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Yield him, who all thy human fons do's hate,
From forth thy plenteous bofom, one poor root!
2/Then fear thy fertile and conceptious womb;
Let it no more bring out ingrateful man.

Go great with tygers, dragons, wolves and bears,
Teem with new monfters whom thy upward face
Hath to the marbled manfion all above

Never prefented O, a root dear thanks!
Dry up thy meadows, vineyards, plough-torn leas,
Whereof ingrateful man with liqu'rifh draughts,
And morfels unctious, greafes his pure mind,
That from it all confideration flips

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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 doft not keep a dog
Whom I would imitate; confumption catch thee!
Apem. This is in thee a nature but affected,
A poor unmanly melancholy, fprung

4

From change of fortune. Why this fpade? this place?
This flave-like habit, and thefe looks of care?
Thy flatt'rers yet wear filk, drink wine, lye foft,
Hug their difeas'd perfumes, and have forgot
That ever Timon was. Shame not thefe + 'weeds,
By putting on the cunning of a carper.
Be thou a flatt'rer now, and feck to thrive
By that which has undone thee; hinge thy knee,
And let his very breath whom thou'lt obferve
Blow off thy cap; praife his moft vicious ftrain,
And call it excellent. Thou waft told thus :
Thou gav'ft thine ears, like tapfters, that bid welcome
To knaves, and all approachers: 'Tis moft juft

2 Enfear

3 marrows, veins, and 4 woods, ... old edit. Warb. emend.

That

That thou turn rafcal: hadft thou wealth again,
Rafcals fhould have't. Do not affume my likeness.
Tim. Were I like thee, I'd throw away my felf.

Apem. Thou'aft caft away thy felf, being like thy felf,
So long a mad-man, now a fool. What, think'ft thou
That the bleak air, thy boisterous chamberlain,
Will put thy fhirt on warm? will thefe 'mofs'd' trees
That have out-liv'd the eagle, page thy heels,
And skip when thou point'ft out? will the cold brook,
Candied with ice, cawdle thy morning taste
To cure thy o'er-night's furfeit? Call the creatures
Whofe naked natures live in all the fpight
Of wreakful heav'n, whose bare unhoused trunks,
To the conflicting elements expos'd,

Answer meer nature; bid them flatter thee;
Oh! thou fhall find

Tim. A fool of thee; depart.

Apem. I love thee better now than e'er I did.
Tim. I hate thee worfe: thou flatter'st mifery.`
Apem. I flatter not, but fay thou art a caytiff.
Tim. Why doft thou feek me out?

Apem. Only to vex thee.`

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

Арет, Ау.

Tim. What a knave

thou!

Apem. If thou didft put this fowre cold habit on
To caftigate thy pride, 'twere well; but thou
Doft it enforcedly: thou'dft courtier be

Wert thou not beggar. Willing mifery

9 'Out-ftrips incertain pomp, is crown'd 'before it : The one is filling ftill, never compleat;

The other, at high with: Beft ftates, contentless,
Have a distracted and most wretched being,

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Worfe

8 too!

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Worfe than the worst, content.

Thou shouldft defire to die, being miferable.

Tim. Not by his breath, that is more miferable.
Thou art a flave, whom fortune's tender arm
With favour never clafpt; 2 bred but a dog.
Hadft thou, like us from our firft fwath, proceeded
Through fweet degrees that this brief world affords
To fuch as may the paffive drugs of it

Freely command; thou wouldst have plung'd thy felf
In general riot, melted down thy youth
In different beds of luft, and never learn'd
The icy precepts of refpect, but followed
The fugar'd game before thee. But my felf,
Who had the world as my confectionary,

The mouths, the tongues, the eyes, the hearts of men
At duty more than I could frame employments;
That numberless upon me ftuck, as leaves

3

4

Do on the oak; yet with one winter's brush
Fall'n from their boughs, 'have left me open, bare
For every ftorm that blows; I to bear this,

That never knew but better, is fome burthen.

Thy nature did commence in suff'rance, time

Hath made thee hard in't. Why fhould'ft thou hate men?
They never flatter'd thee. What haft thou given ?
If thou wilt curfe, thy father that poor rag
Must be thy fubject, who in fpight put stuff
To fome fhe-beggar, and compounded thee
Poor rogue hereditary. Hence! be gone
If thou had it not been born the worst of men,
Thou hadst 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 fhut up in thee,
I'd give thee leave to hang it. Get thee gone
That the whole life of Athens were in this!

2 but bred

3 have

4 and

Thus

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, fo I have. Apem. Here is no ufe for gold.

Tim. The best and trueft:

For here it fleeps, and does no hired harm.
Apem. Where ly'ft a-nights, Timon?
Tim. Under that's above me.

Where feed'ft thou a-days, Apemantus?

Apem. Where

My ftomach finds meat,

'rather where I eat it.

knew my mind!

Tim. Would poifon were obedient,

Apem. Where wouldst thou ? 'fend it then?`
Tim. To fawce thy dishes.

Apem. The middle of humanity thou never kneweft, but the extremity of both ends. When thou waft in thy gilt, and thy perfume, they mockt thee, for too much /courtesy; in thy rags thou knoweft none, but art defpis'd for the contrary. What things in the world canst thou nearest compare to thy flatterers?

(a) Thus would I eat it.

Apem. Here will I mend thy feaft.

Tim. First mend my company, take away thy felf.
Apem. So I fhall mend my own, by th' lack of thine.
Tim. 'Tis not well mended fo, it is but botcht;

If not, I would it were.

(b)

Apem. What wouldst thou, &c.

the contrary. There's a medlar for thee, eat it.

Tim. On what I hate, I feed not.

Apem. Doft hate a medlar?

Tim. Ay, though it look like thee.

Tim.

Apem. An th' hadft hated medlars fooner, thou fhouldst have loved thy felf better now. What man didft thou ever know unthrift, that was beloved after his means?

Tim. Who without those means thou talk'ft of, didft thou ever know beloved?

Apem. My felf.

Tim. I understand thee, thou hadft fome means to keep a dog.

Apem. What things, &c.

5 or rather

6 and knew

7

fend it? 8 curiofity;

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 beafts, to be rid of the men.

Tim. Wouldst thou have thy felf fall in the confufion of men, 'and remain a beaft with the beafts?

Apem. Ay, Timon.

Tim. A beaftly 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 fufpect thee, when peradventure thou wert accus'd by the afs; if thou wert the afs, thy dulnefs would torment thee; and still ''thou’dst live but as a breakfast to the wolf. If thou wert the wolf, thy greedinefs would afflict thee; and oft thou fhouldft hazard thy life for thy dinner. Wert thou the unicorn, pride and wrath would confound thee, and make thine own felf the conqueft of thy fury. a Wert thou a bear, thou wouldst be kill'd by the horfe; wert thou a horfe, thou wouldst be feized by the leopard; wert thou a leopard, thou wert german to the lion, and the fpots of thy kindred were jurors on thy life. All thy fafety were remotion, and thy defence abfence. What beaft couldft thou be, that were not fubject to a beaft? and what a beaft art thou already, and feeft not thy lofs in transfor

mation!

Apem. If thou couldst please me with speaking to me, thou might'ft have hit upon it here. The commonwealth of Athens is become a foreft of beafts.

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

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

Tim.

(a) The account given of the Unicorn is this: that he and the Lion being enemies by nature, as foon as the Lion fees the Unicorn he be takes himself to a tree: The Unicorn in his fury and with all the fwiftness of bis courfe running at him flicks bis horn faft in the tree, and then the Lior falls upon him and kills him. Gefner Hift. Animal.

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