ALL LORDS. None fo welcome. TIM. I take all and your feveral visitations 6 So kind to heart, 'tis not enough to give; Methinks, I could deal kingdoms to my friends, And ne'er be weary.—Alcibiades, Thou art a foldier, therefore feldom rich, It comes in charity to thee: for all thy living ALCIB. Ay, defiled land,' my lord. 1. LORD. We are fo virtuously bound, TIM. All to you."-Lights, more lights. Again, in King John: "I'll tell thee, Hubert, half my power, this night-.' STEEVENS. 6 'tis not enough to give; Methinks, I could deal kingdoms ] Thus the paffage food in all the editions before Sir T. Hanmer's, who reftored-My thanks. JOHNSON. I have difplaced the words inferted by Sir T. Hanmer. What I have already given, fays Timon, is not sufficient on the occafion: Methinks I could deal kingdoms, i. e, could difpenfe them on every fide with an ungrudging distribution, like that with which I could deal out cards. STEEVENS. 7 Ay, defiled land,] I, is the old reading, which apparently depends on a very low quibble. Alcibiades is told, that his eftaté lies in a pitch'd field. Now pitch, as Falftaff fays, doth defile. Alcibiades therefore replies, that bis cftate lies in defiled land. This, as it happened, was not underflood, and all the editors published: I defy land, JOHNSON. I being always printed in the old copy for Ay, the editor of the fecond folio made the abfurd alteration mentioned by Dr. Johnson. MALONE. all good wishes, or a happiness to you. 8 All to you.] i. e. So, Macbeth: 1. LORD. The best of happiness, Honour, and fortunes, keep with you, lord Timon! TIM. Ready for his friends. 9 APEM. [Exeunt ALCIBIADES, Lords, &c. 2 What a coil's here! Serving of becks, and jutting out of bums! Ready for his friends.] I fuppofe, for the fake of enforcing the fenfe, as well as reftoring the measure, we should read: Ready ever for his friends. STEEVENS, Serving of becks,] Beck means a falutation made with the head. So, Milton; "Nods and becks, and wreathed fmiles." To ferve a beck, is to offer a falutation. JOHNSON. To ferve a beck, means, I believe, to pay a courtly obedience to a aod. Thus, in The Death of Robert Earl of Huntington, 1601: "And with a low beck Prevent a harp check." Again, in The play of the Four P's, 1569: "Then I to every foul again, "Did give a beck them to retain." In Ram-Alley or Merry Tricks, 1611, i find the fame word: I had my winks, my becks, treads on the toe." Again, in Heywood's Rape of Lucrece, 1630: wanton looks, "And privy becks, favouring incontinence." Again, in Lyly's Woman in the Moon, 1597: "And he that with a beck controuls the heavens." It happens then that the word beck has no less than four diftin& fignifications. In Drayton's Polyolbion, it is enumerated among the appellations of small fireams of water. In Shakspeare's Antony and Cleopatra, it has its common meaning-a fign of invitation made by the hand. In Timon, it appears to denote a bow, and in Lyly's play, a nod of dignity or command; as well as in Marius and Sylla; 1594: "Yea Sylla with a beck could break thy neck." Again, in the interlude of Jacob and Efau, 1568: "For what, O Lord, is fo poffible to man's judgment See Surrey's Poems, p. 29: "And with a becke full lowe he bowed at her feete:" · TYRWHITT. I doubt whether their legs 3 be worth the fums That are given for 'em. Friendship's full of dregs': Methinks, falfe hearts fhould never have found legs. Thus honeft fools lay out their wealth on court'fies. TIм. Now, Apemantus, if thou wert not fullen, I'd be good to thee. APEM. No, I'll nothing for, If I fhould be brib'd too, there would be none left To rail upon thee; and then thou would't fin the fafter. Thou giv'ft fo long, Timon, I fear me, thou An you begin to rail on fociety once, [Exit. So;- Thou'lt not hear me now,-thou fhalt not then, I'll lock 5 6 Thy heaven from thee. O, that men's ears should be To counsel deaf, but not to flattery! [Exit. 3 I doubt whether their legs &c.] He plays upon the word leg, as it fignifies a limb, and a bow or act of obeisance. JOHNSON. See Vol. XII. p. 286, n. 6. MALONE. 4 I fear me, thou, Wilt give away thyself in paper shortly:] i. e. be ruined by his fecurities entered into. WARBURTON. -- 5 Thou'll not hear me now, - thou shalt not then, I'll lock -] The measure will be reftored by the omiffion of an unneceffary word-me: Thou'll not hear now,-thou shalt not then, I'll lock . STEEVENS, Thy heaven The pleasure of being flattered... JOHNSON. E A } ACT II. SCENE I The fame. A Room in a Senator's Houfe. Enter a Senator, with papers in his hand. SEN. And late, five thousand to Varro; and to He owes nine thousand; befides my former fum, 6 Apemantus never intended, at any event, to flatter Timon, nor did Timon expect any flattery from him. By his heaven he means good advice, the only thing by which he could be faved. The following lines confirm this explanation. M. MASON. 6 twenty Mr. Theobald has-ten. Dr. Farmer propoles to read twain. REED. 7 Afk nothing, give it him, it foals me, firaight, "If I want gold, (fays the fenator) let me fteal a beggar's dog, and give it Timon, the dog coins me gold. If I would fell my horfe, and had a mind to buy ten better inftead of him; why, I need but give my horfe to Timon, to gain this point; and it presently fetches me an horfe." But is that gaining the point proposed? The firft folio reads: And able horfes: But rather one that fmiles, and ftill invites Which reading, joined to the reafoning of the paffage, gave me the hint for this emendation. THEOBALD. The paffage which Mr. Theobald would alter, means only this: If I give my horfe to Timon, it immediately foåls, and not only produces more, but able horfes." The fame contradion occurs in Much Ado about Nothing: and men are only turned into tongue, and trim ones too." Something fimilar occurs alfo in Beaumont and Fletcher's Humorous Lieutenant: STEEVENS. Perhaps the letters of the word me were tranfpofed at the prefs. Shakspeare might have written: it foals 'em ftraight And able horfes. If there be no corruption in the text, the word twenty in the preceding line, is underfood here after me. We have had this fentiment differently expreffed in the preceding * —— no meed but he repays "Seven-fold above itfelf; no gift to him, No porter at his gate; But rather one that fmiles, and fill invites I imagine that à line is loft here, in which the behaviour of a furly porter was deferibed. JOHNSON. There is no ottafion to fuppofe the lofs of a line. Sternnefs was the chara&eriftick of a porter. There appeared at Killingworth caftle, [1575] à porter, tall of perfon, big of lim, and flearn of countinauns." FARMER, So also, ín A Knight's Conjuring &c. by Decker: You mistake, if you imagine that Plutoes porter is like one of those big fellowes that fland like gyants at Lordes gates &c. -- yet hee's as furly as thofe key-turners are." STEEVENS. The word-one, in the fecond line, does not refer to porter, but means a person. He has no ftern forbidding porter at his gate, to keep people out, but a person who invites them in. M. MASON. |