The Illustrated Works of Shakespeare/Illustrated Works of Shakespeare, The (1990)(Animated Pixels)[!][CDTV-PC].iso/shakes/text/36/02_02

Text File | 1991-04-10 | 12KB | 370 lines

On the Road to Timon's House.
 Enter FLAVIUS, with many bills in his hand.

Flavius    No care, no stop. So senseless of expense
    That he will neither know how to maintain it,
    Nor cease his flow of riot. Takes no account
    How things go from him, nor resumes to care
    Of what is to continue. Never mind
    Was to be so unwise, to be so kind.
    What shall be done? He will not hear, till feel.
    I must be round with him, now he comes from hunting.
    Fie, fie, fie, fie!

           Enter CAPHIS and the SERVANTS of Isidore and Varro.

Caphis    Good even, Varro. What, you come for money?

Varro Servant    Is't not your business too?

Caphis    It is; and yours too, Isidore?

Isidore
Servant                                    It is so.

Caphis    Would we were all discharged!

Varro Servant                                    I fear it.

Caphis    Here comes the lord.

               Enter TIMON and his TRAIN, with ALCIBIADES.

Timon    So soon as dinner's done, we'll forth again,
    My Alcibiades. [To CAPHIS.] With me? What is your will?

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

Timon    Dues? Whence are you?

Caphis                            Of Athens here, my lord.

Timon    Go to my steward.

Caphis    Please it your lordship, he hath put me off
    To the succession of new days this month.
    My master is awaked by great occasion
    To call upon his own, and humbly prays you
    That with your other noble parts you'll suit
    In giving him his right.

Timon                            Mine honest friend,
    I prithee, but repair to me next morning.

Caphis    Nay, good my lord-

Timon                        Contain thyself, good friend.

Varro Servant    One Varro's servant, my good lord-

Isidore
Servant                                    From Isidore.
    He humbly prays your speedy payment.

Caphis    If you did know, my lord, my master's wants-

Varro Servant    'Twas due on forfeiture, my lord, six weeks and past.

Isidore
Servant    Your steward puts me off, my lord, and I
    Am sent expressly to your lordship.

Timon                                Give me breath.
    I do beseech you, good my lords, keep on,
    I'll wait upon you instantly.
                                   [Exeunt ALCIBIADES and TRAIN.

                    [To FLAVIUS.]    Come hither. Pray you,
    How goes the world that I am thus encountered
    With clamorous demands of date-broken bonds
    And the detention of long since due debts,
    Against my honour?

Flavius                            Please you, gentlemen,
    The time is unagreeable to this business.
    Your importunacy cease till after dinner,
    That I may make his lordship understand
    Wherefore you are not paid.

Timon                                Do so, my friends.
    See them well entertained.
                                                    [Exit.
Flavius                                Pray draw near.
                                                    [Exit.
                        Enter APEMANTUS and FOOL.

Caphis    Stay, stay; here comes the fool with Apemantus. Let's ha'
    some sport with 'em.

Varro Servant    Hang him, he'll abuse us.

Isidore
Servant    A plague upon him, dog!

Varro Servant    How dost, fool?

Apemantus    Dost dialogue with thy shadow?

Varro Servant    I speak not to thee.

Apemantus    No,'tis to thyself. [To FOOL.] Come away.

Isidore
Servant    [To Varro's SERVANT.]
    There's the fool hangs on your back already.

Apemantus    No, thou stand'st single; thou'rt not on him yet.

Caphis    Where's the fool now?

Apemantus    He last asked the question. Poor rogues and usurers' men.
    Bawds between gold and want.

All Servants    What are we, Apemantus?

Apemantus    Asses.

All Servants    Why?

Apemantus    That you ask me what you are, and do not know yourselves.
    Speak to 'em, fool.

Fool    How do you, gentlemen?

All Servants    Gramercies, good fool. How does your mistress?

Fool    She's e'en setting on water to scald such chickens as you
    are. Would we could see you at Corinth!

Apemantus    Good! Gramercy.

                               Enter PAGE.

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

Page    [To FOOL.] Why, how now, captain! What do you in this wise
    company? How dost thou, Apemantus?

Apemantus    Would I had a rod in my mouth, that I might answer thee
    profitably.

Page    Prithee, Apemantus, read me the superscription of these
    letters. I know not which is which.

Apemantus    Canst not read?

Page    No.

Apemantus    There will little learning die then that day thou art
    hanged. This is to Lord Timon. This to Alcibiades. Go, thou
    wast born a bastard and thou'lt die a bawd.

Page    Thou wast whelped a dog, and thou shalt famish a dog's
    death. Answer not; I am gone.
                                                    [Exit.

Apemantus    E'en so thou outrunn'st grace. Fool, I will go with you to
    Lord Timon's.

Fool    Will you leave me there?

Apemantus    If Timon stay at home. You three serve three usurers?

All Servants    Ay; would they served us.

Apemantus    So would I, as good a trick as ever hangman served thief.

Fool    Are you three usurers' men?

All Servants    Ay, fool.

Fool    I think no usurer but has a fool to his servant. My
    mistress is one, and I am her fool. When men come to borrow
    of your masters they approach sadly, and go away merry; but
    they enter my mistress' house merrily, and go away sadly.
    The reason of this?

Varro Servant    I could render one.

Apemantus    Do it then, that we may account thee a whoremaster and a
    knave, which, notwithstanding, thou shalt be no less
    esteemed.

Varro Servant    What is a whoremaster, fool?

Fool    A fool in good clothes, and something like thee. 'Tis a
    spirit; sometime't appears like a lord, sometime like a
    lawyer, sometime like a philosopher, with two stones more
    than's artificial one. He is very often like a knight; and
    generally in all shapes that man goes up and down in from
    fourscore to thirteen, this spirit walks in.

Varro Servant    Thou art not altogether a fool.

Fool    Nor thou altogether a wise man. As much foolery as I have,
    so much wit thou lack'st.

Apemantus    That answer might have become Apemantus.

All Servants    Aside, aside; here comes Lord Timon.

                       Re-enter TIMON and FLAVIUS.

Apemantus    Come with me, fool, come.

Fool    I do not always follow lover, elder brother, and woman;
    sometime the philosopher.
                                     [Exeunt APEMANTUS and FOOL.

Flavius    Pray you walk near. I'll speak with you anon.
                                    [Exeunt CAPHIS and SERVANTS.

Timon    You make me marvel wherefore ere this time
    Had you not fully laid my state before me,
    That I might so have rated my expense
    As I had leave of means.

Flavius                            You would not hear me.
    At many leisures I proposed-

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

Flavius                                O my good lord,
    At many times I brought in my accounts,
    Laid them before you; you would throw them off,
    And say you found them in mine honesty.
    When for some trifling present you have bid me
    Return so much, I have shook my head and wept;
    Yea, 'gainst th' authority of manners, prayed you
    To hold your hand more close. I did endure
    Not seldom, nor no slight checks, when I have
    Prompted you in the ebb of your estate
    And your great flow of debts. My loved 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.

Timon                                Let all my land be sold.

Flavius    'Tis all engaged, some forfeited and gone,
    And what remains will hardly stop the mouth
    Of present dues. The future comes apace:
    What shall defend the interim, and at length
    How goes our reck'ning?

Timon    To Lacedaemon did my land extend.

Flavius    O my good lord, the world is but a word.
    Were it all yours to give it in a breath,
    How quickly were it gone!

Timon                                You tell me true.

Flavius    If you suspect my husbandry or falsehood,
    Call me before th' exactest auditors,
    And set me on the proof. So the gods bless me,
    When all our offices have been oppressed
    With riotous feeders, when our vaults have wept
    With drunken spilth of wine, when every room
    Hath blazed with lights and brayed with minstrelsy,
    I have retired me to a wasteful cock,
    And set mine eyes at flow.

Timon                                Prithee no more.

Flavius    "Heavens," have I said "the bounty of this lord!
    How many prodigal bits have slaves and peasants
    This night englutted? Who is not Timon's?
    What heart, head, sword, force, means, but is Lord Timon's?
    Great Timon, noble, worthy, royal Timon!
    Ah, when the means are gone that buy this praise,
    The breath is gone whereof this praise is made.
    Feast-won, fast-lost; one cloud of winter showers,
    These flies are couched."

Timon                            Come, sermon me no further.
    No villainous bounty yet hath passed my heart;
    Unwisely, not ignobly, have I given.
    Why dost thou weep? Canst thou the conscience lack
    To think I shall lack friends? Secure thy heart;
    If I would broach the vessels of my love,
    And try the arguments of hearts by borrowing,
    Men and men's fortunes could I frankly use
    As I can bid thee speak.

Flavius                            Assurance bless your thoughts.

Timon    And in some sort these wants of mine are crowned,
    That I account them blessings; for by these
    Shall I try friends. You shall perceive how you
    Mistake my fortunes. I am wealthy in my friends.
    Within there! Flaminius! Servilius!

          Enter FLAMINIUS, SERVILIUS, and another (3rd) SERVANT.

Servants    My lord? My lord?

Timon    I will dispatch you severally. [To SERVILIUS.] You to Lord
    Lucius. [To FLAMINIUS.] To Lord Lucullus you - I hunted
    with his honour today. [To SERVANT.] You, to Sempronius.
    Commend me to their loves; and I am proud, say, that my
    occasions have found time to use 'em toward a supply of
    money. Let the request be fifty talents.

Flaminius    As you have said, my lord.
                                                    [Exeunt SERVANTS.
Flavius    [Aside.] Lord Lucius and Lucullus? Humh!

Timon    Go you, sir, to the senators-
    Of whom, even to the state's best health, I have
    Deserved this hearing - Bid 'em send o'th' instant
    A thousand talents to me.

Flavius                                I have been bold,
    For that I knew it the most general way,
    To them to use your signet and your name;
    But they do shake their heads, and I am here
    No richer in return.

Timon                        Is't true? Can 't be?

Flavius    They answer, in a joint and corporate voice,
    That now they are at fall, want treasure, cannot
    Do what they would, are sorry - you are honourable,
    But yet they could have wished - they know not-
    Something hath been amiss - a noble nature
    May catch a wrench - would all were well - 'tis pity;
    And so, intending other serious matters,
    After distasteful looks and these hard fractions,
    With certain half-caps and cold-moving nods,
    They froze me into silence.

Timon                                You gods reward them!
    Prithee, man, look cheerly. These old fellows
    Have their ingratitude in them hereditary.
    Their blood is caked, 'tis cold, it seldom flows;
    'Tis lack of kindly warmth they are not kind;
    And nature, as it grows again toward earth,
    Is fashioned for the journey, dull and heavy.
    Go to Ventidius. Prithee be not sad;
    Thou art true and honest, ingeniously I speak,
    No blame belongs to thee. Ventidius lately
    Buried his father, by whose death he's stepped
    Into a great estate. When he was poor,
    Imprisoned, and in scarcity of friends,
    I cleared him with five talents. Greet him from me:
    Bid him suppose some good necessity
    Touches his friend, which craves to be remembered
    With those five talents. That had, give't these fellows
    To whom 'tis instant due. Ne'er speak or think
    That Timon's fortunes 'mong his friends can sink.

Flavius    I would I could not think it.
    That thought is bounty's foe:
    Being free itself, it thinks all others so.
                                                    [Exeunt.