8

have told more of you to myself, than you can with
modesty speak in your own behalf; and thus far I
confirm you. O, you gods, think I, what need
we have any friends, if we fhould never have need
of them? they were the most needlefs creatures
living, fhould we ne'er have ufe for them: and
would most resemble fweet inftruments hung up in
cafes, that keep their founds to themfelves. Why,
I have often wifh'd myfelf poorer, that I might
come nearer to you. We are born to do benefits:
and what better or properer can we call our own,
than the riches of our friends? O, what a precious
comfort is, to have fo many, like brothers, com-
manding one another's fortunes! O joy, e'en made
away ere it can be born! Mine eyes cannot hold
out water, methinks :3 to forget their faults, I
drink to you.

2

• I confirm you. ] I fix your chara&ers firmly in my own mind.

9

they were the most needless creatures living,

have ufe for them: and

old copy.

STEEVENS.

JOHNSON.

This paffage I have

should we ne'er reflored from the

Tears being the

Timon,

2 0 joy, e'en made away ere it can be born!]
effed both of joy and grief, fupplied our author with an oppor
tunity of conceit, which he feldom fails to indulge.
weeping with a kind of tender pleasure, cries out, O joy,
away, deftroyed, turned to tears, before it can be born,
can be fully poffeffed. JOHNSON.

"Thefe violent delights have violent ends,
"And in their triumph die.'

So, in Romeo and Juliet:

The old copy has-joys. It was corrected by Mr. Rowe.

e'en made before it

MALONE.

3 Mine eyes cannot hold out water, methinks: ] In the original edition the words ftand thus: Mine eyes cannot hold out water, methinks. To forget their faults I drink to you. Perhaps the true reading is this: Mine eyes cannot hold out; they water. Methinks, to forget their faults, I will drink to you. Or it may be explained without any change. Mine eyes cannot hold cut water, that is, cannot keep water from breaking in upon them. JOHNSON.

APEM. Thou weep'ft to make them drink, Ti

mon.

2. LORD. Joy had the like conception in our eyes, And, at that inftant, like a babe fprung up.

4

5

APEM. Ho, ho! I laugh to think that babe a baflard.

།

3. LORD. I promife you, my lord, you mov'd me

much.

APEM. Much! 6

[Tucket founded.

-to make them drink,] Sir T. Hanmer reads: to make them drink thee; and is followed by Dr. Warburton, I think, without fufficient reafon. The covert fenfe of Apemantus is, what thou lofeft, they get. JOHNSON.

5

like a babe] That is, a weeping babe. JOHNSON.

I queftion if Shakspeare meant the propriety of allufion to be carried quite fo far. To look for babies in the eyes of another, is no uncommon expreffion.

So, in Love's Miftrefs, by Heywood, 1636:

"Joy'd in his looks, look'd babies in his eyes."

Again, in The Chriftian turn'd Turk, 1612:

She makes him fing fongs to her, looks fortunes in his fifts, and babies in his eyes."

Again, in Churchyard's Tragicall difcours of a dolorous Gentlewoman, 1593:

"Men will not looke for babes in hollowd eyen."

STEEVENS.

Does not Lucullus dwell on Timon's metaphor by referring to circumftances preceding the birth, and means joy was conceived in their eyes, and fprung up there, like the motion of a babe in the womb? TOLLET.

The word conception, in the preceding line, shows, I think, that Mr. Tollet's interpretation of this paffage is the true one. We have a fimilar imagery in Troilus and Creffida:

"——and, almost like the gods,

"Docs thoughts unveil in their dumb cradles." MALONE. 6 Much!] Apemantus means to fay, That's extraordinary. Much was formerly an expreffion of admiration. See Vol. VIM. p. 304, n. 3. MALONE.

Much! is frequently ufed, as bere, ironically, and with fome indication of contempt. STEEVENS.

TIM. What means that trump ?-How now?.

Enter a Servant.

SERV. Please you, my lord, there are certain ladies moft defirous of admittance.

TIM. Ladies? What are their wills?

SERV. There comes with them a forerunner, my lord, which bears that office, to fignify their plecafures.

TIM. I pray, let them be admitted.

Enter CUPID.

CUP. Hail to thee, worthy Timon ;-and to all That of his bounties tafte!-The five best fenfes Acknowledge thee their patron; and come freely To gratulate thy plenteous bofom: The ear, Taste, touch, fmell, all pleas'd from thy table rise;'

The five fenses are talked of by Cupid, but three of them only are made out; and those in a very heavy unintelligible manner. It is plain therefore we should read:

Th'ear, tafte, touch, fmell, pleas'd from thy table rife,
Thefe only now, &c.

i. e. the five senses, Timon, acknowledge thee their patron; four of them, viz. the hearing, tafte, touch, and smell, are all feafted at thy board; and thefe ladies come with me to entertain your fight in a masque. Maffiuger, in his Duke of Millaine, copied the paffage from Shakspeare; and apparently before it was thus corrupted; where speaking of a banquet, he fays:

"To please the eye, the ear, taste, touch, or smell,
"Are carefully provided." WARBURTON.

Dr. Warburton and the fubfequent editors omit the word-all; but omiffion is the most dangerous mode of emendation.

The

They only now come but to feast thine eyes.

TIM. They are welcome all; let them have kind admittance:

Mufick, make their welcome. 8

[Exit CyPID. 1. LORD. You fee, my lord, how ample you are

belov'd.

Mufick. Re-enter CUPID, with a mafque of Ladies as Amazons, with lutes in their hands, dancing, and playing.

APEM. Hey day! what a sweep of vanity comes this way!

They dance! they are mad women.

Like madness is the glory of this life,

As this pomp flows to a little oil, and root.

corrupted ward-There, fhews that The ear was intended to be contraded into one syllable; and table also was probably used as taking up only the time of a monofyllable. MALONE.

Perhaps the present arrangement of the foregoing words, renders monofyllabification needlefs. STEEVENS.

8 Mufick, make their welcome.] Perhaps the poet wrote: Mufick, make known their welcome.

So, in Macbeth:

• They dance!] I believe They dance to be a marginal note only; and perhaps we should read:

Thefe are mad women. TYRHWITT.

Like madness in the glory of this life,

As this pomp fhows to a little oil, and root.] The glory of this life is very near to madness, as may be made appear from this pomp, exhibited in a place where a philofopher is feeding on oil and roots. When we fee by example how few are the neceffaries of life, we learn what madness there is in fo much fuperfluity. JOHNSON.

The word like in this place does not exprefs refemblance, but quality. Apemantus does not mean to fay that the glory of this

We make ourselves fools, to difport ourselves;
And spend our flatteries, to drink those men,
Upon whofe age we void it up again,

With poisonous spite', and envy. Who lives, that's

not

Depraved, or depraves? who dies, that bears

Not one fpurn to their graves of their friends' gift?* 1 fhould fear, those, that dance before me now, Would one day stamp upon me: It has been done; Men fhut their doors against a setting fun.

The Lords rife from table, with much adoring of TIMON; and, to show their loves, each fingles out an Amazon, and all dance, men with women, a lofty ftrain or two to the hautboys, and ceafe.

TIM. You have done our pleasures much grace, fair ladies, 4

Set a fair fashion on our entertainment,
Which was not half so beautiful and kind;
You have added worth unto't, and lively luftre,
And entertain'd me with mine own device;
I am to thank you for it.

6

life was like madness, but it was juft as much madness in the eye of reafon, as the pomp appeared to be, when compared to the frugal repaft of a philofopher. M. MASON.

3

of their friends' gift?] That is, given them by their friends. JOHNSON.

4

fair ladies, ] I should wish to read, for the fake of —fairest ladies. STEEVENS.

metre

5

lively luftre, For the epithet-lively, we are indebted to the fecond folio: it is wanting in the firft. STEEVENS.

6

mine own device; ] The mask appears to have been de figued by Timon to furprize his guefts. JOHNSON