Enter certain Senators, and pass over. Pain. How this lord 's follow'd! Poet. The senators of Athens;-Happy men!2 Pain. Look, more! Poet. You see this confluence, this great flood of visitors.3 I have, in this rough work, shap'd out a man, "Done for the last with such exceeding life, "As art therein with nature were at strife." Malone. 2 Happy men!] Mr. Theobald reads-happy man; and certainly the emendation is sufficiently plausible, though the old reading may well stand. Malone. The text is right. The Poet envies or admires the felicity of the senators in being Timon's friends, and familiarly admitted to his table, to partake of his good cheer, and experience the effects of his bounty. Ritson. 3 this confluence, this great flood of visitors.] Mane salutantûm totis vomit ædibus undam. Johnson. this beneath world-] So, in Measure for Measure, we have "This under generation;" andin King Richard II: “— - the lower world." Steevens. 5 Halts not particularly,] My design does not stop at any single character. Johnson. 6 In a wide sea of wax:] Anciently they wrote upon waxen tables with an iron style. Hanmer. I once thought with Sir T. Hanmer, that this was only an allusion to the Roman practice of writing with a style on waxen tablets; but it appears that the same custom prevailed in England about the year 1395, and might have been heard of by Shakspeare. It seems also to be pointed out by implication in many of our old collegiate establishments. See Warton's History of English Poetry, Vol. III, p. 151. Steevens. As Mr. Astle observes in his very ingenious work On the Origin and Progress of Writing, quarto, 1784, that "the practice of writing on table-books covered with wax was not entirely laid aside till the commencement of the fourteenth century." Shakspeare, I believe, was not a very profound English antiquary, it is surely improbable that he should have had any knowledge of a practice which had been disused for more than two centuries before he was born. The Roman practice he might have learned from Golding's translation of the ninth Book of Ovid's Metamorphoses: Infects one comma in the course I hold; I'll unbolt to you. Pain. How shall I understand you? Poet. 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;1 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,3 and returns in peace Most rich in Timon's nod. Pain. 7 I saw them speak together." "Her right hand holds the pen, her left doth hold the emptie waxe," &c. Malone. no levell'd malice &c.] To level is to aim, to point the shot at a mark. Shakspeare's meaning is, my poem is not a satire written with any particular view, or levelled at any single person; I fly like an eagle into a general expanse of life, and leave not, by any private mischief, the trace of my passage. 8 I'll unbolt -] I'll open, I'll explain. Johnson. Johnson. 9 glib and slippery creatures,] Sir T. Hanmer, and Dr. Warburton after him, read-natures. Slippery is smooth, unresisting. 1 Subdues 2 All sorts of hearts;] So, in Othello: "My heart's subdued "Even to the very quality of my lord." Steevens. Johnson. -glass-fac'd flatterer-] That shows in his look, as by reflection, the looks of his patron. Johnson. 3 even he drops down &c.] Either Shakspeare meant to put a falsehood into the mouth of his Poet, or had not yet thoroughly planned the character of Apemantus; for in the ensuing scenes, his behaviour is as cynical to Timon as to his followers. Steevens. The Poet, seeing that Apemantus paid frequent visits to Timon, naturally concluded that he was equally courteous with his other guests. Ritson. 4 I saw them speak together.] The word-together, which only serves to interrupt the measure, is, I believe, an interpolation, being occasionally omitted by our author, as unnecessary to sense, 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 Translates his rivals. Pain. 'Tis conceiv'd to scope. 8 This throne, this Fortune, and this hill, methinks, To climb his happiness, would be well express'd Poet. Nay, sir, but hear me on: on similar occasions. Thus, in Measure for Measure: " Bring me to hear them speak;" i. e. to speak together, to converse. Again, in another of our author's plays: "When spoke you last?" Nor is the same phraseology, even at this hour, cut of use. Steevens. 5 men. -rank'd with all deserts,] Cover'd with ranks of all kinds of Johnson. 6 To propagate their states:] To advance or improve their various conditions of life. Johnson. 7 Feign'd Fortune to be thron'd: on this sovereign lady &c.] So, in The Tempest: "Now my dear lady," &c. Malone. -8 conceiv'd to scope.] Properly imagined, appositely, to the purpose. Johnson. 9 In our condition.] Condition for art. Warburton. 1 Rain sacrificial whisperings in his ear,] The sense is obvious, and means, in general, flattering him. The particular kind of flattery may be collected from the circumstance of its being offered up in whispers: which shows it was the calumniating those whom Timon hated or envied, or whose vices were opposite to his own. This offering up, to the person flattered, the murdered reputation of others, Shakspeare, with the utmost beauty of thought and Make sacred even his stirrop, and through him Pain. Ay, marry, what of these? Poet. When Fortune, in her shift and change of mood, Spurns down her late belov'd, all his dependants, Pain. 'Tis common: A thousand moral paintings I can show,^ expression, calls sacrificial whisperings, alluding to the victims offered up to idols. Warburton. Whisperings attended with such respect and veneration as accompany sacrifices to the gods. Such, I suppose, is the meaning. Malone. By sacrificial whisperings, I should simply understand whisperings of officious servility, the incense of the worshipping parasite to the patron as to a god. These whisperings might probably immolate reputations for the most part, but I should not reduce the epithet in question to that notion here. Mr. Gray has excellently expressed in his Elegy these sacrificial offerings to the great from the poetick tribe: 2 "To heap the shrine of luxury and pride "With incense kindled at the muse's flame." Wakefield. through him Drink the free air.] That is, catch his breath in affected fondness. Johnson. A similar phrase occurs in Ben Jonson's Every Man in his Humour: By this air, the most divine tobacco I every drank!" To drink, in both these instances, signifies to inhale. Steevens. Dr. Johnson's explanation appears to me highly unnatural and unsatisfactory. "To drink the air," like the haustus ætherios of Virgil, is merely a poetical phrase for draw the air, or breathe. To drink the free air," therefore, "through another," is to breathe freely at his will only; so as to depend on him for the privilege of life: not even to breathe freely without his permission. Wakefield. So, in our author's Venus and Adonis: "His nostrils drink the air." Again, in The Tempest: "I drink the air before me." Malone. 3 - let him slip down,] The old copy reads: let him sit down. The emendation was made by Mr. Rowe. Steevens. 4 A thousand moral paintings I can show,] Shakspeare seems to intend in this dialogue to express some competition between the That shall demonstrate these quick blows of fortunes To show lord Timon, that mean eyes have seen Trumhets sound. Enter TIMON, attended; the Servant of VENTIDIUS talking with him. Tim. Imprison'd is he, say you?7 To those have shut him up; which failing to him,3 Tim. Noble Ventidius! Well; I am not of that feather, to shake off two great arts of imitation. Whatever the poet declares himself to have shown, the painter thinks he could have shown better. Johnson.. 5 these quick blows of fortune-] [Old copy-fortune's-] This was the phraseology of Shakspeare's time, as I have already observed in a note on King John, Vol. VII, p. 305, n. 8. The modern editors read, more elegantly,-of fortune. The alteration was first made in the second folio, from ignorance of Shakspeare's diction. Malone. Though I cannot impute such a correction to the ignorance of the person who made it, I can easily suppose what is here styled the phraseology of Shakspeare, to be only the mistake of a vulgar transcriber or printer. Had our author been constant in his use of this mode of speech (which is not the case) the propriety of Mr. Malone's remark would have been readily admitted. Steevens. 6 -mean eyes-] i. e. inferior spectators. So, in Wotton's Letter to Bacon, dated March the last, 1613: "Before their majesties, and almost as many other meaner eyes," &c. Tollet. 7 Imprison'd is he, say you?] Here we have another interpolation destructive to the metre. Omitting-is he, we ought to read: Imprison'd, say you? Steevens. 8 which failing to him,] Thus the second folio. The first omits-to him, and consequently mutilates the verse. Steevens. Periods his comfort.] To period is, perhaps, a verb of Shak. speare's introduction into the English language. I find it, however, used by Heywood, after him, in A Maidenhead well lost, 1634: "How easy could I period all my care." Again, in The Country Girl, by T. B. 1647: "To period our vain-grievings." Steevens |