Confound them by fome courfe, and come to me, I'll give you gold enough. BOTH. Name them, my lord, let's know them. TIM. You that way, and you this, but two in company: 2 9- •but two in company:] This is an imperfect fentence, and is to be supplied thus, But two in company spoils all. WARBURTON. This paffage is obfcure. I think the meaning is this: but two in company, that is, ftand apart, let only two be together; for even when each stands fingle there are two, he himself and a villain. JOHNSON. This paffage may receive fome illuftration from another in The Two Gentlemen of Verona: "My mafter is a kind of knave; but that's all one, if he be but one knave." The sense is, each man is a double villain, i. e. a villain with more than a fingle share of guilt. See Dr. Farmer's note on the third Act of The Two Gentlemen of Verona, &c. Again, in Promos and Cassandra, 1578: Go, and a knave with thee." Again, in The Storye of King Darius, 1565, an interlude: if you needs will go away, "Take two knaves with you by my faye." There is a thought not unlike this in The Scornful Lady of Beaumont and Fletcher:-" Take to your chamber when you please, there goes a black one with you, lady." STEEVENS. There are not two words more frequently mistaken for each other, in the printing of these plays, than but and not. I have no doubt but that mistake obtains in this paffage, and that we should read it thus: not two in company: Each man apart, You that way, and you this, but two in company :— Yet an arch-villain keeps him company.] The first of thefe lines has been rendered obfcure by falfe pointing; that is, by connecting the words, "but two in company," with the fubfequent line, inftead of connecting them with the preceding hemiftick. The second and third line are put in appofition with the first line, and are merely an illuftration of the affertion contained in it. Do you (fays Timon) go that way, and you this, and yet ftill each of you will have two in your company: each of you, though fingle and alone, will be accompanied by an arch-villain. Each man, being Each man apart, all fingle and alone, [To the Painter. Come not near him.-If thou would'ft not refide [To the Poet. But where one villain is, then him abandon.— Hence! pack! there's gold, ye came for gold, ye flaves: You have done work for me, there's payment: Hence! You are an alchymift, make gold of that :- [Exit, beating and driving them out. 2 himself a villain, will take a villain along with him, and fo each of you will have two in company. It is a mere quibble founded on the word company. See the former fpeech, in which Timon exhorts each of them to hang or ftab the villain in his company,” i. e. himself. The paffage quoted by Mr. Steevens from Promos and Caffandra, puts the meaning beyond a doubt. MALONE. * You have done work &c.] For the infertion of the word done, which, it is manifeft, was omitted by the negligence of the compofitor, I am answerable. Timon in this line addresses the Painter, whom he before called "excellent workman ;" in the next the Poet. I had rather read: MALONE. You've work'α for me, there is your payment: Hence! STEEVENS. SCENE II. The fame. Enter FLAVIUs, and two Senators. FLAV. It is in vain that you would fpeak with Timon; For he is fet fo only to himself, That nothing, but himself, which looks like man, Is friendly with him. I. SEN. Bring us to his cave: 2. SEN. At all times alike Men are not still the fame: 'Twas time, and griefs, That fram'd him thus: time, with his fairer hand, Offering the fortunes of his former days, The former man may make him: Bring us to him, And chance it as it may. FLAV. Here is his cave. Peace and content be here! Lord Timon! Timon! Look out, and speak to friends: The Athenians, By two of their most reverend fenate, greet thee: Speak to them, noble Timon. Enter TIMON. TIM. Thou fun, that comfort'ft, burn!'-Speak, and be hang'd: "Thine eyes," says King 3 Thou fun, that comfort'ft, burn!] Lear to Regan, "do comfort, and not burn.” A fimilar wish occurs in Antony and Cleopatra : "O, fun, "Burn the great fphere thou mov'ft in!" STEEVENS. For each true word, a blifter! and each falfe 1. SEN. Worthy Timon,TIM. Of none but fuch as you, and you of Timon. 2. SEN. The fenators of Athens greet thee, Timon. TIM. I thank them; and would fend them back the plague, Could I but catch it for them. I. SEN. O, forget What we are forry for ourselves in thee. The fenators, with one consent of love, Entreat thee back to Athens; who have thought On special dignities, which vacant lie For thy beft use and wearing. 2. SEN. They confefs, Toward thee, forgetfulness too general, grofs: Which now the publick body,-which doth feldom -a caut'rizing-] The old copy reads-cantherizing ; the poet might have written, cancering. STEEVENS. To cauterize was a word of our author's time; being found in Bullokar's English Expofitor, octavo, 1616, where it is explained, "To burn to a fore." It is the word of the old copy, with the u changed to an n, which has happened in almost every one of thefe plays. MALONE. with one confent of love,] With one united voice of affection. So, in Sternhold's tranflation of the 100th Pfalm: "With one confent let all the earth." All our old writers fpell the word improperly, confent, without regard to its etymology, concentus. See Vol. IX. p. 211, n. 2; and p. 319, n. 7. MALONE. This fenfe of the word confent, or concent, was originally pointed out and ascertained in a note on the first scene of the first part of King Henry VI. See Vol. IX. p. 506, n. 5. STEEVENS. 6 Which now the publick body,] Thus the old copy, ungrammatically certainly; but our author frequently thus begins a fentence, and concludes it without attending to what has gone before: Play the recanter,-feeling in itself A lack of Timon's aid, hath sense withal Than their offence can weigh down by the dram ;* for which perhaps the careleffnefs and ardour of colloquial language may be an apology. See Vol. III. p. 12, n. 2. So afterwards in the third fcene of this act: Whom, though in general part we were oppos'd, "Yet our old love made a particular force, "And made us fpeak like friends." See also the Poet's laft fpeech in p. 637.-Sir T. Hanmer and the fubfequent editors read here more correctly-And now the publick body, &c. but by what overfight could Which be printed instead of And? MALONE. The miftake might have been that of the transcriber, not the printer. STEEVENS. 7 Of its own fall,] The Athenians had sense, that is, felt the danger of their own fall, by the arms of Alcibiades. JOHNSON. I once fufpected that our author wrote-Of its own fail, i. e. failure. So, in Coriolanus: "That if you fail in our requeft, the blame " May hang upon your hardnefs." But a fubfequent paffage fully fupports the reading of the text: "Ours is the fall, I fear, our foes the fnare." Again, in fc. iv : "Before proud Athens he's fet down by this, "Whofe fall the mark of his ambition is." MALONE. 8 -reftraining aid to Timon;] I think it fhould be refraining aid, that is, with-holding aid that should have been given to Timon. JOHNSON. Where is the difference? To reftrain, and to refrain, both mean to with-hold. M. MASON. 9 -forrowed render,] Thus the old copy. Render is confeffion. So, in Cymbeline, A& IV. sc. iv : 66 may drive us to a render "Where we have liv'd." The modern editors read-tender. STEEVENS. Than their offence can weigh down by the dram;] This, which was in the former editions, can fcarcely be right, and yet I know |