The Life of Timon of Athens

Act II

Scene I. Athens. A Room in a SENATOR'S House

[Enter A SENATOR, with papers in his hand.]

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 found 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 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
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 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,
Lord Timon will be left a naked gull,
Which flashes now a phoenix. Get you gone.
 

CAPHIS

 
I go, sir.
 

SENATOR

 
Take the bonds along with you,
And have the dates in compt.
 

CAPHIS

 
I will, sir.
 

SENATOR

 
Go.
 

[Exeunt.]

Scene II. The same. A Hall in TIMON'S House

[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:
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?
 

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.
 

CAPHIS

 
Here comes the lord!
 

[Enter TIMON, ALCIBIADES, and Lords, etc.]

TIMON

 
So soon as dinner's done, we'll forth again.
My Alcibiades. 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 awak'd 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

 
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.
 

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 FLAVIUS.]

 
Come hither: pray you,
How goes the world, that I am thus encounter'd
With clamorous demands of date-broke bonds,
And the detention of long-since-due debts,
Against my honour?
 

FLAVIUS

 
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

 
Do so, my friends.
See them well entertain'd.
 

[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 the 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

 
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?
 

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.]

FOOL

 
Look you, here comes my mistress' page.
 
 
PAGE. [To the FOOL.] 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 PAGE.]

 

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. 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.
 
 
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' 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 lackest.
 

APEMANTUS

 
That answer might have become Apemantus.
 

VARRO'S SERVANT

 
Aside, aside; here comes Lord Timon.
 

[Re-enter TIMON and FLAVIUS.]

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

 
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 propos'd.
 

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 found 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 the authority of manners, pray'd 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 loved 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.
 

FLAVIUS

 
'Tis all engag'd, some forfeited and gone;
And what remains will hardly stop the mouth
Of present dues; the future comes apace:
What shall defend the interim? and at length
How goes our reckoning?
 

TIMON

 
To Lacedaemon did my land extend.
 

FLAVIUS

 
O my good lord! the world is but a word;
Were it all yours to give it in a breath,
How quickly were it gone!
 

TIMON

 
You tell me true.
 

FLAVIUS

 
If you suspect my husbandry or falsehood,
Call me before the exactest auditors
And set me on the proof. So the gods bless me,
When all our offices have been oppress'd
With riotous feeders, when our vaults have wept
With drunken spilth of wine, when every room
Hath blaz'd with lights and bray'd with minstrelsy,
I have retir'd me to a wasteful cock,
And set mine eyes at flow.
 

TIMON

 
Prithee, no more.
 

FLAVIUS

 
Heavens! have I said, the bounty of this lord!
How many prodigal bits have slaves and peasants
This night englutted! Who is not Timon's?
What heart, head, sword, force, means, but is Lord Timon's?
Great Timon, noble, worthy, royal Timon!'
Ah! when the means are gone that buy this praise,
The breath is gone whereof this praise is made:
Feast – won, fast – lost; one cloud of winter showers,
These flies are couch'd.
 

TIMON

 
Come, sermon me no further;
No villainous bounty yet hath pass'd my heart;
Unwisely, not ignobly, have I given.
Why dost thou weep? Canst thou the conscience lack,
To think I shall lack friends? Secure thy heart;
If I would broach the vessels of my love,
And try the argument of hearts by borrowing,
Men and men's fortunes could I frankly use
As I can bid thee speak.
 

FLAVIUS

 
Assurance bless your thoughts!
 

TIMON

 
And, in some sort, these wants of mine are crown'd
That I account them blessings; for by these
Shall I try friends. You shall perceive how you
Mistake my fortunes; I am wealthy in my friends.
Within there! Flaminius! Servilius!
 

[Enter FLAMINIUS, SERVILIUS, and other Servants.]

SERVANTS

 
My lord! my lord!
 
 
TIMON. I will dispatch you severally: you to Lord Lucius; to Lord Lucullus you: I hunted with his honour to-day; you, to Sempronius. Commend me to their loves; and I am proud, say, that my occasions have found time to use them toward a supply of money: let the request be fifty talents.
 

FLAMINIUS

 
As you have said, my lord.
 

FLAVIUS

[Aside.] Lord Lucius and Lucullus? hum!

 
TIMON. [To another Servant.]
Go you, sir, to the senators, —
Of whom, even to the state's best health, I have
Deserv'd this hearing, – Bid 'em send o' the instant
A thousand talents to me.
 

FLAVIUS

 
I have been bold, —
For that I knew it the most general way, —
To them to use your signet and your name;
But they do shake their heads, and I am here
No richer in return.
 

TIMON

 
Is't true? can't be?
 

FLAVIUS

 
They answer, in a joint and corporate voice,
That now they are at fall, want treasure, cannot
Do what they would; are sorry; you are honourable;
But yet they could have wish'd; they know not;
Something hath been amiss; a noble nature
May catch a wrench; would all were well; 'tis pity;
And so, intending other serious matters,
After distasteful looks, and these hard fractions,
With certain half-caps and cold-moving nods,
They froze me into silence.
 

TIMON

 
You gods, reward them!
Prithee, man, look cheerly. These old fellows
Have their ingratitude in them hereditary;
Their blood is cak'd, 'tis cold, it seldom flows;
'Tis lack of kindly warmth they are not kind;
And nature, as it grows again toward earth,
Is fashion'd for the journey, dull and heavy.
 

[To a Servant.] Go to Ventidius. – [To Flavius.]

 
Prithee, be not sad,
Thou art true and honest; ingenuously I speak,
No blame belongs to thee. – [To Servant.] Ventidius lately
Buried his father; by whose death he's stepp'd
Into a great estate. When he was poor,
Imprison'd and in scarcity of friends,
I clear'd him with five talents; greet him from me,
Bid him suppose some good necessity
Touches his friend, which craves to be remember'd
With those five talents.
[Exit Servant.]
 

[To Flavius.]

 
That had, give't these fellows
To whom 'tis instant due. Ne'er speak, or think
That Timon's fortunes 'mong his friends can sink.
 

FLAVIUS

 
I would I could not think it:
That thought is bounty's foe;
Being free itself, it thinks all others so.
 

[Exeunt.]

Act III. Scene I. Athens. A Room in LUCULLUS' House

[FLAMINIUS waiting.]

[Enter a SERVANT to him.]

SERVANT

 
I have told my lord of you; he is coming down to you.
 

FLAMINIUS

 
I thank you, sir.
 

[Enter LUCULLUS.]

SERVANT

 
Here's my lord.
 
 
LUCULLUS. [Aside.] One of Lord Timon's men! a gift, I warrant. Why, this hits right; I dreamt of a silver basin and ewer to-night. Flaminius, honest Flaminius, you are very respectively welcome, sir. Fill me some wine.
 

[Exit SERVANT.]

 
And how does that honourable, complete, freehearted gentleman of Athens, thy very bountiful good lord and master?
 

FLAMINIUS

 
His health is well, sir.
 
 
LUCULLUS. I am right glad that his health is well, sir. And what hast thou there under thy cloak, pretty Flaminius?
 
 
FLAMINIUS. Faith, nothing but an empty box, sir; which in my lord's behalf, I come to entreat your honour to supply; who, having great and instant occasion to use fifty talents, hath sent to your lordship to furnish him, nothing doubting your present assistance therein.
 
 
LUCULLIUS. La, la, la, la! 'Nothing doubting,' says he? Alas, good lord! a noble gentleman 'tis, if he would not keep so good a house. Many a time and often I ha' dined with him, and told him on't; and come again to supper to him, of purpose to have him spend less; and yet he would embrace no counsel, take no warning by my coming. Every man has his fault, and honesty is his. I ha' told him on't, but I could ne'er get him from it.
 

[Re-enter SERVANT with wine.]

 

SERVANT

 
Please your lordship, here is the wine.
 

LUCULLUS

 
Flaminius, I have noted thee always wise. Here's to thee.
 

FLAMINIUS

 
Your lordship speaks your pleasure.
 
 
LUCULLUS. I have observed thee always for a towardly prompt spirit, give thee thy due, and one that knows what belongs to reason, and canst use the time well, if the time use thee well: good parts in thee. [To SERVANT.] – Get you gone, sirrah. —
 

[Exit SERVANT.]

 
Draw nearer, honest Flaminius.Thy lord's a bountiful gentleman; but thou art wise, and thou know'st well enough, although thou comest to me, that this is no time to lend money, especially upon bare friendship without security. Here's three solidares for thee: good boy, wink at me, and say thou sawest me not. Fare thee well.
 

FLAMINIUS

 
Is't possible the world should so much differ,
And we alive that liv'd? Fly, damned baseness,
To him that worships thee.
 

[Throwing the money away.]

LUCULLUS

 
Ha! now I see thou art a fool, and fit for thy master.
 

[Exit.]

FLAMINIUS

 
May these add to the number that may scald thee!
Let molten coin be thy damnation,
Thou disease of a friend, and not himself!
Has friendship such a faint and milky heart
It turns in less than two nights? O you gods!
I feel my master's passion! This slave unto his honour
Has my lord's meat in him:
Why should it thrive and turn to nutriment
When he is turn'd to poison?
O! may diseases only work upon't!
And when he's sick to death, let not that part of nature
Which my lord paid for, be of any power
To expel sickness, but prolong his hour.
 

[Exit.]