Enter another Servant.

2. SERV. May it please your honour, the lord

Lucius,

Out of his free love, hath presented to you
Four milk-white horses, trapp'd in filver.

TIM. I shall accept them fairly: let the presents

Enter a third Servant.

Be worthily entertain'd.-How now, what news? 3. SERV. Please you, my lord, that honourable gentleman, lord Lucullus, entreats your company to-morrow to hunt with him; and has fent your honour two brace of greyhounds.

TIM. I'll hunt with him; And let them be re

ceiv'd, Not without fair reward.

FLAV. [Afide.]
What will this come to?
He commands us to provide, and give great gifts,
And all out of an empty coffer.*-

Nor will he know his purse; or yield me this,
To show him what a beggar his heart is,
Being of no power to make his wishes good;
His promises fly so beyond his state,

That what he fspeaks is all in debt, he owes
For every word; he is fo kind, that he now
Pays interest for't; his land's put to their books.
Well, 'would I were gently put out of office,
Before I were forc'd out!

* And all out of an empty coffer.] Read:

And all the while out of an empty coffer. RITSON.

Happier is he that has no friend to feed,
Than fuch as do even enemies exceed.

I bleed inwardly for my lord.

TIM.

[Exit.

You do yourselves Much wrong, you bate too much of your own merits :

Here, my lord; a trifle of our love.

2. LORD. With more than common thanks I will receive it.

3. LORD. O, he is the very foul of bounty! TIM. And now I remember me, my lord, you gave Good words the other day of a bay courser I rode on: it is yours, because you lik'd it.

2. LORD. I beseech you, pardon me, my lord, in that.

TIM. You may take my word, my lord; I know,

no man

Can justly praise, but what he does affect:

I weigh my friend's affection with mine own;
I'll tell you true. I'll call on you.

3 - remember me, I have added-me, for the fake of the measure. So, in King Richard III:

" I do remember me, Henry the fixth
"Did prophecy."

STEEVENS.

4 I befeech you,] Old copy, unmetrically, O, I beseech you,.

The player editors have been liberal of their tragick O's, to the frequent injury of our author's measure. For the fame reason I have expelled this exclamation from the beginning of the next speech but one. STEEVENS.

5 I'll tell you true.] Dr. Johnson reads, I tell you &c. in which he has been heedlessly followed; for though the change does not affect the sense of the passage, it is quite unnecessary, as may be proved by numerous instances in our author's dialogue. Thus, in the first line of King Henry V:

My lord, I'll tell you, that felf bill is urg'd-."

コ

다

ALL LORDS.

505

None so welcome.

TIM. I take all and your several visitations
So kind to heart, 'tis not enough to give;
Methinks, I could deal kingdoms to my friends,
And ne'er be weary.-Alcibiades,

Thou art a foldier, therefore seldom rich,

It comes in charity to thee: for all thy living
Is 'mongst the dead; and all the lands thou hast

Lie in a pitch'd field.

ALCIB.

Ay, defiled land, my lord.

1. LORD. We are so virtuously bound,-
TIM.

Am I to you.

2. LORD.

So infinitely endear'd,

TIM. All to you.*-Lights, more lights.

Again, in King John:

6

And fo

I'll tell thee, Hubert, half my power, this night-."

STEEVENS.

- 'tis not enough to give; Methinks, I could deal kingdoms-) Thus the passage ftood in all the editions before Sir T. Hanmer's, who restored-My thanks. JOHNSON.

I have difplaced the words inferted by Sir T. Hanmer. What I have already given, says Timon, is not sufficient on the occafion: Methinks I could deal kingdoms, i. e. could dispense them on every fide with an ungrudging distribution, like that with which I could deal out cards. STEEVENS.

1 Ay, defiled land,] I, is the old reading, which apparently depends on a very low quibble. Alcibiades is told, that his eftate lies in a pitch'd field. Now pitch, as Falstaff says, doth defile. Alcibiades therefore replies, that his estate lies in defiled land. This, as it happened, was not understood, and all the editors published:

I defy land,. JOHNSON,

I being always printed in the old copy for Ay, the editor of the fecond folio made the abfurd alteration mentioned by Dr. Johnson. MALONE.

* All to you.] i. e. all good wishes, or all happiness to you. So, Macbeth: "All to all." STEEVENS.

I. LORD.

The best of happiness,

Honour, and fortunes, keep with you, lord Timon!

TIM. Ready for his friends.

APEM.

[Exeunt ALCIBIADES, Lords, &c.

What a coil's here!

Serving of becks, and jutting out of bums!

:

Ready for his friends.] I suppose, for the fake of enforcing

the sense, as well as restoring the measure, we should read:

Ready ever for his friends. STEEVENS.

2 Serving of becks,] Beck means a falutation made with the head. So, Milton:

"Nods and becks, and wreathed smiles."

To ferve a beck, is to offer a falutation. JOHNSON.

To ferve a beck, means, I believe, to pay a courtly obedience to a nod. Thus, in The Death of Robert Earl of Huntington, 1601:

"And with a low beck

"Prevent a sharp check."

Again, in The Play of the Four P's, 1569:

" Then I to every foul again,
"Did give a beck them to retain."

In Ram-Alley or Merry Tricks, 1611, I find the fame word:
" I had my winks, my becks, treads on the toe."

Again, in Heywood's Rape of Lucrece, 1630:

wanton looks,

"And privy becks, favouring incontinence."

Again, in Lyly's Woman in the Moon, 1597:

"And he that with a beck controuls the heavens."

It happens then that the word beck has no less than four distinct fignifications. In Drayton's Polyolbion, it is enumerated among the appellations of small streams of water. In Shakspeare's Antony and Cleopatra, it has its common meaning a sign of invitation made by the hand. In Timon, it appears to denote a bow, and in Lyly's play, a nod of dignity or command; as well as in Marius and Sylla, 1594:

"Yea Sylla with a beck could break thy neck." Again, in the interlude of Jacob and Efau, 1568:

"For what, O Lord, is so possible to man's judgment
"Which thou canst not with a beck perform incontinent?"
STEEVENS.

See Surrey's Poems, p. 29:

- "And with a becke full lowe he bowed at her feete."

TYRWHITT.

I doubt whether their legs be worth the sums That are given for 'em. Friendship's full of dregs: Methinks, false hearts should never have found legs. Thus honeft fools lay out their wealth on court'sies. TIM. Now, Apemantus, if thou wert not fullen,

I'd be good to thee.

APEM. No, I'll nothing: for, If I should be brib'd too, there would be none left To rail upon thee; and then thou would'st sin the

fafter.

Thou giv'st so long, Timon, I fear me, thou
Wilt give away thyself in paper shortly:

What need these feafts, pomps, and vain glories?

TIM. Nay,

An you begin to rail on society once,
I am fworn, not to give regard to you.
Farewell; and come with better musick.

[Exit.

So;

Thou'lt not hear me now,-thou shalt not then,

Thy heaven from thee. O, that men's ears should

I'll locks

be

To counsel deaf, but not to flattery!

[Exit.

3 I doubt whether their legs &c.] He plays upon the word leg,

as it fignifies a limb, and a bow or act of obeisance. JOHNSON.

See Vol. VIII. p. 472, n. 6. MALONE.

4

I fear me, thou

Wilt give away thyself in paper shortly:] i. e. be ruined by his securities entered into.

WARBURTON.

5 Thou'lt not hear me now, thou shalt not then, I'll lock-] The measure will be restored by the omiffion of an unnecessary word-me:

Thou'lt not hear now, thou shalt not then, I'll lock

STEEVENS.

• Thy heaven-] The pleasure of being flattered. JOHNSON.