thou wouldst sin the faster. Thou givest so long,
Timon, I fear me thou wilt give away thyself in
paper shortly: what need these feasts, pomps and
vain-glories?
TIMON Nay, an you begin to rail on society once, I am
sworn not to give regard to you. Farewell; and come
with better music.
Exit
APEMANTUS So:
Thou wilt not hear me now; thou shalt not then:
I’ll lock thy heaven from thee.
O, that men’s ears should be
To counsel deaf, but not to flattery!
Exit
Act 2
Scene 1
A Senator’s house.
Enter Senator, with papers in his hand
Senator 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!
Enter CAPHIS
CAPHIS Here, sir; what is your pleasure?
Senator Get on your cloak, and haste you to Lord Timon;
Importune him for my moneys; be not ceased
With slight denial, nor then silenced 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.
CAPHIS I go, sir.
Senator ‘I go, sir!’–Take the bonds along with you,
And have the dates in contempt.
CAPHIS I will, sir.
Senator Go.
Exeunt
Scene 2
The same. A hall in Timon’s house.
Enter FLAVIUS, with many bills in his hand
FLAVIUS 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
CAPHIS Good even, Varro: what,
You come for money?
Varro’s Servant Is’t not your business too?
CAPHIS It is: and yours too, Isidore?
Isidore’s Servant It is so.
CAPHIS Would we were all discharged!
Varro’s Servant I fear it.
CAPHIS Here comes the lord.
Enter TIMON, ALCIBIADES, and Lords, &c
TIMON So soon as dinner’s done, we’ll forth again,
My Alcibiades. With me? what is your will?
CAPHIS My lord, here is a note of certain dues.
TIMON Dues! Whence are you?
CAPHIS Of Athens here, my lord.
TIMON Go to my steward.
CAPHIS Please it your lordship, he hath put me off
To the succession of new days this month:
My master is awaked 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.
TIMON Mine honest friend,
I prithee, but repair to me next morning.
CAPHIS Nay, good my lord,–
TIMON Contain thyself, good friend.
Varro’s Servant One Varro’s servant, my good lord,–
Isidore’s Servant From Isidore;
He humbly prays your speedy payment.
CAPHIS If you did know, my lord, my master’s wants–
Varro’s Servant ‘Twas due on forfeiture, my lord, six weeks And past.
Isidore’s Servant Your steward puts me off, my lord;
And I am sent expressly to your lordship.
TIMON Give me breath.
I do beseech you, good my lords, keep on;
I’ll wait upon you instantly.
Exeunt ALCIBIADES and Lords
To FLAVIUS
Come hither: pray you,
How goes the world, that I am thus encounter’d
With clamourous demands of date-broke bonds,
And the detention of long-since-due debts,
Against my honour?
FLAVIUS 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.
TIMON Do so, my friends. See them well entertain’d.
Exit
FLAVIUS Pray, draw near.
Exit
Enter APEMANTUS and Fool
CAPHIS Stay, stay, here comes the fool with Apemantus:
let’s ha’ some sport with ’em.
Varro’s Servant Hang him, he’ll abuse us.
Isidore’s Servant A plague upon him, dog!
Varro’s Servant How dost, fool?
APEMANTUS Dost dialogue with thy shadow?
Varro’s Servant I speak not to thee.
APEMANTUS No,’tis to thyself.
To the Fool
Come away.
Isidore’s Servant There’s the fool hangs on your back already.
APEMANTUS No, thou stand’st single, thou’rt not on him yet.
CAPHIS Where’s the fool now?
APEMANTUS He last asked the question. Poor rogues, and
usurers’ men! bawds between gold and want!
All Servants What are we, Apemantus?
APEMANTUS Asses.
All Servants Why?
APEMANTUS That you ask me what you are, and do not know
yourselves. Speak to ’em, fool.
Fool How do you, gentlemen?
All Servants 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!
APEMANTUS Good! gramercy.
Enter Page
Fool Look you, here comes my mistress’ page.
Page [To the Fool]
Why, how now, captain! what do you
in this wise company? How dost thou, Apemantus?
APEMANTUS Would I had a rod in my mouth, that I might answer
thee profitably.
Page Prithee, Apemantus, read me the superscription of
these letters: I know not which is which.
APEMANTUS Canst not read?
Page No.
APEMANTUS 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’t
die a bawd.
Page Thou wast whelped a dog, and thou shalt famish a
dog’s death. Answer not; I am gone.
Exit
APEMANTUS E’en so thou outrunnest grace. Fool, I will go with
you to Lord Timon’s.
Fool Will you leave me there?
APEMANTUS If Timon stay at home. You three serve three usurers?
All Servants Ay; would they served us!
APEMANTUS So would I,–as good a trick as ever hangman served thief.
Fool Are you three usurers’ men?
All Servants 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?
Varro’s Servant I could render one.
APEMANTUS Do it then, that we may account thee a whoremaster
and a knave; which not-withstanding, thou shalt be
no less esteemed.
Varro’s Servant What is a whoremaster, fool?
Fool A fool in good clothes, and something like thee.
‘Tis a spirit: sometime’t appears like a lord;
sometime like a lawyer; sometime like a philosopher,
with two stones moe 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.
Varro’s Servant Thou art not altogether a fool.
Fool Nor thou altogether a wise man: as much foolery as
I have, so much wit thou lackest.
APEMANTUS That answer might have become Apemantus.
All Servants Aside, aside; here comes Lord Timon.
Re-enter TIMON and FLAVIUS
APEMANTUS Come with me, fool, come.
Fool I do not always follow lover, elder brother and
woman; sometime the philosopher.
Exeunt APEMANTUS and Fool
FLAVIUS Pray you, walk near: I’ll speak with you anon.
Exeunt Servants
TIMON 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?
FLAVIUS You would not hear me,
At many leisures I proposed.
TIMON Go to:
Perchance some single vantages you took.
When my indisposition put you back:
And that unaptness made your minister,
Thus to excuse yourself.
FLAVIUS 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;