26(i

TIMON OF ATHENS.

[Act V.

I’ll take with wax:

Our captain hath in every figure skill;

An ag’d interpreter, though young in (lays:Before proud Athens he’s set down by this,Whose fall the mark of his ambition is. \JExit.

SCENE V.— Before the walls of Athens.

Trumpets sound. Enter Alcibiades , andForces.

' Alcib. Sound to this coward and lascivious townOur terrible approach. \^A parley sounded.

Enter Senators on the walls.

Till now you have gone on, and fill’d the timeWith all licentious measure, making your willsThe scope of justice ; till now, myself and suchAs slept within the shadow of your power,Have wander’d with our travers’d arms, andbreath’d

Our sufferance vainly: Now the time is flush,When crouching marrow, in the bearer strong,Cries, of itself, No more : now breathless wrongShall sit and pant in your great chairs of ease ;And pursy indolence shall break his windWith fear, and horrid flight.

1 Sen. Nohle, and young,

When thy first griefs were but a mere conceit,Ere thou hadst power, or we had cause of fear,We sent to thee ; to give thy rages balm,

To wipe out our ingratitude with lovesAbove their quantity.

2 Sen. So did we wooTransformed Timon to our city’s love,

By humble message, and by promis’d means :We were not all unkind, nor all deserveThe common stroke of war.

1 Sen. These walls of ours

Were not erected by their hands, from whomYou have receiv’d your griefs: nor are they such,That these great towers, trophies, and schoolsshould fall

For private faults in them.

2 Sen. Nor are they living,

Who were the motives that you first went out ;Shame , that they wanted cunning, in excessHath broke their hearts. March, noble lord.Into our city with thy banners spread:

By decimation, and a tithed death,

(If thy revenges hunger for that food,

Which nature loaths,) take thou the destin’dtenth;

And by the hazard of the spotted die,

Let die the spotted.

1 Sen. All have not offended;

For those that were, it is not square to take,

On those that are, revenges : crimes, like lands,Are not inherited. Then, dear countryman,Bring in thy ranks, but leave without thy rage :Spare thy Athenian cradle, and those kin,

Which, in the bluster of thy wrath, must fallWith those that have offended: like a shepherd,Approach the fold, and cull the infected forth,But kill not altogether.

2 Sen. What thou wilt,

Thou rather shalt enforce it with thy smile,Than hew to’t with thy sword.

1 Sen. Set but thy foot

Against our rampir’d gates, and they shall ope;So thou wilt send thy gentle heart before,

To say, thou’lt enter friendly.

2 Sen. Throw thy glove,

Or any token of thine honour else,

That thou wilt use the wars as thy redress.

And not as our confusion, all thy powersShall make their harbour in our town, till weHave seal’d thy full desire.

Alcib. Then there’s my glove ;

Descend, and open your uncharged ports :

Those enemies of Timon’s, and mine own,Whom you yourselves shall set out for reproof,Fall, and no more: and,—to atone your fearsWith my more noble meaning,—not a manShall pass his quarter, or offend the streamOf regular justice in your city’s bounds,

But shall be remedied, to your public lawsAt heaviest answer.

Both. 'Tis most nobly spoken.

Alcib. Descend, and keep your words.

The Senators descend, and open the gates.Enter a Soldier.

Sold. My noble general, Timon is dead;Entomb’d upon the very hem o’the sea:

And, on his grave stone, this insculpture; whichWith wax I brought away, whose soft impressionInterprets for my poor ignorance.

Alcib. [Meads.] Here lies a wretched corse, ofwretched soul bereft:

Seek not my name: A plague consume you wickedcaitiffs left!

Here lie I Timon; who, alive, all living men didhate ;

Pass by, and curse thy Jill; but pass, and stay nothere thy gait.

These well express in thee thy latter spirits :Though thou abhorr’dst in us our human griefs,Scorn’dst our brain’s flow, and those our drop-lets which

From niggard nature fall, yet rich conceitTaught thee to make vast Neptune weep for ayeOn thy low grave, on faults forgiven. DeadIs noble Timon; of whose memoryHereafter more.—Bring me into your city,

And I will use the olive with my sword:

Make war breed peace ; make peace stint war;make each

Prescribe to other, as each other’s leech.—

Let our drums strike. [[ Exeunt.