2. SEN. So did we woo Transformed Timon to our city's love, By humble meffage, and by promis'd means;" The common ftroke of war. These walls of ours I. SEN. Were not erected by their hands, from whom You have receiv'd your griefs: nor are they fuch, That these great towers, trophies, and schools fhould fall For private faults in them.' 2. SEN. 8 Nor are they living, Who were the motives that you first went out; * Their refers to griefs. fidered as parenthetical. "To give thy rages balm," must be con The modern editors have fubftituted ingratitudes for ingratitude. MALONE. 7 So did we woo Transformed Timon to our city's love, By humble meffage, and by promis'd means;] Promis'd means muft import the recruiting of his funk fortunes; but this is not all. The fenate had wooed him with humble meffage, and promise of general reparation. This feems included in the flight change which I have made: and by promis'd mends. THEOBALD. Dr. Warburton agrees with Mr. Theobald, but the old reading may well ftand. JOHNSON. By promis'd means, is by promifing him a competent fubfiftence. So, in King Henry IV. P. II: " Your means are very flender, and your waste is great.' MALONE. You have receiv'd your griefs:] The old copy has-grief; but as the fenator in his preceding fpeech ufes the plural, grief was probably here an error of the prefs. The correction was made by Mr. Theobald. MALONE. 9 For private faults in them.] That is, in the perfons from whom you have received your griefs. MALONE. 2 the motives that you firft went out;] i. e. those who made the motion for your exile. This word is as perverfely employed in Troilus and Creffida: ་་ her wanton fpirits look out "At every joint and motive of her body." STEEVENS. Shame, that they wanted cunning, in excefs March, noble lord, Into our city with thy banners spread: By decimation, and a tithed death, Which nature loaths,) take thou the deftin'd tenth; Let die the spotted.. I. SEN. All have not offended; For those that were, it is not square,' to take, On those that are, revenges: crimes, like lands, Are not inherited. Then, dear countryman, Bring in thy ranks, but leave without thy rage: Spare thy Athenian cradle," and those kin, Which, in the bluster of thy wrath, must fall With those that have offended: like a fhepherd, 4 Shame, that they wanted cunning, in excess Hath broke their hearts.] Shame in excefs (i. e. extremity of fhame) that they wanted cunning (i. e. that they were not wife enough not to banish you) hath broke their hearts. THEOBALD. I have no wish to disturb the manes of Theobald, yet think fome emendation may be offered that will make the conftruction lefs harfh, and the fentence more ferious. I read : Shame that they wanted, coming in excess, Hath broke their hearts. Shame which they had fo long wanted, at laft coming in its utmost excefs. JOHNSON. I think that Theobald has, on this occafion, the advantage of Johnson. When the old reading is clear and intelligible, we should not have recourse to correction.-Cunning was not, in Shakspeare's time, confined to a bad fenfe, but was used to exprefs knowledge or understanding. M. MASON. 5 not fquare,] Not regular, not equitable. JOHNSON. revenges] Old copy-revenge. Corrected by Mr. Steevens. See the preceding fpeech. MALONE. 7 thy Athenian cradle,] Thus Ovid, Met. VIII. 99: Approach the fold, and cull the infected forth, 2. SEN. What thou wilt, Thou rather fhalt enforce it with thy fmile, I. SEN. Set but thy foot Against our rampir'd gates, and they fhall ope; So thou wilt fend thy gentle heart before, To fay, thou'lt enter friendly. 2. SEN. Throw thy glove, Or any token of thine honour else, That thou wilt ufe the wars as thy redress, ALCIB. 8 But kill not all together.] The old copy reads-altogether. Mr. M. Mason fuggefted the correction I have made. STEEVENS. 9 uncharged ports:] That is, unguarded gates. JOHNSON. Uncharged means unattacked, not unguarded. M. MASON. Mr. M. Mafon is right. So, in Shakspeare's 70th Sonnet: "Thou haft pafs'd by the ambush of young days, "Either not affail'd, or victor, being charg'd." MALONE. to atone your fears 2 With my more noble meaning,] i. e. to reconcile them to it. So, in Cymbeline: "I was glad I did atone my countryman and you.” STEEVENS. Shall pass his quarter,] Not a foldier shall quit his station, or be let loose upon you; and, if any commits violence, he shall anfwer it regularly to the law. JOHNSON. Of regular justice in your city's bounds, But fhall be remedied, to your publick laws Вотн. 'Tis most nobly spoken. ALCIB. Defcend, and keep your words.' The Senators defcend, and open the gates. SOL. My noble general, Timon is dead; ALCIB. [Reads.] Here lies a wretched corfe, of Seek not my name: A plague confume you wicked caitiff's left!" 4 But fhall be remedied,] The conftruction is, But he shall be remedied; but Shakspeare means, that his offence fhall be remedied, the word offence being included in offend in a former line. The editor of the fecond folio, for to, in the last line but one of this speech, fubftituted by, which all the fubfequent editors adopted. MALONE. I profefs my inability to extract any determinate fenfe from thefe words as they ftand, and rather fuppofe the reading in the fecond folio to be the true one. To be remedied by, affords a glimpfe of meaning: to be remedied to, is " the blanket of the dark." STEEVENS. 5 Defcend, and keep your words.] Old copy-Defend. Corrected by the editor of the fecond folio. MALONE. 6 for my poor ignorance.] Poor is here ufed as a diffyllable, as door is in The Merchant of Venice. MALONE. 7caitiffs left!] This epitaph is found in fir T. North's tranflation of Plutarch, with the difference of one word only, viz. wretches instead of caitiffs. STEEVENS. This epitaph is formed out of two diftinct epitaphs which Shakfpeare found in Plutarch. The first couplet is faid by Plutarch to have been compofed by Timon himself as his epitaph; the fecond to have been written by the poet Callimachus. Here lie I Timon; who, alive, all living men did hate: Pafs by, and curfe thy fill; but pass, and ftay not bere thy gait. These well express in thee thy latter spirits : Though thou abhorr'dft in us our human griefs, Scorn'dft our brain's flow, and those our droplets which From niggard nature fall, yet rich conceit Taught thee to make vaft Neptune weep for aye On thy low grave, on faults forgiven." Dead Perhaps the flight variation mentioned by Mr. Steevens, arose from our author's having another epitaph before him, which is found in Kendal's Flowers of Epigrammes, 1577, and in Painter's Palace of Pleafure, Vol. I. Nov. 28: 8 66 TIMON HIS EPITAPHE. My wretched caitiffe daies expired now and past, "My carren corps enterred here, is grafpt in ground, "In weltring waves of fwelling feas by fourges cafte; My name if thou defire, the gods thee doe confound!" MALONE. our brain's flow,] Sir T. Hanmer and Dr. Warburton read, brine's flow. Our brain's flow is our tears; but we may read, our brine's flow, our falt tears. Either will ferve. JOHNSON. Our brain's flow is right. So, in Sir Giles Goofecap, 1606: "I fhed not the tears of my brain." Again, in The Miracles of Mofes, by Drayton: "But he from rocks that fountains can command, "Cannot yet ftay the fountains of his brain." STEEVENS. 9-on faults forgiven.] Alcibiades's whole fpeech is in breaks, betwixt his reflections on Timon's death, and his addreffes to the Athenian fenators: and as foon as he has commented on the place of Timon's grave, he bids the fenate fet forward; tells 'em, he has forgiven their faults; and promifes to use them with mercy. THEOBALD. I fufpect that we ought to read: One fault's forgiven.-Dead Is noble Timon; &c. One fault (viz. the ingratitude of the Athenians to Timon) is forgiven, i. e. exempted from punishment by the death of the injured perfon. TYRWHITT. The old reading and punctuation appear to me fufficiently intelligible. Mr. Theobald afks," why fhould Neptune weep over |