Thou common whore of mankind, that put'ft odds But yet I'll bury thee: Thou'lt go, ftrong thief, Enter ALCIBIADES, with drum and fife, in warlike manner; PHRYNIA, and TYMANDRA. ALCIB. Speak. What art thou there? TIM. A beaft, as thou art. The canker gnaw thy heart, 4 To the April day again.] That is, to the wedding day, called by the poet, fatirically, April day, or fool's day. JOHNSON. The April day does not relate to the widow, but to the other difeafed female, who is reprefented as the outcaft of an hofpital. She it is whom gold embalms and fpices to the April day again: i. e. gold reftores her to all the freshness and sweetness of youth. Such is the power of gold, that it will 66 -make black, white; foul, fair; A quotation or two may perhaps fupport this interpretation. So, in Sidney's Arcadia, p. 262, edit. 1633: Do you fee how the fpring time is full of flowers, decking itfelf with them, and not aspiring to the fruits of autumn? What leffon is that unto you, but that in the April of your age you should be like April." Again, in Stephens's Apology for Herodotus, 1607: " He is a young man, and in the April of his age." Peacham's Compleat Gentleman, chap. iii. calls youth the April of man's life." Shakfpeare's Sonnet entitled Love's Cruelty, has the fame thought: "Thou art thy mother's glass, and fhe in thee "Calls back the lovely April of her prime." Daniel's 31ft Sonnet has, " the April of my years." Master Fenton "fmells April and May." TOLLET. 5 Do thy right nature.] Lie in the earth where nature laid thee. 6 JOHNSON. JOHNSON. Thou'rt quick,] Thou haft life and motion in thee. For fhowing me again the eyes of man! ALCIB. What is thy name? Is man fo hateful to thee, That art thyself a man? TIM. I am mifanthropos," and hate mankind. For thy part, I do wish thou wert a dog, That I might love thee something. I know thee well; ALCIB. TIM. I know thee too; and more, than that I I not defire to know. Follow thy drum; With man's blood paint the ground, gules, gules: 8 Then what should war be? This fell whore of thine PHRY. TIM. I will not kifs thee; To thine own lips again. Thy lips rot off! then the rot returns I am mifanthropos,] A marginal note in the old translation of Plutarch's Life of Antony, furnished our author with this epithet: "Antonius followeth the life and example of Timon Mifanthropus, the Athenian." MALONE. 8 — gules, gules:] Might we not repair the defective metre of this line, by adopting a Shakspearian epithet, and reading, gules, total gules; as in the following paffage in Hamlet? "Now is he total gules." STEEVENS. 9 I will not kifs thee;] This alludes to an opinion in former times, generally prevalent, that the venereal infection tranfmitted to another, left the infecter free. I will not, fays Timon, take the rot from thy lips, by kiffing thee. JOHNSON. Thus, The Humourous Lieutenant says: He has fome wench, or fuch a toy, to kiss over, ALCIB. How came the noble Timon to this change? TIM. As the moon does, by wanting light to give: But then renew I could not, like the moon ; There were no funs to borrow of. TIM. Promise me friendship, but perform none: If Thou wilt not promife," the gods plague thee, for Thou art a man! if thou doft perform, confound thee, For thou'rt a man! ALCIB. I have heard in fome fort of thy mise ries. TIM. Thou faw'ft them, when I had profperity. ALCIB. I fee them now; then was a bleffed time.* TIM. As thine is now, held with a brace of harlots. TYMAN. Is this the Athenian minion, whom the world Voic'd fo regardfully? If Art thou Tymandra? Thou wilt not promife, &c.] That is, however thou may'st act, fince thou art man, hated man, I wish thee evil. JOHNSON. 2 then was a bleed time.] I fufpect, from Timon's anfwer, that Shakspeare wrote-thine was a bleffed time. MALONE. I apprehend no corruption. Now, and then, were defignedly opposed to each other. STEEVENS. TIM. Be a whore ftill! they love thee not, that Give them diseases, leaving with thee their luft. To the tub-faft, and the diet.' ΤΥΜΑΝ. Hang thee, monster! 3 Be a whore ftill! they love thee not, that use thee; Make ufe of thy falt hours: &c.] There is here a flight trans pofition. I would read: they love thee not that use thee, Leaving with thee their luft; give them difeafes, Make ufe of thy falt hours, feafon the flaves For tubs, and baths ; JOHNSON. bring down rofe-cheeked youth-] This expreffive epithet our author might have found in Marlow's Hero and Leander: "Rofe-cheek'd Adonis kept a folemn feast.' MALONE. 5 To the tub-faft, and the diet.] [Old copy-fub-faft.] One might make a very long and vain fearch, yet not be able to meet with this prepofterous word fub-faft, which has notwithstanding passed current with all the editors. We fhould read-tub-faft. The author is alluding to the lues venerea and its effects. At that time the cure of it was performed either by guaiacum, or mercurial unctions: and in both cafes the patient was kept up very warm and clofe; that in the firft application the fweat might be promoted; and left, in the other, he fhould take cold, which was fatal. "The regimen for the courfe of guaiacum (fays Dr. Friend, in his Hiftory of Phyfick, Vol. II. p. 380,) was at first strangely circumftantial; and fo rigorous, that the patient was put into a dungeon in order to make him fweat; and in that manner, as Fallopius expreffes it, the bones, and the very man himself was macerated." Wifeman fays, in England they used a tub for this purpose, as abroad, a cave, or oven, or dungeon. And as for the unction, it was fometimes continued for thirty-feven days (as he obferves, p. 375.) and during this time there was neceffarily an extraordinary abftinence required. Hence the term of the tub-fast. WARBURTON. ALCIB. Pardon him fweet Tymandra; for his wits So, in Jasper Maine's City Match, 1639: .0 You had better match a ruin'd bawd, "One ten times cur'd by sweating, and the tub." Again, in The Family of Love, 1608, a doctor fays: " for one of the hoops of my Cornelius' tub, I shall burft myself with laughing elfe." Again, in Monfieur D'Olive, 1606: "Our embaffage is into France, there may be employment for thee: Haft thou a tub?" The diet was likewife a cuftomary term for the regimen prefcribed in these cafes. So, in Springes to catch Woodcocks, a collection of Epigrams, 1606: "Prifcus gave out, &c. "Prifcus had tane the diet all the while." Again, in another collection of ancient Epigrams called The Maftive, &c. "She took not diet nor the fweat in feafon." Thus, alfo in Beaumont and Fletcher's Knight of the Burning Pele: whom I in diet keep "Send lower down into the cave, "And in a tub that's heated fmoaking hot," &c. Again, in the fame play: -caught us, and put us in a tub, "Where we this two months sweat, &c. “ This bread and water hath our diet been,” &c. STEEVENS. The preceding lines, and a paffage in Meafure for Measure, fully fupport the emendation: 66 Truly, fir, the [the bawd] hath eaten up all her beef, and she is herself in the tub." MALONE. In the Latin comedy of Cornelianum Dolium, which was probably written by T. Randolph, there is a frontifpiece reprefenting the fweating-tub, which from the name of the unfortunate patient, was afterwards called Cornelius's tub, as appears from the Dictionaries of Cotgrave and Howel. Some account of the fweating-tub with a cut of it may be feen in Ambrofe Paræus's Works, by Johnson, p. 48. Another very particular reprefentation of it may be likewife found in the Recueil de Proverbes par Jacques Lagniet, with the following lines: "Pour un petit plaifir je foufre mille maux; "Je fais contre un hyver deux efte ci me femble: |