Fool. She's e'en setting on water to scald such chickens as you are. Would we could see you at Corinth!

Apem. Good: gramercy.

Enter Page.

Fool. Look you, here comes my mistress' page.

Page. [To the Fool.] Why, how now, captain! what do you in this wise company?-How dost thou, Apemantus? Apem. Would I had a rod in my mouth, that I might answer thee profitably.

Page. Pr'ythee, Apemantus, read me the superscription of these letters: I know not which is which.

Apem. Canst not read?

Page. No.

Apem. There will little learning die, then, that day thou art hanged. This is to lord Timon; this to Alcibiades. Go thou wast born a bastard, and thou 'lt die a bawd. Page. Thou wast whelped a dog; and thou shalt famish, a dog's death. Answer not; I am gone. [Exit Page. Apem. Even so thou outrunn'st grace. Fool, I will go

with you to lord Timon's.

Fool. Will you leave me there?

Apem. If Timon stay at home. You three serve three

All Serv. I would they served us!

Apem. So would I,-as good a trick as ever hangman served thief.

Fool. Are you three usurers' men?

All Serv. Ay, fool.

Fool. I think, no usurer but has a fool to his servant: my mistress is one, and I am her fool. When men come to

borrow of your masters, they approach sadly, and go away merrily; but they enter my mistress' house merrily, and go away sadly. The reason of this?

Var. Serv. I could render one.

Apem. Do it, then, that we may account thee a whoremaster, and a knave; which notwithstanding, thou shalt be no less esteemed.

Var. Serv. What is a whoremaster, fool?

Fool. A fool in good clothes, and something like thee. 'Tis a spirit: sometime it appears like a lord; sometime like a lawyer; sometime like a philosopher with two stones more than 's artificial one. He is very often like a knight; and generally, in all shapes that man goes up and down in from fourscore to thirteen, this spirit walks in.

Var. Serv. Thou art not altogether a fool.

Fool. Nor thou altogether a wise man as much foolery as I have, so much wit thou lackest.

Apem. That answer might have become Apemantus.
All Serv. Aside, aside: here comes lord Timon.

Re-enter TIMON and FLAVIUS.

Apem. Come with me, fool, come.

Fool. I do not always follow lover, elder brother, and woman; sometime, the philosopher.

[Exeunt APEMANTUS and Fool. Flav. Pray you, walk near: I'll speak with you anon. [Exeunt Servants.

Tim. You make me marvel. Wherefore, ere this time,

Had you not fully laid my state before me,
That I might so have rated my expense

As I had leave of means?

Flav.

At many leisures I propos'd.

Tim.

You would not hear me,

Go to:

Perchance, some single vantages you took,
When my indisposition put you back;
And that unaptness made you minister,
Thus to excuse yourself.

Flav.

O, my good lord!

At many times I brought in my accounts,

Laid them before you: you would throw them off,
And say, you found them in mine honesty.

When for some trifling present you have bid me
Return so much, I have shook my head, and wept;
Yea, 'gainst the authority of manners, pray'd you
To hold your hand more close: I did endure
Not seldom nor no slight checks, when I have
Prompted you, in the ebb of your estate,
And your great flow of debts. My dear-lov'd lord,
Though you hear now (too late), yet now 's a time:
The greatest of your having lacks a half

To pay your present debts.

Let all my land be sold.

Tim.
Flav. 'Tis all engag'd, some forfeited and gone;
And what remains will hardly stop the mouth

Of present dues. The future comes apace;
What shall defend the interim? and at length
How goes our reckoning?

Tim. To Lacedæmon did my land extend.

Flav. O, my good lord! the world is but a word; Were it all yours to give it in a breath,

How quickly were it gone!

Tim.

You tell me true.

Flav. If you suspect my husbandry, or falsehood,
Call me before th' exactest auditors,

And set me on the proof. So the gods bless me,
When all our offices have been oppress'd
With riotous feeders; when our vaults have wept
With drunken spilth of wine; when every room
Hath blaz'd with lights, and bray'd with minstrelsy,
I have retir'd me to a wasteful nook,"

And set mine eyes at flow.

Tim.

Pr'ythee, no more.

Flav. Heavens, have I said, the bounty of this lord!

How many prodigal bits have slaves and peasants

This night englutted! Who is not Timon's?

What heart, head, sword, force, means, but is lord Timon's?

Great Timon, noble, worthy, royal Timon!

Ah! when the means are gone that buy this praise,

The breath is gone whereof this praise is made:

Feast-won, fast-lost; one cloud of winter showers,
These flies are couch'd.

Tim.

Come, sermon me no farther.

No villainous bounty yet hath pass'd my heart;
Unwisely, not ignobly, have I given.

Why dost thou weep? Canst thou the conscience lack,
To think I shall lack friends? Secure thy heart,
If I would broach the vessels of my love,
And try the argument of hearts by borrowing,

• I have retir'd me to a wasteful NOOK,] An unfrequented cornerthe old copies have cock for "nook," a mere misprint set right in the Corr. fol. 1632. Whatever his unreasoning eye caught at the first glance the old compositor generally printed.

Men, and men's fortunes, could I frankly use

As I can bid thee speak.

Flav.

Assurance bless your thoughts!

Tim. And, in some sort, these wants of mine are crown'd,

That I account them blessings; for by these

Shall I try friends. You shall perceive how you
Mistake my fortunes: I am wealthy in my friends.
Within there !-Flaminius! Servilius!

Enter FLAMINIUS, SERVILIUS, and other Servants.
Servants. My lord? my lord ?—

Tim. I will dispatch you severally.-You, to lord Lucius; -to lord Lucullus you; I hunted with his honour to-day : —you, to Sempronius. Commend me to their loves; and, I am proud, say, that my occasions have found time to use them toward a supply of money: let the request be fifty talents.

Flam. As you have said, my lord. [Excunt two. Flav. Lord Lucius and Lucullus? humph! [Aside. Tim. Go you, sir [to another Serv.] to the senators, (Of whom, even to the state's best health, I have Deserv'd this hearing) bid 'em send, o' the instant, A thousand talents to me.

Flav.
I have been bold,
(For that I knew it the most general way)
To them to use your signet, and your name;
But they do shake their heads, and I am here
No richer in return.

Tim.

Is 't true? can't be ?

Flav. They answer, in a joint and corporate voice, That now they are at fall, want treasure, cannot

Do what they would; are sorry-you are honourable,—