Enter APEMANTUS.

More man? plague, plague!

Apem. I was directed hither. Men report
Thou dost affect my manners, and dost use them.
Tim. 'Tis then, becaufe thou doft not keep a dog
Whom I would imitate; confumption catch thee!
Apem. This is in thee a nature but affected,
A poor unmanly melancholy, fprung [place?
From change of fortune. Why this fpade? this
This flave-like habit, and thefe looks of care? .
Thy flatterers yet wear filk, drink wine, ly soft;
Hug their difeafed perfumes, and have forgot
That ever Timon was. (28) Shame not thefe weeds,
By putting on the cunning of a carper.

Be thou a flatterer now, and feek to thrive
By that which has undone thee; hinge thy knee,
And let his very breath whom thou'lt obferve
Blow off thy cap; praise his most vicious strain,
And call it excellent. Thou waft told thus ;
Thou gavest thine ears, like tapfters, that bid
welcome

(28) Shame not thefe woods,]. But how did Timon any more fhame the woods by affuming the character of a cynick than Apemantus did? The Poet certainly meant to make Apemantus fay, Don't difgrace this garb, which thou haft only affected to affume, and to seem the creature thou art not by nature, but by the force and compulfion of poverty. We must therefore restore;

-Shame not thefe weeds.

Apemantus in feveral other paffages of the scene reproaches him with his change of garb;

-Why this fpade? this place?

This flave-like habit?

-Do not affume my likeness."

If thou didst put this four cold habit on

To caftigate thy pride, 'twere well; but thou
Doft it enforcedly; thou'dft courtier be,
Wert thou not beggar.

Mr Warburton.

To knaves, and all approachers: 'tis most just
That thou turn rafcal: hadft thou wealth again,
Rafcals fhould have't. Do not affume my likeness.
Tim. Were I like thee, I'd throw away myself.
Apem. Thou' caft away thyfelf, being like
thyfelf,

So long a madman, now a fool. What, thinkeft thou
That the bleak áir, thy boisterous chamberlain,
Will put thy fhirt on warm? will these moist trees,
That have out-lived the eagle, page thy heels,
And fkip when thou pointest out? will the cold
brook,

Candied with ice, cawdle thy morning tafte
To cure thy o'er-night's furfeit? call the creatures
Whofe naked natures live in all the fpight

Of wreakful Heaven, whofe bare unhoused trunks
To the conflicting elements expofed,

Answer mere nature; bid them flatter thee;
Oh, thou shalt find-------

Tim. A fool of thee; depart.

Apem. I love thee better now than e'er I did. Tim. I hate thee worse.

Apem. Why?

Tim. Thou flattereft mifery.

Apem. I flatter not; but fay thou art a caitiff. Tim. Why dost thou feek me out?

Apem. To vex thee.

Tim. Always a villain's office, or a fool's. Doft please thyfelf in't? (29)

(29) Tim. Always a villain's office, or a fool's.

Doji p'cafe thyfelf in't?

Apem. Ay.

Tim. What! a knave too?] Mr Warburton propofes a correction here, which, though it oppofes the reading of all the printed copies, has great juftnefs and propriety in it. Ile would read;

What! and know't too?
G

VOL. X.

Apem. Ay,

Tim. What! a knave too?

Apem. If thou didst put this four cold habit on To caftigate thy pride, 'twere well; but thou Doft it enforcedly: thou'dft courtier be, Wert thou not beggar. Willing mifery Out-lives in certain pomp; is crowned before: The one is filling ftill, never compleat ;' The other at high wish: best states contentless, Have a distracted and moft wretched being: Worfe than the worst, content.

Thou fhouldft defire to die, being miferable.

Tim. Not by his breath that is more miserable. Thou art a flave, whom Fortune's tender arm With favour never clafped, but bred a dog. Hadst thou, like us, from our firft fwath proceeded Through fweet degrees that this brief world affords, To fuch as may the paffive drugs of it

[felf

Freely command; thou wouldst have plunged thy-
In general riot, melted down thy youth
In different beds of luft, and never learned
The icy precepts of refpect, but followed
The fugared game before thee. But myself,
Who had the world as my confectionary,

The mouths, the tongues, the eyes, the hearts of men
At duty, more than I could frame employments;
That numberlefs upon me ftuck, as leaves
Do on the oak; have with one winter's brush
Fallen from their boughs, and left me open, bare i
For every form that blows. I to bear this,

The reafoning of the text, as it ftands in the books, is, in fome fort, concluding backward; or rather making a knave's and villain's office different; which, furely, is abfard. The correction quite removes the abfurdity, and gives this fenfible rebuke: What! doft thou pleafe thyfelf in vexing me, and at the fame time know it to be, the office of a villain or fool?

That never knew but better, is fome burden.

Thy nature did commence in fufferance, time
Hath made thee hard in't. Why fhouldt thou
hate men?

They never flattered thee. What hast thou given?
If thou wilt curfe, thy father, that poor rag,
Must be thy fubject; who in fpight put stuff
To fome the beggar, and compounded thee
Poor rogue hereditary. Hence! be gone----
If thou had not been born the worst of men,
Thou hadst been knave and flatterer.

Apem. Art thou proud yet?
Tim. Ay, that I am not thee.
Apem. I, that I was no prodigal.
Tim. I, that I am one now.
Were all the wealth I have, fhut
I'd give thee leave to hang it.
That the whole life of Athens were in this!

Thus would I eat it.

up

in thee,

gone--

Get thee

[Eating a root.

Apem. Here, I will mend thy fealt.

Tim. First mend my company, take away thy

felf. (30)

Apem. So I fhall mend my own, by the lack of thine.

Tim. 'Tis not well mended fo, it is but botched; If not, I would it were.

Apem. What wouldst thou have to Athens?

Tim. Thee thither in a whirlwind. If thou wilt, Tell them there, I have gold; look, so I have. Apem. Here is no ufe for gold.

(30), First mend thy company, Thus the old copies; but common fenfe and the whole tenor of the context warrant that it fhould be-my company.-I obferve, Mr Rowe, in his octavo edition of our Poet, has likewife made this correction.

Tim. The best and trueft:

For here it fleeps, and does no hired harm.
Apem. Where lyeft o' nights, Timon?
Tim. Under that's above me.

Where feedeft thou o' days, Apemantus?

Apem. Where my ftomach finds meat; or rather where I eat it.

Tim. Would poison were obedient, and knew my

mind!

Apem. Where wouldst thou fend it?

Tim. To fauce thy dithes.

Apem. The middle of humanity thou never knewelt, but the extremity of both ends. When thou waft in thy gilt, and thy perfume, they mocked thee for too much. curiofity; in thy rags thou knoweft none, but art defpifed for the contrary. There's a medlar for thee, eat it.

Tim. On what I hate I feed not.
Apem. Doft hate a medlar?

Tim. Ay, though it look like thee.

Apem. An th' hadft hated medlers fooner, thou fhouldft have loved thyfelf better now. What man didst thou ever know unthrift, that was beloved after his means?

Tim. Who, without thofe means thou talkest of, didit thou ever know beloved?

Apem. Myfelf.

Tim. I understand thee, thou hadft some means to keep a dog.

Apem. What things in the world canft thou nearest compare to thy flatterers?

Tim. Women neareft; but men, men are the things themfelves. What wouldst thou do with the world, Apemantus, if it lay in thy power?

Apem. Give it the beafts, to be rid of the men.