reflections, in the same ftile with those which mostly fill this Play: Oh, ye gods! Is yon defpifed and ruinous man my lord? Oh, monument and wonder of good deeds, What change of honour defperate want has made! How rarely does it meet with this time's guife, When man was wifhed to love his enemies. Grant I may ever love, and rather woo Those that would mischief me, than those that do? † Here alfo in the fame ftrain our Author proceeds. When two of Timon's former fycophants, upon hearing that their patron is fuddenly become rich again, are going together to cajole him, as before, they hold the following dialogue with each other. Poet and Painter. Poet. What have you now to prefent unto him? Painter. Nothing, at this time, but my vifitation; only I will promise him an excellent piece. Foet. I muft ferve him fo too; tell him of an intent that's com ing toward him. Painter. Good as the beft. Promifing is the very air of the time; it opens the eyes of expectation. Performance is ever the duller for his aft; and, but in the plainer and fimpler kind of people, the deed is quite out of ufe. To promife, is most courtly and fashionable; performance is a kind of will or teftament, which argues a great ficknefs in his judgment that makes it. Poet. I am thinking what I fhall fay I have provided for him. It must be a perfonating I of himself; a fatire against the foftnefs of profperity, with a difcovery of the infinite flatteries that follow youth and opulency. . Rarely, for fitly, This paffage is difficult. Doctor Warburton has altered the text, to accommodate it to his explanation; and Doctor Johnson has reftored it. The meaning of it, as it here ftands, is, that open enemies are lefs dangerous, than false friends. We can fhield ourselves from the one, but are prifoners at difcretion, with the other. Mr. Johnson quotes a Spanish proverb to the fame effect: "Defend me "from my friends, and from my enemies I will defend my felf." Perfonating, a reprefentation of his own fituation and circumftances. Nay, Nay, let's feek him. Then do we fin against our own eftate, When we may profit meet, and come too late. While the day ferves, before black-cornered night, Timon over-hearing their converfation from behind his cave, cafts out another invective against gold, and concludes his fpeech with an expreffion, which I have alfo let pass for the reafon before-mentioned, in the last note on Scene III. of the former Act. For though used in the form of a curfe, it may, however, be hardly confidered in that light, as 'tis but the natural confequence of the vice, and is no more than to fay, May the man who fwallows poifon die, which he certainly will do. Timon. What a god's gold, that he is worshipped In bafer temples than where fwine do feed! 'Tis thou that rigg'ft the bark, and plough'ft the foam, To thee be worship, and thy faints, for aye, Be crown'd with plagues that thee alone obey. I fhall here conclude my remarks upon this Play, with Dr. Johnson's character of it, as far as the fable has any relation to moral. "The catastrophe (fays he) affords a very powerful warning against that oftentatious liberality which "fcatters bounty, but confers no benefit; and buys "flattery, but not friendship." |