fraggling foldiers with great quantity: 'Tis faid, he gave unto his fteward a mighty fum.

Poet. Then this breaking of his has been but a try for his friends?

Pain. Nothing else: you fhall fee him a palm in Athens again, and flourish with the higheft. Therefore, 'tis not amifs, we tender our loves to him, in this fuppofed diftrefs of his: it will fhew honestly in us; and is very likely to load our purposes with what they travel for, if it be a just and true report that goes of his having. Poet. What have you now to prefent unto him?

Pain. Nothing at this time but my vifitation: only I will promife him an excellent piece.

Poet. I muft ferve him fo too; tell him of an intent that's coming toward him.

Pain. Good as the beft. Promifing is the very air o' the time it opens the eyes of expectation; performance is ever the duller for his act; and, but in the plainer and fimpler kind of people, the deed of faying is quite out of ufe. To promife is moft courtly and fashionable: performance is a kind of will, or teftament, which argues a great fickness in his judgment that makes it.

Tim, Excellent workman! Thou canst not paint a man fo bad as is thyself.

Poet, I am thinking, what I fhall fay I have provided for him: It must be a perfonating of himself: a fatire against the softness of profperity; with a discovery of the infinite flatteries, that follow youth and opulency.

the deed of faying is quite out of use.] The doing of that which we bave said we would do, the accomplishment and performance of our promife, is, except among the lower classes of mankind, quite out of use. So, in King Lear:

(6- In my true heart

"I find the names my very deed of love."

Again, more appofitely, in Hamlet:

"As he, in his peculiar act and force,

"May give his faying deed."

Mr. Pope rejected the words of faying, and the four following edi tors adopted his licentious regulation. MALONE.

2- It must be a perfonating of kimfelf:-] Perfonating, for reprefenting fimply. For the fubject of this projected fatire was Timon's cafe, not his perfon. WARBURTON.

Tim. Muft thou needs ftand for a villain in thine own work? Wilt thou whip thine own faults in other men? Do fo, I have gold for thee.

Poet. Nay, let's feek him:

Then do we fin against our own eftate,

When we may profit meet, and come too late.

Pain. True;

When the day ferves 3, before black-corner'd night,
Find what thou want'ft by free and offer'd light.
Come.

What a god's gold,

Tim. I'll meet you at the turn.
That he is worshipp'd in a bafer temple,

Than where fwine feed!

'Tis thou that rigg'ft the bark, and plow'ft the foam; Settleft admired reverence in a flave:

To thee be worship! and thy faints for ave

Be crown'd with plagues, that thee alone obey!
Fit I meet them.

Poet. Hail, worthy Timon!

Pain. Our late noble mafter.

[advancing.

Tim. Have I once liv'd to fee two honeft men ?
Poet. Sir,

Having often of your open bounty tafted,

Hearing you were retir'd, your friends fall'n off,
Whose thanklefs natures-O abhorred spirits!
Not all the whips of heaven are large enough-
What! to you!

Whofe ftar-like nobleness gave life and influence
To their whole being! I am rapt, and cannot cover
The monftrous bulk of this ingratitude

With any fize of words.

Tim. Let it go naked, men may fee't the better; You, that are honeft, by being what you are,

Make them beft feen, and known.

3 When the day ferves, &c.] Theobald with some probability assigns. thefe two lines to the Poet. MALONE.

4 - before black-corner'd night.] I believe that Shakspeare, by this expreffion, meant only, Night which is as obfcure as a dark corner. In Meafure for Measure, Lucio calls the Duke, "a duke of dark corTCS."

STEEVENS.

Pain. He, and myself,

Have travell'd in the great shower of your gifts,
And fweetly felt it.

Tim. Ay, you are honeft men.

Pain. We are hither come to offer you our service.
Tim. Most honeft men! Why, how fhall I requite you?
you eat roots, and drink cold water? no.
Both. What we can do, we'll do, to do

Can

you service.

Tim. You are honeft men: You have heard that I have

gold;

I am fure, you have: fpeak truth: you are honeft men. Pain. So it is faid, my noble lord: but therefore Came not my friend, nor I.

Tim. Good honeft men :-Thou draw'ft a counterfeit Beft in all Athens: thou art, indeed, the best; Thou counterfeit'ft moft lively.

Pain. So, fo, my lord.

Tim. Even fo, fir, as I fay:-And, for thy fiction,

[to the Poet,
Why, thy verfe fwells with ftuff fo fine and Imooth,
That thou art even natural in thine art.-
But, for all this, my honeft-natur'd friends,
I muft needs fay, you have a little fault :

Marry, 'tis not monftrous in you; neither with I,
You take much pains to mend.

Both. Befeech your honour

To make it known to us.

Tim. You'll take it ill.

Both. Most thankfully, my lord.

Tim. Will you, indeed?

Both. Doubt it not, worthy lord.

Tim. There's ne'er a one of you but trufts a knave,

That mightily deceives you.

Both. Do we, my lord?

Tim. Ay, and you hear him cog, fee him diffemble, Know his grofs patchery, love him, feed him,

5-a counterfeit ] It has been already observed, that a portrait was fo called in our author's time.

Fair Portia's counterfeit !" Merchant of Venice. STEEVENS.

Ксер

Keep in your bofom: yet remain affur'd,

That he's a made-up villain".

Pain. I know none fuch, my lord.

Poet. Nor I.

Tim. Look you, I love you well; I'll give you gold, Rid me these villains from your companies:

Hang them, or ftab them, drown them in a draught7,
Confound them by fome courfe, and come to me,
I'll give you gold enough

Both. Name them, my lord, let's know them.

Tim. You that way, and you this, but two in com

pany :

Each man apart, all fingle, and alone,
Yet an arch-villain keeps him company

6- a made-up villain.] That is, a villain that adopts qualities and characters not properly belonging to him; a hypocrite. JOHNSON.

I rather think, a complete or contummate villain: omnibus numeris abfolutus. MALONE.

-in a draught,] That is, in the jakes. JOHNSON. 8 You that way, and you this, but two in company :— Each man apart, all fingle, and alone,

Yet an arch-villain keeps bim company.] The first of thefe lines has been rendered obfcure by falfe pointing; that is, by connecting the words, "but two in company," with the fubfequent line, instead of connecting them with the preceding hemiftick. The fecond and third line are put in appofition with the first line, and are merely an illustration of the affertion contained in it. Do you (fays Timon,) go that way, and you this, and yet still each of you will have two in your company each of you, though fingle and alone, will be accompanied by an arch-villain. Each man, being himfelf a villain, will take a villain along with bim, and fo each of you will have two in company. It is a mere quibble founded on the word company. See the former fpeech, in which Timon exhorts each of them to hang or ftab the villain in his company," i. e. himself The paffage quoted by Mr. Steevens from Promos and Caffandra puts the meaning beyond a

doubt. MALONE.

This paffage may receive fome illuftration from another in the Two Gentlemen of Verona. "My matter is a kind of knave; but that's all one, if he be but one knave. The fenfe is, each man is a double villain, i. e. a villain with more than a fingle fhare of guilt. See Dr. Farmer's note on the third act of the Two Gentlemen of Verona, &c. Again, in Promos and Caffandra, 1578. "Go, and a knave with bee." Again, in The Storye of King Darius, 1565, an interlude: 66. if you needs will go away,

Take tayo knaves with you by my faye."

There

If, where thou art, two villains shall not be,

[to the Painter..

Come not near him.-If thou would'ft not refide

[to the Poet.

But where one villain is, then him abandon.
Hence! pack! there's gold, ye came for gold, ye flaves:
You have done work for me*, there's payment: Hence!-
You are an alchymift, make gold of that:-

Out, rafcal dogs! [Exit, beating and driving them out.

SCENE II.
The fame.

Enter FLAVIUS, and two Senators.

Flav. It is in vain that you would speak with Timon ; For he is fet fo only to himself,

That nothing, but himself, which looks like man,
Is friendly with him."

1. Sen. Bring us to his cave:

It is our part, and promise to the Athenians,
To fpeak with Timon.

2. Sen. At all times alike

Men are not still the fame: 'Twas time, and griefs,
That fram'd him thus: time, with his fairer hand,
Offering the fortunes of his former days,

The former man may make him: Bring us to him,
And chance it as it may,

Flav. Here is his cave.

Peace and content be here! Lord Timon! Timon!
Look out, and speak to friends: The Athenians,
By two of their most reverend senate, greet thee;
Speak to them, noble Timon.

There is a thought not unlike this in The Scornful Lady of Beau mont and Fletcher."Take to your chamber when you please, there goes a black one with you, lady." STEEVENS.

* You bave done work, &c.] For the infertion of the word done, which, it is manifeft, was omitted by the negligence of the compofitor, I am answerable. Timon in this line addreffes the Painter, whom he before called "excellent workman ;" in the next the Poet. MALONE. Enter

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