Complete Plays, The (153 page)

Enter Flavius, with two or three Servants

First Servant

Hear you, master steward, where’s our master?
Are we undone? cast off? nothing remaining?

Flavius

Alack, my fellows, what should I say to you?
Let me be recorded by the righteous gods,
I am as poor as you.

First Servant

Such a house broke!
So noble a master fall’n! All gone! and not
One friend to take his fortune by the arm,
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
Slink all away, leave their false vows with him,
Like empty purses pick’d; and his poor self,
A dedicated beggar to the air,
With his disease of all-shunn’d poverty,
Walks, like contempt, alone. More of our fellows.

Enter other Servants

Flavius

All broken implements of a ruin’d house.

Third Servant

Yet do our hearts wear Timon’s livery;
That see I by our faces; we are fellows still,
Serving alike in sorrow: leak’d is our bark,
And we, poor mates, stand on the dying deck,
Hearing the surges threat: we must all part
Into this sea of air.

Flavius

Good fellows all,
The latest 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 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.

Servants embrace, and part several ways

O, the fierce wretchedness that glory brings us!
Who would not wish to be from wealth exempt,
Since riches point to misery and contempt?
Who would be so mock’d with glory? or to live
But in a dream of friendship?
To have his pomp and all what state compounds
But only painted, like his varnish’d friends?
Poor honest lord, brought low by his own heart,
Undone by goodness! Strange, unusual blood,
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 men.
My dearest lord, bless’d, to be most accursed,
Rich, only to be wretched, thy great fortunes
Are made thy chief afflictions. Alas, kind lord!
He’s flung in rage from this ingrateful seat
Of monstrous friends, nor has he with him to
Supply his life, or that which can command it.
I’ll follow and inquire him out:
I’ll ever serve his mind with my best will;
Whilst I have gold, I’ll be his steward still.

Exit

S
CENE
III. W
OODS
AND
CAVE
,
NEAR
THE
SEASHORE
.

Enter Timon, from the cave

O blessed breeding sun, draw from the earth
Rotten humidity; below thy sister’s orb
Infect the air! Twinn’d brothers of one womb,
Whose procreation, residence, and birth,
Scarce is dividant, touch them with several fortunes;
The greater scorns the lesser: not nature,
To whom all sores lay siege, can bear great fortune,
But by contempt of nature.
Raise me this beggar, and deny ’t that lord;
The senator shall bear contempt hereditary,
The beggar native honour.
It is the pasture lards the rother’s sides,
The want that makes him lean. Who dares, who dares,
In purity of manhood stand upright,
And say ‘This man’s a flatterer?’ if one be,
So are they all; for every grise of fortune
Is smooth’d by that below: the learned pate
Ducks to the golden fool: all is oblique;
There’s nothing level in our cursed natures,
But direct villany. Therefore, be abhorr’d
All feasts, societies, and throngs of men!
His semblable, yea, himself, Timon disdains:
Destruction fang mankind! Earth, yield me roots!

Digging

Who seeks for better of thee, sauce his palate
With thy most operant poison! What is here?
Gold? yellow, glittering, precious gold? No, gods,
I am no idle votarist: roots, you clear heavens!
Thus much of this will make black white, foul fair,
Wrong right, base noble, old young, coward valiant.
Ha, you gods! why this? what this, you gods? Why, this
Will lug your priests and servants from your sides,
Pluck stout men’s pillows from below their heads:
This yellow slave
Will knit and break religions, bless the accursed,
Make the hoar leprosy adored, place thieves
And give them title, knee and approbation
With senators on the bench: this is it
That makes the wappen’d widow wed again;
She, whom the spital-house and ulcerous sores
Would cast the gorge at, this embalms and spices
To the April day again. Come, damned earth,
Thou common whore of mankind, that put’st odds
Among the route of nations, I will make thee
Do thy right nature.

March afar off

Ha! a drum ? Thou’rt quick,
But yet I’ll bury thee: thou’lt go, strong thief,
When gouty keepers of thee cannot stand.
Nay, stay thou out for earnest.

Keeping some gold

Enter Alcibiades, with drum and fife, in warlike manner; Phrynia and Timandra

Alcibiades

What art thou there? speak.

Timon

A beast, as thou art. The canker gnaw thy heart,
For showing me again the eyes of man!

Alcibiades

What is thy name? Is man so hateful to thee,
That art thyself a man?

Timon

I am Misanthropos, and hate mankind.
For thy part, I do wish thou wert a dog,
That I might love thee something.

Alcibiades

I know thee well;
But in thy fortunes am unlearn’d and strange.

Timon

I know thee too; and more than that I know thee,
I not desire to know. Follow thy drum;
With man’s blood paint the ground, gules, gules:
Religious canons, civil laws are cruel;
Then what should war be? This fell whore of thine
Hath in her more destruction than thy sword,
For all her cherubim look.

Phrynia

Thy lips rot off!

Timon

I will not kiss thee; then the rot returns
To thine own lips again.

Alcibiades

How came the noble Timon to this change?

Timon

As the moon does, by wanting light to give:
But then renew I could not, like the moon;
There were no suns to borrow of.

Alcibiades

Noble Timon,
What friendship may I do thee?

Timon

None, but to
Maintain my opinion.

Alcibiades

What is it, Timon?

Timon

Promise me friendship, but perform none: if thou wilt not promise, the gods plague thee, for thou art a man! if thou dost perform, confound thee, for thou art a man!

Alcibiades

I have heard in some sort of thy miseries.

Timon

Thou saw’st them, when I had prosperity.

Alcibiades

I see them now; then was a blessed time.

Timon

As thine is now, held with a brace of harlots.

Timandra

Is this the Athenian minion, whom the world
Voiced so regardfully?

Timon

Art thou Timandra?

Timandra

Yes.

Timon

Be a whore still: they love thee not that use thee;
Give them diseases, leaving with thee their lust.
Make use of thy salt hours: season the slaves
For tubs and baths; bring down rose-cheeked youth
To the tub-fast and the diet.

Timandra

Hang thee, monster!

Alcibiades

Pardon him, sweet Timandra; for his wits
Are drown’d and lost in his calamities.
I have but little gold of late, brave Timon,
The want whereof doth daily make revolt
In my penurious band: I have heard, and grieved,
How cursed Athens, mindless of thy worth,
Forgetting thy great deeds, when neighbour states,
But for thy sword and fortune, trod upon them,—

Timon

I prithee, beat thy drum, and get thee gone.

Alcibiades

I am thy friend, and pity thee, dear Timon.

Timon

How dost thou pity him whom thou dost trouble?
I had rather be alone.

Alcibiades

Why, fare thee well:
Here is some gold for thee.

Timon

Keep it, I cannot eat it.

Alcibiades

When I have laid proud Athens on a heap,—

Timon

Warr’st thou ’gainst Athens?

Alcibiades

Ay, Timon, and have cause.

Timon

The gods confound them all in thy conquest;
And thee after, when thou hast conquer’d!

Alcibiades

Why me, Timon?

Timon

 
That, by killing of villains,
Thou wast born to conquer my country.
Put up thy gold: go on,— here’s gold,— go on;
Be as a planetary plague, when Jove
Will o’er some high-viced city hang his poison
In the sick air: let not thy sword skip one:
Pity not honour’d age for his white beard;
He is an usurer: strike me the counterfeit matron;
It is her habit only that is honest,
Herself’s a bawd: let not the virgin’s cheek
Make soft thy trenchant sword; for those milk-paps,
That through the window-bars bore at men’s eyes,
Are not within the leaf of pity writ,
But set them down horrible traitors: spare not the babe,
Whose dimpled smiles from fools exhaust their mercy;
Think it a bastard, whom the oracle
Hath doubtfully pronounced thy throat shall cut,
And mince it sans remorse: swear against objects;
Put armour on thine ears and on thine eyes;
Whose proof, nor yells of mothers, maids, nor babes,
Nor sight of priests in holy vestments bleeding,
Shall pierce a jot. There’s gold to pay soldiers:
Make large confusion; and, thy fury spent,
Confounded be thyself! Speak not, be gone.

Alcibiades

Hast thou gold yet? I’ll take the gold thou givest me, Not all thy counsel.

Timon

Dost thou, or dost thou not, heaven’s curse upon thee!

Phrynia

Timandra

Give us some gold, good Timon: hast thou more?

Timon

Enough to make a whore forswear her trade,
And to make whores, a bawd. Hold up, you sluts,
Your aprons mountant: you are not oathable,
Although, I know, you ’ll swear, terribly swear
Into strong shudders and to heavenly agues
The immortal gods that hear you,— spare your oaths,
I’ll trust to your conditions: be whores still;
And he whose pious breath seeks to convert you,
Be strong in whore, allure him, burn him up;
Let your close fire predominate his smoke,
And be no turncoats: yet may your pains, six months,
Be quite contrary: and thatch your poor thin roofs
With burthens of the dead;— some that were hang’d,
No matter:— wear them, betray with them: whore still;
Paint till a horse may mire upon your face,
A pox of wrinkles!

Phrynia

Timandra

Well, more gold: what then?
Believe’t, that we’ll do any thing for gold.

Timon

Consumptions sow
In hollow bones of man; strike their sharp shins,
And mar men’s spurring. Crack the lawyer’s voice,
That he may never more false title plead,
Nor sound his quillets shrilly: hoar the flamen,
That scolds against the quality of flesh,
And not believes himself: down with the nose,
Down with it flat; take the bridge quite away
Of him that, his particular to foresee,
Smells from the general weal: make curl’d-pate ruffians bald;
And let the unscarr’d braggarts of the war
Derive some pain from you: plague all;
That your activity may defeat and quell
The source of all erection. There’s more gold:
Do you damn others, and let this damn you,
And ditches grave you all!

Phrynia

Timandra

More counsel with more money, bounteous Timon.

Timon

More whore, more mischief first; I have given you earnest.

Alcibiades

Strike up the drum towards Athens! Farewell, Timon:
If I thrive well, I’ll visit thee again.

Timon

If I hope well, I’ll never see thee more.

Alcibiades

I never did thee harm.

Timon

Yes, thou spokest well of me.

Alcibiades

Call’st thou that harm?

Timon

Men daily find it. Get thee away, and take
Thy beagles with thee.

Alcibiades

We but offend him. Strike!

Drum beats. Exeunt Alcibiades, Phrynia, and Timandra

Timon

That nature, being sick of man’s unkindness,
Should yet be hungry! Common mother, thou,

Digging

Whose womb unmeasurable, and infinite breast,
Teems, and feeds all; whose self-same mettle,
Whereof thy proud child, arrogant man, is puff’d,
Engenders the black toad and adder blue,
The gilded newt and eyeless venom’d worm,
With all the abhorred births below crisp heaven
Whereon Hyperion’s quickening fire doth shine;
Yield him, who all thy human sons doth hate,
From forth thy plenteous bosom, one poor root!
Ensear thy fertile and conceptious womb,
Let it no more bring out ingrateful man!
Go great with tigers, dragons, wolves, and bears;
Teem with new monsters, whom thy upward face
Hath to the marbled mansion all above
Never presented!— O, a root,— dear thanks!—
Dry up thy marrows, vines, and plough-torn leas;
Whereof ungrateful man, with liquorish draughts
And morsels unctuous, greases his pure mind,
That from it all consideration slips!

Enter Apemantus

More man? plague, plague!

Apemantus

I was directed hither: men report
Thou dost affect my manners, and dost use them.