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ACT FOUR
SCENE I. Without the walls of Athens.
Enter TIMON.
TIMON Let me look back upon thee. O thou wall
That girdles in those wolves, dive in the earth
And fence not Athens! Matrons, turn incontinent.
Obedience, fail in children! Slaves and fools,
[5]
Pluck the grave wrinkled Senate from the bench
And minister in their steads. To general filths
Convert, oā thā instant, green virginity.
Doāt in your parentsā eyes. Bankrupts, hold fast;
Rather than render back, out with your knives
[10]
And cut your trustersā throats. Bound servants, steal:
Large-handed robbers your grave masters are,
And pill by law. Maid, to thy masterās bed:
Thy mistress is oā thā brothel. Son of sixteen,
Pluck the linād crutch from thy old limping sire,
[15]
With it beat out his brains. Piety and fear,
Religion to the gods, peace, justice, truth,
[20]
Domestic awe, night-rest, and neighbourhood,
Instruction, manners, mysteries, and trades,
Degrees, observances, customs and laws,
Decline to your confounding contraries
And let confusion live. Plagues incident to men,
Your potent and infectious fevers heap
On Athens, ripe for stroke. Thou cold sciatica,
Cripple our senators, that their limbs may halt
[25]
As lamely as their manners. Lust and liberty,
Creep in the minds and marrows of our youth;
That āgainst the stream of virtue they may strive
And drown themselves in riot. Itches, Mains,
Sow all thā Athenian bosoms, and their crop
[30]
Be general leprosy! Breath infect breath,
That their society, as their friendship, may
Be merely poison! Nothing Iāll bear from thee
But nakedness, thou detestable town!
Take thou that too, with multiplying bans.
[35]
Timon will to the woods, where he shall find
Thā unkindest beast more kinder than mankind.
The gods confound ā hear me, you good gods all ā
The Athenians both within and out that wall!
And grant, as Timon grows, his hate may grow
[40]
To the whole race of mankind, high and low!
Amen. [Exit.
SCENE II. Athens. Timonās house.
Enter FLAVIUS, with two or three Servants.
[5]
1 SERVANT Hear you, Master Steward, whereās our master?
Are we undone, cast off, nothing remaining?
FLAVIUS Alack, my fellows, what should I say to you?
Let me be recorded by the righteous gods,
I am as poor as you.
1 SERVANT Such a house broke!
So noble a master fallān! All gone, and not
One friend to take his fortune by the arm
And go along with him?
2 SERVANT As we do turn our backs
From our companion, thrown into his grave,
[10]
So his familiars to his buried fortunes
Slink all away; leave their false vows with him,
Like empty purses pickād; and his poor self,
A dedicated beggar to the air,
With his disease of all-shunnād poverty,
[15]
Walks, like contempt, alone. More of our fellows.
Enter other Servants.
FLAVIUS All broken implements of a ruinād house.
3 SERVANT Yet do our hearts wear Timonās livery;
That see I by our faces. We are fellows still,
Serving alike in sorrow. Leakād is our bark;
[20]
And we, poor mates, stand on the dying deck,
Hearing the surges threat. We must all pan
Into this sea of air.
FLAVIUS Good fellows all,
The latest of my wealth Iāll share amongst you.
Wherever we shall meet, for Timonās sake,
[25]
Letās yet be fellows; letās shake our heads and say,
As ātwere a knell unto our masterās fortune,
āWe have seen better daysā. Let each take some.
[Giving them money.
Nay, put out all your hands. Not one word more!
Thus part we rich in sorrow, parting poor.
[Embrace, and part several ways.
[30]
O the fierce wretchedness that glory brings us!
Who would not wish to be from wealth exempt,
Since riches point to misery and contempt?
Who would be so mockād with glory, or to live
But in a dream of friendship,
[35]
To have his pomp, and all what state compounds,
But only painted, like his varnishād friends?
Poor honest lord, brought low by his own heart,
Undone by goodness! Strange, unusual blood,
When manās worst sin is he does too much good!
[40]
Who then dares to be half so kind again?
For bounty, that makes gods, does still mar men.
My dearest lord ā blest to be most accurst,
Rich only to be wretched ā thy great fortunes
Are made thy chief afflictions. Alas, kind lord!
[45]
Heās flung in rage from this ingrateful seat
Of monstrous friends; nor has he with him to
Supply his life, or that which can command it.
Iāll follow and enquire him out.
Iāll ever serve his mind with my best will;
[50]
Whilst I have gold. Iāll be his steward still.
[Exit.
SCENE III. The woods near the sea-shore. Before Timonās cave.
Enter TIMON in the woods.
TIMON O blessed breeding sun, draw from the earth
Rotten humidity; below thy sisterās orb
Infect the air! Twinnād brothers of one womb ā
Whose procreation, residence, and birth,
[5]
Scarce is dividant ā touch them with several fortunes:
The greater scorns the lesser. Not nature,
To whom all sores lay siege, can bear great fortune
But by contempt of nature.
Raise me this beggar and denyāt that lord:
[10]
The senator shall bear contempt hereditary,
The beggar native honour.
It is the pasture lards the rotherās sides,
The want that makes him lean. Who dares, who dares,
In purity of manhood stand upright,
[15]
And say āThis manās a flatterer? If one be,
So are they all; for every grise of fortune
Is smoothād by th...
