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.O, thou shalt find-TIMON.A fool of thee.Depart.APEMANTUS.I love thee better now than e'er I did.TIMON.I hate thee worse.APEMANTUS.Why?TIMON.Thou flatter'st misery.APEMANTUS.I flatter not, but say thou art a caitiff.TIMON.Why dost thou seek me out?APEMANTUS.To vex thee.TIMON.Always a villain's office or a fool's.Dost please thyself in't?APEMANTUS.Ay.TIMON.What, a knave too?APEMANTUS.If thou didst put this sour-cold habit onTo castigate thy pride, 'twere well; but thouDost it enforcedly.Thou'dst courtier be againWert thou not beggar.Willing miseryOutlives incertain pomp, is crown'd before.The one is filling still, never complete;The other, at high wish.Best state, contentless,Hath a distracted and most wretched being,Worse than the worst, content.Thou should'st desire to die, being miserable.TIMON.Not by his breath that is more miserable.Thou art a slave whom Fortune's tender armWith favour never clasp'd, but bred a dog.Hadst thou, like us from our first swath, proceededThe sweet degrees that this brief world affordsTo such as may the passive drugs of itFreely command, thou wouldst have plung'd thyselfIn general riot, melted down thy youthIn different beds of lust, and never learn'dThe icy precepts of respect, but followedThe sug'red game before thee.But myself,Who had the world as my confectionary;The mouths, the tongues, the eyes, and hearts of menAt duty, more than I could frame employment;That numberless upon me stuck, as leavesDo on the oak, have with one winter's brushFell from their boughs, and left me open, bareFor every storm that blows- I to bear this,That never knew but better, is some burden.Thy nature did commence in sufferance; timeHath made thee hard in't.Why shouldst thou hate men?They never flatter'd thee.What hast thou given?If thou wilt curse, thy father, that poor rag,Must be thy subject; who, in spite, put stuffTo some she-beggar and compounded theePoor rogue hereditary.Hence, be gone.If thou hadst not been born the worst of men,Thou hadst been a knave and flatterer.APEMANTUS.Art thou proud yet?TIMON.Ay, that I am not thee.APEMANTUS.I, that I wasNo prodigal.TIMON.I, that I am one now.Were all the wealth I have shut up in thee,I'd give thee leave to hang it.Get thee gone.That the whole life of Athens were in this!Thus would I eat it.[Eating a root]APEMANTUS.Here! I will mend thy feast.[Offering him food]TIMON.First mend my company: take away thyself.APEMANTUS.So I shall mend mine own by th' lack of thine.TIMON.'Tis not well mended so; it is but botch'd.If not, I would it were.APEMANTUS.What wouldst thou have to Athens?TIMON.Thee thither in a whirlwind.If thou wilt,Tell them there I have gold; look, so I have.APEMANTUS.Here is no use for gold.TIMON.The best and truest;For here it sleeps and does no hired harm.APEMANTUS.Where liest a nights, Timon?TIMON.Under that's above me.Where feed'st thou a days, Apemantus?APEMANTUS.Where my stomach.finds meat; or rather, where I eatit.TIMON.Would poison were obedient, and knew my mind!APEMANTUS.Where wouldst thou send it?TIMON.To sauce thy dishes.APEMANTUS.The middle of humanity thou never knewest, but theextremity of both ends.When thou wast in thy gilt and thyperfume, they mock'd thee for too much curiosity; in thy ragsthou know'st none, but art despis'd for the contrary.There'samedlar for thee; eat it.TIMON.On what I hate I feed not.APEMANTUS.Dost hate a medlar?TIMON.Ay, though it look like thee.APEMANTUS.An th' hadst hated medlars sooner, thou shouldsthaveloved thyself better now.What man didst thou ever knowunthriftthat was beloved after his means?TIMON.Who, without those means thou talk'st of, didst thoueverknow belov'd?APEMANTUS.Myself.TIMON.I understand thee: thou hadst some means to keep a dog.APEMANTUS.What things in the world canst thou nearest comparetothy flatterers?TIMON.Women nearest; but men, men are the things themselves.Whatwouldst thou do with the world, Apemantus, if it lay in thypower?APEMANTUS.Give it the beasts, to be rid of the men.TIMON.Wouldst thou have thyself fall in the confusion of men,andremain a beast with the beasts?APEMANTUS.Ay, Timon.TIMON.A beastly ambition, which the gods grant thee t' attainto!If thou wert the lion, the fox would beguile thee; if thouwertthe lamb, the fox would eat thee; if thou wert the fox, thelionwould suspect thee, when, peradventure, thou wert accus'd bytheass.If thou wert the ass, thy dulness would torment thee;andstill thou liv'dst but as a breakfast to the wolf.If thouwertthe wolf, thy greediness would afflict thee, and oft thoushouldst hazard thy life for thy dinner.Wert thou theunicorn,pride and wrath would confound thee, and make thine own selftheconquest of thy fury [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]