The Oxford Shakespeare: The Complete Works
Page 306
And spend our flatteries to drink those men
Upon whose age we void it up again
With poisonous spite and envy.
Who lives that’s not depraved or depraves?
Who dies that bears not one spurn to their graves
Of their friends’ gift?
I should fear those that dance before me now
Would one day stamp upon me. ’T’as been done.
Men shut their doors against a setting sun.
The Lords rise from table with much adoring of
Timon; and to show their loves each singles out an
Amazon, and all dance, men with women, a lofty
strain or two to the hautboys; and cease
TIMON
You have done our pleasures much grace, fair ladies,
Set a fair fashion on our entertainment,
Which was not half so beautiful and kind.
You have added worth unto’t and lustre,
And entertained me with mine own device.
I am to thank you for’t.
FIRST ⌈LADY⌉
My lord, you take us even at the best.
APEMANTUS Faith; for the worst is filthy, and would not hold taking, I doubt me.
TIMON
Ladies, there is an idle banquet ’tends you.
Please you to dispose yourselves.
ALL LADIES Most thankfully, my lord. Exeunt Ladies
TIMON Flavius.
FLAVIUS My lord.
TIMON The little casket bring me hither.
FLAVIUS Yes, my lord. (Aside) More jewels yet?
There is no crossing him in’s humour,
Else I should tell him well, i‘faith I should.
When all’s spent, he’d be crossed then, an he could.
’Tis pity bounty had not eyes behind,
That man might ne’er be wretched for his mind. Exit
FIRST LORD Where be our men?
SERVANT Here, my lord, in readiness.
SECOND LORD Our horses. ⌈Exit Servant⌉
Enter Flavius with the casket. He gives it to Timon, ⌈and exits⌉
TIMON
O my friends, I have one word to say to you.
Look you, my good lord,
I must entreat you honour me so much
As to advance this jewel. Accept and wear it,
Kind my lord.
FIRST LORD
I am so far already in your gifts.
ALL LORDS So are we all.
Timon gives them jewels.
Enter a Servant
FIRST SERVANT My lord, there are certain nobles of the senate newly alighted and come to visit you.
TIMON They are fairly welcome. Exit Servant
Enter Flavius
FLAVIUS I beseech your honour, vouchsafe me a word; it does concern you near.
TIMON
Near? Why then, another time I’ll hear thee.
I prithee, let’s be provided to show them entertainment.
FLAVIUS I scarce know how.
Enter a Second Servant
SECOND SERVANT
May it please your honour, Lord Lucius
Out of his free love hath presented to you
Four milk-white horses trapped in silver.
TIMON
I shall accept them fairly. Let the presents
Be worthily entertained.
Exit Servant
Enter a Third Servant
How now, what news?
THIRD 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 greyhounds.
TIMON
I’ll hunt with him, and let them be received
Not without fair reward. Exit Servant
FLAVIUS (aside) What will this come to?
He commands us to provide and give great gifts,
And all out of an empty coffer;
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 every word. 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 forced out.
Happier is he that has no friend to feed
Than such that do e’en enemies exceed.
I bleed inwardly for my lord. Exit
TIMON (to the Lords) You do yourselves
Much wrong, you bate too much of your own merits.
(To Second Lord) Here, my lord, a trifle of our love.
SECOND LORD
With more than common thanks I will receive it.
THIRD LORD
O, he’s the very soul of bounty!
TIMON (to First Lord) And now I remember, my lord, you gave good words the other day of a bay courser I rode on. ’Tis yours, because you liked it.
FIRST 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 friends’ affection with mine own.
I’ll tell you true, I’ll call to you.
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,
Thou art a soldier, therefore seldom rich.
⌈Giving a present⌉ It comes in charity to thee, for all
thy living
Is ’mongst the dead, and all the lands thou hast
Lie in a pitched field.
ALCIBIADES Ay, defiled land, my lord.
FIRST LORD We are so virtuously bound—
TIMON And so am I to you.
SECOND LORD So infinitely endeared—
TIMON All to you. Lights, more lights!
FIRST LORD
The best of happiness, honour, and fortunes
Keep with you, Lord Timon.
TIMON Ready for his friends.
Exeunt all but Timon and 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.
Methinks false hearts should never have sound legs.
Thus honest fools lay out their wealth on curtseys.
TIMON
Now, Apemantus, if thou wert not sullen
I would be good to thee.
APEMANTUS No, I’ll nothing; for if I should be bribed 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?
TIMON Nay, an 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. O, that men’s ears
should be
To counsel deaf, but not to flattery!
Exit
2.1 Enter a Senator ⌈With bonds⌉
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
And give it Timon, why, the dog coins gold.
If I would sell my horse and buy twenty more
> 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,
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.
Importune him for my moneys. Be not ceased
With slight denial, nor then silenced 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
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
Must not be tossed and turned 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
Lord Timon will be left a naked gull,
Which flashes now a phoenix. Get you gone.
CAPHIS
I go, sir.
SENATOR ⌈giving him bonds⌉
Take the bonds along with you,
And have the dates in count.
CAPHIS I will, sir.
SENATOR Go.
Exeunt ⌈severally⌉
2.2 Enter Flavius, with many bills in his hand
FLAVIUS
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 account
How things go from him, nor resumes no care
Of what is to continue. Never mind
Was to be so unwise to be so kind.
What shall be done? He will not hear till feel.
⌈A sound of horns within⌉
I must be round with him, now he comes from hunting.
Fie, fie, fie, fie!
Enter Caphis ⌈at one door⌉ and Servants of Isidore and Varro ⌈at another door⌉
CAPHIS
Good even, Varro. What, you come for money?
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 discharged.
VARRO’S SERVANT I fear it.
CAPHIS Here comes the lord.
Enter Timon and his train, amongst them Alcibiades, ⌈as from hunting⌉
TIMON
So soon as dinner’s done we’ll forth again,
My Alcibiades.
Caphis meets Timon
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.
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 awaked by great occasion
To call upon his own, and humbly prays you
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.
ISIDORE’S SERVANT (to Timon)
From Isidore. He humbly prays your speedy payment.
CAPHIS (to Timon)
If you did know, my lord, my master’s wants—
VARRO’S SERVANT (to Timon)
’Twas due on forfeiture, my lord, six weeks and past.
ISIDORE’S SERVANT (to Timon)
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 Timon’s train
(To Flavius) Come hither. Pray you,
How goes the world, that I am thus encountered
With clamorous demands of broken bonds
And the detention of long-since-due debts,
Against my honour?
FLAVIUS (to Servants) Please you, gentlemen,
The time is unagreeable to this business;
Your importunacy cease till after dinner,
That I may make his lordship understand
Wherefore you are not paid.
TIMON (to Servants) Do so, my friends.
(To Flavius) See them well entertained. Exit
FLAVIUS Pray draw near.
Exit
Enter Apemantus and Fool
CAPHIS
Stay, stay, here comes the fool with Apemantus.
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?
VARRO’S SERVANT I speak not to thee.
APEMANTUS No, ’tis to thyself, (To Fool) Come away.
ISIDORE’S SERVANT (to Varro’s Servant) There’s the fool hangs on your back already.
APEMANTUs No, thou stand‘st single: thou’rt not on him yet.
CAPHIS (to Isidore’s Servant) Where’s the fool now?
APEMANTUS He last asked the question. Poor rogues’ and usurers’ men, bawds between gold and want.
ALL SERVANTS What are we, Apemantus? 6
APEMANTUS Asses.
ALL SERVANTS Why?
APEMANTUS That you ask me what you are, and do not know yourselves. Speak to ’em, fool.
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.
APEMANTUS Good; gramercy.
Enter Page with two letters
FOOL Look you, here comes my mistress’ page.
PAGE Why, how now, captain? What do you in this wise company? How dost thou, Apemantus?
APEMANTUS Would I had a rod in my mouth, that I might answer thee profitably.
PAGE Prithee, Apemantus, read me the superscription of these letters. I know not which is which.
APEMANTUS Canst not read?
PAGE No.
APEMANTUS There will little learning die then that day thou art hanged. This is to Lord Timon, this to Alcibiades. Go, thou wast born a bastard, and thou’lt die a bawd.
PAGE Thou wast whelped a dog, and thou shalt famish a dog’s death. Answer not; I am gone. Exit
APEMANTUS E‘en so thou outrunn’st grace. Fool, I will go with you to Lord Timon’s.
FOOL Will you leave me there?
APEMANTUS If Timon stay at home. (To Servants) You three serve three usurers?
ALL SERVANTS Ay. Would they served us.
APEMANTUS So would I: as good a trick as ever hangman served thief.
FOOL Are you three usurers’ men?
ALL SERVANTS Ay, fool. 95
FOOL I think no usurer but has a fool to his servant. My mistress is one, and I am her fool. When men come to borrow of your masters they approach sadly and go away merry, but they enter my mistress’s house merrily and go away sadly. The reason of this?
VARRO’S SERVANT I
could render one.
APEMANTUS Do it then, that we may account thee a whoremaster and a knave, which notwithstanding thou shalt be no less esteemed.
VARRO’S SERVANT What is a whoremaster, fool?
FOOL A fool in good clothes, and something like thee. ’Tis a spirit; sometime ’t appears like a lord, sometime like a lawyer, sometime like a philosopher with two stones more than’s artificial one. He is very often like a knight; and generally in all shapes that man goes up and down in from fourscore to thirteen, this spirit walks in.
VARRO’S SERVANT Thou art not altogether a fool.
FOOL Nor thou altogether a wise man. As much foolery as I have, so much wit thou lack ’st.
APEMANTUS That answer might have become Apemantus. Enter Timon and Flavius
ALL SERVANTS Aside, aside, here comes Lord Timon.
APEMANTUS Come with me, fool, come.
FOOL I do not always follow lover, elder brother, and woman: sometime the philosopher.
Exeunt Apemantus and Fool
FLAVIUS (to Servants)
Pray you, walk near. I’ll speak with you anon.
Exeunt Servants
TIMON
You make me marvel wherefore ere this time
Had you not fully laid my state before me,
That I might so have rated my expense
As I had leave of means.
FLAVIUS You would not hear me.
At many leisures I proposed—
TIMON Go to.
Perchance some single vantages you took,
When my indisposition put you back,
And that unaptness made your minister
Thus to excuse yourself.
FLAVIUS O my good lord,
At many times I brought in my accounts,
Laid them before you; you would throw them off
And say you summed them in mine honesty.
When for some trifling present you have bid me
Return so much, I have shook my head and wept,
Yea, ‘gainst th’authority of manners prayed you
To hold your hand more close. I did endure
Not seldom nor no slight checks when I have
Prompted you in the ebb of your estate
And your great flow of debts. My lovèd lord—
Though you hear now too late, yet now’s a time—
The greatest of your having lacks a half
To pay your present debts.
TIMON Let all my land be sold.