Dead, fure, and this his grave; what's on this tomb? An ag'd interpreter, tho' young in days: & Alc. SCENE, before the Walls of Athens. [Exit. Trumpets found. Enter Alcibiades with his powers. Ound to this coward and lafcivious town Our terrible approach. [Sound a parley. The Senators appear upon the walls. 'Till now you have gone on, and fill'd the time With all licentious measure, making your wills The fcope of juftice. "Till now myfelf, and fuch As flept within the fhadow of your power, Have wander'd with our traverft arms, and breath'd- 1 Sen. Noble and young, When thy first griefs were but a mere conceit, To wipe out our ingratitude, with loves 2 Sen. So did we woo (41) Transformed Timon to our city's love By The foldier, feeking by order for Timon, fees fuch an irregular mole, as he concludes must have been the workmanship of fome beaft inhabiting the woods; and fuch a cavity, as either must have been so over-arch'd, or happen'd by the casual falling in of the ground. This latter fpecies of caverns, produced by nature, Æfchylus, I remember, in his Prometheus, elegantly calls duτónlır övτga, felf-built dens. (41) So did we woo Transformed Timon to our city's love By humble meffage, and by promis'd 'mends: 1 Sen. Thefe walls of ours Were not erected by their hands, from whom 2 Sen. Nor are they living, Who were the motives that you firft went out: Hath broke their hearts. March on, oh, noble Lord, Into our city with thy banners fpread; By decimation and a tithed death, If thy revenges hunger for that food Which nature loaths, take thou the deftin'd tenth: Let die the fpotted. 1 Sen. All have not offended: For those that were, it is not fquare to take By bumble meffage, and by promis'd means:] Promis'd means mult import a fupply of fubftance, the recruiting his funk fortunes; but that is not all, in my mind, that the poet would aim at. ~The fenate had wooed him with humble meffage, and promife of general reparation for their injuries and ingratitude. This feems included in the flight change which I have made-and by promis'd 'mends: and this word, apofirophe'd, or otherwife, is ufed in common with amends. So in Troilus and Crefida; Let her be as he is; if fhe be fair, 'tis the better for her: an fhe be not, fhe has the mends in her own hands. And fo B. Jonfon in his Every Man out of his Humour : Pardon me, gentle friends, I'll make fair mends For my foul errors paft. (42) Shame, that they wanted cunning in exces, Hath broke their hearts.] i. e. in other terms,-Shame, that they were not the cunning'ft men alive, hath been the caufe of their death. For cunning in excess muft mean this or nothing. O brave editors! They had heard it faid, that too much wit in fome cafes might be dangerous, and why not an obfolute want of it? But had they the fkill or courage to remove one perplexing comma, the easy and genuine fenfe would immediately arife. "Shame in excefs (i. e. extremity "of shame) that they wanted cunning (i. e. that they were not wife "enough not to banish you;) hath broke their hearts." On On those that are, revenge: crimes, like to lands, 2 Sen. What thou wilt, Thou rather halt enforce it with thy fmile, 1 Sen. Set but thy foot Against our rampir'd gates, and they shall ope: 2 Sen. Throw thy glove, Or any token of thine honour elfe, That thou wilt ufe the wars as thy redrefs, Alc. Then there's my glove; Defcend, and open your uncharged ports; Both. "Tis moft nobly spoken. Alc. Défcend, and keep your words. Enter a Soldier. Sol. My noble General, Timon is dead; I 4 4 [Alcibiades [Alcibiades, reads the epitaph.] Here lyes a wretched coarfe, of wretched foul bereft: (43) These well exprefs in thee thy latter fpirits: Hereafter more-Bring me into your city, And: (43) Here lies a wretched coarfe,] This epitaph the poet has form'd out of two feparate diftichs quoted by Plutarch in his life of M. Antony the first, faid to have been compos'd by Timon himself; the other is an epitaph on him made by Callimachus, and extant among his epigrams. The verfion of the latter, as our author has tranfmitted it to us, avoids those blunders whieh Leonard Aretine, the Latin tranflator of the above quoted life in Plutarch, committed in it. I once imagin'd, that Shakespeare might poffibly have corrected this tranflator's blunder from his own acquaintance with the Greek original: but, I find, he has tranfcrib'd the four lines from an old English verfion of Plutarch, extant in his time. I have not been able to trace the time, when this play of our author's made its firft appearance; but I believe, it was written before the death of QElizabeth; because I take it to be hinted at in a piece, call'd, Jack Drum's entertainment; or, the comedy of Pafquill and Katherine, play'a by the children of Powles and printed in 1601. -Come, come, now I'll be as fociable as Timon of Arbens, (44) yet rich conceit Taught thee to make vaft Neptune weep for aye On thy low grave, on faults forgiven. Dead Is noble Timon, of whofe memory Hereafter more. All the editors, in their learning and fagacity, have suffer'd an unaccountable abfurdity to pafs them in this paffage. Why was Neptune to weep on Timon's faults forgiven? Or, indeed, what faults had Timon committed, except against his own fortune and happy fituation in life? But the corruption of the text lies only in the bad pointing, which I have difengag'd, and reftor'd to the true meaning. Alcibiades's whole fpeech, as the editors might have obferv'd, And I will ufe the olive with my fword; [Exeunt. is in breaks, betwixt his reflections on Timon's death, and his addreffes to the Athenian fenators: and as foon as he has commented on the place of Timon's grave, he bids the fenate fet forward; tells 'em, he has forgiven their faults; and promifes to use them with mercy. The very fame manner of expreffion occurs in Antony, and Cleopatra, Anto. Well; what worst? Me. The nature of bad news infects the teller. Anto. When it concerns the fool or coward: - On; |