ARKCODEX
Act II, Scene 2
1The same. A hall in Timon’s house.
2Enter Flavius, with many bills in his hand.
3FlaviusNo 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!
4Enter Caphis, and the Servants of Isidore and Varro.
5CaphisGood even, Varro: what,
You come for money?
6Varro’s ServantIs’t not your business too?
7CaphisIt is: and yours too, Isidore?
8Isidore’s ServantIt is so.
9CaphisWould we were all discharged!
10Varro’s ServantI fear it.
11CaphisHere comes the lord.
12Enter Timon, Alcibiades, and Lords, etc.
13TimonSo soon as dinner’s done, we’ll forth again,
My Alcibiades. With me? what is your will?
14CaphisMy lord, here is a note of certain dues.
15TimonDues! Whence are you?
16CaphisOf Athens here, my lord.
17TimonGo to my steward.
18CaphisPlease it your lordship, he hath put me off
To the succession of new days this month:
My master is awaked 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.
19TimonMine honest friend,
I prithee, but repair to me next morning.
20CaphisNay, good my lord—
21TimonContain thyself, good friend.
22Varro’s ServantOne Varro’s servant, my good lord—
23Isidore’s ServantFrom Isidore;
He humbly prays your speedy payment.
24CaphisIf you did know, my lord, my master’s wants—
25Varro’s Servant’Twas due on forfeiture, my lord, six weeks
And past.
26Isidore’s ServantYour steward puts me off, my lord;
And I am sent expressly to your lordship.
27TimonGive 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 encounter’d
With clamourous demands of date-broke bonds,
And the detention of long-since-due debts,
Against my honour?
28FlaviusPlease 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.
29TimonDo so, my friends. See them well entertain’d. Exit.
30FlaviusPray, draw near. Exit.
31Enter Apemantus and Fool.
32CaphisStay, stay, here comes the fool with Apemantus: let’s ha’ some sport with ’em.
33Varro’s ServantHang him, he’ll abuse us.
34Isidore’s ServantA plague upon him, dog!
35Varro’s ServantHow dost, fool?
36ApemantusDost dialogue with thy shadow?
37Varro’s ServantI speak not to thee.
38ApemantusNo, ’tis to thyself. To the Fool. Come away.
39Isidore’s ServantThere’s the fool hangs on your back already.
40ApemantusNo, thou stand’st single, thou’rt not on him yet.
41CaphisWhere’s the fool now?
42ApemantusHe last asked the question. Poor rogues, and usurers’ men! bawds between gold and want!
43All ServantsWhat are we, Apemantus?
44ApemantusAsses.
45All ServantsWhy?
46ApemantusThat you ask me what you are, and do not know yourselves. Speak to ’em, fool.
47FoolHow do you, gentlemen?
48All ServantsGramercies, good fool: how does your mistress?
49FoolShe’s e’en setting on water to scald such chickens as you are. Would we could see you at Corinth!
50ApemantusGood! gramercy.
51Enter Page.
52FoolLook you, here comes my mistress’ page.
53PageTo the Fool. Why, how now, captain! what do you in this wise company? How dost thou, Apemantus?
54ApemantusWould I had a rod in my mouth, that I might answer thee profitably.
55PagePrithee, Apemantus, read me the superscription of these letters: I know not which is which.
56ApemantusCanst not read?
57PageNo.
58ApemantusThere will little learning die then, that day thou art hanged. This is to Lord Timon; this to Alcibiades. Go; thou wast born a bastard, and thou’t die a bawd.
59PageThou wast whelped a dog, and thou shalt famish a dog’s death. Answer not; I am gone. Exit.
60ApemantusE’en so thou outrunnest grace. Fool, I will go with you to Lord Timon’s.
61FoolWill you leave me there?
62ApemantusIf Timon stay at home. You three serve three usurers?
63All ServantsAy; would they served us!
64ApemantusSo would I—as good a trick as ever hangman served thief.
65FoolAre you three usurers’ men?
66All ServantsAy, fool.
67FoolI 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?
68Varro’s ServantI could render one.
69ApemantusDo it then, that we may account thee a whoremaster and a knave; which notwithstanding, thou shalt be no less esteemed.
70Varro’s ServantWhat is a whoremaster, fool?
71FoolA 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.
72Varro’s ServantThou art not altogether a fool.
73FoolNor thou altogether a wise man: as much foolery as I have, so much wit thou lackest.
74ApemantusThat answer might have become Apemantus.
75All ServantsAside, aside; here comes Lord Timon.
76Reenter Timon and Flavius.
77ApemantusCome with me, fool, come.
78FoolI do not always follow lover, elder brother and woman; sometime the philosopher. Exeunt Apemantus and Fool.
79FlaviusPray you, walk near: I’ll speak with you anon. Exeunt Servants.
80TimonYou 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?
81FlaviusYou would not hear me,
At many leisures I proposed.
82TimonGo to:
Perchance some single vantages you took,
When my indisposition put you back;
And that unaptness made your minister,
Thus to excuse yourself.
83FlaviusO 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 the 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 loved 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.
84TimonLet all my land be sold.
85Flavius’Tis all engaged, 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 reckoning?
86TimonTo Lacedaemon did my land extend.
87FlaviusO my good lord, the world is but a word:
Were it all yours to give it in a breath,
How quickly were it gone!
88TimonYou tell me true.
89FlaviusIf you suspect my husbandry or falsehood,
Call me before the 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 blazed with lights and bray’d with minstrelsy,
I have retired me to a wasteful cock,
And set mine eyes at flow.
90TimonPrithee, no more.
91FlaviusHeavens, have I said, the bounty of this lord!
How many prodigal bits have slaves and peasants
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:
Feast-won, fast-lost; one cloud of winter showers,
These flies are couch’d.
92TimonCome, 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.
93FlaviusAssurance bless your thoughts!
94TimonAnd, 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!
95Enter Flaminius, Servilius, and other Servants.
96ServantsMy lord? my lord?
97TimonI 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.
98FlaminiusAs you have said, my lord.
99FlaviusAside. Lord Lucius and Lucullus? hum!
100TimonGo you, sir, to the senators—
Of whom, even to the state’s best health, I have
Deserved this hearing—bid ’em send o’ the instant
A thousand talents to me.
101FlaviusI 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.
102TimonIs’t true? can’t be?
103FlaviusThey 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.
104TimonYou gods, reward them!
Prithee, man, look cheerly. These old fellows
Have their ingratitude in them hereditary:
Their blood is caked, ’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.
To a Servant. Go to Ventidius. To Flavius. Prithee, be not sad,
Thou art true and honest; ingeniously I speak,
No blame belongs to thee. To Servant. 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 remember’d
With those five talents. Exit Servant. To Flavius. That had, give’t these fellows
To whom ’tis instant due. Ne’er speak, or think,
That Timon’s fortunes ’mong his friends can sink.
105FlaviusI would I could not think it: that thought is bounty’s foe;
Being free itself, it thinks all others so. Exeunt.