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th' other day, and now he has beat it out of my hat. Did you see my jewel? Third. Lord. Did you see my cap? Sec. Lord. Here 'tis.

Fourth Lord. Here lies my gown.

130

First Lord. Let's make no stay.
Sec. Lord. Lord Timon's mad.
Third Lord.
I feel 't upon my bones.
Fourth Lord. One day he gives us diamonds, next
day stones.

[Exeunt.

132. As Timon has in fact thrown nothing at his guests but warm water and dishes, it is not altogether clear why "stones" should be thus mentioned in this place. The missiles used may, it is true, have had much the same effect as stones, and thus led the speaker to mistake them for that article. On the other hand, the common use of stones in such a way may have caused other missiles to be designated by that term. Or the need of something to rhyme with bones may have suggested the word. But the most probable explanation is found in an old play on the subject of Timon lately published from the manuscript by Mr. Dyce, who thinks it to have been "intended for the amusement of an academic audience." In this play, also, Timon invites his false friends to a feast; but, instead of warm water, sets before them stones painted to look like artichokes, which he afterwards throws at them, and drives them out. The date of this play is not fully ascertained, but the play is supposed to have been written before Shakespeare's.

ACT FOURTH

SCENE I

Without the walls of Athens.

Enter Timon.

Tim. Let me look back upon thee. O thou wall,
That girdlest in those wolves, dive in the earth,
And fence not Athens! Matrons, turn incon-
tinent!

Obedience fail in children! Slaves and fools,
Pluck the grave wrinkled senate from the bench,
And minister in their steads! To general filths
Convert o' the instant, green virginity!

Do't in your parents' eyes! Bankrupt, hold
fast;

Rather than render back, out with your knives, 1-3. We concur with Knight and Verplanck in pointing this passage as it is in the original. All other modern editions, so far as we know, set a period after wolves, thus:

"Let me look back upon thee, O thou wall,

That girdlest in those wolves. Dive in the earth,” etc.

As we now give it, Timon first addresses the city generally, and then goes on to the particulars of his imprecation. As Knight remarks, "there is much greater force and propriety in the arrangement which we adopt."-H. N. H.

6. "general filths" means common strumpets: filthiness and obscenity were synonymous with our ancestors.-H. N. H.

10

And cut your trusters' throats! Bound serv-
ants, steal!
Large-handed robbers your grave masters are
And pill by law. Maid, to thy master's bed!
Thy mistress is o' the brothel. Son of sixteen,
Pluck the lined crutch from thy old limping
sire,

With it beat out his brains! Piety and fear,
Religion to the gods, peace, justice, truth,
Domestic awe, night-rest and neighborhood,
Instruction, manners, mysteries and trades,
Degrees, observances, customs and laws,
Decline to your confounding contraries,
And let confusion live! Plagues incident to

men,

Your potent and infectious fevers heap

20

On Athens, ripe for stroke! Thou cold sciatica,

Cripple our senators, that their limbs may halt
As lamely as their manners! Lust and liberty
Creep in the minds and marrows of our youth,
That 'gainst the stream of virtue they may
strive,

And drown themselves in riot! Itches, blains,
Sow all the Athenian bosoms, and their crop
Be general leprosy! Breath infect breath, 30
That their society, as their friendship, may
Be merely poison! Nothing I'll bear from thee
But nakedness, thou detestable town!
Take thou that too, with multiplying bans!
Timon will to the woods, where he shall find

21. "let"; Hanmer's emendation of Ff., "yet.”—I. G.

The unkindest beast more kinder than mankind.

The gods confound-hear me, you good gods
all!-

The Athenians both within and out that wall!
And grant, as Timon grows, his hate may grow
To the whole race of mankind, high and low! 40
Amen.
[Exit.

SCENE II

Athens. Timon's house.

Enter Flavius, with two or three Servants.

First Serv. Hear you, master steward, where 's our master?

Are we undone? cast off? nothing remaining? Flav. Alack, my fellows, what should I say to you? Let me be recorded by the righteous gods,

I am as poor as you.

First Serv.

Such a house broke!

All gone! and not

So noble a master fall'n!

One friend to take his fortune by the arm,

And go along with him! Sec. Serv.

As we do turn our backs

From our companion thrown into his grave,
So his familiars to his buried fortunes

10

Slink all away; leave their false vows with him,
Like empty purses pick'd; and his poor self,
A dedicated beggar to the air,

With his disease of all-shunn'd poverty,

Walks, like contempt, alone. More of our fellows.

Enter other Servants.

Flav. All broken implements of a ruin'd house. Third Serv. Yet do our hearts wear Timon's liv

ery;

That see I by our faces; we are fellows still,
Serving alike in sorrow: leak'd is our bark,
And we, poor mates, stand on the dying deck,
Hearing the surges threat: we must all part 21
Into this sea of air.

Flav.

Good fellows all,
The latest of my wealth I 'll share amongst you.
Wherever we shall meet, for Timon's sake
Let's yet be fellows; let 's shake our heads, and

say,

As 'twere a knell unto our master's fortunes,
'We have seen better days.' Let each take

some.

Nay, put out all your hands. Not one word

more:

Thus part we rich in sorrow, parting poor.

29

[Servants embrace, and part several ways. O, the fierce wretchedness that glory brings us! Who would not wish to be from wealth exempt, Since riches point to misery and contempt? Who would be so mock'd with glory? or to live

33-36. Mr. Collier's second folio changes or into as in the first line, adds the words, and revive, after friendship in the second, leaves out what in the third, and changes compounds into comprehends; thus turning the four lines into two rhyming couplets. Besides the very great license exercised on the text, we can see no reason (rhyme

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