When thou art Timon's dog,5 and these knaves ho neft. TIM. Why doft thou call them knaves? thou know'ft them not. APEM. Are they not Athenians ?6 TIM. Yes. APEM. Then I repent not. JEW. You know me, Apemantus. APEM. Thou knoweft, I do; I call'd thee by thy name. TIM. Thou art proud, Apemantus. APEM. Of nothing fo much, as that I am not like Timon. 5 When thou art Timon's dog,] When thou haft gotten a better character, and instead of being Timon as thou art, fhalt be changed to Timon's dog, and become more worthy kindness and falutation. JOHNSON. This is fpoken daxTinus, as Mr. Upton fays, fomewhere:ftriking his hand on his breast. "Wot you who named me first the kinge's dogge?" says Ariftippus in Damon and Pythias. FARMER. Apemantus, I think, means to fay, that Timon is not to receive a gentle good morrow from him till that shall happen which never will happen; till Timon is transformed to the shape of his dog, and his knavifh followers become honeft men. Stay for thy good morrow, fays he, till I be gentle, which will happen at the fame time when thou art Timon's dog, &c. i. e. never. MALONE. Mr. Malone has juftly explained the drift of Apemantus. Such another reply occurs in Troilus and Creffida, where Ulyffes, defirous to avoid a kifs from Creflida, fays to her; give me one"When Helen is a maid again," &c. STEEVENS. "Are they not Athenians?] The very imperfect ftate in which the ancient copy of this play has reached us, leaves a doubt whe ther several short speeches in the present scene were defigned for yerfe or profe. I have therefore made no attempt at regulation. STEEVENS. TIM. Whither art going? APEM. To knock out an honeft Athenian's brains. APEM. Right, if doing nothing be death by the law. TIM. How likeft thou this picture, Apemantus? TIM. Wrought he not well, that painted it? APEM. He wrought better, that made the painter; and yet he's but a filthy piece of work. PAIN. You are a dog.7 APEM. Thy mother's of my generation; What's fhe, if I be a dog? TIM. Wilt dine with me, Apemantus? APEM. No; I eat not lords. TIM. An thou fhould'ft, thou'dft anger ladies. APEM. O, they eat lords; fo they come by great, bellies. TIM. That's a lafcivious apprehenfion. APEM. So thou apprehend'ft it: Take it for thy labour. TIM. How doft thou like this jewel, Apemantus? APEM. Not fo well as plain-dealing, which will not coft a man a doit. TIM. What doft thou think 'tis worth? 7 Pain. You are a dog.] This fpeech, which is given to the Painter in the old editions, in the modern ones muft have been transferred to the Poet by mistake: it evidently belongs to the former. RITSON. Not fo well as plain-dealing] Alluding to the proverb: "Plain dealing is a jewel, but they that ufe it die beggars." STEEVENS, APEM. Not worth my thinking.-How now, poet? POET. How now, philofopher? APEM. Thou lieft. POET. Art not one? APEM. Yes. POET. Then I lie not. APEM. Art not a poet? POET. Yes. APEM. Then thou lieft: look in thy laft work, where thou haft feign'd him a worthy fellow. POET. That's not feign'd, he is fo. APEM. Yes, he is worthy of thee, and to pay thee for thy labour: He, that loves to be flattered, is worthy o'the flatterer. Heavens, that I were a lord! TIM. What would't do then, Apemantus? APEM. Even as Apemantus does now, hate a lord with my heart. TIM. What, thyself? TIM. Wherefore? APEM. That I had no angry wit to be a lord.9— Art not thou a merchant? • That I had no angry wit to be a lord.] This reading is abfurd, and unintelligible. But, as I have restored the text: That I had fo hungry a wit to be a lord, it is fatirical enough of confcience, viz. I would hate myself, for having no more wit than to covet so infignificant a title. In the fame fenfe, Shakspeare ufes lean-witted in his King Richard II: "And thou a lunatick, lean-witted fool." WARBURTON. The meaning may be,-I should hate myself for patiently en MER. Ay, Apemantus. APEM. Traffick confound thee, if the gods will not! MER. If traffick do it, the gods do it. APEM. Traffick's thy god, and thy god confound thee! during to be a lord. This is ill enough expreffed. Perhaps fome happy change may set it right. I have tried, and can do nothing, yet I cannot heartily concur with Dr. Warburton. Mr. Heath reads: JOHNSON. That I had fo wrong'd my wit to be a lord. But the paffage before us, is, in my opinion, irremediably corrupted. STEEVENS. Perhaps the compofitor has tranfpofed the words, and they fhould be read thus: Or, Angry that I had no wit,-to be a lord. Angry to be a lord,—that I had no wit. BLACKSTONE. Perhaps we should read: That I had an angry wish to be a lord; Meaning, that he would hate himself for having wished in his anger to become a lord.-For it is in anger that he says: 66 Heavens, that I were a lord !" M. MASON, I believe Shakspeare was thinking of the common expreffionhe has wit in his anger; and that the difficulty arifes here, as in many other places, from the original editor's paying no attention to abrupt fentences. Our author, I fuppofe, wrote: That I had no angry wit.-To be a lord! Art thou, &c. Apemantus is afked, why after having wifhed to be a lord, he fhould hate himself. He replies,-For this reason; that I had no wit [or difcretion] in my anger, but was abfurd enough to wifh myself one of that fet of men, whom I despise. He then exclaims with indignation-To be a lord !-Such is my conjecture, in which however I have not so much confidence as to depart from the mode in which this paffage has been hitherto exhibited. MALONE. Trumpets found. Enter a Servant. TIM. What trumpet's that? SERV. 'Tis Alcibiades, and Some twenty horse, all of companionship.1 us. TIM. Pray, entertain them; give them guide to [Exeunt fome Attendants. You must needs dine with me :-Go not you hence, Till I have thank'd you; and, when dinner's done,2 Show me this piece. I am joyful of your fights. Enter ALCIBIADES, with his Company. Moft welcome, fir! [They falute. APEM. So, fo; there ! Aches contract and starve your supple joints !— That there fhould be small love 'mongst these sweet knaves, And all this court'fy! The ftrain of man's bred out Into baboon and monkey.3 ALCIB. Sir, you have fav'd my longing, and I feed Moft hungrily on your fight. TIM. Right welcome, fir: all of companionship.] This expreffion does not mean barely that they all belong to one company, but that they are all fuch as Alcibiades honours with his acquaintance, and jets on a level with himself. STEEVENS. 2 -and, when dinner's done,] And, which is wanting in the first folio, is fupplied by the fecond. STEEVENS. 3 The ftrain of man's bred out Into baboon and monkey.] Man is exhaufted and degenerated; his ftrain or lineage is worn down into a monkey. JOHNSON. |