To promise is
most courtly and fashionable: performance is a kind
of will or testament which argues a great sickness
in his judgment that makes it.
[TIMON comes from his cave, behind]
TIMON [Aside] Excellent workman! thou canst not paint a
man so bad as is thyself.
Poet I am thinking what I shall say I have provided for
him: it must be a personating of himself; a satire
against the softness of prosperity, with a discovery
of the infinite flatteries that follow youth and opulency.
TIMON [Aside] Must thou needs stand for a villain in
thine own work? wilt thou whip thine own faults in
other men? Do so, I have gold for thee.
Poet Nay, let's seek him:
Then do we sin against our own estate,
When we may profit meet, and come too late.
Painter True;
When the day serves, before black-corner'd night,
Find what thou want'st by free and offer'd light. Come.
TIMON [Aside] I'll meet you at the turn. What a
god's gold,
That he is worshipp'd in a baser temple
Than where swine feed!
'Tis thou that rigg'st the bark and plough'st the foam,
Settlest admired reverence in a slave:
To thee be worship! and thy saints for aye
Be crown'd with plagues that thee alone obey!
Fit I meet them.
[Coming forward]
Poet Hail, worthy Timon!
Painter Our late noble master!
TIMON Have I once lived to see two honest men?
Poet Sir,
Having often of your open bounty tasted,
Hearing you were retired, your friends fall'n off,
Whose thankless natures--O abhorred spirits!--
Not all the whips of heaven are large enough:
What! to you,
Whose star-like nobleness gave life and influence
To their whole being! I am rapt and cannot cover
The monstrous bulk of this ingratitude
With any size of words.
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