TIM. If thou hat'st Curses, stay not; fly, whilst thou'rt bless'd and free: Ne'er see thou man, and let me ne'er fee thee. [Exeunt feverally. ACT V. SCENE I. The fame. Before Timon's Cave. Enter Poet and Painter; TIMON behind, unseen. PAIN. As I took note of the place, it cannot be far where he abides. 9 Enter Poet and Painter;) The Poet and the Painter were within view when Apemantus parted from Timon, and might then have feen Timon, since Apemantus, standing by him could fee them: But the scenes of the thieves and steward have passed before their arrival, and yet paffed, as the drama is now conducted, within their view. It might be suspected, that some scenes are transposed, for all these difficulties would be removed by introducing the Poet and Painter first, and the thieves in this place. Yet I am afraid the scenes must keep their present order, for the Painter alludes to the thieves when he says, be likewise enriched poor ftraggling foldiers with great quantity. This impropriety is now heightened by placing the thieves in one act, and the Poet and Painter in another: but it must be remembered, that in the original edition this play is not divided into feparate acts, so that the present distribution is arbitrary, and may be changed if any convenience can be gained, or impropriety obviated by alteration. JOHNSON. In the immediately preceding scene, Flavius, Timon's steward, has a conference with his master, and receives gold from him. Between this and the present scene, a single minute cannot be suppofed to pass; and yet the Painter tells his companion :-'Tis faid he gave his steward a mighty fum. - Where was it faid? Why in Athens, whence, it must therefore seem, they are but newly come. Here then should be fixed the commencement of the fifth Act, in order to allow time for Flavius to return to the city, and for rumour POET. What's to be thought of him? Does the rumour hold for true, that he is fo full of gold? to publish his adventure with Timon. But how are we in this case to account for Apemantus's announcing the approach of the Poet and Painter in the last scene of the preceding act, and before the thieves appear? It is possible, that when this play was abridged for representation, all between this paffage, and the entrance of the Poet and Painter, may have been omitted by the players, and these words put into the mouth of Apemantus to introduce them; and that when it was published at large, the interpolation was unnoticed. Or, if we allow the Poet and the Painter to fee Apemantus, it may be conjectured that they did not think his prefence necessary at their interview with Timon, and had therefore returned back into the city. RITSON. I am afraid, many of the difficulties which the commentators on our author have employed their abilities to remove, arise from the negligence of Shakspeare himself, who appears to have been less attentive to the connection of his scenes, than a less hasty writer may be supposed to have been. On the present occafion I have changed the beginning of the act, as I conceive some impropriety is obviated by the alteration. It is but justice to observe, that the same regulation has already been adopted by Mr. Capell. REED. I perceive no difficulty. It is easy to suppose that the Poet and Painter, after having been seen at a distance by Apemantus, have wandered about the woods separately in search of Timon's habitation. The Painter might have heard of Timon's having given gold to Alcibiades, &c. before the Poet joined him; for it does not appear that they fet out from Athens together; and his intelligence concerning the Thieves and the Steward might have been gain'd in his rambles: Or, having searched for Timon's habitation in vain, they might, after having been defcried by Apemantus, have returned again to Athens, and the Painter alone have heard the particulars of Timon's bounty. - But Shakspeare was not very attentive to these minute particulars; and if he and the audience knew of the several persons who had partaken of Timon's wealth, he would not scruple to impart this knowledge to perfons who perhaps had not yet an opportunity of acquiring it. See Vol. X. P. 364, n. 6. The news of the Steward's having been enriched by Timon, though that event happened only in the end of the preceding scene, has, we here find, reached the Painter; and therefore here undoubtedly the fifth Act ought to begin, that a proper interval may be supposed to have elapfed between this and the laft. MALONE, PAIN. Certain: Alcibiades reports it; Phrynia and Tymandra had gold of him: he likewife enrich'd poor straggling soldiers with great quantity: 'Tis faid, he gave unto his steward a mighty sum. POET. Then this breaking of his has been but a try for his friends. PAIN. Nothing else: you shall see him a palm in Athens again, and flourish with the highest. Therefore, 'tis not amiss, we tender our loves to him, in this supposed distress of his: it will show 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 present unto him? PAIN. Nothing at this time but my visitation: only I will promise him an excellent piece. POET. I must serve him so too; tell him of an intent that's coming toward him. PAIN. Good as the best. Promising 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 use. To promise is most courtly and fashionable: performance is a kind of 2 -a palm-and flourish &c.] This allusion is fcriptural, and occurs in Pfalm xcii. 11: "The righteous shall flourish like a palm-tree." STEEVENS. 3 the deed of saying is quite out of use.] The doing of that which we have faid we would do, the accomplishment and performance of our promise, is, except among the lower classes of mankind, quite out of use. So, in King Lear: " - In my true heart " I find she names my very deed of love." Again, more appofitely, in Hamlet : "As he, in his peculiar act and force, will, or testament, which argues a great sickness in his judgement that makes it. TIM. Excellent workman! Thou canst not paint a man so bad as is thyself. POET. I am thinking, what I shall say 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. TIM. Must thou needs stand for a villain in thine own work? Wilt thou whip thine own faults in other men? Do so, I have gold for thee. POET. Nay, let's feek him: When we may profit meet, and come too late. When the day ferves, before black-corner'd night,' Mr. Pope rejected the words of saying, and the four following editors adopted his licentious regulation. MALONE. I claim the merit of having restored the old reading. STEEVENS. 3 It must be a perfonating of himself:] Perfonating, for representing fimply. For the fubject of this projected fatire was Timon's cafe, not his person. WARBURTON. 4 When the day ferves, &c.] Theobald with fome probability affigns these two lines to the Poet. MALONE. 5 before black-corner'd night,] An anonymous correfpondent fent me this observation: "As the shadow of the earth's body, which is round, must be necessarily conical over the hemifphere which is oppofite to the fun, should we not read black-coned? See Paradife Loft, Book IV." To this observation I might add a fentence from Philemon Holland's tranflation of Pliny's Natural History, B. II: "Neither is the night any thing else but the shade of the earth. Now the figure of this fhadow resembleth a pyramis pointed forward, or a top turned upside down." TIM. I'll meet you at the turn. What a god's gold, That he is worshipp'd in a baser temple, Than where swine feed! 'Tis thou that rigg'st the bark, and plough'st the foam; Settlest admired reverence in a flave: To thee be worship! and thy faints for aye Be crown'd with plagues, that thee alone obey! 'Fit I do meet them." [Advancing. POET. Hail, worthy Timon! PAIN. Our late noble master. TIM. Have I once liv'd to fee two honest men? POET. Sir, Having often of your open bounty tafted, Whose star-like nobleness gave life and influence TIM. Let it go naked, men may fee't the better: You, that are honest, by being what you are, Make them best seen, and known. PAIN. He, and myself, In I believe, nevertheless, that Shakspeare, by this expression, meant only, Night which is as obfcure as a dark corner. Measure for Meajure, Lucio calls the Duke, a duke of dark corners." Mr. M. Mason proposes to read, "black-crown'd night;" another correfpondent, "black-cover'd night." STEEVENS. 6 'Fit I do meet them.] For the fake of harmony in this hemistich, I have fupplied the auxiliary verb. STEEVENS. |