On the Road to Timon's House.
 Enter FLAVIUS, with many bills in his hand.

Flavius	No care, no stop. So senseless of expense
	That he will neither know how to maintain it,
	Nor cease his flow of riot. Takes no account
	How things go from him, nor resumes to care
	Of what is to continue. Never mind
	Was to be so unwise, to be so kind.
	What shall be done? He will not hear, till feel.
	I must be round with him, now he comes from hunting.
	Fie, fie, fie, fie!

           Enter CAPHIS and the SERVANTS of Isidore and Varro.

Caphis	Good even, Varro. What, you come for money?

Varro Servant	Is't not your business too?

Caphis	It is; and yours too, Isidore?

Isidore
Servant									It is so.

Caphis	Would we were all discharged!

Varro Servant									I fear it.

Caphis	Here comes the lord.

               Enter TIMON and his TRAIN, with ALCIBIADES.

Timon	So soon as dinner's done, we'll forth again,
	My Alcibiades. [To CAPHIS.] With me? What is your will?

Caphis	My lord, here is a note of certain dues.

Timon	Dues? Whence are you?

Caphis							Of Athens here, my lord.

Timon	Go to my steward.

Caphis	Please it your lordship, he hath put me off
	To the succession of new days this month.
	My master is awaked by great occasion
	To call upon his own, and humbly prays you
	That with your other noble parts you'll suit
	In giving him his right.

Timon							Mine honest friend,
	I prithee, but repair to me next morning.

Caphis	Nay, good my lord-

Timon						Contain thyself, good friend.

Varro Servant	One Varro's servant, my good lord-

Isidore
Servant									From Isidore.
	He humbly prays your speedy payment.

Caphis	If you did know, my lord, my master's wants-

Varro Servant	'Twas due on forfeiture, my lord, six weeks and past.

Isidore
Servant	Your steward puts me off, my lord, and I
	Am sent expressly to your lordship.

Timon								Give me breath.
	I do beseech you, good my lords, keep on,
	I'll wait upon you instantly.
								   [Exeunt ALCIBIADES and TRAIN.

					[To FLAVIUS.]	Come hither. Pray you,
	How goes the world that I am thus encountered
	With clamorous demands of date-broken bonds
	And the detention of long since due debts,
	Against my honour?

Flavius							Please you, gentlemen,
	The time is unagreeable to this business.
	Your importunacy cease till after dinner,
	That I may make his lordship understand
	Wherefore you are not paid.

Timon								Do so, my friends.
	See them well entertained.
													[Exit.
Flavius								Pray draw near.
													[Exit.
                        Enter APEMANTUS and FOOL.

Caphis	Stay, stay; here comes the fool with Apemantus. Let's ha' 
	some sport with 'em.

Varro Servant	Hang him, he'll abuse us.

Isidore
Servant	A plague upon him, dog!

Varro Servant	How dost, fool?

Apemantus	Dost dialogue with thy shadow?

Varro Servant	I speak not to thee.

Apemantus	No,'tis to thyself. [To FOOL.] Come away.

Isidore
Servant	[To Varro's SERVANT.]
	There's the fool hangs on your back already.

Apemantus	No, thou stand'st single; thou'rt not on him yet.

Caphis	Where's the fool now?

Apemantus	He last asked the question. Poor rogues and usurers' men. 
	Bawds between gold and want.

All Servants	What are we, Apemantus?

Apemantus	Asses.

All Servants	Why?

Apemantus	That you ask me what you are, and do not know yourselves. 
	Speak to 'em, fool.

Fool	How do you, gentlemen?

All Servants	Gramercies, good fool. How does your mistress?

Fool	She's e'en setting on water to scald such chickens as you 
	are. Would we could see you at Corinth!

Apemantus	Good! Gramercy.

                               Enter PAGE.

Fool	Look you, here comes my master's page.

Page	[To FOOL.] Why, how now, captain! What do you in this wise 
	company? How dost thou, Apemantus?

Apemantus	Would I had a rod in my mouth, that I might answer thee 
	profitably.

Page	Prithee, Apemantus, read me the superscription of these 
	letters. I know not which is which.

Apemantus	Canst not read?

Page	No.

Apemantus	There will little learning die then that day thou art 
	hanged. This is to Lord Timon. This to Alcibiades. Go, thou 
	wast born a bastard and thou'lt die a bawd.

Page	Thou wast whelped a dog, and thou shalt famish a dog's 
	death. Answer not; I am gone.
													[Exit.

Apemantus	E'en so thou outrunn'st grace. Fool, I will go with you to 
	Lord Timon's.

Fool	Will you leave me there?

Apemantus	If Timon stay at home. You three serve three usurers?

All Servants	Ay; would they served us.

Apemantus	So would I, as good a trick as ever hangman served thief.

Fool	Are you three usurers' men?

All Servants	Ay, fool.

Fool	I think no usurer but has a fool to his servant. My 
	mistress is one, and I am her fool. When men come to borrow 
	of your masters they approach sadly, and go away merry; but 
	they enter my mistress' house merrily, and go away sadly. 
	The reason of this?

Varro Servant	I could render one.

Apemantus	Do it then, that we may account thee a whoremaster and a 
	knave, which, notwithstanding, thou shalt be no less 
	esteemed.

Varro Servant	What is a whoremaster, fool?

Fool	A fool in good clothes, and something like thee. 'Tis a 
	spirit; sometime't appears like a lord, sometime like a 
	lawyer, sometime like a philosopher, with two stones more 
	than's artificial one. He is very often like a knight; and 
	generally in all shapes that man goes up and down in from 
	fourscore to thirteen, this spirit walks in.

Varro Servant	Thou art not altogether a fool.

Fool	Nor thou altogether a wise man. As much foolery as I have, 
	so much wit thou lack'st.

Apemantus	That answer might have become Apemantus.

All Servants	Aside, aside; here comes Lord Timon.

                       Re-enter TIMON and FLAVIUS.

Apemantus	Come with me, fool, come.

Fool	I do not always follow lover, elder brother, and woman; 
	sometime the philosopher.
									 [Exeunt APEMANTUS and FOOL.

Flavius	Pray you walk near. I'll speak with you anon.
									[Exeunt CAPHIS and SERVANTS.

Timon	You make me marvel wherefore ere this time
	Had you not fully laid my state before me,
	That I might so have rated my expense
	As I had leave of means.

Flavius							You would not hear me.
	At many leisures I proposed-

Timon									Go to.
	Perchance some single vantages you took
	When my indisposition put you back,
	And that unaptness made your minister
	Thus to excuse yourself.

Flavius								O my good lord,
	At many times I brought in my accounts,
	Laid them before you; you would throw them off,
	And say you found them in mine honesty.
	When for some trifling present you have bid me
	Return so much, I have shook my head and wept;
	Yea, 'gainst th' authority of manners, prayed you
	To hold your hand more close. I did endure
	Not seldom, nor no slight checks, when I have
	Prompted you in the ebb of your estate
	And your great flow of debts. My loved lord,
	Though you hear now, too late, yet now's a time,
	The greatest of your having lacks a half
	To pay your present debts.

Timon								Let all my land be sold.

Flavius	'Tis all engaged, some forfeited and gone,
	And what remains will hardly stop the mouth
	Of present dues. The future comes apace:
	What shall defend the interim, and at length
	How goes our reck'ning?

Timon	To Lacedaemon did my land extend.

Flavius	O my good lord, the world is but a word.
	Were it all yours to give it in a breath,
	How quickly were it gone!

Timon								You tell me true.

Flavius	If you suspect my husbandry or falsehood,
	Call me before th' exactest auditors,
	And set me on the proof. So the gods bless me,
	When all our offices have been oppressed
	With riotous feeders, when our vaults have wept
	With drunken spilth of wine, when every room
	Hath blazed with lights and brayed with minstrelsy,
	I have retired me to a wasteful cock,
	And set mine eyes at flow.

Timon								Prithee no more.

Flavius	"Heavens," have I said "the bounty of this lord!
	How many prodigal bits have slaves and peasants
	This night englutted? Who is not Timon's?
	What heart, head, sword, force, means, but is Lord Timon's?
	Great Timon, noble, worthy, royal Timon!
	Ah, when the means are gone that buy this praise,
	The breath is gone whereof this praise is made.
	Feast-won, fast-lost; one cloud of winter showers,
	These flies are couched."

Timon							Come, sermon me no further.
	No villainous bounty yet hath passed my heart;
	Unwisely, not ignobly, have I given.
	Why dost thou weep? Canst thou the conscience lack
	To think I shall lack friends? Secure thy heart;
	If I would broach the vessels of my love,
	And try the arguments of hearts by borrowing,
	Men and men's fortunes could I frankly use
	As I can bid thee speak.

Flavius							Assurance bless your thoughts.

Timon	And in some sort these wants of mine are crowned,
	That I account them blessings; for by these
	Shall I try friends. You shall perceive how you
	Mistake my fortunes. I am wealthy in my friends.
	Within there! Flaminius! Servilius!

          Enter FLAMINIUS, SERVILIUS, and another (3rd) SERVANT.

Servants	My lord? My lord?

Timon	I will dispatch you severally. [To SERVILIUS.] You to Lord 
	Lucius. [To FLAMINIUS.] To Lord Lucullus you - I hunted 
	with his honour today. [To SERVANT.] You, to Sempronius. 
	Commend me to their loves; and I am proud, say, that my 
	occasions have found time to use 'em toward a supply of 
	money. Let the request be fifty talents.

Flaminius	As you have said, my lord.
													[Exeunt SERVANTS.
Flavius	[Aside.] Lord Lucius and Lucullus? Humh!

Timon	Go you, sir, to the senators-
	Of whom, even to the state's best health, I have
	Deserved this hearing - Bid 'em send o'th' instant
	A thousand talents to me.

Flavius								I have been bold,
	For that I knew it the most general way,
	To them to use your signet and your name;
	But they do shake their heads, and I am here
	No richer in return.

Timon						Is't true? Can 't be?

Flavius	They answer, in a joint and corporate voice,
	That now they are at fall, want treasure, cannot
	Do what they would, are sorry - you are honourable,
	But yet they could have wished - they know not-
	Something hath been amiss - a noble nature
	May catch a wrench - would all were well - 'tis pity;
	And so, intending other serious matters,
	After distasteful looks and these hard fractions,
	With certain half-caps and cold-moving nods,
	They froze me into silence.

Timon								You gods reward them!
	Prithee, man, look cheerly. These old fellows
	Have their ingratitude in them hereditary.
	Their blood is caked, 'tis cold, it seldom flows;
	'Tis lack of kindly warmth they are not kind;
	And nature, as it grows again toward earth,
	Is fashioned for the journey, dull and heavy.
	Go to Ventidius. Prithee be not sad;
	Thou art true and honest, ingeniously I speak,
	No blame belongs to thee. Ventidius lately
	Buried his father, by whose death he's stepped
	Into a great estate. When he was poor,
	Imprisoned, and in scarcity of friends,
	I cleared him with five talents. Greet him from me:
	Bid him suppose some good necessity
	Touches his friend, which craves to be remembered
	With those five talents. That had, give't these fellows
	To whom 'tis instant due. Ne'er speak or think
	That Timon's fortunes 'mong his friends can sink.

Flavius	I would I could not think it.
	That thought is bounty's foe:
	Being free itself, it thinks all others so.
													[Exeunt.
