ACT V.
Scene 5. Page 658.
Alcib. Here lies a wretched corse, &c.
There is a fourth epitaph on Timon, which is scarcely worth mentioning, but as it perhaps completes the list, and might even, as well as that in Kendal and Painter, have suggested the slight alteration made by Shakspeare. It is in Pettie's translation of Guazzo's Civile conversation, 1586, 4to, fo. 5, as follows:
"Here doe I lie, ne am the same
I heretofore was wont to bee;
Thou reader never aske my name,
A wretched end God send to thee."
THE FOOL.
The fool in this play is a very obscure and insignificant character. Dr. Johnson's conjecture that he belongs to one of Alcibiades's mistresses is extremely probable. Many ancient prints conduce to show that women of this description were attended by buffoons; and there is good reason for supposing, partly from the same kind of evidence, that in most brothels such characters were maintained to amuse the guests by their broad jokes and seasonable antics. In Measure for measure we have such a person, who is also a tapster; and in Antony and Cleopatra, Act I. Scene 1, we hear of a strumpet's fool.
The dress, in the present instance, should be a party-coloured garment, with a hood and asses' ears, and a cock's comb. He might also carry a bauble.