The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare (moboreader .TXT) 📕

him for my moneys; be not ceas’d With slight denial, nor then silenc’d when ‘Commend me to your master’ and the cap Plays in the right hand, thus; but tell him My uses cry to me, I must serve my turn Out of mine own; his days and times are past, And my reliances on his fracted dates Have smit my credit. I love and honour him, But must not break my back to heal his finger.

Immediate are my needs, and my relief Must not be toss’d and turn’d to me in words, But find supply immediate. Get you gone; Put on a most importunate aspect,

A visage of demand; for I do fear,

When every feather sticks in his own wing, Lord Timon will be left a naked gull, Which flashes now a phoenix. Get you gone.

CAPHIS. I go, sir.

SENATOR. Take the bonds along with you, And have the dates in compt.

CAPHIS. I will, sir.

SENATOR. Go. Exeunt

SCENE II.

Before TIMON’S house

 

Enter FLAVIUS, TIMON’S Steward, with many bills in his hand FLAVIUS. No care, no stop! So senseless of expense That he will neither know how to maintain it Nor cease his flow of riot; takes no account How things go from him, nor resumes no care Of what is to continue. Never mind

Was to be so unwise to be so kind.

What shall be done? He will not hear till feel.

I must be round with him. Now he comes from hunting.

Fie, fie, fie, fie!

 

Enter CAPHIS, and the SERVANTS Of ISIDORE and VARRO

 

CAPHIS. Good even, Varro. What, you come for money?

VARRO’S SERVANT. Is’t not your business too?

CAPHIS. It is. And yours too, Isidore?

ISIDORE’S SERVANT. It is so.

CAPHIS. Would we were all discharg’d!

VARRO’S SERVANT. I fear it.

CAPHIS. Here comes the lord.

 

Enter TIMON and his train, with ALCIBIADES

 

TIMON. So soon as dinner’s done we’ll forth again, My Alcibiades.- With me? What is your will?

CAPHIS. My lord, here is a note of certain dues.

TIMON. Dues! Whence are you?

CAPHIS. Of Athens here, my lord.

TIMON. Go to my steward.

CAPHIS. Please it your lordship, he hath put me off To the succession of new days this month.

My master is awak’d by great occasion To call upon his own, and humbly prays you That with your other noble parts you’ll suit In giving him his right.

TIMON. Mine honest friend,

I prithee but repair to me next morning.

CAPHIS. Nay, good my lord—

TIMON. Contain thyself, good friend.

VARRO’S SERVANT. One Varro’s servant, my good lord-ISIDORE’S SERVANT. From Isidore: he humbly prays your speedy payment-CAPHIS. If you did know, my lord, my master’s wants-VARRO’S SERVANT. ‘Twas due on forfeiture, my lord, six weeks and past.

ISIDORE’S SERVANT. Your steward puts me off, my lord; and I am sent expressly to your lordship.

TIMON. Give me breath.

I do beseech you, good my lords, keep on; I’ll wait upon you instantly.

Exeunt ALCIBIADES and LORDS

[To FLAVIUS] Come hither. Pray you,

How goes the world that I am thus encount’red With clamorous demands of date-broke bonds And the detention of long-since-due debts, Against my honour?

FLAVIUS. Please you, gentlemen,

The time is unagreeable to this business.

Your importunacy cease till after dinner, That I may make his lordship understand Wherefore you are not paid.

TIMON. Do so, my friends.

See them well entertain’d. Exit FLAVIUS. Pray draw near. Exit Enter APEMANTUS and FOOL

 

CAPHIS. Stay, stay, here comes the fool with Apemantus.

Let’s ha’ some sport with ‘em.

VARRO’S SERVANT. Hang him, he’ll abuse us!

ISIDORE’S SERVANT. A plague upon him, dog!

VARRO’S SERVANT. How dost, fool?

APEMANTUS. Dost dialogue with thy shadow?

VARRO’S SERVANT. I speak not to thee.

APEMANTUS. No, ‘tis to thyself. [To the FOOL] Come away.

ISIDORE’S SERVANT. [To VARRO’S SERVANT] There’s the fool hangs on your back already.

APEMANTUS. No, thou stand’st single; th’art not on him yet.

CAPHIS. Where’s the fool now?

APEMANTUS. He last ask’d the question. Poor rogues and usurers’

men! Bawds between gold and want!

ALL SERVANTS. What are we, Apemantus?

APEMANTUS. Asses.

ALL SERVANTS. Why?

APEMANTUS. That you ask me what you are, and do not know yourselves. Speak to ‘em, fool.

FOOL. How do you, gentlemen?

ALL SERVANTS. Gramercies, good fool. How does your mistress?

FOOL. She’s e’en setting on water to scald such chickens as you are. Would we could see you at Corinth!

APEMANTUS. Good! gramercy.

 

Enter PAGE

 

FOOL. Look you, here comes my mistress’ page.

PAGE. [To the FOOL] Why, how now, Captain? What do you in this wise company? How dost thou, Apemantus?

APEMANTUS. Would I had a rod in my mouth, that I might answer thee profitably!

PAGE. Prithee, Apemantus, read me the superscription of these letters; I know not which is which.

APEMANTUS. Canst not read?

PAGE. No.

APEMANTUS. There will little learning die, then, that day thou art hang’d. This is to Lord Timon; this to Alcibiades. Go; thou wast born a bastard, and thou’t die a bawd.

PAGE. Thou wast whelp’d a dog, and thou shalt famish dog’s death.

Answer not: I am gone. Exit PAGE

APEMANTUS. E’en so thou outrun’st grace.

Fool, I will go with you to Lord Timon’s.

FOOL. Will you leave me there?

APEMANTUS. If Timon stay at home. You three serve three usurers?

ALL SERVANTS. Ay; would they serv’d us!

APEMANTUS. So would I-as good a trick as ever hangman serv’d thief.

FOOL. Are you three usurers’ men?

ALL SERVANTS. Ay, fool.

FOOL. I think no usurer but has a fool to his servant. My mistress is one, and I am her fool. When men come to borrow of your masters, they approach sadly and go away merry; but they enter my mistress’ house merrily and go away sadly. The reason of this?

VARRO’S SERVANT. I could render one.

APEMANTUS. Do it then, that we may account thee a whoremaster and a knave; which notwithstanding, thou shalt be no less esteemed.

VARRO’S SERVANT. What is a whoremaster, fool?

FOOL. A fool in good clothes, and something like thee. ‘Tis a spirit. Sometime ‘t appears like a lord; sometime like a lawyer; sometime like a philosopher, with two stones moe than’s artificial one. He is very often like a knight; and, generally, in all shapes that man goes up and down in from fourscore to thirteen, this spirit walks in.

VARRO’S SERVANT. Thou art not altogether a fool.

FOOL. Nor thou altogether a wise man.

As much foolery as I have, so much wit thou lack’st.

APEMANTUS. That answer might have become Apemantus.

VARRO’S SERVANT. Aside, aside; here comes Lord Timon.

 

Re-enter TIMON and FLAVIUS

 

APEMANTUS. Come with me, fool, come.

FOOL. I do not always follow lover, elder brother, and woman; sometime the philosopher.

Exeunt APEMANTUS and FOOL

FLAVIUS. Pray you walk near; I’ll speak with you anon.

Exeunt SERVANTS

TIMON. You make me marvel wherefore ere this time Had you not fully laid my state before me, That I might so have rated my expense As I had leave of means.

FLAVIUS. You would not hear me

At many leisures I propos’d.

TIMON. Go to;

Perchance some single vantages you took When my indisposition put you back,

And that unaptness made your minister Thus to excuse yourself.

FLAVIUS. O my good lord,

At many times I brought in my accounts, Laid them before you; you would throw them off And say you found them in mine honesty.

When, for some trifling present, you have bid me Return so much, I have shook my head and wept; Yea, ‘gainst th’ authority of manners, pray’d you To hold your hand more close. I did endure Not seldom, nor no slight checks, when I have Prompted you in the ebb of your estate And your great flow of debts. My lov’d lord, Though you hear now-too late!- yet now’s a time: The greatest of your having lacks a half To pay your present debts.

TIMON. Let all my land be sold.

FLAVIUS. ‘Tis all engag’d, some forfeited and gone; And what remains will hardly stop the mouth Of present dues. The future comes apace; What shall defend the interim? And at length How goes our reck’ning?

TIMON. To Lacedaemon did my land extend.

FLAVIUS. O my good lord, the world is but a word; Were it all yours to give it in a breath, How quickly were it gone!

TIMON. You tell me true.

FLAVIUS. If you suspect my husbandry or falsehood, Call me before th’ exactest auditors

And set me on the proof. So the gods bless me, When all our offices have been oppress’d With riotous feeders, when our vaults have wept With drunken spilth of wine, when every room Hath blaz’d with lights and bray’d with minstrelsy, I have retir’d me to a wasteful cock

And set mine eyes at flow.

TIMON. Prithee no more.

FLAVIUS. ‘Heavens,’ have I said ‘the bounty of this lord!

How many prodigal bits have slaves and peasants This night englutted! Who is not Lord Timon’s?

What heart, head, sword, force, means, but is Lord Timon’s?

Great Timon, noble, worthy, royal Timon!’

Ah! when the means are gone that buy this praise, The breath is gone whereof this praise is made.

Feast-won, fast-lost; one cloud of winter show’rs, These flies are couch’d.

TIMON. Come, sermon me no further.

No villainous bounty yet hath pass’d my heart; Unwisely, not ignobly, have I given.

Why dost thou weep? Canst thou the conscience lack To think I shall lack friends? Secure thy heart: If I would broach the vessels of my love, And try the argument of hearts by borrowing, Men and men’s fortunes could I frankly use As I can bid thee speak.

FLAVIUS. Assurance bless your thoughts!

TIMON. And, in some sort, these wants of mine are crown’d That I account them blessings; for by these Shall I try friends. You shall perceive how you Mistake my fortunes; I am wealthy in my friends.

Within there! Flaminius! Servilius!

 

Enter FLAMINIUS, SERVILIUS, and another SERVANT

 

SERVANTS. My lord! my lord!

TIMON. I will dispatch you severally-you to Lord Lucius; to Lord Lucullus you; I hunted with his honour to-day. You to Sempronius.

Commend me to their loves; and I am proud, say, that my occasions have found time to use ‘em toward a supply of money. Let the request be fifty talents.

FLAMINIUS. As you have said, my lord. Exeunt SERVANTS

FLAVIUS. [Aside] Lord Lucius and Lucullus? Humh!

TIMON. Go you, sir, to the senators,

Of whom, even to the state’s best health, I have Deserv’d this hearing. Bid ‘em send o’ th’ instant A thousand talents to me.

FLAVIUS. I have been bold,

For that I knew it the most general way, To them to use your signet and your name; But they do shake their heads, and I am here No richer in return.

TIMON. Is’t true? Can’t be?

FLAVIUS. They answer, in a joint and corporate voice, That now they are at fall, want treasure, cannot Do what they would, are sorry-you are honourable-But yet they could have wish’d-they know not-Something hath been amiss-a noble nature May catch a wrench-would all were well!- ‘tis pity-And so, intending other serious matters, After distasteful looks, and these hard fractions, With certain half-caps and cold-moving nods, They froze me into silence.

TIMON. You gods, reward them!

Prithee, man, look cheerly. These old fellows Have their ingratitude in them hereditary.

Their blood is cak’d, ‘tis cold, it seldom flows; ‘Tis lack of kindly warmth they are not kind; And nature, as it grows again toward earth, Is fashion’d for the journey dull and heavy.

Go to Ventidius. Prithee be not sad,

Thou art true and honest; ingeniously I speak, No blame belongs to thee. Ventidius lately Buried his father, by whose death he’s stepp’d Into a great estate. When he was poor, Imprison’d,