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Tim. Wouldst thou have thyself fall in the con fufion of men, or remain a beaft with the beafts? Apem. Ay, Timon.

Tim. A beaftly ambition, which the Gods grant thee to attain to! If thou wert a lion, the fox would beguile thee; if thou wert the lamb, the fox would eat thee; if thou wert, the fox, the lion would fufpect thee, when peradventure thou wert accused by the afs; if thou wert the afs, thy dulnefs would torment thee; and still thou livedst but as a breakfast to the wolf; if thou wert the wolf, thy greedinefs would afflict thee; and oft thou fhould hazard thy life for thy dinner. Wert thou the unicorn, pride and wrath would confound thee, and make thine own felf the conqueft. of thy fury. Wert, thou a bear, thou wouldst be killed by the horse; wert thou a horfe, thou wouldst be feized by the leopard; wert thou a leopard, thou wert german to the lion, and the fpots of thy kindred were jurors on thy life. All thy fafety were remotion, and thy defence abfence. What beast couldst thou be, that were not fubject to a beaft? and what a beaft art thou already, and feeft not thy lofs in transformation!

pem. if thou couldft pleafe me with fpeaking to me, thou might have hit upon it here. The commonwealth of Athens is become a foreft of beafts.

Tim. How has the afs broke the wall, that thou art out of the city?

Apem. Yonder comes a poet and a painter. (31)

(31) Apem. Fonder comes a poet, &c] Apemantus is fuppofed to look out here, and to fee the poet and painter at a diftance, as traverfing the woods in queft of Timon. This preparation of fcenery Mr Pope did not conceive; and therefore, I don't know by what authority, has perempto

The plague of company light upon thee! I will fear to catch it, and give way. When I know not what elfe to do, I'll fee thee again.

Tim. When there is nothing living but thee, thou shalt be welcome. I had rather be a beggar's dog, than Apemantus.

Apem. Thou art the cap of all the fools alive. Tim. Would thou wert clean enough to fpit upon. A plague on thee! (32)

Apem. Thou art too bad to curfe.

Tim. All villains that do ftand by thee are pure. Apem. There is no leprofy but what thou fpeakeft. Tim. If I name thee.I'll beat thee; but I fhould infect my hands.

Apem. I would my tongue could rot them off! Tim. Away, thou iffue of a mangy dog!

Choler does kill me that thou art alive:

I fwoon to fee thee.

Apem. Would thou wouldst burst!

L

Tim. Away, thou tedious rogue, I am forry I fhall lofe a stone by thee.

Apem. Beaft! Tim. Slave! Apem. Toad!

rily thrown out fome part, and tranfpofed another part of this and the next fpeech to the place where Apemantus goes off. None of the old books countenance fuch a tranfpofition.

(32) A plague on thee!

Apem. -Thou art too bad to curfe.] In the former editions, this whole verfe was placed to Apemantus: by which, abfurdly, he was made to curfe Timon, and immediately to fubjoin that he was too bad to curfe. In my Shakespeare Reftored, I gave the former part of the hemiflich to Timon, and the latter part to Apemantus, as it is now regulated in the text and Mr Pope, in his laft edition, has vouchfafed to embrace this regulation.

Tim. Rogue! rogire! rogue!

[Apem. retreats backward as going. I am fick of this falfe world, and will love nought But even the mere neceffities upon it. Then Timon prefently prepare thy grave; Ly where the light foam of the sea may beat Thy grave-ftone daily; make thine epitaph; That death in me at others lives may laugh. O thou fweet king-killer, and dear divorce

[Looking on the gold. 'Twixt natural fon and fire! thou bright defiler Of Hymen's pureft bed! thou valiant Mars ! Thou ever young, fresh, loved, and delicate wooer, Whofe bluth doth thaw the confecrated fnow That lyes on Dian's lap! thou visible god," That foldreft clofe impoffibilities, And makeft them kifs! that fpeakeft with every [tongue To every purpose! Oh, thou touch of hearts ! Think, thy flave Man rebels; and by thy virtue Set them into confounding odds, that beasts May have the world in empire.

Apem. Would 'twere fo,

But not till I am dead! I'll fay thou haft gold:
Thou wilt be thronged to fhortly..

1

Tim. Thronged to?

Apem. Ay.

Tim. Thy back, I pr'ythee.

Apem. Live, and love thy mifery!

Tim. Long live fo, and fo die. I am quit. Apem. No things like men-eat, Timon, and abhor them, [Exit Apem,

Enter Thieves.

1 Thief. Where fhould he have this gold? It is fome poor fragment, fome flender ort of his remainder: the mere want of gold, and the falling off of friends, drove him into this melancholy.

2 Thief. It is noifed he hath a mafs of treasure. Thief. Let us make the affay upon him; if he care not for't, he will fupply us eafily: if he cove toufly referve it, how fhall's it? get

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2 Thief. True; for he bears it not about him; 'tis hid.

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Tim. Both too, and womens fons.

All. We are hot thieves, but men that much do

want.

Tim Your greatest want is, you want much of

meet. (33)

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Why fhould you want? behold, the earth hath roots,

(33) You want much of meat.] Thus both the player and poetical editors have given us this paffage; quite fandblind as honeft Launcelot fays, to our author's meaning. If thefe poor thieves wanted meat, what greater want could they be curfed with, as they could not live on grafs and berries and water? But I dare warrant, the poet wrote; -you want much of met.

i. e. Much of what you ought to be much of the qualities befitting you as human creatures. In the very fame manner is the word ufed again in Coriolanus, fpeaking of tribunes being chofen at an unfit time;

In a rebellion,

When what's not meet, but what must be was law,

Then were they chofen.

And, in a little poem of our Author's, called, The Trial of Love's Conftancy, we find him employing the fubftantive in the like fenfe.

To bitter fauces did I frame my feeding;

And fick of welfare, found a kind of meetness
To be difeafed ere that there was true needing.

Within this mile break forth an hundred fprings;
The oaks bear mafts, the briars fcarlet hips;
'The bounteous hufwife Nature on each bufh
Lays her full mess before you. Want? why want?
Thief. We cannot live on grafs, on berries,
As beafts, and birds, and fithes.

[water, Tim. Nor on the beafts themselves, the birds and

fishes;

You must eat men. Yet thanks I muft you con,
That you are thieves profefs'd; that you work not
In holier fhapes; for there is boundless theft
In limited profeffions. Rafcals, thieves,

Here's gold. Go, fuck the fubtle blood o' th' grape,
'Till the high fever feethe your blood to froth,
And fo 'feape hanging. Truft not the phyfician,
His antidotes are poifon, and he flays

More than you rob. Take wealth, and live together.
Do villainy, do, fince you profess to do't,

Like workmen: I'll example you with thievery.
The fun's a thief, and with his
great attraction
Robs the vaft fea. The moon's an arrant thief,
And her pale fire fhe fnatches from the fun.

The Sea's a thief, whose liquid furge refolves (34)

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(34) The fea's a thief, whofe liquid furge refolves

The moon into falt tears.] The fea melting the moon into tears, is, I believe, a fecret in philosophy, which nobody but Shakespeare's deep editors ever dreamed of. There is, another opinion, which 'tis more reasonable to believe that our Author may allude to; viz. that the faltnefs of the fea' is caufed by feveral ranges, or mounds of rock-falt under water, with which refolving liquid the fea was impregna ted. Varenius in his geography is very copious upon this argument after having touched upon another opinion, that the faline particles were cocval with the ocean itself, he fubjoins; Si ca caufa mirus placet, alteram eligemus; nimirum falfas tas particulas a terrá hinc inde avulfas effe, et in aqua diffolutas. Lib. r. cap. 13. prop. 8. This I think a fufficient authority for changing moon into mounds and I am

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