Honour, and fortunes, keep with you, lord Timon!
Tim. Ready for his friends. [Exe.ALCIB. Lords, &c.
Apem. 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.
Tim. Now, Apemantus, if thou wert not sullen,
I'd be good to thee.

Apem. No, I'll nothing for,

If I should be brib'd too, there would be none left
To rail upon thee; and then thou wouldst sin the faster.
Thou giv'st so long, Timon, I fear me, thou

Wilt give away thyself in paper shortly :9

What need these feasts, pomps, and vain glories?
Tim. Nay,

An you begin to rail on society once,

I am sworn, not to give regard to you.
Farewell; and come with better music.

Apem. So ;

I

[Exit.

Thou'lt 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!

ACT II.

[Exit.

SCENE 1.-The same. A Room in a Senator's House. Enter a Senator, with Papers in his hand.

Sen. 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,

[7] Beck means a salutation with the head. So Milton, "Nods and becks, and wreathed siniles."

JOHNS.

To serve a beck-means, to pay a courtly obedience to a nod. STEEV. [8] He plays upon the word leg, as it signifies a limb, and a bow or act af obedience. JOHNS.

[9] Be ruined by securities entered into. [1] By his heaven he means good advice.

WARB.

M. MASON.

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 found his state in safety. Caphis, ho!
Caphis, I say!

Enter CAPHIS.

Caph. Here, sir; What is your pleasure?

Sen. Get on your cloak, and haste you to lord Timon;
Impórtune him for my monies; be not ceas'd
With slight denial; nor then silenc'd, when-
Commend me to your master-and the cap

Plays in the right hand, thus :-but tell him, sirrah,
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

Has smit my credit: I love, and honour him ;
But must not break my back, to heal his finger:
Immediate are my needs; and my relief
Must not be toss'd and turn'd to me in words,
But find supply immediate. Get you gone:
Put on a most importunate aspéct,

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.2 Get you gone.
Caph. I go, sir.

Sen. I go, sir?-Take the bonds along with you,
And have the dates in compt.

Caph. I will, sir.

Sen. Go.

"The same.

SCENE II.

[Exeunt.

A Hall in TIMON's House. Enter FLAVIUS, with
many bills in his hand.

Flav. No care, no stop! so senseless of expence,
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. 3

[2] A gull is a bird as remarkable for the poverty of its feathers, as a phoenix is supposed to be for the richness of its plumage.

STEEV.

[3] To make this line sense and grammar, it should be supplied thus:

Was [made] to be so unwise, [in order] to be so kind;

3. e. Nature, in order to make a profuse mind, never before endowed any anan with so large a share of folly. WARB.

What shall be done? He will not hear, till feel:

I must be round with him, now he comes from hunting. Fye, fye, fye, fye!

Enter CAPHIS, and the Servants of ISIDORE and VARRO.

Caph. Good even, Varro :4 What,

You come for money?

Var. Serv. Is't not your business too?
Caph. It is;-And yours too, Isidore?
Isid. Serv. It is so.

Caph. 'Would we were all discharg'd!
Var. Serv. I fear it.

Caph. Here comes the lord.

Enter TIMON, ALCIBIADES, and Lords, &c.
Tim. So soon as dinner's done, we'll forth again,
My Alcibiades.-With me? what's your will?
Caph. My lord, here is a note of certain dues.
Tim. Dues? Whence are you?

Caph. Of Athens here, my lord.
Tim. Go to my steward.

Caph. Please it your lordship, he hath put me off
To the succession of new days this month:

My master is awak'd by great occasion,

To call upon his own; and humbly prays you,
That with your other noble parts you'll suit,5
In giving him his right.

Tim. Mine honest friend,

I pr'ythee, but repair to me next morning.

Caph. Nay, good my lord,

Tim. Contain thyself, good friend.

Var. Serv. One Varro's servant, my good lord,-
Isid. Serv. From Isidore

He humbly prays your speedy payment,

Caph. If you did know, my lord, my master's wants,Var. Serv. 'Twas due on forfeiture, my lord,six weeks, And past,

Isid. Serv. Your steward puts me off, my lord; And I am sent expressly to your lordship.

Tim. Give me breath :

[4] Good even, or as it is sometimes less accurately written, good den, was the usual salutation from noon, the moment that good morrow became improper.

STEEV.

Whether servants in our author's time took the names of their master, I know not. Perhaps it is a slip of negligence. JOHNS.

[5] That you will behave on this occasion in a manner consistent with your other noble qualities. STEEV.

I do beseech you, good my lords, keep on ;

[Exe. ALCIBIADES and Lords. I'll wait upon you instantly.-Come hither, pray you. [To FLAVIUS.

How goes the world, that I am thus encounter'd
With clamorous demands of date-broke bonds,
And the detention of long-since-due debts,
Against my honour ?

Flav. 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.

Tim. Do so, my friends:

See them well entertain'd.

Flav. I pray, draw near.

[Exit TIMON. [Exit FLAVIUS.

Enter APEMANTUS and a Fool.6

Caph. Stay, stay, here comes the fool with Apemantus; let's have some sport with 'em.

Var. Serv. Hang him, he'll abuse us.
Isid. Serv. A plague upon him, dog!
Var. Serv. How dost, fool?

Apem. Dost dialogue with thy shadow ?
Var. Serv. I speak not to thee.

Apem. No; 'tis to thyself,-Come away. [To the Fool. Isid. Serv. [To Var. Serv.] There's the fool hangs on your back already.

Apem. No, thou stand'st single, thou art not on him yet. Caph. Where's the fool now?

Apem. He last asked the question.-Poor rogues, and usurers' men! bawds between gold and want! All Serv. What are we, Apemantus ?

Apem. Asses.

All Serv. Why?

Apem. That you ask me what you are, and do not know yourselves.--Speak to 'em, fool.

Fool. How do you, gentlemen?

All Ser. 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.7

[6] I suspect some scene to be lost, in which the entrance of the fool, and the page that follows him, was prepared by some introductory dialogue, in which the audience was informed that they were the fool and page of Phry. nia, Timandra, or some other courtezan, upon the knowledge of which de pends the greater part of the ensuing jocularity. [7] A cant term for a bawdy-house.

WARB.

JOHNS.

Apem. Good! gramercy.

Enter Page.

Fool. Look you, here comes my mistress' page. Page. [To the Fool.] Why, how now, captain? what do you in this wise company? How dost thou, Apemantus? Apem. 'Would I had a rod in my mouth, that I might answer thee profitably.

Page. Pr'ythee, Apemantus, read me the superscription of these letters; I know not which is which. Apem. Canst not read?

Page. No.

Apem. 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. [Exit. Apem. Even so thou out-runn'st grace. Fool, I will go with you to lord Timon's.

Fool. Will you leave me there.

Apem. If Timon stay at home.-You three serve three usurers?

All Serv. Ay; 'would they served us!

Apem. So would I,-as good a trick as ever hangman served thief.

Fool. Are you three usurers' men?

All Serv. 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 mistress' house merrily, and go away sadly: The reason of this?

Var. Serv. I could render one.

Apem. Do it then, that we may account thee a whoremaster, and a knave; which notwithstanding, thou shalt be no less esteem'd.

Var. Serv. What is a whoremaster, fool?

Fool. A fool in good clothes, and something like thee: 'Tis a spirit: sometime, it appears like a lord; sometime, like a lawyer; sometime, like a philosopher, with two stones more than his 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.

Var. Serv. Thou art not altogether a fool.