Cap. Good evening, Varro; what, you come for mony?

Var. Is't not your business too?

Cap. It is, and yours too, Ifidore?

Ifid. It is fo.

Cap. Would we were all discharg'd.

Var. I fear it.

Cap. Here comes the lord.

Enter Timon, and his train.

Tim. So foon as dinner's done, we'll forth again,

My Alcibiades. Well what's your will? [They prefent their bills.

Cap. My lord, here is a note of certain dues.

Tim. Dues? whence are you?

Cap. Of Athens here, my lord.

Tim. Go to my steward.

Cap. Please it your lordship, he hath put me off, To the fucceffion of new days, this month:

My master is awak'd by great occafion,

To call upon his own; and humbly prays you
That with your other noble parts you'll fuit,
In giving him his right.

Tim. Mine honest friend,

I pr'ythee but repair to me next morning.
Cap. Nay, good my lord.

Tim. Contain thy felf, good friend.

Var. One Varro's fervant, my good lord ---

Ifid. From Ifidore, he prays your fpeedy payment

Cap. If you did know, my lord, my master's wants

Var. 'Twas due on forfeiture, my lord, fix weeks, and paft--Ifid. Your fteward puts me off, my lord, and I

Am fent exprefly to your lordship.

Tim. Give me breath:

do befeech you, good my lords, keep on,
I'll wait upon you inftantly. Come hither:
How goes the world that I am thus encountred
With clam'rous claims of debt, of broken bonds,
And the detention of long-fince-due debts,
Against my honour?

Fla. Peafe you, gentlemen,

The time is unagreeable to this business:
Your importunity cease, 'till after dinner;
That I may make his lordship understand
Wherefore you are not paid.

[To the lords. [Exeunt lords.

Tim. Do fo, my friends; fee them well entertain'd. [Exit Tim.

Stew. Pray draw near.

SCENE III.

Enter Apemantus and fool.

[Exit Stew.

Cap. Stay, stay, here comes the fool with Apemantus, let's

have some sport with 'em.

Var. Hang him, he'll abuse us.

Ifid. A plague upon him, dog.

Var. How doft, fool?

Apem. Doft dialogue with thy shadow?

Var. I speak not to thee.

Apem. No, 'tis to thy felf. Come away.

Ifid. There's the fool hangs on your back already.

Apem. No, thou stand'st single, thou art not on him yet.

Cap. Where's the fool now?

Apem. He laft ask'd the question. men! bawds between gold and want! All. What are we, Apemantus? Apem. Afles.

Poor rogues, and usurers

All.

All. Why?

Apem. That you ask me what you are, and do not know your felves. Speak to 'em, fool.

are.

Fool. How do you, gentlemen?

All. Gramercies, good fool: how does your mistress?

Fool. She's e'en fetting on water to scald such chickens as you Would we could fee you at Corinth.

Apem. Good! gramercy!

Enter Page.

Fool. Look you, here comes my master's page.

Page. Why how now, captain? what do you in this wife company? how doft 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. Canft not read?

Page. No.

Apem. There will little learning die then, that day thou art hang'd. This is to lord Timon, this to Alcibiades. Go, thou waft born a bastard, and thou'lt die a bawd.

Page. Thou waft whelpt a dog, and thou shalt famish, a dog's death. Answer not, I am gone.

Apem. Ev'n fo thou out-run'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 usurers?
All. I would they ferv'd us.
Apem. So would I

thief.

[Exit.

as good a trick as ever hangman ferv'd

Fool. Are you three usurers men?

All.

All. Ay, fool.

Fool. I think no ufurer but has a fool to his fervant. 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 master's house merrily, and go away fadly. The reafon of this?

Var. 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 esteem'd. Var. What is a whore-mafter, fool?

Fool. A fool in good cloaths, and fomething like thee. 'Tis a spirit; sometime it appears like a lord, sometimes like a lawyer, fometimes like a philofopher, with two ftones more than's artificial one. He is very often like a knight; and generally, in all fhapes that man goes up and down in, from fourscore to thirteen, this spirit walks in.

Var. Thou art not altogether a fool.

Fool. Nor thou altogether a wife man; as much foolery as I have, fo much wit thou lack'ft.

Apem. That answer might have become Apemantus.

All. Afide, afide, here comes lord Timon.

Enter Timon and Flavius.

Apem. Come with me, fool, come.

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

sometime the philosopher.

Fla. Pray you walk near, I'll fpeak with you anon.

SCENE IV.

Tim. You make me marvel; wherefore, ere this time,

Had you not fully laid my state before me?

That I might fo have rated my expence,

[Exeunt.

As I had leave of means.

Fla.

Fla. You would not hear me: At many leifures I propos'd.

Tim. Go to:

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

Fla. O my good lord,

At many times I brought in my accounts,

Laid them before you; you would throw them off,
And fay you found them in mine honesty.

When, for fome trifling present, you have bid me
Return fo much, I've fhook my head, and wept;
Yea 'gainst th' authority of manners, pray'd you
To hold your hand more close. I did endure
Not seldom, nor no flight 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.

Tim. Let all my land be fold.

Fla. 'Tis all engag'd, some forfeited and gone,
And what remains will hardly ftop the mouth
Of present dues; the future comes apace:
What fhall defend the interim, and at length

How goes our reck'ning?

Tim. To Lacedæmon did my land extend.
Fla. O my good lord, the world is but a world,
Were it all yours, to give it in a breath

How quickly were it gone?

Tim. You tell me true.

Fla. If you fufpect my husbandry or falfhood,

6