But I do prize it at my love, before [yon
The reverend'st throat in Athens. So I leave
To the protection of the prosperous gods*,
As thieves to keepers.

Flav.
Stay not, all's in vain.
Tim. Why, I was writing of my epitaph,
It will be seen to-morrow; My long sickness
Of health+, and living, now begins to mend,
And nothing brings me all things. Go, live
Be Alcibiades your plague, you his, [still;
And last so long enough!

men,

1 Sen. We speak in vain. Tim. But yet I love my country; and am not Oue that rejoices in the common wreck, As common bruit doth put it. 1 Sen. That's well spoke. Tim. Commend me to my loving country[pass through them. 1 Sen. These words become your lips as they 2 Sen. And enter in our ears like great triIn their applauding gates. [umphers Tim. Commend me to them; And tell them, that to ease them of their griefs, Their fears of hostile strokes, their aches, losses, Their pangs of love, with other incident throes That nature's fragile vessel doth sustain In life's uncertain voyage, I will some kindness do them: [wrath. I'll teach them to prevent wild Alcibiades' 2 Sen. I like this well, he will return again. Tim. I have a tree, which grows here in my close,

shall find him.

That mine own use invites me to cut down,
And shortly must I fell it; Tell my friends,
Tell Athens, in the sequence of degrees,
From high to low throughout, that whoso please
To stop affliction, let him take his haste,
Come hither, ere my tree hath felt the axe,
And hang himself:-I pray you do my greeting.
Flav. Trouble him no further, thus you still
[Athens,
Tim. Come not to me again: but say to
Timon hath made his everlasting mansion
Upon the beached verge of the salt flood;
Which once a day with his embossed froth ||
The turbulent surge shall cover; thither come,
And let my grave-stone be your oracle.-
Lips, let sour words go by, and language end:
What is amiss, plague and infection mend!
Graves only be men's works; and death their
gain!

Sun, hide thy beams! Timon hath done his
reign.
[Exit TIMON.
1 Sen. His discontents are unremovably
Coupled to nature.

[turn,

2 Sen. Our hope in him is dead: let us reAnd strain what other means are left unto us In our dear¶ peril. 2 Sen.

It requires swift foot. [Exeunt. SCENE III. The Walls of Athens. Enter Two Senators, and a Messenger. 1 Sen. Thou hast painfully discover'd; are As full as thy report?

[his files

Mess. I have spoke the least: Besides, his expedition promises Present approach.

friend;

[not Timon. 2 Sen. We stand much hazard, if they bring Mess. I met a courier, one mine ancient [posed, Whom, though in general part we were opYet our old love made a particular force, And made us speak like friends :-this man was From Alcibiades to Timon's cave, [riding With letters of entreaty, which imported His fellowship i'the cause against your city, In part for his sake moved.

Enter Senators from TIMON. 1 Sen. Here come our brothers. 3 Sen. No talk of Timon, nothing of him expect.

[ing The enemies' drum is heard, and fearful scourDoth choke the air with dust: in and prepare; Ours is the fall, I fear; our foes, the snare.

[Exeunt.

SCENE IV. The Woods. Timon's Cave,

and a tomb-stone seen.

Enter a Soldier, seeking Timon. Sol. By all description, this should be the

place.

(is this?
Who's here? speak, ho!-No answer?-What
Timon is dead, who hath outstretch'd his span:
Some beast rear'd this; there does not live a
Dead, sure; and this his grave.- [inan.
What's on this tomb I cannot read; the cha-
I'll take with wax.
[racter

Our captain hath in every figure skill;
An aged interpreter, though young in days:
Before proud Athens he's set down by this,
Whose fall the mark of his ambition is. [Exit.
SCENE V. Before the Walls of Athens.
Trumpets sound. Enter ALCIBIADES, and

Forces.

Alcib. Sound to this coward and lascivious town

Our terrible approach. [A parley sounded.

Enter Senators on the Walls. Till now you have gone on, and fill'd the time With all licentious measure, making your wills The scope of justice; till now, myself, and such As slept within the shadow of your power, Have wander'd with our traversed arms**, and breath'd

Our sufferance vaiuly: Now the time is flush ++, When crouching marrow, in the bearer strong, Cries, of itself, No more: now breathless

wrong

Shall sit and pant in your great chairs of ease;
And pursy insolence shall break his wind,
With fear and horrid flight.
1 Sen.
Noble and young,
When thy first griefs were but a mere conceit,
Ere thou hadst power, or we had cause of fear,
We sent to thee; to give thy rages balm,
To wipe out our ingratitude with loves
Above their quantity.

highest to lowest.

Swollen froth.

He means-the Methodically, from + Mature.

Report, rumour. Dreadful.

** Arms across.

So did we woo

2 Sen Transformed Timon to our city's love, By humble message, and by promised means*; We were not all unkind, nor all deserve The common stroke of war.

1 Sen. These walls of ours Were not erected by their hands from whom You have received your griefs; nor are they such, [should fall That these great towers, trophies, and schools For private faults in them.

2 Sen.
Nor are they living
Who were the motives that you first went out;
Shame, that they wanted cunning, in excess
Hath broke their hearts. March, noble lord,
Into our city with thy banners spread:
By decimation, and a tithed death,

If thy revenges hunger for that food, [tenth;
Which nature loaths,) take thou the destined
And by the hazard of the spotted die,
Let die the spotted.

1 Sen.

All have not offended;

For those that were, it is not square to take
On those that are revenges: crimes, like lands,
Are not inherited. Then, dear countryman,
Bring in thy ranks, but leave without thy rage:
Spare thy Athenian cradle, and those kin,
Which, in the bluster of thy wrath, must fall
With those that have offended: like a shepherd,
Approach the fold, and cull the infected forth,
But kill not altogether.

2 Sen.
What thou wilt,
Thou rather shalt enforce it with thy smile,
Than hew to't with thy sword.

1 Sen.
Set but thy foot
Against our rampired gates, and they shall ope;
So thou wilt send thy gentle heart before,
To say, thou'lt euter friendly.
2 Sen.
Throw thy glove;
Or any token of thy honour else,
That thou wilt use the wars as thy redress,
And not as our confusion: all thy powers
Shall make their harbour in our town, till we

Have seal'd thy full desire.

Alcib. Descend, and open your uncharged ports; Those enemies of Timon's, and mine own, Whom you yourselves shall set out for reproof, Fall, and no more: and,-to atoneý your fears With my more noble meaning,-not a man Shall pass his quarter, or offend the stream Of regular justice in your city's bounds, But shall be remedied, to your public laws At heaviest answer. Both. 'Tis most nobly spoken. Alcib. Descend, and keep your words. [The Senators descend, and open the Gates. Enter a Soldier.

Then there's my glove;

Sold. My noble general, Timon is dead; Entomb'd upon the very hem o'the sea : And on his grave-stone this insculpture; which With wax I brought away, whose soft impres Interprets for my poor ignorance. [sion Alcib. [Reads.] Here lies a wretched corse, of wretched soul bereft : Seek not my name: A plague consume you wicked caitiff's left!

Here lie I Timon; who, alive, all living men did hate:

Pass by, and curse thy fill; but pass, and stay not here thy gait.

These well express in thee thy latter spirits: Though thou abhorr❜dst in us our human griefs. Scorn'dst our brain's flow, and those our droplets which

From niggard nature fall, yet rich conceit Taught thee to make vast Neptune weep for

[Exeunt.

+ Not regular, not equitable. ¶ Stop. ** Physician.

SCENE I. Rome. A Street.

1 Cit. Very well; and could be content to give him good report for't, but that he pays himself with being proud.

2 Cit. Nay, but speak not maliciously.

1 Cit. I say unto you, what he hath done famously, he did it to that end: though softconscienced men can be content to say, it was for his country, he did it to please his mother, and to be partly proud; which he is, even to the altitude of his virtue.

2 Cit. What he cannot help in his nature,

Cit. We know't, we know't.

1 Cit. Let us kill him, and we'll have corn at our own price. Is't a verdict?

Cit. No more talking on't; let it be done:

away, away.

2 Cit. One word, good citizens.

1 Cit. We are accounted poor citizens; the patricians, good*: What authority surfeits on would relieve us; If they would yield us but, the superfluity, while it were wholesome, we might guess, they relieved us humanely; but they think we are too dear: the leanness that afflicts us, the object of our misery, is as an inventory to particularize their abundance; our sufferance is a gain to them.-Let us revenge this with our pikes, ere we become rakes+: for the gods know, I speak this in hunger for bread, not in thirst for revenge.

2 Cit. Would you proceed especially against Caius Marcius?

Cit. Against him first; he's a very dog to the commonalty.

2 Cit. Consider you what services he has done for his country?

* Rich.

way say he is covetous.

1 Cit. If I must not, I need not be barren of accusations; he hath faults, with surplus, to tire in repetition. [Shouts within.] What shouts are these? The other side o'the city is risen: Why stay we prating here? to the Capitol.

Cit. Come, come.

1 Cit. Soft; who comes here?

Enter MENENIUS AGRIPPA. 2 Cit. Worthy Menenius Agrippa; one that hath always loved the people.

1 Cit. He's one honest enough; Would al the rest were so!

Men. What work 's, my countrymen, in hand? Where go you [pray you. With bats and clubs? The matter? Speak, I 1 Cit. Our business is not unknown to the senate; they have had inkling, this fortnight, what we intend to do, which now we'll show 'em in deeds. They say, poor suitors have strong breaths; they shall know, we have strong arms too.

Men. Why, masters, my good friends mine honest neighbours,

+ Thin as rakes.

Will you undo yourselves?

1 Cit. We cannot. sir we are undone already?

Men. I tell you, friends, most charitable care Have the patricians of you. For your wants, Your suffering in this dearth, you may as well Strike at the heaven with your staves, as lift them

[on Against the Roman state; whose course will The way it takes, cracking ten thousand curbs Of more strong link asunder, than can ever Appear in your impediment: For the dearth, The gods, not the patricians, make it; and Your knees to them, not arms, must help. You are transported by calamity [Alack, Thither where more attends you; and you slander [fathers, you like

The helms o'the state, who care for
When you curse them as enemies.

1 Cit. Care for us!-True, indeed!-They ne'er cared for us yet. Suffer us to famish, and their store-houses crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to support usurers: repeal daily any wholesome act established against the rich; and provide more piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and there's all the love they bear us.

Men. Either you must

Confess yourselves wondrous malicious,
Or be accused of folly. I shall tell you

A pretty tale; it may be, you have heard it;
But, since it serves my purpose, I will venture
To scale't a little more.

1 Cit. Well, I'll hear it, sir: yet you must not think to fob off our disgrace+ with a tale: but, an't please you, deliver.

Men. There was a time, when all the body's members

Rebell'd against the belly; thus accused it :-) That only like a gulf it did remain

I' the midst o'the body, idle and inactive,
Still cupboarding the viand, never bearing
Like labour with the rest; where the other in
struments

Did see, and hear, devise, instruct, walk, feel,
And, mutually participate, did minister
Unto the appetite and affection common
Of the whole body. The belly answered,-
1 Cit. Well, sir, what answer made the belly?
Men. Sir, I shall tell you.-With a kind of
smile,
[thus,
Which we'er came from the lungs, but even
(For, look you, I may make the belly smile
As well as speak,) it tauntingly replied [parts
To the discontented members, the mutinous
That envied his receipt; even so most fitly
As you malign our senators, for that
They are not such as you.
1 Cit.
Your belly's answer: What!
The kingly-crowned head, the vigilant eye,
The counsellor heart, the arm our soldier,
Our steed the leg, the tongue our trampeter,
With other muniments and petty helps
In this our fabric, if that they-

* Spread it. Exactly...

What then?

Men. 'Fore me, this fellow speaks!-what then?

what then?

[strain❜d, 1 Cit. Should by the cormorant belly be reWho is the sink o'the body,Men.

Well, what then? 1 Cit. The former agents, if they did comWhat could the belly answer? [plain, Men. I will tell you; If you'll bestow a small (of what you have little) [swer. Patience, a while, you'll hear the belly's an1 Cit. You are long about it. Men.

Note me this, good friend; Your most grave belly was deliberate, Not rash like his accusers, and thus answer'd: True is it, my incorporate friends, quoth he, That I receive the general food at first, Which you do live upon and fit it is; Because I am the store-house, and the shop Of the whole body: But if you do remember: send it through the rivers of your blood, Even to the court, the heart,—to the seat o'the brain;

And, through the cranks || and offices of man, The strongest nerves, änd small inferior veins,

From me receive that natural competency Whereby they live: And though that all at once, [mark me,You, my good friends, (this says the belly,) 1 Cit. Ay, sir; well, well. Men.

Though all at once cannot See what I do deliver out to each; Yet I can make my audit up, that all From me do back receive the flour of all, And leave me but the bran. What say you

"

to't?

[this?

1 Cit. It was an answer: How apply you Men. The senators of Rome are this good

belly,

And you the mutinous members: For examine
Their counsels, and their cares; digest things
rightly,
[find,
Touching the weal o'the common; you shall
No public benefit which you receive,
But it proceeds, or comes, from them to you,
And no way from yourselves--What do you
You the great toe of this assembly? [think?
1 Cit. I the great toe? Why the great toe?
Men. For that being one o'the lowest,
basest, poorest,
[most:
Of this most wise rebellion, thou go'st fore-
Thou rascal, that art worst in blood, to run
Lead'st first to win some vantage.—
But make you ready your stiff bats and clubs;
Rome and her rats are at the point of battle,
The one side must have bale. Hail, noble
Marcius!

Enter CAIUS MARCIUS. Mar. Thanks.-What's the matter, you dissentious rogues,

That rubbing the poor itch of your opinion, Make yourselves scabs?

1 Cit. We have ever your good word.