ACT II. SCENE I.

The fame. A Room in a Senator's House.

:

Enter a Senator, with papers in his band.

SEN. And late, five thousand to Varro; and to
Ifidore

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 fell my horse, and buy twenty more
Better than he, why, give my horse to Timon,
Afk nothing, give it him, it foals me, straight,
And able horfes: No porter at his gate;

Apemantus never intended, at any event, to flatter Timon, nor did Timon expect any flattery from him. By his heaven he means good advice, the only thing by which he could be saved. The following lines confirm this explanation. M. MASON.

6

-twenty-] Mr. Theobald has-ten.

poses to read twain. REED.

1 Ask nothing, give it him, it foals me, straight, And able horfes:] Mr. Theobald reads: Ten able horses. STEEVENS.

Dr. Farmer pro

"If I want gold (fays the senator) let me steal a beggar's dog, and give it Timon, the dog coins me gold. If I would fell my horse, and had a mind to buy ten better instead of him; why, I need but give my horse to Timon, to gain this point; and it presently fetches me an horse." But is that gaining the point proposed? The first folio reads:

And able horfes:

L

But rather one that smiles, and still invites &
All that pass by. It cannot hold; no reason

Which reading, joined to the reasoning of the passage, gave me the hint for this emendation. THEOBALD.

The paffage which Mr. Theobald would alter, means only this: "If I give my horse to Timon, it immediately foals, and not only produces more, but able horses." The fame construction occurs in Much Ado about Nothing: "and men are only turned into tongue, and trim ones too."

Something fimilar occurs also in Beaumont and Fletcher's Humorous Lieutenant :

some twenty, young and handsome,
"As also able maids, for the court service."

STEEVENS.

Perhaps the letters of the word me were transposed at the press. Shakspeare might have written: - it foals 'em ftraight

And able horses.

If there be no corruption in the text, the word twenty in the preceding line, is understood here after me.

We have had this sentiment differently expressed in the preceding

act:

_ no meed but he repays

"Seven-fold above itself; no gift to him,
"But breeds the giver a return exceeding

" All use of quittance." MALONE.

No porter at his gate;

But rather one that smiles, and still invites-) I imagine that a line is loft here, in which the behaviour of a furly porter was described. JOHNSON.

There is no occasion to suppose the loss of a line. Sternness was the characteristick of a porter. There appeared at Killingworth caftle, [1575] "a porter, tall of parson, big of lim, and stearn of countinauns." FARMER.

So also, in A Knight's Conjuring &c. by Decker: "You mistake, if you imagine that Plutoes porter is like one of those big fellowes that stand like gyants at Lordes gates &c.-yet hee's as furly as those key-turners are." STEEVENS.

The word-one, in the second line, does not refer to porter, but means a perfon. He has no stern forbidding porter at his gate, to keep people out, but a person who invites them in.

Can found his state in safety. Caphis, ho!
Caphis, I fay!

Enter CAPHIS.

CAPH.

Here, fir; What is your pleasure?

SEN. Get on your cloak, and hafte you to lord

Timon;

Impórtune him for my monies; be not ceas'd
With flight denial; nor then filenc'd, when-
Commend me to your master and the cap
Plays in the right hand, thus :-but tell him, firrah,
My uses cry to me, I must serve my turn

Out of mine own; his days and times are past,

Can found his ftate in safety.] [Old copy-found.] The supposed meaning of this must be, -No reason, by founding, fa thoming, or trying, his ftate, can find it safe. But as the wor is stand, they imply, that no reason can safely found his ftate, I read thus:

-no reason

Can found his ftate in safety.

Reason cannot find his fortune to have any fafe or folid foundation. The types of the first printer of this play were fo worn and defaced, that fand are not always to be diftinguished.

JOHNSON.

The following passage in Macbeth affords countenance to Dr. Johnfon's emendation:

"Whole as the marble, founded as the rock;-.”

STEEVENS.

be not ceas'd-] i. e. stopp'd. So, in Claudius Tiberias

2

Nero, 1607:

"

Why should Tiberius' liberty be ceased."

Again, in The Valiant Welchman, 1615:

pity thy people's wrongs,

" And cease the clamours both of old and young."

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
Muft not be toss'd and turn'd to me in words,
But find supply immediate. Get you gone:
Put on a most importunate aspéct,
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 phenix.

CAPH. I go, fir.

Get you gone.

SEN. I go, fir?-take the bonds along with you, And have the dates in compt."

CAPH.

SEN.

I will, fir.

Go.

[Exeunt.

4

a naked gull,] A gull is a bird as remarkable for the poverty of its feathers, as a phœnix is supposed to be for the richness of its plumage. STEEVENS.

5 Which flashes &c.] Which, the pronoun relative, relating to things, is frequently used, as in this instance, by Shakspeare, instead of who, the pronoun relative, applied to persons. The use of the former inftead of the latter is still preserved in the Lord's prayer.

6 Caph. I go, fir.

STEEVENS.

Sen. I go, fir?] This last speech is not a captious repetition of what Caphis faid, but a further injunction to him to go. I, in all the old dramatic writers, stands for-ay, as it does in this place. M. MASON.

I have left Mr. M. Mason's opinion before the reader, though I do not heartily concur in it. STEEVENS.

take the bonds along with you,

And have the dates in compt.] [Old copy-And have the dates in. Come.] Certainly, ever since bonds were given, the date was put in when the bond was entered into: and these bonds Timon had already given, and the time limited for their payment was lapsed. The Senator's charge to his servant must be to the tenour SCENE II.

The fame. A Hall in Timon's House.

Enter FLAVIUS, with many bills in his hand.

FLAV. No care, no stop! so senseless of expence,
That he will neither know how to maintain it,
Nor ceafe his flow of riot: Takes no account
How things go from him; nor refumes no care
Of what is to continue; Never mind
Was to be so unwife, 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.

Fye, fye, fye, fye!

as I have amended the text; Take good notice of the dates, for the better computation of the intereft due upon them.

THEOBALD.

Mr. Theobald's emendation may be supported by the following

inftance in Macbeth:

"Have theirs, themselves, and what is theirs, in compt."

Never mind

STEEVENS.

Was to be so unwise, to be so kind.] Nothing can be worse, or more obfcurely expressed: and all for the fake of a wretched rhyme. To make it sense and grammar, it should be supplied thus:

Never mind

Was [made] to be so unwife, [in order] to be so kind.] i. e. Nature, in order to make a profuse mind, never before endowed any man with so large a share of folly. WARBURTON.

Of this mode of expression, conversation affords many examples: " I was always to be blamed, whatever happened."-" I am in the lottery, but I was always to draw blanks." JOHNSON.