APEM. Here; I will mend thy feaft. [Offering him fomething. 8 TIM. First mend my company, take away thy felf. 9 APEM. So I fhall mend mine own, by the lack of thine. TIM. 'Tis not well mended fo, it is but botch'd; If not, I would it were. APEM. What would'ft thou have to Athens? TIM. Thee thither in a whirlwind. If thou wilt, Tell them there I have gold; look, fo I have. APEM. Here is no ufe for gold, TIM. The beft, and trueft; For here it fleeps, and does no hired harm. TIM. Under that's above me. Where feed'ft thou o'days, Apemantus? APEM. Where my ftomach finds meat; or, rather, where I eat it. TIM. 'Would poifon were obedient, and knew my mind! APEM. Where would'ft thou fend it? TIM. To fauce thy difles. 8 Firft mend my company,] The old copy reads-mend thy company. The correâion was made by Mr. Rowe. MALONE. 9—— take away thyself. ] This thought feems to have been adopted from Plutarch's Life of Antony. It ftands thus in Sir Thomas North's tranflation: "Apemantus faid unto the other; O, here is a trimme banket Timon. Timon aunswered againe, yea, said he, so thou wert not here. STEEVENS. Apem. Where lyft o'nights, Timon? Tim. Under that's above me. ] So, in Coriolanus: 3. Serv. Where dwell'st thou? Cor. Under the canopy." STBEVENS. APEM. The middle of humanity thou never kneweft, but the extremity of both ends: When thou waft in thy gilt, and thy perfume, they mock'd thee for too much curiofity; in thy rags thou knoweft none, but art defpifed for the contrary. There's a medlar for thee, eat it. 2 TIM. On what I hate, I feed not. TIм, Ay, though it look like thee.3 APEM. An thou hadst hated medlars fooner, thou fhould't have loved thyfelf better now. What man didst thou ever know unthrift, that was beloved after his means? TIM. Who, without those means thou talk'st of, didft thou ever know beloved? 2 for too much curiofity; ] i. e. for too much finical delicacy. The Oxford editor alters it to courtesy. WARBURTON. 66 Dr. Warburton has explained the word juftly. So, in Jervas Markham's English Arcadia, 1606: for all thofe eyecharming graces, of which with fuch curiofity fhe had boafted," Again, in Hobby's Tranflation of Caftiglione's Cortegiano, 1556: "A waiting gentlewoman fhould flee affection or curiofity." Curiosity is here inferted as a fynonyme to affection, which means affectation. Curiofity likewife feems to have meant capricioufness. Thus, in Greene's Mamillia, 1593: Pharicles hath fhewn me fome curtefy, and I have not altogether requited him with curiofity: he hath made some shew of love, and I have not wholly seemed to mislike." STEEVENS. 3 Ay, though it look like thee.] Timon here supposes that an obje&ion again ft hatred, which through the whole tenor of the conversation appears an argument for it. One would have expected him to have answered, Yes, for it looks like thee. The old edition, which always gives the pronoun inftead of the affirmative particle, has it, I, though it look like thee. Perhaps we should read, I thought it look'd like thee. JOHNSON. APEM. Myself. TIM. I understand thee; thou hadft fome means to keep a dog. APEM. What things in the world canft thou neareft compare to thy flatterers? TIM. Women neareft; but men, men are the things themselves. What would'ft thou do with the world, Apemantus, if it lay in thy power? APEM. Give it the beafts, to be rid of the men. TIM. Would't thou have thyself fall in the confufion of men, and remain a beaft with the beasts? APEM. Ay, Timon. TIM. A beaftly ambition, which the gods grant thee to attain to! If thou wert the lion, the fox would beguile thee: if thou wert the lamb, the fox would eat thee: if thou wert the fox, the lion would fufpect thee, when, .peradventure, thou wert accus'd by the afs: if thou wert the afs, thy dulnefs would torment thee; and ftill thou livedst but as a breakfast to the wolf: if thou wert the wolf, thy greedinefs would afflict thee, and oft thou fhouldft hazard thy life for thy dinner: wert thou the unicorn, pride and wrath would confound thee, and make thine own felf the conqueft of thy fury: wert thou a bear, thou would't be kill'd by the horse; wert thou a horfe, thou would'st be feiz'd by the leopard; wert thou a leopard, thou wert 4 the unicorn, &c.] The account given of the unicorn is this: that he and the lion being enemies by nature, as foon as the lion fees the unicorn he betakes himself to a tree: the unicorn in his fury, and with all the swiftnefs of his course, running at him, flicks his horn faft in the tree, and then the lion falls upon him and kills him." Gefner, Hift. Animal. HANMER. See a note on Julius Cæfar, Vol. XVIII. p. 52, n. 2. STEEVENS. german to the lion,5 and the fpots of thy kindred were jurors on thy life: all thy fafety were remotion; and thy defence, absence. What beaft could'st thou be, that were not fubject to a beaft? and what a beaft art thou already, that feeft not thy lofs in transformation? APEM. If thou could'ft please me with speaking to me, thou might'ft have hit upon it here: The commonwealth of Athens is become a foreft of beafts. TIM. How has the afs broke the wall, that thou art out of the city? APEM. Yonder comes a poet, and a painter: The plague of company light upon thee. I will fear to catch it, and give way: When I know not what elfe to do, I'll fee thee again. TIM. When there is nothing living but thee, thou fhalt be welcome. I had rather be a beggar's dog, than Apemantus. 5 APEM. Thou art the cap of all the fools alive.' thou wert german to the lion,] This feems to be an allufion to Turkish policy: 6 "Bears, like the Turk, no brother near the throne."-Pope. See Vol XIII. p. 215, n. 8: STEEVENS. were remotion;] i. e. removal from place to-place. So, in King Lear: 'Tis the remotion of the duke and her." STEEVENS. Remotion means, I apprehend, not a frequent removal from place to place, but merely remoteness, the being placed at a distance from the lion. See Vol. VI. p. 29, n. 3; and Vol. XII. p. 352, n. 5. MALONE. 7 Thou art the cap &c.] The top, the principal. The remaining dialogue has more malignity than wit. JOHNSON. Dr. Johnfon's explication is, I think, right; but I believe our author had also the fool's cap in his thoughts. MALONE. In All's well that ends well, &C means the foremost in the fashion. STEEVENS. the cap of the time," ́apparently TIM. 'Would thou wert clean enough to fpit upon. APEM. A plague on thee, thou art too bad to TIM. All villains, that do ftand by thee, are puré. 9 I'll beat thee,—but 1 fhould infect my hands. APEM. I would, my tongue could rot them off! TIM. Away, thou iffue of a mangy dog! Choler does kill me, that thou art alive; I fwoon to fee thee. APEM. TIM. 'Would thou would'ft burst! Thou tedious rogue! I am forry, I fhall lofe Away; Rogue, rogue, rogue! [APEMANTUS retreats backward, as going. I am fick of this falfe world; and will love nought Then, Timon, prefently prepare thy grave; 8 Apem. A plague on thee, thou art too bad to curfe.] Thus, the old copies, and, I think, rightly. Mr. Theobald, however, is of a contrary opinion; for, according to the prefent regulation, fays he, Apemantus is "made to curfe limon, and immediately to fubjoin that he was too bad to curfe." He would therefore give the former part of the line to Timon. STEEVENS. 9 All villains, that do ftand by thee, are pure.] The fame fentiment is repeated in King Lear: "Those wicked creatures yet do look well-favour'd, VOL. XVII. M |
