Timon of Athens

dues. Timon Dues! Whence are you? Caphis Of Athens here, my lord. Timon Go to my steward. Caphis

Please it your lordship, he hath put me off
To the succession of new days this month:
My master is awaked by great occasion
To call upon his own, and humbly prays you
That with your other noble parts you’ll suit
In giving him his right.

Timon

Mine honest friend,
I prithee, but repair to me next morning.

Caphis Nay, good my lord⁠— Timon Contain thyself, good friend. Varro’s Servant One Varro’s servant, my good lord⁠— Isidore’s Servant

From Isidore;
He humbly prays your speedy payment.

Caphis If you did know, my lord, my master’s wants⁠— Varro’s Servant

’Twas due on forfeiture, my lord, six weeks
And past.

Isidore’s Servant

Your steward puts me off, my lord;
And I am sent expressly to your lordship.

Timon

Give me breath.
I do beseech you, good my lords, keep on;
I’ll wait upon you instantly. Exeunt Alcibiades and Lords.
To Flavius. Come hither: pray you,
How goes the world, that I am thus encounter’d
With clamourous demands of date-broke bonds,
And the detention of long-since-due debts,
Against my honour?

Flavius

Please you, gentlemen,
The time is unagreeable to this business:
Your importunacy cease till after dinner,
That I may make his lordship understand
Wherefore you are not paid.

Timon Do so, my friends. See them well entertain’d. Exit. Flavius Pray, draw near. Exit. Enter Apemantus and Fool. Caphis Stay, stay, here comes the fool with Apemantus: let’s ha’ some sport with ’em. Varro’s Servant Hang him, he’ll abuse us. Isidore’s Servant A plague upon him, dog! Varro’s Servant How dost, fool? Apemantus Dost dialogue with thy shadow? Varro’s Servant I speak not to thee. Apemantus No, ’tis to thyself. To the Fool. Come away. Isidore’s Servant There’s the fool hangs on your back already. Apemantus No, thou stand’st single, thou’rt not on him yet. Caphis Where’s the fool now? Apemantus He last asked the question. Poor rogues, and usurers’ men! bawds between gold and want! All Servants What are we, Apemantus? Apemantus Asses. All Servants Why? Apemantus That you ask me what you are, and do not know yourselves. Speak to ’em, fool. Fool How do you, gentlemen? All Servants Gramercies, good fool: how does your mistress? Fool She’s e’en setting on water to scald such chickens as you are. Would we could see you at Corinth! Apemantus Good! gramercy. Enter Page. Fool Look you, here comes my mistress’ page. Page To the Fool. Why, how now, captain! what do you in this wise company? How dost thou, Apemantus? Apemantus Would I had a rod in my mouth, that I might answer thee profitably. Page Prithee, Apemantus, read me the superscription of these letters: I know not which is which. Apemantus Canst not read? Page No. Apemantus There will little learning die then, that day thou art hanged. This is to Lord Timon; this to Alcibiades. Go; thou wast born a bastard, and thou’t die a bawd. Page Thou wast whelped a dog, and thou shalt famish a dog’s death. Answer not; I am gone. Exit. Apemantus E’en so thou outrunnest grace. Fool, I will go with you to Lord Timon’s. Fool Will you leave me there? Apemantus If Timon stay at home. You three serve three usurers? All Servants Ay; would they served us! Apemantus So would I⁠—as good a trick as ever hangman served thief. Fool Are you three usurers’ men? All Servants Ay, fool. Fool I think no usurer but has a fool to his servant: my mistress is one, and I am her fool. When men come to borrow of your masters, they approach sadly, and go away merry; but they enter my mistress’ house merrily, and go away sadly: the reason of this? Varro’s Servant I could render one. Apemantus Do it then, that we may account thee a whoremaster and a knave; which notwithstanding, thou shalt be no less esteemed. Varro’s Servant What is a whoremaster, fool? Fool A fool in good clothes, and something like thee. ’Tis a spirit: sometime’t appears like a lord; sometime like a lawyer; sometime like a philosopher, with two stones moe than’s artificial one: he is very often like a knight; and, generally, in all shapes that man goes up and down in from fourscore to thirteen, this spirit walks in. Varro’s Servant Thou art not altogether a fool. Fool Nor thou altogether a wise man: as much foolery as I have, so much wit thou lackest. Apemantus That answer might have become Apemantus. All Servants Aside, aside; here comes Lord Timon. Re-enter Timon and Flavius. Apemantus Come with me, fool, come. Fool I do not always follow lover, elder brother and woman; sometime the philosopher. Exeunt Apemantus and Fool. Flavius Pray you, walk near: I’ll speak with you anon. Exeunt Servants. Timon

You make me marvel: wherefore ere this time
Had you not fully laid my state before me,
That I might so have rated my expense,
As I had leave of means?

Flavius

You would not hear me,
At many leisures I proposed.

Timon

Go to:
Perchance some single vantages you took,
When my indisposition put you back;
And that unaptness made your minister,
Thus to excuse yourself.

Flavius

O my good lord,
At many times I brought in my accounts,
Laid them before you; you would throw them off,
And say, you found them in mine honesty.
When, for some trifling present, you have bid me
Return so much, I have shook my head and wept;
Yea, ’gainst the authority of manners, pray’d you
To hold your hand more close: I did endure
Not seldom, nor no slight checks, when I have
Prompted you in the ebb of your estate
And your great flow of debts. My loved lord,
Though you hear now, too late⁠—yet now’s a time⁠—
The greatest of your having lacks a half
To pay your present debts.

Timon Let all my land be sold. Flavius

’Tis all engaged, some forfeited and gone;
And what remains will hardly stop the mouth
Of present dues: the future comes apace:
What shall defend the interim? and at length
How goes our reckoning?

Timon To Lacedaemon did my land extend. Flavius

O my good lord, the world is but a word:
Were it all yours to give it in a breath,
How quickly were it gone!

Timon You tell me true. Flavius

If you suspect my husbandry or falsehood,
Call me before the