_Tim._ Always a villain's office, or a fool's.
Dost please thyself in't?
_Apem._ Ay.
_Tim._ What! a knave too?]
Such was Dr. Warburton's first conjecture ["and know't too"], but
afterwards he adopted Sir T. Hanmer's conjecture,
_What a knave_ thou!
but there is no need of alteration. Timon had just called Apemantus
_fool_, in consequence of what he had known of him by former
acquaintance; but when Apemantus tells him, that he comes _to vex him_,
Timon determines that to _vex_ is either _the office of a villain or a
fool_; that _to vex by design_ is _villainy, to vex without design_ is
_folly_. He then properly asks Apemantus whether he takes delight in
_vexing_, and when he answers, _yes_, Timon replies, _What! and knave
too?_ I before only knew thee to be a _fool_, but I now find thee
likewise a _knave_. This seems to be so clear as not to stand in need of
a comment.
IV.iii.242 (365,6) Willing misery/Out-lives incertain pomp; is crown'd
before] Arrives sooner at _high wish_; that is, at the _completion of
its wishes_.
IV.iii.247 (365,7) Worse than the worst, content] Best states
contentless have a wretched being, a being worse than that of the worst
states that are content. This one would think too plain to have been
mistaken. (1773)
IV.iii.249 (365,8) by his breath] It means, I believe, by his _counsel_,
by his _direction_.
IV. iii. 252 (366,l) Hadst thou, like us] There is in this speech a
sullen haughtiness, and malignant dignity, suitable at once to the lord
and the man-hater. The impatience with which he bears to have his luxury
reproached by one that never had luxury within his reach, is natural and
graceful.
There is in a letter, written by the earl of Essex, just before his
execution, to another nobleman, a passage somewhat resembling this, with
which, I believe every reader will be pleased, though it is so serious
and solemn that it can scarcely be inserted without irreverence.
"God grant your lordship may quickly feel the comfort I now enjoy in my
unfettered conversion, but that you may never feel the torments I have
suffered for my long delaying it. _I had none but deceivers to call upon
me, to whom I said, if my ambition could have entered into their narrow
breasts, they would not have been so precise. But your lordship hath one
to call upon you, that knoweth what it is you now enjoy; and what the
greatest fruit and end is of all contentment that this world can
afford._ Think, therefore, dear earl, that I have staked and buoyed all
the ways of pleasure unto you, and left them as sea-marks for you to
keep the channel of religious virtue. For shut your eyes never so long,
they must be open at the last, and then you must say with me, _there is
no peace to the ungodly_."
IV.iii.252 (366,2) from our first swath] From infancy. _Swath_ is the
dress of a new-born child.
IV.iii.258 (366,3) precepts of respect] Of obedience to laws.
IV.iii.259 (366,4) But myself] The connection here requires some
attention. _But_ is here used to denote opposition; but what immediately
precedes is not opposed to that which follows. The adversative particle
refers to the two first lines.
_Thou art a slave, whom fortune's tender arm
With favour never claspt; but bred a dog.
--But myself,
Who had the world as my confectionary,_ &c.
The intermediate lines are to be considered as a parenthesis of passion.
IV.iii.271 (367,5) If thou wilt curse, thy father, that poor rag,/ Must
be thy subject] If we read _poor rogue_, it will correspond rather
better to what follows.
IV.iii.276 (367,6) Thou hadst been knave and flatterer] Dryden has
quoted two verses of Virgil to shew how well he could have written
satires. Shakespeare has here given a specimen of the same power by a
line bitter beyond all bitterness, in which Timon tells Apemantus, that
he had not virtue enough for the vices which he condemns.
Dr. Warburton explains _worst_ by _lowest_, which somewhat weakens the
sense, and yet leaves it sufficiently vigorous.
I have heard Mr. Bourke commend the subtilty of discrimination with
which Shakespeare distinguishes the present character of Timon from that
of Apemantus, whom to vulgar eyes he would now resemble. (see 1763, VI,
249, 6) (rev. 1778, VIII, 424, 4)
IV.iii.308 (369,8) Ay, though it look like thee] Timon here supposes
that an objection against hatred, which through the whole tenor of the
conversation appears an argument for it. One would have expected him to
have answered,
Yes, _for it looks like thee_.
The old edition, which always gives the pronoun instead of the
affirmative particle, has it,
_I, though it look like thee_.
Perhaps we should read,
_I_ thought _it_ look'd _like thee_.
IV,iii.363 (371,2) Thou art the cap] i.e. the property, the bubble.
WARBURTON.] I rather think, the _top_, the _principal_.
The remaining dialogue has more malignity than wit.