Titus Andronicus & Timon of Athens (32 page)

SECOND LORD
    My most honourable lord, I am e’en sick of

shame, that, when your lordship this other day sent to me, I

was
so unfortunate a beggar.
⁴¹

TIMON
    Think not on’t, sir.

SECOND LORD
    If you had sent but two hours before,—

TIMON
    Let it not
cumber
⁴⁴
your better remembrance.—

Come, bring in all together.

SECOND LORD
    All
covered dishes!
⁴⁶

FIRST LORD
    Royal
cheer
⁴⁷
, I warrant you.

THIRD LORD
    Doubt not that, if money and the season can yield it.

FIRST LORD
    How do you? What’s the news?

THIRD LORD
    Alcibiades is banished: hear you of it?

FIRST
and
SECOND LORDS
    Alcibiades banished?

THIRD LORD
    ’Tis so, be sure of it.

FIRST LORD
    How? How?

SECOND LORD
    I pray you
upon what?
⁵⁴

TIMON
    My worthy friends, will you draw near?

THIRD LORD
    I’ll tell you more anon. Here’s a noble feast
toward.
⁵⁶

SECOND LORD
    This is the
old man
⁵⁷
still.

THIRD LORD
    Will’t
hold
⁵⁸
? Will’t hold?

SECOND LORD
    It does: but time
will
⁵⁹
— and so—

THIRD LORD
    I do
conceive.
⁶⁰

TIMON
    Each man to his stool with that
spur
⁶¹
as he would to

the lip of his mistress: your
diet
⁶²
shall be in all places alike.

Make not a
city feast
⁶³
of it, to let the meat cool ere we can

agree upon the first place. Sit, sit. The gods
require
⁶⁴

our thanks.— You great benefactors, sprinkle our society

with thankfulness. For your own gifts, make yourselves

praised: but
reserve still
⁶⁷
to give, lest your deities be despised.

Lend to each man enough that one need not lend to another,

for were your godheads to borrow of men, men would

forsake the gods. Make the meat be beloved more than the

man that gives it. Let no assembly of twenty be without

a score
⁷²
of villains: if there sit twelve women at the table, let

a dozen of them be
as they are
⁷³
. The rest of your foes, O gods

— the senators of Athens, together with the common
tag
⁷⁴
of

people — what is amiss in them, you gods, make suitable for

destruction. For these my present friends, as they are to me

nothing, so in nothing bless them, and to nothing are they

welcome.— Uncover, dogs, and lap!

SOME LORDS
    What does his lordship mean?

OTHER LORDS
    I know not.

TIMON
    May you a better feast never behold,

You
knot
of
mouth-friends
.
Smoke
⁸²
and lukewarm water

Is your perfection
⁸³
. This is Timon’s last,

Who,
stuck and spangled
⁸⁴
with your flatteries,

Washes it off, and sprinkles in your faces

Your
reeking
⁸⁶
villainy. Live loathed and long,

Most smiling, smooth, detested parasites,

Courteous destroyers, affable wolves, meek bears,

You fools of fortune,
trencher
-
friends
, time’s
flies,
⁸⁹

Cap and knee slaves
,
vapours
, and
minute
-
jacks!
⁹⁰

Of man and beast the
infinite
⁹¹
malady

Crust you quite o’er!—

                                  What, dost thou go?

Soft
, take thy
physic
⁹³
first.— Thou too, and thou.

Stay, I will lend thee money, borrow none.

What, all in motion? Henceforth
be
⁹⁵
no feast,

Whereat
⁹⁶
a villain’s not a welcome guest.

Burn, house! Sink, Athens! Henceforth hated be

Of
⁹⁸
Timon, man and all humanity!

FIRST LORD
    How now, my lords?

SECOND LORD
    Know you the
quality
¹⁰⁰
of Lord Timon’s fury?

THIRD LORD
    
Push!
¹⁰¹
Did you see my cap?

FOURTH LORD
    I have lost my gown.

FIRST LORD
    He’s but a mad lord, and nought but
humours
¹⁰³

sways
¹⁰⁴
him. He gave me a jewel th’other day, and now he has

beat it out of my hat. Did you see my jewel?

THIRD LORD
    Did you see my cap?

SECOND LORD
    Here ’tis.

FOURTH LORD
    Here lies my gown.

FIRST LORD
    Let’s make no stay.

SECOND LORD
    Lord Timon’s mad.

THIRD LORD
    I feel’t
upon my bones.
¹¹¹

FOURTH LORD
    One day he gives us diamonds, next day stones.

TIMON
    Let me look back upon thee. O thou wall

That
girdles in
²
those wolves, dive in the earth,

And fence not Athens!
Matrons
, turn
incontinent,
³

Obedience fail in children! Slaves and fools,

Pluck the
grave
⁵
wrinkled senate from the bench,

And
minister
in their
steads
! To
general filths
⁶

Convert o’th’instant,
green
⁷
virginity:

Do’t
in your parents’
eyes
! Bankrupts,
hold fast
⁸

Rather than render back; out with your knives,

And cut your
trusters
’ throats!
Bound
¹⁰
servants, steal!

Large-handed
¹¹
robbers your grave masters are,

And
pill
¹²
by law. Maid, to thy master’s bed,

Thy mistress is
o’th’brothel!
¹³
Son of sixteen,

Pluck the
lined
¹⁴
crutch from thy old limping sire,

With it beat out his brains! Piety and fear,

Religion
¹⁶
to the gods, peace, justice, truth,

Domestic awe
, night-rest, and
neighbourhood,
¹⁷

Instruction
, manners,
mysteries
¹⁸
and trades,

Degrees
,
observances
¹⁹
, customs and laws,

Decline to your
confounding contraries,
²⁰

And yet confusion live! Plagues
incident
²¹
to men,

Your potent and infectious fevers heap

On Athens, ripe
for stroke
! Thou
cold
²³
sciatica,

Cripple our senators that their limbs may
halt
²⁴

As lamely as their manners. Lust and
liberty
²⁵

Creep in the minds and marrows of our youth,

That gainst the stream of virtue they may
strive
²⁷

And drown themselves in
riot
! Itches,
blains,
²⁸

Sow all th’Athenian
bosoms
²⁹
, and their crop

Be general leprosy! Breath infect breath,

That their society, as their friendship, may

Be
merely
poison! Nothing I’ll
bear
³²
from thee

But nakedness, thou detestable town.

Take thou that too, with multiplying
bans!
³⁴

Timon will to the woods, where he shall find

Th’unkindest beast more
kinder
³⁶
than mankind.

The gods
confound
³⁷
— hear me, you good gods all —

Th’Athenians both within and out that wall,

And grant, as Timon grows, his hate may grow

To the whole race of mankind, high and low! Amen.

FIRST SERVANT
    Hear you, master steward, where’s our master?

Are we
undone
²
, cast off, nothing remaining?

FLAVIUS
    Alack, my fellows, what should I say to you?

Let me be recorded by the righteous gods,
⁴

I am as poor as you.

FIRST SERVANT
    Such a
house
broke?
⁶

So noble a master fall’n? All gone, and not

One friend to
take his fortune by the arm,
⁸

And go along with him?

SECOND SERVANT
    As we do turn our backs

From our companion thrown into his grave,

So his
familiars to his buried fortunes
¹²

Slink all away, leave their false vows with him

Like empty purses
picked
¹⁴
; and his poor self,

A
dedicated beggar to the air,
¹⁵

With his disease of
all-shunned
¹⁶
poverty,

Walks like contempt alone. More of our
fellows.
¹⁷

FLAVIUS
    All broken
implements
¹⁸
of a ruined house.

THIRD SERVANT
    Yet do our hearts wear Timon’s
livery:
¹⁹

That see I by our faces. We are fellows still,

Serving alike in sorrow. Leaked is our
bark,
²¹

And we, poor mates, stand on the
dying
²²
deck

Hearing the
surges
²³
threat: we must all part

Into this sea of air.

FLAVIUS
    Good fellows all,

The
latest
²⁶
of my wealth I’ll share amongst you.

Wherever we shall meet, for Timon’s sake,

Let’s yet be fellows: let’s shake our heads and say,

As ’twere a
knell
²⁹
unto our master’s fortunes,

‘We have seen better days.’ Let each take some:

Nay, put out all your hands. Not one word more.

Thus part we rich in sorrow, parting poor.

O, the fierce wretchedness that
glory
³³
brings us!

Who would not wish to be from wealth exempt,

Since riches point to misery and contempt?

Who would be so mocked with glory, or to live

But in a dream of friendship?

To have his
pomp
and all
what state compounds
³⁸

But only
painted
³⁹
, like his varnished friends?

Poor honest lord, brought low by his own heart,

Undone by goodness! Strange, unusual
blood,
⁴¹

When man’s worst sin is he does too much good!

Who then dares to be half so kind again?

For bounty, that makes gods, does
still mar
⁴⁴
men.

My dearest lord, blessed to be most accursed,

Rich only to be
wretched
⁴⁶
, thy great fortunes

Are made thy chief afflictions. Alas, kind lord!

He’s
flung
in rage from this ingrateful
seat
⁴⁸

Of
monstrous
⁴⁹
friends:

Nor has he with him
to supply his life,
⁵⁰

Or that which can
command
⁵¹
it.

I’ll follow and
inquire
⁵²
him out:

I’ll ever serve his mind with my best will.

Whilst I have gold, I’ll be his steward still.