PAIN. I know none such, my lord. POET. Nor I3. gold, Rid me these villains from your companies : Hang them, or stab them, drown them in a draught1, Confound them by some course, and come to me, BOTH. Name them, my lord, let's know them. 3 Nor I.] As it may be supposed (perhaps I am repeating a remark already made on a similar occasion) that our author designed his Poet's address to be not less respectful than that of his Painter, he might originally have finished this defective verse, by writing: 66 'Nor I, my lord." STEEVENS. 66 4 in a DRAUGHT,] That is, in the jakes. JOHNSON. So, in Holinshed, vol. ii. p. 735: he was then sitting on a draught." STEEVENS. but two in company :] This is an imperfect sentence, and is to be supplied thus: But two in company spoils all." 66 WARBURTON. This passage is obscure. I think the meaning is this: "but two in company," that is, stand apart, "let only two be together;" for even when each stands single there are two, he himself and a villain. JOHNSON. The sense This passage may receive some illustration from another in The Two Gentlemen of Verona: "6 My master is a kind of knave; but that's all one, if he be but one knave." is, each man is a double villain, i. e. a villain with more than a single share of guilt. See Dr. Farmer's note on the third Act of The Two Gentlemen of Verona, &c. Again, in Promos and Cassandra, 1578: Go, and a knave with thee." Again, in 66 The Storye of King Darius, 1565, an interlude: 66 if you needs will go away, "Take two knaves with you by my faye." There is a thought not unlike this in The Scornful Lady of Beaumont and Fletcher:-" Take to your chamber when you please, there goes a black one with you, lady." STEEVENS. There are not two words more frequently mistaken for each other, in the printing of these plays, than but and not. I have Each man apart, all single and alone, If, where thou art, two villains shall not be, [To the Painter. Come not near him.-If thou would'st not reside [To the Poet. But where one villain is, then him abandon.Hence! pack! there's gold, ye came for gold, ye slaves: You have done work for me, there's paymento : Hence ! no doubt but that mistake obtains in this passage, and that we should read it thus: 66 - not two in company: "Each man apart M. MASON. "You that way, and you this, but two in "Each man apart, all single, and alone, company: "Yet an arch-villain keeps him company." The first of these lines has been rendered obscure by false pointing; that is, by connecting the words, "but two in company," with the subsequent line, instead of connecting them with the preceding hemistich. The second and third line are put in apposition with the first line, and are merely an illustration of the assertion contained in it. Do you (says Timon) go that way, and you this, and yet still each of you will have two in your company: each of you, though single and alone, will be accompanied by an arch-villain. Each man, being himself a villain, will take a villain along with him, and so each of you will have two in company. It is a mere quibble founded on the word company. See the former speech, in which Timon exhorts each of them to "hang or stab the villain in his company," i. e. himself. The passage quoted by Mr. Steevens from Promos and Cassandra, puts the meaning beyond a doubt. MALONE. 6 You have DONE work, &c.] For the insertion of the word done, which, it is manifest, was omitted by the negligence of the compositor, I am answerable. Timon in this line addresses the Painter, whom he before called " excellent workman ;" in the next the Poet. MALONE. I had rather read: "You've work'd for me, there is your payment: Hence !" STEEVENS. You are an alchymist, make gold of that:- [Exit, beating and driving them out. SCENE II. The Same. Enter FLAVIUS, and Two Senators. FLAV. It is in vain that you would speak with For he is set so only to himself, That nothing but himself, which looks like man, Is friendly with him. 1 SEN. Bring us to his cave: It is our part, and promise to the Athenians, At all times alike 2 SEN. Men are not still the same: 'Twas time, and griefs, That fram'd him thus: time, with his fairer hand, Offering the fortunes of his former days, The former man may make him: Bring us to him, And chance it as it may. FLAV. Here is his cave. Peace and content be here! Lord Timon! Timon! Look out, and speak to friends: The Athenians, By two of their most reverend senate, greet thee: Speak to them, noble Timon. Enter TIMON. TIM. Thou sun, that comfort'st, burn!-Speak, and be hang'd: 66 Thine eyes,” says King 7 Thou sun that comfort'st, burn!] Lear to Regan, "do comfort and not burn." 8 For each true word, a blister! and each false 1 SEN. Worthy Timon, TIM. Of none but such as you, and you of Timon. 2 SEN. The senators of Athens greet thee, Timon. TIM. I thank them; and would send them back the plague, Could I but catch it for them. 1 SEN. O, forget What we are sorry for ourselves in thee. The senators, with one consent of love, Entreat thee back to Athens; who have thought On special dignities, which vacant lie For thy best use and wearing. 2 SEN. They confess, Toward thee, forgetfulness too general, gross : Which now the publick body',-which doth seldom A similar wish occurs in Antony and Cleopatra : 8 66 O, sun, "Burn the great sphere thou mov'st in!" STEevens. a CAUT'RIZING ] The old copy reads-cantherizing; the poet might have written, cancering. STEEVENS. To cauterise was a word of our author's time; being found in Bullokar's English Expositor, octavo, 1616, where it is explained, "To burn to a sore." It is the word of the old copy, with the u changed to an n, which has happened in almost every one of these plays. Malone. 9 with one cONSENT of love,] With one united voice of affection. So, in Sternhold's translation of the 100th Psalm : "With one consent let all the earth." All our old writers spell the word improperly, consent, without regard to its etymology, concentus. MALONE. . This sense of the word consent, or concent, was originally pointed out and ascertained in a note on the first scene of The First Part of King Henry VI. STEEVENS. I WHICH now the public body,] Thus the old copy, ungrammatically certainly; but our author frequently thus begins a sentence, and concludes it without attending to what has gone before: for which perhaps, the carelessness and ardour of colloquial Play the recanter,-feeling in itself A lack of Timon's aid, hath sense withal Than their offence can weigh down by the dram3; language may be an apology. So afterwards in the third scene of this Act: "Whom, though in general part we were oppos'd, "And made us speak like friends." See also the Poet's second speech in p. 414.-Sir Thomas Hanmer and the subsequent editors read here more correctly-And now the publick body, &c. but by what oversight could Which be printed instead of And? MALONE. The mistake might have been that of the transcriber, not the printer. STEEvens. It is just as improbable that a transcriber should write which for and, as that a compositor should print one of these words for the other. There is nothing to mislead either the eye or the ear. MALONE. 2. Of its own FALL,] The Athenians had sense, that is, felt the danger of their own fall, by the arms of Alcibiades, JOHNSON. I once suspected that our author wrote-" Of its own fail,” i. e. failure. So, in Coriolanus : "That if you fail in our request, the blame 66 May hang upon your hardness." But a subsequent passage fully supports the reading of the text: In, and prepare: 66 "Ours is the fall, I fear, our foes the snare." Again, in Sc. IV.: 3 "Before proud Athens he's set down by this, MALONE. RESTRAINING aid to Timon;] I think it should be refraining aid, that is, with-holding aid that should have been given to Timon. JOHNSON. Where is the difference? to restrain, and to refrain, both mean to with-hold. M. MASON. 4 sorrowed RENDER,] Thus the old copy. Render is confession. So in Cymbeline, Act. IV. Sc. IV. : 66 may drive us to a render "Where we have liv'd." The modern editors read-tender. STEEVENS. s Than their offence can weigh down by the dram;] This, which was in the former editions, can scarcely be right, and yet |