Τοὔνομα δ’ οὐ πευσοισθε, κακοὶ δὲ κακῶς ἀπόλοισθε.”
Plutarch avers, “καὶ τοὺτο μὲν αὐτὸν ἔτιζῶντα πεποιηκέναι λέγουσι,”—“And people say that during his life he himself made this epitaph.” The narrator then adds, “τοὺτο δε περιφερόμενον, Καλλιμάχου εστι,”—“But this round the margin is by Callimachus,”—
“Τίμων μισάνθρωπος ἐσοικέω· ἀλλα πάρελθε
Οἰμώζειν εἴπας πολλὰ, πάρελθε μόνον.”
“I, Timon the manhater dwell within: but pass by,
To bewail me thou hast spoken many things;—only pass by.“
The two epitaphs Shakespeare has combined into one, showing indeed his acquaintance with the above passage through North’s Plutarch, but not discriminating the authorship of the two parts. North’s translation of the epitaphs is simple and expressive, but the Langhornes, in 1770, vulgarise the lines into,—
“At last I’ve bid the knaves farewell
Ask not my name, but go to hell.”
“My name is Timon: knaves begone,