2. LORD. My noble lord, TIM. Ah, my good friend! what cheer? [The banquet brought in. 2. LORD. My most honourable lord, I am e'en fick of fhame, that, when your lordship this other day fent to me, I was fo unfortunate a beggar. TIM. Think not on't, fir. 2. LORD. If you had fent but two hours before,— TIM. Let it not cumber your better remembrance. Come, bring in all together. 2. LORD. All cover'd dishes! 1. LORD. Royal cheer, I warrant you. 3. LORD. Doubt not that, if money, and the feafon can yield it. 1. LORD. How do you? What's the news? 3. LORD. Alcibiades is banish'd: Hear you of it? 1. 2. LORD. Alcibiades banish'd! 3. LORD. 'Tis fo, be fure of it. 1. LORD. How? how? 2. LORD. I pray you, upon what? TIM. My worthy friends, will you draw near? 3. LORD. I'll tell you more anon. Here's a noble feaft toward.8 2. LORD. This is the old man still. 3. LORD. Will't hold? will't hold? 2. LORD. It does: but time will-and fo -your better remembrance.] i. e. your good memory: the comparative for the pofitive degree. See Vol. VII. p. 450, n. 9. STEEVENS. Here's a noble feaft toward.] i. e. in a state of readiness. So, in Romeo and Juliet: "We have a foolish trifling banquet towards." STEEVENS, TIM. Each man to his ftool, with that fpur as he would to the lip of his mistress: your diet fhall be in all places alike. Make not a city feast of it, to let the meat cool ere we can agree upon the first place: Sit, fit. The gods require our thanks. You great benefactors, Sprinkle our fociety with thankfulness. For your own gifts, make yourselves praifed: but referve ftill to give, left your deities be defpifed. Lend to each man enough, that one need not lend to another: for, were your godbeads to borrow of men, men would forfake the gods. Make the meat be beloved, more than the man that gives it. Let no affembly of twenty be without a score of villains: If there fit twelve women at the table, let a dozen of them be-as they are.-The rest of your fees, O gods, the fenators of Athens, together with the common lag3 of people,-what is amifs in them, you gods, make fuitable for deftruction. For thefe my prefent friends,as they are to me nothing, fo in nothing bless them, and to nothing they are welcome. Uncover, dogs, and lap. [The difbes uncovered are full of warm water. SOME SPEAK. What does his lordship mean? SOME OTHER. I know not. TIM. May you a better feast never behold, 9 -your diet fhall be in all places alike.] See a note on The Winter's Tale, Vol. VII. p. 29, n. 8. STEEVENS. The rest of your fees,] We should read-foes. WARBURTON. 3 the common lag-] Old copy-leg. Corrected by Mr. Rowe. MALONE. The fag-end of a web of cloth is, in fome places, called the lag-end. STEEVENS. You knot of mouth-friends! fmoke, and luke-warm water 4 Is your perfection. This is Timon's last; [Throwing water in their faces. Your reeking villainy. Live loath'd, and long,' Most smiling, smooth, detefted parasites, Courteous destroyers, affable wolves, meek bears, You fools of fortune, trencher-friends, time's flies, Cap and knee flaves, vapours, and minute-jacks!" Of man, and beaft, the infinite malady' Cruft you quite o'er!-What, doft thou go? 4 Is your perfection.] Your perfection, is the highest of your excellence. JOHNSON. 5 Live loath'd, and long,] This thought has occurred twice before: Again: 6 part power "Of nature my lord paid for, be of "Gods keep you old enough," &c. STEEVENS. -fools of fortune,] The fame expreffion occurs in Romes and Juliet: "O! I am fortune's fool." STEEVENS. "-time's flies,] Flies of a feafon. JOHNSON. So, before: 8 66 -one cloud of winter fhowers, "These flies are couch'd." STEEVENS. minute-jacks!] Sir T. Hanmer thinks it means Jack-alantern, which fhines and difappears in an inftant. What it was I know not; but it was fomething of quick motion, mentioned in Richard III. JOHNSON. A minute-jack is what was called formerly a Jack of the clockhouse; an image whofe office was the fame as one of thofe at St. Dunstan's church in Fleet-ftreet. See note on King Richard III. Vol. X. p. 620, n. 2. STEEVENS. 9 the infinite malady-] Every kind of disease incident to man and beast. JOHNSON. Soft, take thy phyfick first,-thou too,—and thou ;- Re-enter the Lords, with other Lords and Senators. 1. LORD. How now, my lords? * 2. LORD. Know you the quality of lord Timon's fury? 3. LORD. Pifh! did you fee my cap? 4. LORD. I have loft my gown. 3. LORD. He's but a mad lord, and nought but humour fways him. He gave me a jewel the other day, and now he has beat it out of my hat:-Did you fee my jewel? 4. LORD. Did you fee my cap? 2. LORD. Here 'tis. 4. LORD. Here lies my gown. 1. LORD. Let's make no stay. 2. LORD. Lord Timon's mad. 3. LORD. I feel't upon my bones. [Exeunt. 4. LORD. One day he gives us diamonds, next day ftones.3 2 How now, my lords?] by the newly arrived lords. This and the next speech are spoken 3 -ftones.] As Timon has thrown nothing at his worthless guefts, except warm water and empty dishes, I am induced, with Mr. Malone, to believe that the more ancient drama described in P. 460, had been read by our author, and that he supposed he had TIM. Let me look back upon thee, O thou wall, That girdleft in those wolves! Dive in the earth, And fence not Athens! Matrons, turn incontinent; Obedience fail in children! flaves, and fools, Pluck the grave wrinkled fenate from the bench, And minister in their fteads! to general filths* Convert o'the instant, green' virginity! Do't in your parents' eyes! bankrupts, hold fast; Rather than render back, out with your knives, And cut your trufters' throats! bound fervants, fteal! Large-handed robbers your grave masters are, introduced from it the "painted ftones" as part of his banquet; though in reality he had omitted them. The prefent mention therefore of fuch miffiles, appears to want propriety. STEEVENS. -general filths-] i. e. common fewers. STEEVENS. -green-] i. e. immature. So, in Antony and Cleopatra : "When I was green in judgement — STEEVENS. o'the brothel!] So the old copies. Sir T. Hanmer reads, 'the brothel. JOHNSON. One would fuppofe it to mean, that the miftrefs frequented the brothel; and fo Sir T. Hanmer understood it. RITSON. The meaning is, go to thy master's bed, for he is alone; thy miftrefs is now of the brothel; is now there. In the old copy, i'th', o'th', and a'th', are written with very little care, or rather seem to have been fet down at random in different places. MALONE. "Of the brothel" is the true reading. So, in King Lear, Act II. fc. ii. the Steward fays to Kent, "Art of the house?" STEEVENS. |