Perfons Represented. Timon, A noble Athenian. Lucius, Lucullus, Lords, and flatterers of Timon. Sempronius, Ventidius, one of Timon's falfe Friends. Alcibiades, an Athenian General. Flavius, Steward to Timon. Two fervants of Varro, and the fervant of Ifidore; ¿ of Timon's Creditors. Cupid and Mafkers. Three Strangers. Poet, Painter, Jeweller, and Merchant. Phrynia, Timandra, }Mistresses to Alcibiades. Other Lords, Senators, Officers, Soldiers, Thieves, and Attendants. SCENE, Athens; and the Woods adjoining. TIMON OF ATHENS. A C T I. SCENE I. Athens. A Hall in Timon's Houfe. Enter Poet, Painter, Jeweller, Merchant, and Others, at feveral doors. Poet. G OOD day, fir. Pain. I am glad you are well. Poet. I have not feen you long; How goes the world? Pain. It wears, fir, as it grows. Poet. Ay, that's well known: But what particular rarity? what ftxange, Jew. Nay, that's moft fix'd. Mer. A moft incomparable man; breath'd', as it were, To an untirable and continuate goodness: He paffes2. Jew. I have a jewel here. Mer. O, pray, let's fee':: For the lord Timon, fir? Jew. If he will touch the estimate 3: But, for thatPoet. When we for recompence have prais'd the vile, 1 Breathed is inured by conftant practice; fo trained as not to be wearied. To breathe a horfe, is to exercife him for the courfe. 2 He paffes.] i. e, he exceeds, goes beyond common bounds. 3 touch the eftimate:-] Come up to the price. We muft here fuppofe the poet bufy in reading his own work; and that these three lines are the introduction of the poem addrefied to Timon, which he afterwards gives the painter an account of. Mer. 'Tis a good form. [Looking on the jewel. Jew. And rich: here is a water, look you. Pain. You are rapt, fir, in fome work, fome dedication To the great lord. Poet. A thing flipt idly from me. Our poefy is as a gum, which oozes From whence 'tis nourished: The fire i' the flint Shews not, till it be ftruck; our gentle flame Pain. 'Tis a good piece. Poet. So 'tis: this comes off well and excellent". Poet. Admirable: How this grace Speaks his own ftanding? what a mental power Pain. It is a pretty mocking of the life. Poet. I'll fay of it, It tutors nature: artificial ftrife Lives in these touches, livelier than life. Enter 5 This Ipeech of the poet is very obfcure. He feems to boast the copioufnefs and facility of his vein, by declaring that verfes drop from a poet as gums from odoriferous trees, and that his flame kindles itself without the violence neceffary to elicit sparkles from the flint. What follows next? that it, like a current, flies each bound it chafes. This may mean, that it expands itself notwithstanding all obftructions: but the images in the comparison are fo ill-forted, and the effect so obscurely expreffed, that I cannot but think something omitted that connected the laft fentence with the former. It is well known that the players often fhorten speeches to quicken the representation: and it may be fufpected, that they fometimes performed their amputations with more hafte than judgment. JOHNSON. As foon as my book has been presented to lord Timon. 7 The figure rifes well from the canvas. C'eft bien relevè. Enter certain Senators, and pass over. Pain. How this lord is follow'd! Poet. The fenators of Athens ;-Happy men! Pain. Look, more! Poet. You fee this confluence, this great flood of vifi tors. I have, in this rough work, fhap'd out a man, Pain. How fhall I understand you? You fee, how all conditions, how all minds, K 4 8 My defign does not stop at any Aigle characters. 9 Anciently they wrote upon waxen tables with an iron ftile. Mot To level is to aim, to point the fhot at a mark. Shakspeare's meaning is, my poem is not a fatire written with any particular view, or levelled at any fingle perfon; I fly like an eagle into the general expanfe of life, and leave not, by any private mifchief, the trace of my pallage. 2 I'll unbolt-] I'll open, I ll explain. 3-glib and flippery creatures,] Hanmer, and Warburton after him, read-natures. Slippery is fmooth, unrefifting. 4 That shows in his own look, as by reflection, the looks of hip patron. 5 Either Shakspeare meant to put a falfhood into the mouth of his poet, or had not yet thoroughly planned the character of Apemantus; for in the enfuing fcenes, his behaviour is as cynical to Timon as to his followers. Moft rich in Timon's nod. Pain. I faw them fpeak together. Poet. Sir, I have upon a high and pleasant hill To propagate their states: amongst them all, Pain. 'Tis conceiv'd to scope. This throne, this Fortune, and this hill, methinks, To climb his happiness, would be well exprefs'd Poet. Nay, fir, but hear me on: All those which were his fellows but of late, Pain. Ay, marry, what of these? Poet. When Fortune, in her fhift and change of moody. Spurns down her late belov'd, all his dependants, Which labour'd after him to the mountain's top, Even on their knees and hands, let him flip down, Not one accompanying his declining foot. Pain. 'Tis common: 6 Cover'd with ranks of all kinds of men. JOHNSON. A thousand 7 To advance or improve their various conditions of life. 8 Properly imagined, appofitely, to the purpose. JOHNSON. 9 Condition, for art. Whisperings attended with fuch refpect and veneration as accompany facrifices to the gods. Such is the meaning. 2 That is, catch his breath in affected fondness. |