zeals, we should think ourselves for ever per-
fect.

Tim. O, no doubt, my good friends, but the

90

gods themselves have provided that I shall
have much help from you: how had you been
my friends else? why have you that charit-
able title from thousands, did not you chiefly
belong to my heart? I have told more of
you to myself than you can with modesty
speak in your own behalf; and thus far I
confirm you. O you gods, think I, what 100
need we have any friends, if we should
ne'er have need of 'em? they were the most
needless creatures living, should we ne'er
have use for 'em, and would most resemble
sweet instruments hung up in cases, that
keep their sounds to themselves. Why, I
have often wished myself poorer, that I
might come nearer to you. We are born to
do benefits: and what better or properer
can we call our own than the riches of our 110
friends? O, what a precious comfort 'tis,
to have so many, like brothers, commanding
one another's fortunes! O joy, e'en made
away ere 't can be born! Mine eyes can-
not hold out water, methinks: to forget their
faults, I drink to you.

Apem. Thou weep'st to make them drink,
Timon.

113. "O joy," etc.; of course he refers to the tears which, at the moment of his speaking, fill his eyes, and so choke the joy that was just coming to the birth.-H. N. H.

Sec. Lord. Joy had the like conception in our eyes,

And at that instant like a babe sprung up. 120 Apem. Ho, ho! I laugh to think that babe a bastard. Third Lord. I promise you, my lord, you moved me much.

Apem. Much!

Tim. What means that trump?

Enter a Servant.

[Tucket, within.

How now!

Serv. Please you, my lord, there are certain

ladies most desirous of admittance.

Tim. Ladies! what are their wills?

Serv. There comes with them a forerunner, my lord, which bears that office, to signify their pleasures.

Tim. I pray, let them be admitted.

Enter Cupid.

Cup. Hail to thee, worthy Timon! and to all
That of his bounties taste!

130

The five best senses

Acknowledge thee their patron, and come freely
To gratulate thy plenteous bosom: th' ear,
Taste, touch, and smell, pleased from thy table
rise;

123. "Much!"; was sometimes used ironically, or as an exclamation of scorn.-H. N. H.

132-137. The arrangement of these lines was first suggested by Rann, and followed by Steevens in his edition of 1793.-I. G. 135-136. "th' ear rise"; the original reads, "There tast, touch all, pleas'd from thy Table rise." The correction, perhaps we should say restoration, of the text is Warburton's. The changing of there into the ear and of all into smell is necessary in order to make out the "five senses"; four of which are to be gratified at Timon's table, and the other, sight, by the forthcoming mask.-H. N. H.

They only now come but to feast thine eyes. Tim. They're welcome all; let 'em have kind ad

mittance:

Music, make their welcome!

[Exit Cupid. First Lord. You see, my lord, how ample you're

beloved.

140

Music. Re-enter Cupid, with a mask of Ladies as Amazons, with lutes in their hands, dancing and playing.

Apem. Hoy-day, what a sweep of vanity comes this way!

They dance! they are mad women.

Like madness is the glory of this life,

As this pomp shows to a little oil and root.

139. "Music, make their welcome"; Pope reads "Let musick make their welcome"; Capell, "Musick, make known their welcome.”—I. G. 140. "a mask of Ladies"; the Masques, or entertainments in disguise, by members of the Court, were in full vogue at this time. First brought into England from Italy, in Henry VIII's reign, they had received a sudden accession of outward splendor and intrinsic worth in the hands of Ben Jonson, to whose verse Inigo Jones, Alfonso Ferrabosco,. John Dowland, and Thomas Gills furnished machinery, music, and dances. Shakespeare has introduced them twice elsewhere, in Hen. VIII and The Tempest, both within a few years of the date of Timon.-C. H. H.

142. Shakespeare probably borrowed this idea from the puritanical writers of his time. Thus Stubbes, in his Anatomie of Abuses, 1583: "Dauncers thought to be madmen." "And as in all feasts and pastimes dauncing is the last, so it is the extream of all other vice." And again: "There were (saith Ludovicus Vives) from far countries certain men brought into our parts of the world, who, when they saw men daunce, ran away marvellously affraid, crying out and thinking them mad."-H. N. H.

143-144. "The glory of this life" is just such madness, in the eye of reason, as this pomp appears when opposed to the frugal repast of a philosopher feeding on oil and roots.-H. N. H.

We make ourselves fools, to disport ourselves,
And spend our flatteries, to drink those men
Upon whose age we void it up again
With poisonous spite and envy.

Who lives, that's not depraved or depraves?
Who dies, that bears not one spurn to their

graves

Of their friends' gift?

150

I should fear those that dance before me now
Would one day stamp upon me: 't has been

done;

Men shut their doors against a setting sun.

The Lords rise from table, with much adoring of Timon; and to show their loves, each singles out an Amazon, and all dance, men with women, a lofty strain or two to the hautboys, and cease.

Tim. You have done our pleasures much

ladies,

grace,

Set a fair fashion on our entertainment,
Which was not half so beautiful and kind;
You have added worth unto 't and luster,
And entertain'd me with mine own device:
I am to thank you for 't.

fair

160

First Lady. My lord, you take us even at the best. Apem. Faith, for the worst is filthy, and would

not hold taking, I doubt me.

Tim. Ladies, there is an idle banquet attends you: Please you to dispose yourselves.

158. So in the original. Modern editions commonly insert lively before luster, from the second folio.-H. N. H.

All Lad. Most thankfully, my lord.

Tim. Flavius!
Flav. My lord?

[Exeunt Cupid and Ladies.

Tim.
The little casket bring me hither.
Flav. Yes, my lord. [Aside] More jewels yet!
There is no crossing him in 's humor; 170
Else I should tell him—well, i̇' faith, I should-
When all's spent, he 'ld be cross'd then, an he
could.

'Tis pity bounty had not eyes behind,

That man might ne'er be wretched for his

mind.

First Lord. Where be our men?

Serv. Here, my lord, in readiness.

Sec. Lord. Our horses!

Re-enter Flavius, with the casket.

Tim. O my friends,

[Exit.

I have one word to say to you: look you, my good lord,

I must entreat you, honor me so much

180

As to advance this jewel; accept it and wear it,
Kind my lord.

First Lord. I am so far already in your gifts,-
All. So are we all.

Enter a Servant.

172. An equivoque is probably intended here between having money and being crossed or thwarted; certain coin being in the Poet's time stamped with a cross on one side.-H. N. H.

173. That is, so as to be able to see or foresee the evils and miseries that follow.-H. N. H.