Nor will he know his purse; or yield me this, Happier is he that has no friend to feed, I bleed inwardly for my lord. TIM. [Exit. You do yourselves Much wrong, you bate too much of your own me rits: Here, my lord, a trifle of our love. 2 LORD. With more than common thanks I will receive it. 3 LORD. O, he is the very soul of bounty! TIM. And now I remember me, my lord, you gave Good words the other day of a bay courser I rode on it is yours, because you lik'd it. 2 LORD. I beseech you," pardon me, my lord, in that. measure. remember me,] I have added-me, for the sake of the "I do remember me,-Henry the sixth 9 I beseech you,] Old copy, unmetrically- The player editors have been liberal of their tragick O's, to the frequent injury of our author's measure. For the same reason I have expelled this exclamation from the beginning of the next speech but one. VOL. XIX. STEEVENS. E TIM. You may take my word, my lord; I know, no man Can justly praise, but what he does affect: ALL LORDS. 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 ALCIB. Ay, defiled land, my lord. I'll tell you true.] Dr. Johnson reads,-I tell you &c. in which he has been heedlessly followed: for though the change does not affect the sense of the passage, it is quite unnecessary, as may be proved by numerous instances in our author's dialogue. Thus, in the first line of King Henry V: "My lord, I'll tell you, that self bill is urg'd—” Again, in King John: 2 "I'll tell thee, Hubert, half my power, this night-." STEEVENS. 'tis not enough to give; Methinks, I could deal kingdoms-] Thus the passage stood in all the editions before Sir T. Hanmer's, who restored-My thanks. JOHNSON. I have displaced the words inserted by Sir T. Hanmer. What I have already given, says Timon, is not sufficient on the occasion: Methinks I could deal kingdoms, i. e. could dispense them on every side with an ungrudging distribution, like that with which I could deal out cards. STEEVENS. 3 Ay, defiled land,] I,-is the old reading, which apparently depends on a very low quibble. Alcibiades is told, that his estate lies in a pitch'd field. Now pitch, as Falstaff says, doth defile. Alcibiades therefore replies, that his estate lies in defiled land. TIM. All to you.-Lights, more lights. 1 LORD. The best of happiness, Honour, and fortunes, keep with you, lord Timon! TIM. Ready for his friends.5 АРЕМ. [Exeunt ALCIBIADES, Lords, &c. What a coil's here! Serving of becks, and jutting out of bums! This, as it happened, was not understood, and all the editors published I defy land,. JOHNSON. I being always printed in the old copy for Ay, the editor of the second folio made the absurd alteration mentioned by Dr. Johnson. MALONE. All to you.] i. e. all good wishes, or all happiness to you. So, Macbeth: Ready for his friends.] I suppose, for the sake of enforcing the sense, as well as restoring the measure, we should read: Ready ever for his friends. STEEVENS. 6 Serving of becks,] Beck means a salutation made with the head. So, Milton: "Nods and becks, and wreathed smiles." To serve a beck, is to offer a salutation. JOHNSON. To serve a beck, means, I believe, to pay a courtly obedience to a nod. Thus, in The Death of Robert Earl of Huntington, 1601: "And with a low beck "Prevent a sharp check." Again, in The Play of the Four P's, 1569: "Then I to every soul again, "Did give a beck them to retain." In Ram-Alley, or Merry Tricks, 1611, I find the same word: "I had my winks, my becks, treads on the toe." 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 court'sies. TIM. Now, Apemantus, if thou wert not sullen, I'd be good to thee. APEM. No, I'll nothing: for, If I should be brib'd too, there would be none left To rail upon thee; and then thou would'st sin the faster. Thou giv'st so long, Timon, I fear me, thou Again, in Heywood's Rape of Lucrece, 1630: 66 wanton looks, "And privy becks, savouring incontinence." Again, in Lyly's Woman in the Moon, 1597: "And he that with a beck controuls the heavens." It happens then that the word beck has no less than four distinct significations. In Drayton's Polyolbion, it is enumerated among the appellations of small streams of water. In Shakspeare's Antony and Cleopatra, it has its common reading-a sign of invitation made by the hand. In Timon, it appears to denote a bow, and in Lyly's play, a nod of dignity or command; as well as in Marius and Sylla, 1594: "Yea Sylla with a beck could break thy neck." Again, in the interlude of Jacob and Esau, 1568: "For what, O Lord, is so possible to man's judgment See Surrey's Poems, p. 29: STEEVENS. "And with a becke full lowe he bowed at her feete." TYRWHITT. " I doubt whether their legs &c.] He plays upon the word leg, as it signifies a limb, and a bow or act of obeisance. See Vol. XI. p. 302, n. 5. MALONE. I fear me, thou JOHNSON. Wilt give away thyself in paper shortly:] i. e. be ruined by his securities entered into. WARBURTON. Dr. Farmer would read-in proper. So, in William Roy's Satire against Wolsey: What need these feasts, pomps, and vain glories? TIM. An you begin to rail on society once, APEM. Nay, [Exit. So; Thou'lt not hear me now,-thou shalt not then, I'll lock9 Thy heaven' from thee. O, that men's ears should "Is to have nothynge in proper, [Exit. "But to use all thynges in commune" &c. STEEvens. Thou'lt not hear me now,-thou shalt not then, I'll lock—] The measure will be restored by the omission of an unnecessary word-me: Thou'lt not hear now,-thou shalt not then, I'll lock—. Thy heaven-] The pleasure of being flattered. JOHNSON. Apemantus never intended, at any event, to flatter Timon, nor did Timon expect any flattery from him. By his heaven he means good advice, the only thing by which he could be saved, The following lines confirm this explanation. M. MASON, |