Titus Andronicus & Timon of Athens (36 page)

TIMON
    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
³²
, a satire against the

softness of prosperity, with a
discovery
³³
of the infinite

flatteries that follow youth and
opulency.
³⁴

TIMON
    Must thou needs
stand for
³⁵
a villain in thine

own work? Wilt thou
whip
³⁶
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,
³⁹

When we may profit meet and come too late.

PAINTER
    True:

When the day
serves
⁴²
, before black-cornered night,

Find what thou want’st by free and offered light. Come.

TIMON
    I’ll
meet you at the turn
⁴⁴
. What a god’s gold,

That he is worshipped in a baser temple

Than where swine feed!

’Tis
thou
that
rigg’st the bark
⁴⁷
and plough’st the foam,

Settlest
⁴⁸
admirèd reverence in a slave:

To thee be worship, and
thy saints
for
aye
⁴⁹

Be crowned with plagues that thee alone obey.

Fit
⁵¹
I meet them.

POET
    Hail, worthy Timon!

PAINTER
    Our
late
⁵³
noble master!

TIMON
    Have I
once
⁵⁴
lived to see two honest men?

POET
    Sir,

Having often of your
open
⁵⁶
bounty tasted,

Hearing you were
retired
⁵⁷
, your friends fall’n off,

Whose thankless natures — O abhorrèd spirits! —

Not all the whips of heaven are large enough:

What, to you,

Whose star-like nobleness gave life and
influence
⁶¹

To their whole being? I am
rapt
⁶²
and cannot cover

The monstrous bulk of this ingratitude

With any
size
⁶⁴
of words.

TIMON
    Let it go naked, men may see’t the better:

You that are honest, by being what you are,

Make
them
⁶⁷
best seen and known.

PAINTER
    He and myself

Have travelled in the great
shower
⁶⁹
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
    You’re honest men. You’ve heard that I have gold,

I am sure you have. Speak truth: you’re honest men.

PAINTER
    So it is said, my noble lord, but
therefore
⁷⁸

Came not my friend nor I.

TIMON
    Good honest men.— Thou draw’st a
counterfeit
⁸⁰

Best in all Athens. Thou’rt, indeed, the best:

Thou counterfeit’st most
lively.
⁸²

PAINTER
    
So, so
⁸³
, my lord.

TIMON
    
E’en so
, sir, as I say.— And for thy
fiction,
⁸⁴

Why, thy verse swells with stuff so fine and
smooth
⁸⁵

That
thou art even natural in thine art.
⁸⁶

But, for all this, my honest-natured friends,

I must needs say you have a little fault:

Marry, ’tis not
monstrous
⁸⁹
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.
⁹³

BOTH
    Most thankfully, my lord.

TIMON
    Will you indeed?

BOTH
    Doubt it not, worthy lord.

TIMON
    There’s
never a one of you but
⁹⁷
trusts a knave

That mightily deceives you.

BOTH
    Do we, my lord?

TIMON
    Ay, and you hear him
cog
, see him
dissemble,
¹⁰⁰

Know his gross
patchery,
¹⁰¹
love him, feed him,

Keep
in your
bosom:
¹⁰²
yet remain assured

That he’s a
made-up
¹⁰³
villain.

PAINTER
    I know none 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,
¹⁰⁸

Confound
them by some
course
¹⁰⁹
, 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:
¹¹²

Each man apart, all single and alone,

Yet an arch-villain keeps him company.

If where
thou art two villains shall not be,
¹¹⁵

Come not near
him
¹¹⁶
. If thou wouldst not reside

But where one villain is, then him abandon.

Hence,
pack!
¹¹⁸
There’s gold: you came for gold, ye slaves.

You have work for me; there’s payment. Hence!

You are an
alchemist
¹²⁰
, make gold of that.

Out, rascal dogs!

FLAVIUS
    It is in vain that you would speak with Timon,

For he is
set so only to himself
¹²³

That nothing but himself which looks like man

Is friendly with him.

FIRST SENATOR
    Bring us to his cave:

It is our
part
¹²⁷
and promise to th’Athenians

To speak with Timon.

SECOND SENATOR
    At all times alike

Men are not
still
¹³⁰
the same: ’twas time and griefs

That
framed
him thus: time with his
fairer
¹³¹
hand,

Offering the fortunes of his former days,

The former man may make him. Bring us to him,
¹³³

And
chance it as it may.
¹³⁴

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.

TIMON
    Thou sun that comforts burn! Speak and be hanged,

For each true word a blister, and each false

Be as a
cantherizing
¹⁴²
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.
¹⁴⁵

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.
¹⁵⁰

The senators with
one consent
¹⁵¹
of love

Entreat thee back to Athens, who have thought

On special
dignities
¹⁵³
which vacant lie

For thy best use and
wearing.
¹⁵⁴

SECOND SENATOR
    They confess

Toward thee forgetfulness too
general gross;
¹⁵⁶

Which now the public body, which doth seldom

Play the
recanter
¹⁵⁸
, feeling in itself

A lack of Timon’s aid, hath sense
withal
¹⁵⁹

Of it own fall,
restraining
¹⁶⁰
aid to Timon,

And send forth us to make their
sorrowed
render,
¹⁶¹

Together with a recompense more fruitful

Than their offence can
weigh down by the
dram:
¹⁶³

Ay, even such heaps and sums of love and wealth

As shall to thee blot out what wrongs were theirs

And
write in thee
¹⁶⁶
the figures of their love,

Ever to read them thine.

TIMON
    You
witch
¹⁶⁸
me in it,

Surprise
¹⁶⁹
me to the very brink of tears;

Lend me a fool’s heart and a woman’s eyes,

And I’ll
beweep
¹⁷¹
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,

Allowed
¹⁷⁵
with absolute power and thy good name

Live with authority: so soon we shall drive back

Of Alcibiades th’approaches wild,
¹⁷⁷

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
¹⁸⁶
fair Athens,

And take our goodly agèd men by th’beards,

Giving our holy virgins to the
stain
¹⁸⁸

Of
contumelious
¹⁸⁹
, beastly, mad-brained war,

Then let him know, and tell him Timon speaks it,

In pity of our agèd and our youth,

I cannot choose but tell him that I care not.

And let him
take’t at worst
¹⁹³
, for their knives care not

While you have throats to
answer
¹⁹⁴
. For myself,

There’s not a
whittle
¹⁹⁵
in th’unruly camp

But I do
prize it at my love before
¹⁹⁶

The reverend’st throat in Athens. So I leave you

To the protection of the prosperous gods,

As thieves to
keepers.
¹⁹⁹

FLAVIUS
    Stay not, all’s in vain.

TIMON
    Why, I was writing of my epitaph:

It will be seen tomorrow. My long sickness

Of health and living now begins to mend,

And
nothing
²⁰⁴
brings me all things. Go, live still,

Be Alcibiades your plague, you his,

And
last so long enough.
²⁰⁶

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
²¹⁰
doth put it.

FIRST SENATOR
    That’s well spoke.

TIMON
    Commend me to my loving countrymen—

FIRST SENATOR
    These words
become
²¹³
your lips as they pass

through them.

SECOND SENATOR
    And enter in our ears like great
triumphers
²¹⁵

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
²²⁰

That
nature’s fragile vessel
²²¹
doth sustain

In life’s uncertain voyage, I will some kindness do them:

I’ll teach them to prevent wild Alcibiades’ wrath.