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As to advance this jewel; accept it and wear it,
Kind my lord.
1 LORD I am so far already in your gifts –
ALL So are we all.
Enter a Servant.
SERVANT My lord, there are certain nobles of the senate
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newly alighted, and come to visit you.
TIMON They are fairly welcome. Exit Servant.
STEWARD I beseech your honour, vouchsafe me a word;
it does concern you near.
TIMON Near? Why, then, another time I’ll hear thee. I
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prithee, let’s be provided to show them entertainment.
STEWARD [aside] I scarce know how.
Enter another Servant.
2 SERVANT
May it please your honour, Lord Lucius,
Out of his free love, hath presented to you
Four milk-white horses, trapp’d in silver.
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TIMON I shall accept them fairly. Let the presents
Be worthily entertain’d. Exit Servant.
Enter a third Servant.
How now? What news?
3 SERVANT
Please you, my lord, that honourable gentleman Lord
Lucullus entreats your company tomorrow, to hunt
with him, and has sent your honour two brace of
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greyhounds.
TIMON I’ll hunt with him; and let them be receiv’d,
Not without fair reward.
STEWARD [aside] What will this come to?
He commands us to provide, and give great gifts,
And all out of an empty coffer;
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Nor will he know his purse, or yield me this,
To show him what a beggar his heart is,
Being of no power to make his wishes good.
His promises fly so beyond his state
That what he speaks is all in debt; he owes for ev’ry
word:
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He is so kind that he now pays interest for’t;
His land’s put to their books. Well, would I were
Gently put out of office before I were forc’d out!
Happier is he that has no friend to feed
Than such that do e’en enemies exceed.
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I bleed inwardly for my lord. Exit.
TIMON You do yourselves much wrong,
You bate too much of your own merits.
Here, my lord, a trifle of our love.
2 LORD With more than common thanks I will receive
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it.
3 LORD O he’s the very soul of bounty.
TIMON And now I remember, my lord, you gave good
words the other day of a bay courser I rode on. ’Tis
yours, because you lik’d it.
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3 LORD O I beseech you pardon me, my lord, in that.
TIMON
You may take my word, my lord, I know no man
Can justly praise but what he does affect.
I weigh my friend’s affection with mine own,
I’ll tell you true. I’ll call to you.
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ALL LORDS O none so welcome.
TIMON I take all and your several visitations
So kind to heart, ’tis not enough to give:
Methinks I could deal kingdoms to my friends,
And ne’er be weary. Alcibiades,
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Thou art a soldier, therefore seldom rich;
It comes in charity to thee: for all thy living
Is ’mongst the dead, and all the lands thou hast
Lie in a pitch’d field.
ALCIBIADES Ay, defil’d land, my lord.
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1 LORD We are so virtuously bound –
TIMON And so am I to you.
2 LORD So infinitely endear’d –
TIMON All to you. Lights, more lights!
1 LORD The best of happiness, honour and fortunes,
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Keep with you, Lord Timon!
TIMON Ready for his friends.
Exeunt all but Timon, Apemantus.
APEMANTUS What a coil’s here,
Serving of becks and jutting-out of bums!
I doubt whether their legs be worth the sums
That are given for ’em. Friendship’s full of dregs;
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Methinks false hearts should never have sound legs.
Thus honest fools lay out their wealth on curtsies.
TIMON Now Apemantus, if thou wert not sullen,
I would be good to thee.
APEMANTUS No, I’ll nothing; for if I should be brib’d
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too, there would be none left to rail upon thee, and
then thou wouldst sin the faster. Thou giv’st so long,
Timon, I fear me thou wilt give away thyself in paper
shortly. What needs these feasts, pomps, and
vainglories?
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TIMON Nay, and you begin to rail on society once, I am
sworn not to give regard to you. Farewell, and come
with better music.
Exit.
APEMANTUS So. Thou wilt not hear me now; thou shalt
not then. I’ll lock thy heaven from thee.
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O that men’s ears should be
To counsel deaf, but not to flattery. Exit.
2.1 Enter a Senator.
SENATOR
And late, five thousand; to Varro and to Isidore
He owes nine thousand, besides my former sum,
Which makes it five and twenty. Still in motion
Of raging waste? It cannot hold, it will not.
If I want gold, steal but a beggar’s dog
5
And give it Timon – why, the dog coins gold;
If I would sell my horse and buy twenty moe
Better than he – why, give my horse to Timon;
Ask nothing, give it him, it foals me straight
And able horses. No porter at his gate,
10
But rather one that smiles and still invites
All that pass by. It cannot hold; no reason
Can sound his state in safety. Caphis, ho!
Caphis, I say!
Enter CAPHIS.
CAPHIS Here, sir, what is your pleasure?
SENATOR
Get on your cloak, and haste you to Lord Timon;
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Importune him for my moneys; be not ceas’d
With slight denial, nor then silenc’d when
‘Commend me to your master’ and the cap
Plays in the right hand, thus – but tell him,
My uses cry to me; I must serve my turn
20
Out of mine own; his days and times are past,
And my reliances on his fracted dates
Have smit my credit. I love and honour him,
But must not break my back to heal his finger.
Immediate are my needs, and my relief
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Must not be toss’d and turn’d to me in words,
But find supply immediate. Get you gone;
Put on a most importunate aspect,
A visage of demand: for I do fear,
When every feather sticks in his own wing,
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Lord Timon will be left a naked gull,
Which flashes now a phoenix. Get you gone.
CAPHIS I go, sir.
SENATOR Ay, go sir! Take the bonds along with you,
And have the dates in. Come.
CAPHIS I will, sir.
SENATOR Go. Exeunt.
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2.2 Enter Steward, with many bills in his hand.
STEWARD No care, no stop; so senseless of expense,
That he will neither know how to maintain it,
Nor cease his flow of riot. Takes no accompt
/> How things go from him, nor resumes no care
Of what is to continue. Never mind
5
Was to be so unwise, to be so kind.
What shall be done? He will not hear, till feel.
I must be round with him, now he comes from
hunting.
Fie, fie, fie, fie!
Enter CAPHIS and the Servants of Isidore and Varro.
CAPHIS Good even, Varro; what, you come for money?
10
VARRO’S SERVANT Is’t not your business too?
CAPHIS It is; and yours too, Isidore?
ISIDORE’S SERVANT It is so.
CAPHIS Would we were all discharg’d!
VARRO’S SERVANT I fear it.
15
CAPHIS Here comes the lord.
Enter TIMON and his train, and ALCIBIADES.
TIMON So soon as dinner’s done, we’ll forth again,
My Alcibiades.
[to Caphis] With me? What is your will?
CAPHIS My lord, here is a note of certain dues.
TIMON Dues? Whence are you?
CAPHIS Of Athens here, my lord.
20
TIMON Go to my steward.
CAPHIS Please it your lordship, he hath put me off
To the succession of new days this month.
My master is awak’d by great occasion
To call upon his own, and humbly prays you
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That with your other noble parts you’ll suit,
In giving him his right.
TIMON Mine honest friend,
I prithee but repair to me next morning.
CAPHIS Nay, good my lord –
TIMON Contain thyself, good friend.
VARRO’S SERVANT One Varro’s servant, my good lord –
30
ISIDORE’S SERVANT From Isidore; he humbly prays your
speedy payment.
CAPHIS If you did know, my lord, my master’s wants –
VARRO’S SERVANT ’Twas due on forfeiture, my lord, six
weeks and past.
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ISIDORE’S SERVANT Your steward puts me off, my lord,
and I am sent expressly to your lordship.
TIMON
Give me breath.
I do beseech you, good my lords, keep on;
I’ll wait upon you instantly.
Exeunt Alcibiades and Lords.
[to Steward] Come hither. Pray you,
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How goes the world, that I am thus encounter’d
With clamorous demands of debt, broken bonds,
And the detention of long since due debts
Against my honour?
STEWARD [to Caphis and other Servants]
Please you, gentlemen,
The time is unagreeable to this business.
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Your importunacy cease till after dinner,
That I may make his lordship understand
Wherefore you are not paid.
TIMON Do so, my friends.
See them well entertain’d. Exit.
STEWARD Pray draw near. Exit.
Enter APEMANTUS and Fool.
CAPHIS Stay, stay; here comes the fool with Apemantus:
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let’s ha’ some sport with ’em.
VARRO’S SERVANT Hang him, he’ll abuse us!
ISIDORE’S SERVANT A plague upon him, dog!
VARRO’S SERVANT How dost, fool?
APEMANTUS Dost dialogue with thy shadow?
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VARRO’S SERVANT I speak not to thee.
APEMANTUS No, ’tis to thyself. [to the Fool] Come
away.
ISIDORE’S SERVANT [to Varro’s Servant] There’s the fool
hangs on your back already.
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APEMANTUS No, thou stand’st single; th’art not on him
yet.
CAPHIS Where’s the fool now?
APEMANTUS He last ask’d the question. Poor rogues,
and usurers’ men, bawds between gold and want!
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ALL SERVANTS What are we, Apemantus?
APEMANTUS Asses.
ALL SERVANTS Why?
APEMANTUS That you ask me what you are, and do not
know yourselves. Speak to ’em, fool.
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FOOL How do you, gentlemen?
ALL SERVANTS Gramercies, good fool. How does your
mistress?
FOOL She’s e’en setting on water to scald such chickens
as you are. Would we could see you at Corinth!
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APEMANTUS Good! Gramercy.
Enter Page.
FOOL Look you, here comes my master’s page.
The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works Page 483
