VENTIDIUS, one of Timon's false Friends. APEMANTUS, a churlish Philosopher. ALCIBIADES, an Athenian Captain. FLAVIUS, Steward to Timon. Servants of Ventidius, Varro, and Isidore: two of Timon's Creditors. Cupid and Maskers. Three Strangers. PHRYNIA, TIMANDRA, Mistresses to Alcibiades. Lords, Senators, Officers, Soldiers, Thieves, and Attendants. SCENE, Athens; and the Woods adjoining. 1 Appended, with some omissions, to the play in the folio, 1623. TIMON OF ATHENS. ACT I, SCENE I. Athens. A Hall in TIMON's House, Enter Poet, Painter, Jeweller, Merchant, and others, at several doors. Poet. Good day, sir. Pain. I am glad y'are well. Poet. I have not seen you long. How goes the world? grows. Ay, that's well known; Poet. Jew. Nay, that's most fix'd. Mer. A most incomparable man; breath'd, as it were, To an untirable and continuate goodness: He passes'. Jew. I have a jewel here— [Showing it. Mer. Oh! pray, let's see't. For the lord Timon, sir? 1 He PASSES.] As we now say, He surpasses or exceeds. Shakespeare uses "continuate" (of the preceding line) in "Othello," A. iii. sc. 4, if indeed it be not there a misprint for convenient of course, it here means of an enduring and persevering goodness. The word occurs in other good authors. 2 "When we for recómpence, &c.] "We must here suppose (says Warburton) the poet busy in reading in his own work; and that these three lines are the in It stains the glory in that happy verse Mer. 'Tis a good form. Jew. And rich: here is a water, look ye. Pain. You are rapt, sir, in some work, some dedication To the great lord. Poet. A thing slipp'd idly from me. From whence 'tis nourish'd: the fire i' the flint Each bound it chafes'. What have you there? Pain. A picture, sir.-When comes your book forth? Let's see your piece. Pain. 'Tis a good piece. Poet. So 'tis this comes off well, and excellent. Poet. [Showing it. Admirable! How this grace Speaks his own standing; what a mental power One might interpret. Pain. It is a pretty mocking of the life. Here is a touch; is't good? Poet. I'll say of it, It tutors nature: artificial strife Lives in these touches, livelier than life. Enter certain Senators, who pass over the stage. Pain. How this lord is follow'd! Poet. The senators of Athens :-happy men! Pain. Look, more! Poet. You see this confluence, this great flood of visitors. troduction of the poem addressed to Timon, which he afterwards gives the Painter an account of." Possibly it is only a reflection by the Poet. 3 as a GUM, which ISSUES] The old copy, "as a gown which uses." Pope changed gown to " 'gum," and we obtain "issues" from the corr. fo. 1632: Johnson suggested oozes, which may be right, but seems to express too slow a process for what the speaker tells us had "slipped idly" from him. Each bound it CHAFES.] All the folios read chases for "chafes:" the last is no doubt right, and in the corr. fo. 1632 chases is amended to "chafes:" the error was occasioned by the letter f having been mistaken by the printer for the long s. No copy of the folio, 1623, that we have ever seen, reads "chafes." I have in this rough work shap'd out a man, Pain. How shall I understand you? Poet. I will unbolt to you. You see how all conditions, how all minds, Pain. I saw them speak together. Poet. Sir, I have upon a high and pleasant hill Pain. "Tis conceiv'd to scope. a 5 In a wide sea of VERSE:] "In a wide sea of war" in the folios; but " wide sea of wax was perhaps never before heard of, while "a wide sea of verse is a figure of speech both natural and intelligible, as regards its flow, its swell, and its power. The word "verse" is derived from the corr. fo. 1632, and the adoption of it renders it needless to resort to the overstrained notion, that Shakespeare referred to the ancient mode of writing with a style upon wax tables: hitherto such has necessarily been the explanation. "Verse" might ensily have been misread waxe, which was then frequently spelt with a final e: it is not however so printed in the old copies. The Poet had written his production in “verse," and we feel sure that it is the true text. Prof. Mommsen entertained no doubt upon the point, when he rendered "in a wide sea of verse" very happily In weitem Versemeer. This throne, this Fortune, and this hill, methinks, Poet. Make sacred even his stirrup, and through him Pain. Ay, marry, what of these? Poet. When Fortune, in her shift and change of mood, Spurns down her late belov'd, all his dependants, Which labour'd after him to the mountain's top, Even on their knees and hands, let him slip down', Pain. 'Tis common: A thousand moral paintings I can show, That shall demonstrate these quick blows of Fortune's To show lord Timon, that mean eyes have seen The foot above the head. Trumpets sound. Enter TIMON, attended; the Servant of VENTIDIUS talking with him. Tim. Imprison'd is he, say you? Ven. Serv. Ay, my good lord: five talents is his debt; His means most short, his creditors most strait : Your honourable letter he desires To those have shut him up; which, failing, Tim. Noble Ventidius! Well; 6 Drink the free air.] "To drink the air (says Wakefield), like the haustos ætherios of Virgil, is merely a poetical phrase for draw the air, or breathe. To 'drink the free air,' therefore, through another, is to breathe freely at his will only." 7 Even on their knees and HANDS, let him SLIP down.] The folio reads hand, and sit for "slip." The emendation was made by Rowe, and it is warranted by the corr. fo. 1632. 8 talking with him.] The old stage-direction is, "Trumpets sound. Enter lord Timon, addressing himself courteously to every suitor." |