APEMANTUS Canst not read?

PAGE No.

APEMANTUS 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

APEMANTUS E‘en so thou outrunn’st grace. Fool, I will go with you to Lord Timon’s.

FOOL Will you leave me there?

APEMANTUS If Timon stay at home. (To Servants) You three serve three usurers?

ALL SERVANTS Ay. Would they served us.

APEMANTUS So would I: as good a trick as ever hangman served thief.

FOOL Are you three usurers’ men?

ALL SERVANTS Ay, fool. 95

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 merry, but they enter my mistress’s house merrily and go away sadly. The reason of this?

VARRO’S SERVANT I could render one.

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

VARRO’S SERVANT What is a whoremaster, fool?

FOOL A fool in good clothes, and something like thee. ’Tis a spirit; sometime ’t 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.

VARRO’S SERVANT Thou art not altogether a fool.

FOOL Nor thou altogether a wise man. As much foolery as I have, so much wit thou lack ’st.

APEMANTUS That answer might have become Apemantus. Enter Timon and Flavius

ALL SERVANTS Aside, aside, here comes Lord Timon.

APEMANTUS Come with me, fool, come.

FOOL I do not always follow lover, elder brother, and woman: sometime the philosopher.

Exeunt Apemantus and Fool

FLAVIUS (to Servants)

Pray you, walk near. I’ll speak with you anon.

Exeunt Servants

TIMON

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.

FLAVIUS You would not hear me.

At many leisures I proposed—

TIMON Go to.

Perchance some single vantages you took,

When my indisposition put you back,

And that unaptness made your minister

Thus to excuse yourself.

FLAVIUS O my good lord,

At many times I brought in my accounts,

Laid them before you; you would throw them off

And say you summed 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 th’authority of manners prayed 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 lovèd 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.

TIMON Let all my land be sold.

FLAVIUS

‘Tis all engaged, 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 reck’ning?

TIMON

To Lacedaemon did my land extend.

FLAVIUS

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.

TIMON You tell me true.

FLAVIUS

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 oppressed

With riotous feeders, when our vaults have wept

With drunken spilth of wine, when every room

Hath blazed with lights and brayed with minstrelsy,

I have retired me to a wasteful cock,

And set mine eyes at flow.

TIMON Prithee, no more.

FLAVIUS

‘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 show’rs,

These flies are couched.’

TIMON Come, sermon me no further.

No villainous bounty yet hath passed 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,

Men and men’s fortunes could I frankly use

As I can bid thee speak.

FLAVIUS Assurance bless your thoughts!

TIMON

And in some sort these wants of mine are crowned

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 a Third Servant

ALL SERVANTS

My lord, my lord.

TIMON I will dispatch you severally,

(To Servilius) You to Lord Lucius,

(To Flaminius) to Lord Lucullus you—

I hunted with his honour today—

(To Third Servant) You to Sempronius. Commend me

to their loves,

And I am proud, say, that my occasions have

Found time to use ’em toward a supply of money.

Let the request be fifty talents.

FLAMINIUS As you have said, my lord. Exeunt Servants