in Timon of Athens — Shakespeare, William; Middleton, Thomas
Metadata
Play
Timon of Athens
Author
Shakespeare, William; Middleton, Thomas
Year (catalogued)
1623
First performance
1607
Decade
1620s
Genre
Tragedy
Play type
Adult Professional
Company
King's Men
Speech prefix(es)
Sen.
Words
283
Characters
1420
Typicality
0.25 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP id
A11954.29
BritDrama no.
1536
Cluster
Cluster 11 — Tosspots & tavern railers
Important excerpts
No keyword-matching excerpt could be extracted (the cluster label doesn't share vocabulary with this character's speech).
Full speech
And late five thousand: to Varro and to Isidore He owes nine thousand, beside my former sum, Which makes it five and twenty. Still in motion Of raging waste? It cannot hold, it will not. If I want Gold, steal but a beggars Dog, And give it Timon, why the Dog coins Gold. If I would fell my Horse, and buy twenty more Better then he; why give my Horse to Timon. Ask nothing, give it him, it Fools me straight And able Horses: No Porter at his gate, But rather one that smiles, and still invites All that pass by. It cannot hold, no reason Can found his state in safety. Caphis hoa, Caphis I say. Get on your cloak, & hast you to Lord Timon, Importune him for my Moneys, be not ceased With slight denial; nor then silenced, when Commend me to your Master, and the Cap Plays in the right hand, thus: but tell him, My Uses cry to me; I must serve my turn Out of mine own, his days and times are passed, And my reliances on his fracted dates Have smit my credit. I love, and honour him, But must not break my back, to heal his finger. Immediate are my needs, and my relief Must not be tossed and turned to me in words, But find supply immediate. Get you gone, Put on a most importunate aspect, A visage of demand: for I do fear When every Feather sticks in his own wing, Lord Timon will be left a naked gull, Which flashes now a Phoenix, get you gone. I go sir? Take the Bonds along with you, And have the dates in. Come. Go.
Plot summary
Plot — Timon of Athens
; Timon gives freely of his riches to his acquaintances: every little gift will trigger disproportionate largesse by way of requital. He intervenes financially to secure Ventidius’ release from a debtors’ prison, and settles money on his servant Lucilius to enable him to marry the girl he loves, a wealthy man’s daughter. He entertains guests at a lavish feast at which a masque of Amazons is performed. But his creditors. are alarmed by his uncontrolled spending, and call in his debts, which amount to more than the value of his entire estate. He imagines that he can still call on the former recipients of his liberality, but they make their excuses and leave him in difficulties; he is failed even by Ventidius, now a rich man after his father’s death. Timon lays on a second feast, and invites his unreliable friends; they think normal service has been resumed, but are discomfited to find that the menu consists of water alone. Timon drives them off with abuse and leaves Athens in misanthropic fury. Alcibiades attempts to save a friend from execution for murder, but the Senate dismisses the appeal; when he persists, they banish him. In the forest, Timon digs for roots to eat, but finds only buried gold. He meets Alcibiades, marching against Athens with his soldiers, and gives him gold to ensure the city’s destruction; he also pays the army’s whores to spread venereal disease. He encourages a band of thieves to prey upon mankind, but his words persuade them to rethink their way of life. His faithful steward seeks him out and offers to share his own savings; Timon rewards him for his honesty but does not change his low opinion of the rest of humanity. News gets round that Timon still has gold, and hangers-on arrive, hoping this means his bankruptcy was only a bluff to test his friends; he drives them violently away. The Senate asks Timon to return to Athens as its tuler, to defend it against Alcibiades, but Timon, who is busy writing his own epitaph, wishes annihilation on them, and recommends suicide as their only means of escape. Alcibiades’ messenger to Timon finds only his tomb. Athens surrenders, and Timon’s epitaph is read.