TIMON OF ATHENS.
Act I.
Sc. 1.
"My free drift
Halts not particularly, but moves along
In a wide sea of wax. No levell'd malice
Infects one comma in the course I hold,
But flies an eagle's flight, bold and forth on,
Leaving no tract behind."
There is much here that seems dubious. Holds might seem preferable to 'Halts'; yet I would make no change; for 'Halts not particularly,' I think, may mean stops at, dwells on, no individual. For 'wax' we might read, as has been proposed, verse; but the allusion may be to the waxed tables on which the ancients wrote. We might also read Which for 'But,' yet it is more probable that a line is lost before it.
"To those have shut him up; which failing him."
So Capell also; 2nd folio to him.
"My friend when he must need me."
Better, perhaps, with 3rd folio, most needs.
"Therefore he will be, Timon."
Something is lost after 'be,' and Timon is never addressed during his prosperity by any one but Apemantus without Lord or some other title of honour. I therefore read 'he will be blest, Lord Timon.' In ii. 2, we have an omission of 'Lord' by the printer. Singer proposed rewarded after 'be.' Possibly 'Timon' was a mere addition of the printer's.
"That I had no angry wit to be a lord."
I cannot find a meaning in this. Perhaps 'no' should be so, and 'angry' little, mean, poor, or something of the kind. Warburton read hungry. Singer's folio an empty.
"Traffic's thy god, and may thy god confound thee!"
Sc. 2.
"Than my fortunes are to me."
"But yonder man is ever angery."
"Let me stay here at thine apperil, Timon."
Timon had assigned him 'a table by himself.'
"Here's that which is too weak to be a sinner."
We should, of course, read liar to rime with mire.
"Amen, amen. So fall to't."
"Much good dich thy good heart, Apemantus!"
This might seem to be a mere misprint of do it; but it is in reality a mere corruption of it.
"Please you, my lord, there are certain ladies who are."
"The ear,
Taste, touch, smell, pleased from thy table rise."
The admirable restoration of Warburton. The 4tos and folio had "There, taste, touch, all pleas'd from thy table rise." The two first letters of smell had probably been effaced. See on Ham. iii. 4.
"You have added worth and lustre unto it."
In the originals 'unto't and lustre.' The 2nd folio reads 'and lively lustre.'
"Vouchsafe me a word; it does concern you near.—
Neär? Why, then, another time I'll hear thee.
I pr'ythee let us be provided now
To show them entertainment.—I scarce know how."
Metre and rime both seem to require this addition. Perhaps in the two first lines we should read 'nearly,' thus making a rime, or omit 'thee.'
"May it please your honour, the lord Lucius."
"Four milk-white horses, trapp'd in silver-harness."
"Thy horses shall be trapp'd,
Their harness studded all with gold and pearl."
Tam. of Shrew, Induct. ii.
"And now I remember me, my lord, you gave."
"I doubt me whether their legs be worth the sums."
Act II.
Sc. 1.
"It cannot hold; no reason
Can sound his state in safety."
If 'sound' be the right word, it must be a nautical metaphor. Editors in general read found.
"Plays in the right hand thus;—but tell him that."
"Ay go, sir.—Take the bonds along with you,
And have the dates in. Come...."
This is the reading of the folio, and is perfectly intelligible; perhaps we should read 'in mind.' Editors in general follow Theobald in reading for 'Come' compt.
Sc. 2.
"Never mind
Was to be so unwise, to be so kind."
Here 'to be' is being. See Introd. p. [70].
"What shall be done? He will not hear till he feel."
"He humbly prays your speedy payment of."
"With clamorous demands of [debt] broken bonds."
I think 'debt' was introduced from the next line. Malone reads 'date-broken.'
"Look you, here comes my master's page."
For 'master's,' both here, and in the following speech, Malone very properly read 'mistress'.' See on Tam. of Shr. i. 2.
"I have retired me to a wasteful cock."
By 'cock' here can only be meant a cockloft, and perhaps, as it is at the end of the line, loft may have been effaced. See Introd. p. [58].
"This night englutted! Who is not Lord Timon's?"
"Canst thou the conscience lack
To think I shall lack friends?"
As to lack conscience is to be unconscionable, and would sound here rather ironically, I think 'lack' has been suggested by the following line for have, or some other word.
"Men and men's fortunes could I as frankly use."
"And in some sort these wants of mine are crown'd."
Here also 'crown'd' seems to occupy the place of some other word.
"I pr'ythee, man, look cheerly; these old fellows."
"I would I could not [think it]. That thought is bounty's foe."
Several of the editors concur in this proper omission.
Act III.
Sc. 1.
"This slave
Unto his honour has my lord's meat in him."
As this is not sense it requires emendation, and the simplest, I think, is dishonour for 'his honour.' I had also conjectured this hour, in which I had been anticipated. Collier's folio reads humour. Mr. Dyce thinks the error is in 'slave,' for which he reads scandal, quoting "This scandal of his blood" (R. II. i. 1). "Thou slander of thy heavy mother's womb" (R. III. i. 3). It must be observed that neither slave nor scandal is followed by unto elsewhere in Shakespeare.
"In him when he is turned to poison? Oh, may."
Sc. 2.
"Yet had he mistook him and sent to me."
I do not see the meaning of 'mistook' here, and I have no probable emendation to offer. For 'so many talents' here and elsewhere in this scene some read 'fifty talents.'
"The more beast I, I say."
"And just of the same piece
Is every flatterer's sport."
Theobald's reading, spirit for 'sport,' should be received.
"And kept his credit, with his purse, upright."
"He does deny him, in respect of his want."
It is quite plain that this or some such word was effaced.
Sc. 3.
"Has Lucullus and Ventidius denied him?
And does he send to me? Three ... humph! It shows
But little love or judgement in him. Must I
Be his last refuge? His friends, like physicians,
Thrice give him over."
For 'Thrice,' the correction of Johnson, the folio reads Thrive, which Steevens and Malone retain. It also reads 'Ventidius and Lucullus.'
"I may be thought a fool."
The 2nd folio added I; the may seems also necessary.
"Save the gods only. Now his friends are dead."
So also Hanmer; the folio has 'only the gods.'
Sc. 4.
"We cannot take this for an answer, sir."
"Lucius, Lucullus, and Sempronius, Ullorxa, all."
The barbarous term 'Ullorxa' is, I suspect, a mere corruption of all on 'em. How it has perplexed the critics!
Sc. 5.
"He did behave his anger, ere 'twas spent."
'Behave' is Warburton's reading for 'behove' of the folio. It is generally followed, but I am dubious of it. Jackson and Singer have proposed behood.
"And not endure all threats? sleep upon't."
With Hanmer, I read threatnings, for the sake of the metre.
"Without repugnancy? if there be then."
Hanmer read 'But if.'
"The fellow
Loaden with irons wiser than the judge."
For 'fellow' Johnson read felon, which I adopt.
"Why, I say, my lords, he has done fair service."
This is the reading of the 2nd folio.
"He has made too much plenty with himself."
"If there were no other foes, this were enough."
"Only in bone, that none may look upon you."
For 'in bone,' which is not very clear, Mr. Staunton would read at home.
"Pours into captain's wounds?—Ha! banishment!"
Sc. 6.
"The swallow follows not summer more willingly."
"Who stuck and spangled by you with flatteries."
Hanmer reads 'with your flatteries.'
Act IV.
Sc. 1.
"Thy mistress is o' the brothel."
I read without hesitation 'at the brothel.' The t in at was not sounded. See Introd. p. [52].
"Pluck the lin'd crutch from thy old limping sire."
In its ordinary sense, and I know no other, 'lined' cannot be applied to a crutch. I therefore read lean'd, with an ellipsis, in the usual manner, of on, which would give a tolerable sense. See Tr. and Cr. v. 3.
"Rise mov'd, and gravely leaning on one crutch,
Lift the other like a sceptre."
Fletch. Beggar's Bush, ii. 1.
"And yet confusion live!"
I prefer let; Hanmer did the same.
Sc. 2.
"As we do turn our backs
From our companion thrown into his grave,
So his familiars to his buried fortunes ...
Slink all away, leave their false vows with him," etc.
If we read Upon or On for 'From,' and point as I have done, all seems simple enough. M. Mason ingeniously transposed 'From' and 'to.' After all, however, 'From' may have been the poet's word.
"And we, poor mates, stand on the dying deck."
A 'dying deck' is an odd expression; sinking would apparently make better sense. Yet dying bed, i.e. death-bed, may still be heard.
"Who would be so mock'd with glory? or to live
But in a dream of friendship, and survive
To have his pomp and all what state comprehends
But only painted, like his varnish'd friends?"
I have ventured on these corrections, as this part of the speech is in rime. The folio reads 'compounds.' Collier's folio and Sidney Walker also propose comprehends. For 'or to live' we might read 'or would live.' See Temp. iii. 1.
"I'll follow and enquire him out, and then."
Sc. 3.
"The greater scorns the lesser; not even that nature,
To which all sores lay siege, can bear great fortune
But by contempt of nature. Raise me this beggar,
And deny't that lord, the senator shall bear
Contempt hereditary, the beggar native honour.
It is the pasture lards the rother's sides,
The want that makes him lean."
The excellent correction of 'rother' for brother of the folio is due to Mr. Singer, and to Collier's folio. Rother-(hryther A.S.) beast is juvencus; there was a rother-market in Stratford.
"A thousand herds of rother-beasts he in his field did keep."
Golding, Ovid. p. 52.
For 'lean' the folio has leave, an evident misprint. With respect to the addition to the first line, it is demanded by the metre, and the meaning is that even a diseased beggar, a Lazarus as it were, would have to change his nature to be able to bear prosperity with equanimity.
"Black, white; foul, fair; wrong, right; * * *"
Perhaps the lost words may have been guilt, innocence, or guilty, innocent.
"Pluck stout men's pillows from below their heads."
Hanmer read 'sick men's,' alluding to a practice of hired nurses.
"This, this, it is
That makes the wappen'd widow wed again."
For 'wappen'd' Singer read wapper'd, worn out, debilitated, of the use of which word he gives examples.
"With man's blood paint the ground gules, gules; for if."
A foot has certainly been lost. Sense seems to require this addition.
"For that by killing
Of villains thou wast born to conquer my country."
"For those milk-paps
That through the window barne bore at men's eyes,
Are not within the leaf of pity writ,
But set 'em down horrible traitors. Spare not the babe."
This is a difficult passage. 'Milk-paps' seems to mean tender young maidens, and editors are probably right in reading bars for 'barne.' The 'bars,' as Mr. Staunton observes, seem to mean the cross-lacing on the bosom, still to be seen in Switzerland. We should perhaps omit ''em,' not 'But,' as the editors do, in the last line.
"And be no turn-coats. Yet may your pains six months thence."
"Nor sound his quillets shrilly; hoar the flamen."
Singer adopts Upton's reading of hoarse for 'hoar'; but though it would agree with what follows, I know of no such verb. We might read 'make hoar,' or 'make hoarse.'
"Derive some pain from you. Plague all of them."
"Men daily find it so. Get thee away."
"Teems and feeds all; whose self-same forming metal."
"Yield him who all the human sons doth hate."
Here again, as so often, we have 'the' for thy.
"Dry up thy marrows, vines, and plough-torn leas."
For 'marrows' Mr. Dyce reads 'marrowy,' Collier's folio meadows. I read married sc. to the elms, etc. The marriage of the elm and the vine is noticed in Com. of Errors, ii. 2, Cymb. i. 7.
"Whereof ungrateful man, with liquorish draughts,
And morsels unctuous, greases his pure mind."
As 'pure' is rather an odd expression in the mouth of Timon, we should perhaps read 'impure.' The negative is often thus omitted. See on Com. of Err. ii. 2.
"From change of fortune. Why this spade? this place?"
The folio has 'change of future'; the correction was made independently by Southern and Rowe.
"Will these moist trees
That have outliv'd the eagle."
Hanmer's emendation of moss'd for 'moist' has been generally and justly received.
"Willing misery
Outlives incertain pomp, is crown'd before it."
"At duty, more than I could frame employment;"
There is evidently a line lost here.
"If thou wilt curse thy father, that poor rag."
For 'rag' Johnson read rogue, which is also in Singer's folio, and is probably right, as he afterwards terms him "poor rogue hereditary."
"First mend my company. Take thyself away."
The folio reads thy for 'my.'
"'Twixt natural son and sire."
The folio reads sun and fire.
"Do villainy, do, since you profess to do it."
The reading of the folio is 'protest,' and also 'villain.'
"Break open shops; for nothing can you steal
But thieves do lose it. Steal not the less for this."
Rowe also added not, which was indispensable.
"It almost turns my dangerous nature wild."
The context plainly shows that for 'wild' we should, with Warburton, read mild.
"No more I pray you—and, he is a steward."
"If not a usuring kindness, and, as rich men deal gifts."
It was the opinion of the sagacious Tyrwhitt that 'If not' is a mere insertion of the printer's, suggested by 'Is not' in the preceding line. I have, however, little doubt but it should be, as I have printed it, "Is it not a usuring kindness?"
"Exchange it for this one wish, that you had power."
Act V.
Sc. 1.
"To load our purposes, with what they travel for."
Collier's folio reads purses. In that case 'they' should be we.
"When the day serves, before black-corner'd night."
For 'corner'd' some read coned, crowned, cover'd. Singer and Dyce curtain'd. I have given cover'd.
"Know his gross patchery, love him, feed him, and."
"You have worked for me, there is payment. Hence!"
Malone, who is usually followed, reads 'done work.'
Sc. 2.
"To stop affliction let him take his haste."
Perhaps 'take' should be make.
Sc. 5.
"On those that are revenges; crimes like lands
Are not inherited."
"But shall be remedied to your public laws."
For 'remedied' Singer read remitted. I adopt render'd, the reading of M. Mason.