Chapter CXLIV: Act I

SC. 1. "My free drift
Halts not particularly, but moves along
In a wide sea of wax. No levell'd malice
Infects one comma in the course I hold,
But flies an eagle's flight, bold and forth on,
Leaving no tract behind."

There is much here that seems dubious. _Holds_ might seem preferable to 'Halts'; yet I would make no change; for 'Halts not particularly,' I think, may mean stops at, dwells on, no individual. For 'wax' we might read, as has been proposed, _verse_; but the allusion may be to the waxed tables on which the ancients wrote. We might also read _Which_ for 'But,' yet it is more probable that a line is lost before it.

* * * * *

"To those have shut him up; which failing _him_."

So Capell also; 2nd folio to _him_.

* * * * *

"My friend when he must need me."

Better, perhaps, with 3rd folio, _most needs_.

* * * * *

"Therefore he will be, Timon."

Something is lost after 'be,' and Timon is never addressed during his prosperity by any one but Apemantus without Lord or some other title of honour. I therefore read 'he will be _blest_, _Lord_ Timon.' In ii. 2, we have an omission of 'Lord' by the printer. Singer proposed _rewarded_ after 'be.' Possibly 'Timon' was a mere addition of the printer's.

* * * * *

"That I had no angry wit to be a lord."

I cannot find a meaning in this. Perhaps 'no' should be _so_, and 'angry' _little_, _mean_, _poor_, or something of the kind. Warburton read _hungry_. Singer's folio _an empty_.

* * * * *

"Traffic's thy god, and _may_ thy god confound thee!"

* * * * *

SC. 2. "Than my fortunes _are_ to me."

* * * * *

"But yond_er_ man is ever angery."

* * * * *

"Let me stay _here_ at thine apperil, Timon."

Timon had assigned him 'a table by himself.'

* * * * *

"Here's that which is too weak to be a sinner."

We should, of course, read _liar_ to rime with _mire_.

* * * * *

"Amen, _amen_. So fall to't."

* * * * *

"Much good dich thy good heart, Apemantus!"

This might seem to be a mere misprint of _do it_; but it is in reality a mere corruption of it.

* * * * *

"Please you, my lord, there are certain ladies _who are_."

* * * * *

"The ear,
Taste, touch, smell, pleased from thy table rise."

The admirable restoration of Warburton. The 4tos and folio had "There, taste, touch, all pleas'd from thy table rise." The two first letters of _smell_ had probably been effaced. See on Ham. iii. 4.

* * * * *

"You have added worth and lustre unto it."

In the originals 'unto't and lustre.' The 2nd folio reads 'and _lively_ lustre.'

* * * * *

"Vouchsafe me a word; it does concern you near.--
Neär? Why, then, another time I'll hear thee.
I pr'ythee let us be provided _now_
To show them entertainment.--I scarce know how."

Metre and rime both seem to require this addition. Perhaps in the two first lines we should read 'near_ly_,' thus making a rime, or omit 'thee.'

* * * * *

"May it please your honour, _the_ lord Lucius."

* * * * *

"Four milk-white horses, trapp'd in silver-_harness_."

"Thy horses shall be trapp'd,
Their harness studded all with gold and pearl."

Tam. of Shrew, Induct. ii.

* * * * *

"And now I remember _me_, my lord, you gave."

* * * * *

"I doubt _me_ whether their legs be worth the sums."