Part 182

SECOND SERVANT. May it please your honour, Lord Lucius, Out of his free love, hath presented to you Four milk-white horses, trapped in silver.

TIMON. I shall accept them fairly; let the presents Be worthily entertained.

[_Exit Servant._]

Enter a third Servant.

How now? What news?

THIRD SERVANT. Please you, my lord, that honourable gentleman, Lord Lucullus, entreats your company tomorrow to hunt with him and has sent your honour two brace of greyhounds.

TIMON. I’ll hunt with him; and let them be received, Not without fair reward.

[_Exit Servant._]

FLAVIUS. [_Aside_.] What will this come to? He commands us to provide, and give great gifts, And all out of an empty coffer; Nor will he know his purse or yield me this: To show him what a beggar his heart is, Being of no power to make his wishes good. His promises fly so beyond his state That what he speaks is all in debt; he owes For every word. He is so kind that he now Pays interest for ’t; his land’s put to their books. Well, would I were gently put out of office Before I were forced out. Happier is he that has no friend to feed Than such that do e’en enemies exceed. I bleed inwardly for my lord.

[_Exit._]

TIMON. You do yourselves much wrong, You bate too much of your own merits. Here, my lord, a trifle of our love.

SECOND LORD. With more than common thanks I will receive it.

THIRD LORD. O, he’s the very soul of bounty!

TIMON. And now I remember, my lord, you gave good words the other day of a bay courser I rode on. ’Tis yours because you liked it.

THIRD LORD. O, I beseech you, pardon me, my lord, in that.

TIMON. You may take my word, my lord. I know no man Can justly praise but what he does affect. I weigh my friend’s affection with mine own. I’ll tell you true, I’ll call to you.

ALL LORDS. O, none so welcome!

TIMON. I take all and your several visitations So kind to heart, ’tis not enough to give; Methinks I could deal kingdoms to my friends, And ne’er be weary. Alcibiades, Thou art a soldier, therefore seldom rich. It comes in charity to thee, for all thy living Is ’mongst the dead, and all the lands thou hast Lie in a pitched field.

ALCIBIADES. Ay, defiled land, my lord.

FIRST LORD. We are so virtuously bound—

TIMON. And so am I to you.

SECOND LORD. So infinitely endeared—

TIMON. All to you. Lights, more lights!

FIRST LORD. The best of happiness, honour, and fortunes keep with you, Lord Timon.

TIMON. Ready for his friends.

[_Exeunt all but Apemantus and Timon._]

APEMANTUS. What a coil’s here! Serving of becks and jutting out of bums! I doubt whether their legs be worth the sums That are given for ’em. Friendship’s full of dregs. Methinks false hearts should never have sound legs. Thus honest fools lay out their wealth on curtsies.

TIMON. Now, Apemantus, if thou wert not sullen, I would be good to thee.

APEMANTUS. No, I’ll nothing, for if I should be bribed too, there would be none left to rail upon thee, and then thou wouldst sin the faster. Thou giv’st so long, Timon, I fear me thou wilt give away thyself in paper shortly. What needs these feasts, pomps, and vainglories?

TIMON. Nay, an you begin to rail on society once, I am sworn not to give regard to you. Farewell, and come with better music.

[_Exit._]

APEMANTUS. So. Thou wilt not hear me now, thou shalt not then. I’ll lock thy heaven from thee. O, that men’s ears should be To counsel deaf, but not to flattery!

[_Exit._]

ACT II

SCENE I. Athens. A room in a senator’s house

Enter a Senator with papers.

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 sound 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 ceased With slight denial, nor then silenced 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 tossed and turned 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. Come.

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 discharged!

VARRO’S SERVANT. I fear it.

CAPHIS. Here comes the lord.

Enter Timon and his train with Alcibiades

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 awaked 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 Timon’s train._]

[_To Flavius_.] Come hither. Pray you, How goes the world, that I am thus encountered With clamorous demands of debt, broken 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 entertained.

[_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’s 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 lack’st.

APEMANTUS. That answer might have become Apemantus.

VARRO’S SERVANT. Aside, aside, here comes Lord Timon.

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 proposed.

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 th’ authority of manners, prayed 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 engaged, 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 th’ exactest auditors And set me on the proof. So the gods bless me, When all our offices have been oppressed With riotous feeders, when our vaults have wept With drunken spilth of wine, when every room Hath blazed with lights and brayed with minstrelsy, I have retired 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 couched.

TIMON. Come, sermon me no further. No villainous bounty yet hath passed 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 crowned, 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 a third Servant.

SERVANTS. My lord, my lord.

TIMON. I will dispatch you severally. [_To Servilius_.] You to Lord Lucius; [_To Flaminius_.] to Lord Lucullus you, I hunted with his honour today; [_To the third Servant_.] you to Sempronius. Commend me to their loves; and I am proud, say, that my occasions have found time to use ’em toward a supply of money. Let the request be fifty talents.

FLAMINIUS. As you have said, my lord.

[_Exeunt Servants._]

FLAVIUS. [_Aside_.] Lord Lucius and Lucullus? Humh!

TIMON. Go you, sir, to the senators, Of whom, even to the state’s best health, I have Deserved this hearing, Bid ’em send o’ th’ 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 wished—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 caked, ’tis cold, it seldom flows; ’Tis lack of kindly warmth they are not kind; And nature, as it grows again toward earth, Is fashioned for the journey, dull and heavy. Go to Ventidius. Prithee, be not sad, Thou art true and honest, ingenuously I speak, No blame belongs to thee. Ventidius lately Buried his father, by whose death he’s stepped Into a great estate. When he was poor, Imprisoned and in scarcity of friends, I cleared him with five talents. Greet him from me, Bid him suppose some good necessity Touches his friend, which craves to be remembered With those five talents. 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.

[_Exit._]

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

[_Exit._]

ACT III

SCENE I. Athens. A room in Lucullus’ house

Flaminius waiting to speak with Lucullus from his master.

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 tonight.—Flaminius, honest Flaminius, you are very respectively welcome, sir. Fill me some wine.

[_Exit Servant._]

And how does that honourable, complete, free-hearted 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.

LUCULLUS. 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 ’t.

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 com’st 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 saw’st me not. Fare thee well.

FLAMINIUS. Is’t possible the world should so much differ, And we alive that lived? Fly, damned baseness, To him that worships thee.

[_Throws the money back._]

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 turned 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._]

SCENE II. A public place

Enter Lucius with three Strangers.

LUCIUS. Who, the Lord Timon? He is my very good friend and an honourable gentleman.

FIRST STRANGER. We know him for no less, though we are but strangers to him. But I can tell you one thing, my lord, and which I hear from common rumours: now Lord Timon’s happy hours are done and past, and his estate shrinks from him.

LUCIUS. Fie, no, do not believe it; he cannot want for money.

SECOND STRANGER. But believe you this, my lord, that, not long ago one of his men was with the Lord Lucullus to borrow so many talents, nay, urged extremely for’t, and showed what necessity belonged to’t, and yet was denied.

LUCIUS. How?

SECOND STRANGER. I tell you, denied, my lord.

LUCIUS. What a strange case was that! Now, before the gods, I am ashamed on’t. Denied that honourable man? There was very little honour showed in’t. For my own part, I must needs confess, I have received some small kindnesses from him, as money, plate, jewels, and such like trifles, nothing comparing to his; yet had he mistook him, and sent to me, I should ne’er have denied his occasion so many talents.

Enter Servilius.

SERVILIUS. See, by good hap, yonder’s my lord; I have sweat to see his honour. [_To Lucius_.] My honoured lord!

LUCIUS. Servilius? You are kindly met, sir. Fare thee well. Commend me to thy honourable virtuous lord, my very exquisite friend.

SERVILIUS. May it please your honour, my lord hath sent—

LUCIUS. Ha! What has he sent? I am so much endeared to that lord; he’s ever sending. How shall I thank him, thinkest thou? And what has he sent now?

SERVILIUS. Has only sent his present occasion now, my lord, requesting your lordship to supply his instant use with so many talents.

LUCIUS. I know his lordship is but merry with me; He cannot want fifty-five hundred talents.

SERVILIUS. But in the meantime he wants less, my lord. If his occasion were not virtuous, I should not urge it half so faithfully.

LUCIUS. Dost thou speak seriously, Servilius?

SERVILIUS. Upon my soul, ’tis true, sir.

LUCIUS. What a wicked beast was I to disfurnish myself against such a good time, when I might ha’ shown myself honourable! How unluckily it happened that I should purchase the day before for a little part, and undo a great deal of honour! Servilius, now before the gods, I am not able to do—the more beast, I say—I was sending to use Lord Timon myself, these gentlemen can witness; but I would not for the wealth of Athens I had done it now. Commend me bountifully to his good lordship, and I hope his honour will conceive the fairest of me, because I have no power to be kind. And tell him this from me: I count it one of my greatest afflictions, say, that I cannot pleasure such an honourable gentleman. Good Servilius, will you befriend me so far as to use mine own words to him?

SERVILIUS. Yes, sir, I shall.

LUCIUS. I’ll look you out a good turn, Servilius.

[_Exit Servilius._]

True, as you said, Timon is shrunk indeed, And he that’s once denied will hardly speed.

[_Exit._]

FIRST STRANGER. Do you observe this, Hostilius?

SECOND STRANGER. Ay, too well.

FIRST STRANGER. Why, this is the world’s soul, and just of the same piece Is every flatterer’s spirit. Who can call him his friend That dips in the same dish? For, in my knowing, Timon has been this lord’s father And kept his credit with his purse, Supported his estate, nay, Timon’s money Has paid his men their wages. He ne’er drinks But Timon’s silver treads upon his lip, And yet—O, see the monstrousness of man When he looks out in an ungrateful shape— He does deny him, in respect of his, What charitable men afford to beggars.

THIRD STRANGER. Religion groans at it.

FIRST STRANGER. For mine own part, I never tasted Timon in my life, Nor came any of his bounties over me To mark me for his friend. Yet I protest, For his right noble mind, illustrious virtue, And honourable carriage, Had his necessity made use of me, I would have put my wealth into donation, And the best half should have returned to him, So much I love his heart. But I perceive Men must learn now with pity to dispense, For policy sits above conscience.

[_Exeunt._]

SCENE III. The same. A room in Sempronius’ house

Enter a Third Servant of Timon’s with Sempronius, another of Timon’s friends.

SEMPRONIUS. Must he needs trouble me in’t? Hum! ’Bove all others? He might have tried Lord Lucius or Lucullus; And now Ventidius is wealthy too, Whom he redeemed from prison. All these Owe their estates unto him.

SERVANT. My lord, They have all been touched and found base metal, For they have all denied him.