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TIMON OF ATHENS.

At what period it was
The story, originally

"THE Life of Tymon of Athens" appeared first in the folio of 1623. written we have no evidence, though Malone assigns it to the year 1610. derived from Lucian, was a popular one in Shakespeare's time, and must have been known to him from its forming the subject of a novel in Paynter's "Palace of Pleasure," and from the account of Timon given in North's translation of Plutarch. The immediate archetype of the play, however, was probably some old and now lost drama, remodelled and partially re-written by our author, but of which he permitted much of the rude material to remain, with scarcely any alteration.

It is upon this theory alone we find it possible to reconcile the discordance between the defective plan, and the faultless execution of particular parts,-between the poverty and negligence observable in some scenes, and the grandeur and consummate finish displayed in others. The basis of Shakespeare's "Timon" was long supposed to be an anonymous piece, the manuscript of which was in the possession of Mr. Strutt, and is now the property of Mr. Dyce. But this manuscript was printed, in 1842, for the Shakespeare Society; and although it is found to have one character, Laches, who is a coarse counterpart to the faithful steward, Flavius, and two or three incidents, particularly that of the mock banquet, where the misanthrope regales his parasites with stones, painted to look like artichokes, which correspond in some measure with transactions in the piece before us, there is not the slightest reason for believing Shakespeare ever saw it. These resemblances are no doubt merely owing to both plays being founded on a common origin; for the subject was evidently familiar to the stage long before we can suppose Shakespeare to have produced his version. In Guilpin's Collection of Epigrams and Satires, called "Skialetheia," 1598, we have in Epigram 52:

"Like hate man Timon in his cell he sits,"

which, as Mr. Collier says, apparently points to some scene wherein Timon had been represented; and he is again mentioned, in a way to show that his peculiarities were well understood, in the play of "Jack Drum's Entertainment," printed in 1601 :-" But if all the brewers' jades in the town can drag me from the love of myself, they shall do more than e'er the seven wise men of Greece could. Come, come; now I'll be as sociable as Timon of Athens.”

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To an untirable and continuate goodness,
He passes.]

In the accepted reading of this passage, a colon is placed after goodness," and the phrase "He passes," interpreted to mean,

66

Enter Jeweller, Merchant, and others, at several doors.

Magic of bounty! all these spirits thy power
Hath conjur'd to attend. I know the merchant.'
PAIN. I know them both; the other's a jeweller.
MER. O, 'tis a worthy lord!
JEW.
Nay, that's most fix'd.
MER. A most incomparable man; breath'd, as it

were,

To an untirable and continuate goodness, He passes."

he surpasses or exceeds, is made a separate member of the sentence. From the expressions "breath'd" and "untirable," it may well be questioned, however, whether "He passes" should not be immediately connected with what goes before, and be understood in the same sense, of runs, which it bears in "Henry V." Act II. Sc. 1:-" He passes some humours and careers."

I have a jewel here—

JEW.
But flies an eagle flight, bold, and forth on,
MER. O, pray, let's see't: for the lord Timon, Leaving no track behind.

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Enter certain Senators, and pass over.

PAIN. How this lord is follow'd!
POET. The senators of Athens:-happy men!
PAIN. Look, more!†

POET. You see this confluence, this great flood of visitors.

I have, in this rough work, shap'd out a man,
Whom this beneath world doth embrace and hug
With amplest entertainment: my free drift
Halts not particularly, but moves itself
In a wide sea of wax: no levelled malice
Infects one comma in the course I hold;

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PAIN. How shall I understand you? РОЕТ.

I'll unbolt to you.

You see how all conditions, how all minds,
(As well of glib and slippery creatures, as
Of grave and austere quality) tender down
Their services to lord Timon: his large fortune,
Upon his good and gracious nature hanging,
Subdues and properties to his love and tendance
All sorts of hearts; yea, from the glass-fac'd flatterer
To Apemantus, that few things loves better
Than to abhor himself; even he drops down
The knee before him, and returns in peace,
Most rich in Timon's nod.

PAIN.
I saw them speak together.
POET. Sir, I have upon a high and pleasant hill,
Feign'd Fortune to be thron'd: the base o' the

mount

Is rank'd with all deserts, all kind of natures,
That labour on the bosom of this sphere
To propagate their states: amongst them all,
Whose eyes are on this sovereign lady fix'd,
One do I personate of lord Timon's frame,
Whom Fortune with her ivory hand wafts to her;
Whose present grace to present slaves and servants
PAIN.
'Tis conceiv'd to scope.
This throne, this Fortune, and this hill, methinks,
With one man beckon'd from the rest below,
Bowing his head against the steepy mount
To climb his happiness, would be well express'd
In our condition.

Translates his rivals.

e

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(*) First folio, hund.

valent in England until about the end of the fourteenth century: but the word wax is more probably a misprint, though not cer tainly, for verse, which Mr. Collier's annotator substitutes for it. d Properties-] Appropriates. See note (c), p. 268.

e In our condition.] Condition here means, profession or art. f Let him slip down,-] The old text has, "let him sit downe;" the necessary alteration was made by Rowe.

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