Арет. Here; I will mend thy feast. [Offering him something. Apem. What wouldst thou have to Athens? If thou wilt, Tell them there I have gold; look, so I have. The best and truest: Tim. Tim. Under that's above me. Where feed'st thou o' days, Apemantus? Apem. Where my stomach finds meat; or, rather, where I eat it. Tim. Would poison were obedient, and knew my mind! Apem. Where wouldst thou send it! Tim. To sauce 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 mocked thee for too much curiosity; in thy rags thou knowest none, but art despised for the contrary. There's a medlar for thee, eat it. Tim. On what I hate I feed not. Apem. Dost hate a medlar? Tim. Ay, though it look like thee. Apem. An thou hadst hated medlars sooner, thou shouldst have loved thyself better now. What man didst thou ever know unthrift that was beloved after his means? Tim. Who without those means thou talkest of didst thou ever know beloved? Apem. Myself. Tim. I understand thee; thou hadst some means to keep a dog. Apem. What things in the world canst 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 thyself fall in the confusion of men, and remain a beast with the beasts? Apem. Ay, Timon. Tim. 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 livedst 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 german to the lion, and the spots of thy kindred were jurors on thy life: all thy safety 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, that 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 Athens is become a forest of beasts. Tim. How has the ass broke the wall, that thou art out of the city? Apem. 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. Tim. When there is nothing living but thee, thou shalt be welcome. I had rather be a beggar's dog than Apeman tus. Apem. Thou art the cap of all the fools alive. Tim. Would thou wert clean enough to spit upon! I'll beat thee, but I should infect my hands. Choler does kill me that thou art alive; I swoon to see thee. Арет. Tim. Would thou wouldst burst! Thou tedious rogue! I am sorry I shall lose A stone by thee. Арет. Tim. Арет. Away, [Throus a stone at him. Beast! Slave! Toad! Tim. Rogue, rogue, rogue! I am sick of this false world; and will love naught [Looking on the gotd. 'Twixt natural son and sire! thou bright defiler Of Hymen's purest bed! thou valiant Mars! Thou ever young, fresh, lov'd, and delicate wooer, That solder'st close impossibilities, And mak'st them kiss! that speak'st with every tongue Think, thy slave, man, rebels; and by thy virtue May have the world in empire! Apem. Would 'twere so! But not till I am dead.-I'll say thou'st gold: Tim. Apem. Tim. Thy back, I pr'ythee. Apem. Throng'd to? Ay. Live, and love thy misery! Tim. Long live so, and so die! [Exit APEMANTUS.] I am quit. More things like men?-Eat, Timon, and abhor them. Enter Thieves. 1 Thief. 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. 2 Thief. It is noised he hath a mass of treasure. 3 Thief. 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? 2 Thief. True; for he bears it not about him, 'tis hid. 1 Thief. Is not this he? Thieves. Where? 2 Thief. 'Tis his description. 3 Thief. He; I know him. VOL. V. E Thieves. Save thee, Timon. Tim. Now, thieves? Thieves. Soldiers, not thieves. Tim. Both too; and women's sons. Thieves. We are not thieves, but men that much do want. Tim. 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 briers scarlet hips; The bounteous housewife, nature, on each bush Lays her full mess before you. Want! why want? I Thief. We cannot live on grass, on berries, water, As beasts and birds and fishes. Tim. Nor on the beasts themselves, the birds, and fishes; You must eat men. Yet thanks I must you con, That you are thieves profess'd; that you work not In limited professions. Rascal thieves, Here's gold. Go, suck the subtle blood o' the grape More than you rob: take wealth and lives together; [TIMON retires to his cave. 3 Thief. Has almost charmed me from my profession by persuading me to it. 1 Thief. 'Tis in the malice of mankind that he thus advises us; not to have us thrive in our mystery. 2 Thief. I'll believe him as an enemy, and give over my trade. 1 Thief. Let us first see peace in Athens: there is no time so miserable but a man may be true. [Exeunt Thieves. Flav. O you gods! Enter FLAVIUS. Is yond despis'd and ruinous man my lord? Has desperate want made! What viler thing upon the earth than friends Those that would mischief me than those that do!- My honest grief unto him; and, as my lord, Still serve him with my life.-My dearest master! TIMON comes forward from his cave. Tim. Away! what art thou? Flav. Have you forgot me, sir? Tim. Why dost ask that? I have forgot all men; 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 For his undone lord than mine eyes for you. Tim. 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! Tim. Had I a steward So true, so just, and now so comfortable? |