From Isidore;

Isid. Serv. He humbly prays your speedy payment,—— Caph. If you did know, my lord, my master's

wants,

Var. Sero. 'Twas due on forfeiture, my lord, six weeks,

And past,

Isid. Serv. Your steward puts me off, my lord; And I am sent expressly to your lordship.

Tim. Give me breath:-

I do beseech you, good my lords, keep on;

[Exeunt Alcibiades and Lords. I'll wait on you instantly.-Come' hither, pray you.

[To Flavius. How goes the world, that I am thus encounter'd With clamorous demands of date-broke bonds, And the detention of long-since-due debts, Against my honour?

Flav.
Please you, gentlemen,
The time is unagreeable to this business:
Your importunacy cease, till after dinner;
That I may make his lordship understand
Wherefore you are not paid.

Tim.

Do so, my friends:
[Exit Timon.

See them well entertain'd.

Flao.

I pray, draw near.

[Exit Flavius.

Enter Apemantus and a Fool.

Caph. Stay, stay, here comes the fool with Ape

mantus; let's have some sport with 'em.

Var. Serv. Hang him, he'll abuse us.

Isid. Sero. A plague upon him, dog!

Var. Serv. How dost, fool?

Apem. Dost dialogue with thy shadow?

Var. Serv. I speak not to thee.

Apem. No, 'tis to thyself.-Come away.

[To the Fool. Isid. Serv. [To Var. Serv.] There's the fool hangs on your back already.

Apem. No, thou stand'st single, thou art not on him yet.

Caph. Where's the fool now?

Apem. He last ask'd the question.-Poor rogues, and usurers' men! bawds between gold and want! All. What are we, Apemantus? Apem. Asses.

All Sero. Why?

Apem. That you ask me, what you are, and do not know yourselves.-Speak to 'me, fool. Fool. How do you, gentlemen?

All Serv. Gramercies, good fool: How does your mistress?

Fool. She's e'en setting on water to scald such chickens as you are. 'Would, we could see you at Corinth.

Apem. Good! gramercy.

Enter Page.

Fool. Look you, here comes my mistress' page. Page. [To the Fool.] Why, how now, captain? what do you in this wise company?-How dost thou, Apemantus?

Apem. 'Would I had a rod in my mouth, that I might answer thee profitably.

Page. Pr'ythee, Apemantus, read me the superscription of these letters; I know not which is which.

Apem. Canst not read?

· Page. No.

Apem. There will little learning die then, that day thou art hang'd. This is to lord Timon; this to Alcibiades. Go; thou wast born a bastard, and thou'lt die a bawd.

Page. Thou wast whelp'd a dog; and thou shalt famish, a dog's death. Answer not, I am gone. [Exit Page.

Apem. Even so thou out-run'st grace. Fool, I go with you to lord Timon's.

will

Fool. Will you leave me there?

Apem. If Timon stay at home.-You three serve three usurers?

All Serv. Ay; 'would they served us!

Apem. So would I,-as good a trick as ever hangman served thief.

Fool. Are you three usurers' men?

All Serv. Ay, fool.

Fool. I think, no usurer but has a fool to his servant: My mistress is one, and I am her fool. When men come to borrow of your masters, they approach sadly, and go away merry; but they enter my mistress' house merrily, and go away sadly: The reason of this?

Var. Serv. I could render one.

Apem. Do it then, that we may account thee a

whoremaster, and a knave; which, notwithstanding, thou shalt be no less esteemed.

Var. Serv. What is a whoremaster, fool?

Fool. A fool in good clothes, and something like thee. 'Tis a spirit: sometime, it appears like a lord; sometime, like a lawyer; sometime, like a philosopher, with two stones more than his artificial one: He is very often like a knight; and, generally, in all shapes, that man goes up and down in, from fourscore to thirteen, this spirit walks in.

Var. Serc. Thou art not altogether a fool. Fool. Nor thou altogether a wise man: as much foolery as I have, so much wit thou lack'st. Apem. That answer might have become Apeman

tus.

All Serv. Aside, aside; here comes lord Timon.

Re-enter Timon and Flavius.

Apem. Come with me, fool, come.

Fool. I do not always follow lover, elder brother, and woman; sometime, the philosopher.

[Exeunt Apemantus and Fool.

Flav. 'Pray you, walk near; I'll speak with you

anon.

[Exeunt Serv.

Tim. You make me marvel: Wherefore, ere this

time,

Had you not fully laid my state before me;.

That I might so have rated my expence,

As I had leave of means?

Perchance, some single vantages you took,
When my indisposition put you back;
And that unaptness made your minister,
Thus to excuse yourself.

Flav.

O my good lord!

At many times I brought in my accounts,

Laid them before you; you would throw them off,
And say, you found them in mine honesty.

When, for some trifling present, you have bid me
Return so much, I have shook my head, and wept;
Yea, 'gainst the authority of manners, pray'd you
To hold your hand more close: I did endure
Not seldom, nor no slight checks; when I have
Prompted you, in the ebb of your estate,

And your great flow of debts. My dear-lov'd lord,
Though you hear now, (too late!) yet now's a time,
The greatest of your having lacks a half

To pay your present debts.

Let all my land be sold.

Tim. Flav. 'Tis all engag'd, some forfeited and gone; And what remains will hardly stop the mouth Of present dues: the future comes apace: What shall defend the interim? and at length

How goes our reckoning?

Tim. To Lacedæmon did my land extend.

Flav. O my good lord, the world is but a word; Were it all yours, to give it in a breath,

How quickly were it gone?

Tim.

You tell me true.

Flav. If you suspect my husbandry, or falsehood, Call me before the exactest auditors,

And set me on the proof. So the gods bless me,