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ALCIB. Muft it be fo? it must not be. My lords,

I do befeech you, know me.

2. SEN. HOW?

ALCIB. Call me to your remembrances.

3. SEN.

What?

ALCIB. I cannot think, but your age has forgot

me;

It could not elfe be, I fhould prove fo base,"
To fue, and be denied fuch common grace:
My wounds ake at you.

I. SEN.

2

Do you dare our anger? 'Tis in few words, but fpacious in effect; * We banish thee for ever.

ALCIB.

Banifh me?

Banifh your dotage; banish ufury,

That makes the fenate ugly.

1. SEN. If, after two days' fhine, Athens contain

thee,

Attend our weightier judgement. our spirit,'

He fhall be executed prefently.

8

And, not to fwell

[Exeunt Senators.

remembrances.] is here used as a word of five fyllables." In the fingular number it occurs as a quadrifyllable only. See Twelfth Night, Act I. fc. i:

"And lafting in her fad remembrance," STEEVENS.

9

I should prove fo base,] Bafe for dishonour'd.

2 Do you dare our anger?

WARBURTON.

'Tis in few words, but spacious in effect;] This reading may pafs, but perhaps the author wrote:

our anger?

'Tis few in words, but fpacious in effect. JOHNSON.

3 And, not to fwell our Spirit,] I believe, means, not to put ourfelves into any tumour of rage, take our definitive refolution. So, in King Henry VIII, A& III. fc. i:

ALCIB. Now the gods keep you old enough; that you may live

Only in bone, that none may look on you!
I am worse than mad: I have kept back their foes,
While they have told their money, and let out
Their coin upon large interest; I myself,
Rich only in large hurts;-All thofe, for this?
Is this the balfam, that the ufuring fenate
Pours into captains' wounds? ha! banishment?*
It comes not ill; I hate not to be banish'd;
It is a caufe worthy my fpleen and fury,
That I may ftrike at Athens. I'll cheer up
My discontented troops, and lay for hearts.
'Tis honour, with most lands to be at odds;'
Soldiers fhould brook as little wrongs, as gods.

"The hearts of princes kifs obedience,
"So much they love it; but, to ftubborn fpirits,
They fell and grow as terrible as ftorms."

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[Exit.

STEEVENS.

ba! banishment?] Thus the fecond folio. Its everblundering predeceffor omits the interjection, ba! and confequently fpoils the metre.-The fame exclamation occurs in Romeo and Juliet:

"Ha! banishment? be merciful, fay-death."

S and lay for hearts.

STEEVENS.

'Tis honour, with moft lands to be at odds;] But furely even in a foldier's fenfe of honour, there is very little in being at odds with all about him; which fhows rather a quarrelfome difpofition than à valiant one. Befides, this was not Alcibiades's cafe. He was only fallen out with the Athenians. A phrafe in the foregoing line will direct us to the right reading. I will lay, fays he, for hearts; which is a metaphor taken from card-play, and fignifies to game deep and boldly. It is plain then the figure was continued in the following line, which fhould be read thus:

'Tis honour with moft hands to be at odds ;

i. e. to fight upon odds, or at difadvantage; as he must do against the united strength of Athens; and this, by foldiers, is accounted

SCENE VI.

A magnificent Room in Timon's House.

Mufick. Tables fet out: Servants attending.' Enter divers Lords,' at feveral doors.

1. LORD. The good time of day to you, fir. 2. LORD. I alfo wifh it to you. I think, this honourable lord did but try us this other day.

bonourable. Shakspeare uses the fame metaphor on the fame occafion, in Coriolanus:

"He lurch'd all fwords." WARBURTON.

I think bands is very properly substituted for lands. In the foregoing line, for, lay for hearts, I would read, play for hearts.

JOHNSON.

I do not conceive that to lay for hearts is a metaphor taken from card-play, or that lay fhould be changed into play. We fhould now fay, to lay out for hearts, i. e. the affections of the people; but lay is ufed fingly, as it is here, by Jonfon, in The Devil is an Afs, [Mr. Whalley's edition] Vol. IV. p. 33:

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Lay for fome pretty principality." TYRWHITT.

A kindred expreffion occurs in Marlowe's Luft's Dominion, 1657:

"He takes up Spanish hearts on truft, to pay them
"When he shall finger Caftile's crown." MALONE.

'Tis honour, with moft lands to be at odds;] I think, with Dr. Johnfon, that lands cannot be right. To affert that it is honourable to fight with the greatest part of the world, is very wild. I believe therefore our author meant that Alcibiades in his fpleen against the Senate, from whom alone he has received any injury, fhould fay: 'Tis honour with moft lords to be at odds. MALONE.

I adhere to the old reading. It is furely more honourable to wrangle for a score of kingdoms, (as Miranda expreffes it,) than to enter into quarrels with lords, or any other private adverfaries. STEEVENS.

The objection to the old reading still in my apprehenfion remains. It is not difficult for him who is fo inclined, to quarrel with a lord;

1. LORD. Upon that were my thoughts tiring, when we encounter'd: I hope, it is not fo low with him, as he made it seem in the trial of his several friends.

2. LORD. It fhould not be, by the perfuafion of his new feafting.

1. LORD. I fhould think fo: He hath fent me an

(or with any other perfon;) but not so easy to be at odds with his land. Neither does the obfervation juft made prove that it is honourable to quarrel, or to be at odds, with most of the lands or kingdoms of the earth, which muft, I conceive, be proved, before the old reading can be fupported. MALONE.

By moft lands, perhaps our author means greateft lands. So, in King Henry VI. Part I. Act IV. fc. i:

"But always refolute in moft extremes;"

i. e. in greateft. Alcibiades, therefore, may be willing to regard a conteft with a great and extensive territory, like that of Athens, as a circumstance honourable to himself. STEEVENS.

5 Enter divers Lords,] In the modern editions these are called Senators; but it is clear from what is faid concerning the banithment of Alcibiades, that this must be wrong. I have therefore fubftituted Lords. The old copy has "Enter divers friends."

MALONE.

6 Upon that were my thoughts tiring,] A hawk, I think, is faid to tire, when she amufes herself with pecking a pheafant's wing, or any thing that puts her in mind of prey. To tire upon a thing, is therefore, to be idly employed upon it. JOHNSON.

I believe Dr. Johnson is mistaken. Tiring means here, I think, fixed, faftened, as the hawk faftens its beak eagerly on its prey. So, in our author's Venus and Adonis:

"Like as an empty eagle, fharp by faft,

" Tires with her beak on feathers, flesh, and bone,-" Tirouër, that is, tiring for hawks, as Cotgrave calls it, fignified any thing by which the falconer brought the bird back, and fixed him to his hand. A capon's wing was often ufed for this purpose. In King Henry VI. Part II. we have a kindred expreffion :

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"Beat on a crown." MALONE.

Dr. Johnfon's explanation, I believe, is right. Thus, in The Winter's Tale, Antigonus is faid to be "woman-tir'd,” i. e. pecked by a woman, as we now fay, with a fimilar allufion, hen-pecked.

STEEVENS.

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carneft inviting, which many my near occafions did urge me to put off; but he hath conjured me beyond them, and I must needs appear.

2. LORD. In like manner was I in debt to my importunate bufinefs, but he would not hear my excufe. I am forry, when he fent to borrow of me, that my provision was out.

1. LORD. I am fick of that grief too, as I understand how all things go.

2. LORD. Every man here's fo. What would he have borrow'd of you?

1. LORD. A thousand pieces.

2. LORD. A thousand pieces!

1. LORD. What of you?

3.

LORD. He fent to me, fir,-Here he comes.

Enter TIMON, and Attendants.

TIM. With all my heart, gentlemen both :-And how fare you?

I. LORD. Ever at the beft, hearing well of your lordship.

2. LORD. The fwallow follows not fummer more willing, than we your lordship.

TIM. [Afide.] Nor more willingly leaves winter; fuch fummer-birds are men.-Gentlemen, our dinner will not recompenfe this long ftay: feaft your ears with the mufick awhile; if they will fare fo harshly on the trumpet's found: we fhall to't prefently.

1. LORD. I hope, it remains not unkindly with your lordship, that I return'd you an empty meffenger.

TIM. O, fir, let it not trouble you.

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