Thou common whore of mankind, that put'ft odds Among the rout of nations, I will make thee Do thy right nature. - [ March afar off.] Ha! a 6 drum?-Thou'rt quick, " 5 But yet I'll bury thee: Thou'lt go, ftrong thief, When gouty keepers of thee cannot ftand: Nay, flay thou out for earneft. [Keeping fome gold. Enter ALCIBIADES, with drum and fife, in warlike manner; PHRYNIA, and TYMANDRA. ALCIB. Speak. What art thou there? TIM. A beaft, as thou art. The canker gnaw thy heart, To the April day again.] That is, to the wedding day, called by the poet, fatirically, April day, or fool's day. JOHNSON. The April day does not relate to the widow, but to the other difeafed female, who is reprefented as the outcast of an hospital. She it is whom gold embalms and Spices to the April day again: i c. gold reftores her to all the freshness and sweetness of youth. Such is the power of gold, that it will 66 make black, white; foul, fair; Wrong, right;" &c. A quotation or two may perhaps fupport this interpretation. So, in Sidney's Arcadia, p. 262, edit. 1633: "Do you fee how the fpring time is full of flowers, decking itfelf with them, and not aspiring to the fruits of autumn? What leffon is that unto you, but that in the April of your age you fhould be like April." "He is a Again, in Stephens's Apology for Herodotus, 1607: young man, and in the April of his age." Peacham's Compleat Gentleman, chap. iii. calls youth the April of man's life." Shakfpeare's Sonnet entitled Love's Cruelty, has the fame thought: "Thou art thy mother's glafs, and fhe in thee Do thy right nature.] Lie in the earth where nature laid thee. JOHNSON. Thou'rt quick,] Thou haft life and motion in thee. JOHNSON For fhowing me again the eyes of man! ALCIB. What is thy name? Is man fo hateful to thee, That art thyself a man? TIM. I am mifanthropos," and hate mankind. For thy part, I do wish thou wert a dog, That I might love thee fomething. ALCIB. I know thee well; But in thy fortunes am unlearn'd and frange. TIM. I know thee too; and more, than that I know thee, I not defire to know. Follow thy drum; Then what fhould war be? This fell whore of thine For all her cherubin look. PHRY. 9 Thy lips rot off! TIM. I will not kifs thee; then the rot returns To thine own lips again. 7 I am mifanthropos,] A marginal note in the old tranflation of Plutarch's Life of Antony, furnished our author with this epithet: "Antonius followeth the life and example of Timon Mifanthropus,. the Athenian." MALONE. gules, gules: Might we not repair the defe&ive metre of this line, by adopting a Shakspearian epithet, and reading, gules, total gules ; as in the following passage in Hamlet! "Now is he total gules." STELVENS. I will not kifs thee;] This alludes to an opinion in former times, generally prevalent, that the veneral infection tranfmitted to another, left the infeder free. I will not, fays Timon, take the rot from thy lips, by kiffing thee. JOHNSON. Thus, The Humourous Lieutenant says: "He has fome wench, or fuch a toy, to kifs over, "To draw this foolish pain down." STEEVENS, ALCIB. How came the noble Timon to this change? TIM. As the moon does, by wanting light to give: But then renew I could not, like the moon; There were no funs to borrow of. ALCIB. What friendship may I do thee? TIM. Maintain my opinion. ALCIB. 9 Noble Timon, None, but to What is it, Timon? TIM. Promise me friendfhip, but perform none: If Thou wilt not promife, the gods plague thee, for Thou art a man! if thou doft perform, confound thee, For thou'rt a man! ALCIB. I have heard in fome fort of thy mife ries. TIM. Thou faw'ft them, when I had profperity. ALCIB. 1 fee them now; then was a bleffed time. TIM. As thine is now, held with a brace of har lots. TYMAN. Is this the Athenian minion, whom the world Voic'd fo regardfully? TIM. TYMAN. Yes, 9 If Art thou Timandra? Thou will not promife, &c.] That is, however thou may'ft act, fince thou art man, hated man, I wish thee evil. JOHNSON. then was a bleffed time.] I fufpe&. from Timon's anthine was a bleffed time. fwer, that Shakspeare wrote - MALONE. I apprehend no corruption. Now, and then, were designedly opposed to each other. STEEVENS. TIM. Be a whore flill! they love thee not, that use thee; Give them difeafes, leaving with thee their luft. youth 4 3 To the tub-faft, and the diet. 5 ΤΥΜΑΝ. Hang thee, monfter! that use thee; Be a whore fill they love thee not, pofition. I would read: There is here a flight tranf they love thee not that use thee, 4 bring down role-checked youth] This expreffive epithet our author might have found in Marlow's Hero and Leander: Rofe-cheek'd Adonis kept a folemn feaft." MALONE. To the tub-faft, and the diet. ] [ Old copy-fub-faft.] One might make a very long and vain fearch, yet not be able to meet with this prepofterous word fub-faft. which has notwithstanding paffed current with all the editors. We should read tub-fajt. The author is alluding to the lues venerea and its effects. At that time the cure of it was performed either by guaiacum, or mercurial unctions and in both cafes the patient was kept up very warm and close that in the firft application the fweat might be promoted; and left, in the other, he thould take cold, which was fatal. "The regimen for the course of guatacum (fays Dr. Friend, in his Hiftory of Phyfick, Vol. II. p. 380,) was at firft ftrangely circumftantial; and fo rigorous, that the patient was put into a dungeon in order to make him fweat; and in that manuer, as Fallopius expreffes it, the bones, and the very man himself was macerated." Wiseman says, in England they used a tub for this purpose, as abroad, a cave, or oven, or dungeon. And as for the unction, it was fometimes continued for thirty-feven days (as he obferves, p. 375.) and during this time there was neceffarily an extraordinary abftinence required. Hence the term of the tub-faft. WARBURTON. ALCIB. Pardon him fweet Tymandra; for his wits So, in Jafper Maine's City Match, 1639: 0 You had better match a ruin'd bawd, "One ten times cur'd by fweating, and the tub." Again, iu The Family of Love, 1608, a doctor fays: for one of the hoops of my Cornelius' tub, I thall burft myself with laughing elfe." Again, in Monfieur D'Olive, 1606: Our emballage is into France, there may be employment for thee: Haft thou a tub?" The diet was likewife a cuftomary term for the regimen prefcribed in these cafes. So, in Springes to catch Woodcocks, a colledion of Epigrams, 1606: "Picus gave out, &c.- "Prifcus bad tane the diet all the while." Again, in another colle&ion of ancient Epigrams called The Mafive, &c. "She took not diet nor the fweat in feafon." Thus, also in Beaumont and Fletcher's Knight of the Burning Pefile : whom I in diet keep ་་ "Send lower down into the cave, "And in a tub that's heated fmoaking hot," &c. Again, in the fame play: caught us, and put us in a tub, "Where we this two months fweat, &c. "This bread and water hath our diet been," &c. STEEVENS. The preceding lines, and a paffage in Measure for Meafure, fully fupport the emendation: 66 Truly, fir, the [the bawd] had eaten up all her beef, and she is herself in the tub MALONE, In the Latin comedy of Cornelianum Dolium, which was probably written by T. Randolph, there is a frontispice reprefenting the fweating tub, which from the name of the unfortunate patient, was afterwards called Cornelius's tub, as appears from the Dicionaries of Cotgrave and Howel. Some account of the fweating-tub with a rut of it may be feen in Ambrofe Paræus's Works, by Johnfon, P 48 Another very particular reprefentation of it may be likewife found in the Recueil de Proverbes par Jacques Lagniet, with the following lines: Pour un petit plaifir je foufre mille maux; |