FOOL. Are you three ufurers' men? FOOL. I think, no usurer but has a fool to his fervant: My mistress is one, and I am her fool. When men come to borrow of your masters, they approach fadly, and go away merry; but they enter my miftrefs' houfe merrily, and go away fadly: The reason of this? VAR. SERV. I could render one. APEM. Do it then, that we may account thee a whoremaster, and a knave; which notwithstanding, thou shalt be no less esteemed. VAR. SERV. What is a whoremaster, fool? FOOL. A fool in good clothes, and fomething like thee. 'Tis a fpirit: fometime, it appears like a lord; fometime, like a lawyer; fometime, like a philofopher, with two ftones more than his artificial one: He is very often like a knight; and, generally, in all fhapes, that man goes up and down in, from fourfcore to thirteen, this fpirit walks in. VAR. SERV. Thou art not altogether a fool. FOOL. Nor thou altogether a wife man: as much foolery as I have, fo much wit thou lack'ft. 3 my miftrefs' houfe-] Here again the old copy readsmafter's. I have corrected it for the reafon already affigned. The context puts the matter beyond a doubt. Mr. Theobald, I find, had filently made the fame emendation; but in fubfequent editions the corrupt reading of the old copy was again restored. MALONE. -bis artificial one:] Meaning the celebrated philofopher's ftone, which was in thofe times much talked of. Sir Thomas Smith was one of those who loft confiderable fums in feeking of it. JOHNSON. Sir Richard Steele was one of the laft eminent men who entertained hopes of being fuccefsful in this purfuit. His laboratory was at Poplar, a village near London, and is now converted into a garden house. STEEVENS. APEM. That answer might have become Ape mantus. ALL SERV. Afide, afide; here comes lord Timon. Re-enter TIMON and FLAVIUS. APEM. Come with me, fool, come. FOOL. I do not always follow lover, elder brother, and woman; fometime, the philofopher. 1 [Exeunt APEMANTUS and Fool. FLAV. 'Pray you, walk near; I'll speak with you [Exeunt Serv. anon. TIM. You make me marvel: Wherefore, ere this time, Had you not fully laid my state before me; FLAV. You would not hear me, Go to: At many leisures I propos'd. TIM. Perchance, fome fingle vantages you took, FLAV. O my good lord! At many times I brought in my accounts, Laid them before you; you would throw them off, When, for fome trifling prefent, you have bid me 5 made your minifter,] So the original. The fecond folio and the later editions have all: made you minifler, JOHNSON, The construction is:—And made that unaptness your minifter. Return fo much," I have fhook my head, and wept; And your great flow of debts. My dear-lov'd lord,' To pay your present debts." TIM. Let all my land be fold.' Return fo much,] He does not mean fo great a fum, but a certain fum, as it might happen to be. Our author frequently ufes this kind of expreffion. See a note on the words" with fo many talents," p. 536, n. 9. MALONE. 8 My dear-lov'd lord,] Thus the fecond folio. The firft omits the epithet-dear, and confequently vitiates the measure. STEEVENS, 9 Though you hear now, (too late!) yet now's a time,] i. e. Though it be now too late to retrieve your former fortunes, yet it is not too late to prevent by the affiftance of your friends, your future miferies. Had the Oxford editor understood the fenfe, he would not have altered the text to, Though you hear me now, yet now's too late a time. WARBURTON. I think Sir T. Hanmer right, and have received his emendation, JOHNSON. The old reading is not properly explained by Dr. Warburton. "Though I tell you this (fays Flavius) at too late a period, perhaps, for the information to be of any fervice to you, yet late as it is, it is neceffary that you should be acquainted with it." It is evident, that the steward had very little hope of affiftance from his master's friends. RITSON. Though you now at last listen to my remonftrances, yet now your affairs are in fuch a state that the whole of your remaining fortune will scarce pay half your debts. You are therefore wife too late. MALONE. The greatest of your having lacks a half Tim. Let all my land be fold.] The re FLAV. 'Tis all engag'd, fome forfeited and gone; And what remains will hardly stop the mouth Of prefent dues: the future comes apace: What fhall defend the interim? and at length How goes our reckoning?" TIM. To Lacedæmon did my land extend. FLAV. 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? TIM. You tell me true. FLAV. If you fufpect my husbandry, or false hood, Call me before the exacteft auditors, And fet me on the proof. So the gods blefs me, dundancy of measure in this paffage perfuades me that it ftood originally thus: 3 Your greatest having lacks a half to pay Tim. and at length Let all my land be fold. STEEVENS. How goes our reckoning?] This fteward talks very wildly. The lord indeed might have asked, what a lord feldom knows: How goes our reckoning? But the steward was too well fatisfied in that matter. I would read therefore : Hold good our reckoning? WARBURTON. It is common enough, and the commentator knows it is common to propofe, interrogatively, that of which neither the fpeaker nor the hearer has any doubt. The prefent reading may therefore ftand. JOHNSON, How will you be able to fubfift in the time intervening between the payment of the prefent demands (which your whole fubftance will hardly fatisfy) and the claim of future dues, for which you have no fund whatfoever; and finally on the fettlement of all accounts in what a wretched plight will you be? MALONE. O my good lord, the world is but a word;] The meaning is, as the world itfelf may be comprised in a word, you might give it away in a breath. WARBURTON. When all our offices have been opprefs'd With riotous feeders; when our vaults have wept I have retir'd me to a wasteful cock," 5 our offices-] i. e. the apartments allotted to culinary purposes, the reception of domefticks, &c. Thus, in Macbeth: Sent forth great largefs to your offices." Would Duncan have fent largefs to any but fervants? See Vol. VII. P. 401, n. 8. It appears that what we now call offices, were anciently called houses of office. So, in Chaucer's Clerkes Tale, v. 8140, Mr. Tyrwhitt's edition: Houfes of office ftuffed with plentee "Ther mayft thou fee of deinteous vittaille." 6 With riotous feeders;] Feeders are fervants, baucheries are practifed in the offices of a houfe. Antony and Cleopatra, A&t III. fc. xi: " feeders." STEEVENS. one STEEVENS. whose low de See a note on who looks on 7 —————a wafteful cock,] i. e. a cockloft, a garret. And a wasteful cock, fignifies a garret lying in wafte, neglected, put to no use. HANMER. Sir T. Hanmer's explanation is received by Dr. Warburton, yet I think them both apparently mistaken. A wafteful cock is a cock or pipe with a turning ftopple running to wafte. In this fenfe, both the terms have their ufual meaning; but I know not that cock is ever used for cockloft, or wafteful for lying in waffe, or that lying in wafte is at all a phrafe. JOHNSON. Whatever be the meaning of the prefent paffage, it is certain, that lying in wafte is ftill a very common phrafe. FARMER. A wefteful cock is what we now call a waste pipe; a pipe which is continually running, and thereby prevents the overflow of cifterns and other refervoirs, by carrying off their fuperfluous water. This circumstance served to keep the idea of Timon's unceafing prodigality in the mind of the steward, while its remotenefs from the fcenes of luxury within the houfe, was favourable to meditation. COLLINS. The reader will have a perfect notion of the method taken by Mr. Pope in his edition, when he is informed that, for wasteful cock, that editor reads-lonely room. MALONE, |