With amplest entertainment: my free drift
Halts not particularly, but moves itself

In a wide sea of wax

8

: 9

no levell'd malice Infects one comma in the course I hold;

But flies an eagle flight, bold, and forth on,
Leaving no tract behind.10

Pain. How shall I understand you?

You see how all conditions, how all minds
(As well of glib and slippery creatures, as
Of grave and austere quality) tender down
Their services to lord Timon: his large fortune,
Upon his good and gracious nature hanging,
Subdues and properties 12 to his love and tendance
All sorts of hearts; yea, from the glass-fac'd flat-

12

8 My design does not stop at any particular character.

9 It is difficult to make any intelligible sense out of this expression. Sea of wax is commonly interpreted as an allusion to the waxen tablets on which the ancients wrote; a custom not altogether laid aside in England till about the close of the fourteenth century. Mr. Singer explains it, more properly, as referring to the limberness of the speaker's matter; wax being the type of a "theme easily moulded to any drift, not rigidly fixed to one." Mr. Collier's second folio changes wax into verse, which strikes us as not unworthy of being considered; as wax was then commonly written waxe, and so might be misprinted for verse. In either case, the expression appears sufficiently strained and far-fetched; but perhaps the Poet meant something of burlesque, and so dashed the poetaster's language with absurdity.

H.

10 Johnson explains the passage thus: "My poem is not a satire written with any particular view, or 'levell'd' at any single person I fly, like an eagle, into a general expanse of life, and leave not, by any private mischief, the trace of my passage." To level is to aim.

11 That is, open, explain.

12 That is, appropriates, makes his own.

H.

13 One who shows by reflection the looks of his patron. The Poet was mistaken in the character of Apemantus; but seeing that he paid frequent visits to Timon, he naturally concluded that he was equally courteous with his other guests.

To Apemantus, that few things loves better
Than to abhor himself: even he drops down
The knee before him, and returns in peace
Most rich in Timon's nod.

Pain. I saw them speak together.

Poet. Sir, I have upon a high and pleasant hill
Feign'd Fortune to be thron'd: The base o'the mount
Is rank'd with all deserts, all kind of natures,
That labour on the bosom of this sphere

To propagate their states:
14 amongst them all
Whose eyes are on this sovereign lady fix'd,
One do I personate of lord Timon's frame,
Whom Fortune with her ivory hand wafts to her;
Whose present grace to present slaves and servants
Translates his rivals.

Pain.

"Tis conceiv'd to scope.15 This throne, this Fortune, and this hill, methinks, With one man beckon'd from the rest below, Bowing his head against the steepy mount

To climb his happiness, would be well express'd
In our condition.16

Poet.

Nay, sir, but hear me on.
All those which were his fellows but of late
(Some better than his value) on the moment
Follow his strides, his lobbies fill with tendance,
Rain sacrificial whisperings in his ear,"

Make sacred even his stirrup, and through him
Drink the free air.18

14 That is, to improve or advance their conditions. See Measure for Measure, Act i. sc. 3, note 6.

15 That is, aptly conceived, imagined suitably to the purpose or to the subject.

H.

16 That is, in our art, in painting. Condition was used for profession, quality.

17 Whisperings of officious servility, the incense of the worshipping parasite to the patron as a god.

18 To drink the air, like the haustos ætherios of Virgil, is mere

VOL. VIII.

3

Pain.

Ay, marry, what of these? Poet. When Fortune, in her shift and change of

mood,

Spurns down her late belov'd, all his dependants, Which labour'd after him to the mountain's top Even on their knees and hands, let him slip down, Not one accompanying his declining foot.

Pain. "Tis common:

A thousand moral paintings I can show,

That shall demonstrate these quick blows of fortune More pregnantly than words. Yet you do well, To show lord Timon that mean eyes 19 have seen The foot above the head.

Trumpets sound. Enter TIMON, attended; the Servant of VENTIDIUS talking with him.

Tim.

Imprison'd is he, say you? Serv. Ay, my good lord: five talents is his debt; His means most short, his creditors most strait : Your honourable letter he desires

To those have shut him up; which failing,
Periods his comfort.20

Tim.

Noble Ventidius! Well;

I am not of that feather, to shake off

21

My friend when he most needs me. I do know him A gentleman that well deserves a help,

Which he shall have: I'll pay the debt, and free him.

Serv. Your lordship ever binds him.

ly a poetic phrase for draw the air, or breathe. To drink the free air," therefore, through another, is to breathe freely at his will only, to depend on him for the privilege of life.

19 That is, inferior spectators.

20 To period is perhaps a verb of Shakespeare's coinage.

21 The original has, "when he must need me." The misprint was natural; the correction is obvious; accordingly it is made in Mr. Collier's second folio.

H.

Tim. Commend me to him: I will send his ran

som;

And, being enfranchis'd, bid him come to me."Tis not enough to help the feeble up,

But to support him after.- Fare you well.
Serv. All happiness to your honour!

Enter an old Athenian.

O. Ath. Lord Timon, hear me speak.

Tim.

[Exit.

Freely, good father. O. Ath. Thou hast a servant nam'd Lucilius.

Tim. I have so: What of him?

O. Ath. Most noble Timon, call the man before thee.

Tim. Attends he here, or no? Lucilius!

Enter LUCILIUS.

Luc. Here, at your lordship's service.

O. Ath. This fellow here, lord Timon, this thy

creature,

By night frequents my house. I am a man
That from my first have been inclin’d to thrift;
And my estate deserves an heir more rais'd
Than one which holds a trencher.

Tim.

Well; what further? O. Ath. One only daughter have I, no kin else, On whom I may confer what I have got: The maid is fair, o'the youngest for a bride, And I have bred her at my dearest cost In qualities of the best. This man of thine Attempts her love: I pr'ythee, noble lord, Join with me to forbid him her resort; Myself have spoke in vain.

Tim.

The man is honest.

O. Ath. Therefore he will be, Timon: 22 His honesty rewards him in itself,

It must not bear my daughter.

Tim.

Does she love him?

O. Ath. She is young, and apt:
Our own precedent passions do instruct us
What levity's in youth.

Tim. [To LUCILIUS.] Love you the maid?
Luc. Ay, my good lord, and she accepts of it.
O. Ath. If in her marriage my consent be missing,
I call the gods to witness, I will choose
Mine heir from forth the beggars of the world,
And dispossess her all.

Tim.

How shall she be endow'd,

If she be mated with an equal husband?

O. Ath. Three talents, on the present; in future, all.

Tim. This gentleman of mine hath serv'd me long: To build his fortune, I will strain a little,

For 'tis a bond in men. Give him thy daughter: What you bestow, in him I'll counterpoise,

And make him weigh with her.

O. Ath.

Most noble lord,

Pawn me to this your honour, she is his.

Tim. My hand to thee; mine honour on my

promise.

Luc. Humbly I thank your lordship: Never may That state or fortune fall into my keeping,

Which is not ow'd to you! 23

[Excunt LUCILIUS and old Athenian.

22 That is, he will continue so; the mere possession of honesty being a sufficient motive to the preserving of it in other words, real honesty rewards itself; so that, if he have it, he needs no further reward to make him keep it.

H.

23 That is, which is not esteemed by me as owed or due to you; held for your service, and at your disposal.