Tim. But yet I love my country; and am not One that rejoices in the common wreck, As common bruit 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 through 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 ease them of their griefs, In life's uncertain voyage, I will some kindness do them : 2 Sen. I like this well, he will return again. Tim. I have a tree, which grows here in my close, From high to low throughout, that whoso please Come hither, ere my tree halth felt the axe, And hang himself:-I pray you, do my greeting. Flav. Trouble him no further, thus you still shall find him. Upon the beached verge of the salt flood; Graves only be men's works; and death, their gain! Sun, hide thy beams! Timon hath done his reign. [Ex. Tım. 1 Sen. His discontents are unremoveably Coupled to nature. 2 Sen. Our hope in him is dead: Let us return, And strain what other means is left unto us In our dear peril." 1 Sen. It requires swift foot. [8] Methodically, from highest to lowest. JOHNSON. 7 Dear, in Shakespeare's language, is dire, dreadful. So in Hamlet, "Would I had met my dearest foe in heaven." [Exeunt. MALONE SCENE III. The Walls of Athens. Enter two Senators, and a Messenger. 1 Sen. Thou hast painfully discover'd; are his files As full as thy report? Mes. I have spoke the least: Besides, his expedition promises Present approach. 2 Sen. We stand much hazard, if they bring not Timon. Mes. I met a courier, one mine ancient friend Whom, though in general part we were oppos'd, And made us speak like friends :-this man was riding With letters of entreaty, which imported His fellowship i'the cause against your city, Enter Senators from TIMON. 1 Sen. Here come our brothers. 3 Sen. No talk of Timon, nothing of him expect.— The enemies' drum is heard, and fearful scouring Doth choke the air with dust: In, and prepare ; Ours is the fall, I fear, our foes the snare. SCENE IV. The Woods. TIMON's Cave, and a Tombstone seen. a Soldier, seeking TIMON. Sol. By all description this should be the place. [Exeunt. Enter Who's here? speak, ho!-No answer?-What is this? Dead, sure; and this his grave. What's on this tomb I cannot read; the character I'll take with wax: Our captain hath in every figure skill; [Exit. [8] I am fully convinced that this, and many other passages of our author, have been irretrievably corrupted by transcribers or printers, and could not have proceeded in their present state from Shakespeare; for what we cannot understand in the closet, must have been wholly useless on the stage. The awkward repetition of the word made, strongly countenances my present observation. STEEVENS. VOL. VIII. L 2 Enter Senators on the walls. Till now you have gone on, and fill'd the time Have wander'd with our travers'd 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 By humble message, and by promis'd means; 1 Sen. These walls of ours Were not erected by their hands, from whom You have receiv'd your griefs: nor are they such, 2 Sen. Nor are they living, Who were the motives that you first went out; Shame, that they wanted cunning, in excess Hath broke their hearts. [9] Travers'd arms, arms across.. March, noble lord, JOHNSON. [1]A bird is flush when his feathers are grown, and he can leave the nest. Flush is mature. JOHNSON. [2] The marrow was supposed to be the original of strength. The image is from a camel kneeling to take up his load, who rises immediately when he finds he has as much laid on as he can bear. [8] Their refers to griefs. MALONE. WARBURTON. Into our city with thy banners spread : Which nature loaths,) take thou the destin❜d tenth 1 Sen. All have not offended; 4 For those that were, it is not square, to take, 2 Sen. What thou wilt, Thou rather shalt enforce it with thy smile, 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 else, That thou wilt use the wars as thy redress, Alcib. Then there's my glove; Descend, and open your uncharg❜d ports ; Both. "Tis most nobly spoken. Alcib. Descend, and keep your words. [The Senators descend, and open the gates. [4] Not reguluar, not equitable. Uncharged means unattacked. JOHNSON. [6] Not a soldier shall quit his station, or be let loose upon you; and, if any com mits violence, he shall auswer it regularly to the law. JOHNSON. Enter a Soldier. Sol. My noole general, Timon is dead ; And, on his grave-stone, this insculpture; which Alcib. [Reads.] Here lies a wretched corse, of wretched soul bereft: Seek not my name: A plague consume you wicked caitiff's left! Here lie I Timon; who, alive, all living men did hate : gait." These well express in thee thy latter spirits: Though thou abhorr'dst in us our human griefs, Scorn'dst our brain's flow, and those our droplets which Taught thee to make vast Neptune weep for aye Is noble Timon; of whose memory Dead Hereafter more.-Bring me into your city, And I will use the olive with my sword: Make war breed peace; make peace stint war; make each Prescribe to other, as each other's leech.8 Let our drums strike. [Exeunt. [7] This epitaph is in sir Thomas North's translation of Plutarch, with the difference of one word only, wretches instead of caitiffs. STEEVENS. [8] Physician. STEEVENS. |