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2. SEN.

So did we woo

Transformed Timon to our city's love,
By humble meffage, and by promis'd means;'
We were not all unkind, nor all deserve
The common ftroke of war.

1. SEN.

Thefe walls of ours

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Were not erected by their hands, from whom You have receiv'd your griefs: nor are they fuch, That these great towers, trophies, and fchools fhould

fall

For private faults in them.'

2. SEN. Nor are they living, Who were the motives that you first went out;*

Their refers to griefs. "To give thy rages balm," must be conidered as parenthetical. ingratitudes for ingratitude.

7 So did we woo

The modern editors have fubftituted MAlone.

Transformed Timon to our city's love,

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By humble message, and by promis'd means;] Promis'd means muft import the recruiting of his funk fortunes; but this is not all. The fenate had wooed him with humble meffage, and promise of general reparation. This feems included in the flight change which I have made:

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Dr. Warburton agrees with Mr. Theobald, but the old reading may well ftand. JOHNSON.

By promis'd means, is by promifing him a competent subfiftence. So, in King Henry IV. P. II: "Your means are very lender, and your wafte is great." MALONE.

• You have receiv'd your griefs:] The old copy has-grief; but as the fenator in his preceding fpeech ufes the plural, grief was probably here an error of the prefs. The correction was made by Mr. Theobald. MALONE.

9 For private faults in them.]

That is, in the persons from whom you have received your griefs. MALONE.

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the motives that you first went out;] i. e. thofe who made the motion for your exile. This word is as perversely employed in Troilus and Creffida:

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her wanton fpirits look out "At every joint and motive of her body."

STERVENS.

Shame, that they wanted cunning, in excess
Hath broke their hearts. 4 March, noble lord,
Into our city with thy banners spread:
By decimation, and a tithed death,

(If thy revenges hunger for that food,

Which nature loaths,) take thou the deftin'd tenth; And by the hazard of the spotted die,

Let die the fpotted.

1. SEN.

All have not offended';

For thofe that were, it is not fquare, 5 to take,
On those that are, revenges: crimes, like lands,
Are not inherited. Then, dear countryman,
Bring in thy ranks, but leave without thy rage:
Spare thy Athenian cradle,' and those kin,
Which, in the blufter of thy wrath, must fall
With thofe that have offended: like a fhepherd,

4 Shame, that they wanted cunning, in excess

Hath broke their hearts.] Shame in excess (i. e. extremity of hame) that they wanted cunning (i. e. that they were not wife enough not to banish you) hath broke their hearts. THEOBALD.

I have no wish to difturb the manes of Theobald, yet think fome emendation may be offered that will make the conftruction lefs harsh, and the fentence more ferious. I read :

Shame that they wanted, coming in excess,

Hath broke their hearts.

Shame which they had fo long wanted, at last coming in its utmoft excels. JOHNSON.

I think that Theobald has, on this occafion, the advantage of Johnfoo. When the old reading is clear and intelligible, we fhould not have recourse to correction, Cunning was not, in Shakspeare's time, confined to a bad fenfe, but was used to exprefs knowledge or understanding. M. MASON.

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5 --not Square,] Not regular, not equitable. JOHNSON.

revenges:] Old copy revenge. Corrected by Mr.

Steevens. See the preceding speech. MALONE.

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thy Athenian cradle,] Thus Ovid, Met. VIII. 99:

- Jovis incunabula Crete." STEEVENS.

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Approach the fold, and cull the infected forth,
But kill not all together.

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What thou wilt,

Set but thy foot

Thou rather fhalt enforce it with thy fmile,
Than hew to't with thy fword.

1. SEN.

Against our rampir'd gates, and they fhall' ope; So thou wilt fend thy gentle heart before,

To fay, thou'lt enter friendly.

2. SEN.

Throw thy glove,

Or any token of thine honour elle,

That thou wilt ufe the wars as thy redress,
And not as our confufion, all thy powers
Shall make their harbour in our town, till we
Have feal'd thy full defire.

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ALCIB. Then there's my glove; Defcend, and open your uncharged ports: Thofe enemies of Timon's, and mine own, Whom you yourselves fhall fet out for reproof, Fall, and no more: and,-to atone your fears With my more noble meaning, '—not a màn Shall pafs his quarter, or offend the ftream

3

2

But kill not all together.] The old copy reads- altogether. M. M. Mafon fuggefted the correâion I have made.

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STEEVENS.

uncharged ports:] That is, unguarded gates. JOHNSON. Uncharged means unattacked, not unguarded. M. MASON. Mr. M. Mason is right. So, in Shakspeare's 70th Sonnet: "Thou haft pafs'd by the ambush of young days, "Either not affail'd, or vi&or, being charg'd." MALONE. to atone your fears

2

With my more noble meaning, ] i. e. to reconcile them to it. So, in Cymbeline: "I was glad I did atone my countryman and you."

3

not a man

STEEVENS.

Shali pafs his quarter,] Not a foldier fhall quit his ftation, or be let loose upon you; and, if any commits violence, he thall anfwer it regularly to the law. JOHNSON.

4

Of regular justice in your city's bounds,
But fhall be remedied, to your publick laws
At heaviest answer.

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Вогн.

'Tis moft nobly spoken. ALCIB. Defcend, and keep your words. 5

The Senators defcend, and open the gates,
Enter a Soldier.

SOL. My noble general, Timon is dead;
Entomb'd upon the very hem o'the sea :

And, on his grave-fone, this infculpture which With wax I brought away, whofe foft impreffion Interprets for my poor ignorance.

ALCIB. [Reads.] Here lies a wretched corfe, wretched foul bereft:

Seek not my name: A plague confume you wicked caitiffs left!"

But fhall be remedied,]

The conftru&ion is, But he shall be remedied; but Shakipeare means, that his offence thall be remedied, the word offence being included in offend in a former line. The editor of the fecond folio, for to, in the laft line but one of this fpeech, fubftituted by, which all the subsequent editors adopted. MALONE.

I profefs my inability to extract any determinate fenfe from thefe words as they fland, and rather fuppofe the reading in the fecond folio to be the true one.. To be remedied by, affords a glimpse of meaning: to be remedied to, is "the blanket of the dark." STEEVENS.

5 Defcend, and keep your words.] Old copy-Defend. by the editor of the fecond folio. MALONE.

6 11

Corrected

for my poor ignorance.] Poor is here used as a diffyllable, as door is in The Merchant of Venice. MALONE.

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caitiffs left! This epitaph is found in fir T. North's tranflation of Plutarch, with the difference of one word only, viz. wretches inftead of cailiffs. STEEVENS.

This epitaph is formed out of two diftin&t epitaphs which Shakfpeare found in Plutarch. The first couplet is faid by Plutarch to have been compofed by Timon himself as his epitaph; the second to have been written by the poet Callimachus.

Here lie I Timon; who, alive, all living men did hate; Pafs by, and curfe thy fill; but pass, and ftay not here thy gait.

These well exprefs in thee thy latter fpirits:

Though thou abhorr'dft in us our human griefs, Scorn'dft our brain's flow, and thofe our droplets

which

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From niggard nature fall, yet rich conceit

Taught thee to make vaft Neptune weep for aye On thy low grave, on faults forgiven. Dead

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Perhaps the flight variation mentioned by Mr. Steevens, arofe from our author's having another epitaph before him, which is found in Kendal's Flowers of Epigrammes, 1577, and in Painter's Palace of Pleafure, Vol. I. Nov. 28:

TIMON HIS ЕРІТАРНЕ,

"My wretched caitiffe daies expired now and paft,
"My carren corps enterred here, is grafpt in ground,
"In weltring waves of fwelling feas by fourges cafte;

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My name if thou defire, the gods thee doe confound!"

MALONE.

our brain's flow, ] Sir T. Hanmer and Dr. Warburton read, - brine's flow. Our brain's flow is our tears; but we may read, our brine's flow, our falt tears. Either will ferve. JOHNSON. Our brain's flow is right. So, in Sir Giles Goofecap, 1606:

"Ifhed not the tears of my brain."

Again, in The Miracles of Mofes, by Drayton:

STEEVENS.

"But he from rocks that fountains can command, "Cannot yet ftay the fountains of his brain." 9 on faults forgiven.] Alcibiades's whole fpeech is in breaks, betwixt his reflections on Timon's death, and his addreffes to the Athenian fenators: and as foon as he has commented on the place of Timon's grave, he bids the fenate fet forward; tells 'em, he has forgiven their faults; and promises to use them with mercy. THEOBALD.

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One fault (viz. the ingratitude of the Athenians to Timon) is forgiven, i. e. exempted from punishment by the death of the injured perfon. TYRWHITT.

The old reading and pun&uation appear to me fufficiently intelligible. Mr. Theobald asks," why should Neptune weep over

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