Tim. THAT

ness,

V.

CHAT nature being fick of man's unkind

Should yet be hungry! Common mother, thou Whose womb unmeasurable, and infinite breast Teems, and feeds all; oh thou! whose self-fame

mettle

Dit (Whereof thy proud child, arrogant man, is puft)
Engenders the black toad, and adder blue,
The gilded newt, and eyeless venom'd worm;
With all th' abhorred births below cript heav'n,
Whereon Hyperion's quickning fire doth shine;
Yield him, who all thy human fons does hate,
From forth thy plenteous bosom, one poor root!
Enfear thy fertile and conceptious womb;
* Let it no more bring out to ingrateful man.
Go great with tygers, dragons, wolves and bears,
Teem with new monsters, whom thy upward-face
Hath to the marbled mansion all above.

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Never presented-O, a root-dear thanks! Dry up thy harrow'd veins, and plough-torn leas, Whereof ingrateful man with liqu'rish draughts And morsels unctious, greases his pure mind, That from it all confideration flips.

SCENE VI.

Enter Apemantus.

More man? plague! plague!

Apem. I was directed hither. Men report,

Thou doft affect my manners, and doft use them.

* Let it no more bring out ingrateful Man.] This is an absurd Reading. Shakespear Wrote,

bring out to ingrateful Man,

i. e. Fruits for his Suftinence and Support; but let it rather teem

with Monsters to his Destruction.

VOL. VII.

I

Tim.

Tim. 'Tis then, because thou dost not keep a dog Whom I would imitate; consumption catch thee! Apem. This is in thee a nature but affected,

A poor unmanly melancholy, sprung
From change of fortune. Why this spade? this

place ?

This flave-like habit, and these looks of care?
Thy flatt'rers yet wear filk, drink wine, lie soft;
Hug their difeas'd perfumes, and have forgot
That ever Timon was. Shame not these weeds,
By putting on the cunning of a carper.
Be thou a flatt'rer now, and seek to thrive
By that which has undone thee, hinge thy knee,
And let his very breath, whom thou'lt observe,
Blow off thy cap; praise his most vicious strain,
And call it excellent. Thou wast told thus:
Thou gav'st thine ears, like tapsters, that bid welcome
To knaves, and all approachers: 'Tis most just
That thou turn rascal: hadst thou wealth again,
Rafcals should have't. Do not affume my likeness.
Tim. Were I like thee, I'd throw away myself.
Apem. Thou'st cast away thyfelf, being like thy-
felf,

So long a mad-man, now a fool. What, think'st thou,
That the bleak air, thy boisterous chamberlain,
Will put thy shirt on warm? will these moss'd trees,
That have out liv'd the eagle, page thy heels,
And skip when thou point'st out? will the cold

brook,

Candied with ice, cawdle thy morning tafte
To cure thy o'er-night's surfeit? Call the creatures,
Whose naked natures live in all the spight
Of wreakful heav'n, whose bare unhoused trunks,
To the conflicting elements expos'd,
Anfwer mere nature; bid them flatter thee;
Oh! thou shalt find

Tim. A fool of thee; depart.
Apem. I love thee better now, than e'er I did.

Tim. I hate thee worse.

Apem. Why?

Tim. Thou flatt'rest misery.

Apem. I flatter not; but say, thou art a caitiff.

Tim. Why doft thou feek me out?

Apem. To vex three.

Tim. Always a villain's office, or a fool's.

Doft please thyself in't?

Apem. If thou didst put this four cold habit on To caftigate thy pride, 'twere well; but thou Doft it enforcedly: thou'dst Courtier be, Wert thou not beggar. Willing mifery Outlives incertain pomp; is crown'd before : The one is filling still, never complete; The other, at high with: Best states, contentless, Have a distracted and most wretched being; Worse than the worst, content.

Thou shouldst defire to die, being miferable.

Tim. Not by his breath, that is more miferable. Thou art a flave, whom fortune's tender arm With favour never claspt; but bred a dog. Hadst thou, like us, from our first swath proceeded Through sweet degrees that this brief world affords, To such as may the paffive drugs of it

Freely command; thou wouldst have plung'd thy

felf

In general riot, melted down thy youth

In different beds of luft, and never learn'd
The icy precepts of respect, but followed
The fugar'd game before thee. But myself,
Who had the world as my confectionary,

The mouths, the tongues, the eyes, the hearts of

men

At duty, more than I could frame employments; That numberless upon me stuck, as leaves

Do on the oak; have with one winter's brush

Fall'n from their boughs, and left me open, bare For every storm that blows. I to bear this, That never knew but better, is some burden. Thy nature did commence in suff'rance, time Hath made thee hard in't.

Why shouldst thou hate

men?
They never flatter'd thee.
If thou wilt curse, thy father, that poor rag,
Must be thy subject; who in spight put stuff
To fome she-beggar, and compounded thee
Poor rogue hereditary. Hence! be gone
If thou hadst not been born the worst of men,
Thou hadst been knave and flatterer.

What haft thou given?

Apem. Art thou proud yet?
Tim. Ay, that I am not thee.
Apem. I, that I was no prodigal.
Tim. I, that I am one now.

Were all the wealth I have, shut up in thee,
I'd give thee leave to hang it. Get thee gone-
That the whole life of Athens were in this!
Thus would I eat it.

[Eating a root.

Apem. Here, I will mend thy feaft.
Tim. First mend my company, take away thyself.
Apem. So I shall mend my own, by th' lack of

thine.

Tim. 'Tis not well mended so, it is but botcht; If not, I would it were.

Apem. What would'st thou have to Athens?

Tim. Thee thither in a whirlwind; if thou wilt,

Tell them there, I have gold; look, so I have.
Apem. Here is no use for gold.

Tim. The best and trueft:

For here it fleeps, and does no hired harm.
Apem. Where ly'st o'nights, Timon?
Tim. Under that's above me.

Where feed'st thou o'days, Apemantus ?

1

Apem. Where my stomach finds meat; or rather,

art

Tim. 'Would poison were obedient, and knew my mind!

Apem. Where would'st thou send it?

Tim. To fauce thy dishes.

Apem. The middle of humanity thou never kneweft, but the extremity of both ends. When thou wast in in thy gilt, and thy perfume, they mockt thee for too much curiosity; in thy rags thou knowest none, but art despis'd for the contrary. There's a medlar for thee, eat it.

k

e

Tim. On what I hate I feed not.

Apem. Doft hate a medlar?

Tim. Ay, though it look like thee.

Apem. An th' hadst hated medlers sooner, thou

What man

should'st have loved thyself better now.
didst thou ever know unthrift, that was beloved after
his means?

Tim. Who, without those means thou talk'st of, didft thou ever know beloved?

Apem. Myfelf.

Tim. I understand thee, thou hadst some means to keep a dog.

Apem. What things in the world canst thou nearest compare to thy flatterers?

Tim. Women nearest; but men, men, are the things themselves. What wouldst thou do with the world, Apemantus, if it lay in thy power?

Apem. Give it the beasts, to be rid of the men. Tim. Wouldst thou have thyself fall in the confufion of men, or remain a beast with the beasts?

Apem. Ay, Timon.

Tim. A beastly ambition, which the Gods grant thee to attain to! If thou wert a lion, the fox would beguile thee; if thou wert a lamb, the fox would eat thee; if thou wert the fox, the lion would suspect thee, when, peradventure, thou wert accus'd by the afs; if thou wert the ass, thy dulness would torment thee; and still thou liv'dst but as a break

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