2. LORD. My noble lord, TIм. Ah, my good friend! what cheer? [The banquet brought in. 2. LORD. My most honourable lord, I am e'en fick of fhame, that, when your lordship this other day fent to me, I was so unfortunate a beggar. TIM. Think not on't, fir. 2. LORD. If you had sent but two hours before,→→ TIM. Let it not cumber your better remembrance.'-Come, bring in all together. 2. LORD. All cover'd dishes ! 1. LORD. Royal cheer, I warrant you. 3. LORD. Doubt not that, if money, and the season can yield it. 1. LORD. How do you? What's the news? 3. LORD. Alcibiades is banifh'd: Hear you of it? 1. 2. LORD. Alcibiades banish'd? 3. LORD: 'Tis fo, be fure of it. 1. LORD. How? how? 2. LORD. I pray you, upon what? TIM. My worthy friends, will you draw near? 3. LORD. I'll tell you more anon. Here's a noble feaft toward.8 2. LORD. This is the old man ftill. 3. LORD. Will't hold? will't hold? 2. LORD. It does: but time will-and fo- 7 - your better remembrance.] i. e. your good memory: comparative for the pofitive degree. See Vol. XI. p. 132, n. 9. the STEEVENS. Here's a noble feaft toward. ] i. c. in a ftate of readiness. So, in Romeo and Juliet : "We have a foolish trifling banquet towards." STEEVENS, 3. LORD. I do conceive. 9 TIM. Each man to his ftool, with that fpur as he would to the lip of his mistress: your diet fhall be in all places alike. Make not a city feast of it, to let the meat cool ere we can agree upon the first place: Sit, fit. The gods require our thanks. Let no You great benefactors, Sprinkle our fociety with thankfulness. For your own gifts, make yourfelves praised: but referve fill to give, left your deities be defpifed. Lend to each man enough, that one need not lend to another; for, were your godheads to borrow of men, men would forfake the gods. Make the meat be beloved, more than the man that gives it. affembly of twenty be without a fcore of villains: If there fit twelve women at the table, let a dozen of them be-as they are. The rest of your fees, O gods,the fenators of Athens, together with the common lags of people, what is amifs in them, you gods, make fuitable for deftruction. For thefe my prefent friends, as they are to me nothing, fo in nothing bless them, and to nothing they are welcome. - Uncover, dogs, and lap. 2 [The dishes uncovered are full of warm water. SOME SPEAK. What does his lordship mean? SOME OTHER. I know not. TIм. May you a better feast never behold, your diet fhall be in all places alike.] See a note on The Winter's Tale, Vol. X. p. 29, n. 8. STEEVens. 2 3 The rest of your fees,] We fhould read-foes. WARBURTON. the common lag -] Rowe. MALONE. The fag-end of a web of cloth is, in fome places, called the alg-end. STEEVENS. You knot of mouth-friends! fmoke, and luke-warm water 4 Is your perfection. This is Timon's laft; [Throwing water in their faces. Your reeking villainy. Live loath'd, and long, 5 Moft fmiling, smooth, detefted parafites, 6 8 Courteous deftroyers, affable wolves, meek bears, "Gods keep you old enough," &c. STEEVENS. 6 fools of fortune,] The fame expreffion occurs in Romeo and Juliet: "O! I am fortune's fool." STEEVENs. 7 time's flies,] Flies of a feason. JOHNSON. So, before: ,8 แ one cloud of winter fhowers, Thefe flies are couch'd." STEEVENS. minute-jacks!] Sir T. Hanmer thinks it lantern, which fhines and disappears in an inflant. know not; but it was fomething of quick motion, Richard III. JOHNSON. means Jack-aWhat it was I mentioned in A minute-jack is what was called formerly a Jack of the clockhouse; an image whole office was the fame as one of thofe at St. Dunflan's church in Fleet-ftreet. See note on King Richard III. Vol. XV. p. 414, n. 2. STEEVENS. 9 the infinite malady-] Every kind of disease incident to man and beast. JOHNSON. Soft, take thy phyfick firft,-thou too,—and thou;[Throws the dishes at them, and drives them out. Stay, I will lend thee money, borrow none.-What, all in motion? Henceforth be no feast, ' Whereat a villain's not a welcome gueft. Burn, houfe; fink, Athens! henceforth hated be Of Timon, inan, and all humanity! [Exit. Re-enter the Lords, with other Lords and Senators. 1. LORD. How now, my lords ?* 2. LORD, know you the quality of lord Timon's fury? 3. LORD. Pifh! did you fee my cap? 4. I have loft my gown. 3. LORD. He's but a mad lord, and nought but humour sways him. He gave me a jewel the other day, and now he has beat it out of you fee my jewel? 4. LORD. Did you fee my cap? 2. LORD. Here 'tis. 4. LORD. Here lies my gown. 1. LORD. Let's make no ftay. 2. LORD. Lord Timon's mad. 3. LORD. my hat:-Did I feel't upon my bones. 4. LORD. One day he gives us diamonds, next day flones. 3 [Exeunt. • How now, my lords?] This and the next speech are spoken by the newly arrived lords. MALONE. 3 flones.] As Timon has thrown nothing at his worthless guefs, except warm water and empty difhes, I am induced, with Mr. Malone, to believe that the more ancient drama defcribed in P. 2, had been read by our author, and that he fuppofed he had ACT IV. SCENE I. Without the Walls of Athens. TIM. Let me look back upon thee, O thou wall, That girdleft in thofe wolves! Dive in the earth And fence not Athens! Matrons, turn incontinent; Obedience fail in children! flaves, and fools, Pluck the grave wrinkled fenate from the bench, And minifter in their fleads! to general filths 4 Convert o'the inftant, green 5 virginity! Do't in your parents' eyes! bankrupts, hold fast; Rather than render back, out with your knives, And cut your trufters' throats! bound fervants, fteal! Large-handed robbers your grave, mafters are, introduced from it the "painted stones" as part of his banquet; though in reality he had omitted them. The prefent mention therefore of fuch miffiles, appears to want propriety. STEEVENS. general filths—] i. e. common fewers. STEEVENS, green] i. e. immature. So, in Antony and Cleopatra: "When I was green in judgement 5 6 STEEVENS. o'the brothel ] So the old copies. Sir T. Hanmer reads, 'the brothel. JOHNSON. One would fuppofe it to mean, that the mistress frequented the brothel; and fo Sir T. Hanmer understood it. RITSON. The meaning is, go to thy mafter's bed, for he is alone; thy miftrefs is now of the brothel; is now there. In the old copy, i'th', o'th', and a'th' are written with very little care, or rather seem to have been fet down at random in different places. MALONE. "Of the brothel" is the true reading. So, in King Lear, ་་ A& II. fc. ii. the Steward fays to Kent," Art of the house?" STEEVENS. |