ACT V SCENE I

Timon of Athens

ACT V SCENE I	The woods before Timon’s cave.
[ Enter Poet and Painter; TIMON watching them from his cave ]
Painter	As I took note of the place, it cannot be far where
	he abides.
Poet	What’s to be thought of him? does the rumour hold
	for true, that he’s so full of gold?
Painter	Certain: Alcibiades reports it; Phrynia and	5
	Timandra had gold of him: he likewise enriched poor
	straggling soldiers with great quantity: ’tis said
	he gave unto his steward a mighty sum.
Poet	Then this breaking of his has been but a try for his friends.
Painter	Nothing else: you shall see him a palm in Athens	10
	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 travail for, if it be a just true report	15
	that goes of his having.
Poet	What have you now to present unto him?
Painter	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	20
	that’s coming toward him.
Painter	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 simpler kind of people, the	25
	deed of saying is quite out of use. To promise is
	most courtly and fashionable: performance is a kind
	of will or testament which argues a great sickness
	in his judgment that makes it.
[TIMON comes from his cave, behind]
TIMON	[Aside] Excellent workman! thou canst not paint a	30
	man so bad as is thyself.
Poet	I am thinking what I shall say I have provided for
	him: it must be a personating of himself; a satire
	against the softness of prosperity, with a discovery
	of the infinite flatteries that follow youth and opulency.	35
TIMON	[Aside] 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 seek him:
	Then do we sin against our own estate,	40
	When we may profit meet, and come too late.
Painter	True;
	When the day serves, before black-corner’d night,
	Find what thou want’st by free and offer’d light. Come.
TIMON	[Aside] I’ll meet you at the turn. What a	45
	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 slave:	50
	To thee be worship! and thy saints for aye
	Be crown’d with plagues that thee alone obey!
	Fit I meet them.
[Coming forward]
Poet	Hail, worthy Timon!
Painter	Our late noble master!	55
TIMON	Have I once lived to see two honest men?
Poet	Sir,
	Having often of your open bounty tasted,
	Hearing you were retired, your friends fall’n off,
	Whose thankless natures–O abhorred spirits!–	60
	Not all the whips of heaven are large enough:
	What! to you,
	Whose star-like nobleness gave life and influence
	To their whole being! I am rapt and cannot cover
	The monstrous bulk of this ingratitude	65
	With any size of words.
TIMON	Let it go naked, men may see’t the better:
	You that are honest, by being what you are,
	Make them best seen and known.
Painter	He and myself	70
	Have travail’d in the great shower of your gifts,
	And sweetly felt it.
TIMON	Ay, you are honest men.
Painter	We are hither come to offer you our service.
TIMON	Most honest men! Why, how shall I requite you?	75
	Can you eat roots, and drink cold water? no.
Both	What we can do, we’ll do, to do you service.
TIMON	Ye’re honest men: ye’ve heard that I have gold;
	I am sure you have: speak truth; ye’re honest men.
Painter	So it is said, my noble lord; but therefore	80
	Came not my friend nor I.
TIMON	Good honest men! Thou draw’st a counterfeit
	Best in all Athens: thou’rt, indeed, the best;
	Thou counterfeit’st most lively.
Painter	So, so, my lord.	85
TIMON	E’en so, sir, as I say. And, for thy fiction,
	Why, thy verse swells with stuff so fine and smooth
	That thou art even natural in thine art.
	But, for all this, my honest-natured friends,
	I must needs say you have a little fault:	90
	Marry, ’tis not monstrous in you, neither wish I
	You take much pains to mend.
Both	Beseech your honour
	To make it known to us.
TIMON	You’ll take it ill.	95
Both	Most thankfully, my lord.
TIMON	Will you, indeed?
Both	Doubt it not, worthy lord.
TIMON	There’s never a one of you but trusts a knave,
	That mightily deceives you.	100
Both	Do we, my lord?
TIMON	Ay, and you hear him cog, see him dissemble,
	Know his gross patchery, love him, feed him,
	Keep in your bosom: yet remain assured
	That he’s a made-up villain.	105
Painter	I know none such, my lord.
Poet	Nor I.
TIMON	Look you, I love you well; I’ll give you gold,
	Rid me these villains from your companies:
	Hang them or stab them, drown them in a draught,	110
	Confound them by some course, and come to me,
	I’ll give you gold enough.
Both	Name them, my lord, let’s know them.
TIMON	You that way and you this, but two in company;
	Each man apart, all single and alone,	115
	Yet an arch-villain keeps him company.
	If where thou art two villains shall not be,
	Come not near him. If thou wouldst not reside
	But where one villain is, then him abandon.
	Hence, pack! there’s gold; you came for gold, ye slaves:	120
[To Painter]
	You have work’d for me; there’s payment for you: hence!
[To Poet]
	You are an alchemist; make gold of that.
	Out, rascal dogs!
[Beats them out, and then retires to his cave]
[Enter FLAVIUS and two Senators]
FLAVIUS	It is in vain that you would speak with Timon;
	For he is set so only to himself	125
	That nothing but himself which looks like man
	Is friendly with him.
First Senator	Bring us to his cave:
	It is our part and promise to the Athenians
	To speak with Timon.	130
Second Senator	At all times alike
	Men are not still the same: ’twas time and griefs
	That framed him thus: time, with his fairer hand,
	Offering the fortunes of his former days,
	The former man may make him. Bring us to him,	135
	And chance it as it may.
FLAVIUS	Here is his cave.
	Peace and content be here! Lord Timon! Timon!
	Look out, and speak to friends: the Athenians,
	By two of their most reverend senate, greet thee:	140
	Speak to them, noble Timon.
[TIMON comes from his cave]
TIMON	Thou sun, that comfort’st, burn! Speak, and
	be hang’d:
	For each true word, a blister! and each false
	Be as cauterizing to the root o’ the tongue,	145
	Consuming it with speaking!
First Senator	Worthy Timon,–
TIMON	Of none but such as you, and you of Timon.
First Senator	The senators of Athens greet thee, Timon.
TIMON	I thank them; and would send them back the plague,	150
	Could I but catch it for them.
First Senator	O, forget
	What we are sorry for ourselves in thee.
	The senators with one consent of love
	Entreat thee back to Athens; who have thought	155
	On special dignities, which vacant lie
	For thy best use and wearing.
Second Senator	They confess
	Toward thee forgetfulness too general, gross:
	Which now the public body, which doth seldom	160
	Play the recanter, feeling in itself
	A lack of Timon’s aid, hath sense withal
	Of its own fail, restraining aid to Timon;
	And send forth us, to make their sorrow’d render,
	Together with a recompense more fruitful	165
	Than their offence can weigh down by the dram;
	Ay, even such heaps and sums of love and wealth
	As shall to thee blot out what wrongs were theirs
	And write in thee the figures of their love,
	Ever to read them thine.	170
TIMON	You witch me in it;
	Surprise me to the very brink of tears:
	Lend me a fool’s heart and a woman’s eyes,
	And I’ll beweep these comforts, worthy senators.
First Senator	Therefore, so please thee to return with us	175
	And of our Athens, thine and ours, to take
	The captainship, thou shalt be met with thanks,
	Allow’d with absolute power and thy good name
	Live with authority: so soon we shall drive back
	Of Alcibiades the approaches wild,	180
	Who, like a boar too savage, doth root up
	His country’s peace.
Second Senator	And shakes his threatening sword
	Against the walls of Athens.
First Senator	Therefore, Timon,–	185
TIMON	Well, sir, I will; therefore, I will, sir; thus:
	If Alcibiades kill my countrymen,
	Let Alcibiades know this of Timon,
	That Timon cares not. But if be sack fair Athens,
	And take our goodly aged men by the beards,	190
	Giving our holy virgins to the stain
	Of contumelious, beastly, mad-brain’d war,
	Then let him know, and tell him Timon speaks it,
	In pity of our aged and our youth,
	I cannot choose but tell him, that I care not,	195
	And let him take’t at worst; for their knives care not,
	While you have throats to answer: for myself,
	There’s not a whittle in the unruly camp
	But I do prize it at my love before
	The reverend’st throat in Athens. So I leave you	200
	To the protection of the prosperous gods,
	As thieves to keepers.
FLAVIUS	Stay not, all’s in vain.
TIMON	Why, I was writing of my epitaph;
	it will be seen to-morrow: my long sickness	205
	Of health and living now begins to mend,
	And nothing brings me all things. Go, live still;
	Be Alcibiades your plague, you his,
	And last so long enough!
First Senator	We speak in vain.	210
TIMON	But yet I love my country, and am not
	One that rejoices in the common wreck,
	As common bruit doth put it.
First Senator	That’s well spoke.
TIMON	Commend me to my loving countrymen,–	215
First Senator	These words become your lips as they pass
	thorough them.
Second Senator	And enter in our ears like great triumphers
	In their applauding gates.
TIMON	Commend me to them,	220
	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:	225
	I’ll teach them to prevent wild Alcibiades’ wrath.
First Senator	I like this well; he will return again.
TIMON	I have a tree, which grows here in my close,
	That mine own use invites me to cut down,
	And shortly must I fell it: tell my friends,	230
	Tell Athens, in the sequence of degree
	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.	235
FLAVIUS	Trouble him no further; thus you still shall find him.
TIMON	Come not to me again: but say to Athens,
	Timon hath made his everlasting mansion
	Upon the beached verge of the salt flood;
	Who once a day with his embossed froth	240
	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!	245
	Sun, hide thy beams! Timon hath done his reign.
[Retires to his cave]
First Senator	His discontents are unremoveably
	Coupled to nature.
Second Senator	Our hope in him is dead: let us return,
	And strain what other means is left unto us	250
	In our dear peril.
First Senator	It requires swift foot.
[Exeunt]

Timon of Athens, Act 5, Scene 2