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The latest of my wealth I'll fhare amongst you.
Where-ever we fhall meet, for Timon's fake,
Let's yet be fellows: fhake our heads, and fay,
(As 'twere a knell unto our master's fortunes)
We have feen better days. Let each take fome;
Nay, put out all your hands; not one word more.
Thus part we, rich in forrow, parting poor.

[He gives them money; they embrace, and part
feveral ways.

Oh, the fierce wretchednefs that glory brings us!
Who would not wish to be from wealth exempt,
Since riches point to mifery and contempt?
Who'd be fo mocked with glory, as to live
But in a dream of friendship?

To have his pomp, and all what state compounds,
But only painted, like his varnished friends!
Poor honeft Lord! brought low by his own heart,
Undone by goodness: ftrange unusual blood,
When man's worft fin is, he does too much good.
Who then dares to be half fo kind again?
For bounty, that makes gods, does still mar men.
My dearest Lord, bleft to be most accurfed,
Rich only to be wretched; thy great fortunes
Are made thy chiefest afflictions. Alas, kind Lord!
He's flung in rage from his ungrateful feat
Of monftrous friends: nor has he with him to
Supply his life, or that which can command it:
I'll follow, and enquire him out.

I'll ever ferve his mind with my best will;
Whilst I have gold I'll be his steward ftill. [Exit.

SCENE, the Woods.

'Enter TIMON.

Tim. O bleffed, breeding fun, draw from the earth Rotten humidity: below thy fifter's orb

Infect the air. Twinned brothers of one womb, Whofe procreation, refidence, and birth

Scarce is dividant, touch with several fortunes;
The greater fcorns the leffer. Not even nature,
To whom all fores lay fiege, can bear great fortune
But by contempt of nature.

Raife me this beggar, and denude that lord, (22)
The fenator shall bear contempt hereditary,
The beggar native honour:

It is the pasture lards the weather's fides, (23)

(22) Raife me this beggar, and deny't that lord,] Where is the fenfe and English of deny't that Lord? Deny him what? What preceding noun is there, to which the pronoun it is to be referred? And it would be abfurd to think the Poet meant, deny to raife that Lord. The antithefis muft be, let fortune raise this beggar, and let her strip and defpoil that Lord of all his pomp and ornaments, &c. which fenfe is compleated by this flight alteration ;

-and denude that Lord.

Mr Warburton.

I will beg leave to add, in confirmation of my friend's fine conjecture, that our Author has contrafted the fame thought, only varying the terms, in his Venus and Adonis, Stanz. 192:

Pluck down the rich, enrich the poor with treasures.

(23) It is the pafture lards the beggar's fides,] This, as the editors have ordered it, is an idle repetition at the beft; fuppofing it did, indeed, contain the fame fentiment as the foregoing lines. But Shakespeare meant a quite different thing; and having, like a sensible writer, made a smart obfervation, he illuftrates it by a fimilitude thus;

It is the pasture lards the weather's fides,,
The want that makes him lean.

And the fimilitude is extremely beautiful, as conveying this fatirical reflection; there is no more difference between man and man in the esteem of fuperficial or corrupt judgements, than between a fat fheep and a lean one.

Mr Warburton, I cannot better praife the fagacity of my friend's emendation, than by producing the reading of the firft Folio edition, (which I know he had not feen) where we find it thus exhibited;

The want that makes him lean. Who dares, whe In purity of manhood ftand upright,

[dares,

And fay, this man's a flatterer: if one be,
So are they all, for every greeze of fortune
Is fmoothed by that below. The learned pate
Ducks to the golden fool: all is oblique;
There's nothing level in our curfed natures,
But direct villainy. Then be abhorred,
All feafts, focieties, and throngs of men!
His femblable, yea himself, Timon difdains.--
Deftruction phang mankind! earth, yield me roots!
[Digging the earth.
Who fecks for better of thee, fauce his palate
With thy moft operant poifon !-What is here?
Gold? yellow, glittering, precious gold?
No, gods, I am no idle votarift.

Roots, you clear heavens! thus much of this will
Black, white; foul, fair; wrong, right;

[make

Bafe, noble; old, young; coward, valiant.
You gods! why this? what this? you gods! why, this
Will-lug your priests and fervants from your fides:
Pluck ftout mens pillows from below their heads.
This yellow flave

Will knit and break religions; blefs th' accurfed;,
Make the hoar leprofy adored; place thieves,
And give them title, knee, and approbation,
With fenators on the bench: this is it,

It is the pafture lards the brother's fides, &c.

Every knowing reader will agree, that this corruption might much more naturally be derived from weather's than from beggar's, as far as the traces of the letters are concerned, efpecially in the old fecretary handwriting, the univerfal character in our Author's time. I will only add, that our Poet, in his As you like it, makes a clown fay the very fame thing in a more ludicrous manner;

. That the property of rain is to wet, and fire to burn; that good pafture makes fat fheep, &c.

That makes the wrappened widow wed again ;
She, whom the fpittle-house and ulcerous fores
Would caft the gorge at, this embalms and spices
To th' April day again. Come, damned earth,
Thou common whore of mankind, that putteft odds
Among the rout of nations, I will make thee
Dothyright nature.--[ March afar off. ] Ha, adrum?
-----thou'rt quick,

But yet I'll bury thee---thou'lt go, (strong thief)
When gouty keepers of thee cannot ftand.
Nay, ftay thou out for earnest. [Keeping fome gold.
Enter ALCIBIADES with drum and fife in a warlike
manner, and PHRYNIA and TIMANDRA.

Alc. What art thou there? speak.

Tim. A beast, as thou art. Cankers gnaw thyheart, For thewing me again the eyes of man!

Alc. What is thy náme? is man fo hateful to thee, That art thyself a man?

Tim. I am Mifantropos, and hate mankind. For thy part, I do with thou wert a dog, That I might love thee fomething,

Alc. I know thee well:

But in thy fortunes am unlearned and strange. Tim. I know thee too, and more than that I know thee,

I not defire to know. Follow thy drum,

With man's blood paint the ground; gules, gules;-
Religious canons, civil laws are cruel;

Then what fhould war be? this fell whore of thine:
Hath in her more deftruction than thy fword,
For all her cherubin look.

Phry. Thy lips rot off!

Tim. I will not kifs thee, then the rot returns

To thine own lips again.

Alc. How came the noble Timon to this change?

Tim. As the moon. does by wanting light to gives
But then, renew I could not, like the moon;
There were no funs to borrow of.

Alc. Noble Timon, what friendship may I do thee
Tim. None, but to maintain my opinion..
Alc. What is it, Timon?

Tim. Promife me friendship, but perform none. If thou wilt not promife, the gods plague thee, for thou art a man: if thou doft perform, confound thee, for thou art a man!

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Alc. I've heard in fome fort of thy miferies.
Tim. Thou fawest them when I had prosperity,
Alc. I fee them now, then was a bleffed time.
Tim. As thine is now, held with a brace of
harlots.

Timan. Is this th' Athenian minion, whom the Voiced fo regardfully?

Tim. Art thou Timandra?

Timan. Yes.

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Tim. Be a whore ftill: they love thee not, that Give them diseases, leaving with thee their luft: Make use of thy falt hours, feafon the flaves For tubs and baths, bring down the rofe-cheeked To th' tub-fait, and the diet. (24) [youth

(24) To th' fubfaft, and the diet.] One might make a very long and vain fearch, yet not be able to meet with this pre pofterous word fubfaft, which has notwithstanding paffed current with all the editors. The Author is alluding to the lues venerea and its effects. At that time the cure of it was performed either by guaiacum, on mercurial. unctions; and in both cafes the patient was kept up very warm and close; that in the first application the fweat might be promoted; and left, in the other, he should take cold, which was fatal. "The regimen for the course of guaiacum (fays Dr Friend in his hiftory of phyfic, vol. a. p. 380.) was at first ftrangely circumstantial, and se rigorous, that the patient was put into a dungeon in order to make him fweat; and in that manner, as Fallopius expreffes it, the bones and the

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