SCENE I. The woods. Before Timon's cave. Timon of Athens  Shakespeare homepage  |  Timon of Athens  | Act 5, Scene 1 

 Previous scene  |  Next scene  SCENE I. The woods. Before Timon's cave. 

 Enter Poet and Painter; TIMON watching them from his cave  Painter  As I took note of the place, it cannot be far where 

 he abides. 

 Poet  What's to be thought of him? does the rumour hold 

 for true, that he's so full of gold? 

 Painter  Certain: Alcibiades reports it; Phrynia and 

 Timandra had gold of him: he likewise enriched poor 

 straggling soldiers with great quantity: 'tis said 

 he gave unto his steward a mighty sum. 

 Poet  Then this breaking of his has been but a try for his friends. 

 Painter  Nothing else: you shall see him a palm in Athens 

 again, and flourish with the highest. Therefore 

 'tis not amiss we tender our loves to him, in this 

 supposed distress of his: it will show honestly in 

 us; and is very likely to load our purposes with 

 what they travail for, if it be a just true report 

 that goes of his having. 

 Poet  What have you now to present unto him? 

 Painter  Nothing at this time but my visitation: only I will 

 promise him an excellent piece. 

 Poet  I must serve him so too, tell him of an intent 

 that's coming toward him. 

 Painter  Good as the best. Promising is the very air o' the 

 time: it opens the eyes of expectation: 

 performance is ever the duller for his act; and, 

 but in the plainer and simpler kind of people, the 

 deed of saying is quite out of use. To promise is 

 most courtly and fashionable: performance is a kind 

 of will or testament which argues a great sickness 

 in his judgment that makes it. 



 TIMON comes from his cave, behind  TIMON  [Aside]  Excellent workman! thou canst not paint a 

 man so bad as is thyself. 

 Poet  I am thinking what I shall say I have provided for 

 him: it must be a personating of himself; a satire 

 against the softness of prosperity, with a discovery 

 of the infinite flatteries that follow youth and opulency. 

 TIMON  [Aside]  Must thou needs stand for a villain in 

 thine own work? wilt thou whip thine own faults in 

 other men? Do so, I have gold for thee. 

 Poet  Nay, let's seek him: 

 Then do we sin against our own estate, 

 When we may profit meet, and come too late. 

 Painter  True; 

 When the day serves, before black-corner'd night, 

 Find what thou want'st by free and offer'd light. Come. 

 TIMON  [Aside]  I'll meet you at the turn. What a 

 god's gold, 

 That he is worshipp'd in a baser temple 

 Than where swine feed! 

 'Tis thou that rigg'st the bark and plough'st the foam, 

 Settlest admired reverence in a slave: 

 To thee be worship! and thy saints for aye 

 Be crown'd with plagues that thee alone obey! 

 Fit I meet them. 



 Coming forward  Poet  Hail, worthy Timon! 

 Painter  Our late noble master! 

 TIMON  Have I once lived to see two honest men? 

 Poet  Sir, 

 Having often of your open bounty tasted, 

 Hearing you were retired, your friends fall'n off, 

 Whose thankless natures--O abhorred spirits!-- 

 Not all the whips of heaven are large enough: 

 What! to you, 

 Whose star-like nobleness gave life and influence 

 To their whole being! I am rapt and cannot cover 

 The monstrous bulk of this ingratitude 

 With any size of words. 

 TIMON  Let it go naked, men may see't the better: 

 You that are honest, by being what you are, 

 Make them best seen and known. 

 Painter  He and myself 

 Have travail'd in the great shower of your gifts, 

 And sweetly felt it. 

 TIMON  Ay, you are honest men. 

 Painter  We are hither come to offer you our service. 

 TIMON  Most honest men! Why, how shall I requite you? 

 Can you eat roots, and drink cold water? no. 

 Both  What we can do, we'll do, to do you service. 

 TIMON  Ye're honest men: ye've heard that I have gold; 

 I am sure you have: speak truth; ye're honest men. 

 Painter  So it is said, my noble lord; but therefore 

 Came not my friend nor I. 

 TIMON  Good honest men! Thou draw'st a counterfeit 

 Best in all Athens: thou'rt, indeed, the best; 

 Thou counterfeit'st most lively. 

 Painter  So, so, my lord. 

 TIMON  E'en so, sir, as I say. And, for thy fiction, 

 Why, thy verse swells with stuff so fine and smooth 

 That thou art even natural in thine art. 

 But, for all this, my honest-natured friends, 

 I must needs say you have a little fault: 

 Marry, 'tis not monstrous in you, neither wish I 

 You take much pains to mend. 

 Both  Beseech your honour 

 To make it known to us. 

 TIMON  You'll take it ill. 

 Both  Most thankfully, my lord. 

 TIMON  Will you, indeed? 

 Both  Doubt it not, worthy lord. 

 TIMON  There's never a one of you but trusts a knave, 

 That mightily deceives you. 

 Both  Do we, my lord? 

 TIMON  Ay, and you hear him cog, see him dissemble, 

 Know his gross patchery, love him, feed him, 

 Keep in your bosom: yet remain assured 

 That he's a made-up villain. 

 Painter  I know none such, my lord. 

 Poet  Nor I. 

 TIMON  Look you, I love you well; I'll give you gold, 

 Rid me these villains from your companies: 

 Hang them or stab them, drown them in a draught, 

 Confound them by some course, and come to me, 

 I'll give you gold enough. 

 Both  Name them, my lord, let's know them. 

 TIMON  You that way and you this, but two in company; 

 Each man apart, all single and alone, 

 Yet an arch-villain keeps him company. 

 If where thou art two villains shall not be, 

 Come not near him. If thou wouldst not reside 

 But where one villain is, then him abandon. 

 Hence, pack! there's gold; you came for gold, ye slaves: 



 To Painter  You have work'd for me; there's payment for you: hence! 



 To Poet  You are an alchemist; make gold of that. 

 Out, rascal dogs! 



 Beats them out, and then retires to his cave 

 Enter FLAVIUS and two Senators  FLAVIUS  It is in vain that you would speak with Timon; 

 For he is set so only to himself 

 That nothing but himself which looks like man 

 Is friendly with him. 

 First Senator  Bring us to his cave: 

 It is our part and promise to the Athenians 

 To speak with Timon. 

 Second Senator  At all times alike 

 Men are not still the same: 'twas time and griefs 

 That framed 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. 

 FLAVIUS  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. 



 TIMON comes from his cave  TIMON  Thou sun, that comfort'st, burn! Speak, and 

 be hang'd: 

 For each true word, a blister! and each false 

 Be as cauterizing to the root o' the tongue, 

 Consuming it with speaking! 

 First Senator  Worthy Timon,-- 

 TIMON  Of none but such as you, and you of Timon. 

 First Senator  The senators of Athens greet thee, Timon. 

 TIMON  I thank them; and would send them back the plague, 

 Could I but catch it for them. 

 First Senator  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. 

 Second Senator  They confess 

 Toward thee forgetfulness too general, gross: 

 Which now the public body, which doth seldom 

 Play the recanter, feeling in itself 

 A lack of Timon's aid, hath sense withal 

 Of its own fail, restraining aid to Timon; 

 And send forth us, to make their sorrow'd render, 

 Together with a recompense more fruitful 

 Than their offence can weigh down by the dram; 

 Ay, even such heaps and sums of love and wealth 

 As shall to thee blot out what wrongs were theirs 

 And write in thee the figures of their love, 

 Ever to read them thine. 

 TIMON  You witch me in it; 

 Surprise me to the very brink of tears: 

 Lend me a fool's heart and a woman's eyes, 

 And I'll beweep these comforts, worthy senators. 

 First Senator  Therefore, so please thee to return with us 

 And of our Athens, thine and ours, to take 

 The captainship, thou shalt be met with thanks, 

 Allow'd with absolute power and thy good name 

 Live with authority: so soon we shall drive back 

 Of Alcibiades the approaches wild, 

 Who, like a boar too savage, doth root up 

 His country's peace. 

 Second Senator  And shakes his threatening sword 

 Against the walls of Athens. 

 First Senator  Therefore, Timon,-- 

 TIMON  Well, sir, I will; therefore, I will, sir; thus: 

 If Alcibiades kill my countrymen, 

 Let Alcibiades know this of Timon, 

 That Timon cares not. But if be sack fair Athens, 

 And take our goodly aged men by the beards, 

 Giving our holy virgins to the stain 

 Of contumelious, beastly, mad-brain'd war, 

 Then let him know, and tell him Timon speaks it, 

 In pity of our aged and our youth, 

 I cannot choose but tell him, that I care not, 

 And let him take't at worst; for their knives care not, 

 While you have throats to answer: for myself, 

 There's not a whittle in the unruly camp 

 But I do prize it at my love before 

 The reverend'st throat in Athens. So I leave you 

 To the protection of the prosperous gods, 

 As thieves to keepers. 

 FLAVIUS  Stay not, all's in vain. 

 TIMON  Why, I was writing of my epitaph; 

 it will be seen to-morrow: my long sickness 

 Of health and living now begins to mend, 

 And nothing brings me all things. Go, live still; 

 Be Alcibiades your plague, you his, 

 And last so long enough! 

 First Senator  We speak in vain. 

 TIMON  But yet I love my country, and am not 

 One that rejoices in the common wreck, 

 As common bruit doth put it. 

 First Senator  That's well spoke. 

 TIMON  Commend me to my loving countrymen,-- 

 First Senator  These words become your lips as they pass 

 thorough them. 

 Second Senator  And enter in our ears like great triumphers 

 In their applauding gates. 

 TIMON  Commend me to them, 

 And tell them that, to ease them of their griefs, 

 Their fears of hostile strokes, their aches, losses, 

 Their pangs of love, with other incident throes 

 That nature's fragile vessel doth sustain 

 In life's uncertain voyage, I will some kindness do them: 

 I'll teach them to prevent wild Alcibiades' wrath. 

 First Senator  I like this well; he will return again. 

 TIMON  I have a tree, which grows here in my close, 

 That mine own use invites me to cut down, 

 And shortly must I fell it: tell my friends, 

 Tell Athens, in the sequence of degree 

 From high to low throughout, that whoso please 

 To stop affliction, let him take his haste, 

 Come hither, ere my tree hath felt the axe, 

 And hang himself. I pray you, do my greeting. 

 FLAVIUS  Trouble him no further; thus you still shall find him. 

 TIMON  Come not to me again: but say to Athens, 

 Timon hath made his everlasting mansion 

 Upon the beached verge of the salt flood; 

 Who once a day with his embossed froth 

 The turbulent surge shall cover: thither come, 

 And let my grave-stone be your oracle. 

 Lips, let sour words go by and language end: 

 What is amiss plague and infection mend! 

 Graves only be men's works and death their gain! 

 Sun, hide thy beams! Timon hath done his reign. 



 Retires to his cave  First Senator  His discontents are unremoveably 

 Coupled to nature. 

 Second Senator  Our hope in him is dead: let us return, 

 And strain what other means is left unto us 

 In our dear peril. 

 First Senator  It requires swift foot. 



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