The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works

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The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works Page 484

by William Shakespeare


  PAGE [to the Fool] Why, how now, captain? What do

  you in this wise company? How dost thou,

  Apemantus?

  80

  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?

  85

  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’lt

  die a bawd.

  90

  PAGE Thou wast whelp’d a dog, and thou shalt famish a

  dog’s death. Answer not; I am gone. Exit.

  APEMANTUS E’en so thou outrun’st grace. Fool, I will

  go with you to Lord Timon’s.

  FOOL Will you leave me there?

  95

  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.

  100

  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

  105

  away merry; but they enter my master’s 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,

  110

  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

  115

  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.

  120

  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.

  ALL SERVANTS Aside, aside; here comes Lord Timon.

  Re-enter TIMON and Steward.

  APEMANTUS Come with me, fool, come.

  125

  FOOL I do not always follow lover, elder brother and

  woman; sometime the philosopher.

  STEWARD

  Pray you, walk near: I’ll speak with you anon.

  Exeunt Apemantus, Fool and Servants.

  TIMON

  You make me marvel wherefore ere this time

  Had you not fully laid my state before me,

  130

  That I might so have rated my expense

  As I had leave of means.

  STEWARD 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,

  135

  And that unaptness made your minister

  Thus to excuse yourself.

  STEWARD O my good lord,

  At many times I brought in my accompts,

  Laid them before you; you would throw them off,

  And say you found them in mine honesty.

  140

  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

  145

  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.

  150

  STEWARD ’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?

  155

  TIMON To Lacedaemon did my land extend.

  STEWARD 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.

  STEWARD If you suspect my husbandry or falsehood,

  160

  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

  165

  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.

  STEWARD Heavens, have I said, the bounty of this lord!

  How many prodigal bits have slaves and peasants

  170

  This night englutted! Who is not 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.

  175

  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,

  180

  To think I shall lack friends? Secure thy heart.

  If I would broach the vessels of my love,

  And try the arguments of hearts by borrowing,

  Men and men’s fortunes could I frankly use

  As I can bid thee speak.

  STEWARD Assurance bless your thoughts.

  185

  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!

  190

  Enter FLAMINIUS, SERVILIUS and another Servant.

  ALL SERVANTS My lord, my lord.

  TIMON I will dispatch you severally: [to Servilius] you

  to Lord Lucius; [to Flaminius] to Lord Lucullus you

  (I hunted with his honour to-day); [to Third Servant]

  you, to Sempronius. Commend me to their loves;

  195

  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.

  STEWARD [aside] Lord Lucius and Lucullus? Humh!

  200

  TIMON [to Steward] Go you, sir, to the senators,

  Of whom, even to the state’s b
est health, I have

  Deserv’d this hearing: bid ’em send o’th’ instant

  A thousand talents to me.

  STEWARD I have been bold,

  For that I knew it the most general way,

  205

  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?

  STEWARD They answer in a joint and corporate voice

  That now they are at fall, want treasure, cannot

  210

  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,

  215

  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;

  220

  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,

  225

  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,

  230

  I clear’d him with five talents. Greet him from me,

  Bid him suppose some good necessity

  Touches his friend, which craves to be remember’d

  With those five talents. That had, give’t these fellows

  To whom ’tis instant due. Ne’er speak or think

  235

  That Timon’s fortunes ’mong his friends can sink.

  STEWARD I would I could not think it.

  That thought is bounty’s foe;

  Being free itself, it thinks all others so. Exeunt.

  3.1 FLAMINIUS waiting to speak with Lucullus from his master. Enter a Servant to him.

  SERVANT I have told my lord of you; he is coming down

  to you.

  FLAMINIUS I thank you, sir.

  Enter LUCULLUS.

  SERVANT Here’s my lord.

  LUCULLUS [aside] One of Lord Timon’s men? A gift, I

  5

  warrant. Why, this hits right: I dreamt of a silver basin

  and ewer to-night. – Flaminius, honest Flaminius, you

  are very respectively welcome, sir. Fill me some

  wine. [Exit Servant.]

  And how does that honourable, complete, free-

  10

  hearted gentleman of Athens, thy very bountiful good

  lord and master?

  FLAMINIUS His health is well, sir.

  LUCULLUS I am right glad that his health is well, sir.

  And what hast thou there under thy cloak, pretty

  15

  Flaminius?

  FLAMINIUS Faith, nothing but an empty box, sir, which,

  in my lord’s behalf, I come to entreat your honour to

  supply; who, having great and instant occasion to

  use fifty talents, hath sent to your lordship to furnish

  20

  him, nothing doubting your present assistance

  therein.

  LUCULLUS La, la, la, la: ‘nothing doubting’, says he?

  Alas, good lord; a noble gentleman ’tis, if he would not

  keep so good a house. Many a time and often I ha’

  25

  din’d with him, and told him on’t, and come again to

  supper to him of purpose to have him spend less; and

  yet he would embrace no counsel, take no warning by

  my coming. Every man has his fault, and honesty is

  his. I ha’told him on’t, but I could ne’er get him

  30

  from’t.

  Re-enter Servant, with wine.

  SERVANT Please your lordship, here is the wine.

  LUCULLUS Flaminius, I have noted thee always wise.

  Here’s to thee.

  FLAMINIUS Your lordship speaks your pleasure.

  35

  LUCULLUS I have observed thee always for a towardly

  prompt spirit, give thee thy due, and one that knows

  what belongs to reason; and canst use the time well, if

  the time use thee well. Good parts in thee. [to the

 

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