1    O blessed breeding sun, draw from the earth
2    Rotten humidity; below thy sister's orb
3    Infect the air! Twinn'd brothers of one womb,
4    Whose procreation, residence, and birth,
5    Scarce is dividant, touch them with several fortunes;
6    The greater scorns the lesser: not nature,
7    To whom all sores lay siege, can bear great fortune,
8    But by contempt of nature.
9    Raise me this beggar, and deny 't that lord;
10   The senator shall bear contempt hereditary,
11   The beggar native honour.
12   It is the pasture lards the rother's sides,
13   The want that makes him lean. Who dares, who dares,
14   In purity of manhood stand upright,
15   And say 'This man's a flatterer?' if one be,
16   So are they all; for every grise of fortune
17   Is smooth'd by that below: the learned pate
18   Ducks to the golden fool: all is oblique;
19   There's nothing level in our cursed natures,
20   But direct villany. Therefore, be abhorr'd
21   All feasts, societies, and throngs of men!
22   His semblable, yea, himself, Timon disdains:
23   Destruction fang mankind! Earth, yield me roots!
Digging
24   Who seeks for better of thee, sauce his palate
25   With thy most operant poison! What is here?
26   Gold? yellow, glittering, precious gold? No, gods,
27   I am no idle votarist: roots, you clear heavens!
28   Thus much of this will make black white, foul fair,
29   Wrong right, base noble, old young, coward valiant.
30   Ha, you gods! why this? what this, you gods? Why, this
31   Will lug your priests and servants from your sides,
32   Pluck stout men's pillows from below their heads:
33   This yellow slave
34   Will knit and break religions, bless the accursed,
35   Make the hoar leprosy adored, place thieves
36   And give them title, knee and approbation
37   With senators on the bench: this is it
38   That makes the wappen'd widow wed again;
39   She, whom the spital-house and ulcerous sores
40   Would cast the gorge at, this embalms and spices
41   To the April day again. Come, damned earth,
42   Thou common whore of mankind, that put'st odds
43   Among the route of nations, I will make thee
44   Do thy right nature.
March afar off
45   Ha! a drum? Thou'rt quick,
46   But yet I'll bury thee: thou'lt go, strong thief,
47   When gouty keepers of thee cannot stand.
48   Nay, stay thou out for earnest.

49   What art thou there? speak.

50   A beast, as thou art. The canker gnaw thy heart,
51   For showing me again the eyes of man!

52   What is thy name? Is man so hateful to thee,
53   That art thyself a man?

54   I am Misanthropos, and hate mankind.
55   For thy part, I do wish thou wert a dog,
56   That I might love thee something.

57   I know thee well;
58   But in thy fortunes am unlearn'd and strange.

59   I know thee too; and more than that I know thee,
60   I not desire to know. Follow thy drum;
61   With man's blood paint the ground, gules, gules:
62   Religious canons, civil laws are cruel;
63   Then what should war be? This fell whore of thine
64   Hath in her more destruction than thy sword,
65   For all her cherubim look.

66   Thy lips rot off!

67   I will not kiss thee; then the rot returns
68   To thine own lips again.

69   How came the noble Timon to this change?

70   As the moon does, by wanting light to give:
71   But then renew I could not, like the moon;
72   There were no suns to borrow of.

73   Noble Timon,
74   What friendship may I do thee?

75   None, but to
76   Maintain my opinion.

77   What is it, Timon?

78   Promise me friendship, but perform none: if thou
79   wilt not promise, the gods plague thee, for thou art
80   a man! if thou dost perform, confound thee, for
81   thou art a man!

82   I have heard in some sort of thy miseries.

83   Thou saw'st them, when I had prosperity.

84   I see them now; then was a blessed time.

85   As thine is now, held with a brace of harlots.

86   Is this the Athenian minion, whom the world
87   Voiced so regardfully?

88   Art thou Timandra?

89   Yes.

90   Be a whore still: they love thee not that use thee;
91   Give them diseases, leaving with thee their lust.
92   Make use of thy salt hours: season the slaves
93   For tubs and baths; bring down rose-cheeked youth
94   To the tub-fast and the diet.

95   Hang thee, monster!

96   Pardon him, sweet Timandra; for his wits
97   Are drown'd and lost in his calamities.
98   I have but little gold of late, brave Timon,
99   The want whereof doth daily make revolt
100  In my penurious band: I have heard, and grieved,
101  How cursed Athens, mindless of thy worth,
102  Forgetting thy great deeds, when neighbour states,
103  But for thy sword and fortune, trod upon them,--

104  I prithee, beat thy drum, and get thee gone.

105  I am thy friend, and pity thee, dear Timon.

106  How dost thou pity him whom thou dost trouble?
107  I had rather be alone.

108  Why, fare thee well:
109  Here is some gold for thee.

110  Keep it, I cannot eat it.

111  When I have laid proud Athens on a heap,--

112  Warr'st thou 'gainst Athens?

113  Ay, Timon, and have cause.

114  The gods confound them all in thy conquest;
115  And thee after, when thou hast conquer'd!

116  Why me, Timon?

117  That, by killing of villains,
118  Thou wast born to conquer my country.
119  Put up thy gold: go on,--here's gold,--go on;
120  Be as a planetary plague, when Jove
121  Will o'er some high-viced city hang his poison
122  In the sick air: let not thy sword skip one:
123  Pity not honour'd age for his white beard;
124  He is an usurer: strike me the counterfeit matron;
125  It is her habit only that is honest,
126  Herself's a bawd: let not the virgin's cheek
127  Make soft thy trenchant sword; for those milk-paps,
128  That through the window-bars bore at men's eyes,
129  Are not within the leaf of pity writ,
130  But set them down horrible traitors: spare not the babe,
131  Whose dimpled smiles from fools exhaust their mercy;
132  Think it a bastard, whom the oracle
133  Hath doubtfully pronounced thy throat shall cut,
134  And mince it sans remorse: swear against objects;
135  Put armour on thine ears and on thine eyes;
136  Whose proof, nor yells of mothers, maids, nor babes,
137  Nor sight of priests in holy vestments bleeding,
138  Shall pierce a jot. There's gold to pay soldiers:
139  Make large confusion; and, thy fury spent,
140  Confounded be thyself! Speak not, be gone.

141  Hast thou gold yet? I'll take the gold thou
142  givest me,
143  Not all thy counsel.

144  Dost thou, or dost thou not, heaven's curse
145  upon thee!

146  Give us some gold, good Timon: hast thou more?

147  Enough to make a whore forswear her trade,
148  And to make whores, a bawd. Hold up, you sluts,
149  Your aprons mountant: you are not oathable,
150  Although, I know, you 'll swear, terribly swear
151  Into strong shudders and to heavenly agues
152  The immortal gods that hear you,--spare your oaths,
153  I'll trust to your conditions: be whores still;
154  And he whose pious breath seeks to convert you,
155  Be strong in whore, allure him, burn him up;
156  Let your close fire predominate his smoke,
157  And be no turncoats: yet may your pains, six months,
158  Be quite contrary: and thatch your poor thin roofs
159  With burthens of the dead;--some that were hang'd,
160  No matter:--wear them, betray with them: whore still;
161  Paint till a horse may mire upon your face,
162  A pox of wrinkles!

163  Well, more gold: what then?
164  Believe't, that we'll do any thing for gold.

165  Consumptions sow
166  In hollow bones of man; strike their sharp shins,
167  And mar men's spurring. Crack the lawyer's voice,
168  That he may never more false title plead,
169  Nor sound his quillets shrilly: hoar the flamen,
170  That scolds against the quality of flesh,
171  And not believes himself: down with the nose,
172  Down with it flat; take the bridge quite away
173  Of him that, his particular to foresee,
174  Smells from the general weal: make curl'd-pate
175  ruffians bald;
176  And let the unscarr'd braggarts of the war
177  Derive some pain from you: plague all;
178  That your activity may defeat and quell
179  The source of all erection. There's more gold:
180  Do you damn others, and let this damn you,
181  And ditches grave you all!

182  More counsel with more money, bounteous Timon.

183  More whore, more mischief first; I have given you earnest.

184  Strike up the drum towards Athens! Farewell, Timon:
185  If I thrive well, I'll visit thee again.

186  If I hope well, I'll never see thee more.

187  I never did thee harm.

188  Yes, thou spokest well of me.

189  Call'st thou that harm?

190  Men daily find it. Get thee away, and take
191  Thy beagles with thee.

192  We but offend him. Strike!

193  That nature, being sick of man's unkindness,
194  Should yet be hungry! Common mother, thou,
Digging
195  Whose womb unmeasurable, and infinite breast,
196  Teems, and feeds all; whose self-same mettle,
197  Whereof thy proud child, arrogant man, is puff'd,
198  Engenders the black toad and adder blue,
199  The gilded newt and eyeless venom'd worm,
200  With all the abhorred births below crisp heaven
201  Whereon Hyperion's quickening fire doth shine;
202  Yield him, who all thy human sons doth hate,
203  From forth thy plenteous bosom, one poor root!
204  Ensear thy fertile and conceptious womb,
205  Let it no more bring out ingrateful man!
206  Go great with tigers, dragons, wolves, and bears;
207  Teem with new monsters, whom thy upward face
208  Hath to the marbled mansion all above
209  Never presented!--O, a root,--dear thanks!--
210  Dry up thy marrows, vines, and plough-torn leas;
211  Whereof ungrateful man, with liquorish draughts
212  And morsels unctuous, greases his pure mind,
213  That from it all consideration slips!
Enter APEMANTUS
214  More man? plague, plague!

215  I was directed hither: men report
216  Thou dost affect my manners, and dost use them.

217  'Tis, then, because thou dost not keep a dog,
218  Whom I would imitate: consumption catch thee!

219  This is in thee a nature but infected;
220  A poor unmanly melancholy sprung
221  From change of fortune. Why this spade? this place?
222  This slave-like habit? and these looks of care?
223  Thy flatterers yet wear silk, drink wine, lie soft;
224  Hug their diseased perfumes, and have forgot
225  That ever Timon was. Shame not these woods,
226  By putting on the cunning of a carper.
227  Be thou a flatterer now, and seek to thrive
228  By that which has undone thee: hinge thy knee,
229  And let his very breath, whom thou'lt observe,
230  Blow off thy cap; praise his most vicious strain,
231  And call it excellent: thou wast told thus;
232  Thou gavest thine ears like tapsters that bid welcome
233  To knaves and all approachers: 'tis most just
234  That thou turn rascal; hadst thou wealth again,
235  Rascals should have 't. Do not assume my likeness.

236  Were I like thee, I'ld throw away myself.

237  Thou hast cast away thyself, being like thyself;
238  A madman so long, now a fool. What, think'st
239  That the bleak air, thy boisterous chamberlain,
240  Will put thy shirt on warm? will these moss'd trees,
241  That have outlived the eagle, page thy heels,
242  And skip where thou point'st out? will the
243  cold brook,
244  Candied with ice, caudle thy morning taste,
245  To cure thy o'er-night's surfeit? Call the creatures
246  Whose naked natures live in an the spite
247  Of wreakful heaven, whose bare unhoused trunks,
248  To the conflicting elements exposed,
249  Answer mere nature; bid them flatter thee;
250  O, thou shalt find--

251  A fool of thee: depart.

252  I love thee better now than e'er I did.

253  I hate thee worse.

254  Why?

255  Thou flatter'st misery.

256  I flatter not; but say thou art a caitiff.

257  Why dost thou seek me out?

258  To vex thee.

259  Always a villain's office or a fool's.
260  Dost please thyself in't?

261  Ay.

262  What! a knave too?

263  If thou didst put this sour-cold habit on
264  To castigate thy pride, 'twere well: but thou
265  Dost it enforcedly; thou'ldst courtier be again,
266  Wert thou not beggar. Willing misery
267  Outlives encertain pomp, is crown'd before:
268  The one is filling still, never complete;
269  The other, at high wish: best state, contentless,
270  Hath a distracted and most wretched being,
271  Worse than the worst, content.
272  Thou shouldst desire to die, being miserable.

273  Not by his breath that is more miserable.
274  Thou art a slave, whom Fortune's tender arm
275  With favour never clasp'd; but bred a dog.
276  Hadst thou, like us from our first swath, proceeded
277  The sweet degrees that this brief world affords
278  To such as may the passive drugs of it
279  Freely command, thou wouldst have plunged thyself
280  In general riot; melted down thy youth
281  In different beds of lust; and never learn'd
282  The icy precepts of respect, but follow'd
283  The sugar'd game before thee. But myself,
284  Who had the world as my confectionary,
285  The mouths, the tongues, the eyes and hearts of men
286  At duty, more than I could frame employment,
287  That numberless upon me stuck as leaves
288  Do on the oak, hive with one winter's brush
289  Fell from their boughs and left me open, bare
290  For every storm that blows: I, to bear this,
291  That never knew but better, is some burden:
292  Thy nature did commence in sufferance, time
293  Hath made thee hard in't. Why shouldst thou hate men?
294  They never flatter'd thee: what hast thou given?
295  If thou wilt curse, thy father, that poor rag,
296  Must be thy subject, who in spite put stuff
297  To some she beggar and compounded thee
298  Poor rogue hereditary. Hence, be gone!
299  If thou hadst not been born the worst of men,
300  Thou hadst been a knave and flatterer.

301  Art thou proud yet?

302  Ay, that I am not thee.

303  I, that I was
304  No prodigal.

305  I, that I am one now:
306  Were all the wealth I have shut up in thee,
307  I'ld give thee leave to hang it. Get thee gone.
308  That the whole life of Athens were in this!
309  Thus would I eat it.

310  Here; I will mend thy feast.

311  First mend my company, take away thyself.

312  So I shall mend mine own, by the lack of thine.

313  'Tis not well mended so, it is but botch'd;
314  if not, I would it were.

315  What wouldst thou have to Athens?

316  Thee thither in a whirlwind. If thou wilt,
317  Tell them there I have gold; look, so I have.

318  Here is no use for gold.

319  The best and truest;
320  For here it sleeps, and does no hired harm.

321  Where liest o' nights, Timon?

322  Under that's above me.
323  Where feed'st thou o' days, Apemantus?

324  Where my stomach finds meat; or, rather, where I eat
325  it.

326  Would poison were obedient and knew my mind!

327  Where wouldst thou send it?

328  To sauce thy dishes.

329  The middle of humanity thou never knewest, but the
330  extremity of both ends: when thou wast in thy gilt
331  and thy perfume, they mocked thee for too much
332  curiosity; in thy rags thou knowest none, but art
333  despised for the contrary. There's a medlar for
334  thee, eat it.

335  On what I hate I feed not.

336  Dost hate a medlar?

337  Ay, though it look like thee.

338  An thou hadst hated meddlers sooner, thou shouldst
339  have loved thyself better now. What man didst thou
340  ever know unthrift that was beloved after his means?

341  Who, without those means thou talkest of, didst thou
342  ever know beloved?

343  Myself.

344  I understand thee; thou hadst some means to keep a
345  dog.

346  What things in the world canst thou nearest compare
347  to thy flatterers?

348  Women nearest; but men, men are the things
349  themselves. What wouldst thou do with the world,
350  Apemantus, if it lay in thy power?

351  Give it the beasts, to be rid of the men.

352  Wouldst thou have thyself fall in the confusion of
353  men, and remain a beast with the beasts?

354  Ay, Timon.

355  A beastly ambition, which the gods grant thee t'
356  attain to! If thou wert the lion, the fox would
357  beguile thee; if thou wert the lamb, the fox would
358  eat three: if thou wert the fox, the lion would
359  suspect thee, when peradventure thou wert accused by
360  the ass: if thou wert the ass, thy dulness would
361  torment thee, and still thou livedst but as a
362  breakfast to the wolf: if thou wert the wolf, thy
363  greediness would afflict thee, and oft thou shouldst
364  hazard thy life for thy dinner: wert thou the
365  unicorn, pride and wrath would confound thee and
366  make thine own self the conquest of thy fury: wert
367  thou a bear, thou wouldst be killed by the horse:
368  wert thou a horse, thou wouldst be seized by the
369  leopard: wert thou a leopard, thou wert german to
370  the lion and the spots of thy kindred were jurors on
371  thy life: all thy safety were remotion and thy
372  defence absence. What beast couldst thou be, that
373  were not subject to a beast? and what a beast art
374  thou already, that seest not thy loss in
375  transformation!

376  If thou couldst please me with speaking to me, thou
377  mightst have hit upon it here: the commonwealth of
378  Athens is become a forest of beasts.

379  How has the ass broke the wall, that thou art out of the city?

380  Yonder comes a poet and a painter: the plague of
381  company light upon thee! I will fear to catch it
382  and give way: when I know not what else to do, I'll
383  see thee again.

384  When there is nothing living but thee, thou shalt be
385  welcome. I had rather be a beggar's dog than Apemantus.

386  Thou art the cap of all the fools alive.

387  Would thou wert clean enough to spit upon!

388  A plague on thee! thou art too bad to curse.

389  All villains that do stand by thee are pure.

390  There is no leprosy but what thou speak'st.

391  If I name thee.
392  I'll beat thee, but I should infect my hands.

393  I would my tongue could rot them off!

394  Away, thou issue of a mangy dog!
395  Choler does kill me that thou art alive;
396  I swound to see thee.

397  Would thou wouldst burst!

398  Away,
399  Thou tedious rogue! I am sorry I shall lose
400  A stone by thee.

401  Beast!

402  Slave!

403  Toad!

404  Rogue, rogue, rogue!
405  I am sick of this false world, and will love nought
406  But even the mere necessities upon 't.
407  Then, Timon, presently prepare thy grave;
408  Lie where the light foam the sea may beat
409  Thy grave-stone daily: make thine epitaph,
410  That death in me at others' lives may laugh.
To the gold
411  O thou sweet king-killer, and dear divorce
412  'Twixt natural son and sire! thou bright defiler
413  Of Hymen's purest bed! thou valiant Mars!
414  Thou ever young, fresh, loved and delicate wooer,
415  Whose blush doth thaw the consecrated snow
416  That lies on Dian's lap! thou visible god,
417  That solder'st close impossibilities,
418  And makest them kiss! that speak'st with
419  every tongue,
420  To every purpose! O thou touch of hearts!
421  Think, thy slave man rebels, and by thy virtue
422  Set them into confounding odds, that beasts
423  May have the world in empire!

424  Would 'twere so!
425  But not till I am dead. I'll say thou'st gold:
426  Thou wilt be throng'd to shortly.

427  Throng'd to!

428  Ay.

429  Thy back, I prithee.

430  Live, and love thy misery.

431  Long live so, and so die.
Exit APEMANTUS
432  I am quit.
433  Moe things like men! Eat, Timon, and abhor them.

434  Where should he have this gold? It is some poor
435  fragment, some slender sort of his remainder: the
436  mere want of gold, and the falling-from of his
437  friends, drove him into this melancholy.

438  It is noised he hath a mass of treasure.

439  Let us make the assay upon him: if he care not
440  for't, he will supply us easily; if he covetously
441  reserve it, how shall's get it?

442  True; for he bears it not about him, 'tis hid.

443  Is not this he?

444  Where?

445  'Tis his description.

446  He; I know him.

447  Save thee, Timon.

448  Now, thieves?

449  Soldiers, not thieves.

450  Both too; and women's sons.

451  We are not thieves, but men that much do want.

452  Your greatest want is, you want much of meat.
453  Why should you want? Behold, the earth hath roots;
454  Within this mile break forth a hundred springs;
455  The oaks bear mast, the briers scarlet hips;
456  The bounteous housewife, nature, on each bush
457  Lays her full mess before you. Want! why want?

458  We cannot live on grass, on berries, water,
459  As beasts and birds and fishes.

460  Nor on the beasts themselves, the birds, and fishes;
461  You must eat men. Yet thanks I must you con
462  That you are thieves profess'd, that you work not
463  In holier shapes: for there is boundless theft
464  In limited professions. Rascal thieves,
465  Here's gold. Go, suck the subtle blood o' the grape,
466  Till the high fever seethe your blood to froth,
467  And so 'scape hanging: trust not the physician;
468  His antidotes are poison, and he slays
469  Moe than you rob: take wealth and lives together;
470  Do villany, do, since you protest to do't,
471  Like workmen. I'll example you with thievery.
472  The sun's a thief, and with his great attraction
473  Robs the vast sea: the moon's an arrant thief,
474  And her pale fire she snatches from the sun:
475  The sea's a thief, whose liquid surge resolves
476  The moon into salt tears: the earth's a thief,
477  That feeds and breeds by a composture stolen
478  From general excrement: each thing's a thief:
479  The laws, your curb and whip, in their rough power
480  Have uncheque'd theft. Love not yourselves: away,
481  Rob one another. There's more gold. Cut throats:
482  All that you meet are thieves: to Athens go,
483  Break open shops; nothing can you steal,
484  But thieves do lose it: steal no less for this
485  I give you; and gold confound you howsoe'er! Amen.

486  Has almost charmed me from my profession, by
487  persuading me to it.

488  'Tis in the malice of mankind that he thus advises
489  us; not to have us thrive in our mystery.

490  I'll believe him as an enemy, and give over my trade.

491  Let us first see peace in Athens: there is no time
492  so miserable but a man may be true.

493  O you gods!
494  Is yond despised and ruinous man my lord?
495  Full of decay and failing? O monument
496  And wonder of good deeds evilly bestow'd!
497  What an alteration of honour
498  Has desperate want made!
499  What viler thing upon the earth than friends
500  Who can bring noblest minds to basest ends!
501  How rarely does it meet with this time's guise,
502  When man was wish'd to love his enemies!
503  Grant I may ever love, and rather woo
504  Those that would mischief me than those that do!
505  Has caught me in his eye: I will present
506  My honest grief unto him; and, as my lord,
507  Still serve him with my life. My dearest master!

508  Away! what art thou?

509  Have you forgot me, sir?

510  Why dost ask that? I have forgot all men;
511  Then, if thou grant'st thou'rt a man, I have forgot thee.

512  An honest poor servant of yours.

513  Then I know thee not:
514  I never had honest man about me, I; all
515  I kept were knaves, to serve in meat to villains.

516  The gods are witness,
517  Ne'er did poor steward wear a truer grief
518  For his undone lord than mine eyes for you.

519  What, dost thou weep? Come nearer. Then I
520  love thee,
521  Because thou art a woman, and disclaim'st
522  Flinty mankind; whose eyes do never give
523  But thorough lust and laughter. Pity's sleeping:
524  Strange times, that weep with laughing, not with weeping!

525  I beg of you to know me, good my lord,
526  To accept my grief and whilst this poor wealth lasts
527  To entertain me as your steward still.

528  Had I a steward
529  So true, so just, and now so comfortable?
530  It almost turns my dangerous nature mild.
531  Let me behold thy face. Surely, this man
532  Was born of woman.
533  Forgive my general and exceptless rashness,
534  You perpetual-sober gods! I do proclaim
535  One honest man--mistake me not--but one;
536  No more, I pray,--and he's a steward.
537  How fain would I have hated all mankind!
538  And thou redeem'st thyself: but all, save thee,
539  I fell with curses.
540  Methinks thou art more honest now than wise;
541  For, by oppressing and betraying me,
542  Thou mightst have sooner got another service:
543  For many so arrive at second masters,
544  Upon their first lord's neck. But tell me true--
545  For I must ever doubt, though ne'er so sure--
546  Is not thy kindness subtle, covetous,
547  If not a usuring kindness, and, as rich men deal gifts,
548  Expecting in return twenty for one?

549  No, my most worthy master; in whose breast
550  Doubt and suspect, alas, are placed too late:
551  You should have fear'd false times when you did feast:
552  Suspect still comes where an estate is least.
553  That which I show, heaven knows, is merely love,
554  Duty and zeal to your unmatched mind,
555  Care of your food and living; and, believe it,
556  My most honour'd lord,
557  For any benefit that points to me,
558  Either in hope or present, I'ld exchange
559  For this one wish, that you had power and wealth
560  To requite me, by making rich yourself.

561  Look thee, 'tis so! Thou singly honest man,
562  Here, take: the gods out of my misery
563  Have sent thee treasure. Go, live rich and happy;
564  But thus condition'd: thou shalt build from men;
565  Hate all, curse all, show charity to none,
566  But let the famish'd flesh slide from the bone,
567  Ere thou relieve the beggar; give to dogs
568  What thou deny'st to men; let prisons swallow 'em,
569  Debts wither 'em to nothing; be men like
570  blasted woods,
571  And may diseases lick up their false bloods!
572  And so farewell and thrive.

573  O, let me stay,
574  And comfort you, my master.

575  If thou hatest curses,
576  Stay not; fly, whilst thou art blest and free:
577  Ne'er see thou man, and let me ne'er see thee.