Timon of Athens by William Shakespeare

Act 5 - Scene 1

The woods. Before Timon’s cave.

Painter : As I took note of the place, it cannot be far where [p]he abides.

Poet : What's to be thought of him? does the rumour hold [p]for true, that
he's so full of gold?

Painter : Certain: Alcibiades reports it; Phrynia and [p]Timandra had gold of
him: he likewise enriched poor [p]straggling soldiers with great
quantity: 'tis said [p]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 [p]again, and
flourish with the highest. Therefore [p]'tis not amiss we tender our
loves to him, in this [p]supposed distress of his: it will show
honestly in [p]us; and is very likely to load our purposes
with [p]what they travail for, if it be a just true report [p]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 [p]promise him an
excellent piece.

Poet : I must serve him so too, tell him of an intent [p]that's coming toward
him.

Painter : Good as the best. Promising is the very air o' the [p]time: it opens
the eyes of expectation: [p]performance is ever the duller for his
act; and, [p]but in the plainer and simpler kind of people,
the [p]deed of saying is quite out of use. To promise is [p]most
courtly and fashionable: performance is a kind [p]of will or testament
which argues a great sickness [p]in his judgment that makes it.

Timon : [Aside] Excellent workman! thou canst not paint a [p]man so bad as is
thyself.

Poet : I am thinking what I shall say I have provided for [p]him: it must be
a personating of himself; a satire [p]against the softness of
prosperity, with a discovery [p]of the infinite flatteries that follow
youth and opulency.

Timon : [Aside] Must thou needs stand for a villain in [p]thine own work? wilt
thou whip thine own faults in [p]other men? Do so, I have gold for
thee.

Poet : Nay, let's seek him: [p]Then do we sin against our own estate, [p]When
we may profit meet, and come too late.

Painter : True; [p]When the day serves, before black-corner'd night, [p]Find
what thou want'st by free and offer'd light. Come.

Timon : [Aside] I'll meet you at the turn. What a [p]god's gold, [p]That he is
worshipp'd in a baser temple [p]Than where swine feed! [p]'Tis thou
that rigg'st the bark and plough'st the foam, [p]Settlest admired
reverence in a slave: [p]To thee be worship! and thy saints for
aye [p]Be crown'd with plagues that thee alone obey! [p]Fit I meet
them.

Poet : Hail, worthy Timon!

Painter : Our late noble master!

Timon : Have I once lived to see two honest men?

Poet : Sir, [p]Having often of your open bounty tasted, [p]Hearing you were
retired, your friends fall'n off, [p]Whose thankless natures--O
abhorred spirits!-- [p]Not all the whips of heaven are large
enough: [p]What! to you, [p]Whose star-like nobleness gave life and
influence [p]To their whole being! I am rapt and cannot cover [p]The
monstrous bulk of this ingratitude [p]With any size of words.

Timon : Let it go naked, men may see't the better: [p]You that are honest, by
being what you are, [p]Make them best seen and known.

Painter : He and myself [p]Have travail'd in the great shower of your
gifts, [p]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? [p]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; [p]I am sure you have:
speak truth; ye're honest men.

Painter : So it is said, my noble lord; but therefore [p]Came not my friend nor
I.

Timon : Good honest men! Thou draw'st a counterfeit [p]Best in all Athens:
thou'rt, indeed, the best; [p]Thou counterfeit'st most lively.

Painter : So, so, my lord.

Timon : E'en so, sir, as I say. And, for thy fiction, [p]Why, thy verse swells
with stuff so fine and smooth [p]That thou art even natural in thine
art. [p]But, for all this, my honest-natured friends, [p]I must needs
say you have a little fault: [p]Marry, 'tis not monstrous in you,
neither wish I [p]You take much pains to mend.

Both : Beseech your honour [p]To make it known to us.

Timon : You'll take it ill.

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, [p]That mightily
deceives you.

Both : Do we, my lord?

Timon : Ay, and you hear him cog, see him dissemble, [p]Know his gross
patchery, love him, feed him, [p]Keep in your bosom: yet remain
assured [p]That he's a made-up villain.

Painter : I know none such, my lord.

Poet : Nor I.

Timon : Look you, I love you well; I'll give you gold, [p]Rid me these
villains from your companies: [p]Hang them or stab them, drown them in
a draught, [p]Confound them by some course, and come to me, [p]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; [p]Each man apart, all
single and alone, [p]Yet an arch-villain keeps him company. [p]If
where thou art two villains shall not be, [p]Come not near him. If
thou wouldst not reside [p]But where one villain is, then him
abandon. [p]Hence, pack! there's gold; you came for gold, ye
slaves: [p][To Painter] [p]You have work'd for me; there's payment for
you: hence! [p][To Poet] [p]You are an alchemist; make gold of
that. [p]Out, rascal dogs!

Flavius : It is in vain that you would speak with Timon; [p]For he is set so
only to himself [p]That nothing but himself which looks like man [p]Is
friendly with him.

First Senator : Bring us to his cave: [p]It is our part and promise to the
Athenians [p]To speak with Timon.

Second Senator : At all times alike [p]Men are not still the same: 'twas time and
griefs [p]That framed him thus: time, with his fairer
hand, [p]Offering the fortunes of his former days, [p]The former man
may make him. Bring us to him, [p]And chance it as it may.

Flavius : Here is his cave. [p]Peace and content be here! Lord Timon!
Timon! [p]Look out, and speak to friends: the Athenians, [p]By two of
their most reverend senate, greet thee: [p]Speak to them, noble
Timon.

Timon : Thou sun, that comfort'st, burn! Speak, and [p]be hang'd: [p]For each
true word, a blister! and each false [p]Be as cauterizing to the root
o' the tongue, [p]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, [p]Could I but
catch it for them.

First Senator : O, forget [p]What we are sorry for ourselves in thee. [p]The senators
with one consent of love [p]Entreat thee back to Athens; who have
thought [p]On special dignities, which vacant lie [p]For thy best use
and wearing.

Second Senator : They confess [p]Toward thee forgetfulness too general, gross: [p]Which
now the public body, which doth seldom [p]Play the recanter, feeling
in itself [p]A lack of Timon's aid, hath sense withal [p]Of its own
fail, restraining aid to Timon; [p]And send forth us, to make their
sorrow'd render, [p]Together with a recompense more fruitful [p]Than
their offence can weigh down by the dram; [p]Ay, even such heaps and
sums of love and wealth [p]As shall to thee blot out what wrongs were
theirs [p]And write in thee the figures of their love, [p]Ever to read
them thine.

Timon : You witch me in it; [p]Surprise me to the very brink of tears: [p]Lend
me a fool's heart and a woman's eyes, [p]And I'll beweep these
comforts, worthy senators.

First Senator : Therefore, so please thee to return with us [p]And of our Athens,
thine and ours, to take [p]The captainship, thou shalt be met with
thanks, [p]Allow'd with absolute power and thy good name [p]Live with
authority: so soon we shall drive back [p]Of Alcibiades the approaches
wild, [p]Who, like a boar too savage, doth root up [p]His country's
peace.

Second Senator : And shakes his threatening sword [p]Against the walls of Athens.

First Senator : Therefore, Timon,--

Timon : Well, sir, I will; therefore, I will, sir; thus: [p]If Alcibiades kill
my countrymen, [p]Let Alcibiades know this of Timon, [p]That Timon
cares not. But if be sack fair Athens, [p]And take our goodly aged men
by the beards, [p]Giving our holy virgins to the stain [p]Of
contumelious, beastly, mad-brain'd war, [p]Then let him know, and tell
him Timon speaks it, [p]In pity of our aged and our youth, [p]I cannot
choose but tell him, that I care not, [p]And let him take't at worst;
for their knives care not, [p]While you have throats to answer: for
myself, [p]There's not a whittle in the unruly camp [p]But I do prize
it at my love before [p]The reverend'st throat in Athens. So I leave
you [p]To the protection of the prosperous gods, [p]As thieves to
keepers.

Flavius : Stay not, all's in vain.

Timon : Why, I was writing of my epitaph; [p]it will be seen to-morrow: my
long sickness [p]Of health and living now begins to mend, [p]And
nothing brings me all things. Go, live still; [p]Be Alcibiades your
plague, you his, [p]And last so long enough!

First Senator : We speak in vain.

Timon : But yet I love my country, and am not [p]One that rejoices in the
common wreck, [p]As common bruit doth put it.

First Senator : That's well spoke.

Timon : Commend me to my loving countrymen,--

First Senator : These words become your lips as they pass [p]thorough them.

Second Senator : And enter in our ears like great triumphers [p]In their applauding
gates.

Timon : Commend me to them, [p]And tell them that, to ease them of their
griefs, [p]Their fears of hostile strokes, their aches,
losses, [p]Their pangs of love, with other incident throes [p]That
nature's fragile vessel doth sustain [p]In life's uncertain voyage, I
will some kindness do them: [p]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, [p]That mine own use
invites me to cut down, [p]And shortly must I fell it: tell my
friends, [p]Tell Athens, in the sequence of degree [p]From high to low
throughout, that whoso please [p]To stop affliction, let him take his
haste, [p]Come hither, ere my tree hath felt the axe, [p]And hang
himself. I pray you, do my greeting.

Flavius : Trouble him no further; thus you still shall find him.

Timon : Come not to me again: but say to Athens, [p]Timon hath made his
everlasting mansion [p]Upon the beached verge of the salt
flood; [p]Who once a day with his embossed froth [p]The turbulent
surge shall cover: thither come, [p]And let my grave-stone be your
oracle. [p]Lips, let sour words go by and language end: [p]What is
amiss plague and infection mend! [p]Graves only be men's works and
death their gain! [p]Sun, hide thy beams! Timon hath done his reign.

First Senator : His discontents are unremoveably [p]Coupled to nature.

Second Senator : Our hope in him is dead: let us return, [p]And strain what other means
is left unto us [p]In our dear peril.

First Senator : It requires swift foot.

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