Act II, Scene 2

The same. A hall in 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 670
  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:
  I must be round with him, now he comes from hunting. 675
  Fie, fie, fie, fie!

[Enter CAPHIS, and the Servants of Isidore and Varro]

• Caphis. Good even, Varro: what,
  You come for money?

• Caphis. It is: and yours too, Isidore?

• Caphis. Would we were all discharged!

• Caphis. Here comes the lord. 685

[Enter TIMON, ALCIBIADES, and Lords, &c]

• Timon. So soon as dinner's done, we'll forth again,
  My Alcibiades. With me? what is your will?

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

• Timon. Dues! Whence are you? 690

• 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 695
  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. 700

• Caphis. Nay, good my lord,—

• Timon. Contain thyself, good friend.
  He humbly prays your speedy payment.

• Caphis. If you did know, my lord, my master's wants—
  And I am sent expressly to your lordship.

• Timon. Give me breath. 710
  I do beseech you, good my lords, keep on;
  I'll wait upon you instantly.
  [Exeunt ALCIBIADES and Lords]
  [To FLAVIUS]
  Come hither: pray you, 715
  How goes the world, that I am thus encounter'd
  With clamourous demands of date-broke bonds,
  And the detention of long-since-due debts,
  Against my honour?

• Flavius. Please you, gentlemen, 720
  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 entertain'd. 725

[Exit]

• Flavius. Pray, draw near.

[Exit]

[Enter APEMANTUS and Fool]

• Caphis. Stay, stay, here comes the fool with Apemantus: 730
  let's ha' some sport with 'em.

• Apemantus. Dost dialogue with thy shadow? 735

• Apemantus. No,'tis to thyself.
  [To the Fool]
  Come away.

• 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? 745

• 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? 750

• 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 mistress' page.

• Page. [To the 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. 760

• 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 765
  art hanged. This is to Lord Timon; this to
  Alcibiades. Go; thou wast born a bastard, and thou't
  die a bawd.

• Page. Thou wast whelped a dog, and thou shalt famish a
  dog's death. Answer not; I am gone. 770

[Exit]

• Apemantus. E'en so thou outrunnest 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? 775

• 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 780
  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?

• Apemantus. Do it then, that we may account thee a whoremaster
  and a knave; which not-withstanding, thou shalt be
  no less esteemed.

• Fool. A fool in good clothes, and something like thee. 790
  'Tis a spirit: sometime't appears like a lord;
  sometime like a lawyer; sometime like a philosopher,
  with two stones moe 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 795
  to thirteen, this spirit walks in.

• Fool. Nor thou altogether a wise man: as much foolery as
  I have, so much wit thou lackest.

• Apemantus. That answer might have become Apemantus. 800

• 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. 805

[Exeunt APEMANTUS and Fool]

• Flavius. 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, 810
  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: 815
  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, 820
  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; 825
  Yea, 'gainst the authority of manners, pray'd you
  To hold your hand more close: I did endure
  Not seldom, nor no slight cheques, when I have
  Prompted you in the ebb of your estate
  And your great flow of debts. My loved lord, 830
  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; 835
  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 reckoning?

• Timon. To Lacedaemon did my land extend. 840

• 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, 845
  Call me before the exactest auditors
  And set me on the proof. So the gods bless me,
  When all our offices have been oppress'd
  With riotous feeders, when our vaults have wept
  With drunken spilth of wine, when every room 850
  Hath blazed with lights and bray'd 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! 855
  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! 860
  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 couch'd.

• Timon. Come, sermon me no further: 865
  No villanous bounty yet hath pass'd 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, 870
  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 crown'd, 875
  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 other Servants]

• All Servants. My lord? my lord?

• Timon. I will dispatch you severally; you to Lord Lucius;
  to Lord Lucullus you: I hunted with his honour
  to-day: you, to Sempronius: commend me to their
  loves, and, I am proud, say, that my occasions have 885
  found time to use 'em toward a supply of money: let
  the request be fifty talents.

• Flaminius. As you have said, my lord.

• Flavius. [Aside] Lord Lucius and Lucullus? hum!

• Timon. Go you, sir, to the senators— 890
  Of whom, even to the state's best health, I have
  Deserved this hearing—bid 'em send o' the instant
  A thousand talents to me.

• Flavius. I have been bold—
  For that I knew it the most general way— 895
  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, 900
  That now they are at fall, want treasure, cannot
  Do what they would; are sorry—you are honourable,—
  But yet they could have wish'd—they know not—
  Something hath been amiss—a noble nature
  May catch a wrench—would all were well—'tis pity;— 905
  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! 910
  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, 915
  Is fashion'd for the journey, dull and heavy.
  [To a Servant]
  Go to Ventidius.
  [To FLAVIUS]
  Prithee, be not sad, 920
  Thou art true and honest; ingeniously I speak.
  No blame belongs to thee.
  [To Servant]
  Ventidius lately
  Buried his father; by whose death he's stepp'd 925
  Into a great estate: when he was poor,
  Imprison'd and in scarcity of friends,
  I clear'd him with five talents: greet him from me;
  Bid him suppose some good necessity
  Touches his friend, which craves to be remember'd 930
  With those five talents.
  [Exit Servant]
  [To FLAVIUS]
  That had, give't these fellows
  To whom 'tis instant due. Ne'er speak, or think, 935
  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]