Titus Andronicus & Timon of Athens (28 page)

And
have the dates in
³⁶
. Come.

CAPHIS
    I will, sir.

SENATOR
    Go.

FLAVIUS
    No care, no stop: so senseless of expense

That he will neither
know
how to
maintain
²
it,

Nor cease his flow of
riot
³
, takes no account

How things go from him, nor
resume
⁴
no care

Of
what is to continue
.
Never mind
⁵

Was to be so unwise, to be so kind.

What shall be done? He will not hear,
till feel.
⁷

I must be
round
⁸
with him, now he comes from hunting.

Fie, fie, fie, fie!

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!
¹⁴

VARRO’S SERVANT
    I
fear it.
¹⁵

CAPHIS
    Here comes the lord.

TIMON
    So soon as dinner’s done, we’ll
forth
¹⁷
again,

My Alcibiades.— With me? What is your will?

CAPHIS
    My lord, here is a note of certain
dues.
¹⁹

TIMON
    Dues?
Whence are you?
²⁰

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:
²⁴

My master is
awaked by great occasion
²⁵

To
call upon his own
²⁶
, and humbly prays you

That
with your other noble parts you’ll suit
²⁷

In giving him his right.

TIMON
    Mine honest friend,

I prithee but
repair
³⁰
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
    From Isidore:

He humbly prays your speedy payment.

CAPHIS
    If you did know, my lord, my master’s
wants
³⁶
—

VARRO’S SERVANT
    ’Twas due on
forfeiture
³⁷
, my lord, six weeks

and past.

ISIDORE’S SERVANT
    Your steward puts me off, my lord, and I

Am sent expressly to your lordship.

TIMON
    Give me
breath
⁴¹
.—

I do beseech you, good my lords,
keep on:
⁴²

I’ll
wait upon
⁴³
you instantly.—

Come hither. Pray you,

How goes
the world that I am thus
encountered
⁴⁵

With clamorous
demands
⁴⁶
of broken bonds

And the
detention
⁴⁷
of long-since-due debts,

Against my honour?
⁴⁸

FLAVIUS
    Please you, gentlemen,

The time is
unagreeable to
⁵⁰
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.

FLAVIUS
    Pray,
draw near.
⁵⁵

CAPHIS
    Stay, stay, here comes the fool with Apemantus: 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
⁶⁰
, fool?

APEMANTUS
    
Dost
dialogue with
thy
shadow?
⁶¹

VARRO’S SERVANT
    I speak not to thee.

APEMANTUS
    No,’tis to thyself.— Come away.

ISIDORE’S SERVANT
    
There’s the fool hangs on your back
⁶⁴
already.

APEMANTUS
    
No, thou stand’st single
⁶⁵
: thou’rt not on him yet.

CAPHIS
    Where’s the fool now?

APEMANTUS
    
He
last asked the question. Poor rogues and
usurers’
⁶⁷

men,
bawds
between gold and
want.
⁶⁸

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
⁷⁵
, good fool. How does your mistress?

FOOL
    She’s
e’en
setting on
water to
scald
⁷⁶
such chickens as

you are. Would we could see you at
Corinth!
⁷⁷

APEMANTUS
    Good, gramercy.

FOOL
    Look you, here comes my master’s 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
⁸²

thee profitably.

PAGE
    Prithee, Apemantus, read me the

superscription
⁸⁵
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
⁹¹
a

dog’s death. Answer not, I am gone.

APEMANTUS
    E’en so thou
outrunn’st grace
⁹³
.—

Fool, I will go with you to Lord Timon’s.

FOOL
    Will you leave me there?

APEMANTUS
    
If Timon stay at home
⁹⁶
.— You three

serve three usurers?

ALL SERVANTS
    Ay:
would
they
served
⁹⁸
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
¹⁰³
his servant: my

mistress is
one
, and I am her
fool
¹⁰⁴
. When men come to

borrow of your masters, they approach sadly and go away

merry, but they enter my master’s house merrily and go

away
sadly
¹⁰⁷
: the reason of this?

VARRO’S SERVANT
    I could
render
¹⁰⁸
one.

APEMANTUS
    Do it then, that we may account thee a
whoremaster
¹⁰⁹

and a knave,
which notwithstanding thou shalt be no less
¹¹⁰

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
¹¹⁵
more than’s

artificial one
¹¹⁶
. He is very often like a knight; and generally in

all shapes that man
goes up and down
in from
fourscore
¹¹⁷
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
¹²²
Apemantus.

ALL SERVANTS
    Aside, aside, here comes Lord Timon.

APEMANTUS
    Come with me, fool, come.

FOOL
    I do not always follow
lover, elder brother and
¹²⁵

woman: sometime the philosopher.

FLAVIUS
    Pray you
walk near:
¹²⁷
I’ll speak with you anon.

TIMON
    You make me
marvel
¹²⁸
wherefore ere this time

Had you not fully laid my state before me,

That I might so have
rated my expense
¹³⁰

As I had leave of means?

FLAVIUS
    You would not hear me:

At many
leisures
I
proposed.
¹³³

TIMON
    
Go to:
¹³⁴

Perchance
some
single
vantages
¹³⁵
you took

When my
indisposition
put you
back,
¹³⁶

And
that unaptness made your minister
¹³⁷

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.
¹⁴²

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
¹⁴⁵
prayed you

To hold your hand more
close
¹⁴⁶
. I did endure

Not seldom, nor no slight
checks
¹⁴⁷
when I have

Prompted you
in
¹⁴⁸
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:
¹⁵⁰

The
greatest of your having lacks a half
¹⁵¹

To pay your present debts.

TIMON
    Let all my land be sold.

FLAVIUS
    ’Tis all
engaged
¹⁵⁴
, some forfeited and gone,

And what remains will hardly
stop
¹⁵⁵
the mouth

Of
present dues
. The future comes
apace:
¹⁵⁶

What shall defend the
interim
, and
at length
¹⁵⁷

How goes our
reck’ning?
¹⁵⁸

TIMON
    To
Lacedaemon
¹⁵⁹
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,
¹⁶⁴

Call me before th’exactest
auditors
¹⁶⁵

And set me on the
proof
¹⁶⁶
. So the gods bless me,

When all our
offices
have been
oppressed
¹⁶⁷

With riotous
feeders
, when our
vaults
¹⁶⁸
have wept

With drunken
spilth
¹⁶⁹
of wine, when every room

Hath blazed with lights and brayed with
minstrelsy,
¹⁷⁰

I have retired me to a
wasteful cock,
¹⁷¹

And
set mine eyes at flow.
¹⁷²

TIMON
    Prithee, no more.

FLAVIUS
    Heavens, have I said, the bounty of this lord!

How many prodigal
bits
have
slaves
¹⁷⁵
and peasants

This night
englutted
! Who is not
Timon’s?
¹⁷⁶

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;
¹⁸²
one cloud of winter show’rs,

These flies are
couched.
¹⁸³

TIMON
    Come,
sermon
¹⁸⁴
me no further:

No
villainous
¹⁸⁵
bounty yet hath passed my heart;

Unwisely, not ignobly, have I given.

Why dost thou weep? Canst thou the
conscience
¹⁸⁷
lack,

To think I shall lack friends? Secure thy heart:

If I would
broach
¹⁸⁹
the vessels of my love

And
try
the
argument of hearts
¹⁹⁰
by borrowing,

Men and men’s fortunes could I
frankly
¹⁹¹
use

As I can bid thee speak.

FLAVIUS
    
Assurance bless your thoughts!
¹⁹³

TIMON
    And in some
sort
these wants of mine are
crowned
¹⁹⁴

That I
account
¹⁹⁵
them blessings, for by these

Shall I try friends: you shall perceive how you

Mistake my fortunes. I am wealthy in my friends.—