ALCIBIADES Noble Timon,
What friendship may I do thee?
TIMON None, but to
Maintain my opinion.
ALCIBIADES What is it, Timon?
TIMON Promise me friendship, but perform none: if thou
wilt not promise, the gods plague thee, for thou art
a man! if thou dost perform, confound thee, for
thou art a man!
ALCIBIADES I have heard in some sort of thy miseries.
TIMON Thou saw'st them, when I had prosperity.
ALCIBIADES I see them now; then was a blessed time.
TIMON As thine is now, held with a brace of harlots.
TIMANDRA Is this the Athenian minion, whom the world
Voiced so regardfully?
TIMON Art thou Timandra?
TIMANDRA Yes.
TIMON Be a whore still: they love thee not that use thee;
Give them diseases, leaving with thee their lust.
Make use of thy salt hours: season the slaves
For tubs and baths; bring down rose-cheeked youth
To the tub-fast and the diet.
TIMANDRA Hang thee, monster!
ALCIBIADES Pardon him, sweet Timandra; for his wits
Are drown'd and lost in his calamities.
I have but little gold of late, brave Timon,
The want whereof doth daily make revolt
In my penurious band: I have heard, and grieved,
How cursed Athens, mindless of thy worth,
Forgetting thy great deeds, when neighbour states,
But for thy sword and fortune, trod upon them,--
TIMON I prithee, beat thy drum, and get thee gone.
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