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

I do beseech 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.

1. SEN.

Do you dare our anger ? 'Tis in few words, but fpacious in effect;"

We banish thee for ever.

Banish your dotage; banish ufury,

That makes the fenate ugly.

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

thee,

Attend our weightier judgement. And, not to fwell

our fpirit,

He shall be executed prefently.

8

[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, A& I. sc.i:

"And lafting in her fad remembrance." STEEVENS.

9

- I fhould prove fo bafe,] Bafe for dishonour'd.

WARBURTON.

Do you dare our anger?

'Tis in few words, but spacious in effect;] This reading may pals, 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.

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 intereft; I myself,
Rich only in large hurts ;-All thofe, for this?
Is this the balfam, that the usuring senate
Pours into captains' wounds? ha! banifhment?4
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 moft 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 stubborn fpirits,
"They fwell and grow as terrible as ftorms."

ha! banishment?]

5

[Exit.

STEEVENS.

Thus the fecond folio. Its everblundering predeceffor omits the interje&ion, ha! and consequently fpoils the metre. The fame exclamation occurs in Romeo and Juliet:

5

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

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 shows rather a quarrelfome difpofition than a valiant one. Befides, this was not Alcibiades's cafe. He was only fallen out with the Athenians. A phrase in the foregoing line will dire& 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 most hands to be at odds;

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

SCENE VI.

A magnificent Room in Timon's Houfe.

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

1

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

honourable. Shakspeare ufes the fame metaphor on the fame occa fion, in Coriolanus:

"He lurch'd all fwords." WARBURton.

I think hands is very properly fubftituted 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 should be changed into play. We should now say, 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:

Luy 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 fhall 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 ftill in my apprehenfion remains. It is not difficult for him who is fo inclined, to quarrel with a lord;

6

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 feveral 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 fo easy to be at odds with his land. Neither does the observation just made prove that it is honourable to quarrel, or to be at odds, with most of the lands or kingdoms of the earth, which must, I conceive, be proved, before the old reading can be supported.

MALONE.

By moft lands, perhaps our author means greatest lands. King Henry VI. Part I. A& IV. fc. i:

But always refolute in most extremes;"

So, in

i. e. in greatest. Alcibiades, therefore, may be willing to regard a conteft with a great and extenfive territory, like that of Athens, as a circumftance 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 banishment of Alcibiades, that this must be wrong. I have therefore fubftituted Lord's. The old copy has "Enter divers friends."

Upon that were my thoughts tiring,] to tire; when the amules herself with or any thing that puts her in mind of

MALONE.

A hawk, I think, is faid pecking a pheafant's wing, prey. To tire upon a thing,

is therefore, to be idly employed upon it. JOHNSON,

I believe Dr. Johnfon is miftaken. Tiring means here, I think, fixed, faflened, 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 used for this purpose. In King Henry VI. Part II. we have a kindred expreffion:

་་

your thoughts

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.

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

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

1. LORD. Ever at the beft, hearing well of lordship.

your 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 musick 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.