In giving him his right. TIM. Mine honeft friend, I pr'ythee, but repair to me next morning. CAPH. Nay, good my lord, ΤΙΜ. 5 He humbly prays your speedy payment, wants, VAR. SERV. 'Twas due on forfeiture, my lord, fix weeks, And paft, ISID. SERV. Your fteward puts me off, my lord; And I am fent exprefsly to your lordship. TIM. Give me breath: I do befeech you, good my lords, keep on; [Exeunt ALCIBIADES and Lords. I'll wait on you inftantly. Come hither, pray you. [To FLAVIUS. How goes the world, that I am thus encounter'd With clamorous demands of date-broke bonds,6 He humbly prays your Speedy payment,] As our author does not appear to, have meant that the fervant of Ifidore fhould be lefs civil than those of the other lords, it is natural to conceive that this line, at prefent imperfe&t, originally food thus: 6 He humbly prays your lordship's Speedy payment. of date-broke bonds,] The old copy has: of debt, broken bonds. STEEVENS. So, Mr. Malone very judicioully reads date-broken. For the fake of measure I have omitted the laft letter of the fecond word. in Much Ado about Nothing: "I have broke [i. e. broken] with her father. STEEVENS. To the prefent emendation I fhould not have ventured to give a place in the text, but that fome change is abfolutely neceffary, And the detention of long-fince-due debts, FLAV. Please you, gentlemen, The time is unagreeable to this business: TIM. See them well entertain'd. Do fo, my friends: [Exit TIMON. pray, draw near. [Exit FLAVIUS. Enter APEMANTUS and a Fool." CAPH. Stay, ftay, here comes the fool with APEM. Doft dialogue with thy fhadow? APEM. No, 'tis to thyfelf.-Come away. [To the Fool. and this appears to be established beyond a doubt by a former line in the preceding (ceae: And my reliances on his fra&led dates. " The tranfcriber's ear deceived him here as in many other places. Sir Thomas Hanmer and the fubfequent editors evaded the difficulty by omitting the corrupted word, debt. MALONE. 7 Enter Apemantus and a Fool.] I fufpe& fome fcene to be lost, in which the entrance of the fool, and the page that follows him, was prepared by fome introdu&ory dialogue, in which the audience was informed that they were the fool and page of Phrynia, Timandra, or fome other courtefan, upon the knowledge of which depends the greater part of the enfuing jocularity. JOHNSON. ISID. SERV. [To Var, Serv.] There's the fool hangs on your back already. APEM. No, thou ftand'ft fingle, thou art not on him yet. CAPH. Where's the fool now? APEM. He laft afk'd the queftion.-Poor rogues. and ufurers' men! bawds between gold and want! ALL. What are we, Apemantus? APEM. Affes. ALL. SERV. Why? AREM. That you ask me, what you are, and do not know yourselves. Speak to 'em, fool. FOOL. How do you, gentlemen? ALL. SERV. Gramercies, good fool: How does your miftrefs? FOOL. She's e'en fetting on water to fcald fuch Poor rogues, and ufurers' men! bawds &c.] This is faid so abruptly, that I am inclined to think it mifplaced, and would regulate the paffage thus: Caph. Where's the fool now? Apem. He laft afk'd the question. All. What are we, Apemantus? All. Why? Apem. That you ask me what you are, and do not know yourselves. Poor rogues, and ufurers' men! bawds between gold and want! Speak &c. Thus every word will have its proper place. It is likely that the paffage tranfpofed was forgot in the copy, and inferted in the margin, perhaps a little befide the proper place, which the tranfcriber wanting either fkill or care to obferve, wrote it where it now ftands. JOHNSON. The tranfpofition proposed by Johnson is unneceffary. Apemantus does not addrefs thefe words to any of the others, but mutters them to himself; fo that they do not enter into the dialogue, or compose a part of it. M. MASON. chickens as you are. Corinth. 9 8 * 'Would, we could fee you at APEM. Good! gramercy. Enter Page. FOOL. Look you, here comes my mistress' page.* She's een fetting on water to fcald c.] The old name for the difeafe got at Corinth was the brenning, and a fense of Jealding is one of its firft fymptoms. JOHNSON. The fame thought occurs in The Old Law, by Maffinger: look parboil'd, "As if they came from Cupid's fcalding houfe." STEEVENS. It was anciently the practice, and in inns perhaps ftill continues, to fcald off the feathers of poultry, inftead of plucking them. Chaucer hath referred to it in his Romaunt of the Rofe, 6820: Et 9 'Would, we could fee you at Corinth. ] A cant name for a baw dyhoufe, I fuppofe, from the diffolutenefs of that ancient Greek city; of which Alexander ab Alexandro has thefe words: CORINTHI Supra mille proftitutas in templo Veneris affidue degere & inflammata libidine quæftui meretricio operam dare, & velut facrorum miniftras De famulari.' Milton, in his Apology for Smedtymnuus, fays: "Or fearching for me at the Bordellos, where, it may be, he has loft himself, and aps up, without pity, the fage and rheumatick old prelatess, with all her young Corinthian laity, to enquire for fuch a one. WARBURTON. See Vol. XII. p. 256, n. 4. 2 MALONE. my miftrefs' page. ] In the firft paffage this Fool speaks of his master, in the fecond as exhibited in the modern editions] of his mistress. In the old copy it is mafter in both places. It should rather, perhaps, be mistress in both, as it is in a following and a preceding paffage: All. How does your mistress?" "Fool. My miftrefs is one, and I am her fool. STEEVENS. I have not hesitated to print mirefs in both places. Mafter was frequently printed in the old copy inftead of mistress, and vice versa, from the ancient mode of writing an M only, which flood in the MSS. of Shakspeare's time either for the one or the other; and the PAGE. [To the Fool. ] Why, how now, captain? what do you in this wife company? How doft thou, Apemantus? APEM. 'Would I had a rod in my mouth, that I might anfwer thee profitably. PAGE Pr'ythee, Apemantus, read me the fuperfcription of these letters; I know not which is which. APFM. Canft not read? PAGE. No. APEM. There will little learning die then, that day thou art hang'd. This is to lord Timon; this to Alcibiades. Go; thou waft born a baftard, and thou'lt die a bawd. PAGE. Thou waft whelp'd a dog; and thou fhalt famifh, a dog's death. Answer not, I am gone. [Exit Page. APEM. Even fo thou out-run'ft grace. Fool, I will go with you to lord Timon's. FOOL. Will you leave me there? -- APEM. If Timon ftay at home. You three ferve three ufurers? ALL SERV. Ay; 'would they served us! APEM. So would I, hangman ferved thief. as good a trick as ever copyift or printer completed the word without attending to the context. This abbreviation is found in Coriolanus, folio, 1623, p. 21: "Where's Cotus? My M. calls for him?" Again, more appofitely, in The Merchant of Venice, 1623: "What ho, M. [Mafler] Lorenzo, and M. [Miflress] Ĺò In Vol. IX. p. 245, n. 9, and Vol. XIV. p. 194, n. 5, are found corruptions fimilar to the prefent, in confequence of the printer's completing the abbreviated word of the MS. improperly. MALOne. |