TIM ON.

ACT I. SCENE I.

Poet. WHEN we for recompence have praifed the vile,

It ftains the glory in that happy verfe

Which amply fings the good.

This remark is extremely juft; that the flattery which parafites or needy clients are apt indifcrimi pately to fquander upon their patrons, leffens the value of praife to the deferving few. We will admit a lover to compliment his miftrefs beyond her merits, because he may be fuppofed, from the blindness of his paffion, not to intend any exagge ration; as has been already taken notice of, on a paffage in the preceding Play *. But, in every other fuch cafe, we fin with our eyes open; and thereby offend against that great and univerfal moral, which ought to be the principal rule both of our words, our thoughts, and our actions — namely, Truth.

In the continuance of the fame Scene, in a dialogue between the Poet and a Painter, the former ketches out the plan of a moral or didactic Poem he was then compofing, for the warning and inftruction of his great patron, the Lord Timon; in which there is much merit, both in the design and contrivance of the piece, as well as in the defcription of it, Poet. I have, in this rough work, fhaped out a man, Whom this beneath world doth embrace and hug With ampleft entertainment. My free drift Halts not particularly †, but moves itself

See Lear, Act I. Scene II. The laft remark on Cordelia's answer,
Halts not particularly, defigns no particular character. Johnson,

.

In a wide fea of wax*; no levelled malice +
Infects one comma in the course I hold,
But darts an eagle-flight, bold and forth on,
Leaving no tract | behind.

You fee how all conditions, how all minds,
As well of glib and flippery natures, as
Of grave and auftere, quality, tender down
Their service to lord Timon; his large fortune,
Upon his good and gracious nature hanging,
Subdues and properties to his love and tendance
All forts of hearts; yea, from the glass-faced flatterer
To Apemantus, that few things loves better,
Than to abhor himself; even he drops down
The knee before him, and returns in peace,
More rich in Timon's nod.

I have, then, on a high and pleasant hill,

Feigned Fortune to be throned. The bafe o' th' mount
Is ranked ++ with all deferts, all kind of natures,
That labour on the bofom of this sphere,

To propagate their states II-Amongst them all,
Whofe eyes are on this fovereign lady fixed,
One do I perfonate of Timon's frame,

Whom Fortune with her ivory hand wafts to her,
Whofe prefent grace to prefent flaves and fervants
Tranflates his rivals.

All those which were his fellows but of late,
Some better than his value, on the moment,
Follow his ftrides; his lobbies fill with 'tendance;
Rain facrificial whisperings ¶¶ in his ear;
Make facred even his ftirrap; and through him
Drink the free air ***.

When Fortune, in her fhift and change of mood,
Spurns down her late beloved; all his dependants,
Which laboured after to the mountain's top,

This alludes to the antient manner of writing, with an iron ftile on waxen tablets.

Hanmer.

The fenfe of this expreffion has been already explained, in Note† Page 379. I have changed the word flies, to darts, to avoid the tautology between the verb and the noun flight; befides that I think the expreffion is more emphatic of the image.

Tract, Shakespeare takes the liberty of ufing this word for track.

Natures, instead of creatures. Hanmer.

**Glass-faced flatterer; who receive their impreffions from their patron.

tt Ranked, for ranged, or more properly, arranged.

It To mend their conditions, or improve their fortunes.

¶¶Sacrificial whisperings, offer up their prayers, and vow gifts to his altar, as it he was a God. Shakespeare fays, in Anthony and Cleopatra, of the Queen's women, They made their bends adorings.

*** Seem only to live upon his breath.

Even on their knees and hands, let him flip down,
Not one accompanying his declining foot.

Painter. 'Tis common.

A thousand moral paintings I can fhew,

That shall demonftrate thefe quick blows of Fortune,
More pregnantly than words-Yet you do well

To fhew lord Timon that mean eyes have feen
The foot above the head.

The firft fpeech, in the above dialogue, well defcribes the general and truly moral fatire, and properly distinguishes it from the bastard, or invidious kind of perfonal invective, ftiled the libel or lamMy free drift

poon:

Halts not particularly, &c."

SCENE II.

Timon, upon hearing of his friend Ventidius being thrown into a gaol, fays to the meffenger,

Commend me to him, I will fend his ransom;

And being enfranchised bid him come to me.
'Tis not enough to help the feeble up,

But to fupport him after.

The laft lines contain a noble fentiment of friendfhip, charity and generofity-It has merit enough in itself, to ftand alone; but would have double the effect on an hearer, if pronounced by a perfon of a more prudent and provident character.

This thought is beautifully expreffed, in an old Elegy written on the good bifhop Boulter, who died Primate of Ireland, fome years ago :

"He thought it mean,

"Only to help the poor to beg again.”

Timon fays, foon after, in the fame dialogue,

This gentleman of mine hath served me long,

To build his fortune I will ftrain a little,

For 'tis a bond in men.

And again, in Scene V. (for I chufe to collect like fentiments under the fame head) he fays to

Ventidius,

Ventidius, who comes to thank him for his friendfhip, and to repay the debt,

You mistake my love;

I gave it freely, ever; and there's none
Can truly fay he gives, if he receives.

But to return to our former Scene-When Timon afks the old Athenian whether his daughter likes the young man that courts her, he replies,

She is young and apt

Our own precedent paflions do inftruct us,
What levity's in youth.

This is a fenfible and philofophic reflection, and should be more attended to, than it generally is: for there are no perfons fit to educate, to guide, or inftruct young people, but those who have not forgotten their own youth. Parents and grand-parents are apt, too often, to require their children and grand-children fhould benefit of their earned knowledge and long experience, and fo go on from thence, improving ftill in fenfe and virtue. It would be a happy thing, indeed, if we could put morals on the foot of fcience, which is thus progreffive; but they must be very ignorant of human nature, who expect it.

Old folks," as an ingenious as an ingenious modern author expreffes it, "would have young ones as wife as themselves; without confidering that they must "be fools, if they were fo*" Meaning, for he does not stay to explain himself, that they must be per fons of dull, phlegmatic natures, without paffions, without fenfibility, and confequently incapable of improvement or virtue.

Whenever I have happened to obferve what are called the virtues of age to be innate in youth, I have naturally expected to meet with the vices of it there alfo; and have but rarely found any one of fuch character uninfected with felfifhnefs or ayarice.

* The Friends, or Original Letters, Vol. II. Letter 1xxx.

The