Enter Flavius and two Senators.

Flav. It is in vain that you would speak with Timon: For he is fet fo only to himself,

That nothing but himself, which looks like man
Is friendly with him.

1 Sen. Bring us to his cave.

It is our part and promise to th' Athenians
To fpeak with Timon.

2 Sen. At all times alike

Men are not still the fame; 'twas time and griefs 'That fram'd him thus. Time, with his fairer hand Offering the fortunes of his former days,

The former man may make him; bring us to him, And chance it as it may.

Fla. Here is his cave:

Peace and content be here, Lord Timon! Timon !
Look out, and speak to friends: th' Athenians
By two of their most rev'rend fenate greet thee;
Speak to them, noble Timon.

Enter Timon out of his Cave.

Tim. Thou fun, that comfort'st, burn!-
Speak, and be hang'd;

For each true word a blifter, and each falfe
Be cauterizing to the root o' th' tongue,
Confuming it with fpeaking.

1 Sen. Worthy Timon,-

Tim. Of none but fuch as you, and you of Timon. z Sen. The Senators of Athens greet thee, Timon. Tim. I thank them. And would fend them back the

Could I but catch it for them.

1 Sen. O, forget

What we are forry for ourfelves, in thee:

The Senators, with one confent of love,

Intreat thee back to Athens; who have thought
On fpecial dignities, which vacant lie

For thy beft ufe and wearing.

2 Sen. They confess

Tow'rd thee forgetfulness, too general, grofs;

[plague,

Which now the publick body, (which doth feldom
Play the recanter) feeling in itself

A lack of Timon's aid, hath sense withal
Of its own fall, reftraining aid to Timon;

And fends forth us to make their forrowed tender,
Together with a recompence more fruitful

Than their offence can weigh down by the dram;
Ay, ev'n fuch heaps and fums of love and wealth,
As fhall to thee blot out what wrongs were theirs;
And write in thee the figures of their love,
Ever to read them thine.

Tim. You witch me in it,

Surprize me to the very brink of tears:

Lend me a fool's heart, and a woman's eyes,
And I'll beweep these comforts, worthy fenators.

1 Sen. Therefore so please thee to return with us,
And of our Athens, thine and ours, to take
The captain ship: thou shalt be met with thanks,
Allow'd with abfolute power, and thy good name
Live with authority: foon we fhall drive back
Of Alcibiades th' approaches wild,

Who, like a boar too favage, doth root up
His country's peace.

2 Sen. And fhakes his threatning fword Against the walls of Athens.

1 Sen. Therefore, Timon

Tim. Well, Sir, I will; therefore I will, Sir; thus

If Alcibiades kill my countrymen,

Let Alcibiades know this of Timon,

That Timon cares not. If he fack fair Athens,

And take our goodly aged men by th' beards,
Giving our holy virgins to the ftain

Of contumelious, beafly, mad-brain'd war;

Then let him know,-and tell him, Timon fpeaks it ; In pity of our aged, and our youth,

I cannot chufe but tell him, that I care not.

And let him take't at worft; for their knives care not, While you have throats to anfwer. For myself,

There's not a whittle in th' unruly camp,

But I do prize it at my love, before

VOL. VI.

1

The

The reverend'ft throat in Athens. So I leave you
To the protection of the profp'rous gods,
As thieves to keepers.

Flav. Stay not, all's in vain.

Tim. Why, I was writing of my epitaph,
It will be feen to-morrow. My long fickness
Of health and living now begins to mend,
And nothing brings me all things. Go, live fill
Be Alcibiades your plague: you his;
And last fo long enough!

1 Sen. We speak in vain.

Tim. But yet I love my country, and am not
One that rejoices in the common wrack,
As common bruite doth put it.

1 Sen. That's well spoke.

Tim, Commend me to my loving countrymen. 1 Sen. These words become your lips, as they pass thro

them.

2 Sen. And enter in our ears, like great triumphers In their applauding gates.

Tim. Commend me to them,

And tell them, that to eafe them of their griefs,
Their fears of hoftile strokes, their aches, loffes,
Their pangs of love, with other incident throes,
That nature's fragile veffel doth fuftain
In life's uncertain voyage, I will do

Some kindness to them, teach them to prevent
Wild Alcibiades' wrath.

2 Sen. I like this well, he will return again.
Tim. I have a tree, which grows here in my
clofe,
That mine own ufe invites me to cut down,
And fhortly muft I fell it. Tell my friends,
Tell Athens, in the frequence of degree,
From high to low throughout, that whofo please
To flop affliction, let him take his hafte; (38)

Come

(38) let him take bis tafte;] I dont know, upon what authority Mr. Pope in both his editions has given us this reading; I have reflor'd the text from the old books, and, I am perfuaded, as the author wrote. Timon's whole harangue is copied from this paffage of Pl tarch in the life of M. Antony: Ye men of Athens, in a court-yard belonging

Come hither, ere my tree hath felt the ax,

And hang himself—I pray you, do my greeting.
Flav. Vex him no further, thus you still shall find him.'
Tim. Come not to me again, but fay to Athens,
Timon hath made his everlafting manfion
Upon the beached verge of the falt flood;
Which once a-day with his embeffed froth
The turbulent furge fhall cover: Thither come,
And let my grave-ftone be your oracle.

Lips, let four words go by, and language end:
What is amifs, plague and infection mend!
Graves only be mens works, and death their gain!
Sun, hide thy beams! Timon hath done his reign.
[Exit Timon.
1 Sen. His difcontents are unremoveably coupled to his

nature.

2 Sen. Our hope in him is dead; let us return, And ftrain what other means is left unto us In our dear peril. (39)

1 Sen. It requires fwift foot.

[Exeunt.

"belonging to my houfe grows a large fig-tree; on which many an "honeft citizen has been pleas'd to hang himfelf: Now, as I have thoughts of building upon that spot, I could not omit giving you "this publick notice; to the end, that if any more among you have a mind to make the fame ufe of my tree, they may do it speedily "before it is deftroy'd." And Rabelais, who, in the oldest prologue to his fourth book, has inferted this story from Plutarch, thus renders

the clofe of the fentence.

-Pourtant quiconque de Vous autres, et de toute la ville aura a fe pendre, s'en depefche promptement.

(39) In our dead peril.] Thus Mr. Rowe and Mr. Pope have given us this paffage; but is it not strange that the Athenians 'peril fhould be dead, because one of their hopes was dead? Such a difappointment muft naturally give fresh life and strength to their danger. We mut certainly read with the old Folio's; In cur dear peril.

i. e. dread, deep. So in As you like it;

For my father hated his father dearly,

So in Jul. Caf.

Would it not grieve thee dearer than thy death, &c.

And in Hamlet;

Would I had met my dearest foe in heav'n, &c.

And in an hundred other paffages, that might be quoted from our

author.

Sen.

Enter two other Senators, with a Messenger.

T

Hou haft painfully discover'd; are his files
As full as thy report?

Mef. I have spoke the leaft.

Befides, his expedition promifes
Prefent approach.

2 Sen. We ftand much hazard, if they bring not Timon,
Mef. I met a courier, one mine ancient friend;
Who, though in general part we were oppos'd,
Yet our old love made a particular force,

And made us fpeak like friends. This man was riding From Alcibiades to Timon's cave,

With letters of intreaty, which imported

His fellowship i' th' caufe against your city,
In part for his fake mov'd.

Enter the other Senators,

1 Sen. Here come our brothers.

3 Sen. No talk of Timon, nothing of him expect.The enemies drum is heard, and fearful fcouring Doth choak the air with duft. In, and prepare; Ours is the fall, I fear, our foes the fnare.

[Exeuni.

Enter a Soldier in the woods, fecking Timon. Sol. By all defcription this fhould be the place, Who's here? fpeak, ho.-No answer?

What is this?

Timon is dead, who hath out-ftretcht his fpan ;-
Some beaft rear'd this; here does not live a man, (40)
Dead,

(40) Some beaft read this: here does not live a man.] Some beaft read what? The foldier had yet only feen the rude pile of earth heap'd up for Timon's grave, and not the inscription upon it. My friend Mr. Warburton ingenioufly advis'd me to amend the text, as I have done; and a paffage occurs to me, (from Beaumont and Fletcher's Cupid's revenge) that seems very strong in fupport of his conjecture:

Comfort was never here;

Here is no food, nor beds; nor any hou e
Built by a better architect than beasts.

The