Synopsis:
Servants of Timon’s creditors gather and confront Timon, demanding immediate repayment of loans. Learning that he is bankrupt, Timon dispatches his own servants to seek large sums of money from his friends.
Timon of AthensTimon of Athens
Contents
Characters in the Play
Entire Play
In Timon of Athens, Lord Timon discovers the limits of wealth and friendship. He spends freely on others and hosts banquets…
Act 1, scene 1
The stage fills with suitors to and admirers of Lord Timon. When he arrives, he spends lavishly in freeing a…
Act 1, scene 2
Timon lavishly entertains friends and suitors with food and drink and a masque of Cupid and Amazons, and displays his…
Act 2, scene 1
A senator, predicting the end of Timon’s days of glory, sends a servant to Timon to collect overdue loans.
Act 2, scene 2
Servants of Timon’s creditors gather and confront Timon, demanding immediate repayment of loans. Learning that he is bankrupt, Timon dispatches…
Act 3, scene 1
Timon’s servant Flaminius approaches Timon’s friend Lucullus for money and is denied.
Act 3, scene 2
Timon’s servant Servilius approaches Timon’s friend Lucius for money and is refused. Three strangers condemn the ingratitude of Timon’s “friends”…
Act 3, scene 3
Timon’s servant approaches Timon’s friend Sempronius for money and is refused.
Act 3, scene 4
The servants of Timon’s creditors gather at his gates. He confronts them in a rage and, after they are gone,…
Act 3, scene 5
Alcibiades pleads in vain before three Athenian senators for the life of one of his soldiers. Frustrated at being denied,…
Act 3, scene 6
Timon’s friends come to dinner again, but this time he serves them only water and stones and drives them away.
Act 4, scene 1
Timon abandons Athens and retires to the woods.
Act 4, scene 2
Flavius shares his remaining money with his fellow servants as they disperse.
Act 4, scene 3
Timon, digging for roots to eat, finds gold. He is visited by Alcibiades and his concubines, to whom he gives…
Act 5, scene 1
Timon is visited by the Poet and the Painter seeking the gold Timon is now rumored to possess. After he…
Act 5, scene 2
Athens learns that it will surely fall to Alcibiades. Its senators seek shelter behind its walls.
Act 5, scene 3
One of Alcibiades’ soldiers discovers Timon’s tomb and, since he cannot read Timon’s epitaph, he resolves to bring a wax…
Act 5, scene 4
A victorious Alcibiades listens to the apologies of the senators and agrees to the conditions they set. Athens then opens…
⌜Scene 2⌝
Enter Steward ⌜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
5 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.
10 Fie, fie, fie, fie!
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Timon of Athens
ACT 2. SC. 2
CAPHIS
Good even, Varro. What, you come for money?
⌜VARRO’S MAN⌝ Is ’t not your business too?
CAPHIS It is. And yours too, Isidore?
⌜ISIDORE’S MAN⌝ It is so.
CAPHIS 15Would we were all discharged!
⌜VARRO’S MAN⌝ 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
20 will?
CAPHIS, ⌜offering Timon a paper⌝
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
25 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
30 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 MAN, offering a paper⌝ 35One Varro’s servant,
my good lord—
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ACT 2. SC. 2
From Isidore. He humbly prays your speedy
payment.
CAPHIS
If you did know, my lord, my master’s wants—
⌜VARRO’S MAN⌝
40 ’Twas due on forfeiture, my lord, six weeks and past.
⌜ISIDORE’S MAN⌝
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.
45 I’ll wait upon you instantly.
⌜Alcibiades and Timon’s train exit.⌝
⌜To Flavius.⌝ Come hither. Pray you,
How goes the world that I am thus encountered
With clamorous demands of debt, broken bonds,
And the detention of long-since-due debts
50 Against my honor?
FLAVIUS, ⌜to the creditors’ Men⌝ Please you, gentlemen,
The time is unagreeable to this business.
Your importunacy cease till after dinner,
That I may make his Lordship understand
55 Wherefore you are not paid.
TIMON Do so, my friends.—
See them well entertained.
FLAVIUS Pray, draw near.
⌜Timon and Flavius⌝ exit.
Enter Apemantus and Fool.
CAPHIS Stay, stay, here comes the Fool with Apemantus.
60 Let’s ha’ some sport with ’em.
⌜VARRO’S MAN⌝ Hang him! He’ll abuse us.
⌜ISIDORE’S MAN⌝ A plague upon him, dog!
⌜VARRO’S MAN⌝ How dost, Fool?
APEMANTUS Dost dialogue with thy shadow?
⌜VARRO’S MAN⌝ 65I speak not to thee.
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ACT 2. SC. 2
away.
⌜ISIDORE’S MAN, to Varro’s Man⌝ There’s the fool hangs
on your back already.
APEMANTUS 70No, thou stand’st single; thou ’rt not on
him yet.
CAPHIS, ⌜to Isidore’s Man⌝ Where’s the fool now?
APEMANTUS He last asked the question. Poor rogues
and usurers’ men, bawds between gold and want.
ALL ⌜THE MEN⌝ 75What are we, Apemantus?
APEMANTUS Asses.
ALL ⌜THE MEN⌝ Why?
APEMANTUS That you ask me what you are, and do not
know yourselves.—Speak to ’em, Fool.
FOOL 80How do you, gentlemen?
ALL ⌜THE MEN⌝ 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 85Good. 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
90 might answer thee profitably.
PAGE Prithee, Apemantus, read me the superscription
of these letters. I know not which is which.
⌜He shows some papers.⌝
APEMANTUS Canst not read?
PAGE No.
APEMANTUS 95There 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.
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Timon of Athens
ACT 2. SC. 2
100 a dog’s death. Answer not. I am gone.He exits.
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
105 three usurers?
ALL ⌜THE MEN⌝ 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 ⌜THE MEN⌝ 110Ay, 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 master’s
115 house merrily and go away sadly. The reason
of this?
⌜VARRO’S MAN⌝ I could render one.
APEMANTUS Do it then, that we may account thee a
whoremaster and a knave, which notwithstanding,
120 thou shalt be no less esteemed.
⌜VARRO’S MAN⌝ 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,
125 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 MAN⌝ Thou art not altogether a Fool.
FOOL 130Nor 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 ⌜THE MEN⌝ Aside, aside! Here comes Lord Timon.
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ACT 2. SC. 2
APEMANTUS Come with me, fool, come.
FOOL 135I do not always follow lover, elder brother, and
woman; sometime the philosopher.
⌜Apemantus and the Fool exit.⌝
FLAVIUS, ⌜to the creditors’ Men⌝
Pray you, walk near. I’ll speak with you anon.
⌜The Men⌝ exit.
TIMON
You make me marvel wherefore ere this time
Had you not fully laid my state before me,
140 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.
145 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,
150 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—
155 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,
160 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.
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Timon of Athens
ACT 2. SC. 2
’Tis all engaged, some forfeited and gone,
165 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
170 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 ⌜of⌝ falsehood,
175 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
180 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!
185 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!
190 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.
67
Timon of Athens
ACT 2. SC. 2
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
200 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,
205 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 three Servants, ⌜Flaminius, Servilius, and another.⌝
SERVANTS My lord, my lord.
TIMON 210I will dispatch you severally. (⌜To Servilius⌝)
You to Lord Lucius, (⌜to Flaminius⌝) to Lord
Lucullus you—I hunted with his Honor today; (⌜to
the third Servant⌝) you to Sempronius. Commend
me to their loves, and I am proud, say, that my
215 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.⌜Servants exit.⌝
FLAVIUS, ⌜aside⌝ Lord Lucius and Lucullus? Humh!
TIMON Go you, sir, to the Senators,
220 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—
225 To them to use your signet and your name,
But they do shake their heads, and I am here
No richer in return.
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ACT 2. SC. 2
FLAVIUS
They answer in a joint and corporate voice
230 That now they are at fall, want treasure, cannot
Do what they would, are sorry. You are honorable,
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.
235 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!
240 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,
245 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
250 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
255 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.
⌜He exits.⌝
FLAVIUS I would I could not think it.
That thought is bounty’s foe;
260 Being free itself, it thinks all others so.
⌜He⌝ exits.
