Break open shops; nothing can you steal, 1 Thief. 'Tis in the malice of mankind, that he thus advises us; not to have us thrive in our mystery. 2 Thief. I'll believe him as an enemy, and give over my trade. 1 Thief. Let us first see peace in Athens: There is no time so miserable, but a man may be true. [Exeunt Thieves. Enter FLAVIUS. Flav. O you gods! Is yon despis'd and ruinous man my lord? What viler thing upon the earth, than friends, TIMON comes forward from his Cave. Have you forgot me, sir? Then I know thee not: I ne'er had honest man Because thou art a woman, and disclaim'st Flav. I beg of you to know me, good my lord, Thy face. Methinks, thou art more honest now, than wise; Thou mightst have sooner got another service: If not a usuring kindness: and as rich men deal gifts, Flav. No, my most worthy master, in whose breast For any benefit that points to me, Tim. Look thee, 'tis so!-Thou singly honest man, Flav. And comfort you, my master. O, let me stay, If thou hat'st ACT V. Pain. Nothing else: you shall see him a palm in Athens again, and flourish with the highest. Therefore, 'tis not amiss, we tender our loves to him, in this supposed distress of his: it will show honestly in us; and is very likely to load our purposes with what they travel for, if it be a just and true report that goes of his having. Poet. What have you now to present unto him? only I will promise him an excellent piece. Pain. Nothing at this time but my visitation : Poet. I must serve him so too; tell him of an intent that's coming toward him. Pain. Good as the best. Promising is the very 9 Away from human habitation. Τι air o'the time: it opens the eyes of expectation : performance is ever the duller for his act; and, but in the plainer and simpler kind of people, the deed of saying is quite out of use. To promise is most courtly and fashionable: performance is a kind of will or testament, which argues a great sickness in his judgment that makes it. Tim. Excellent workman! Thou canst not paint a man so bad as is thyself. Poet. I am thinking, what I shall say I have provided for him: It must be a personating of himself: a satire against the softness of prosperity; with a discovery of the infinite flatteries, that follow youth and opulency. Tim. Must thou needs stand for a villain in thine own work? Wilt thou whip thine own faults in other men? Do so, I have gold for thee. Poet. Nay, let's seek him: Then do we sin against our own estate, When we may profit meet, and come too late. When the day serves, before black-corner'd night, Tim. I'll meet you at the turn. What a god's gold, That he is worshipp'd in a baser temple, Than where swine feed! Tim. Look you, I love you well; I'll give you gold, 'Tis thou that rigg'st the bark, and plough'st the Rid me these villains from your companies : Tim. Have I once liv'd to see two honest men? Poet. Sir, Having often of your open bounty tasted, Whose star-like nobleness gave life and influence Tim. Let it go naked, men may see't the better: You, that are honest, by being what you are, Make them best seen, and known. Pain. He, and myself, Have travell'd in the great shower of your gifts, And sweetly felt it. Tim. Ay, you are honest men. Can you eat roots, and drink cold water? no. I am sure you have: speak truth: you are honest men. Pain. So it is said, my noble lord: but therefore Came not my friend, nor I. Tim. Good honest men:- Thou draw'st a counterfeit ? Best in all Athens: thou art, indeed, the best; The doing of that we said we would do. A portrait was so called. Hang them, or stab them, drown them in a draught, Confound them by some course, and come to me, I'll give you gold enough. Both. Name them, my lord, let's know them. Tim. You that way, and you this, but two in company: Each man apart, all single and alone, [To the Painter. Come not near him. If thou wouldst not reside [To the Poet. But where one villain is, then him abandon. Hence! pack! there's gold, ye came for gold, ye slaves: A lack of Timon's aid, hath sense withal And send forth us, to make their sorrow'd render", Together with a recompence more fruitful Tim. You witch me in it; Surprise me to the very brink of tears: Lend me a fool's heart, and a woman's eyes, And I'll beweep these comforts, worthy senators. 1 Sen. Therefore, so please thee to return with us, And of our Athens (thine, and ours,) to take The captainship, thou shalt be met with thanks, Allow'd with absolute power, and thy good name Live with authority: -so soon we shall drive back Of Alcibiades the approaches wild; Who, like a boar too savage, doth root up His country's peace. 2 Sen. And shakes his threat'ning sword Against the walls of Athens. 1 Sen. Therefore, Timon, — Tim. Well, sir, I will; therefore, I will, sir; Thus, If Alcibiades kill my countrymen, Let Alcibiades know this of Timon, That Timon cares not. But if he sack fair Athens, And take our goodly aged men by the beards, Giving our holy virgins to the stain Of contumelious, beastly, mad-brain'd war; 2 Sen. And enter in our ears like great triumphers In their applauding gates. Tim. Commend me to them; And tell them, that to ease them of their griefs, I'll teach them to prevent wild Alcibiades' wrath. And shortly must I fell it: Tell my friends, Tell Athens in the sequence of degree, Tim. Come not to me again: but say to Athens, And strain what other means is left unto us 2 Sen. Our hope in him is dead: let us return, In our dear9 peril. 1 Sen. SCENE III. It requires swift foot. [Exeunt. The Walls of Athens. 1 Sen. Thou hast painfully discovered; are his files Then, let him know, and tell him, Timon speaks it, As full as thy report? In pity of our aged, and our youth, I cannot choose but tell him, that SCENE V. - Before the Walls of Athens. Our sufferance vainly; Now the time is flush 2, 1 Sen. Noble and young, When thy first griefs were but a mere conceit, Ere thou hadst power, or we had cause of fear, We sent to thee; to give thy rages balm, To wipe out our ingratitude with loves Above their quantity. 2 Sen. So did we woo Transformed Timon to our city's love, By humble message, and by promis'd means; 1 Sen. These walls of ours Were not erected by their hands, from whom You have receiv'd your griefs: nor are they such, That these great towers, trophies, and schools should fall For private faults in them. 2 Sen. Alcib. Then there's my glove; Descend, and open your uncharged ports +; Those enemies of Timon's, and mine own, Whom you yourselves shall set out for reproof, Fall, and no more: and,- to atone your fears With my more noble meaning,. Shall pass his quarter, or offend the stream Of regular justice in your city's bounds, But shall be remedied, to your publick laws At heaviest answer. not a man Both. Sol. My noble general, Timon is dead; Alcib. [Reads.] Here lies a wretched corse, of wretched soul bereft : Seek not my name: A plague consume you wicked caitiff's left! Here lie I, Timon; who, alive, all living men did hate: Pass by, and curse thy fill; but pass, and stay not here thy gait. These well express in thee thy latter spirits From niggard nature fall, yet rich conceit Bring me into your city, And I will use the olive with my sword: Make war breed peace; make peace stint war; CORIOLANUS. PERSONS REPRESENTED. CAIUS MARCIUS CORIOLANUS, a noble Roman. TITUS LARTIUS,} Generals against the Volscians. MENENIUS AGRIPPA, Friend to Coriolanus. SICINIUS VELUTUS, JUNIUS BRUTUS, } Tribunes of the People. Young MARCIUS, Son to Coriolanus. A Roman Herald. TULLUS AUFIDIUS, General of the Volscians. Lieutenant to Aufidius. Conspirators with Aufidius. A Citizen of Antium. VOLUMNIA, Mother to Coriolanus. Roman and Volscian Senators, Patricians, Ædiles, Lictors, Soldiers, Citizens, Messengers, Servants to SCENE, partly in Rome, and partly in the Territories of the Volscians and Antiates. 1 Cit. Before we proceed any further, hear me being proud. speak. Cit. Speak, speak. [Several speaking at once. 1 Cit. You are all resolved rather to die, than to famish? Cit. Resolved, resolved. 2 Cit. Nay, but speak not maliciously. 1 Cit. say unto you, what he hath done famously, he did it to that end: though soft conscienc'd men can be content to say it was for his country, he did it to please his mother, and to be partly proud: 1 Cit. First, you know, Caius Marcius is chief which he is, even to the altitude of his virtue. enemy to the people. Cit. We know't, we know't. 1 Cit. Let us kill him, and we'll have corn at our own price. Is't a verdict? 2 Cit. What he cannot help in his nature, you account a vice in him: You must in no way say, ho is covetous. 1 Cit. If I must not, I need not be barren o Cit. No more talking on't; let it be done: away, accusations; he hath faults, with surplus, to tire ir away. 2 Cit. One word, good citizens. 1 Cit. We are accounted poor citizens; the patricians, good: What authority surfeits on, would relieve us; If they would yield us but the superfluity, while it were wholesome, we might guess, they relieved us humanely! but they think, we are too dear: the leanness that afflicts us, the object of our misery, is an inventory to particularize their abundance; our sufferance is a gain to them. Let us revenge this with our pikes, ere we become rakes for the gods know, I speak this in hunger for bread, not in thirst for revenge. 2 Cit. Would you proceed especially against Caius Marcius? Cit. Against him first; he's a very dog to the commonalty. |