Timon of Athens by William Shakespeare
Act 4 - Scene 1
Without the walls of Athens.
Timon : Let me look back upon thee. O thou wall,
[p]That girdlest in those
wolves, dive in the earth,
[p]And fence not Athens! Matrons, turn
incontinent!
[p]Obedience fail in children! slaves and fools,
[p]Pluck
the grave wrinkled senate from the bench,
[p]And minister in their
steads! to general filths
[p]Convert o' the instant, green
virginity,
[p]Do 't in your parents' eyes! bankrupts, hold
fast;
[p]Rather than render back, out with your knives,
[p]And cut
your trusters' throats! bound servants, steal!
[p]Large-handed robbers
your grave masters are,
[p]And pill by law. Maid, to thy master's
bed;
[p]Thy mistress is o' the brothel! Son of sixteen,
[p]pluck the
lined crutch from thy old limping sire,
[p]With it beat out his
brains! Piety, and fear,
[p]Religion to the gods, peace, justice,
truth,
[p]Domestic awe, night-rest, and neighbourhood,
[p]Instruction,
manners, mysteries, and trades,
[p]Degrees, observances, customs, and
laws,
[p]Decline to your confounding contraries,
[p]And let confusion
live! Plagues, incident to men,
[p]Your potent and infectious fevers
heap
[p]On Athens, ripe for stroke! Thou cold sciatica,
[p]Cripple our
senators, that their limbs may halt
[p]As lamely as their manners.
Lust and liberty
[p]Creep in the minds and marrows of our
youth,
[p]That 'gainst the stream of virtue they may strive,
[p]And
drown themselves in riot! Itches, blains,
[p]Sow all the Athenian
bosoms; and their crop
[p]Be general leprosy! Breath infect
breath,
[p]at their society, as their friendship, may
[p]merely
poison! Nothing I'll bear from thee,
[p]But nakedness, thou detestable
town!
[p]Take thou that too, with multiplying bans!
[p]Timon will to
the woods; where he shall find
[p]The unkindest beast more kinder than
mankind.
[p]The gods confound--hear me, you good gods all--
[p]The
Athenians both within and out that wall!
[p]And grant, as Timon grows,
his hate may grow
[p]To the whole race of mankind, high and low!
Amen.
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Next: Act 4 - Scene 2
