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SECOND SENATOR. And enter in our ears like great triumphers

In their applauding gates.
TIMON. Commend me to them,

And tell them that, to ease them of their griefs,
Their fears of hostile strokes, their aches, losses,

Their pangs of love, with other incident throes
That nature's fragilevessel doth sustain

In life's uncertainvoyage, I will some kindness do them-
I'll teach them to prevent wild Alcibiades' wrath.

FIRST SENATOR. I like this well; he will return again.
TIMON. I have a tree, which grows here in my close,

That mine own use invites me to cut down,
And shortly must I fell it. Tell my friends,

Tell Athens, in the sequence of degree
From high to low throughout, that whoso please

To stop affliction, let him take his haste,
Come hither, ere my tree hath felt the axe,

And hang himself. I pray you do my greeting.
FLAVIUS. Trouble him no further; thus you still shall find him.

TIMON. Come not to me again; but say to Athens
Timon hath made his everlasting mansion

Upon the beached verge of the salt flood,
Who once a day with his embossed froth

The turbulent surge shall cover. Thither come,
And let my gravestone be your oracle.

Lips, let sour words go by and language end:
What is amiss, plague and infection mend!

Graves only be men's works and death their gain!
Sun, hide thy beams. Timon hath done his reign.

Exit TIMON into his cave
FIRST SENATOR. His discontents are unremovably

Coupled to nature.
SECOND SENATOR. Our hope in him is dead. Let us return

And strain what other means is left unto us
In our dear peril.

FIRST SENATOR. It requires swift foot. Exeunt
SCENE II.

Before the walls of Athens
Enter two other SENATORS with a MESSENGER

FIRST SENATOR. Thou hast painfully discover'd; are his files
As full as thy report?

MESSENGER. I have spoke the least.
Besides, his expedition promises

Present approach.
SECOND SENATOR. We stand much hazard if they bring not Timon.

MESSENGER. I met a courier, one mine ancient friend,
Whom, though in general part we were oppos'd,

Yet our old love had a particular force,
And made us speak like friends. This man was riding

From Alcibiades to Timon's cave
With letters of entreaty, which imported

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

Enter the other SENATORS, from TIMON
FIRST SENATOR. Here come our brothers.

THIRD SENATOR. 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. Exeunt

SCENE III.
The TIMON's cave, and a rude tomb seen

Enter a SOLDIER in the woods, seeking TIMON
SOLDIER. By all description this should be the place.

Who's here? Speak, ho! No answer? What is this?
Timon is dead, who hath outstretch'd his span.

Some beast rear'd this; here does not live a man.
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,

An ag'd interpreter, though young in days;
Before proud Athens he's set down by this,

Whose fall the mark of his ambition is. Exit
SCENE IV.

Before the walls of Athens
Trumpets sound. Enter ALCIBIADES with his powers before Athens

ALCIBIADES. Sound to this coward and lascivious town
Our terrible approach.

Sound a parley. The SENATORS appear upon the walls
Till now you have gone on and fill'd the time

With all licentious measure, making your wills
The scope of justice; till now, myself, and such

As slept within the shadow of your power,
Have wander'd with our travers'd arms, and breath'd

Our sufferance vainly. Now the time is flush,
When crouching marrow, in the bearer strong,

Cries of itself 'No more!' Now breathless wrong
Shall sit and pant in your great chairs of ease,

And pursy insolence shall break his wind
With fear and horrid flight.

FIRST SENATOR. Noble and young,
When thy first griefs were but a mere conceit,

Ere thou hadst power or we had cause of fear,
We sent to thee, to give thy rages balm,

To wipe out our ingratitude with loves
Above their quantity.

SECOND SENATOR. So did we woo
Transformed Timon to our city's love

By humble message and by promis'd means.
We were not all unkind, nor all deserve

The common stroke of war.
FIRST SENATOR. These walls of ours

Were not erected by their hands from whom
You have receiv'd your griefs; nor are they such

That these great tow'rs, trophies, and schools, should fall
For private faults in them.

SECOND SENATOR. Nor are they living
Who were the motives that you first went out;

Shame, that they wanted cunning, in excess
Hath broke their hearts. March, noble lord,

Into our city with thy banners spread.
By decimation and a tithed death-

If thy revenges hunger for that food
Which nature loathes- take thou the destin'd tenth,

And by the hazard of the spotted die
Let die the spotted.

FIRST SENATOR. All have not offended;
For those that were, it is not square to take,

On those that are, revenge: crimes, like lands,
Are not inherited. Then, dear countryman,

Bring in thy ranks, but leave without thy rage;
Spare thy Athenian cradle, and those kin

Which, in the bluster of thy wrath, must fall
With those that have offended. Like a shepherd

Approach the fold and cull th' infected forth,
But kill not all together.

SECOND SENATOR. What thou wilt,
Thou rather shalt enforce it with thy smile

Than hew to't with thy sword.
FIRST SENATOR. Set but thy foot

Against our rampir'd gates and they shall ope,
So thou wilt send thy gentle heart before

To say thou't enter friendly.
SECOND SENATOR. Throw thy glove,

Or any token of thine honour else,
That thou wilt use the wars as thy redress

And not as our confusion, all thy powers
Shall make their harbour in our town till we

Have seal'd thy full desire.
ALCIBIADES. Then there's my glove;

Descend, and open your uncharged ports.
Those enemies of Timon's and mine own,

Whom you yourselves shall set out for reproof,
Fall, and no more. And, to atone your fears

With my more noble meaning, not a man
Shall pass his quarter or offend the stream

Of regular justice in your city's bounds,
But shall be render'd to your public laws

At heaviest answer.
BOTH. 'Tis most nobly spoken.

ALCIBIADES. Descend, and keep your words.
[The SENATORS descend and open the gates]

Enter a SOLDIER as a Messenger
SOLDIER. My noble General, Timon is dead;

Entomb'd upon the very hem o' th' sea;
And on his grave-stone this insculpture, which

With wax I brought away, whose soft impression
Interprets for my poor ignorance.

ALCIBIADES reads the Epitaph
'Here lies a wretched corse, of wretched soul bereft;

Seek not my name. A plagueconsume you wicked caitiffs left!
Here lie I, Timon, who alive all living men did hate.

Pass by, and curse thy fill; but pass, and stay not here thy
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
From niggard nature fall, yet rich conceit

Taught thee to make vast Neptune weep for aye
On thy low grave, on faults forgiven. Dead

Is noble Timon, of whose memory
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.
Let our drums strike. Exeunt

-THE END-
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