LUCULLUS.
Ha! Now I see thou art a fool and fit for thy master.
[Exit.]
FLAMINIUS.
May these add to the number that may scald thee!
Let molten coin be thy damnation,
Thou disease of a friend, and not himself!
Has friendship such a faint and milky heart
It turns in less than two nights? O you gods,
I feel my master’s passion. This slave
Unto his honour has my lord’s meat in him.
Why should it thrive and turn to nutriment
When he is turned to poison?
O, may diseases only work upon’t,
And when he’s sick to death, let not that part of nature
Which my lord paid for be of any power
To expel sickness, but prolong his hour.
[Exit.]
SCENE II. A public place
Enter Lucius with three Strangers.
LUCIUS.
Who, the Lord Timon? He is my very good friend and an honourable gentleman.
FIRST STRANGER.
We know him for no less, though we are but strangers to him. But I can tell you one thing, my lord, and which I hear from common rumours: now Lord Timon’s happy hours are done and past, and his estate shrinks from him.
LUCIUS.
Fie, no, do not believe it; he cannot want for money.
SECOND STRANGER.
But believe you this, my lord, that, not long ago one of his men was with the Lord Lucullus to borrow so many talents, nay, urged extremely for’t, and showed what necessity belonged to’t, and yet was denied.