Enter Poet, Painter, Jeweler, and Merchant, at several
doors.

POET Good day, sir.
PAINTER I am glad you’re well.
POET
I have not seen you long. How goes the world?
PAINTER
It wears, sir, as it grows.
POET Ay, that’s well known.
But what particular rarity, what strange,
Which manifold record not matches? See,
Magic of bounty, all these spirits thy power
Hath conjured to attend. I know the merchant.
PAINTER I know them both. Th’ other’s a jeweler.
MERCHANT , to Jeweler
O, ’tis a worthy lord!
JEWELER Nay, that’s most fixed.
MERCHANT
A most incomparable man, breathed, as it were,
To an untirable and continuate goodness.
He passes.
JEWELER I have a jewel here—
MERCHANT
O, pray, let’s see ’t. For the Lord Timon, sir?

---

JEWELER
If he will touch the estimate. But for that—
POET , to Painter
When we for recompense have praised the vile,
It stains the glory in that happy verse
Which aptly sings the good.
MERCHANT , looking at the jewel
’Tis a good form.
JEWELER And rich. Here is a water, look ye.
PAINTER , to Poet
You are rapt, sir, in some work, some dedication
To the great lord.
POET A thing slipped idly from me.
Our poesy is as a gum which oozes
From whence ’tis nourished. The fire i’ th’ flint
Shows not till it be struck; our gentle flame
Provokes itself and, like the current, flies
Each bound it chases. What have you there?
PAINTER
A picture, sir. When comes your book forth?
POET
Upon the heels of my presentment, sir.
Let’s see your piece.
PAINTER ’Tis a good piece.
POET
So ’tis. This comes off well and excellent.
PAINTER
Indifferent.
POET Admirable! How this grace
Speaks his own standing! What a mental power
This eye shoots forth! How big imagination
Moves in this lip! To th’ dumbness of the gesture
One might interpret.
PAINTER
It is a pretty mocking of the life.
Here is a touch. Is ’t good?

---

POET I will say of it,
It tutors nature. Artificial strife
Lives in these touches livelier than life.

Enter certain Senators.

PAINTER How this lord is followed.
POET
The senators of Athens, happy men.
PAINTER Look, more.
POET
You see this confluence, this great flood of visitors.
( Indicating his poem. ) I have in this rough work
shaped out a man
Whom this beneath world doth embrace and hug
With amplest entertainment. My free drift
Halts not particularly but moves itself
In a wide sea of wax. No leveled malice
Infects one comma in the course I hold,
But flies an eagle flight, bold and forth on,
Leaving no tract behind.
PAINTER How shall I understand you?
POET I will unbolt to you.
You see how all conditions, how all minds,
As well of glib and slipp’ry creatures as
Of grave and austere quality, tender down
Their services to Lord Timon. His large fortune,
Upon his good and gracious nature hanging,
Subdues and properties to his love and tendance
All sorts of hearts—yea, from the glass-faced flatterer
To Apemantus, that few things loves better
Than to abhor himself; even he drops down
The knee before him and returns in peace
Most rich in Timon’s nod.
PAINTER I saw them speak together.
POET
Sir, I have upon a high and pleasant hill

---

Feigned Fortune to be throned. The base o’ th’ mount
Is ranked with all deserts, all kind of natures
That labor on the bosom of this sphere
To propagate their states. Amongst them all
Whose eyes are on this sovereign lady fixed,
One do I personate of Lord Timon’s frame,
Whom Fortune with her ivory hand wafts to her,
Whose present grace to present slaves and servants
Translates his rivals.
PAINTER ’Tis conceived to scope.
This throne, this Fortune, and this hill, methinks,
With one man beckoned from the rest below,
Bowing his head against the steepy mount
To climb his happiness, would be well expressed
In our condition.
POET Nay, sir, but hear me on.
All those which were his fellows but of late,
Some better than his value, on the moment
Follow his strides, his lobbies fill with tendance,
Rain sacrificial whisperings in his ear,
Make sacred even his stirrup, and through him
Drink the free air.
PAINTER Ay, marry, what of these?
POET
When Fortune in her shift and change of mood
Spurns down her late beloved, all his dependants,
Which labored after him to the mountain’s top
Even on their knees and hands , let him slip down,
Not one accompanying his declining foot.
PAINTER ’Tis common.
A thousand moral paintings I can show
That shall demonstrate these quick blows of
Fortune’s
More pregnantly than words. Yet you do well
To show Lord Timon that mean eyes have seen
The foot above the head.

---

Trumpets sound. Enter Lord Timon, addressing himself
courteously to every suitor. He is accompanied by a
Messenger and followed by Lucilius and other
Servants.

TIMON Imprisoned is he, say you?
MESSENGER
Ay, my good lord. Five talents is his debt,
His means most short, his creditors most strait.
Your honorable letter he desires
To those have shut him up, which failing
Periods his comfort.
TIMON Noble Ventidius. Well,
I am not of that feather to shake off
My friend when he must need me. I do know him
A gentleman that well deserves a help,
Which he shall have. I’ll pay the debt and free him.
MESSENGER Your Lordship ever binds him.
TIMON
Commend me to him. I will send his ransom;
And, being enfranchised, bid him come to me.
’Tis not enough to help the feeble up,
But to support him after. Fare you well.
MESSENGER All happiness to your Honor. He exits.

Enter an old Athenian.

OLD MAN
Lord Timon, hear me speak.
TIMON Freely, good father.
OLD MAN
Thou hast a servant named Lucilius.
TIMON I have so. What of him?
OLD MAN
Most noble Timon, call the man before thee.
TIMON
Attends he here or no?—Lucilius!

---

LUCILIUS Here, at your Lordship’s service.
OLD MAN
This fellow here, Lord Timon, this thy creature,
By night frequents my house. I am a man
That from my first have been inclined to thrift,
And my estate deserves an heir more raised
Than one which holds a trencher.
TIMON Well. What further?
OLD MAN
One only daughter have I, no kin else
On whom I may confer what I have got.
The maid is fair, o’ th’ youngest for a bride,
And I have bred her at my dearest cost
In qualities of the best. This man of thine
Attempts her love. I prithee, noble lord,
Join with me to forbid him her resort.
Myself have spoke in vain.
TIMON The man is honest.
OLD MAN Therefore he will be, Timon.
His honesty rewards him in itself;
It must not bear my daughter.
TIMON Does she love him?
OLD MAN She is young and apt.
Our own precedent passions do instruct us
What levity’s in youth.
TIMON , to Lucilius Love you the maid?
LUCILIUS
Ay, my good lord, and she accepts of it.
OLD MAN
If in her marriage my consent be missing—
I call the gods to witness—I will choose
Mine heir from forth the beggars of the world
And dispossess her all.
TIMON How shall she be endowed
If she be mated with an equal husband?

---

OLD MAN
Three talents on the present; in future, all.
TIMON
This gentleman of mine hath served me long.
To build his fortune, I will strain a little,
For ’tis a bond in men. Give him thy daughter.
What you bestow, in him I’ll counterpoise,
And make him weigh with her.
OLD MAN Most noble lord,
Pawn me to this your honor, she is his.
TIMON
My hand to thee; mine honor on my promise.
LUCILIUS
Humbly I thank your Lordship. Never may
That state or fortune fall into my keeping
Which is not owed to you.
He exits with the old Athenian.
POET , presenting his poem to Timon
Vouchsafe my labor, and long live your Lordship.
TIMON
I thank you. You shall hear from me anon.
Go not away.—What have you there, my friend?
PAINTER
A piece of painting which I do beseech
Your Lordship to accept.
TIMON Painting is welcome.
The painting is almost the natural man,
For, since dishonor traffics with man’s nature,
He is but outside; these penciled figures are
Even such as they give out. I like your work,
And you shall find I like it. Wait attendance
Till you hear further from me.
PAINTER The gods preserve you.
TIMON
Well fare you, gentleman. Give me your hand.

---

We must needs dine together.—Sir, your jewel
Hath suffered under praise.
JEWELER What, my lord? Dispraise?
TIMON
A mere satiety of commendations.
If I should pay you for ’t as ’tis extolled,
It would unclew me quite.
JEWELER My lord, ’tis rated
As those which sell would give. But you well know
Things of like value, differing in the owners,
Are prizèd by their masters. Believe ’t, dear lord,
You mend the jewel by the wearing it.
TIMON Well mocked.
MERCHANT
No, my good lord. He speaks the common tongue,
Which all men speak with him.

Enter Apemantus.

TIMON Look who comes here. Will you be chid?
JEWELER We’ll bear, with your Lordship.
MERCHANT He’ll spare none.
TIMON
Good morrow to thee, gentle Apemantus.
APEMANTUS
Till I be gentle, stay thou for thy good morrow—
When thou art Timon’s dog, and these knaves honest.
TIMON
Why dost thou call them knaves? Thou know’st
them not.
APEMANTUS Are they not Athenians?
TIMON Yes.
APEMANTUS Then I repent not.
JEWELER You know me, Apemantus?
APEMANTUS Thou know’st I do. I called thee by thy
name.
TIMON Thou art proud, Apemantus.

---

APEMANTUS Of nothing so much as that I am not like
Timon.
TIMON Whither art going?
APEMANTUS To knock out an honest Athenian’s brains.
TIMON That’s a deed thou ’lt die for.
APEMANTUS Right, if doing nothing be death by th’ law.
TIMON How lik’st thou this picture, Apemantus?
APEMANTUS The best, for the innocence.
TIMON Wrought he not well that painted it?
APEMANTUS He wrought better that made the painter,
and yet he’s but a filthy piece of work.
PAINTER You’re a dog.
APEMANTUS Thy mother’s of my generation. What’s
she, if I be a dog?
TIMON Wilt dine with me, Apemantus?
APEMANTUS No. I eat not lords.
TIMON An thou shouldst, thou ’dst anger ladies.
APEMANTUS O, they eat lords. So they come by great
bellies.
TIMON That’s a lascivious apprehension.
APEMANTUS So thou apprehend’st it. Take it for thy
labor.
TIMON How dost thou like this jewel, Apemantus?
APEMANTUS Not so well as plain-dealing, which will
not cost a man a doit.
TIMON What dost thou think ’tis worth?
APEMANTUS Not worth my thinking.—How now, poet?
POET How now, philosopher?
APEMANTUS Thou liest.
POET Art not one?
APEMANTUS Yes.
POET Then I lie not.
APEMANTUS Art not a poet?
POET Yes.
APEMANTUS Then thou liest. Look in thy last work,
where thou hast feigned him a worthy fellow.

---

POET That’s not feigned. He is so.
APEMANTUS Yes, he is worthy of thee, and to pay thee
for thy labor. He that loves to be flattered is worthy
o’ th’ flatterer. Heavens, that I were a lord!
TIMON What wouldst do then, Apemantus?
APEMANTUS E’en as Apemantus does now—hate a lord
with my heart.
TIMON What? Thyself?
APEMANTUS Ay.
TIMON Wherefore?
APEMANTUS That I had no angry wit to be a lord.—Art
not thou a merchant?
MERCHANT Ay, Apemantus.
APEMANTUS Traffic confound thee, if the gods will not.
MERCHANT If traffic do it, the gods do it.
APEMANTUS Traffic’s thy god, and thy god confound
thee!

Trumpet sounds. Enter a Messenger.

TIMON What trumpet’s that?
MESSENGER
’Tis Alcibiades and some twenty horse,
All of companionship.
TIMON
Pray, entertain them. Give them guide to us.
Some Servants exit with Messenger.
You must needs dine with me. Go not you hence
Till I have thanked you.—When dinner’s done
Show me this piece.—I am joyful of your sights.

Enter Alcibiades with the rest.

Most welcome, sir. They bow to each other.
APEMANTUS , apart So, so, there!
Aches contract and starve your supple joints!
That there should be small love amongst these sweet
knaves,

---

And all this courtesy! The strain of man’s bred out
Into baboon and monkey.
ALCIBIADES , to Timon
Sir, you have saved my longing, and I feed
Most hungerly on your sight.
TIMON Right welcome, sir.
Ere we depart, we’ll share a bounteous time
In different pleasures. Pray you, let us in.
All but Apemantus exit.

Enter two Lords.

FIRST LORD What time o’ day is ’t, Apemantus?
APEMANTUS Time to be honest.
FIRST LORD That time serves still.
APEMANTUS
The most accursèd thou, that still omit’st it.
SECOND LORD Thou art going to Lord Timon’s feast?
APEMANTUS
Ay, to see meat fill knaves, and wine heat fools.
SECOND LORD Fare thee well, fare thee well.
APEMANTUS
Thou art a fool to bid me farewell twice.
SECOND LORD Why, Apemantus?
APEMANTUS
Shouldst have kept one to thyself, for I mean to give
thee none.
FIRST LORD Hang thyself.
APEMANTUS
No, I will do nothing at thy bidding.
Make thy requests to thy friend.
SECOND LORD
Away, unpeaceable dog, or I’ll spurn thee hence.
APEMANTUS I will fly, like a dog, the heels o’ th’ ass.
He exits.
FIRST LORD
He’s opposite to humanity. Come , shall we in

---

And taste Lord Timon’s bounty? He outgoes
The very heart of kindness.
SECOND LORD
He pours it out. Plutus, the god of gold,
Is but his steward. No meed but he repays
Sevenfold above itself. No gift to him
But breeds the giver a return exceeding
All use of quittance.
FIRST LORD The noblest mind he carries
That ever governed man.
SECOND LORD
Long may he live in fortunes. Shall we in?
I’ll keep you company.
They exit.

Hautboys playing loud music. A great banquet served
in, and then enter Lord Timon, the States, the Athenian
Lords ( including Lucius), Alcibiades, and Ventidius
(which Timon redeemed from prison). Flavius and others
are in attendance. Then comes dropping after all
Apemantus discontentedly like himself.

VENTIDIUS Most honored Timon,
It hath pleased the gods to remember my father’s age
And call him to long peace.
He is gone happy and has left me rich.
Then, as in grateful virtue I am bound
To your free heart, I do return those talents,
Doubled with thanks and service, from whose help
I derived liberty. He offers a purse.
TIMON O, by no means,
Honest Ventidius. You mistake my love.
I gave it freely ever, and there’s none
Can truly say he gives if he receives.

---

If our betters play at that game, we must not dare
To imitate them. Faults that are rich are fair.
VENTIDIUS A noble spirit!
TIMON
Nay, my lords, ceremony was but devised at first
To set a gloss on faint deeds, hollow welcomes,
Recanting goodness, sorry ere ’tis shown;
But where there is true friendship, there needs none.
Pray, sit. More welcome are you to my fortunes
Than my fortunes to me. They sit.
FIRST LORD My lord, we always have confessed it.
APEMANTUS
Ho, ho, “confessed it”? Hanged it, have you not?
TIMON O Apemantus, you are welcome.
APEMANTUS No, you shall not make me welcome.
I come to have thee thrust me out of doors.
TIMON
Fie, thou ’rt a churl. You’ve got a humor there
Does not become a man. ’Tis much to blame.—
They say, my lords, Ira furor brevis est , but yond
man is ever angry. Go, let him have a table by
himself, for he does neither affect company, nor is
he fit for ’t indeed.
APEMANTUS Let me stay at thine apperil, Timon. I
come to observe; I give thee warning on ’t.
TIMON I take no heed of thee. Thou ’rt an Athenian,
therefore welcome. I myself would have no power;
prithee, let my meat make thee silent.
APEMANTUS I scorn thy meat. ’Twould choke me, for I
should ne’er flatter thee. ( Apart . ) O you gods,
what a number of men eats Timon, and he sees ’em
not! It grieves me to see so many dip their meat in
one man’s blood; and all the madness is, he cheers
them up too.
I wonder men dare trust themselves with men.
Methinks they should invite them without knives.

---

Good for their meat, and safer for their lives.
There’s much example for ’t. The fellow that sits
next him, now parts bread with him, pledges the
breath of him in a divided draft, is the readiest
man to kill him. ’T ’as been proved. If I were a huge
man, I should fear to drink at meals,
Lest they should spy my wind-pipe’s dangerous
notes.
Great men should drink with harness on their
throats.
TIMON , responding to a toast
My lord, in heart! And let the health go round.
SECOND LORD Let it flow this way, my good lord.
APEMANTUS , apart “Flow this way”? A brave fellow.
He keeps his tides well. Those healths will make
thee and thy state look ill, Timon.
Here’s that which is too weak to be a sinner,
Honest water, which ne’er left man i’ th’ mire.
This and my food are equals. There’s no odds.
Feasts are too proud to give thanks to the gods.



Immortal gods, I crave no pelf.
I pray for no man but myself.
Grant I may never prove so fond
To trust man on his oath or bond,
Or a harlot for her weeping,
Or a dog that seems a-sleeping,
Or a keeper with my freedom,
Or my friends if I should need ’em.
Amen. So fall to ’t.
Rich men sin, and I eat root.
He eats and drinks.
Much good dich thy good heart, Apemantus!
TIMON Captain Alcibiades, your heart’s in the field now.
ALCIBIADES My heart is ever at your service, my lord.

---

TIMON You had rather be at a breakfast of enemies
than a dinner of friends.
ALCIBIADES So they were bleeding new, my lord,
there’s no meat like ’em. I could wish my best
friend at such a feast.
APEMANTUS , apart Would all those flatterers were
thine enemies, then, that then thou mightst kill
’em and bid me to ’em.
FIRST LORD Might we but have that happiness, my
lord, that you would once use our hearts, whereby
we might express some part of our zeals, we
should think ourselves forever perfect.
TIMON O, no doubt, my good friends, but the gods
themselves have provided that I shall have much
help from you. How had you been my friends else?
Why have you that charitable title from thousands,
did not you chiefly belong to my heart? I have told
more of you to myself than you can with modesty
speak in your own behalf. And thus far I confirm
you. O you gods, think I, what need we have any
friends if we should ne’er have need of ’em? They
were the most needless creatures living, should we
ne’er have use for ’em, and would most resemble
sweet instruments hung up in cases, that keeps
their sounds to themselves. Why, I have often
wished myself poorer that I might come nearer to
you. We are born to do benefits. And what better or
properer can we call our own than the riches of
our friends? O, what a precious comfort ’tis to
have so many, like brothers, commanding one
another’s fortunes. O, joy’s e’en made away ere ’t
can be born! Mine eyes cannot hold out water,
methinks. To forget their faults, I drink to you.
APEMANTUS , apart Thou weep’st to make them drink,
Timon.

---

SECOND LORD
Joy had the like conception in our eyes
And, at that instant, like a babe sprung up.
APEMANTUS , apart
Ho, ho! I laugh to think that babe a bastard.
THIRD LORD
I promise you, my lord, you moved me much.
APEMANTUS , apart Much! Sound tucket.
TIMON What means that trump?

Enter Servant.

How now?
SERVANT Please you, my lord, there are certain ladies
most desirous of admittance.
TIMON Ladies? What are their wills?
SERVANT There comes with them a forerunner, my lord,
which bears that office to signify their pleasures.
TIMON I pray, let them be admitted. Servant exits.

Enter “Cupid.”

CUPID
Hail to thee, worthy Timon, and to all
That of his bounties taste! The five best senses
Acknowledge thee their patron, and come freely
To gratulate thy plenteous bosom. There
Taste, touch, all, pleased from thy table rise;
They only now come but to feast thine eyes.
TIMON
They’re welcome all. Let ’em have kind admittance.
Music, make their welcome!
LUCIUS
You see, my lord, how ample you’re beloved.

Music . Enter the masque of Ladies as Amazons,
with lutes in their hands, dancing and playing.

APEMANTUS , apart Hoy-day!

---

What a sweep of vanity comes this way.
They dance? They are madwomen.
Like madness is the glory of this life
As this pomp shows to a little oil and root.
We make ourselves fools to disport ourselves
And spend our flatteries to drink those men
Upon whose age we void it up again
With poisonous spite and envy.
Who lives that’s not depravèd or depraves?
Who dies that bears not one spurn to their graves
Of their friends’ gift?
I should fear those that dance before me now
Would one day stamp upon me. ’T ’as been done.
Men shut their doors against a setting sun.

The Lords rise from table, with much adoring of Timon,
and to show their loves each single out an Amazon, and
all dance, men with women, a lofty strain or two to the
hautboys, and cease.

TIMON
You have done our pleasures much grace, fair ladies,
Set a fair fashion on our entertainment,
Which was not half so beautiful and kind.
You have added worth unto ’t and luster,
And entertained me with mine own device.
I am to thank you for ’t.
FIRST LADY
My lord, you take us even at the best.
APEMANTUS , apart Faith, for the worst is filthy and
would not hold taking, I doubt me.
TIMON
Ladies, there is an idle banquet attends you.
Please you to dispose yourselves.
ALL LADIES Most thankfully, my lord.
Cupid and Ladies exit.
TIMON Flavius.

---

FLAVIUS
My lord?
TIMON The little casket bring me hither.
FLAVIUS Yes, my lord. ( Aside . ) More jewels yet?
There is no crossing him in ’s humor;
Else I should tell him well, i’ faith I should.
When all’s spent, he’d be crossed then, an he could.
’Tis pity bounty had not eyes behind,
That man might ne’er be wretched for his mind.
He exits.
FIRST LORD Where be our men?
SERVANT Here, my lord, in readiness.
SECOND LORD
Our horses.

Enter Flavius, with the casket.

TIMON O my friends, I have one word
To say to you. Look you, my good lord,
I must entreat you, honor me so much
As to advance this jewel. Accept it and wear it,
Kind my lord.
FIRST LORD
I am so far already in your gifts—
ALL So are we all.

Enter a Servant.

SERVANT
My lord, there are certain nobles of the Senate
Newly alighted and come to visit you.
TIMON
They are fairly welcome. Servant exits.
FLAVIUS I beseech your Honor,
Vouchsafe me a word. It does concern you near.
TIMON
Near? Why, then, another time I’ll hear thee.

---

I prithee, let’s be provided to show them
entertainment.
FLAVIUS , aside I scarce know how.

Enter another Servant.

SECOND SERVANT
May it please your Honor, Lord Lucius,
Out of his free love, hath presented to you
Four milk-white horses trapped in silver.
TIMON
I shall accept them fairly. Let the presents
Be worthily entertained. Servant exits.

Enter a third Servant.

How now? What news?
THIRD SERVANT Please you, my lord, that honorable
gentleman Lord Lucullus entreats your company
tomorrow to hunt with him and has sent your
Honor two brace of greyhounds.
TIMON
I’ll hunt with him; and let them be received,
Not without fair reward. Servant exits.
FLAVIUS , aside What will this come to?
He commands us to provide, and give great gifts,
And all out of an empty coffer.
Nor will he know his purse or yield me this—
To show him what a beggar his heart is,
Being of no power to make his wishes good.
His promises fly so beyond his state
That what he speaks is all in debt; he owes
For ev’ry word. He is so kind that he
Now pays interest for ’t. His land’s put to their books.
Well, would I were gently put out of office
Before I were forced out.
Happier is he that has no friend to feed

---

Than such that do e’en enemies exceed.
I bleed inwardly for my lord. He exits.
TIMON , to Lords You do yourselves much wrong.
You bate too much of your own merits.
( Offering a gift. ) Here, my lord, a trifle of our love.
SECOND LORD
With more than common thanks I will receive it.
THIRD LORD O, he’s the very soul of bounty!
TIMON And now I remember, my lord, you gave good
words the other day of a bay courser I rode on. ’Tis
yours because you liked it.
FIRST LORD
O, I beseech you, pardon me, my lord, in that.
TIMON
You may take my word, my lord. I know no man
Can justly praise but what he does affect.
I weigh my friends’ affection with mine own.
I’ll tell you true, I’ll call to you.
ALL LORDS O, none so welcome.
TIMON
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
Is ’mongst the dead, and all the lands thou hast
Lie in a pitched field.
ALCIBIADES Ay, defiled land, my lord.
FIRST LORD We are so virtuously bound—
TIMON And so am I to you.
SECOND LORD So infinitely endeared—
TIMON All to you.—Lights, more lights.
FIRST LORD
The best of happiness, honor, and fortunes
Keep with you, Lord Timon.

---

TIMON Ready for his friends.
All but Timon and Apemantus exit.
APEMANTUS What a coil’s here,
Serving of becks and jutting-out of bums!
I doubt whether their legs be worth the sums
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.
TIMON
Now, Apemantus, if thou wert not sullen,
I would be good to thee.
APEMANTUS No, I’ll nothing, for if I should be bribed
too, there would be none left to rail upon thee, and
then thou wouldst sin the faster. Thou giv’st so
long, Timon, I fear me thou wilt give away thyself
in paper shortly. What needs these feasts, pomps,
and vainglories?
TIMON Nay, an you begin to rail on society once, I am
sworn not to give regard to you. Farewell, and
come with better music. He exits.
APEMANTUS So. Thou wilt not hear me now, thou shalt
not then. I’ll lock thy heaven from thee.
O, that men’s ears should be
To counsel deaf, but not to flattery!
He exits.

Enter a Senator, with papers.

SENATOR
And late five thousand. To Varro and to Isidore
He owes nine thousand, besides my former sum,
Which makes it five-and-twenty. Still in motion
Of raging waste! It cannot hold; it will not.
If I want gold, steal but a beggar’s dog
And give it Timon, why, the dog coins gold.
If I would sell my horse and buy twenty more
Better than he, why, give my horse to Timon—
Ask nothing; give it him—it foals me straight,
And able horses. No porter at his gate
But rather one that smiles and still invites
All that pass by. It cannot hold. No reason
Can sound his state in safety.—Caphis, ho!
Caphis, I say!

Enter Caphis.

CAPHIS Here, sir. What is your pleasure?
SENATOR
Get on your cloak and haste you to Lord Timon.
Importune him for my moneys. Be not ceased
With slight denial, nor then silenced when
“Commend me to your master” and the cap
Plays in the right hand thus; but tell him
My uses cry to me. I must serve my turn

---

Out of mine own. His days and times are past,
And my reliances on his fracted dates
Have smit my credit. I love and honor him
But must not break my back to heal his finger.
Immediate are my needs, and my relief
Must not be tossed and turned to me in words
But find supply immediate. Get you gone.
Put on a most importunate aspect,
A visage of demand, for I do fear
When every feather sticks in his own wing
Lord Timon will be left a naked gull,
Which flashes now a phoenix. Get you gone.
CAPHIS I go, sir.
SENATOR
“I go, sir”? Take the bonds along with you
And have the dates in. Come.
He hands Caphis papers.
CAPHIS I will, sir.
SENATOR Go.
They exit.

Enter Steward Flavius , with many bills in his hand.

FLAVIUS
No care, no stop, so senseless of expense
That he will neither know how to maintain it
Nor cease his flow of riot. Takes no account
How things go from him nor resumes no care
Of what is to continue. Never mind
Was to be so unwise to be so kind.
What shall be done? He will not hear till feel.
I must be round with him, now he comes from
hunting.
Fie, fie, fie, fie!

---

Enter Caphis, and the Men of Isidore and Varro.

CAPHIS
Good even, Varro. What, you come for money?
VARRO’S MAN Is ’t not your business too?
CAPHIS It is. And yours too, Isidore?
ISIDORE’S MAN It is so.
CAPHIS Would we were all discharged!
VARRO’S MAN I fear it.
CAPHIS Here comes the lord.

Enter Timon, and his train, with Alcibiades.

TIMON
So soon as dinner’s done we’ll forth again,
My Alcibiades. ( To Caphis. ) With me? What is your
will?
CAPHIS , offering Timon a paper
My lord, here is a note of certain dues.
TIMON Dues? Whence are you?
CAPHIS Of Athens here, my lord.
TIMON Go to my steward.
CAPHIS
Please it your Lordship, he hath put me off
To the succession of new days this month.
My master is awaked by great occasion
To call upon his own and humbly prays you
That with your other noble parts you’ll suit
In giving him his right.
TIMON Mine honest friend,
I prithee but repair to me next morning.
CAPHIS
Nay, good my lord—
TIMON Contain thyself, good friend.
VARRO’S MAN , offering a paper One Varro’s servant,
my good lord—

---

ISIDORE’S MAN , offering a paper
From Isidore. He humbly prays your speedy
payment.
CAPHIS
If you did know, my lord, my master’s wants—
VARRO’S MAN
’Twas due on forfeiture, my lord, six weeks and past.
ISIDORE’S MAN
Your steward puts me off, my lord, and I
Am sent expressly to your Lordship.
TIMON Give me breath.—
I do beseech you, good my lords, keep on.
I’ll wait upon you instantly.
Alcibiades and Timon’s train exit.
To Flavius. Come hither. Pray you,
How goes the world that I am thus encountered
With clamorous demands of debt, broken bonds,
And the detention of long-since-due debts
Against my honor?
FLAVIUS , to the creditors’ Men Please you, gentlemen,
The time is unagreeable to this business.
Your importunacy cease till after dinner,
That I may make his Lordship understand
Wherefore you are not paid.
TIMON Do so, my friends.—
See them well entertained.
FLAVIUS Pray, draw near.
Timon and Flavius exit.

Enter Apemantus and Fool.

CAPHIS Stay, stay, here comes the Fool with Apemantus.
Let’s ha’ some sport with ’em.
VARRO’S MAN Hang him! He’ll abuse us.
ISIDORE’S MAN A plague upon him, dog!
VARRO’S MAN How dost, Fool?
APEMANTUS Dost dialogue with thy shadow?
VARRO’S MAN I speak not to thee.

---

APEMANTUS No, ’tis to thyself. ( To the Fool. ) Come
away.
ISIDORE’S MAN , to Varro’s Man There’s the fool hangs
on your back already.
APEMANTUS No, thou stand’st single; thou ’rt not on
him yet.
CAPHIS , to Isidore’s Man Where’s the fool now?
APEMANTUS He last asked the question. Poor rogues
and usurers’ men, bawds between gold and want.
ALL THE MEN What are we, Apemantus?
APEMANTUS Asses.
ALL THE MEN Why?
APEMANTUS That you ask me what you are, and do not
know yourselves.—Speak to ’em, Fool.
FOOL How do you, gentlemen?
ALL THE MEN Gramercies, good Fool. How does your
mistress?
FOOL She’s e’en setting on water to scald such chickens
as you are. Would we could see you at Corinth!
APEMANTUS Good. Gramercy.

Enter Page.

FOOL Look you, here comes my master’s page.
PAGE , to Fool Why, how now, captain? What do you in
this wise company?—How dost thou, Apemantus?
APEMANTUS Would I had a rod in my mouth that I
might answer thee profitably.
PAGE Prithee, Apemantus, read me the superscription
of these letters. I know not which is which.
He shows some papers.
APEMANTUS Canst not read?
PAGE No.
APEMANTUS There will little learning die, then, that
day thou art hanged. This is to Lord Timon, this to
Alcibiades. Go. Thou wast born a bastard, and
thou ’lt die a bawd.

---

PAGE Thou wast whelped a dog, and thou shalt famish
a dog’s death. Answer not. I am gone. He exits.
APEMANTUS E’en so thou outrunn’st grace.—Fool, I
will go with you to Lord Timon’s.
FOOL Will you leave me there?
APEMANTUS If Timon stay at home.—You three serve
three usurers?
ALL THE MEN Ay. Would they served us!
APEMANTUS So would I—as good a trick as ever hangman
served thief.
FOOL Are you three usurers’ men?
ALL THE MEN Ay, fool.
FOOL I think no usurer but has a fool to his servant.
My mistress is one, and I am her Fool. When men
come to borrow of your masters, they approach
sadly and go away merry, but they enter my master’s
house merrily and go away sadly. The reason
of this?
VARRO’S MAN I could render one.
APEMANTUS Do it then, that we may account thee a
whoremaster and a knave, which notwithstanding,
thou shalt be no less esteemed.
VARRO’S MAN What is a whoremaster, fool?
FOOL A fool in good clothes, and something like thee.
’Tis a spirit; sometime ’t appears like a lord, sometime
like a lawyer, sometime like a philosopher,
with two stones more than ’s artificial one. He is
very often like a knight, and generally in all shapes
that man goes up and down in from fourscore to
thirteen, this spirit walks in.
VARRO’S MAN Thou art not altogether a Fool.
FOOL Nor thou altogether a wise man. As much foolery
as I have, so much wit thou lack’st.
APEMANTUS That answer might have become Apemantus.
ALL THE MEN Aside, aside! Here comes Lord Timon.

---

Enter Timon and Steward Flavius .

APEMANTUS Come with me, fool, come.
FOOL I do not always follow lover, elder brother, and
woman; sometime the philosopher.
Apemantus and the Fool exit.
FLAVIUS , to the creditors’ Men
Pray you, walk near. I’ll speak with you anon.
The Men exit.
TIMON
You make me marvel wherefore ere this time
Had you not fully laid my state before me,
That I might so have rated my expense
As I had leave of means.
FLAVIUS You would not hear me.
At many leisures I proposed —
TIMON Go to.
Perchance some single vantages you took
When my indisposition put you back,
And that unaptness made your minister
Thus to excuse yourself.
FLAVIUS O, my good lord,
At many times I brought in my accounts,
Laid them before you. You would throw them off
And say you found them in mine honesty.
When for some trifling present you have bid me
Return so much, I have shook my head and wept—
Yea, ’gainst th’ authority of manners prayed you
To hold your hand more close. I did endure
Not seldom nor no slight checks when I have
Prompted you in the ebb of your estate
And your great flow of debts. My lovèd lord,
Though you hear now too late, yet now’s a time.
The greatest of your having lacks a half
To pay your present debts.
TIMON Let all my land be sold.

---

FLAVIUS
’Tis all engaged, some forfeited and gone,
And what remains will hardly stop the mouth
Of present dues. The future comes apace.
What shall defend the interim? And at length
How goes our reck’ning?
TIMON
To Lacedaemon did my land extend.
FLAVIUS
O my good lord, the world is but a word.
Were it all yours to give it in a breath,
How quickly were it gone!
TIMON You tell me true.
FLAVIUS
If you suspect my husbandry of falsehood,
Call me before th’ exactest auditors,
And set me on the proof. So the gods bless me,
When all our offices have been oppressed
With riotous feeders, when our vaults have wept
With drunken spilth of wine, when every room
Hath blazed with lights and brayed with minstrelsy,
I have retired me to a wasteful cock
And set mine eyes at flow.
TIMON Prithee, no more.
FLAVIUS
Heavens, have I said, the bounty of this lord!
How many prodigal bits have slaves and peasants
This night englutted. Who is not Timon’s?
What heart, head, sword, force, means, but is Lord
Timon’s?
Great Timon, noble, worthy, royal Timon!
Ah, when the means are gone that buy this praise,
The breath is gone whereof this praise is made.
Feast-won, fast-lost. One cloud of winter showers,
These flies are couched.
TIMON Come, sermon me no further.

---

No villainous bounty yet hath passed my heart;
Unwisely, not ignobly, have I given.
Why dost thou weep? Canst thou the conscience lack
To think I shall lack friends? Secure thy heart.
If I would broach the vessels of my love
And try the argument of hearts by borrowing,
Men and men’s fortunes could I frankly use
As I can bid thee speak.
FLAVIUS Assurance bless your thoughts!
TIMON
And in some sort these wants of mine are crowned,
That I account them blessings. For by these
Shall I try friends. You shall perceive how you
Mistake my fortunes. I am wealthy in my friends.—
Within there! Flaminius ! —Servilius!

Enter three Servants, Flaminius , Servilius, and another.

SERVANTS My lord, my lord.
TIMON I will dispatch you severally. ( To Servilius )
You to Lord Lucius, ( to Flaminius ) to Lord
Lucullus you—I hunted with his Honor today; ( to
the third Servant ) you to Sempronius. Commend
me to their loves, and I am proud, say, that my
occasions have found time to use ’em toward a
supply of money. Let the request be fifty talents.
FLAMINIUS As you have said, my lord. Servants exit.
FLAVIUS , aside Lord Lucius and Lucullus? Humh!
TIMON Go you, sir, to the Senators,
Of whom, even to the state’s best health, I have
Deserved this hearing. Bid ’em send o’ th’ instant
A thousand talents to me.
FLAVIUS I have been bold—
For that I knew it the most general way—
To them to use your signet and your name,
But they do shake their heads, and I am here
No richer in return.

---

TIMON Is ’t true? Can ’t be?
FLAVIUS
They answer in a joint and corporate voice
That now they are at fall, want treasure, cannot
Do what they would, are sorry. You are honorable,
But yet they could have wished—they know not—
Something hath been amiss—a noble nature
May catch a wrench—would all were well—’tis pity.
And so, intending other serious matters,
After distasteful looks and these hard fractions,
With certain half-caps and cold-moving nods
They froze me into silence.
TIMON You gods, reward them!
Prithee, man, look cheerly. These old fellows
Have their ingratitude in them hereditary.
Their blood is caked, ’tis cold, it seldom flows;
’Tis lack of kindly warmth they are not kind;
And nature, as it grows again toward earth,
Is fashioned for the journey, dull and heavy.
Go to Ventidius. Prithee, be not sad.
Thou art true and honest—ingeniously I speak—
No blame belongs to thee. Ventidius lately
Buried his father, by whose death he’s stepped
Into a great estate. When he was poor,
Imprisoned, and in scarcity of friends,
I cleared him with five talents. Greet him from me.
Bid him suppose some good necessity
Touches his friend, which craves to be remembered
With those five talents. That had, give ’t these fellows
To whom ’tis instant due. Ne’er speak or think
That Timon’s fortunes ’mong his friends can sink.
He exits.
FLAVIUS I would I could not think it.
That thought is bounty’s foe;
Being free itself, it thinks all others so.
He exits.

Enter Flaminius waiting to speak with Lucullus ,
from his master.

Enter a Servant to him.

SERVANT I have told my lord of you. He is coming
down to you.
FLAMINIUS I thank you, sir.

Enter Lucullus.

SERVANT Here’s my lord.
LUCULLUS , aside One of Lord Timon’s men? A gift, I
warrant. Why, this hits right. I dreamt of a silver
basin and ewer tonight.—Flaminius, honest
Flaminius, you are very respectively welcome, sir.
( To Servant. ) Fill me some wine. ( Servant exits. )
And how does that honorable, complete, free-hearted
gentleman of Athens, thy very bountiful
good lord and master?
FLAMINIUS His health is well, sir.
LUCULLUS I am right glad that his health is well, sir.
And what hast thou there under thy cloak, pretty
Flaminius?
FLAMINIUS Faith, nothing but an empty box, sir, which
in my lord’s behalf I come to entreat your Honor
to supply; who, having great and instant occasion

---

to use fifty talents, hath sent to your Lordship to
furnish him, nothing doubting your present assistance
therein.
LUCULLUS La, la, la, la. “Nothing doubting” says he?
Alas, good lord! A noble gentleman ’tis, if he would
not keep so good a house. Many a time and often I
ha’ dined with him and told him on ’t, and come
again to supper to him of purpose to have him
spend less, and yet he would embrace no counsel,
take no warning by my coming. Every man has his
fault, and honesty is his. I ha’ told him on ’t, but I
could ne’er get him from ’t.

Enter Servant with wine.

SERVANT Please your Lordship, here is the wine.
LUCULLUS Flaminius, I have noted thee always wise.
Here’s to thee. He drinks.
FLAMINIUS Your Lordship speaks your pleasure.
LUCULLUS I have observed thee always for a towardly
prompt spirit—give thee thy due—and one that
knows what belongs to reason and canst use the
time well, if the time use thee well. Good parts in
thee.—Get you gone, sirrah. Servant exits.
Draw nearer, honest Flaminius. Thy lord’s a bountiful
gentleman, but thou art wise and thou
know’st well enough, although thou com’st to me,
that this is no time to lend money, especially upon
bare friendship, without security. Here’s three solidares
for thee. ( Gives him money. ) Good boy,
wink at me, and say thou saw’st me not. Fare thee
well.
FLAMINIUS
Is ’t possible the world should so much differ,
And we alive that lived? Fly, damnèd baseness,
To him that worships thee!
He throws the money back at Lucullus.

---

LUCULLUS Ha! Now I see thou art a fool and fit for thy
master. Lucullus exits.
FLAMINIUS
May these add to the number that may scald thee!
Let molten coin be thy damnation,
Thou disease of a friend and not himself!
Has friendship such a faint and milky heart
It turns in less than two nights? O you gods,
I feel my master’s passion. This slave
Unto his honor has my lord’s meat in him.
Why should it thrive and turn to nutriment
When he is turned to poison?
O, may diseases only work upon ’t,
And when he’s sick to death, let not that part of
nature
Which my lord paid for be of any power
To expel sickness, but prolong his hour.
He exits.

Enter Lucius, with three Strangers.

LUCIUS Who, the Lord Timon? He is my very good
friend and an honorable gentleman.
FIRST STRANGER We know him for no less, though we
are but strangers to him. But I can tell you one
thing, my lord, and which I hear from common
rumors: now Lord Timon’s happy hours are done
and past, and his estate shrinks from him.
LUCIUS Fie, no, do not believe it. He cannot want for
money.
SECOND STRANGER But believe you this, my lord, that
not long ago one of his men was with the Lord
Lucullus to borrow fifty talents, nay, urged
extremely for ’t, and showed what necessity
belonged to ’t, and yet was denied.

---

LUCIUS How?
SECOND STRANGER I tell you, denied, my lord.
LUCIUS What a strange case was that! Now, before the
gods, I am ashamed on ’t. Denied that honorable
man? There was very little honor showed in ’t. For
my own part, I must needs confess I have received
some small kindnesses from him, as money, plate,
jewels, and suchlike trifles, nothing comparing to
his; yet had he mistook him and sent to me, I
should ne’er have denied his occasion fifty talents.

Enter Servilius.

SERVILIUS , aside See, by good hap, yonder’s my lord.
I have sweat to see his Honor. To Lucius. My
honored lord.
LUCIUS Servilius. You are kindly met, sir. Fare thee
well. Commend me to thy honorable virtuous lord,
my very exquisite friend. He turns to exit.
SERVILIUS May it please your Honor, my lord hath
sent—
LUCIUS Ha! What has he sent? I am so much endeared
to that lord; he’s ever sending. How shall I thank
him, think’st thou? And what has he sent now?
SERVILIUS Has only sent his present occasion now, my
lord, requesting your Lordship to supply his
instant use with fifty talents.
LUCIUS
I know his Lordship is but merry with me.
He cannot want fifty-five hundred talents.
SERVILIUS
But in the meantime he wants less, my lord.
If his occasion were not virtuous,
I should not urge it half so faithfully.
LUCIUS
Dost thou speak seriously, Servilius?
SERVILIUS Upon my soul, ’tis true, sir.

---

LUCIUS What a wicked beast was I to disfurnish
myself against such a good time, when I might ha’
shown myself honorable! How unluckily it happened
that I should purchase the day before for a
little part, and undo a great deal of honor! Servilius,
now before the gods, I am not able to do—the
more beast, I say!—I was sending to use Lord
Timon myself, these gentlemen can witness; but I
would not for the wealth of Athens I had done ’t
now. Commend me bountifully to his good Lordship,
and I hope his Honor will conceive the fairest
of me, because I have no power to be kind. And tell
him this from me: I count it one of my greatest
afflictions, say, that I cannot pleasure such an honorable
gentleman. Good Servilius, will you
befriend me so far as to use mine own words to
him?
SERVILIUS Yes, sir, I shall.
LUCIUS I’ll look you out a good turn, Servilius.
Servilius exits.
True, as you said, Timon is shrunk indeed,
And he that’s once denied will hardly speed.
He exits.
FIRST STRANGER Do you observe this, Hostilius?
SECOND STRANGER Ay, too well.
FIRST STRANGER
Why, this is the world’s soul, and just of the same
piece
Is every flatterer’s sport. Who can call him his friend
That dips in the same dish? For, in my knowing,
Timon has been this lord’s father
And kept his credit with his purse,
Supported his estate, nay, Timon’s money
Has paid his men their wages. He ne’er drinks
But Timon’s silver treads upon his lip.
And yet—O, see the monstrousness of man

---

When he looks out in an ungrateful shape!—
He does deny him, in respect of his,
What charitable men afford to beggars.
THIRD STRANGER
Religion groans at it.
FIRST STRANGER For mine own part,
I never tasted Timon in my life,
Nor came any of his bounties over me
To mark me for his friend. Yet I protest,
For his right noble mind, illustrious virtue,
And honorable carriage,
Had his necessity made use of me,
I would have put my wealth into donation,
And the best half should have returned to him,
So much I love his heart. But I perceive
Men must learn now with pity to dispense,
For policy sits above conscience.
They exit.

Enter a Third Servant of Timon’s with Sempronius,
another of Timon’s friends.

SEMPRONIUS
Must he needs trouble me in ’t? Hum! ’Bove all others?
He might have tried Lord Lucius or Lucullus;
And now Ventidius is wealthy too,
Whom he redeemed from prison. All these
Owes their estates unto him.
SERVANT My lord,
They have all been touched and found base metal,
For they have all denied him.
SEMPRONIUS How? Have they denied him?
Has Ventidius and Lucullus denied him,
And does he send to me? Three? Humh!

---

It shows but little love or judgment in him.
Must I be his last refuge? His friends, like physicians,
Thrive, give him over. Must I take th’ cure upon me?
Has much disgraced me in ’t. I’m angry at him
That might have known my place. I see no sense for ’t
But his occasions might have wooed me first;
For, in my conscience, I was the first man
That e’er received gift from him.
And does he think so backwardly of me now
That I’ll requite it last? No.
So it may prove an argument of laughter
To th’ rest, and I ’mongst lords be thought a fool.
I’d rather than the worth of thrice the sum
Had sent to me first, but for my mind’s sake;
I’d such a courage to do him good. But now return,
And with their faint reply this answer join:
Who bates mine honor shall not know my coin.
He exits.
SERVANT Excellent! Your Lordship’s a goodly villain.
The devil knew not what he did when he made
man politic. He crossed himself by ’t, and I cannot
think but, in the end, the villainies of man will set
him clear. How fairly this lord strives to appear
foul! Takes virtuous copies to be wicked, like those
that under hot ardent zeal would set whole realms
on fire.
Of such a nature is his politic love.
This was my lord’s best hope. Now all are fled,
Save only the gods. Now his friends are dead,
Doors that were ne’er acquainted with their wards
Many a bounteous year must be employed
Now to guard sure their master.
And this is all a liberal course allows:
Who cannot keep his wealth must keep his house.
He exits.

Enter Varro’s two Men, meeting Titus and others, all
being Men of Timon’s creditors to wait for his coming
out. Then enter Lucius’ Man and Hortensius.

VARRO’S FIRST MAN
Well met. Good morrow, Titus and Hortensius.
TITUS
The like to you, kind Varro.
HORTENSIUS Lucius!
What, do we meet together?
LUCIUS’ MAN Ay, and I think
One business does command us all,
For mine is money.
TITUS So is theirs and ours.

Enter Philotus.

LUCIUS’ MAN
And, sir, Philotus’ too.
PHILOTUS Good day at once.
LUCIUS’ MAN Welcome, good brother.
What do you think the hour?
PHILOTUS Laboring for nine.
LUCIUS’ MAN
So much?
PHILOTUS Is not my lord seen yet?
LUCIUS’ MAN Not yet.
PHILOTUS
I wonder on ’t. He was wont to shine at seven.
LUCIUS’ MAN
Ay, but the days are waxed shorter with him.
You must consider that a prodigal course
Is like the sun’s,
But not, like his, recoverable. I fear
’Tis deepest winter in Lord Timon’s purse:

---

That is, one may reach deep enough and yet
Find little.
PHILOTUS I am of your fear for that.
TITUS
I’ll show you how t’ observe a strange event.
Your lord sends now for money?
HORTENSIUS Most true, he does.
TITUS
And he wears jewels now of Timon’s gift,
For which I wait for money.
HORTENSIUS It is against my heart.
LUCIUS’ MAN Mark how strange it shows:
Timon in this should pay more than he owes,
And e’en as if your lord should wear rich jewels
And send for money for ’em.
HORTENSIUS
I’m weary of this charge, the gods can witness.
I know my lord hath spent of Timon’s wealth,
And now ingratitude makes it worse than stealth.
VARRO’S FIRST MAN
Yes, mine’s three thousand crowns. What’s yours?
LUCIUS’ MAN Five thousand mine.
VARRO’S FIRST MAN
’Tis much deep, and it should seem by th’ sum
Your master’s confidence was above mine,
Else surely his had equaled.

Enter Flaminius.

TITUS One of Lord Timon’s men.
LUCIUS’ MAN Flaminius? Sir, a word. Pray, is my lord
ready to come forth?
FLAMINIUS No, indeed he is not.
TITUS We attend his Lordship. Pray, signify so much.
FLAMINIUS I need not tell him that. He knows you are
too diligent. He exits.

Enter Flavius , the Steward in a cloak, muffled.

---

LUCIUS’ MAN
Ha! Is not that his steward muffled so?
He goes away in a cloud. Call him, call him.
TITUS Do you hear, sir?
VARRO’S SECOND MAN By your leave, sir.
FLAVIUS What do you ask of me, my friend?
TITUS
We wait for certain money here, sir.
FLAVIUS Ay,
If money were as certain as your waiting,
’Twere sure enough.
Why then preferred you not your sums and bills
When your false masters eat of my lord’s meat?
Then they could smile and fawn upon his debts
And take down th’ int’rest into their glutt’nous maws.
You do yourselves but wrong to stir me up.
Let me pass quietly.
Believe ’t, my lord and I have made an end.
I have no more to reckon, he to spend.
LUCIUS’ MAN Ay, but this answer will not serve.
FLAVIUS
If ’twill not serve, ’tis not so base as you,
For you serve knaves. He exits.
VARRO’S FIRST MAN How? What does his cashiered
Worship mutter?
VARRO’S SECOND MAN No matter what. He’s poor, and
that’s revenge enough. Who can speak broader
than he that has no house to put his head in? Such
may rail against great buildings.

Enter Servilius.

TITUS O, here’s Servilius. Now we shall know some
answer.
SERVILIUS If I might beseech you, gentlemen, to repair
some other hour, I should derive much from ’t. For
take ’t of my soul, my lord leans wondrously to discontent.

---

His comfortable temper has forsook him.
He’s much out of health and keeps his chamber.
LUCIUS’ MAN
Many do keep their chambers are not sick;
And if it be so far beyond his health,
Methinks he should the sooner pay his debts
And make a clear way to the gods.
SERVILIUS Good gods!
TITUS We cannot take this for answer, sir.
FLAMINIUS , within Servilius, help! My lord, my lord!

Enter Timon in a rage.

TIMON
What, are my doors opposed against my passage?
Have I been ever free, and must my house
Be my retentive enemy, my jail?
The place which I have feasted, does it now,
Like all mankind, show me an iron heart?
LUCIUS’ MAN Put in now, Titus.
TITUS My lord, here is my bill.
LUCIUS’ MAN Here’s mine.
HORTENSIUS And mine, my lord.
VARRO’S SECOND MAN And ours, my lord.
PHILOTUS All our bills.
TIMON
Knock me down with ’em! Cleave me to the girdle.
LUCIUS’ MAN Alas, my lord—
TIMON Cut my heart in sums!
TITUS Mine, fifty talents.
TIMON Tell out my blood.
LUCIUS’ MAN Five thousand crowns, my lord.
TIMON
Five thousand drops pays that.—What yours?—And
yours?
VARRO’S FIRST MAN My lord—
VARRO’S SECOND MAN My lord—

---

TIMON
Tear me, take me, and the gods fall upon you!
Timon exits.
HORTENSIUS Faith, I perceive our masters may throw
their caps at their money. These debts may well be
called desperate ones, for a madman owes ’em.
They exit.

Enter Timon and Flavius.

TIMON
They have e’en put my breath from me, the slaves!
Creditors? Devils!
FLAVIUS My dear lord—
TIMON What if it should be so?
FLAVIUS My lord—
TIMON
I’ll have it so.—My steward!
FLAVIUS Here, my lord.
TIMON
So fitly? Go, bid all my friends again,
Lucius, Lucullus, and Sempronius, all.
I’ll once more feast the rascals.
FLAVIUS O my lord,
You only speak from your distracted soul.
There’s not so much left to furnish out
A moderate table.
TIMON Be it not in thy care. Go,
I charge thee, invite them all. Let in the tide
Of knaves once more. My cook and I’ll provide.
They exit.

Enter three Senators at one door, Alcibiades meeting
them, with Attendants.

FIRST SENATOR , to the Second Senator
My lord, you have my voice to ’t. The fault’s
Bloody. ’Tis necessary he should die.
Nothing emboldens sin so much as mercy.
SECOND SENATOR Most true. The law shall bruise ’em.
ALCIBIADES
Honor, health, and compassion to the Senate!
FIRST SENATOR Now, captain?
ALCIBIADES
I am an humble suitor to your virtues,
For pity is the virtue of the law,
And none but tyrants use it cruelly.
It pleases time and fortune to lie heavy
Upon a friend of mine, who in hot blood
Hath stepped into the law, which is past depth
To those that without heed do plunge into ’t.
He is a man—setting his fate aside—
Of comely virtues.
Nor did he soil the fact with cowardice—
An honor in him which buys out his fault—
But with a noble fury and fair spirit,
Seeing his reputation touched to death,
He did oppose his foe;
And with such sober and unnoted passion
He did behave his anger, ere ’twas spent,
As if he had but proved an argument.
FIRST SENATOR
You undergo too strict a paradox,
Striving to make an ugly deed look fair.
Your words have took such pains as if they labored
To bring manslaughter into form and set quarreling
Upon the head of valor—which indeed

---

Is valor misbegot, and came into the world
When sects and factions were newly born.
He’s truly valiant that can wisely suffer
The worst that man can breathe
And make his wrongs his outsides,
To wear them like his raiment, carelessly,
And ne’er prefer his injuries to his heart
To bring it into danger.
If wrongs be evils and enforce us kill,
What folly ’tis to hazard life for ill!
ALCIBIADES
My lord—
FIRST SENATOR You cannot make gross sins look clear.
To revenge is no valor, but to bear.
ALCIBIADES
My lords, then, under favor, pardon me
If I speak like a captain.
Why do fond men expose themselves to battle
And not endure all threats? Sleep upon ’t,
And let the foes quietly cut their throats
Without repugnancy? If there be
Such valor in the bearing, what make we
Abroad? Why, then, women are more valiant
That stay at home, if bearing carry it,
And the ass more captain than the lion, the felon
Loaden with irons wiser than the judge,
If wisdom be in suffering. O my lords,
As you are great, be pitifully good.
Who cannot condemn rashness in cold blood?
To kill, I grant, is sin’s extremest gust,
But in defense, by mercy, ’tis most just.
To be in anger is impiety,
But who is man that is not angry?
Weigh but the crime with this.
SECOND SENATOR You breathe in vain.
ALCIBIADES In vain? His service done

---

At Lacedaemon and Byzantium
Were a sufficient briber for his life.
FIRST SENATOR What’s that?
ALCIBIADES
Why, I say, my lords, has done fair service
And slain in fight many of your enemies.
How full of valor did he bear himself
In the last conflict, and made plenteous wounds!
SECOND SENATOR
He has made too much plenty with ’em .
He’s a sworn rioter. He has a sin
That often drowns him and takes his valor prisoner.
If there were no foes, that were enough
To overcome him. In that beastly fury,
He has been known to commit outrages
And cherish factions. ’Tis inferred to us
His days are foul and his drink dangerous.
FIRST SENATOR
He dies.
ALCIBIADES Hard fate! He might have died in war.
My lords, if not for any parts in him—
Though his right arm might purchase his own time
And be in debt to none—yet, more to move you,
Take my deserts to his and join ’em both.
And, for I know your reverend ages love
Security, I’ll pawn my victories, all
My honor, to you, upon his good returns.
If by this crime he owes the law his life,
Why, let the war receive ’t in valiant gore,
For law is strict, and war is nothing more.
FIRST SENATOR
We are for law. He dies. Urge it no more,
On height of our displeasure. Friend or brother,
He forfeits his own blood that spills another.
ALCIBIADES Must it be so? It must not be.
My lords, I do beseech you, know me.

---

SECOND SENATOR How?
ALCIBIADES Call me to your remembrances.
THIRD SENATOR What?
ALCIBIADES
I cannot think but your age has forgot me.
It could not else be I should prove so base
To sue and be denied such common grace.
My wounds ache at you.
FIRST SENATOR Do you dare our anger?
’Tis in few words, but spacious in effect:
We banish thee forever.
ALCIBIADES Banish me?
Banish your dotage, banish usury,
That makes the Senate ugly!
FIRST SENATOR
If after two days’ shine Athens contain thee,
Attend our weightier judgment.
And, not to swell our spirit,
He shall be executed presently. Senators exit.
ALCIBIADES
Now the gods keep you old enough that you may live
Only in bone, that none may look on you!—
I’m worse than mad. I have kept back their foes
While they have told their money and let out
Their coin upon large interest, I myself
Rich only in large hurts. All those for this?
Is this the balsam that the usuring Senate
Pours into captains’ wounds? Banishment.
It comes not ill. I hate not to be banished.
It is a cause worthy my spleen and fury,
That I may strike at Athens. I’ll cheer up
My discontented troops and lay for hearts.
’Tis honor with most lands to be at odds.
Soldiers should brook as little wrongs as gods.
He exits.

Music . Enter divers Friends at several doors.

FIRST FRIEND The good time of day to you, sir.
SECOND FRIEND I also wish it to you. I think this honorable
lord did but try us this other day.
FIRST FRIEND Upon that were my thoughts tiring when
we encountered. I hope it is not so low with him as
he made it seem in the trial of his several friends.
SECOND FRIEND It should not be, by the persuasion of
his new feasting.
FIRST FRIEND I should think so. He hath sent me an
earnest inviting, which many my near occasions
did urge me to put off; but he hath conjured me
beyond them, and I must needs appear.
SECOND FRIEND In like manner was I in debt to my
importunate business, but he would not hear my
excuse. I am sorry, when he sent to borrow of me,
that my provision was out.
FIRST FRIEND I am sick of that grief too, as I understand
how all things go.
SECOND FRIEND Every man here’s so. What would he
have borrowed of you?
FIRST FRIEND A thousand pieces.
SECOND FRIEND A thousand pieces!
FIRST FRIEND What of you?
SECOND FRIEND He sent to me, sir—

Enter Timon and Attendants.

Here he comes.
TIMON With all my heart, gentlemen both! And how
fare you?
FIRST FRIEND Ever at the best, hearing well of your
Lordship.
SECOND FRIEND The swallow follows not summer
more willing than we your Lordship.

---

TIMON , aside Nor more willingly leaves winter, such
summer birds are men.—Gentlemen, our dinner
will not recompense this long stay. Feast your ears
with the music awhile, if they will fare so harshly
o’ th’ trumpets’ sound. We shall to ’t presently.
FIRST FRIEND I hope it remains not unkindly with your
Lordship that I returned you an empty messenger.
TIMON O, sir, let it not trouble you.
SECOND FRIEND My noble lord—
TIMON Ah, my good friend, what cheer?
SECOND FRIEND My most honorable lord, I am e’en
sick of shame that when your Lordship this other
day sent to me, I was so unfortunate a beggar.
TIMON Think not on ’t, sir.
SECOND FRIEND If you had sent but two hours before—
TIMON Let it not cumber your better remembrance.

The banquet brought in.

Come, bring in all together.
SECOND FRIEND All covered dishes!
FIRST FRIEND Royal cheer, I warrant you.
THIRD FRIEND Doubt not that, if money and the season
can yield it.
FIRST FRIEND How do you? What’s the news?
THIRD FRIEND Alcibiades is banished. Hear you of it?
FIRST AND SECOND FRIENDS Alcibiades banished?
THIRD FRIEND ’Tis so. Be sure of it.
FIRST FRIEND How? How?
SECOND FRIEND I pray you, upon what?
TIMON My worthy friends, will you draw near?
THIRD FRIEND I’ll tell you more anon. Here’s a noble
feast toward.
SECOND FRIEND This is the old man still.
THIRD FRIEND Will ’t hold? Will ’t hold?
SECOND FRIEND It does, but time will—and so—
THIRD FRIEND I do conceive.

---

TIMON Each man to his stool, with that spur as he
would to the lip of his mistress. Your diet shall
be in all places alike. Make not a city feast of it, to let
the meat cool ere we can agree upon the first place.
Sit, sit. ( They sit. ) The gods require our thanks:

You great benefactors, sprinkle our society with
thankfulness. For your own gifts make yourselves
praised, but reserve still to give, lest your deities be
despised. Lend to each man enough, that one need
not lend to another; for, were your godheads to
borrow of men, men would forsake the gods. Make
the meat be beloved more than the man that gives
it. Let no assembly of twenty be without a score of
villains. If there sit twelve women at the table, let a
dozen of them be as they are. The rest of your fees,
O gods, the Senators of Athens, together with the
common tag of people, what is amiss in them,
you gods, make suitable for destruction. For these
my present friends, as they are to me nothing, so
in nothing bless them, and to nothing are they
welcome.

Uncover, dogs, and lap.
The dishes are uncovered. They contain
only water and stones.
SOME SPEAK What does his Lordship mean?
SOME OTHER I know not.
TIMON
May you a better feast never behold,
You knot of mouth-friends! Smoke and lukewarm
water
Is your perfection. This is Timon’s last,
Who, stuck and spangled with your flatteries,
Washes it off and sprinkles in your faces
Your reeking villainy. ( He throws water in their
faces. ) Live loathed and long,

---

Most smiling, smooth, detested parasites,
Courteous destroyers, affable wolves, meek bears,
You fools of fortune, trencher-friends, time’s flies,
Cap-and-knee slaves, vapors, and minute-jacks.
Of man and beast the infinite malady
Crust you quite o’er! ( They stand. ) What, dost thou
go?
Soft! Take thy physic first—thou too—and thou.—
Stay. I will lend thee money, borrow none.
He attacks them and forces them out.
What? All in motion? Henceforth be no feast
Whereat a villain’s not a welcome guest.
Burn, house! Sink, Athens! Henceforth hated be
Of Timon man and all humanity! He exits.

Enter Timon’s Friends, the Senators, with other Lords.

FIRST FRIEND How now, my lords?
SECOND FRIEND Know you the quality of Lord Timon’s
fury?
THIRD FRIEND Push! Did you see my cap?
FOURTH FRIEND I have lost my gown.
FIRST FRIEND He’s but a mad lord, and naught but
humors sways him. He gave me a jewel th’ other
day, and now he has beat it out of my hat. Did you
see my jewel?
SECOND FRIEND Did you see my cap?
THIRD FRIEND Here ’tis.
FOURTH FRIEND Here lies my gown.
FIRST FRIEND Let’s make no stay.
SECOND FRIEND
Lord Timon’s mad.
THIRD FRIEND I feel ’t upon my bones.
FOURTH FRIEND
One day he gives us diamonds, next day stones.
The Senators and the others exit.

Enter Timon.

TIMON
Let me look back upon thee. O thou wall
That girdles in those wolves, dive in the earth
And fence not Athens! Matrons, turn incontinent!
Obedience fail in children! Slaves and fools,
Pluck the grave wrinkled Senate from the bench
And minister in their steads! To general filths
Convert o’ th’ instant, green virginity!
Do ’t in your parents’ eyes! Bankrupts, hold fast!
Rather than render back, out with your knives
And cut your trusters’ throats! Bound servants, steal!
Large-handed robbers your grave masters are,
And pill by law. Maid, to thy master’s bed!
Thy mistress is o’ th’ brothel. Son of sixteen,
Pluck the lined crutch from thy old limping sire;
With it beat out his brains! Piety and fear,
Religion to the gods, peace, justice, truth,
Domestic awe, night rest, and neighborhood,
Instruction, manners, mysteries, and trades,
Degrees, observances, customs, and laws,
Decline to your confounding contraries,
And yet confusion live! Plagues incident to men,
Your potent and infectious fevers heap
On Athens, ripe for stroke! Thou cold sciatica,

---

Cripple our senators, that their limbs may halt
As lamely as their manners! Lust and liberty,
Creep in the minds and marrows of our youth,
That ’gainst the stream of virtue they may strive
And drown themselves in riot! Itches, blains,
Sow all th’ Athenian bosoms, and their crop
Be general leprosy! Breath infect breath,
That their society, as their friendship, may
Be merely poison! Nothing I’ll bear from thee
But nakedness, thou detestable town!
Take thou that too, with multiplying bans!
Timon will to the woods, where he shall find
Th’ unkindest beast more kinder than mankind.
The gods confound—hear me, you good gods all!—
Th’ Athenians both within and out that wall,
And grant, as Timon grows, his hate may grow
To the whole race of mankind, high and low!
Amen.
He exits.

Enter Steward Flavius with two or three Servants.

FIRST SERVANT
Hear you, Master Steward, where’s our master?
Are we undone, cast off, nothing remaining?
FLAVIUS
Alack, my fellows, what should I say to you?
Let me be recorded by the righteous gods,
I am as poor as you.
FIRST SERVANT Such a house broke?
So noble a master fall’n, all gone, and not
One friend to take his fortune by the arm
And go along with him?
SECOND SERVANT As we do turn our backs

---

From our companion thrown into his grave,
So his familiars to his buried fortunes
Slink all away, leave their false vows with him,
Like empty purses picked; and his poor self,
A dedicated beggar to the air,
With his disease of all-shunned poverty,
Walks, like contempt, alone.

Enter other Servants.

More of our fellows.
FLAVIUS
All broken implements of a ruined house.
THIRD SERVANT
Yet do our hearts wear Timon’s livery.
That see I by our faces. We are fellows still,
Serving alike in sorrow. Leaked is our bark,
And we, poor mates, stand on the dying deck,
Hearing the surges threat. We must all part
Into this sea of air.
FLAVIUS Good fellows all,
The latest of my wealth I’ll share amongst you.
Wherever we shall meet, for Timon’s sake
Let’s yet be fellows. Let’s shake our heads and say,
As ’twere a knell unto our master’s fortunes,
“We have seen better days.” ( He offers them
money. ) Let each take some.
Nay, put out all your hands. Not one word more.
Thus part we rich in sorrow, parting poor.
The Servants embrace and part several ways.
O, the fierce wretchedness that glory brings us!
Who would not wish to be from wealth exempt,
Since riches point to misery and contempt?
Who would be so mocked with glory, or to live
But in a dream of friendship,
To have his pomp and all what state compounds
But only painted, like his varnished friends?

---

Poor honest lord, brought low by his own heart,
Undone by goodness! Strange unusual blood
When man’s worst sin is he does too much good!
Who then dares to be half so kind again?
For bounty, that makes gods, do still mar men.
My dearest lord, blest to be most accursed,
Rich only to be wretched, thy great fortunes
Are made thy chief afflictions. Alas, kind lord!
He’s flung in rage from this ingrateful seat
Of monstrous friends,
Nor has he with him to supply his life,
Or that which can command it.
I’ll follow and inquire him out.
I’ll ever serve his mind with my best will.
Whilst I have gold, I’ll be his steward still.
He exits.

Enter Timon in the woods, with a spade.

TIMON
O blessèd breeding sun, draw from the Earth
Rotten humidity! Below thy sister’s orb
Infect the air! Twinned brothers of one womb,
Whose procreation, residence, and birth
Scarce is dividant, touch them with several fortunes,
The greater scorns the lesser. Not nature,
To whom all sores lay siege, can bear great fortune
But by contempt of nature.
Raise me this beggar, and deny ’t that lord;
The Senators shall bear contempt hereditary,
The beggar native honor.
It is the pasture lards the brother’s sides,
The want that makes him lean . Who dares, who
dares

---

In purity of manhood stand upright
And say “This man’s a flatterer”? If one be,
So are they all, for every grise of fortune
Is smoothed by that below. The learnèd pate
Ducks to the golden fool. All’s obliquy.
There’s nothing level in our cursèd natures
But direct villainy. Therefore be abhorred
All feasts, societies, and throngs of men.
His semblable, yea, himself, Timon disdains.
Destruction fang mankind! Earth, yield me roots!
Who seeks for better of thee, sauce his palate
With thy most operant poison! ( Digging , he finds
gold. ) What is here?
Gold? Yellow, glittering, precious gold?
No, gods, I am no idle votarist.
Roots, you clear heavens! Thus much of this will
make
Black white, foul fair, wrong right,
Base noble, old young, coward valiant.
Ha, you gods! Why this? What this, you gods? Why,
this
Will lug your priests and servants from your sides,
Pluck stout men’s pillows from below their heads.
This yellow slave
Will knit and break religions, bless th’ accursed,
Make the hoar leprosy adored, place thieves
And give them title, knee, and approbation
With senators on the bench. This is it
That makes the wappened widow wed again;
She whom the spital house and ulcerous sores
Would cast the gorge at, this embalms and spices
To th’ April day again. Come, damnèd earth,
Thou common whore of mankind, that puts odds
Among the rout of nations, I will make thee
Do thy right nature. ( March afar off. ) Ha? A drum?
Thou ’rt quick,

---

But yet I’ll bury thee. Thou ’lt go, strong thief,
When gouty keepers of thee cannot stand.
Nay, stay thou out for earnest.
He buries the gold, keeping some out.

Enter Alcibiades, with Drum and Fife, in warlike
manner, and Phrynia and Timandra.

ALCIBIADES What art thou there? Speak.
TIMON
A beast, as thou art. The canker gnaw thy heart
For showing me again the eyes of man!
ALCIBIADES
What is thy name? Is man so hateful to thee
That art thyself a man?
TIMON
I am Misanthropos and hate mankind.
For thy part, I do wish thou wert a dog,
That I might love thee something.
ALCIBIADES I know thee well.
But in thy fortunes am unlearned and strange.
TIMON
I know thee too, and more than that I know thee
I not desire to know. Follow thy drum.
With man’s blood paint the ground gules, gules!
Religious canons, civil laws are cruel.
Then what should war be? This fell whore of thine
Hath in her more destruction than thy sword,
For all her cherubin look.
PHRYNIA Thy lips rot off!
TIMON
I will not kiss thee. Then the rot returns
To thine own lips again.
ALCIBIADES
How came the noble Timon to this change?
TIMON
As the moon does, by wanting light to give.

---

But then renew I could not, like the moon;
There were no suns to borrow of.
ALCIBIADES
Noble Timon, what friendship may I do thee?
TIMON
None, but to maintain my opinion.
ALCIBIADES What is it, Timon?
TIMON Promise me friendship, but perform none. If
thou wilt not promise, the gods plague thee, for
thou art a man. If thou dost perform, confound
thee, for thou art a man.
ALCIBIADES
I have heard in some sort of thy miseries.
TIMON
Thou saw’st them when I had prosperity.
ALCIBIADES
I see them now. Then was a blessèd time.
TIMON
As thine is now, held with a brace of harlots.
TIMANDRA
Is this th’ Athenian minion whom the world
Voiced so regardfully?
TIMON Art thou Timandra?
TIMANDRA Yes.
TIMON
Be a whore still. They love thee not that use thee.
Give them diseases, leaving with thee their lust.
Make use of thy salt hours. Season the slaves
For tubs and baths. Bring down rose-cheeked youth
To the tub-fast and the diet.
TIMANDRA Hang thee, monster!
ALCIBIADES
Pardon him, sweet Timandra, for his wits
Are drowned and lost in his calamities.—
I have but little gold of late, brave Timon,
The want whereof doth daily make revolt

---

In my penurious band. I have heard and grieved
How cursèd Athens, mindless of thy worth,
Forgetting thy great deeds when neighbor states,
But for thy sword and fortune, trod upon them—
TIMON
I prithee, beat thy drum and get thee gone.
ALCIBIADES
I am thy friend and pity thee, dear Timon.
TIMON
How dost thou pity him whom thou dost trouble?
I had rather be alone.
ALCIBIADES
Why, fare thee well. Here is some gold for thee.
TIMON Keep it. I cannot eat it.
ALCIBIADES
When I have laid proud Athens on a heap—
TIMON
Warr’st thou ’gainst Athens?
ALCIBIADES Ay, Timon, and have cause.
TIMON
The gods confound them all in thy conquest,
And thee after, when thou hast conquered!
ALCIBIADES
Why me, Timon?
TIMON That by killing of villains
Thou wast born to conquer my country.
Put up thy gold. Go on. Here’s gold. Go on.
Be as a planetary plague when Jove
Will o’er some high-viced city hang his poison
In the sick air. Let not thy sword skip one.
Pity not honored age for his white beard;
He is an usurer. Strike me the counterfeit matron;
It is her habit only that is honest,
Herself’s a bawd. Let not the virgin’s cheek
Make soft thy trenchant sword, for those milk paps,
That through the window-bars bore at men’s eyes,

---

Are not within the leaf of pity writ,
But set them down horrible traitors. Spare not the
babe,
Whose dimpled smiles from fools exhaust their
mercy;
Think it a bastard whom the oracle
Hath doubtfully pronounced the throat shall cut,
And mince it sans remorse. Swear against objects;
Put armor on thine ears and on thine eyes,
Whose proof nor yells of mothers, maids, nor babes,
Nor sight of priests in holy vestments bleeding,
Shall pierce a jot. ( He offers gold. ) There’s gold to
pay thy soldiers.
Make large confusion and, thy fury spent,
Confounded be thyself! Speak not. Begone.
ALCIBIADES
Hast thou gold yet? I’ll take the gold thou givest me,
Not all thy counsel.
TIMON
Dost thou or dost thou not, heaven’s curse upon thee!
BOTH WOMEN
Give us some gold, good Timon. Hast thou more?
TIMON
Enough to make a whore forswear her trade,
And to make whores a bawd. Hold up, you sluts,
Your aprons mountant. ( He begins throwing gold
into their aprons. ) You are not oathable,
Although I know you’ll swear—terribly swear
Into strong shudders and to heavenly agues
Th’ immortal gods that hear you. Spare your oaths.
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 up.
Let your close fire predominate his smoke,
And be no turncoats. Yet may your pains six months
Be quite contrary. And thatch your poor thin roofs

---

With burdens of the dead—some that were hanged,
No matter; wear them, betray with them. Whore
still.
Paint till a horse may mire upon your face.
A pox of wrinkles!
BOTH WOMEN Well, more gold. What then?
Believe ’t that we’ll do anything for gold.
TIMON 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 curled-pate
ruffians bald,
And let the unscarred braggarts of the war
Derive some pain from you. Plague all,
That your activity may defeat and quell
The source of all erection. There’s more gold.
Do you damn others, and let this damn you,
And ditches grave you all!
BOTH WOMEN
More counsel with more money, bounteous Timon.
TIMON
More whore, more mischief first! I have given you
earnest.
ALCIBIADES
Strike up the drum towards Athens.—Farewell,
Timon.
If I thrive well, I’ll visit thee again.
TIMON
If I hope well, I’ll never see thee more.
ALCIBIADES I never did thee harm.

---

TIMON
Yes, thou spok’st well of me.
ALCIBIADES Call’st thou that harm?
TIMON
Men daily find it. Get thee away, and take
Thy beagles with thee.
ALCIBIADES , to the Women We but offend him.—
Strike. The drum sounds; all but Timon exit.
TIMON
That nature, being sick of man’s unkindness,
Should yet be hungry! ( He digs. ) Common mother,
thou
Whose womb unmeasurable and infinite breast
Teems and feeds all; whose selfsame mettle—
Whereof thy proud child, arrogant man, is puffed—
Engenders the black toad and adder blue,
The gilded newt and eyeless venomed worm,
With all th’ abhorrèd births below crisp heaven
Whereon Hyperion’s quick’ning fire doth shine:
Yield him who all thy human sons do hate,
From forth thy plenteous bosom, one poor root!
Ensear thy fertile and conceptious womb;
Let it no more bring out ingrateful man.
Go great with tigers, dragons, wolves, and bears;
Teem with new monsters, whom thy upward face
Hath to the marbled mansion all above
Never presented. O, a root! Dear thanks!
Dry up thy marrows, vines, and plow-torn leas,
Whereof ingrateful man with liquorish drafts
And morsels unctuous greases his pure mind,
That from it all consideration slips—

Enter Apemantus.

More man? Plague, plague!
APEMANTUS
I was directed hither. Men report
Thou dost affect my manners and dost use them.

---

TIMON
’Tis, then, because thou dost not keep a dog,
Whom I would imitate. Consumption catch thee!
APEMANTUS
This is in thee a nature but infected,
A poor unmanly melancholy sprung
From change of future. Why this spade? This place?
This slavelike habit and these looks of care?
Thy flatterers yet wear silk, drink wine, lie soft,
Hug their diseased perfumes, and have forgot
That ever Timon was. Shame not these woods
By putting on the cunning of a carper.
Be thou a flatterer 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 bade
welcome,
To knaves and all approachers. ’Tis most just
That thou turn rascal. Had’st thou wealth again,
Rascals should have ’t. Do not assume my likeness.
TIMON
Were I like thee, I’d throw away myself.
APEMANTUS
Thou hast cast away thyself, being like thyself—
A madman so long, now a fool. What, think’st
That the bleak air, thy boisterous chamberlain,
Will put thy shirt on warm? Will these moist trees,
That have outlived the eagle, page thy heels
And skip when thou point’st out? Will the cold brook,
Candied with ice, caudle thy morning taste
To cure thy o’ernight’s surfeit? Call the creatures
Whose naked natures live in all the spite
Of wreakful heaven, whose bare unhousèd trunks,

---

To the conflicting elements exposed,
Answer mere nature. Bid them flatter thee.
O, thou shalt find—
TIMON A fool of thee. Depart.
APEMANTUS
I love thee better now than e’er I did.
TIMON
I hate thee worse.
APEMANTUS Why?
TIMON Thou flatter’st misery.
APEMANTUS
I flatter not but say thou art a caitiff.
TIMON Why dost thou seek me out?
APEMANTUS To vex thee.
TIMON
Always a villain’s office or a fool’s.
Dost please thyself in ’t?
APEMANTUS Ay.
TIMON What, a knave too?
APEMANTUS
If thou didst put this sour cold habit on
To castigate thy pride, ’twere well, but thou
Dost it enforcedly. Thou ’dst courtier be again
Wert thou not beggar. Willing misery
Outlives incertain pomp, is crowned before;
The one is filling still, never complete,
The other at high wish. Best state, contentless,
Hath a distracted and most wretched being,
Worse than the worst, content.
Thou shouldst desire to die, being miserable.
TIMON
Not by his breath that is more miserable.
Thou art a slave whom Fortune’s tender arm
With favor never clasped but bred a dog.
Hadst thou, like us from our first swathe, proceeded
The sweet degrees that this brief world affords

---

To such as may the passive drugs of it
Freely command , thou wouldst have plunged
thyself
In general riot, melted down thy youth
In different beds of lust, and never learned
The icy precepts of respect, but followed
The sugared game before thee. But myself—
Who had the world as my confectionary,
The mouths, the tongues, the eyes and hearts of
men
At duty, more than I could frame employment,
That numberless upon me stuck as leaves
Do on the oak, have with one winter’s brush
Fell 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 sufferance. Time
Hath made thee hard in ’t. Why shouldst thou hate
men?
They never flattered thee. What hast thou given?
If thou wilt curse, thy father, that poor rag,
Must be thy subject, who in spite put stuff
To some she-beggar and compounded thee
Poor rogue hereditary. Hence, begone.
If thou hadst not been born the worst of men,
Thou hadst been a knave and flatterer.
APEMANTUS
Art thou proud yet?
TIMON Ay, that I am not thee.
APEMANTUS I, that I was no prodigal.
TIMON 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. He gnaws a root.
APEMANTUS , offering food Here, I will mend thy feast.

---

TIMON
First mend my company. Take away thyself.
APEMANTUS
So I shall mend mine own by th’ lack of thine.
TIMON
’Tis not well mended so; it is but botched.
If not, I would it were.
APEMANTUS What wouldst thou have to Athens?
TIMON
Thee thither in a whirlwind. If thou wilt,
Tell them there I have gold. Look, so I have.
APEMANTUS
Here is no use for gold.
TIMON The best and truest,
For here it sleeps and does no hired harm.
APEMANTUS Where liest a-nights, Timon?
TIMON Under that’s above me. Where feed’st thou
a-days, Apemantus?
APEMANTUS Where my stomach finds meat, or rather
where I eat it.
TIMON Would poison were obedient and knew my
mind!
APEMANTUS Where wouldst thou send it?
TIMON To sauce thy dishes.
APEMANTUS The middle of humanity thou never
knewest, but the extremity of both ends. When
thou wast in thy gilt and thy perfume, they
mocked thee for too much curiosity. In thy rags
thou know’st none, but art despised for the contrary.
There’s a medlar for thee. Eat it.
TIMON On what I hate I feed not.
APEMANTUS Dost hate a medlar?
TIMON Ay, though it look like thee.
APEMANTUS An thou ’dst hated meddlers sooner, thou
shouldst have loved thyself better now. What man
didst thou ever know unthrift that was beloved
after his means?

---

TIMON Who, without those means thou talk’st of, didst
thou ever know beloved?
APEMANTUS Myself.
TIMON I understand thee. Thou hadst some means to
keep a dog.
APEMANTUS What things in the world canst thou nearest
compare to thy flatterers?
TIMON Women nearest, but men—men are the things
themselves. What wouldst thou do with the world,
Apemantus, if it lay in thy power?
APEMANTUS Give it the beasts, to be rid of the men.
TIMON Wouldst thou have thyself fall in the confusion
of men and remain a beast with the beasts?
APEMANTUS Ay, Timon.
TIMON A beastly ambition, which the gods grant thee
t’ attain to! If thou wert the lion, the fox would
beguile thee. If thou wert the lamb, the fox would
eat thee. If thou wert the fox, the lion would suspect
thee when peradventure thou wert accused by
the ass. If thou wert the ass, thy dullness would
torment thee, and still thou lived’st but as a breakfast
to the wolf. If thou wert the wolf, thy greediness
would afflict thee, and oft thou shouldst hazard
thy life for thy dinner. Wert thou the unicorn,
pride and wrath would confound thee and
make thine own self the conquest of thy fury. Wert
thou a bear, thou wouldst be killed by the horse.
Wert thou a horse, thou wouldst be seized by the
leopard. Wert thou a leopard, thou wert germane
to the lion, and the spots of thy kindred were
jurors on thy life. All thy safety were remotion, and
thy defense absence. What beast couldst thou be
that were not subject to a beast? And what a beast
art thou already that seest not thy loss in
transformation!
APEMANTUS If thou couldst please me with speaking to

---

me, thou mightst have hit upon it here. The commonwealth
of Athens is become a forest of beasts.
TIMON How, has the ass broke the wall that thou art
out of the city?
APEMANTUS Yonder comes a poet and a painter. The
plague of company light upon thee! I will fear to
catch it and give way. When I know not what else
to do, I’ll see thee again.
TIMON When there is nothing living but thee, thou
shalt be welcome. I had rather be a beggar’s dog
than Apemantus.
APEMANTUS
Thou art the cap of all the fools alive.
TIMON
Would thou wert clean enough to spit upon!
APEMANTUS
A plague on thee! Thou art too bad to curse.
TIMON
All villains that do stand by thee are pure.
APEMANTUS
There is no leprosy but what thou speak’st.
TIMON If I name thee.
I’ll beat thee, but I should infect my hands.
APEMANTUS I would my tongue could rot them off!
TIMON
Away, thou issue of a mangy dog!
Choler does kill me that thou art alive.
I swoon to see thee.
APEMANTUS
Would thou wouldst burst!
TIMON Away, thou tedious rogue!
I am sorry I shall lose a stone by thee.
Timon throws a stone at Apemantus.
APEMANTUS Beast!
TIMON Slave!
APEMANTUS Toad!

---

TIMON Rogue, rogue, rogue!
I am sick of this false world, and will love nought
But even the mere necessities upon ’t.
Then, Timon, presently prepare thy grave.
Lie where the light foam of the sea may beat
Thy gravestone daily. Make thine epitaph,
That death in me at others’ lives may laugh.
( To his gold. ) O thou sweet king-killer and dear
divorce
’Twixt natural son and sire , thou bright defiler
Of Hymen’s purest bed, thou valiant Mars,
Thou ever young, fresh, loved, and delicate wooer,
Whose blush doth thaw the consecrated snow
That lies on Dian’s lap; thou visible god,
That sold’rest close impossibilities
And mak’st them kiss, that speak’st with every
tongue
To every purpose! O thou touch of hearts,
Think thy slave, man, rebels, and by thy virtue
Set them into confounding odds, that beasts
May have the world in empire!
APEMANTUS Would ’twere so!
But not till I am dead. I’ll say thou ’st gold;
Thou wilt be thronged to shortly.
TIMON Thronged to?
APEMANTUS Ay.
TIMON
Thy back, I prithee.
APEMANTUS Live and love thy misery.
TIMON Long live so, and so die. I am quit.

Enter the Banditti.

APEMANTUS
More things like men.—Eat, Timon, and abhor
them . Apemantus exits.
FIRST BANDIT Where should he have this gold? It is

---

some poor fragment, some slender ort of his
remainder. The mere want of gold and the falling-from
of his friends drove him into this melancholy.
SECOND BANDIT It is noised he hath a mass of treasure.
THIRD BANDIT Let us make the assay upon him. If he
care not for ’t, he will supply us easily. If he covetously
reserve it, how shall ’s get it?
SECOND BANDIT True, for he bears it not about him. ’Tis
hid.
FIRST BANDIT Is not this he?
OTHERS Where?
SECOND BANDIT ’Tis his description.
THIRD BANDIT He. I know him.
ALL Save thee, Timon.
TIMON Now, thieves?
ALL
Soldiers, not thieves.
TIMON Both, too, and women’s sons.
ALL
We are not thieves, but men that much do want.
TIMON
Your greatest want is, you want much of meat.
Why should you want? Behold, the earth hath roots.
Within this mile break forth a hundred springs.
The oaks bear mast, the briars scarlet hips.
The bounteous huswife Nature on each bush
Lays her full mess before you. Want? Why want?
FIRST BANDIT
We cannot live on grass, on berries, water,
As beasts and birds and fishes.
TIMON
Nor on the beasts themselves, the birds and fishes;
You must eat men. Yet thanks I must you con
That you are thieves professed, that you work not
In holier shapes, for there is boundless theft
In limited professions. Rascal thieves,

---

Here’s gold. ( He gives them gold. ) Go, suck the
subtle blood o’ th’ grape
Till the high fever seethe your blood to froth,
And so ’scape hanging. Trust not the physician;
His antidotes are poison, and he slays
More than you rob. Take wealth and lives together.
Do, villainy , do, since you protest to do ’t,
Like workmen. I’ll example you with thievery.
The sun’s a thief and with his great attraction
Robs the vast sea. The moon’s an arrant thief,
And her pale fire she snatches from the sun.
The sea’s a thief, whose liquid surge resolves
The moon into salt tears. The earth’s a thief,
That feeds and breeds by a composture stol’n
From gen’ral excrement. Each thing’s a thief.
The laws, your curb and whip, in their rough power
Has unchecked theft. Love not yourselves. Away!
Rob one another. There’s more gold. ( He gives them
gold. ) Cut throats.
All that you meet are thieves. To Athens go.
Break open shops. Nothing can you steal
But thieves do lose it. Steal less for this I give you,
And gold confound you howsoe’er! Amen.
THIRD BANDIT Has almost charmed me from my profession
by persuading me to it.
FIRST BANDIT ’Tis in the malice of mankind that he
thus advises us, not to have us thrive in our
mystery.
SECOND BANDIT I’ll believe him as an enemy and give
over my trade.
FIRST BANDIT Let us first see peace in Athens. There is
no time so miserable but a man may be true.
Thieves exit.

Enter Flavius the Steward, to Timon.

FLAVIUS O you gods!

---

Is yond despised and ruinous man my lord?
Full of decay and flailing? O, monument
And wonder of good deeds evilly bestowed!
What an alteration of honor has desp’rate want
made!
What viler thing upon the Earth than friends,
Who can bring noblest minds to basest ends!
How rarely does it meet with this time’s guise,
When man was wished to love his enemies!
Grant I may ever love, and rather woo
Those that would mischief me than those that do!
Has caught me in his eye. I will present
My honest grief unto him and as my lord
Still serve him with my life.—My dearest master.
TIMON
Away! What art thou?
FLAVIUS Have you forgot me, sir?
TIMON
Why dost ask that? I have forgot all men.
Then, if thou grant’st thou ’rt a man, I have forgot
thee.
FLAVIUS An honest poor servant of yours.
TIMON Then I know thee not.
I never had honest man about me, I. All
I kept were knaves to serve in meat to villains.
FLAVIUS The gods are witness,
Ne’er did poor steward wear a truer grief
For his undone lord than mine eyes for you.
He weeps.
TIMON
What, dost thou weep? Come nearer, then. I love
thee
Because thou art a woman and disclaim’st
Flinty mankind, whose eyes do never give
But thorough lust and laughter. Pity’s sleeping.

---

Strange times that weep with laughing, not with
weeping!
FLAVIUS
I beg of you to know me, good my lord,
T’ accept my grief, and, whilst this poor wealth lasts,
To entertain me as your steward still.
He offers money.
TIMON Had I a steward
So true, so just, and now so comfortable?
It almost turns my dangerous nature mild .
Let me behold thy face. Surely this man
Was born of woman.
Forgive my general and exceptless rashness,
You perpetual-sober gods. I do proclaim
One honest man—mistake me not, but one;
No more, I pray!—and he’s a steward.
How fain would I have hated all mankind,
And thou redeem’st thyself. But all, save thee,
I fell with curses.
Methinks thou art more honest now than wise,
For by oppressing and betraying me
Thou mightst have sooner got another service;
For many so arrive at second masters
Upon their first lord’s neck. But tell me true—
For I must ever doubt, though ne’er so sure—
Is not thy kindness subtle, covetous,
A usuring kindness, and as rich men deal gifts,
Expecting in return twenty for one?
FLAVIUS
No, my most worthy master, in whose breast
Doubt and suspect, alas, are placed too late.
You should have feared false times when you did
feast.
Suspect still comes where an estate is least.
That which I show, heaven knows, is merely love,
Duty, and zeal to your unmatchèd mind,

---

Care of your food and living. And believe it,
My most honored lord,
For any benefit that points to me,
Either in hope or present, I’d exchange
For this one wish, that you had power and wealth
To requite me by making rich yourself.
TIMON
Look thee, ’tis so. Thou singly honest man,
Here, take. ( Timon offers gold. ) The gods out of my
misery
Has sent thee treasure. Go, live rich and happy,
But thus conditioned: thou shalt build from men;
Hate all, curse all, show charity to none,
But let the famished flesh slide from the bone
Ere thou relieve the beggar; give to dogs
What thou deniest to men; let prisons swallow ’em,
Debts wither ’em to nothing; be men like blasted
woods,
And may diseases lick up their false bloods!
And so farewell and thrive.
FLAVIUS O, let me stay
And comfort you, my master.
TIMON If thou hat’st curses,
Stay not. Fly whilst thou art blest and free.
Ne’er see thou man, and let me ne’er see thee.
They exit.