v. Preface).-I. G.

7. "figure"; handwriting.-C. H. H.

As slept within the shadow of your power Have wander'd with our traversed arms and breathed

Our sufferance vainly; now the time is flush,
When crouching marrow in the bearer strong
Cries of itself 'No more:' now breathless wrong
Shall sit and pant in your great chairs of ease, 11
And pursy insolence shall break his wind
With fear and horrid flight.

First Sen.

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 loves
Above their quantity.

Sec. Sen.

So did we woo

Transformed Timon to our city's love

By humble message and by promised means: 20 We were not all unkind, nor all deserve

The common stroke of war.

First Sen.

These walls of ours

Were not erected by their hands from whom You have received your griefs: nor are they such That these great towers, trophies and schools should fall

For private faults in them.

Sec. Sen.

Nor are they living Who were the motives that you first went out; Shame, that they wanted cunning, in excess

18. "their"; refers to griefs.-H. N. H.

28. “Shame, that they wanted cunning, in excess"; Theobald's emendation ("extreme shame for their folly in banishing you

Hath 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 food

30

Which nature loathes-take thou the destined tenth,

And by the hazard of the spotted die

Let die the spotted.

First Sen.

All have not offended;
For those that were, it is not square to take,
On those that are, revenges: crimes, like lands,
Are not inherited. Then, dear countryman,
Bring in thy ranks, but leave without thy rage:
Spare thy Athenian cradle and those kin
Which, in the bluster of thy wrath, must fall
With those that have offended: like a shepherd
Approach the fold and cull the infected forth,
But kill not all together.

Sec. Sen.

What thou wilt,

Thou rather shalt enforce it with thy smile

Than hew to 't with thy sword.

First Sen.

40

Set but thy foot
Against our rampired gates, and they shall ope;
So thou wilt send thy gentle heart before,
To say thou 'lt enter friendly.

Sec. Sen.

Throw thy glove,

Or any token of thine honor else,

That thou wilt use the wars as thy redress

50

hath broke their hearts"); F. 1 reads "(Shame that they wanted, cunning in excesse)”; Ff. 2, 3, 4, “Shame (that they wanted cunning in excesse)"; Johnson conj. "Shame that they wanted, coming in excess."-I. G.

"cunning" is used in its old sense of skill or wisdom.-H. N. H.

And not as our confusion, all thy powers
Shall make their harbor in our town, till we
Have seal'd thy full desire.

Alcib.

Then there's my glove; Descend, and open your uncharged ports: Those enemies of Timon's, and mine own, Whom you yourselves shall set out for reproof, Fall, and no more: and, to atone your fears With my more noble meaning, not a man Shall his quarter, or offend the stream pass Of regular justice in your city's bounds, But shall be render'd to your public laws At heaviest answer.

Both.

"Tis most nobly spoken.

Alcib. Descend, and keep your words.

60

[The Senators descend, and open the gates.

Enter Soldier.

Sold. My noble general, Timon is dead;
Entomb'd upon the very hem o' the sea;

And on his grave-stone this insculpture, which
With wax I brought away, whose soft impres-
sion

Interprets for my poor ignorance.

Alcib. [Reads]

'Here lies a wretched corse, of wretched soul bereft:

70

62. "render'd to your"; the conj. of Chedworth, adopted by Dyce; F. 1 reads "remedied to your"; Ff. 2, 3, 4, "remedied by your"; Pope, "remedied by"; Johnson, "remedied to"; Malone, "remedy'd, to your"; Singer (ed. 2), "remitted to your."-I. G.

70-73. What is here given as one epitaph is really a combination of two, as may be seen by the passage from North's Plutarch quoted in our Introduction. The reader will of course observe the