“Nor I nor any man that but man is
With nothing shall be pleased, till he be eased
With being nothing:”
And Timon says to Flavius:
“My long sickness
Of health and living now begins to mend
And nothing brings me all things.”
Then the end:
“Timon hath made his everlasting mansion
Upon the beachèd verge of the salt flood....”
We must not leave this play before noticing the overpowering erotic strain in Shakespeare which suits Timon as little as it suited Lear. The long discussion with Phrynia and Timandra is simply dragged in: neither woman is characterized: Shakespeare-Timon eases himself in pages of erotic raving:
“... Strike me the counterfeit matron;
It is her habit only that is honest,
Herself's a bawd:...”
And then:
“Consumptions sow
In hollow bones of man...........
...............Down with the nose,
Down with it flat; take the bridge quite away ...”
The “damned earth” even is “the common whore of mankind.”