PAINTER. Nothing at this time but my
visitation; only I will
promise him an excellent piece.
POET. I must serve him so too, tell him of an
intent that's coming
toward him.
PAINTER. Good as the best. Promising is the very air o' th' time;
it opens the eyes of
expectation. Performance is ever the duller
for his act, and but in the plainer and simpler kind of people
the deed of
saying is quite out of use. To promise is most
courtly and
fashionable;
performance is a kind of will or
testament which argues a great
sickness in his judgment that
makes it.
Enter TIMON from his cave
TIMON. [Aside] Excellent workman! Thou canst not paint a man so bad
as is thyself.
POET. I am thinking what I shall say I have provided for him. It
must be a personating of himself; a
satire against the softness
of
prosperity, with a discovery of the
infinite flatteries that
follow youth and opulency.
TIMON. [Aside] Must thou needs stand for a
villain in thine own
work? Wilt thou whip thine own faults in other men? Do so, I have
gold for thee.
POET. Nay, let's seek him;
Then do we sin against our own estate
When we may profit meet and come too late.
PAINTER. True;
When the day serves, before black-corner'd night,
Find what thou want'st by free and offer'd light.
Come.
TIMON. [Aside] I'll meet you at the turn. What a god's gold,
That he is worshipp'd in a baser temple
Than where swine feed!
'Tis thou that rig'st the bark and plough'st the foam,
Settlest admired
reverence in a slave.
To thee be worship! and thy saints for aye
Be crown'd with
plagues, that thee alone obey!
Fit I meet them. [Advancing from his cave]
POET. Hail,
worthy Timon!
PAINTER. Our late noble master!
TIMON. Have I once liv'd to see two honest men?
POET. Sir,
Having often of your open
bounty tasted,
Hearing you were retir'd, your friends fall'n off,
Whose thankless natures- O abhorred spirits!-
Not all the whips of heaven are large enough-
What! to you,
Whose star-like nobleness gave life and influence
To their whole being! I am rapt, and cannot cover
The
monstrous bulk of this ingratitude
With any size of words.
TIMON. Let it go naked: men may see't the better.
You that are honest, by being what you are,
Make them best seen and known.
PAINTER. He and myself
Have travail'd in the great show'r of your gifts,
And
sweetly felt it.
TIMON. Ay, you are honest men.
PAINTER. We are
hither come to offer you our service.
TIMON. Most honest men! Why, how shall I requite you?
Can you eat roots, and drink cold water- No?
BOTH. What we can do, we'll do, to do you service.
TIMON. Y'are honest men. Y'have heard that I have gold;
I am sure you have. Speak truth; y'are honest men.
PAINTER. So it is said, my noble lord; but
thereforeCame not my friend nor I.
TIMON. Good honest men! Thou draw'st a counterfeit
Best in all Athens. Th'art indeed the best;
Thou counterfeit'st most lively.
PAINTER. So, so, my lord.
TIMON. E'en so, sir, as I say. [To To POET] And for thy fiction,
Why, thy verse swells with stuff so fine and smooth
That thou art even natural in thine art.
But for all this, my honest-natur'd friends,
I must needs say you have a little fault.
Marry, 'tis not
monstrous in you; neither wish I
You take much pains to mend.
BOTH. Beseech your honour
To make it known to us.
TIMON. You'll take it ill.
BOTH. Most thankfully, my lord.
TIMON. Will you indeed?
BOTH. Doubt it not,
worthy lord.
TIMON. There's never a one of you but trusts a knave
That mightily deceives you.
BOTH. Do we, my lord?
TIMON. Ay, and you hear him cog, see him dissemble,
Know his gross patchery, love him, feed him,
Keep in your bosom; yet remain assur'd
That he's a made-up
villain.
PAINTER. I know not such, my lord.
POET. Nor I.
TIMON. Look you, I love you well; I'll give you gold,
Rid me these
villains from your companies.
Hang them or stab them, drown them in a draught,
Confound them by some course, and come to me,
I'll give you gold enough.
BOTH. Name them, my lord; let's know them.
TIMON. You that way, and you this- but two in company;
Each man apart, all single and alone,
Yet an arch-
villain keeps him company.
[To the PAINTER] If, where thou art, two villians shall not be,
Come not near him. [To the POET] If thou wouldst not reside
But where one
villain is, then him abandon.-
Hence, pack! there's gold; you came for gold, ye slaves.
[To the PAINTER] You have work for me; there's
payment; hence!
[To the POET] You are an alchemist; make gold of that.-
Out,
rascal dogs! [Beats and drives them out]
Enter FLAVIUS and two SENATORS
FLAVIUS. It is vain that you would speak with Timon;
For he is set so only to himself
That nothing but himself which looks like man
Is friendly with him.
FIRST SENATOR. Bring us to his cave.
It is our part and promise to th' Athenians
To speak with Timon.
SECOND SENATOR. At all times alike
Men are not still the same; '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.
FLAVIUS. 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
reverend Senate greet thee.
Speak to them, noble Timon.
Enter TIMON out of his cave
TIMON. Thou sun that comforts, burn. Speak and be hang'd!
For each true word a
blister, and each false
Be as a cauterizing to the root o' th' tongue,
Consuming it with speaking!
FIRST SENATOR. Worthy Timon-
TIMON. Of none but such as you, and you of Timon.
FIRST SENATOR. The senators of Athens greet thee, Timon.
TIMON. I thank them; and would send them back the
plague,
Could I but catch it for them.
FIRST SENATOR. O, forget
What we are sorry for ourselves in thee.
The senators with one consent of love
Entreat thee back to Athens, who have thought
On special dignities, which
vacant lie
For thy best use and wearing.
SECOND SENATOR. They confess
Toward thee
forgetfulness too general, gross;
Which now the public body, which doth seldom
Play the recanter, feeling in itself
A lack of Timon's aid, hath sense withal
Of it own fail, restraining aid to Timon,
And send forth us to make their sorrowed render,
Together with a
recompense more fruitful
Than their offence can weigh down by the dram;
Ay, even such heaps and sums of love and wealth
As shall to thee blot out what wrongs were theirs
And write in thee the figures of their love,
Ever to read them thine.
TIMON. You witch me in it;
Surprise 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 senators.
FIRST SENATOR. Therefore so please thee to return with us,
And of our Athens, thine and ours, to take
The captainship, thou shalt be met with thanks,
Allow'd with
absolute power, and thy good name
Live with authority. So soon we shall drive back
Of Alcibiades th' approaches wild,
Who, like a boar too
savage, doth root up
His country's peace.
SECOND SENATOR. And shakes his threat'ning sword
Against the walls of Athens.
FIRST SENATOR. Therefore, Timon-
TIMON. Well, sir, I will. Therefore I will, sir, thus:
If Alcibiades kill my countrymen,
Let Alcibiades know this of Timon,
That Timon cares not. But if he sack fair Athens,
And take our
goodly aged men by th' beards,
Giving our holy virgins to the stain
Of contumelious,
beastly, mad-brain'd war,
Then let him know- and tell him Timon speaks it
In pity of our aged and our youth-
I cannot choose but tell him that I care not,
And let him take't at worst; for their
knives care not,
While you have
throats to answer. For myself,
There's not a whittle in th'
unruly camp
But I do prize it at my love before
The
reverend'st
throat in Athens. So I leave you
To the
protection of the
prosperous gods,
As
thieves to keepers.
FLAVIUS. Stay not, all's in vain.
TIMON. Why, I was
writing of my epitaph;
It will be seen to-morrow. My long
sicknessOf health and living now begins to mend,
And nothing brings me all things. Go, live still;
Be Alcibiades your
plague, you his,
And last so long enough!
FIRST SENATOR. We speak in vain.
TIMON. But yet I love my country, and am not
One that rejoices in the common wreck,
As common bruit doth put it.
FIRST SENATOR. That's well spoke.
TIMON. Commend me to my
loving countrymen-
FIRST SENATOR. These words become your lips as they pass through
them.