Enter TIMON, in a rage; FLAMINIUS following.

TIM. What, are my doors oppos'd against my paffage?

Have I been ever free, and muft my house
Be my retentive enemy, my gaol?

The place, which I have feafted, does it now,
Like all mankind, fhow me an iron heart?
LUG. SERV. Put in now, Titus.

15

TIT. My lord, here is my bill.

LUC. SERV. Here's mine.

HOR. SERV. And mine, my lord. 5

BOTH VAR. SERV. And ours, my lord.

PHI. All our bills.

6

TIM. Knock me down with 'em: cleave me to

the girdle.

Hor. Serv. And mine, my lord.] In the old copy this fpeech is given to Varro. I have given it to the fervant of Hortenfius, (who would naturally prefer bis claim among the reft,) because to the following fpeech in the old copy is prefixed, 2. Var. which from the words fpoken [ And ours, my lord. meant, I conceive, the two fervants of Varro. In the modern editious this latter fpeech is given to Caphis, who is not upon the ftage. MALONE.

This whole scene perhaps was fridly metrical, when it came from Shakspeare; but the prefent ftate of it is fuch, that it cannot be reftored but by greater violence than an editor may be allowed to employ. I have therefore given it without the leaft attempt at arrangement. STEEVENS.

6 Knock me down with 'em. n.] Timon quibbles. They present their written bills; he catches at the word, and alludes to the bills or battle-axes, which the ancient foldiery carried, and were still used by the watch in Shakspeare's time. See the scene between Dogberry, &c. in Much Ado about Nothing; Vol VI. p. 303, n. 6. Again, in Heywood's If you know not me you know nobody, 1633, Second Part, Sir John Gresham fays to his creditors: "Friends, you cannot beat me down with your bills. Again, in Decker's Guls Hornbook, 1609: they durft not frike down their customers STEEVENS.

66

with large bills. VOL. XVII,

H

LUC. SERV. Alas! my lord,

TIM. Cut my heart in fums.
TIT. Mine, fifty talents.

TIM. Tell out my blood.

LUC. SERV. Five thousand crowns, my lord.
TIM. Five thousand drops pays that.-

What yours?

- and yours?

1. VAR. SERV. My lord,

2. VAR. SERV. My lord,

TIM. Tear me; take me, and the gods fall on

you.

[ Exit. HOR. 'Faith, I perceive, our mafters may throw their caps at their money; these debts may well be call'd defperate ones, for a madman owes 'em.

Re-enter TIMON and FLAVIUS.

[Exeunt.

TIM. They have e'en put my breath from me, the flaves:

TIM. So fitly? Go, bid all my friends again,
Lucius, Lucullus, and Sempronius; all:
I'll once more feaft the rafcals."

? So filly? Go, bid all my friends again, Lucius, Lucullus, and Sempronius; all:

I'll once more feaft the rafcals.] Thus the fecond folio; except

FLAV.
O my lord,
You only speak from your diftracted foul;
There is not fo much left, to furnish out

A moderate table.

TIM.

Be't not in thy care; go, I charge thee; invite them all: let in the tide Of knaves once more; my cook and I'll provide. [Exeunt:

that, by an apparent error of the prefs, we have add inftead

of and.

The firft folio reads:

Lucius, Lucullus, and Sempronius Vllorxa: all,

I'll once more feast the rafcals.

Regularity of metre alone would be fufficient to decide in favour of the prefent text, which, with the fecond folio, rejects the fortuitous and unmeaning aggregate of letters - Ullorxa. This Ullorxa, however, feems to bave been confidered as one of the "ineftimable fones, unvalued jewels," which emblace the forehead of that augufl publication, the folio 1623; and has been fet, with becoming care, in the text of Mr. Malone. For my own part, like the cock in the fable, I am content to leave this gem on the ftercoraceous fpot where it was difcovered. - Ulloixa a name unacknowledged by Athens or Rome) muft (if meant to have been introduced at all) have been a corruption as grofs as others that occur in the fame book, where we find Billingsgate inftead of Bafingfloke, Epton inftead of Hyperion, and an ace inftead of Até. Types, indeed, hook out of a hat, or fhot from a dicc-box, would often affume forms as legitimate as the proper names tranfmitted to us by Meffieurs Hemings, Condell, and Co. who very probably did not accustom themselves to fpell even their own appellations with accuracy, or always in the fame manner. STEEVENS.

SCENE V.

The fame. The Senate-Houfe.

The Senate fitting. Enter ALCIBIADES, attended.

1. SEN. My lord, you have my voice to't; the fault's bloody;

'Tis neceffary, he should die:

Nothing emboldens fin fo much as mercy.

8

2. SEN. Moft true; the law fhall bruife him. ALCIB. Honour, health, and compaffion to the fenate!

1. SEN. Now, captain?

ALCIB. I am an humble fuitor to your virtues; For pity is the virtue of the law,

And none but tyrants use it cruelly.

It pleases time, and fortune, to lie heavy
Upon a friend of mine, who, in hot blood,
Hath ftepp'd into the law, which is past depth
To thofe that, without heed, do plunge into it.
He is a man, setting his fate afide,
Of comely virtues:"

9

Shall bruife him.] The old copy reads. - fhall bruife 'em. The fame miftake has happened often in thefe plays. In a fubfequent line in this fcene we have in the old copy. - with him, in. ftead of with 'em. For the correction, which is fully justified

by the context, I am anfwerable. MALONE. Sir Thomas Hanmer alfo reads - bruife him. STEEVENS. Jetting his fate afide,] i. e. putting this action of his, which was pre-determined by fate, out of the queftion.

" He is a man, &c.] I have printed these lines after the original copy, except that, for an honour, it is there, and honour. All the

Nor did he foil the fact with cowardice;

(An honour in him, which buys out his fault,)
But, with a noble fury, and fair spirit,

Seeing his reputation touch'd to death,
He did oppofe his foe:

And with fuch fober and unnoted paffion
He did behave his anger, ere 'twas spent,
As if he had but prov'd an argument.

3

latter editions deviate unwarrantably from the original, and give

the lines thus:

He is a man, fetting his fault afide,

Of virtuous honour, which buys out his fault;

Nor did he foil, &c. JOHNSON.

1 This licentious alteration of the text, with a thousand others of the fame kind, was made by Mr. Pope. MALONE.

3 And with fuch fober and unnoted paffion

He did behave his anger, ere 'twas spent, &c.] Unnoted for common, bounded. Behave, for curb, mauage.

I would rather read:

WARBURTON.

Unnoted paffion means, I believe, an uncommon command of his paffion, fuch a one as has not hitherto been observed. Behave his anger inay, however, be right. In fir W. D'Avenant's play of The Just Italian, 1630, behave is ufed in as fingular a manner: "How well my ftars behave their influence.

In both these inftances, to behave is to manage. STEEVENS. "Unnoted paffion, I believe, means a paffion operating inwardly, but not accompanied with any external or boisterous appearances; fo regulated and fubdued, that no fpectator could note, or observe, its operation.

The old copy reads . He did behoove &c. which does not afford any very clear meaning. Behave, which Dr. Warburton interprets, manage, was introduced by Mr. Rowe. I doubt the text is not yet right. Our author fo very frequently converts nouns into verbs, that I have fometimes thought he might have written-"He did behalve his anger, - i. e. fupprefs it. So, Milton: yet put he not forth all his ftrength, "But check'd it mid-way.'