ACT II.

SCENE I-ATHENS. A Room in a Senator's House.

Enter a Senator, with papers in his hand.

Sen. 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 found his state in safety. Caphis, ho! Caphis, I say!

Caph.

Enter CAPHIS.

Here, sir; what is your pleasure?
Sen. Get on your cloak and haste you to Lord Timon;
Impórtune him for my moneys; be not ceas'd
With slight denial; nor then silenc'd, 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 toss'd and turn'd 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.
Caph. I go, sir.

Sen. Take the bonds along with you,
And have the dates in compt.

Caph.
Sen.

VOL. V.

I will, sir.

SCENE II.-ATHENS. A Hall in TIMON'S House.

Enter FLAVIUS, with many bills in his hand.
Flav. 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.

Enter TIMON, ALCIBIADES, and Lords, &c. Tim. So soon as dinner's done we'll forth again, My Alcibiades.-With me? what is your will? Caph. My lord, here is a note of certain dues. Tim. Dues! whence are you?

Caph.

Tim. Go to my steward.

Of Athens here, my lord.

Caph. Please it your lordship, he hath put me off

To the succession of new days this month:

My master is awak'd 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.

Tim.

Mine honest friend,

I pr'ythee but repair to me next morning.
Caph. Nay, good my lord,-

Tim.

Contain thyself, good friend. Var. Serv. One Varro's servant, my good lord,Isid. Serv.

He humbly prays your speedy payment,

From Isidore;

Caph. If you did know, my lord, my master's wants,—

Var. Serv. 'Twas due on forfeiture, my lord, six weeks

And past,

Isid. Serv. Your steward puts me off, my lord; And I am sent expressly to your lordship.

Tim. Give me breath.

I do beseech you, good my lords, keep on;
I'll wait upon you instantly.-

Come hither: pray you,

[Exeunt ALCI. and Lords.

[TO FLAVIUS.

How goes the world, that I am thus encounter'd
With clamorous demands of date-broke bonds,
And the detention of long-since-due debts,
Against my honour?

Flav.
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.

Tim.

See them well entertained.

Flav.

Do so, my friends.—

Pray, draw near.

Enter APEMANTUS and Fool.

[Exit.

[Exit.

Caph. Stay, stay, here comes the fool with Apemantus:

let's ha' some sport with 'em.

Var. Serv. Hang him, he'll abuse us.

Isid. Serv. A plague upon him, dog!

Var. Serv. How dost, fool?

Apem. Dost dialogue with thy shadow?

Var. Serv. I speak not to thee.

Apem. No, 'tis to thyself.-Come away.

[To the Fool.

Isid. Serv. [to VAR. Serv.] There's the fool hangs on

your back already.

Apem. No, thou stand'st single, thou art not on him yet. Caph. Where's the fool now?

Apem. He last asked the question.-Poor rogues and

usurers' men! bawds between gold and want!

All Serv. What are we, Apemantus?

Apem. Asses.

All Serv. Why?

Apem. That you ask me what you are, and do not know yourselves. Speak to 'em, fool.

Fool. How do you, gentlemen?

All Serv. 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. Apem. Good! gramercy.

Fool. Look you, here comes my mistress' page.

you

Enter Page.

Page. [to the Fool.] Why, how now, captain? what do in this wise company? How dost thou, Apemantus? Apem. Would I had a rod in my mouth, that answer thee profitably.

might

Page. Pr'ythee, Apemantus, read me the superscription of these letters: I know not which is which.

Apem. 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.

Apem. E'en so thou outrun'st grace. I will go with you to Lord Timon's. Fool. Will you leave me there?

[Exit Page.] Fool,

Apem. If Timon stay at home.-You three serve three usurers?

All Serv. Ay; would they served us!

Apem. So would I,-as good a trick as ever hangman served thief.

Fool. Are you three usurers' men?

All Serv. 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' house merrily and go away sadly: the reason of this?

Var. Serv. I could render one.

Apem. Do it, then, that we may account thee a whoremaster and a knave; which, notwithstanding, thou shalt be no less esteemed.

Var. Serv. What is a whoremaster, fool?

Fool. A fool in good clothes, and something like thee. 'Tis a spirit: sometime it appears like a lord; sometimes 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.

Var. Serv. Thou art not altogether a fool.

Fool. Nor thou altogether a wise man: as much foolery as I have, so much wit thou lackest.

Apem. That answer might have become Apemantus.

All Serv. Aside, aside; here comes Lord Timon.

Re-enter TIMON and FLAVIUS.

Apem. Come with me, fool, come.

Fool. I do not always follow lover, elder brother, and woman; sometime the philosopher.

[Exeunt APEMANTUS and Fool. Flav. Pray you, walk near; I'll speak with you anon. [Exeunt Servants. Tim. 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?

Flav.

You would not hear me

At many leisures I propos'd.
Tim.
Go to:
Perchance some single vantages you took
When my indisposition put you back;
And that unaptness made your minister
Thus to excuse yourself.

Flav.

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 the authority of manners, pray'd 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.

land be sold.

Tim.
Let all my
Flav. 'Tis all engag'd, 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?

Tim. To Lacedæmon did my land extend.
Flav. 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!

Tim.

You tell me true.

Flav. If you suspect my husbandry or falsehood,