8

have told more of you to myself, than you can with modesty speak in your own behalf; and thus far I confirm you. O, you gods, think I, what need we have any friends, if we fhould never have need of them? they were the most needlefs creatures living, fhould we ne'er have ufe for them: and would most resemble fweet inftruments hung up in cafes, that keep their founds to themselves. Why, I have often wifh'd myfelf poorer, that I might come nearer to you. We are born to do benefits: and what better or properer can we call our own,. than the riches of our friends? O, what a precious comfort 'tis, to have fo many, like brothers, commanding one another's fortunes! O joy, e'en made away ere it can be born! Mine eyes cannot hold out water, methinks: to forget their faults, I drink to you.

8 I confirm you.] I fix your characters firmly in my own mind. JOHNSON. 9 they were the most needless creatures living, should we ne'er bave ufe for them: and-] This paffage I have reftored from the old copy. STEEVENS.

O joy, e'en made away ere it can be born!] Tears being the effect both of joy and grief, fupplied our author with an opportunity of conceit, which he feldom fails to indulge. Timon, weeping with a kind of tender pleafure, cries out, O joy, e'en made away, deftroyed, turned to tears, before it can be born, before it can be fully poffeffed. JOHNSON.

So, in Romeo and Juliet:

Thefe violent delights have violent ends, "And in their triumph die."

The old copy has-joys. It was corrected by Mr. Rowe.

MALONE.

3 Mine eyes cannot hold out water, methinks: ] In the original edition the words ftand thus: Mine eyes cannot hold out water, methinks. To forget their faults I drink to you. Perhaps the true reading is this: Mine eyes cannot hold out; they water. Methinks, to forget their faults, I will drink to you. Or it may be explained without any change. Mine eyes cannot hold out water, that is, cannot keep water from breaking in upon them. JOHNSON.

APEM. Thou weep'ft to make them drink, Ti

mon.

2. LORD. Joy had the like conception in our eyes, And, at that inftant, like a babe fprung up.

APEM. Ho, ho! I laugh to think that babe a baftard.

3. LORD. I promise you, my lord, you mov'd me much.

APEM. Much!"

[Tucket founded.

to make them drink,] Sir T. Hanmer reads:-to make them drink thee; and is followed by Dr. Warburton, I think, without fufficient reafon. The covert fenfe of Apemantus is, what thou lofeft, they get. JOHNSON.

5 — like a babe-] That is, a weeping babe. JOHNSON.

I queftion if Shak fpeare meant the propriety of allufion to be carried quite fo far. To look for babies in the eyes of another, is no uncommon expreffion.

So, in Love's Miftrefs, by Heywood, 1636:

"Joy'd in his looks, look'd babies in his eyes.”

Again, in The Chriftian turn'd Turk, 1612:

She makes him fing fongs to her, looks fortunes in his fifts, and babies in his eyes."

Again, in Churchyard's Tragicall difcours of a dolorous Gentlewoman, 1593:

Men will not looke for babes in hollowd eyen."

STEEVENS. Does not Lucullus dwell on Timon's metaphor by referring to circumftances preceding the birth, and means joy was conceived in their eyes, and fprung up there, like the motion of a babe in the womb? TOLLET.

The word conception, in the preceding line, fhows, I think, that Mr. Tollet's interpretation of this paffage is the true one. We have a fimilar imagery in Troilus and Creffida:

"Does thoughts unveil in their dumb cradles." MALONE. "Much!] Apemantus means to fay, That's extraordinary. Much was formerly an expreffion of admiration, See Vol. VI. p. 136, n. 3. MALONE.

Much! is frequently used, as here, ironically, and with some indication of contempt. STEEVENS,

TIM. What means that trump?-How now?

Enter a Servant.

SERV. Please you, my lord, there are certain ladies moft defirous of admittance.

TIM. Ladies? What are their wills?

SERV. There comes with them a forerunner, my lord, which bears that office, to fignify their pleafures.

TIM. I pray, let them be admitted.

Enter CUPID.

CUP. Hail to thee, worthy Timon;-and to all That of his bounties tafte!-The five beft fenfes Acknowledge thee their patron; and come freely To gratulate thy plenteous bofom: The ear, Tafte, touch, smell, all pleas'd from thy table rife;"

7 The ear, &c.] In former copies :

There tafle, touch, all pleas'd from thy table rife,

They only now.

The five fenfes are talked of by Cupid, but three of them only are made out; and thofe in a very heavy unintelligible manner. It is plain therefore we should read:

Th' ear, tafte, touch, fmell, pleas'd from thy table rife,
Thefe only now, &c.

i. e. the five fenfes, Timon, acknowledge thee their patron; four of them, viz. the hearing, tafte, touch, and smell, are all feafted at thy board; and thefe ladies come with me to entertain your fight in a mafque. Maffinger, in his Duke of Millaine, copied the paffage from Shakspeare; and apparently before it was thus corrupted; where, fpeaking of a banquet, he says:

66

All that may be had

"To please the eye, the ear, tafte, touch, or smell,

"Are carefully provided." WARBURTON.

Dr. Warburton and the fubfequent editors omit the word-all; but omiffion is the most dangerous mode of emendation. The

They only now come but to feast thine eyes. TIM. They are welcome all; let them have kind admittance:

Mufick, make their welcome.R [Exit CUPID. I. LORD. You fee, my lord, how ample you are

belov'd.

Mufick. Re-enter CUPID, with a mafque of Ladies as Amazons, with lutes in their hands, dancing, and playing.

APEM. Hey day! what a fweep of vanity comes this way!

They dance! they are mad women.

Like madness is the glory of this life,

As this pomp shows to a little oil, and root.*

corrupted word-There, fhews that-The ear was intended to be contracted into one fyllable; and table alfo was probably used as taking up only the time of a monofyllable. MALONE.

Perhaps the present arrangement of the foregoing words, renders monofyllabification needlefs. STEEVENS.

8 Mufick, make their welcome.] Perhaps the poet wrote: Mufick, make known their welcome.

So, in Macbeth:

"We will require her welcome,

"Pronounce it for me, fir, to all our friends."

STEEVENS.

9 They dance! I believe They dance to be a marginal note only; and perhaps we should read:

Thefe are mad women. TYRWHITT.

2 Like madness is the glory of this life,

As this pomp fhows to a little oil, and root.] The glory of this life is very near to madness, as may be made appear from this pomp, exhibited in a place where a philofopher is feeding on oil and roots. When we fee by example how few are the necellaries of life, we learn what madnefs there is in fo much fuperfluity. JOHNSON.

The word like in this place does not exprefs refemblance, but equality. Apemantus does not mean to fay that the glory of this

We make ourselves fools, to difport ourselves;
And spend our flatteries, to drink thofe men,
Upon whofe age we void it up again,

With poisonous fpite, and envy. Who lives, that's

not

Depraved, or depraves? who dies, that bears
Not one fpurn to their graves of their friends' gift?'
I fhould fear, thofe, that dance before me now,
Would one day ftamp upon me: It has been done;
Men fhut their doors against a fetting fun.

The Lords rife from table, with much adoring of TIMON; and, to show their loves, each fingles out an Amazon, and all dance, men with women, a lofty ftrain or two to the hautboys, and ceafe.

TIM. You have done our pleasures much grace, fair ladies,+

Set a fair fashion on our entertainment,
Which was not half fo beautiful and kind;
You have added worth unto't, and lively luftre,
And entertain'd me with mine own device;
I am to thank you for it.

life was like madness, but it was just as much madness in the eye of reafon, as the pomp appeared to be, when compared to the frugal repaft of a philofopher, M. MASON.

3

of their friends' gift?] That is, given them by their friends. JOHNSON.

4 -fair ladies,] I should wish to read, for the fake of metre-fairest ladies. STEEVENS.

5-lively luftre,] For the epithet-lively, we are indebted to the fecond folio: it is wanting in the firft. STEEVENS.

6

mine own device;] The mafk appears to have been defigned by Timon to furprize his guests. JOHNSON.