William Shakespeare: The Complete Works 2nd Edition (429 page)
Read William Shakespeare: The Complete Works 2nd Edition Online
Authors: William Shakespeare
Tags: #Drama, #Literary Criticism, #Shakespeare
BOOK: William Shakespeare: The Complete Works 2nd Edition
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CAPHIS
I go, sir.
SENATOR ⌈
giving him bonds
⌉
giving him bonds
⌉
Take the bonds along with you,
And have the dates in count.
CAPHIS I will, sir.
SENATOR Go.
Exeunt
⌈
severally
⌉
2.2⌈
severally
⌉
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 no 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.
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 no 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.
⌈
A sound of horns within
⌉
I must be round with him, now he comes from hunting.
Fie, fie, fie, fie!
Fie, fie, fie, fie!
Enter Caphis
⌈
at one door
⌉
and Servants of Isidore and Varro
⌈
at another door
⌉
CAPHIS
Good even, Varro. What, you come for money?
VARRO’S SERVANT Is’t not your business too?
CAPHIS
It is; and yours too, Isidore?
ISIDORE’S SERVANT It is SO.
CAPHIS
Would we were all discharged.
VARRO’S SERVANT I fear it.
CAPHIS Here comes the lord.
Enter Timon and his
train,
amongst them Alcibiades,
⌈
as from hunting
⌉
TIMON
So soon as dinner’s done we’ll forth again,
My Alcibiades.
My Alcibiades.
Caphis meets Timon
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.
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’S SERVANT
One Varro’s servant, my good lord.
ISIDORE’S SERVANT (
to Timon
)
to Timon
)
From Isidore. He humbly prays your speedy payment.
CAPHIS (
to Timon
)
to Timon
)
If you did know, my lord, my master’s wants—
VARRO’S SERVANT (
to Timon
)
to Timon
)
’Twas due on forfeiture, my lord, six weeks and past.
ISIDORE’S SERVANT (
to Timon
)
to Timon
)
Your steward puts me off, my lord, and I
Am sent expressly to your lordship.
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.
I’ll wait upon you instantly.
Exeunt Alcibiades and Timon’s train
(
To Flavius
) Come hither. Pray you,
How goes the world, that I am thus encountered
With clamorous demands of broken bonds
And the detention of long-since-due debts,
Against my honour?
To Flavius
) Come hither. Pray you,
How goes the world, that I am thus encountered
With clamorous demands of broken bonds
And the detention of long-since-due debts,
Against my honour?
FLAVIUS (
to Servants
) Please you, gentlemen,
to Servants
) 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.
Your importunacy cease till after dinner,
That I may make his lordship understand
Wherefore you are not paid.
TIMON (
to Servants
) Do so, my friends.
to Servants
) Do so, my friends.
(
To Flavius
) See them well entertained.
Exit
To Flavius
) 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.
Let’s ha’ some sport with ’em.
VARRO’S SERVANT Hang him, he’ll abuse us.
ISIDORE’S SERVANT A plague upon him, dog!
VARRO’S SERVANT How dost, fool?
APEMANTUS Dost dialogue with thy shadow?
VARRO’S SERVANT I speak not to thee.
APEMANTUS No, ’tis to thyself, (To Fool) Come away.
ISIDORE’S SERVANT (
to Varro’s Servant
) There’s the fool hangs on your back already.
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 (
to Isidore’s Servant
) Where’s the fool now?
to Isidore’s Servant
) 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? 6
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 with two letters
FOOL Look you, here comes my mistress’ page.
PAGE 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. (
To Servants
) You three serve three usurers?
To Servants
) 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. 95
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’s house merrily and go away sadly. The reason of this?
VARRO’S 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’S 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’S 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.
Enter Timon and Flavius
Enter Timon and Flavius
ALL SERVANTS Aside, aside, here comes Lord Timon.
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 (
to Servants
)
to Servants
)
Pray you, walk near. I’ll speak with you anon.
Exeunt 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.
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.
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 summed 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 lovèd 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.
Laid them before you; you would throw them off
And say you summed 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 lovèd 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?
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.
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.
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 show’rs,
These flies are couched.’
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 show’rs,
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 argument of hearts by borrowing,
Men and men’s fortunes could I frankly use
As I can bid thee speak.
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 argument 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!
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 a Third Servant
ALL 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 Third 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.
To Servilius
) You to Lord Lucius,
(
To Flaminius
) to Lord Lucullus you—
I hunted with his honour today—
(
To Third 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
Exeunt Servants
FLAVIUS
Lord Lucius and Lucullus? Hmh!
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