For you serve knaves. Exit
FIRST VARRO'S SERVANT. How! What does his cashier'd
worship mutter?
SECOND VARRO'S SERVANT. No matter what; he's poor, and that's
revenge enough. Who can speak broader than he that has no house
to put his head in? Such may rail against great buildings.
Enter SERVILIUS
TITUS. O, here's Servilius; now we shall know some answer.
SERVILIUS. If I might
beseech you, gentlemen, to
repair some other
hour, I should
derive much from't; for take't of my soul, my lord
leans wondrously to
discontent. His comfortable
temper has
forsook him; he's much out of health and keeps his chamber.
LUCIUS' SERVANT. Many do keep their chambers are not sick;
And if it be so far beyond his health,
Methinks he should the sooner pay his debts,
And make a clear way to the gods.
SERVILIUS. Good gods!
TITUS. We cannot take this for answer, sir.
FLAMINIUS. [Within] Servilius, help! My lord! my lord!
Enter TIMON, in a rage, FLAMINIUS following
TIMON. What, are my doors oppos'd against my passage?
Have I been ever free, and must my house
Be my retentive enemy, my gaol?
The place which I have feasted, does it now,
Like all mankind, show me an iron heart?
LUCIUS' SERVANT. Put in now, Titus.
TITUS. My lord, here is my bill.
LUCIUS' SERVANT. Here's mine.
HORTENSIUS. And mine, my lord.
BOTH VARRO'S SERVANTS. And ours, my lord.
PHILOTUS. All our bills.
TIMON. Knock me down with 'em;
cleave me to the girdle.
LUCIUS' SERVANT. Alas, my lord-
TIMON. Cut my heart in sums.
TITUS. Mine, fifty talents.
TIMON. Tell out my blood.
LUCIUS' SERVANT. Five thousand crowns, my lord.
TIMON. Five thousand drops pays that. What yours? and yours?
FIRST VARRO'S SERVANT. My lord-
SECOND VARRO'S SERVANT. My lord-
TIMON. Tear me, take me, and the gods fall upon you! Exit
HORTENSIUS. Faith, I
perceive our masters may throw their caps at
their money. These debts may well be call'd
desperate ones, for a
madman owes 'em. Exeunt
Re-enter TIMON and FLAVIUS
TIMON. They have e'en put my
breath from me, the slaves.
Creditors? Devils!
FLAVIUS. My dear lord-
TIMON. What if it should be so?
FLAMINIUS. My lord-
TIMON. I'll have it so. My steward!
FLAVIUS. Here, my lord.
TIMON. So fitly? Go, bid all my friends again:
Lucius, Lucullus, and Sempronius- all.
I'll once more feast the rascals.
FLAVIUS. O my lord,
You only speak from your distracted soul;
There is not so much left to furnish out
A
moderate table.
TIMON. Be it not in thy care.
Go, I
charge thee, invite them all; let in the tide
Of knaves once more; my cook and I'll provide. Exeunt
SCENE V.
The Senate House
Enter three SENATORS at one door, ALCIBIADES meeting
them, with attendants
FIRST SENATOR. My lord, you have my voice to't: the fault's bloody.
'Tis necessary he should die:
Nothing emboldens sin so much as mercy.
SECOND SENATOR. Most true; the law shall
bruise him.
ALCIBIADES. Honour, health, and
compassion, to the Senate!
FIRST SENATOR. Now, Captain?
ALCIBIADES. I am an
humblesuitor to your
virtues;
For pity is the
virtue of the law,
And none but tyrants use it cruelly.
It pleases time and fortune to lie heavy
Upon a friend of mine, who in hot blood
Hath stepp'd into the law, which is past depth
To those that without heed do
plunge into't.
He is a man,
setting his fate aside,
Of
comelyvirtues;
Nor did he soil the fact with cowardice-
An honour in him which buys out his fault-
But with a noble fury and fair spirit,
Seeing his
reputation touch'd to death,
He did oppose his foe;
And with such sober and unnoted passion
He did behove his anger ere 'twas spent,
As if he had but prov'd an argument.
FIRST SENATOR. You
undergo too
strict a paradox,
Striving to make an ugly deed look fair;
Your words have took such pains as if they labour'd
To bring manslaughter into form and set
Quarrelling upon the head of
valour; which, indeed,
Is
valour misbegot, and came into the world
When sects and factions were newly born.
He's truly
valiant that can
wisely suffer
The worst that man can
breathe,
And make his wrongs his outsides,
To wear them like his
raiment, carelessly,
And ne'er prefer his injuries to his heart,
To bring it into danger.
If wrongs be evils, and
enforce us kill,
What folly 'tis to
hazard life for ill!
ALCIBIADES. My lord-
FIRST SENATOR. You cannot make gross sins look clear:
To
revenge is no
valour, but to bear.
ALCIBIADES. My lords, then, under favour,
pardon me
If I speak like a captain:
Why do fond men
expose themselves to battle,
And not
endure all threats? Sleep upon't,
And let the foes quietly cut their throats,
Without repugnancy? If there be
Such
valour in the
bearing, what make we
Abroad? Why, then, women are more
valiant,
That stay at home, if
bearing carry it;
And the ass more captain than the lion; the fellow
Loaden with irons wiser than the judge,
If
wisdom be in
suffering. O my lords,
As you are great, be pitifully good.
Who cannot
condemn rashness in cold blood?
To kill, I grant, is sin's extremest gust;
But, in defence, by mercy, 'tis most just.
To be in anger is impiety;
But who is man that is not angry?
Weigh but the crime with this.
SECOND SENATOR. You
breathe in vain.
ALCIBIADES. In vain! His service done
At Lacedaemon and Byzantium
Were a sufficient briber for his life.
FIRST SENATOR. What's that?
ALCIBIADES. Why, I say, my lords, has done fair service,
And slain in fight many of your enemies;
How full of
valour did he bear himself
In the last
conflict, and made plenteous wounds!
SECOND SENATOR. He has made too much plenty with 'em.
He's a sworn rioter; he has a sin that often
Drowns him and takes his
valour prisoner.
If there were no foes, that were enough
To
overcome him. In that
beastly fury
He has been known to
commit outrages
And
cherish factions. 'Tis inferr'd to us
His days are foul and his drink dangerous.
FIRST SENATOR. He dies.
ALCIBIADES. Hard fate! He might have died in war.
My lords, if not for any parts in him-
Though his right arm might purchase his own time,
And be in debt to none- yet, more to move you,
Take my deserts to his, and join 'em both;
And, for I know your
reverend ages love
Security, I'll pawn my victories, all
My honours to you, upon his good returns.
If by this crime he owes the law his life,
Why, let the war receive't in
valiant gore;
For law is
strict, and war is nothing more.
FIRST SENATOR. We are for law: he dies. Urge it no more
On
height of our
displeasure. Friend or brother,
He forfeits his own blood that spills another.
ALCIBIADES. Must it be so? It must not be. My lords,
I do
beseech you, know me.
SECOND SENATOR. How!
ALCIBIADES. Call me to your remembrances.
THIRD SENATOR. What!
ALCIBIADES. I cannot think but your age has forgot me;
It could not else be I should prove so base
To sue, and be denied such common grace.
My wounds ache at you.
FIRST SENATOR. Do you dare our anger?
'Tis in few words, but
spacious in effect:
We
banish thee for ever.
ALCIBIADES. Banish me!
Banish your dotage! Banish usury
That makes the Senate ugly.
FIRST SENATOR. If after two days' shine Athens
contain thee,
Attend our weightier judgment. And, not to swell our spirit,
He shall be executed
presently. Exeunt SENATORS
ALCIBIADES. Now the gods keep you old enough that you may live
Only in bone, that none may look on you!
I'm worse than mad; I have kept back their foes,
While they have told their money and let out
Their coin upon large interest, I myself
Rich only in large hurts. All those for this?
Is this the balsam that the usuring Senate
Pours into captains' wounds? Banishment!
It comes not ill; I hate not to be
banish'd;
It is a cause
worthy my spleen and fury,
That I may strike at Athens. I'll cheer up
My
discontented troops, and lay for hearts.
'Tis honour with most lands to be at odds;
Soldiers should brook as little wrongs as gods. Exit
SCENE VI.
A banqueting hall in TIMON'S house
Music. Tables set out; servants attending. Enter divers
LORDS, friends of TIMON, at several doors
FIRST LORD. The good time of day to you, sir.
SECOND LORD. I also wish it to you. I think this
honourable lord
did but try us this other day.
FIRST LORD. Upon that were my thoughts tiring when we encount'red.
I hope it is not so low with him as he made it seem in the trial
of his several friends.
SECOND LORD. It should not be, by the
persuasion of his new
feasting.