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Serv. My lord, there are certain nobles of the senate newly alighted and come to visit you. Tim. They are fairly welcome.

Flav. I beseech your honor, vouchsafe me a word; it does concern you near.

Tim. Near! why, then, another time I 'll hear thee: I prithee, let's be provided to show them entertainment.

Flav. [Aside] I scarce know how.

Enter another Servant.

191

Sec. Serv. May it please your honor, Lord Lucius
Out of his free love hath presented to you
Four milk-white horses, trapp'd in silver.
Tim. I shall accept them fairly: let the presents
Be worthily entertain❜d.

Enter a third Servant.

How now! what news? Third Serv. Please you, my lord, that honorable gentleman, Lord Lucullus, entreats your company to-morrow to hunt with him, and 200 has sent your honor two brace of greyhounds.

Tim. I'll hunt with him; and let them be received, Not without fair reward.

Flav.

[Aside] What will this come to? He commands us to provide and give great gifts, and all out of an empty coffer: Nor will he know his purse, or yield me this, To show him what a beggar his heart is, Being of no power to make his wishes good:

His promises fly so beyond his state

210

That what he speaks is all in debt, he owes
For every word: he is so kind that he now
Pays interest for 't; his land's put to their
books.

Well, would I were gently put out of office,
Before I were forced out!

Happier is he that has no friend to feed

Than such that do e'en enemies exceed.
I bleed inwardly for my lord.

Tim.

[Exit.

You do yourselves

Much wrong, you bate too much of your own merits.

Here, my lord, a trifle of our love.
Sec. Lord. With more than common thanks I
will receive it.

Third Lord. O, he's the very soul of bounty!
Tim. And now I remember, my lord, you gave

good words the other day of a bay courser I rode on. 'Tis yours, because you liked it. Third Lord. O, I beseech you, pardon me, my lord, in that.

220

Tim. You may take my word, my lord; I know, no man can justly praise, but what he does 230 affect: I weigh my friend's affection with mine own: I'll tell you true. I'll call to

you.

All Lords. O, none so welcome.

Tim. I take all and your several visitations
So kind to heart, 'tis not enough to give:
Methinks, I could deal kingdoms to my friends,
And ne'er be weary. Alcibiades,

Thou art a soldier, therefore seldom rich;

It comes in charity to thee: for all thy living
Is 'mongst the dead, and all the lands thou hast
Lie in a pitch'd field.

Alcib. Aye, defiled land, my lord.

First Lord. We are so virtuously bound

Tim.

Am I to you.

Sec. Lord. So infinitely endear'd

Tim. All to you. Lights, more lights!

First Lord. The best of happiness,

And so

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Honor and fortunes, keep with you, Lord
Timon!

Tim. Ready for his friends.

'Apem.

[Exeunt all but Apemantus and Timon.
What a coil's here! 250

Serving of becks and jutting-out of bums!
I doubt whether their legs be worth the sums
That are given for 'em. Friendship's full of
dregs:

Methinks, false hearts should never have sound
legs.

Thus honest fools lay out their wealth on cour

t'sies.

Tim. Now, Apemantus, if thou wert not sullen, I would be good to thee.

Apem. No, I'll nothing: for if I should be bribed too, there would be none left to rail upon thee; and then thou wouldst sin the 260 faster. Thou givest so long, Timon, I fear me thou wilt give away thyself in paper

shortly: what needs these feasts, pomps and
vain-glories?

Tim. Nay, an you begin to rail on society once,
I am sworn not to give regard to you. Fare-
well; and come with better music. [Exit.
Apem. So: thou wilt not hear me now; thou
shalt not then: I'll lock thy heaven from
thee.

O, that men's ears should be

To counsel deaf, but not to flattery!

270

[Exit.

ACT SECOND

SCENE I

A Senator's house.

Enter a Senator, with papers in his hand.

Sen. And late five thousand: to Varro and to

Isidore

He owes nine thousand; besides my former sum,
Which makes it five and twenty. Still in
motion

Of raging waste? It cannot hold; it will not.
If I want gold, steal but a beggar's dog
And give it Timon, why, the dog coins gold:
If I would sell my horse and buy twenty moe
Better 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,

10

9. “it foals me straight"; we have the same thought, differently expressed, before: "No gift to him but breeds the giver a return exceeding all use of quittance."—H. N. H.

10. "And able horses"; so Ff. 1, 2; Ff. 3, 4, "An able horse"; Theobald, "ten able horse"; Jackson conj. "Aye, able horses"; Collier MS., "a stable o' horses"; Singer conj. "Two able horses."-I. G.

"no porter," etc.; sternness was the characteristic of a porter. There appeared at Kenilworth Castle, 1575, “"a porter tall of parson, big of lim, and stearn of countinauns." And in Dekker's play of A Knight's Conjuring: "You mistake, if you imagine that Plutoe's porter is like one of those big fellows that stand like gyants at lordes gates. Yet hee's surly as those key-turners are."-H. N. H. XXXIII-3 33

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