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ALL LORDS.

None fo welcome.

TIM. I take all and your feveral vifitations

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So kind to heart, 'tis not enough to give;
Methinks, I could deal kingdoms to my friends,
And ne'er be weary.-Alcibiades,

Thou art a foldier, therefore seldom rich,

It comes in charity to thee: for all thy living
Is 'mongst the dead; and all the lands thou haft
Lie in a pitch'd field.

ALCIB.

Ay, defiled land,' my lord.

1. LORD. We are fo virtuously bound,

TIM.

And fo

=

Am I to you.

2. LORD.

So infinitely endear'd,

TIM. All to you.-Lights, more lights.

Again, in King John:

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I'll tell thee, Hubert, half my power, this night—,"
STEEVENS.

'tis not enough to give;
Methinks, I could deal kingdoms-] Thus the paffage ftood in
all the editions before Sir T. Hanmer's, who reftored-My thanks.
JOHNSON.

I have difplaced the words inferted by Sir T. Hanmer. What
I have already given, fays Timon, is not fufficient on the occasion:
Methinks I could deal kingdoms, i. e. could difpenfe them on
every fide with an ungrudging diftribution, like that with which
I could deal out cards. STEEVENS.

7 Ay, defiled land,] I,-is the old reading, which apparently
depends on a very low quibble. Alcibiades is told, that his eftate
lies in a pitch'd field. Now pitch, as Falstaff fays, doth defile.
Alcibiades therefore replies, that his eftate lies in defiled land. This,
as it happened, was not understood, and all the editors published:
"I defy land,. JOHNSON.

I being always printed in the old copy for Ay, the editor of the
fecond folio made the abfurd alteration mentioned by Dr. Johnson.
MALONE.

All to you.] i. c. all good wishes, or all happiness to you.
So, Macbeth:

"All to all." STEEVENS.

H

1. LORD.

The best of happiness,

Honour, and fortunes, keep with you, lord Timon!
TIM. Ready for his friends."

APEM.

[Exeunt ALCIBIADES, Lords, &c.
What a coil's here!

Serving of becks,' and jutting out of bums!

Ready for his friends.] I fuppofe, for the fake of enforcing the fenfe, as well as reftoring the ineafure, we should read: Ready ever for his friends. STEEVENS.

2 Serving of becks,] Beck means a falutation made with the head. So, Milton:

"Nods and becks, and wreathed fmiles."

To ferve a beck, is to offer a falutation. JOHNSON.

To ferve a beck, means, I believe, to pay a courtly obedience to a nod. Thus, in The Death of Robert Earl of Huntington, 1601: "And with a low beck

"Prevent a fharp check."

Again, in The Play of the Four P's, 1569: "Then I to every foul again,

"Did give a beck them to retain."

In Ram-Alley or Merry Tricks, 1611, I find the fame word: "I had my winks, my becks, treads on the toe."

Again, in Heywood's Rape of Lucrece, 1630:

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wanton looks,

"And privy becks, favouring incontinence." Again, in Lyly's Woman in the Moon, 1597:

"And he that with a beck controuls the heavens." It happens then that the word beck has no lefs than four diftinct fignifications. In Drayton's Polyolbion, it is enumerated among the appellations of Small fireams of water. In Shakspeare's Antony and Cleopatra, it has its common meaning—a fign of invitation made by the band. In Timon, it appears to denote a bow, and in Lyly's play, a nod of dignity or command; as well as in Marius and Sylla, 1594:

"Yea Sylla with a beck could break thy neck." Again, in the interlude of Jacob and Efau, 1568:

"For what, O Lord, is fo poffible to man's judgment
"Which thou canst not with a beck perform incontinent ?"
STEEVENS.

See Surrey's Poems, p. 29:

"And with a becke full lowe he bowed at her feete."

TYRWHITT.

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I doubt whether their legs' be worth the fums That are given for 'em. Friendship's full of dregs: Methinks, false hearts should never have found legs. Thus honeft fools lay out their wealth on court'fies. TIM. Now, Apemantus, if thou wert not fullen, I'd be good to thee.

APEM.

No, I'll nothing: for, If I fhould be brib'd too, there would be none left To rail upon thee; and then thou would'ft fin the

fafter.

Thou giv'ft fo long, Timon, I fear me, thou

Wilt give away thyself in paper shortly:

What need thefe feafts, pomps, and vain glories?

TIM. Nay,

An you begin to rail on fociety once,

I am fworn, not to give regard to you.
Farewell; and come with better mufick.

APEM.

[Exit.

So;

Thou'lt not hear me now,-thou shalt not then,

I'll locks

Thy heaven from thee. O, that men's ears should

be

To counsel deaf, but not to flattery!

[Exit.

3 I doubt whether their legs &c.] He plays upon the word leg, as it fignifies a limb, and a bow or act of obeisance. JOHNSON. See Vol. VIII. p. 472, n. 6. MALONE.

4

-I fear me, thou

give away thyself in paper shortly:] i. e. be ruined by

his fecurities entered into.

WARBURTON.

5 Thou'lt not hear me now,-thou shalt not then, I'll lock-] The measure will be reftored by the omiffion of an unnecessary word-me:

Thou'lt not hear now,—thou shalt not then, I'll lock

STEEVENS,

Thy heaven -] The pleasure of being flattered. JOHNSON.

ACT II. SCENE I.

The fame. A Room in a Senator's House.

Enter a Senator, with papers in his hand.

SEN. And late, five thoufand to Varro; and to
Ifidore

He owes nine thoufand; befides my former fum,
Which makes it five and twenty.-Still in motion
Of raging waste? It cannot hold; it will not.
If I want gold, fteal but a beggar's dog,
And give it Timon, why, the dog coins gold:
If I would fell my horse, and buy twenty more
Better than he, why, give my horse to Timon,
Afk nothing, give it him, it foals me, ftraight,
And able horfes: No porter at his gate;

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Apemantus never intended, at any event, to flatter Timon, nor did Timon expect any flattery from him. By his heaven he means good advice, the only thing by which he could be faved. The following lines confirm this explanation. M. MASON.

6 twenty-] Mr. Theobald has―ten. pofes to read-twain. REED.

7 Afk nothing, give it him, it foals me, ftraight, And able horfes:] Mr. Theobald reads:

Ten able horfes. STEEVENS.

Dr. Farmer pro

"If I want gold (fays the fenator) let me fteal a beggar's dog, and give it Timon, the dog coins me gold. If I would fell my horfe, and had a mind to buy ten better inftead of him; why, I need but give my horfe to Timon, to gain this point; and it prefently fetches me an horfe." But is that gaining the point propofed? The first folio reads:

And able horfes :

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But rather one that fmiles, and ftill invites &
All that pafs by. It cannot hold; no reason

Which reading, joined to the reafoning of the paffage, gave me the hint for this emendation. THEOBALD.

The paffage which Mr. Theobald would alter, means only this: "If I give my horfe to Timon, it immediately foals, and not only produces more, but able horses." The fame conftruction occurs in Much Ado about Nothing: and men are only turned into tongue, and trim ones too."

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Something fimilar occurs alfo in Beaumont and Fletcher's Humorous Lieutenant:

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-fome twenty, young and handfome,

"As alfo able maids, for the court fervice."

STEEVENS. Perhaps the letters of the word me were tranfpofed at the prefs. Shakspeare might have written:

it foals 'em ftraight

And able horfes.

If there be no corruption in the text, the word twenty in the preceding line, is understood here after me.

We have had this fentiment differently expreffed in the preceding act:

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no meed but he repays

"Seven-fold above itself; no gift to him,
"But breeds the giver a return exceeding
"All ufe of quittance." MALONE.

No porter at his gate;

But rather one that fmiles, and fill invites-] I imagine that a line is loft here, in which the behaviour of a furly porter was defcribed. JOHNSON.

There is no occafion to fuppofe the loss of a line. Sternness was the characteristick of a porter. There appeared at Killingworth cattle, [1575]" a porter, tall of parfon, big of lim, and fearn of countinauns." FARMER.

So alfo, in A Knight's Conjuring &c. by Decker: "You mistake, if you imagine that Plutoes porter is like one of those big fellowes that ftand like gyants at Lordes gates &c.-yet hee's as furly as thofe key-turners are." STEEVENS.

The word-one, in the fecond line, does not refer to porter, but means a perfon. He has no ftern forbidding porter at his gate, to keep people out, but a perfon who invites them in.

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