TIMON On what I hate I feed not.

APEMANTUS Dost hate a medlar?

TIMON Ay, though it look like thee.

APEMANTUS An thou’dst hated meddlers sooner, thou shouldst have loved thyself better now. What man didst thou ever know unthrift that was beloved after his means?

TIMON Who, without those means thou talk’st of, didst thou ever know beloved?

APEMANTUS Myself.

TIMON I understand thee: thou hadst some means to keep a dog.

APEMANTUS What things in the world canst thou nearest compare to thy flatterers?

TIMON Women nearest; but men, men are the things themselves. What wouldst thou do with the world, Apemantus, if it lay in thy power?

APEMANTUS Give it the beasts, to be rid of the men.

TIMON Wouldst thou have thyself fall in the confusion of men, and remain a beast with the beasts?

APEMANTUS Ay, Timon.

TIMON A beastly ambition, which the gods grant thee t‘attain to. If thou wert the lion, the fox would beguile thee. If thou wert the lamb, the fox would eat thee. If thou wert the fox, the lion would suspect thee when peradventure thou wert accused by the ass. If thou wert the ass, thy dullness would torment thee, and still thou lived’st but as a breakfast to the wolf. If thou wert the wolf, thy greediness would afflict thee, and oft thou shouldst hazard thy life for thy dinner. Wert thou the unicorn, pride and wrath would confound thee, and make thine own self the conquest of thy fury. Wert thou a bear, thou wouldst be killed by the horse. Wert thou a horse, thou wouldst be seized by the leopard. Wert thou a leopard, thou wert german to the lion, and the spots of thy kindred were jurors on thy life; all thy safety were remotion, and thy defence absence. What beast couldst thou be that were not subject to a beast? And what a beast art thou already, that seest not thy loss in transformation!

APEMANTUS If thou couldst please me with speaking to me, thou mightst have hit upon it here. The commonwealth of Athens is become a forest of beasts.

TIMON How, has the ass broke the wall, that thou art out of the city?

APEMANTUS Yonder comes a poet and a painter. The plague of company light upon thee! I will fear to catch it, and give way. When I know not what else to do, I’ll see thee again. 356

TIMON When there is nothing living but thee, thou shalt be welcome. I had rather be a beggar’s dog than Apemantus.

APEMANTUS

Thou art the cap of all the fools alive.

TIMON

Would thou wert clean enough to spit upon.

APEMANTUS

A plague on thee! Thou art too bad to curse.

TIMON

All villains that do stand by thee are pure.

APEMANTUS

There is no leprosy but what thou speak’st.

TIMON If I name thee.

I’d beat thee, but I should infect my hands.

APEMANTUS

I would my tongue could rot them off.

TIMON

Away, thou issue of a mangy dog!

Choler does kill me that thou art alive.

I swoon to see thee.

APEMANTUS Would thou wouldst burst!

TIMON Away, thou tedious rogue!

⌈He throws a stone at Apemantus⌉

I am sorry I shall lose a stone by thee.

APEMANTUS Beast!

TIMON Slave!

APEMANTUS Toad!

TIMON Rogue, rogue, rogue!

I am sick of this false world, and will love naught

But even the mere necessities upon’t.

Then, Timon, presently prepare thy grave.

Lie where the light foam of the sea may beat

Thy gravestone daily. Make thine epitaph,

That death in me at others’ lives may laugh.

He looks on the gold

O, thou sweet king-killer, and dear divorce

‘Twixt natural son and sire; thou bright defiler

Of Hymen’s purest bed; thou valiant Mars;

Thou ever young, fresh, loved, and delicate wooer,

Whose blush doth thaw the consecrated snow

That lies on Dian’s lap; thou visible god,

That sold’rest close impossibilities

And mak‘st them kiss, that speak’st with every tongue

To every purpose; O thou touch of hearts:

Think thy slave man rebels, and by thy virtue

Set them into confounding odds, that beasts

May have the world in empire.

APEMANTUS Would ’twere so,

But not till I am dead. I’ll say thou’st gold.

Thou wilt be thronged to shortly.

TIMON Thronged to?

APEMANTUS Ay.

TIMON

Thy back, I prithee.

APEMANTUS Live, and love thy misery.

TIMON

Long live so, and so die. I am quit.

Enter the Banditti, thieves

APEMANTUS

More things like men. Eat, Timon, and abhor them.

Exit

FIRST THIEF Where should he have this gold? It is some poor fragment, some slender ort of his remainder. The mere want of gold and the falling-from of his friends drove him into this melancholy.

SECOND THIEF It is noised he hath a mass of treasure.

THIRD THIEF Let us make the assay upon him. If he care not for’t, he will supply us easily. If he covetously reserve it, how shall ’s get it?

SECOND THIEF True, for he bears it not about him; ’tis hid.

FIRST THIEF Is not this he?

OTHER THIEVES Where?

SECOND THIEF ’Tis his description.

THIRD THIEF He, I know him.

ALL THIEVES (coming forward) Save thee, Timon.

TIMON Now, thieves.

ALL THIEVES

Soldiers, not thieves.

TIMON Both, too, and women’s sons.

ALL THIEVES We are not thieves, but men that much do want.

TIMON

Your greatest want is, you want much of meat.

Why should you want? Behold, the earth hath roots.

Within this mile break forth a hundred springs.

The oaks bear mast, the briars scarlet hips.

The bounteous housewife nature on each bush

Lays her full mess before you. Want? Why want?

FIRST THIEF

We cannot live on grass, on berries, water,

As beasts and birds and fishes.

TIMON

Nor on the beasts themselves, the birds and fishes;

You must eat men. Yet thanks I must you con

That you are thieves professed, that you work not

In holier shapes; for there is boundless theft

In limited professions. (Giving gold) Rascal thieves,

Here’s gold. Go suck the subtle blood o‘th’ grape

Till the high fever seethe your blood to froth,

And so scape hanging. Trust not the physician:

His antidotes are poison, and he slays

More than you rob. Take wealth and lives together.

Do villainy; do, since you protest to do’t,

Like workmen. I’ll example you with thievery.

The sun’s a thief, and with his great attraction

Robs the vast sea. The moon’s an arrant thief,