Before TIMON'S house
Enter FLAVIUS, TIMON'S Steward, 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 discharg'd!
VARRO'S SERVANT I fear it.
CAPHIS Here comes the lord.
Enter TIMON and his train, with ALCIBIADES 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 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.
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 encount'red
With clamorous 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 [To VARRO'S SERVANT] There's the fool hangs on
your back already.
APEMANTUS No, thou stand'st single; th'art not on him yet.
CAPHIS Where's the fool now?
APEMANTUS He last ask'd 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
hang'd. This is to Lord Timon; this to Alcibiades. Go; thou wast
born a bastard, and thou't die a bawd.
PAGE Thou wast whelp'd a dog, and thou shalt famish dog's death.
Answer not: I am gone.
Exit PAGE APEMANTUS E'en so thou outrun'st 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 serv'd us!
APEMANTUS So would I- as good a trick as ever hangman serv'd
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 notwithstanding, 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 lack'st.
APEMANTUS That answer might have become Apemantus.
VARRO'S SERVANT 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 propos'd.
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;
Yea, 'gainst th' 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 lov'd 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.
TIMON Let all my land be sold.
FLAVIUS '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 reck'ning?
TIMON To Lacedaemon did my land extend.
FLAVIUS 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!
TIMON You tell me true.
FLAVIUS If you suspect my husbandry or falsehood,
Call me before th' exactest auditors
And set me on the proof. So the gods bless me,
When all our offices have been oppress'd
With riotous feeders, when our vaults have wept
With drunken spilth of wine, when every room
Hath blaz'd with lights and bray'd with minstrelsy,
I have retir'd me to a wasteful cock
And set mine eyes at flow.
TIMON Prithee no more.
FLAVIUS 'Heavens,' have I said 'the bounty of this lord!
How many prodigal bits have slaves and peasants
This night englutted! Who is not Lord Timon's?
What heart, head, sword, force, means, but is Lord Timon's?
Great Timon, noble, worthy, royal Timon!'
Ah! when the means are gone that buy this praise,
The breath is gone whereof this praise is made.
Feast-won, fast-lost; one cloud of winter show'rs,
These flies are couch'd.
TIMON Come, sermon me no further.
No villainous bounty yet hath pass'd my heart;
Unwisely, not ignobly, have I given.
Why dost thou weep? Canst thou the conscience lack
To think I shall lack friends? Secure thy heart:
If I would broach the vessels of my love,
And try the argument of hearts by borrowing,
Men and men's fortunes could I frankly use
As I can bid thee speak.
FLAVIUS Assurance bless your thoughts!
TIMON And, in some sort, these wants of mine are crown'd
That I account them blessings; for by these
Shall I try friends. You shall perceive how you
Mistake my fortunes; I am wealthy in my friends.
Within there! Flaminius! Servilius!
Enter FLAMINIUS, SERVILIUS, and another SERVANT SERVANTS My lord! my lord!
TIMON I will dispatch you severally- you to Lord Lucius; to Lord
Lucullus you; I hunted with his honour to-day. You to Sempronius.
Commend me to their loves; and I am proud, say, that my occasions
have found time to use 'em toward a supply of money. Let the
request be fifty talents.
FLAMINIUS As you have said, my lord.
Exeunt SERVANTS FLAVIUS [Aside] Lord Lucius and Lucullus? Humh!
TIMON Go you, sir, to the senators,
Of whom, even to the state's best health, I have
Deserv'd this hearing. Bid 'em send o' th' instant
A thousand talents to me.
FLAVIUS I have been bold,
For that I knew it the most general way,
To them to use your signet and your name;
But they do shake their heads, and I am here
No richer in return.
TIMON Is't true? Can't be?
FLAVIUS They answer, in a joint and corporate voice,
That now they are at fall, want treasure, cannot
Do what they would, are sorry- you are honourable-
But yet they could have wish'd- they know not-
Something hath been amiss- a noble nature
May catch a wrench- would all were well!- 'tis pity-
And so, intending other serious matters,
After distasteful looks, and these hard fractions,
With certain half-caps and cold-moving nods,
They froze me into silence.
TIMON You gods, reward them!
Prithee, man, look cheerly. These old fellows
Have their ingratitude in them hereditary.
Their blood is cak'd, 'tis cold, it seldom flows;
'Tis lack of kindly warmth they are not kind;
And nature, as it grows again toward earth,
Is fashion'd for the journey dull and heavy.
Go to Ventidius. Prithee be not sad,
Thou art true and honest; ingeniously I speak,
No blame belongs to thee. Ventidius lately
Buried his father, by whose death he's stepp'd
Into a great estate. When he was poor,
Imprison'd, and in scarcity of friends,
I clear'd him with five talents. Greet him from me,
Bid him suppose some good necessity
Touches his friend, which craves to be rememb'red
With those five talents. That had, give't these fellows
To whom 'tis instant due. Nev'r speak or think
That Timon's fortunes 'mong his friends can sink.
FLAVIUS I would I could not think it.
That thought is bounty's foe;
Being free itself, it thinks all others so.
Exeunt