JEW.

My lord, 'tis rated

As those, which sell, would give: But you well

know,

Things of like value, differing in the owners,
Are prized by their masters: believe't, dear lord,
You mend the jewel by wearing it.2

TIM.

Well mock'd.

MER. No, my good lord; he speaks the common

tongue,

Which all men speak with him.

1

TIM. Look, who comes here. Will you be chid?

Enter APEMANTUS.3

JEW. We will bear, with your lordship.

MER.

He'll spare none.

TIM. Good morrow to thee, gentle Apemantus! APEM. Till I be gentle, stay for thy good mor

row;

"Therefore as you unwind her love from him,-—
"You must provide to bottom it on me."

See Vol. IV. p. 259, n. 8. STEEVENS.

Are prized by their masters:] Are rated according to the

esteem in which their possessor is held. JOHNSON.

2

-by wearing it.] Old copy-by the wearing it.

STEEVENS.

* Enter Apemantus.] See this character of a cynick finely drawn by Lucian, in his Auction of the Philosophers; and how well Shakspeare has copied it. WARBURTON.

stay for-] Old copy-stay thou for-. With Sir T. Hanmer I have omitted the useless thou, (which the compositor's eye might have caught from the following line,) because it disorders the metre. STEEVENS.

When thou art Timon's dog,5 and these knaves honest.

TIM. Why dost thou call them knaves? thou know'st them not.

APEM. Are they not Athenians?"

TIM. Yes.

APEM. Then I repent not.

JEW. You know me, Apemantus.

APEM. Thou knowest, I do; I call'd thee by thy name.

TIм. Thou art proud, Apemantus.

APEM. Of nothing so much, as that I am not like Timon.

When thou art Timon's dog,] When thou hast gotten a better character, and instead of being Timon as thou art, shalt be changed to Timon's dog, and become more worthy kindness and salutation. JOHNSON.

This is spoken dexTxs, as Mr. Upton says, somewhere:striking his hand on his breast.

"Wot you who named me first the kinge's dogge?" says Aristippus in Damon and Pythias. FARMER.

Apemantus, I think, means to say, that Timon is not to receive a gentle good morrow from him till that shall happen which never will happen; till Timon is transformed to the shape of his dog, and his knavish followers become honest men. Stay for thy good morrow, says he, till I be gentle, which will happen at the same time when thou art Timon's dog, &c. i. e. never.

MALONE.

Mr. Malone has justly explained the drift of Apemantus. Such another reply occurs in Troilus and Cressida, where Ulysses, desirous to avoid a kiss from Cressida, says to her; give me one"When Helen is a maid again," &c. STEEVENS.

"Are they not Athenians?] The very imperfect state in which the ancient copy of this play has reached us, leaves a doubt whether several short speeches in the present scene were designed for verse or prose. I have therefore made no attempt at regulation. STEEVENS.

L

TIM. Whither art going?

APEM. To knock out an honest Athenian's brains.

TIM. That's a deed thou❜lt die for.

APEM. Right, if doing nothing be death by the law.

TIM. How likest thou this picture, Apemantus? APEM. The best, for the innocence.

TIM. Wrought he not well, that painted it? APEM. He wrought better, that made the painter; and yet he's but a filthy piece of work.

PAIN. You are a dog."

APEM. Thy mother's of my generation: What's she, if I be a dog?

TIM. Wilt dine with me, Apemantus ?

APEM. No; I eat not lords.

TIM. An thou should'st, thou'dst anger ladies. APEM. O, they eat lords; so they come by great bellies.

TIM. That's a lascivious apprehension.

APEM. So thou apprehend'st it: Take it for thy labour.

TIM. How dost thou like this jewel, Apemantus? APEM. Not so well as plain-dealing, which will not cost a man a doit.

TIM. What dost thou think 'tis worth?

Pain. You are a dog.] This speech, which is given to the Painter in the old editions, in the modern ones must have been transferred to the Poet by mistake: it evidently belongs to the former. RITSON.

Not so well as plain-dealing,] Alluding to the proverb: "Plain dealing is a jewel, but they that use it die beggars." STEEVENS.

APEM. Not worth my thinking.-How now,

poet?

POET. How now, philosopher?

APEM. Thou liest.

POET. Art not one?

APEM. Yes.

POET. Then I lie not.

APEM. Art not a poet?

POET. Yes.

APEM. Then thou liest: look in thy last work, where thou hast feign'd him a worthy fellow. POET. That's not feign'd, he is so.

APEM. Yes, he is worthy of thee, and to pay thee for thy labour: He, that loves to be flattered, is worthy o'the flatterer. Heavens, that I were a lord!

TIM. What would'st do then, Apemantus?

APEM. Even as Apemantus does now, hate a lord with my heart.

TIM. What, thyself?
APEM. Ay.

TIM. Wherefore?

APEM. That I had no angry wit to be a lord."— Art not thou a merchant?

• That I had no angry wit to be a lord.] This reading is absurd, and unintelligible. But, as I have restored the text:

That I had so hungry a wit to be a lord,

it is satirical enough of conscience, viz. I would hate myself, for having no more wit than to covet so insignificant a title. In the same sense, Shakspeare uses lean-witted in his King Richard II: "And thou a lunatick, lean-witted fool."

WARBURTON. The meaning may be,-I should hate myself for patiently en

MER. Ay, Apemantus.

APEM. Traffick confound thee, if the gods will not!

MER. If traffick do it, the gods do it.

APEM. Traffick's thy god, and thy god confound thee!

during to be a lord. This is ill enough expressed. Perhaps some happy change may set it right. I have tried, and can do nothing, yet I cannot heartily concur with Dr. Warburton.

Mr. Heath reads:

That I had so wrong'd my wit to be a lord.

JOHNSON.

But the passage before us, is, in my opinion, irremediably corrupted. STEEVENS.

Perhaps the compositor has transposed the words, and they should be read thus:

Or,

Angry that I had no wit,-to be a lord.

Angry to be a lord,—that I had no wit. BLACKStone. Perhaps we should read:

That I had an angry wish to be a lord;

Meaning, that he would hate himself for having wished in his anger to become a lord.-For it is in anger that he says:

"Heavens, that I were a lord!" M. MASON.

I believe Shakspeare was thinking of the common expression -he has wit in his anger; and that the difficulty arises here, as in many other places, from the original editor's paying no attention to abrupt sentences. Our author, I suppose, wrote:

That I had no angry wit.—To be a lord!

Art thou, &c.

Apemantus is asked, why after having wished to be a lord, he should hate himself. He replies,-For this reason; that I had no wit [or discretion] in my anger, but was absurd enough to wish myself one of that set of men, whom I despise. He then exclaims with indignation-To be a lord!-Such is my conjecture, in which however I have not so much confidence as to depart from the mode in which this passage has been hitherto exhibited. MALONE.