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And you fhall find, I like it: wait attendance
Till you hear further from me.

PAIN.

The gods preserve you: TIM. Well fare you, gentlemen: Give me your

hand;

We must needs dine together.-Sir, your jewel
Hath fuffer'd under praise.

JEW.

What, my lord? difpraife? TIM. A meer fatiety of commendations. If I should pay you for't as 'tis extoll'd,

It would unclew me quite.*

JEW.

My lord, 'tis rated As thofe, which fell, would give: But you well

know,

Things of like value, differing in the owners,

Are prized by their masters: 5 believe't, dear lord, You mend the jewel by wearing it."

TIM.

6

Well mock'd. MER. No, my good lord; he speaks the common tongue,

Which all men fpeak with him.

TIM. Look, who comes here. Will you be chid?

thread.

unclew me quite.] To unclew is to unwind a ball of To unclew a man, is to draw out the whole mafs of his fortunes. JOHNSON.

So, in The Two Gentlemen of Verona:

"Therefore as you unwind her love from him,

"You must provide to bottom it on me."

See Vol. IV. p. 246, n. 9. STEEVENS.

5 Are prized by their masters: 1 Are rated according to the efteem in which their poffeffor is held. JOHNSON.

by wearing it. Old copy-by the wearing it.

STEEVENS.

Enter APEMANTUS."

JEW. We will bear, with your lordship.

MER.
He'll fpare none.
TIM. Good morrow to thee, gentle Apemantus!
APEM. Till I be gentle, ftay for thy good mor-

row;

8

When thou art Timon's dog," and thefe knaves honeft,

TIM. Why doft thou call them knaves? thou. know'ft them not.

7 Enter Apemantus. ] See this character of a cynic finely drawn by Lucian, in his Auction of the Philofophers; and how well Shakfpeare has copied it. WARBURTON.

Stay for

Old copy tay thou for. With Sir T. Hanmer I have omitted the ufelefs thou, (which the compofitor's eye might have caught from the following line,) because it disorders the metre. STEEVENS.

9 When thou art Timon's dog,] When thou haft gotten a better chara&er, and instead of being Timon as thou art, shalt be changed to Timon's dog, and become more worthy kindness and falutation. JOHNSON.

This is fpoken SEINTIX@s, as Mr. Upton fays fomewhere :ftriking his hand on his breaft.

66

Wot you who named me firft the kinge's dogge?" fays Ariftippus in Damon and Pythias. FARMER.

Apemantus, I think, means to fay, that Timon is not to receive a gentle good morrow from him till that fhall happen which never will happen; till Timon is transformed to the shape of his dog, Stay for thy good and his knavifh followers become honeft men. morrow, fays he, till I be gentle, which will happen at the fame time when thou art Timon's dog, &c. i. e. never.

MALONE.

Mr. Malone has juftly explained the drift of Apemantus. Such another reply occurs in Troilus and Creffida, where, Ulyffes, defirous to avoid a kifs from Creffida fays to her; give me one

"When Helen is a maid again," &c. STELVENS.

APEM. Are they not Ahenians ?"

TIM. Yes.

APEM. Then I repent not.

JEW. You know me, Apemantus.

APEM. Thou know'ft, I do; I call'd thee by thy

name.

TIM. Thou art proud, Apemantus.

APEM. Of nothing fo much, as that I am not like Timon.

TIM. Whither art going?

APEM. To knock out an honeft Athenian's brains.
TIM. That's a deed thou'lt die for.

APEM. Right, if doing nothing be death by the law.

TIM. How likeft thou this picture, Apemantus?
APEM. The beft, for the innocence.

TIM. Wrought he not well, that painted it? APEM. He wrought better, that made the painter; and yet he's but a filthy piece of work.

PAIN. You are a dog.

APEM. Thy mother's of my generation; What's fhe, ifl be a dog?

TIM. Wilt dine with me, Apemantus ?

APEM. No; I eat not lords.

TIM. Anthou fhould'ft, thou'dft anger ladies.

7 Are they not Athenians?] The very imperfe&t state in which the ancient copy of this play has reached us, leaves a doubt whether feveral fhort fpeeches in the present scene were defigned for verse or profe. I have therefore made no attempt at regulation.

STEEVENS.

* Pain. You are a dog. ] This fpeech, which is given to the Painter in the old editions, in the modern ones must have been transferred to the Poet by mistake: it evidently belongs to the former. RITSON.

APEM. O, they eat lords; fo they come by great

bellies.

TIM. That's a lafcivious apprehenfion.

APEM. So thou apprehend'ft it: Take it for thy labour.

TIM. How doft thou like this jewel, Apemantus? APEM. Not fo well as plain-dealing, which will not coft a man a doit.

TIM. What doft thou think 'tis worth?

APEM. Not worth my thinking.- How now, poet?

POET. How now, philofopher?

APEM. Thou lieft.

POET. Art not one?

APEM. Yes.

POET. Then I lie not.

APEM. Art not a poet?

POET. Yes.

APEM. Then thou lieft: look in thy laft work, where thou haft feign'd him a worthy fellow. POET. That's not feign'd, he is fo.

APEM. Yes, he is worthy of thee, and to pay thee for thy labour: He, that loves to be flatter'd, is worthy o'the flatterer. Heavens, that I were a

lord!

TIM. What would'ft do then, Apemantus?

APEM. Even as Apemantus does now, hate a lord with my heart.

TIM. What, thyself?

9 Not fo well as plain-dealing, ] Alluding to the proverb: "Plain dealing is a jewel, but they that ufe it die beggars."

7

STEEVENS.

APEM. Ay.

TIM. Wherefore?

APEM. That I had no angry wit to be a lord.— Art not thou a merchant?

* That I had no angry wit to be a lord. ] This reading is abfurd, and unintelligible. But, as I have restored the text,

That I had fo hungry a wit to be a lord,

it is fatirical enough of confcience, viz. I would hate myself, for having no more wit than to covet so insignificant a title. In the fame fenfe, Shakspeare ufes lean-witted in his King Richard II :

"And thou a lunatick, lean-witted fool." WARBURTON.

The meaning may be,-I fhould hate myfelf for patiently enduring to be a lord. This is ill enough expreffed. Perhaps fome happy change may fet it right. I have tried, and can do nothing, yet I cannot heartily concur with Dr. Warburton. JOHNSON. Mr. Heath reads:

That I had fo wrong'd my wit to be a lord.

But the paffage before us, is, in my opinion, irremediably cor. rupted. STELVENS.

Perhaps the compofitor has tranfpofed the words, and they should be read thus:

Or,

Angry that I had no wit,-to be a lord.

Angry to be a lord,—that I had no wit.

Perhaps we thould read:

BLACKSTONE.

That I had an angry with to be a lord; meaning, that he would hate himself for having wifhed in his anger to become a lord. For it is in anger that he fays:

"Heavens, that I were a lord!" M. MASON.

I believe Shakspeare was thinking of the common expreffionhe has wit in his anger; and that the difficulty arifes here, as in many other places, from the original editor's paying no attention to abrupt fentences. Our author, I fuppofe, wrote:

That I had no angry wit.-To be a lord!

Art thou, &c.

Apemautus is afked, why after having wished to be a lord, he fhould hate himself. He replies, For this reafon; that I had no wit or difcretion] in my anger, but was abfurd enough to with myself one of that fet of men, whom I defpife. He then exclaims with indignation - To be a lord! Such is my conje&ure, in which however I have not fo much confidence as to depart from the mode in which this paffage has been hitherto exhibited.

MALONE,

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