Whereof ingrateful man with likerish draughts,
And morfels unctuous, greafes his pure mind,
That from it all confideration flips.-

SCENE

Enter Apemantus.

More man? plague! plague!

VI.

Apem. I was directed hither. Men report,
Thou dost affect my manners, and dost use them.
Tim. 'Tis then, because thou doft not keep a dog,
Whom I would imitate. Confumption catch thee!-
Apem. This is in thee a nature but affected,
A poor unmanly melancholy, fprung

From change of fortune. Why this fpade? this place?
This flave-like habit, and theie looks of care?
Thy flatt'rers yet wear filk, drink wine, lie foft;
Hug their difeas'd perfumes, and have forgot
That ever Timon was. 5 Shame not thefe woods,

ufed in. But this unhappy critic never confider'd that men ought to earn this fat before they eat it. From this emendation the Oxford Editor has fprung another, and reads,

Dry up thy Meadows, Vineyards-

WARB. I cannot concur to cenfure Theobald as a critick very unhappy. He was weak, but he was cautious: finding but little power in his mind, he rarely ventured far under its conduct. This timidity hindered him from daring conjectures, and fometimes hindered him happily.

This paffage, among many others, may pafs without change. The genuine reading is not marrows, veins, but marrows, vines:

By

and the fenfe is this; O, nature! ceafe to produce men, enfear thy womb; but if thou wilt continue to produce them, at least cease to pamper them; dry up thy marrows on which they fatten with unctuous morfels, thy vines which give them likerish draughts, and thy plow-torn leas. Here are effects correfponding with caufes, likerish draughts with vines, and unctuous morfels with marrows, and the old reading literally preferved.

5 Shame not these woods.] But how did Timon any more fhame the woods by affuming the character of a Cynic, than Apemantus did? The poet certainly meant to make Apemantus fay, Don't difgrace this garb, which

R 3

thou

By putting on the cunning of a carper.
Be thou a flatt'rer now, and feek to thrive
By that which has undone thee; hinge thy knee,
And let his very breath, whom thou'lt obferve,
Blow off thy cap; praife his moft vicious strain,
And call it excellent. Thou waft told thus ;
Thou gav'ft thine ears (like tapfters, that bid welcome)
To knaves, and all approachers; 'tis moft juft
That thou turn rafcal. Hadft thou wealth again,
Rafcals fhould have't. Do not affume my likenefs.
Tim. Were I like thee, I'd throw away myself.
Apem. Thou'ft caft away thyfelf, being like thyself,
So long a mad-man, now a fool. What, think'ft thou,
That the bleak air, thy boisterous chamberlain,
Will put thy fhirt on warm? Will thefe 7 moift trees,
That have out-liv'd the eagle, page thy heels,
And skip when thou point'ft out? Will the cold brook,
Candied with ice, cawdle thy morning tafte
To cure thy o'er-night's furfeit? Call the creatures,
Whofe naked natures live in all the fpight

Of wreakful heav'n, whofe bare unhoused trunks,
To the conflicting elements expos'd,

Answer meer 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'reft mifery.

Apem. I flatter not; but fay, thou art a caytiff.
Tim. Why dost thou seek me out?

Apem. To vex thee.

8

Tim. Always a villain's office, or a fool's. Do'st please thyself in't?

Apem. Ay.

Tim. What! a knave too?

Apem. If thou didit put this four cold habit on
To caftigate thy pride, 'twere well; but thou
Doft it enforcedly: thou'dft Courtier be,
Wert thou not beggar. Willing mifery
Outlives incertain pomp; is crown'd before;
The one is filling ftill, never compleat;

8 Tim. Always a Villain's Of conjecture, but afterwards he

fice or a Fool's. Do'ft pleafe thyself in't? Apem. Ap.

Tim. What! a knave too ?] Dr. Warburton propofes a Correction here, which, tho' it oppofes the Reading of all the printed Copies, has great Juft. nefs and Propriety in it. would read;

He

What! and know't too? The Reafoning of the Text, as it stands in the Books, is, in fome fort, concluding backward: or rather making a Knave's and a Villain's Office different: which, furely, is abfurd. The Correction quite removes the Abfurdity, and gives this fenfible Rebuke. "What! do'ft thou "pleafe thyself in vexing me, "and at the fame time know it to be the Office of a Vilain "or Fool." THEOBALD. Such was Dr. Warburton's first

adopted Sir T. Hanmer's conjecture, what a knave thou; but there is no need of alteration. Timon had just called Apemantus fool, in confequence of what he had known of him by former acquaintance; but when Apemantus tells him, that he comes to vex him, Timon determines that to vex is either the office of a villain or a fool; that to vex by defign is villany, to vex without defign is folly. He then properly afks Apemantus whether he takes delight in vexing, and when he anfwers, yes, Timon replies, what, and knave too? I before only knew thee to be a fool, but I now find thee likewife a knave.

This feems to be fo clear as not to ftand in need of a comment.

9-is crown'd before;] Arrives fooner at high with; that is, at the completion of its wishes.

The other, at high wifh. Beft ftates, contentlefs,
Have a distracted and moft wretched Being;
Worfe than the worft, content.

Thou should'ft 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 clafpt; but bred a dog.

3 Hadit thou, like us from our * first swath, proceeded Through fweet degrees that this brief world affords, To fuch as may the paffive drugs of it

Freely command, thou wouldst have plung'd thyfelf
In general riot, melted down thy youth

In different beds of luft, and never learn'd
The icy precepts of refpect, but followed

1-by his breath,-] It means, I believe, by his counjel, by his direction.

2 - but bred a dog.] Alluding to the word Cynic, of which fe&t Ap mantus was.

WARE.

3 Hadft thou, like us] There is in this fpeech a fullen haughtinefs, and malignant dignity, fuitable at once to the lord and the manhater. The impatience with which he bears to have his luxury reproached by one that never had luxury within his reach, is natural and graceful.

There is in a letter written by the earl of Effex, juft before his execution, to another nobleman, a paffage fomewhat refembling this, with which I believe every reader will be pleafed, though it is fo ferious and folemn that it can scarcely be inferted without irreverence.

"God grant your lordship may quickly feel the comfort I now enjoy in my unfeigned converfion, but that you may never

feel the torments I have fuffered for my long delaying it. I had none but deceivers to call upon me, to whom I faid, if my ambition could have entered into their narrow breafts, they would not have been fo humble; or if my delights Lad been once tafted by them, they would not have been fo precife. But your lordship hath one to call upon you, that knoweth what it is you row enjoy; and what the greatest fruit and end is of all contentment that this world can afford. Think therefore, dear earl, that I have ftaked and buoyed all the ways of pleasure unto you, and left them as fea-marks for you to keep the channel of religious virtue. For fhut your eyes never fo long, they must be open at the laft, and then you muft fay with me, there is no peace to the ungodly."

* From infancy. Swath is the drefs of a new-born child. 4-precepts of respect,-] Of obedience to laws.

The

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 numberlefs upon me ftuck, 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 fome burden.
Thy nature did commence in fuff'rance, time
Hath made thee hard in't. Why should'st thou hate
men?

They never flatter'd thee. What hast thou giv❜n?
If thou wilt curfe, thy father* that poor rag,
Must be the fubject, who in fpight put ftuff
To fome fhe-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.
Apem. Art thou proud yet?
Tim. Ay, that I am not thee.
Apem. I, that I was no prodigal.

-that poor rag,] If we read poor rogue, it will correfpond rather better to what follows. • Thou hadst been knave and

flatterer.] Dryden has quoted two verfes of Virgil to fhew how well he could have written fatires. Shakespeare has here given a fpecimen of the fame power by a line bitter beyond all bitternefs, in which Timon tells Apemantus, that he had not virtue enough for the vices which he condemns.

Dr. Warburton explains wort by loweft, which fomewhat weakens the fenfe, and yet leaves it fufficiently vigorous.