TIMON OF ATHENS. ACT I. SCENE I. Athens. A Hall in Timon's House. Enter Poet, Painter, Jeweller, Merchant, and · Others, at several Doors. Poet. Good day, sir. Pain. I am glad you are well. goes the Poet. I have not seen you long; How world? Pain. It wears, sir, as it grows. Poet. Ay, that's well known: But what particular rarity? what strange, Which manifold record not matches? See, Magick of bounty! all these spirits thy power Hath conjur'd to attend. I know the merchant. Pain. I know them both; t'other's a jeweller. Mer. O, 'tis a worthy lord! Jew. Nay, that's most fix'd. Mer. A most incomparable man; breath'd, as it were,1 To an untirable and continuate goodness: He passes.2 1 Jew. I have a jewel here. breath'd, as it were,] Breathed is inured by constant practice; so trained as not to be wearied. To breathe a horse, is to exercise him for the course. JOHNSON. 2 He passes.] i. e. exceeds, goes beyond common bounds. Mer. O, pray, let's see't: For the lord Timon, sir? Jew. If he will touch the estimate: But, for that Poet. When we for recompense1 have prais'd the vile, It stains the glory in that happy verse Which aptly sings the good. Mer. 'Tis a good form. Jew. And rich: here is a water, look you. Pain. You are rapt, sir, in some work, some dedication To the great lord. Poet. A thing slipp'd idly from me. Our poesy is as a gum, which oozes From whence 'tis nourished: The fire i'the flint Poet. Upon the heels of my presentment, sir. Pain. 'Tis a good piece. Poet. So 'tis: this comes off well and excellent. Pain. Indifferent. Poet. Admirable: How this grace 3 touch the estimate:] Come up to the price. 4 When we for recompense, &c.] We must here suppose the poet busy in reading in his own work; and that these three lines are the introduction of the poem addressed to Timon, which he afterwards gives the Painter an account of. WARBURTON. 5 and, like the current, flies Each bound it chafes.] This jumble of incongruous images, seems to have been designed, and put into the mouth of the Poetaster, that the reader might appreciate his talents: his language therefore should not be considered in the abstract. Speaks his own standing! what a mental power Moves in this lip! to the dumbness of the gesture Pain. It is a pretty mocking of the life. Here is a touch; Is't good? Poet. I'll say of it, It tutors nature: artificial strife 6 Lives in these touches, livelier than life. Enter certain Senators, and pass over. Pain. How this lord's follow'd! Poet. The senators of Athens:-Happy men! Poet. You see this confluence, this great flood of I have, in this rough work, shap'd out a man, 6 Pain. How shall I understand you? nature. I'll unbolt' to you. artificial strife-] Strife is the contest of art with Halts not particularly,] My design does not stop at any single character. JOHNSON. 8 In a wide sea of wax:] Anciently they wrote upon waxen tables with an iron style. 9 — no levell'd malice, &c.] To level is to aim, to point the shot at a mark. Shakspeare's meaning is, my poem is not a satire written with any particular view, or levelled at any single person; I fly like an eagle into the general expanse of life, and leave not, by any private mischief, the trace of my passage. I'll unbolt-] I'll open, I'll explain. JOHNSON. You see how all conditions, how all minds, Pain. I saw them speak together. Poet. Sir, I have upon a high and pleasant hill, Feign'd Fortune to be thron'd: The base o'the mount Is rank'd with all deserts,3 all kind of natures, That labour on the bosom of this sphere To propagate their states: amongst them all, Whose eyes are on this sovereign lady fix'd, One do I personate of lord Timon's frame, Whom Fortune with her ivory hand wafts to her; Whose present grace to present slaves and servants Translates his rivals. Pain. 'Tis conceiv'd to scope.$ This throne, this Fortune, and this hill, methinks, Nay, sir, but hear me on: glass-fac'd flatterer-] That shows in his look, as by reflection, the looks of his patron. JOHNSON. 3 rank'd with all deserts,] Cover'd with ranks of all kinds of men. JOHNSON. To propagate their states:] To advance or improve their various conditions of life. JOHNSON. 5 conceiv'd to scope.] Properly imagined, appositely, to the purpose. JOHNSON. In our condition.] Condition for art. All those which were his fellows but of late, Make sacred even his stirrop, and through him Pain. Ay, marry, what of these? Poet. When Fortune, in her shift and change of mood, Spurns down her late belov'd, all his dependants, Which labour'd after him to the mountain's top, Even on their knees and hands, let him slip down, Not one accompanying his declining foot. Pain. 'Tis common: A thousand moral paintings I can show, 9 That shall demonstrate these quick blows of fortune Trumpets sound. Enter TIMON, attended; the Servant of VENTIDIUS talking with him. Tim. Imprison'd is he, say you? Ven. Serv. Ay, my good lord: five talents is his debt; His means most short, his creditors most strait: To those have shut him up; which failing to him, † Rain sacrificial whisperings-] i. e. whisperings of officious servility, the incense of the worshipping parasite to the patron as to a god. 8 through him Drink the free air.] That is, breathe only with his permission. 9 A thousand moral paintings I can show,] Shakspeare seems to intend in this dialogue to express some competition between the two great arts of imitation. Whatever the poet declares himself to have shown, the painter thinks he could have shown better. 3 mean eyes~] i, e. inferior spectators. |