9 Can found his ftate in fafety. Caphis, ho! Enter CAPHIS. CAPH. Here, fir; What is your pleasure? Impórtune him for my monies; be not ceas'd' Plays in the right hand, thus :-but tell him, firrah," Out of mine own; his days and times are paft, 9 no reason [Old copy Can found his fiate in fafety.] found. J The fuppofed meaning of this muft be, No reafon, by founding, fathoming, or trying, his ftate, can find it fafe. But as the words ftand, they imply, that no reason can safely found his flate. I read thus: no reason Can found his fate in fafety.— Reafon cannot find his fortune to have any safe or solid foundation. The types of the firft printer of this play were fo worn and defaced, that f and are not always to be diftinguished. JOHNSON. to Dr. The following paffage in Macbeth affords countenance Johnson's emendation: "Whole as the marble, founded as the rock;-—.” STEEVENS. be not ceas'd-] i. e. ftopp'd. So, in Claudius Tiberius Nero, 1607: Why Should Tiberius' liberty be ceafed." Again, in The Valiant Welchman, 1615: ་་ pity thy people's wrongs, "And ceafe the clamours both of old and young." STEEVENS. 3 -firrah, was added for the fake of the metre by the editor of the fecond folio. MALONE. And my reliances on his fracted dates Have finit my credit: 1 love, and honour him; A vifage of demand; for, I do fear,' 5 Which flashes now a phoenix. Get you gone. take the bonds along with SEN. I go, fir? you, And have the dates in compt.' CAPH. I will, fir. SEN. Go. [Exeunt. a naked gull, A gull is a bird as remarkable for the poverty of its feathers, as a phoenix is fuppofed to be for the rich nefs of its plumage. STEFVENS. 5 Which flashes &c.] Which, the pronoun relative, relating to things, is frequently used, as in this inftance, by Shakspeare, inftead of who, the pronoun relative, applied to perfons. The ufe of the former inftead of the latter is ftill preserved in the Lord's prayer. STEEVENS. Caph. I go, fir. Sen. I go, fir?] This last speech is not a captious repetition of what Caphis faid, but a further injunction to him to go. I, in all the old dramatic writers, ftands for-ay, as it does in this place. M. MASON. I have left Mr. M. Mafon's opinion before the reader, though I do not heartily concur in it. STEEV ENS. 7 take the bonds along with you, And have the dates in compt. ] [ Old copy-And have the dates in. Come. Certainly, ever fince bonds were given, the date' was put in when the bond was entered into and these bonds Timon had already given, and the time limited for their payment was lapled. The Senator's charge to his fervant muft be to the tenour : SCENE II. The fame. A Hall in Timon's Houfe. Enter FLAVIUS, with many bills in his hand. FLAV. No care, no ftop! so senseless of expence, That he will neither know how to maintain it, Nor ceafe his flow of riot: Takes no account How things go from him; nor refumes no care Of what is to continue; Never mind Was to be fa unwife, to be fo kind. 9 What fhall be done? He will not hear, till feel: I must be round with him, now he comes from hunting. Fye, fye, fye, fye! as I have amended the text; Take good notice of the dates, for the better computation of the intereft due upon them. THEOBALD. Mr. Theobald's emendation may be fupported by the following inftance in Macbeth: 9 "Have theirs, themselves, and what is theirs, in compt." Never mind STEEVENS. Was to be fo unwife, to be so kind.] Nothing can be worse, or more obfcurely expreffed: and all for the fake of a wretched rhyme. To make it fenfe and grammar, it should be fupplied thus: Never mind Was [made] to be fo anwife, [in order] to be fo kind. ] 1. e. Nature, in order to make a profufe mind, never before endowed any man with fo large a fhare of folly. WARBURTON. Of this mode of expreffion, converfation affords many examples: "I was always to be blamed, whatever happened.""I am in the lottery, but I was always to draw blanks." JOHNSON. Enter CAPHIS, and the Servants of Ifidore and Varro. * Good even, Varzo:] It is observable, that this good evening is before dinner: for Timon tells Alcibiades, that they will go forth again, as foon as dinner's done, which may prove that by dinner our author meant not the cana of ancient times, but the mid-day's repalt. I do not suppose the paffage corrupt: fuch inadvertencies neither author nor editor can escape. There is another remark to be made. Varro and Ifidore fink a few lines afterwards into the fervants of Varro and Ifidore. Whether fervants, in our author's time, took the names of their mafters, I know not. Perhaps it is a flip of negligence. JOHNSON. In the old copy it ftands: "Enter Caphis, Ifidore, and Varro." STEEVENS. In like manner in the fourth fcene of the next a& the fervant of Lucius is called by his mafter's name; but our author's intention is fufficiently manifested by the stage-direction in the fourth scene of the third act, where we find in the firft folio, (p. 86, col. 2.) "Enter Varro's man, meeting others." I have therefore always annexed Serv. to the name of the mafter. MALONE. Good even, or, as it is fometimes lefs accurately written, Good den, was the ufual falutation from noon, the moment that Good inorrow became improper. This appears plainly from the following paffage in Romeo and Juliet, A II. fc, iv: "Nurfe. God ye good morrow, gentlemen. "Mercutio. God ye good den, fair gentlewomau. "Merc. 'Tis no lefs I tell you; for the..... hand of the dial is now upon the..... of noon." So, in Hamlet's greeting to Marcellus. Aa I. fc. i. Sir T. Hanmer aud Dr. Warburton, not being aware, I prefume, of this wide sense of Good even, have altered it to Good morning; without any neceffity, as from the courfe of the incidents, precedent and fubfequent, the day may well be fuppofed to be turn'd of noon. TYRWHITT. CAPH. It is;-And yours too, Ifidore? CAPH. 'Would we were all difcharg'd! CAPH. Here comes the lord. It is fo I fear it. Enter TIMON, ALCIBIADES, and Lords &c. TIM. So foon as dinner's done, we'll forth again,' My Alcibiades. With me? What's your will? CAPH. My lord, here is a note of certain dues. TIM. Dues? Whence are you? CAPH. TIM. Go to my fteward. Of Athens here, my lord. CAPH. Please it your lordship, he hath put me off To call upon his own; and humbly prays you, 3 we'll forth again, ] i. e. to hunting, from which diversion,. we find by Flavius's fpeech, he was just returned. It may be here obferved, that in our author's time it was the cuftom to hunt as well after dinner as before. Thus, in Laneham's Account of the Enter-' tainment at Kenelworth Caftle, we find, that Queen Elizabeth always, while there, hunted in the afternoon. 66 Monday was hot, and therefore her highness kept in 'till five a clok in the evening; what time it pleaz'd her to ryde forth into the chafe, to, hunt the hart of fors; which found anon, and after fore chafed," &c. Again, Munday the 18 of this July, the weather being hot, her highness kept the caftle for coolness 'till about five a clok, her majefty in the chafe hunted the hart (as before) of forz," &c. So, in Tancred and Gifmund, 1592: "He means this evening in the park to hunt." REED. 4 That with your other noble parts you'll fuit,] 'i. e. that you will behave on this occafion in a manner confiftent with your other poble qualities. STEEVENS. |