Enter Poet and Painter; TIMON behind, unseen by them.

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 's 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: 'tis 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. There fore 'tis not amiss we tender our loves to him, in this supposed distress of his: it will show honestly in us; and is very likely to load our purposes with what they travail 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 him self: 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:

ACT V.

SCENE 1.-Before Timon's Cave.

Then do we sin against our own estate,
When we may profit meet, and come too late.
PAIN. True;-

When the day serves, before black-corner'd night,
Find what thou want'st by free and offer'd light.
Come.

I am sure, you have: speak truth: you're honest

men.

That he is worshipp'd in a baser temple
Than where swine feed!

'Tis thou that rigg'st the bark, and plough'st the foam;

Settlest admired reverence in a slave:
To thee be worship! and thy saints for aye
Be crown'd with plagues, that thee alone obey!--
Fit I meet them.

[Advancing.

POET. Hail, worthy Timon!
PAIN.
Our late noble master!
TIM. Have I once liv'd to see two honest men?
POET. Sir,

Having often of your open bounty tasted,
Hearing you were retir'd, your friends fall'n off,
Whose thankless natures-O abhorred spirits!-
Not all the whips of heaven are large enough-
What! to you,

Whose star-like nobleness gave life and influence
To their whole being! I am rapt, and cannot cover
The monstrous bulk of this ingratitude
With any size of words.

He and myself

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. PAIN. Have travail'd in the great shower of your gifts, And sweetly felt it. TIM.

Ay, you are honest men. PAIN. We are hither come to offer you our service. TIM. Most honest men! Why, how shall I requite you?

Can you eat roots, and drink cold water? no. BOTH. What we can do, we'll do, to do you service.

TIM. You're honest men: you've heard that I have gold;

PAIN. So, so, my lord TIM. Even so, sir, as I say.-And, for thy fiction, [To the Poet Why, thy verse swells with stuff so fine and smooth, That thou art even natural in thine art.But, for all this, my honest-natur'd friends, I must needs say you have a little fault: Marry, 'tis not monstrous in you; neither wish I You take much pains to mend. BOTH.

To make it known to us.

TIM.

Beseech your honour

You'll take it ill.

Will you, indeed

BOTH. Most thankfully, my lord.
TIM.

BOTH. Doubt it not, worthy lord.
TIM. There's ne'er a one of you but trusts a knave
That mightily deceives you.

BOTH.

Do we, my lord? TIM. Ay, and you hear him cog, see him dis semble,

Know his gross patchery, love him, feed him,
Keep in your bosom: yet remain assur'd,
That he's a made-up villain.

PAIN. I know none such, my lord.
POET.

Nor I. 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.

SCENE III.-The Woods. Timon's Cave, and a rough Tomb near it.

Enter a Soldier, seeking TIMON. SOLD. By all description this should be the place. Who's here? speak, ho!-No answer? What is this? [Reads.] TIMON IS DEAD!-who hath outstretch'd his span,-

Some beast-read this; there does not live a man.
Dead, sure, and this his grave: what's on this tomb
I cannot read; the character I'll take with wax;
Our captain hath in every figure skill;
An ag'd interpreter, though young in days:
Before proud Athens he's set down by this,
Whose fall the mark of his ambition is.

[Exit.

SCENE IV. Before the Walls of Athens. Trumpets sound. Enter ALCIBIADES and Forces.

ALCIB. Sound to this coward and lascivious town
Our terrible approach.
[A parley sounded.
Enter Senators on the Walls.
Till now you have gone on, and fill'd the time
With all licentious measure, making your wills
The scope of justice; till now, myself, and such
As slept within the shadow of your power,

Have wander'd with our travers'd arms, and breath'd
Our sufferance vainly: now the time is flush,
When crouching marrow, in the bearer strong,

When thy first griefs were but a mere conceit,
Ere thou hadst power, or we had cause of fear,
We sent to thee; to give thy rages balm,
To wipe out our ingratitude with loves
Above their quantity.
So did we woo

2 SEN.
Transformed Timon to our city's love,

By humble message and by promis'd means;
We were not all unkind, nor all deserve
The common stroke of war.

Were not erected by their hands from whom
You have receiv'd your grief: nor are they such,
That these great towers, trophies, and schools should
fall

For private faults in them.
2 SEN.
Nor are they living
Who were the motives that you first went out;
Shame, that they wanted cunning, in excess
Hath broke their hearts. March, noble lord,
Into our city with thy banners spread:
By decimation, and a tithed death,
(If thy revenges hunger for that food,
Which nature loathes,) take thou the destin'd tenth;
And by the hazard of the spotted die,
Let die the spotted.

I SEN.

All have not offended;

For those that were, it is not square to take,
On those that are, revenge: crimes, like lands,
Are not inherited. Then, dear countryman,
Bring in thy ranks, but leave without thy rage:
Spare thy Athenian cradle, and those kin
Which, in the bluster of thy wrath, must fall,
With those that have offended: like a shepherd,
Approach the fold, and cull the infected forth,
But kill not all together.

2 SEN.
What thou wilt,
Thou rather shalt enforce it with thy smile,
Than hew to 't with thy sword.

I SEN.
Set but thy foot
Against our rampir'd gates, and they shall ope;
So thou wilt send thy gentle heart before,
To say, thou'lt enter friendly.

2 SEN.

Throw thy glove,

Or any token of thine honour else,
That thou wilt use the wars as thy redress,
And not as our confusion, all thy powers,
Shall make their harbour in our town, till we
Have seal'd thy full desire.
ALCIB.
Then, there's my glove;
Descend, and open your uncharged ports:
Those enemies of Timon's, and mine own,
Whom you yourselves shall set out for reproof,
Fall, and no more: and,-to atone your fears
With my more noble meaning,--not a man
Shall pass his quarter, or offend the stream
Of regular justice in your city's bounds,
But shall be render'd, to your public laws
At heaviest answer.
BOTH.
'Tis most nobly spoken.
ALCIB. Descend, and keep your words.
[The Senators descend, and open the gates.
Enter a Soldier.

SOLD. My noble general, Timon is dead;
Entomb'd upon the very hem o' the sea:
And on his grave-stone this insculpture; which
With wax I brought away, whose soft impression
Interprets for my poor ignorance.

ALCIB. [Reads.] Here lies a wretched corse, of wretched soul bereft.

Seek not my name: a plague consume you wicked caitiffs left!

Here lie I Timon; who, alive, all living men did

hate:

Pass by, and curse thy fill; but pass, and stay not here thy gait.

These well express in thee thy latter spirits:
Though thou abhorr'dst in us our human griefs,
Scorn'dst our brain's flow, and those our droplets
which

From niggard nature fall, yet rich conceit
Taught thee to make vast Neptune weep for aye
On thy low grave, on faults forgiven. Dead
Is noble Timon; of whose memory
Hereafter more.-Bring me into your city,
And I will use the olive with my sword:

Make war breed peace; make peace stint war; make

DUKE. Escalus!

ESCAL. My lord.

DUKE. Of government the properties to unfold, Would seem in me to affect speech and discourse; Since I am put to know, that your own science Exceeds, in that, the lists of all advice

My strength can give you: then no more remains, But that, to your sufficiency, as your worth is able, And let them work. The nature of our people,

Our city's institutions, and the terms

For common justice, you 're as pregnant in
As art and practice hath enriched any
That we remember. There is our commission,

[Giving it. From which we would not have you warp.-Call hither,

I say, bid come before us Angelo.-

[Exit an Attendant. What figure of us think you he will bear? For you must know, we have with special soul Elected him our absence to supply, Lent him our terror, drest him with our love, And given his deputation all the organs Of our own power: what think you of it?

ACT I.

SCENE I.-An Apartment in the Duke's Palace

ESCAL. If any in Vienna be of worth To undergo such ample grace and honour, It is lord Angelo.

DUKE. Look where he comes.

Enter ANGELO.

ANG. Always obedient to your grace's will,
I come to know your pleasure.

Angelo,
DUKE.
There is a kind of character in thy life,
That to the observer doth thy history
Fully unfold. Thyself and thy belongings
Are not thine own so proper, as to waste
Thyself upon thy virtues, them on thee.
Heaven doth with us as we with torches do,
Not light them for themselves; for if our virtues
Did not go forth of us, 'twere all alike

As if we had them not. Spirits are not finely touch'd,
But to fine issues; nor nature never lends
The smallest scruple of her excellence,
But, like a thrifty goddess, she determines
Herself the glory of a creditor,

Both thanks and use. But I do bend my speech
To one that can my part in him advértise:
Hold, therefore.-Angelo,

In our remove be thou at full ourself;

465

Mortality and mercy in Vienna
Live in thy tongue and heart: old Escalus,
Though first in question, is thy secondary:
Take thy commission.

ANG.

[Giving it. Now, good my lord, Let there be some more test made of my metal, Before so noble and so great a figure

Be stamp'd upon it.

DUKE.

No more evasion: We have with a leaven'd and prepared choice Proceeded to you; therefore take your honours. Our haste from hence is of so quick condition, That it prefers itself, and leaves unquestion'd Matters of needful value. We shall write to you, As time and our concernings shall importune, How it goes with us; and do look to know What doth befall you here. So, fare you well: To the hopeful execution do I leave you Of your commissions.

ANG. Yet, give leave, my lord, That we may bring you something on the way. DUKE. My haste may not admit it; Nor need you, on mine honour, have to do With any scruple: your scope is as mine own, So to enforce or qualify the laws

As to your soul seems good. Give me your hand.

30

I'll privily away: I love the people,
But do not like to stage me to their eyes:
Though it do well, I do not relish well
Their loud applause, and aves vehement,
Nor do I think the man of safe discretion,
That does affect it. Once more, fare you well.
ANG. The heavens give safety to your purposes.
ESCAL. Lead forth, and bring you back in happiness!
DUKE. I thank you. Fare you well. [Exit.
ESCAL. I shall desire you, sir, to give me leave
To have free speech with you; and it concerns me
To look into the bottom of my place:

A power I have, but of what strength and nature
I am not yet instructed.

2 GENT. No? a dozen times at least.

I GENT. What, in metre?

LUCIO. In any proportion or in any language. I GENT. I think, or in any religion. LUCIO. Ay, why not? Grace is grace, despite of all controversy: as for example,-thou thyself art a wicked villain, despite of all grace.

I GENT. Well, there went but a pair of shears between us. LUCIO. I grant; as there may between the lists and the velvet: thou art the list.

I GENT. And thou the velvet: thou art good velvet; thou 'rt a three-piled piece, I warrant thee. I had as lief be a list of an English kersey, as be piled, as thou art piled, for a French velvet. Do I speak feelingly now? LUCIO. I think thou dost; and, indeed, with most painful feeling of thy speech: I will out of thine own ESCAL. I'll wait upon your honour. [Exeunt. confession, learn to begin thy health; but, whilst I

ANG. 'Tis so with me. Let us withdraw together, And we may soon our satisfaction have Touching that point.

live, forget to drink after thee.

I GENT. I think I have done myself wrong, have I not?

2 GENT. Yes, that thou hast, whether thou art tainted or free.

LUCIO. Behold, behold, where madam Mitigation comes!

I GENT. I have purchased as many diseases under her roof, as come to

2 GENT. To what, I pray?

LUCIO. Judge.

2 GENT. To three thousand dollars a year.

I GENT. Ay, and more.

LUCIO. A French crown more.

2 GENT. Thou art always figuring diseases in me; but thou art full of error,-I am sound.

and carried to prison, was worth five thousand of you all.

2 GENT. Who's that, I pray thee?

MRS. Ov. Marry, sir, that 's Claudio; signior Claudio.

I GENT. Claudio to prison! 'tis not so.

MRS. Ov. Nay, but I know, 'tis so: I saw him arrested; saw him carried away; and, which is more, within these three days his head to be chopped off. LUCIO. But, after all this fooling, I would not have Art thou sure of this?

it so.

MRS. Ov. I am too sure of it; and it is for getting madam Julietta with child.

LUCIO. Believe me, this may be: he promised to meet me two hours since, and he was ever precise in promise-keeping.

2 GENT Besides, you know, it draws something near to the speech we had to such a purpose.

I GENT. But, most of all, agreeing with the pro clamation.

LUCIO. Away! let's go learn the truth of it. [Exeunt LUCIO and Gentlemen. MRS. OV. Thus, what with the war, what with the sweat, what with the gallows, and what with poverty, I am custom-shrunk.

Enter POMPEY.

How now! what's the news with you?
POM. Yonder man is carried to prison.
MRS. OV. Well; what has he done?
POм. A woman.

MRS. OV. But what 's his offence?

POм. Groping for trouts in a peculiar river. MRS. OV. What, is their a maid with child by him?

POм. No; but there's a woman with maid by him: you have not heard of the proclamation, have you? MRS. OV. What proclamation, man?

POM. All houses in the suburbs of Vienna must be plucked down.

MRS. Ov. And what shall become of those in the city?

POм. They shall stand for seed: they had gone down too, but that a wise burgher put in for them. MRS. Ov. But shall all our houses of resort in the suburbs be pulled down?

POм. To the ground, mistress.

MRS. Ov. Why, here's a change indeed in the commonwealth! What shall become of me?

POм. Come: fear not you: good counsellors lack no clients: though you change your place, you need not change your trade; I'll be your tapster still. Courage! there will be pity taken on you: you that have worn your eyes almost out in the service, you will be considered.

MRS. Ov. What's to do here, Thomas Tapster? let's withdraw.

POм. Here comes signior Claudio, led by the provost to prison; and there's madam Juliet. [Exeunt. Enter PROVOST, CLAUDIO, JULIET, and Officers. CLAUD. Fellow, why dost thou show me thus to the world?

Bear me to prison, where I am committed.
PROV. I do it not in evil disposition,
But from lord Angelo by special charge.

CLAUD. Thus can the demi-god Authority

Make us pay down for our offe ce by weight.-
The sword of heaven; on whom it will, it will;
On whom it will not, so; yet still 'tis just.

Re-enter LUCIO and Gentlemen.

LUCIO. Why, how now, Claudio! whence comes this restraint?

CLAUD. From too much liberty, my Lucio, liberty:

As surfeit is the father of much fast,

So every scope by the immoderate use

Turns to restraint. Our natures do pursue,

Like rats that ravin down their proper bane,

A thirsty evil, and when we drink, we die.

LUCIO. If I could speak so wisely under an arrest,

I would send for certain of my creditors: and yet, to say the truth, I had as lief have the foppery of freedom, as the morality of imprisonment.-What's thy offence, Claudio?

CLAUD. What but to speak of would offend again. LUCIO. What, is 't murder?

CLAUD. No.

LUCIO. Lechery?

CLAUD. Call it so.

PROV. Away, sir! you must go.

CLAUD. One word, good friend.-Lucio, a word with you. [Takes him aside.