Yield him, who all thy human fons do's hate,
From forth thy plenteous bosom, one poor root!
s'Then sear' thy fertile and conceptious womb i
Let it no more bring out ingrateful man.
Go great with tygers, dragons, wolves and bears,
Teem with new monsters whom thy upward face
Hath to the marbled manfion all above
Never presented --O, a root-
a

dear thanks!
Dry up thy } 'meadows, vineyards,' plough-torn leas,
Whereof ingrateful man with liqu’ris draughts,
And morsels unctious, greases his pure mind,
That from it all consideration Nips

S с Е N E VI.

Enter Apemantus. More man? plague, plague !

Apem. I was directed hither. Men report Thou dost affect my manners, and doft use them.

Tim. 'Tis then because thou dost not keep a dog Whom I would imitate; consumption catch thee !

Apem. This is in thee a nature but affected, A poor unmanly melancholy, sprung From change of fortune. Why this spade ? this place ? This Nave-like habit, and these looks of care ? Thy flatt'rers yet wear silk, drink wine, lye soft, Hug their diseas'd perfumes, and have forgot That ever Timon was. Shame not these + 'weeds, By putting on the cunning of a carper. Be thou a fatt'rer now, and seek to thrive By that which has undone thee ; hinge thy knee, And let his very breath whom thou'lt obferve Blow off thy cap; praise his most vicious strain, And call it excellent. Thou waft told thus : Thou gav'st thine ears, like tapsters, that bid welcome To knaves, and all approachers : 'Tis most just

That thou turn rascal : hadft thou wealth again,
Rascals should have't. Do not assume my likeness.

Tim. Were I like thee, I'd throw away my self.

Apem. Thou’ast cast away thy self, being like thy self,
So long a mad-man, now a fool. What, think'st thou
That the bleak air, thy boisterous chamberlain,
Will put thy shirt on warm? will these 5 /moss'd' crees
That have out-liv'd the eagle, page thy heels,
And skip when thou point’it out? will the cold brook,
Candied with ice, cawdle thy morning taste
To cure thy o'er-night's surfeit? Call the creatures
Whose naked natures live in all the spight
Of wreakful heav'n, whose bare unhoused trunks,
To the conflicting elements expos’d,
Answer meer nature; bid them fatter thee;
Oh! thou shall find

Tim. A fool of thee ; depart.
Apem. I love thee better now than e'er I did.
6 1 Tim. I hate thee worse : chou Aatter'st mifery.'
Apem. I fatter not, but say thou art a cayliff.
Tim. Why dost thou seek me out?
Apem. 7/Only to vex thee. '

Tim. Always a villain's office, or a fool's.
Doft please thy self in't ?

Apem Ay.
Tim. What a knave 8/thou !

Apem. If thou didst put this sowrè cold habit on
To castigate thy pride, 'were well; but thou
Dost it enforcedly: thou'd it courtier be
Wert thou not beggar. Willing misery
9 'Out-strips' incertain pomp, is crown'd' 'before it :
The one is filling still, never compleat ;
The other, at high with : Best states, contentless,
Have a distracted and most wretched being,

1

2

3

4

Worse than the worst, content.
Thou shouldst desire to die, being miserable.

Tim. Not by his breath, that is more miserable.
Thou art a Nave, whom fortune's tender arm
With favour never clafpt ; 2 bred but a dog.
Hadst thou, like us from our first swath, proceeded
Through swect degrees that this brief world affords
To such as may the passive drugs of it
Freely command; thou would it have plung'd thy self

;
In' general rict, melted down thy youth
In different beds of lust, and never learn'd
The icy precepts of respect, but followed
The sugar'd game before thee. But my self,
Who had the world as my confectionary,
The mouths, the tongues, the eyes, the hearts of men
Ac duty more than I could frame employments;
That numberless upon me stuck, as leaves
Do on the oak; 3 'yet' with one winter's brush
Fall’n from their boughs, + 'have left me open, bare
For every storm that blows; 1 to bear this,
That never knew but better, is some burthen.
Thy nature did commence in suff'rance, time
Hath made thee hard in't. Why should’ít thou hate men ?
They never fatter'd thee. What halt thou given?
If thou wilt curse, thy father that poor rag
Must be thy subject, who in spight put stuff
To some she-beggar, and compounded thee
Poor rogue hereditary. Hence! be

gone
If thou had’st not been born the worst of men,
Thou hadît been knave and flatterer.

Apem. Art thou proud yet?
Tim. Ay, that I am not thee.
Apem. 1, that I was no prodigal.

Tim. 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 Albens were in this!

Thus would I eat it. a

[Eating a root. Apem. What wouldst thou have to Athens?

Tim. Thee thither in a whirlwind; if thou wilt, Tell them there I have gold ; look, so I have.

Apem. Here is no use for gold.

Tim. The best and truest :
For here it sleeps, and does no hired harm.

Apem. Where ly'st a-nights, Timon?

Tim. Under that's above me.
Where feed'st thou a-days, Apemantus ?

Apem. Where
My stomach finds meat, s 'rather' where I eat it.

Tim. Would poison were obedient, 'knew my mind!
Apem. Where wouldst thou ?'fend it then?
Tim. To fawce thy dishes.

Apem. The middle of humanity thou never knewest, but the extremity of both ends. When thou wast in thy gilt, and thy perfume, they mockt thee, for too much

'courtesy; ' in thy rags thou knowest none, but art despis’d for the contrary, 6 What things in the world canít thou nearest compare to thy flatterers?

Tim. Women nearest; but men, men are the things themselves. What wouldst thou do with the world, Apemantus, if it lay in thy power?

Apem. Give it the beasts, to be rid of the men.

Tim. Wouldst thou have thy self fall in the confusion of men, 9 land remain a beast with the beasts?

Apem. Ay, Timon.

Tim. A beastly ambition, which the Gods grant thee t'attain to! If thou wert a 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 accus'd by the ass; if thou wert the ass, thy dulness would torment thee; and still ''thou’dst live' but as a breakfast to the wolf. If thou were 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 kill'd by the horse ; wert thou a horse, thou would it be seized by the leopard ; wert thou a leopard, thou wert german to the lion, and the spots of thy kindred were jurors on thy life. All thy fafety were remotion, and thy defence absence. What beast couldst thou be, that were not subject to a beast ? and what a beast art thou already, and seest not thy loss in transformation!

Apem. If thou couldst please me with speaking to me, thou might'st have hit upon it here. The commonwealth of Albens is become a forest of beasts.

Tim. How has the ass broke the wall, that thou art out of the city ?

Apem. Thou art the cap of all the fools alive.