Then, if thou grant'st thou 'rt a man, I have forgot thee. Flav. An honest poor servant of yours. Tim. Then I know thee not. I ne'er had honest man about me, I; all I kept were knaves, to serve in meat to villains. Ne'er did poor steward wear a truer grief Because thou art a woman, and disclaim'st Flav. I beg of you to know me, good my lord, To accept my grief, and, whilst this poor wealth lasts, To entertain me as your steward still. Tim. Had I a steward So true, so just, and now so comfortable? Forgive my general and exceptless rashness, Methinks thou art more honest now than wise; Expecting in return twenty for one? Flav. 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. For any benefit that points to me, Either in hope or present, I'd exchange Tim. Look thee, 't is so!-Thou singly honest man, Here, take the gods out of my misery Debts wither them to nothing: be men like Flav. O, let me stay and comfort you, my master! Tim. If thou hat'st curses, Stay not; fly while thou 'rt blessed and free: Ne'er see thou man, and let me ne'er see thee. SCENE I.-Before TIMON's Cave. Enter Poet and Painter; TIMON behind, unseen. Pain. As I took note of the place, it cannot be far where he abides. Poet. What's to be thought of him? Does the rumour hold for true, that he is so full of gold? Pain. Certain : Alcibiades reports it; Phrynia and Timandra had gold of him: he likewise enriched poor straggling soldiers with great quantity: 't is said, he gave unto his steward a mighty sum. Poet. Then this breaking of his has been but a try for his friends. Pain. Nothing else: you shall see him a palm in Athens again, and flourish with the highest. Therefore, 't is not amiss we tender our loves to him, in this supposed distress of his : it will shew honesty in us; and is very likely to load our purposes with what they travel for, if it be a just and true report that goes of his having. Poet. What have you now to present unto him? Pain. Nothing at this time but my visitation: only I will promise him an excellent piece. Poet. I must serve him so too; tell him of an intent that's coming toward him. Pain. Good as the best. Promising is the very air o' the time: it opens the eyes of expectation: performance is ever the duller for his act; and, but in the plainer and simpler kind of people, the deed of saying is quite out of use. To promise is most courtly and fashionable: performance is a kind of will or testament, which argues a great sickness in his judgment that makes it. Tim. Excellent workman! thou canst not paint a man so bad as is thyself. Poet. I am thinking what I shall say I have provided for him. It must be a personating of himself: a satire against the softness of prosperity; with a discovery of the infinite flatteries that follow youth and opulency. Tim. Must thou needs stand for a villain in thine own work? wilt thou whip thine own faults in other men? Do so; I have gold for thee. Poet. Nay, let's seek him: Then do we sin against our own estate, When the day serves, before black-cornered night, Tim. I'll meet you at the turn. What a god's gold, That he is worshipped in a baser temple Than where swine feed! "Tis thou that rigg'st the bark, and plough'st the Tim. Have I once lived to see two honest men? Poet. Sir, Having often of your open bounty tasted, Whose starlike nobleness gave life and influence Tim. Let it go naked; men may see 't the better: You that are honest, by being what you are, Make them best seen and known. Tim. Look you, I love you well; I'll give you gold, Rid me these villains from your companies: Hang them, or stab them, drown them in a draught, Confound them by some course, and come to me, I'll give you gold enough. Both. Name them, my lord; let's know them. Tim. You that way, and you this; but two in company: Each man apart, all single and alone, Yet an arch-villain keeps him company. If where thou art two villains shall not be, [To the Painter. Come not near him.-If thou wouldst not reside [To the Poet. But where one villain is, then him abandon.Hence! pack! there's gold; ye came for gold, ye slaves: Of its own fall, restraining aid to Timon; Tim. You witch me in it; Who, like a boar too savage, doth root up 2nd Sen. And shakes his threat'ning sword Against the walls of Athens. If Alcibiades kill my countrymen, That Timon cares not. But if he sack fair Athens, Of contumelious, beastly, mad-brained war; Then let him know,-and tell him, Timon speaks it In pity of our aged and our youth, I cannot choose but tell him, that I care not, And let him take 't at worst: for their knives care not, While you have throats to answer: for myself, As thieves to keepers. And tell them that, to ease them of their griefs, I'll teach them to prevent wild Alcibiades' wrath. Tim. Come not to me again: but say to Athens, Sun, hide thy beams! Timon hath done his reign. [Exit TIMON. 1st Sen. His discontents are unremoveably Coupled to nature. 2nd Sen. Our hope in him is dead: let us return, And strain what other means is left unto us In our dear peril. |