Timon of Athens
ACT III SCENE V | The same. The senate-house. The Senate sitting. | |
First Senator | My lord, you have my voice to it; the fault’s | |
Bloody; ’tis necessary he should die: | ||
Nothing emboldens sin so much as mercy. | ||
Second Senator | Most true; the law shall bruise him. | |
[Enter ALCIBIADES, with Attendants] | ||
ALCIBIADES | Honour, health, and compassion to the senate! | 5 |
First Senator | Now, captain? | |
ALCIBIADES | I am an humble suitor to your virtues; | |
For pity is the virtue of the law, | ||
And none but tyrants use it cruelly. | ||
It pleases time and fortune to lie heavy | 10 | |
Upon a friend of mine, who, in hot blood, | ||
Hath stepp’d into the law, which is past depth | ||
To those that, without heed, do plunge into ‘t. | ||
He is a man, setting his fate aside, | ||
Of comely virtues: | 15 | |
Nor did he soil the fact with cowardice– | ||
An honour in him which buys out his fault– | ||
But with a noble fury and fair spirit, | ||
Seeing his reputation touch’d to death, | ||
He did oppose his foe: | 20 | |
And with such sober and unnoted passion | ||
He did behave his anger, ere ’twas spent, | ||
As if he had but proved an argument. | ||
First Senator | You undergo too strict a paradox, | |
Striving to make an ugly deed look fair: | 25 | |
Your words have took such pains as if they labour’d | ||
To bring manslaughter into form and set quarrelling | ||
Upon the head of valour; which indeed | ||
Is valour misbegot and came into the world | ||
When sects and factions were newly born: | 30 | |
He’s truly valiant that can wisely suffer | ||
The worst that man can breathe, and make his wrongs | ||
His outsides, to wear them like his raiment, | ||
carelessly, | ||
And ne’er prefer his injuries to his heart, | 35 | |
To bring it into danger. | ||
If wrongs be evils and enforce us kill, | ||
What folly ’tis to hazard life for ill! | ||
ALCIBIADES | My lord,– | |
First Senator | You cannot make gross sins look clear: | 40 |
To revenge is no valour, but to bear. | ||
ALCIBIADES | My lords, then, under favour, pardon me, | |
If I speak like a captain. | ||
Why do fond men expose themselves to battle, | ||
And not endure all threats? sleep upon’t, | 45 | |
And let the foes quietly cut their throats, | ||
Without repugnancy? If there be | ||
Such valour in the bearing, what make we | ||
Abroad? why then, women are more valiant | ||
That stay at home, if bearing carry it, | 50 | |
And the ass more captain than the lion, the felon | ||
Loaden with irons wiser than the judge, | ||
If wisdom be in suffering. O my lords, | ||
As you are great, be pitifully good: | ||
Who cannot condemn rashness in cold blood? | 55 | |
To kill, I grant, is sin’s extremest gust; | ||
But, in defence, by mercy, ’tis most just. | ||
To be in anger is impiety; | ||
But who is man that is not angry? | ||
Weigh but the crime with this. | 60 | |
Second Senator | You breathe in vain. | |
ALCIBIADES | In vain! his service done | |
At Lacedaemon and Byzantium | ||
Were a sufficient briber for his life. | ||
First Senator | What’s that? | 65 |
ALCIBIADES | I say, my lords, he has done fair service, | |
And slain in fight many of your enemies: | ||
How full of valour did he bear himself | ||
In the last conflict, and made plenteous wounds! | ||
Second Senator | He has made too much plenty with ’em; | 70 |
He’s a sworn rioter: he has a sin that often | ||
Drowns him, and takes his valour prisoner: | ||
If there were no foes, that were enough | ||
To overcome him: in that beastly fury | ||
He has been known to commit outrages, | 75 | |
And cherish factions: ’tis inferr’d to us, | ||
His days are foul and his drink dangerous. | ||
First Senator | He dies. | |
ALCIBIADES | Hard fate! he might have died in war. | |
My lords, if not for any parts in him– | 80 | |
Though his right arm might purchase his own time | ||
And be in debt to none–yet, more to move you, | ||
Take my deserts to his, and join ’em both: | ||
And, for I know your reverend ages love | ||
Security, I’ll pawn my victories, all | 85 | |
My honours to you, upon his good returns. | ||
If by this crime he owes the law his life, | ||
Why, let the war receive ‘t in valiant gore | ||
For law is strict, and war is nothing more. | ||
First Senator | We are for law: he dies; urge it no more, | 90 |
On height of our displeasure: friend or brother, | ||
He forfeits his own blood that spills another. | ||
ALCIBIADES | Must it be so? it must not be. My lords, | |
I do beseech you, know me. | ||
Second Senator | How! | 95 |
ALCIBIADES | Call me to your remembrances. | |
Third Senator | What! | |
ALCIBIADES | I cannot think but your age has forgot me; | |
It could not else be, I should prove so base, | ||
To sue, and be denied such common grace: | 100 | |
My wounds ache at you. | ||
First Senator | Do you dare our anger? | |
‘Tis in few words, but spacious in effect; | ||
We banish thee for ever. | ||
ALCIBIADES | Banish me! | 105 |
Banish your dotage; banish usury, | ||
That makes the senate ugly. | ||
First Senator | If, after two days’ shine, Athens contain thee, | |
Attend our weightier judgment. And, not to swell | ||
our spirit, | 110 | |
He shall be executed presently. | ||
[Exeunt Senators] | ||
ALCIBIADES | Now the gods keep you old enough; that you may live | |
Only in bone, that none may look on you! | ||
I’m worse than mad: I have kept back their foes, | ||
While they have told their money and let out | 115 | |
Their coin upon large interest, I myself | ||
Rich only in large hurts. All those for this? | ||
Is this the balsam that the usuring senate | ||
Pours into captains’ wounds? Banishment! | ||
It comes not ill; I hate not to be banish’d; | 120 | |
It is a cause worthy my spleen and fury, | ||
That I may strike at Athens. I’ll cheer up | ||
My discontented troops, and lay for hearts. | ||
‘Tis honour with most lands to be at odds; | ||
Soldiers should brook as little wrongs as gods. | 125 | |
[Exit] |
Timon of Athens, Act 3, Scene 6