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Phryn.

Timan. "Give us some gold, good Timon: hast thou more? Timon of Athens. Act 4, Scene 3.

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Phr. and Timan. Give us some gold, good Timon: hast thou more?

Tim. Enough to make a whore forswear her trade, And to make whores, a bawd. Hold up, you

sluts,

Your aprons mountant; you are not oathable;
Although, I know, you'll swear, terribly swear,
Into strong shudders and to heavenly agues,
The immortal gods that hear you; spare your
oaths,

141

I'll trust to your conditions: be whores still;
And he whose pious breath seeks to convert you,
Be strong in whore, allure him, burn him
Let your close fire predominate his smoke,
And be no turncoats: yet may your pains, six

months,

up;

Be quite contrary: and thatch your poor thin roofs

With burdens of the dead;-some that were

hang'd,

133-134. That is, "enough to make whores leave whoring, and a bawd leave making whores.”—H. N. H.

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143-144. "yet may contrary"; the meaning of this passage appears to be as Steevens explains it: "Timon had been exhorting them to follow constantly their trade of debauchery, but he interrupts himself and imprecates upon them that for half the year their pains may be quite contrary, that they may suffer such punishment as is usually inflicted upon harlots. He then continues his exhortations.-H. N. H.

144. "thatch your poor thin roofs"; the fashion of periwigs for women, which Stowe informs us "were brought into England about the time of the massacre of Paris," seems to have been a fertile source of satire. Stubbes, in his Anatomy of Abuses, says that it was dangerous for any child to wander, as nothing was more common than for women to entice such as had fine locks into private places, and there to cut them off. In A Mad World my Masters,

No matter:-wear them, betray with them:
whore still;

Paint till a horse may mire upon your face:
A pox of wrinkles!

Phr, and Timan. Well, more gold: what then?
Believe't that we 'll do any thing for gold. 150
Tim. Consumptions sow

In hollow bones of man; strike their sharp shins,
And mar men's spurring. Crack the lawyer's
voice,

That he may never more false title plead,
Nor sound his quillets shrilly: hoar the flamen,
That scolds against the quality of flesh
And not believes himself: down with the nose,
Down with it flat; take the bridge quite away
Of him that, his particular to foresee,
Smells from the general weal: make curl'd-pate
ruffians bald;

And let the unscarr'd braggarts of the war
Derive some pain from you: plague all;
That your activity may defeat and quell

160

The source of all erection. There's more gold:

1608, the custom is decried as unnatural: "To wear periwigs made of another's hair, is not this against kind?" So Drayton, in his Mooncalf:

"And with large sums they stick not to procure
Hair from the dead, yea, and the most unclean;
To help their pride they nothing will disdain.”

We have already met with several instances showing the Poet's mind towards this custom.-H. N. H.

153. "spurring"; Hanmer, "sparring"; Long MS., “spurning”; Seymour conj. "springing"; there is no need to emend the text.-I. G. 159. To "foresee his particular" is to provide for his private advantage, for which he leaves the right scent of public good.H. N. H.

Do you damn others, and let this damn you,
And ditches grave you all!

Phr. and Timan. More counsel with more money, bounteous Timon.

Tim. More whore, more mischief first; I have given you earnest.

Alcib. Strike up the drum towards Athens! Farewell, Timon:

If I thrive well, I'll visit thee again.

Tim. If I hope well, I 'll never see thee more.

Alcib. I never did thee harm.

Tim. Yes, thou spokest well of me.

Alcib.

Tim. Men daily find it.
Thy beagles with thee.

Alcib.

170

Call'st thou that harm?

Get thee

away, and take

We but offend him. Strike! [Drum beats. Exeunt Alcibiades,

Phrynia, and Timandra.

Tim. That nature, being sick of man's unkindness, Should yet be hungry! Common mother, thou, [Digging.

Whose womb unmeasurable and infinite breast
Teems, and feeds all; whose self-same mettle,
Whereof thy proud child, arrogant man, is
puff'd,

Engenders the black toad and adder blue,

180

177. "Common mother"; this image, (as Warburton ingeniously supposes) would almost make one imagine that Shakespeare was acquainted with some personifications of nature similar to the ancient statues of Diana Ephesia Multimammia.-H. N. H.

179. "mettle"; material.-C. H. H.

181-183. "adder blue," etc.; the adder, the only poisonous English snake, is earth-colored; by blue is probably meant "livid." The

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