The Life of Timon of Athens: Act 2, Scene 2 Translation

A side-by-side translation of Act 2, Scene 2 of The Life of Timon of Athens from the original Shakespeare into modern English.

Original Text	Translated Text
Source: Folger Shakespeare Library
Enter Steward Flavius, with many bills in his hand. FLAVIUS No care, no stop, so senseless of expense That he will neither know how to maintain it Nor cease his flow of riot. Takes no account How things go from him nor resumes no care Of what is to continue. Never mind 5 Was to be so unwise to be so kind. What shall be done? He will not hear till feel. I must be round with him, now he comes from hunting. Fie, fie, fie, fie! 10 Enter Caphis, and the Men of Isidore and Varro. CAPHIS Good even, Varro. What, you come for money? VARRO’S MAN Is ’t not your business too? CAPHIS It is. And yours too, Isidore? ISIDORE’S MAN It is so. CAPHIS Would we were all discharged! 15 VARRO’S MAN I fear it. CAPHIS Here comes the lord. Enter Timon, and his train, with Alcibiades. TIMON So soon as dinner’s done we’ll forth again, My Alcibiades. (To Caphis.) With me? What is your will? 20 CAPHIS, offering Timon a paper My lord, here is a note of certain dues. TIMON Dues? Whence are you? CAPHIS Of Athens here, my lord. TIMON Go to my steward. CAPHIS Please it your Lordship, he hath put me off 25 To the succession of new days this month. My master is awaked by great occasion To call upon his own and humbly prays you That with your other noble parts you’ll suit In giving him his right. 30 TIMON Mine honest friend, I prithee but repair to me next morning. CAPHIS Nay, good my lord— TIMON Contain thyself, good friend. VARRO’S MAN, offering a paper One Varro’s servant, 35 my good lord— ISIDORE’S MAN, offering a paper From Isidore. He humbly prays your speedy payment. CAPHIS If you did know, my lord, my master’s wants— VARRO’S MAN ’Twas due on forfeiture, my lord, six weeks and past. 40 ISIDORE’S MAN Your steward puts me off, my lord, and I Am sent expressly to your Lordship. TIMON Give me breath.— I do beseech you, good my lords, keep on. I’ll wait upon you instantly. 45 Alcibiades and Timon’s train exit. To Flavius. Come hither. Pray you, How goes the world that I am thus encountered With clamorous demands of debt, broken bonds, And the detention of long-since-due debts Against my honor? 50 FLAVIUS, to the creditors’ Men Please you, gentlemen, The time is unagreeable to this business. Your importunacy cease till after dinner, That I may make his Lordship understand Wherefore you are not paid. 55 TIMON Do so, my friends.— See them well entertained. FLAVIUS Pray, draw near. Timon and Flavius exit.	When Caphis shows up at Timon's house, he's not the only one ready to cash in. Isidore's and Varro's servants have also come to get Timon to pay his bills. Flavius is worried out of his mind. He knows his master doesn't have the dough to pay these men, but he doesn't want to embarrass him in front of everyone. He and Timon exit to have a little chat.
Enter Apemantus and Fool. CAPHIS Stay, stay, here comes the Fool with Apemantus. Let’s ha’ some sport with ’em. 60 VARRO’S MAN Hang him! He’ll abuse us. ISIDORE’S MAN A plague upon him, dog! VARRO’S MAN How dost, Fool? APEMANTUS Dost dialogue with thy shadow? VARRO’S MAN I speak not to thee. 65 APEMANTUS No, ’tis to thyself. (To the Fool.) Come away. ISIDORE’S MAN, to Varro’s Man There’s the fool hangs on your back already. APEMANTUS No, thou stand’st single; thou ’rt not on 70 him yet. CAPHIS, to Isidore’s Man Where’s the fool now? APEMANTUS He last asked the question. Poor rogues and usurers’ men, bawds between gold and want. ALL THE MEN What are we, Apemantus? 75 APEMANTUS Asses. ALL THE MEN Why? APEMANTUS That you ask me what you are, and do not know yourselves.—Speak to ’em, Fool. FOOL How do you, gentlemen? 80 ALL THE MEN Gramercies, good Fool. How does your mistress? FOOL She’s e’en setting on water to scald such chickens as you are. Would we could see you at Corinth! APEMANTUS Good. Gramercy. 85 Enter Page. FOOL Look you, here comes my master’s page. PAGE, to Fool Why, how now, captain? What do you in this wise company?—How dost thou, Apemantus? APEMANTUS Would I had a rod in my mouth that I might answer thee profitably. 90 PAGE Prithee, Apemantus, read me the superscription of these letters. I know not which is which. He shows some papers. APEMANTUS Canst not read? PAGE No. APEMANTUS There will little learning die, then, that 95 day thou art hanged. This is to Lord Timon, this to Alcibiades. Go. Thou wast born a bastard, and thou ’lt die a bawd. PAGE Thou wast whelped a dog, and thou shalt famish a dog’s death. Answer not. I am gone. 100 He exits. APEMANTUS E’en so thou outrunn’st grace.—Fool, I will go with you to Lord Timon’s. FOOL Will you leave me there? APEMANTUS If Timon stay at home.—You three serve three usurers? 105 ALL THE MEN Ay. Would they served us! APEMANTUS So would I—as good a trick as ever hangman served thief. FOOL Are you three usurers’ men? ALL THE MEN Ay, fool. 110 FOOL I think no usurer but has a fool to his servant. My mistress is one, and I am her Fool. When men come to borrow of your masters, they approach sadly and go away merry, but they enter my master’s house merrily and go away sadly. The reason 115 of this? VARRO’S MAN I could render one. APEMANTUS Do it then, that we may account thee a whoremaster and a knave, which notwithstanding, thou shalt be no less esteemed. 120 VARRO’S MAN What is a whoremaster, fool? FOOL A fool in good clothes, and something like thee. ’Tis a spirit; sometime ’t appears like a lord, sometime like a lawyer, sometime like a philosopher, with two stones more than ’s artificial one. He is 125 very often like a knight, and generally in all shapes that man goes up and down in from fourscore to thirteen, this spirit walks in. VARRO’S MAN Thou art not altogether a Fool. FOOL Nor thou altogether a wise man. As much foolery 130 as I have, so much wit thou lack’st. APEMANTUS That answer might have become Apemantus. ALL THE MEN Aside, aside! Here comes Lord Timon. Enter Timon and Steward Flavius. APEMANTUS Come with me, fool, come. FOOLI do not always follow lover, elder brother, and 135 woman; sometime the philosopher. Apemantus and the Fool exit. FLAVIUS, to the creditors’ Men Pray you, walk near. I’ll speak with you anon. The Men exit.	Together, Apemantus and the Fool enter and discuss what's going down. We interrupt this programming for a history snack: a fool is a guy who literally has a license to say whatever he wants without getting into trouble (like Feste in Twelfth Night and the Fool in King Lear). Paid fools were pretty common in noble households in Shakespeare's day. The Fool is only at Timon's briefly, but he stays long enough to make some comparisons between creditors waiting for money and men waiting for prostitutes. He points out that these men might go away happy, and the men dealing with the "whoremaster" might go away sad, but both are doing the exact same thing: they're taking from people. Timon and Flavius come back on stage and shoo everyone else off so they can be alone.
TIMON You make me marvel wherefore ere this time Had you not fully laid my state before me, That I might so have rated my expense 140 As I had leave of means. FLAVIUS You would not hear me. At many leisures I proposed— TIMON Go to. Perchance some single vantages you took 145 When my indisposition put you back, And that unaptness made your minister Thus to excuse yourself. FLAVIUS O, my good lord, At many times I brought in my accounts, 150 Laid them before you. You would throw them off And say you found them in mine honesty. When for some trifling present you have bid me Return so much, I have shook my head and wept— Yea, ’gainst th’ authority of manners prayed you 155 To hold your hand more close. I did endure Not seldom nor no slight checks when I have Prompted you in the ebb of your estate And your great flow of debts. My lovèd lord, Though you hear now too late, yet now’s a time. 160 The greatest of your having lacks a half To pay your present debts. TIMON Let all my land be sold. FLAVIUS ’Tis all engaged, some forfeited and gone, And what remains will hardly stop the mouth 165 Of present dues. The future comes apace. What shall defend the interim? And at length How goes our reck’ning? TIMON To Lacedaemon did my land extend. FLAVIUS O my good lord, the world is but a word. 170 Were it all yours to give it in a breath, How quickly were it gone! TIMON You tell me true. FLAVIUS If you suspect my husbandry of falsehood, Call me before th’ exactest auditors, 175 And set me on the proof. So the gods bless me, When all our offices have been oppressed With riotous feeders, when our vaults have wept With drunken spilth of wine, when every room Hath blazed with lights and brayed with minstrelsy, 180 I have retired me to a wasteful cock And set mine eyes at flow. TIMON Prithee, no more. FLAVIUS Heavens, have I said, the bounty of this lord! How many prodigal bits have slaves and peasants 185 This night englutted. Who is not Timon’s? What heart, head, sword, force, means, but is Lord Timon’s? Great Timon, noble, worthy, royal Timon! Ah, when the means are gone that buy this praise, 190 The breath is gone whereof this praise is made. Feast-won, fast-lost. One cloud of winter showers, These flies are couched. TIMON Come, sermon me no further. No villainous bounty yet hath passed my heart; 195 Unwisely, not ignobly, have I given. Why dost thou weep? Canst thou the conscience lack To think I shall lack friends? Secure thy heart. If I would broach the vessels of my love And try the argument of hearts by borrowing, 200 Men and men’s fortunes could I frankly use As I can bid thee speak. FLAVIUS Assurance bless your thoughts!	Timon and Flavius talk about what to do. Timon is ticked that Flavius didn't let him in on the situation sooner. Flavius says that's not fair because he really tried; Timon just wouldn't listen. So Timon is left with no option but to sell his lands and give away all his money. But Flavius has even more bad news: all of Timon's stuff is gone, because he's already given it all away to people. Yep, even his house and land has been promised away. Then Timon has a brilliant idea. He'll ask all of his friends to pitch in. After all, he's covered them loads of times. They'll step up for him this time, right?
TIMON And in some sort these wants of mine are crowned, That I account them blessings. For by these 205 Shall I try friends. You shall perceive how you Mistake my fortunes. I am wealthy in my friends.— Within there! Flaminius!—Servilius! Enter three Servants, Flaminius, Servilius, and another. SERVANTS My lord, my lord. TIMON I will dispatch you severally. (To Servilius) 210 You to Lord Lucius, (to Flaminius) to Lord Lucullus you—I hunted with his Honor today; (to the third Servant) you to Sempronius. Commend me to their loves, and I am proud, say, that my occasions have found time to use ’em toward a 215 supply of money. Let the request be fifty talents. FLAMINIUS As you have said, my lord. Servants exit. FLAVIUS, aside Lord Lucius and Lucullus? Humh! TIMON Go you, sir, to the Senators, Of whom, even to the state’s best health, I have 220 Deserved this hearing. Bid ’em send o’ th’ instant A thousand talents to me. FLAVIUS I have been bold— For that I knew it the most general way— To them to use your signet and your name, 225 But they do shake their heads, and I am here No richer in return. TIMON Is ’t true? Can ’t be? FLAVIUS They answer in a joint and corporate voice That now they are at fall, want treasure, cannot 230 Do what they would, are sorry. You are honorable, But yet they could have wished—they know not— Something hath been amiss—a noble nature May catch a wrench—would all were well—’tis pity. And so, intending other serious matters, 235 After distasteful looks and these hard fractions, With certain half-caps and cold-moving nods They froze me into silence. TIMON You gods, reward them! Prithee, man, look cheerly. These old fellows 240 Have their ingratitude in them hereditary. Their blood is caked, ’tis cold, it seldom flows; ’Tis lack of kindly warmth they are not kind; And nature, as it grows again toward earth, Is fashioned for the journey, dull and heavy. 245 Go to Ventidius. Prithee, be not sad. Thou art true and honest—ingeniously I speak— No blame belongs to thee. Ventidius lately Buried his father, by whose death he’s stepped Into a great estate. When he was poor, 250 Imprisoned, and in scarcity of friends, I cleared him with five talents. Greet him from me. Bid him suppose some good necessity Touches his friend, which craves to be remembered With those five talents. That had, give ’t these fellows 255 To whom ’tis instant due. Ne’er speak or think That Timon’s fortunes ’mong his friends can sink. He exits. FLAVIUSI would I could not think it. That thought is bounty’s foe; Being free itself, it thinks all others so. 260 He exits.	Timon calls in his servants and sends them to ask Lucius, Lucullus, and Sempronius for money. Then he tells Flavius to go to the Senators. That's when Flavius drops the bombshell. He already did. They just shrugged and said, "Too bad, so sad." Timon can't believe it. No, he really can't believe it: he doesn't even think it's possible. Then he remembers that he just recently cleared his friend Ventidius's name of debt. Surely he will come to Timon's rescue, right? Timon delivers a super important message to Flavius. It goes a little something like: "Don't think that just because I seem poor now that I am. It'll all work out." After Timon exits, Flavius says he wishes he could not think that. Unfortunately, it seems pretty likely that Timon's wealth is a thing of the past.

Original Text

Translated Text

Enter Steward Flavius, with many bills in his hand.

FLAVIUS
No care, no stop, so senseless of expense
That he will neither know how to maintain it
Nor cease his flow of riot. Takes no account
How things go from him nor resumes no care
Of what is to continue. Never mind 5
Was to be so unwise to be so kind.
What shall be done? He will not hear till feel.
I must be round with him, now he comes from
hunting.
Fie, fie, fie, fie! 10

Enter Caphis, and the Men of Isidore and Varro.

CAPHIS
Good even, Varro. What, you come for money?

VARRO’S MAN
Is ’t not your business too?

CAPHIS
It is. And yours too, Isidore?

ISIDORE’S MAN
It is so.

CAPHIS
Would we were all discharged! 15

VARRO’S MAN
I fear it.

CAPHIS
Here comes the lord.

Enter Timon, and his train, with Alcibiades.

TIMON
So soon as dinner’s done we’ll forth again,
My Alcibiades. (To Caphis.) With me? What is your
will? 20

CAPHIS, offering Timon a paper
My lord, here is a note of certain dues.

TIMON
Dues? Whence are you?

CAPHIS
Of Athens here, my lord.

TIMON
Go to my steward.

CAPHIS
Please it your Lordship, he hath put me off 25
To the succession of new days this month.
My master is awaked by great occasion
To call upon his own and humbly prays you
That with your other noble parts you’ll suit
In giving him his right. 30

TIMON
Mine honest friend,
I prithee but repair to me next morning.

CAPHIS
Nay, good my lord—

TIMON
Contain thyself, good friend.

VARRO’S MAN, offering a paper
One Varro’s servant, 35
my good lord—

ISIDORE’S MAN, offering a paper
From Isidore. He humbly prays your speedy
payment.

CAPHIS
If you did know, my lord, my master’s wants—

VARRO’S MAN
’Twas due on forfeiture, my lord, six weeks and past. 40

ISIDORE’S MAN
Your steward puts me off, my lord, and I
Am sent expressly to your Lordship.

TIMON Give me breath.—
I do beseech you, good my lords, keep on.
I’ll wait upon you instantly. 45

Alcibiades and Timon’s train exit.

To Flavius. Come hither. Pray you,
How goes the world that I am thus encountered
With clamorous demands of debt, broken bonds,
And the detention of long-since-due debts
Against my honor? 50

FLAVIUS, to the creditors’ Men Please you, gentlemen,
The time is unagreeable to this business.
Your importunacy cease till after dinner,
That I may make his Lordship understand
Wherefore you are not paid. 55

TIMON
Do so, my friends.—
See them well entertained.

FLAVIUS
Pray, draw near.

Timon and Flavius exit.

When Caphis shows up at Timon's house, he's not the only one ready to cash in. Isidore's and Varro's servants have also come to get Timon to pay his bills.

Flavius is worried out of his mind. He knows his master doesn't have the dough to pay these men, but he doesn't want to embarrass him in front of everyone.

He and Timon exit to have a little chat.

Enter Apemantus and Fool.

CAPHIS
Stay, stay, here comes the Fool with Apemantus.
Let’s ha’ some sport with ’em. 60

VARRO’S MAN
Hang him! He’ll abuse us.

ISIDORE’S MAN
A plague upon him, dog!

VARRO’S MAN
How dost, Fool?

APEMANTUS
Dost dialogue with thy shadow?

VARRO’S MAN
I speak not to thee. 65

APEMANTUS
No, ’tis to thyself. (To the Fool.) Come
away.

ISIDORE’S MAN, to Varro’s Man There’s the fool hangs
on your back already.

APEMANTUS
No, thou stand’st single; thou ’rt not on 70
him yet.

CAPHIS, to Isidore’s Man
Where’s the fool now?

APEMANTUS
He last asked the question. Poor rogues
and usurers’ men, bawds between gold and want.

ALL THE MEN
What are we, Apemantus? 75

APEMANTUS
Asses.

ALL THE MEN
Why?

APEMANTUS
That you ask me what you are, and do not
know yourselves.—Speak to ’em, Fool.

FOOL
How do you, gentlemen? 80

ALL THE MEN Gramercies, good Fool. How does your
mistress?

FOOL
She’s e’en setting on water to scald such chickens
as you are. Would we could see you at Corinth!

APEMANTUS
Good. Gramercy. 85

Enter Page.

FOOL
Look you, here comes my master’s page.

PAGE, to Fool
Why, how now, captain? What do you in
this wise company?—How dost thou, Apemantus?

APEMANTUS
Would I had a rod in my mouth that I
might answer thee profitably. 90

PAGE
Prithee, Apemantus, read me the superscription
of these letters. I know not which is which.

He shows some papers.

APEMANTUS
Canst not read?

PAGE
No.

APEMANTUS
There will little learning die, then, that 95
day thou art hanged. This is to Lord Timon, this to
Alcibiades. Go. Thou wast born a bastard, and
thou ’lt die a bawd.

PAGE
Thou wast whelped a dog, and thou shalt famish
a dog’s death. Answer not. I am gone. 100

He exits.

APEMANTUS E’en so thou outrunn’st grace.—Fool, I
will go with you to Lord Timon’s.

FOOL
Will you leave me there?

APEMANTUS
If Timon stay at home.—You three serve
three usurers? 105

ALL THE MEN
Ay. Would they served us!

APEMANTUS
So would I—as good a trick as ever hangman
served thief.

FOOL
Are you three usurers’ men?

ALL THE MEN Ay, fool. 110

FOOL
I think no usurer but has a fool to his servant.
My mistress is one, and I am her Fool. When men
come to borrow of your masters, they approach
sadly and go away merry, but they enter my master’s
house merrily and go away sadly. The reason 115
of this?

VARRO’S MAN I could render one.

APEMANTUS Do it then, that we may account thee a
whoremaster and a knave, which notwithstanding,
thou shalt be no less esteemed. 120

VARRO’S MAN What is a whoremaster, fool?

FOOL A fool in good clothes, and something like thee.
’Tis a spirit; sometime ’t appears like a lord, sometime
like a lawyer, sometime like a philosopher,
with two stones more than ’s artificial one. He is 125
very often like a knight, and generally in all shapes
that man goes up and down in from fourscore to
thirteen, this spirit walks in.

VARRO’S MAN
Thou art not altogether a Fool.

FOOL
Nor thou altogether a wise man. As much foolery 130
as I have, so much wit thou lack’st.

APEMANTUS That answer might have become Apemantus.

ALL THE MEN
Aside, aside! Here comes Lord Timon.

Enter Timon and Steward Flavius.

APEMANTUS
Come with me, fool, come.

FOOLI do not always follow lover, elder brother, and 135
woman; sometime the philosopher.

Apemantus and the Fool exit.

FLAVIUS, to the creditors’ Men
Pray you, walk near. I’ll speak with you anon.

The Men exit.

Together, Apemantus and the Fool enter and discuss what's going down.

We interrupt this programming for a history snack: a fool is a guy who literally has a license to say whatever he wants without getting into trouble (like Feste in Twelfth Night and the Fool in King Lear). Paid fools were pretty common in noble households in Shakespeare's day.

The Fool is only at Timon's briefly, but he stays long enough to make some comparisons between creditors waiting for money and men waiting for prostitutes. He points out that these men might go away happy, and the men dealing with the "whoremaster" might go away sad, but both are doing the exact same thing: they're taking from people.

Timon and Flavius come back on stage and shoo everyone else off so they can be alone.

TIMON
You make me marvel wherefore ere this time
Had you not fully laid my state before me,
That I might so have rated my expense 140
As I had leave of means.

FLAVIUS
You would not hear me.
At many leisures I proposed—

TIMON
Go to.
Perchance some single vantages you took 145
When my indisposition put you back,
And that unaptness made your minister
Thus to excuse yourself.

FLAVIUS
O, my good lord,
At many times I brought in my accounts, 150
Laid them before you. You would throw them off
And say you found them in mine honesty.
When for some trifling present you have bid me
Return so much, I have shook my head and wept—
Yea, ’gainst th’ authority of manners prayed you 155
To hold your hand more close. I did endure
Not seldom nor no slight checks when I have
Prompted you in the ebb of your estate
And your great flow of debts. My lovèd lord,
Though you hear now too late, yet now’s a time. 160
The greatest of your having lacks a half
To pay your present debts.

TIMON
Let all my land be sold.

FLAVIUS
’Tis all engaged, some forfeited and gone,
And what remains will hardly stop the mouth 165
Of present dues. The future comes apace.
What shall defend the interim? And at length
How goes our reck’ning?

TIMON
To Lacedaemon did my land extend.

FLAVIUS
O my good lord, the world is but a word. 170
Were it all yours to give it in a breath,
How quickly were it gone!

TIMON You tell me true.

FLAVIUS
If you suspect my husbandry of falsehood,
Call me before th’ exactest auditors, 175
And set me on the proof. So the gods bless me,
When all our offices have been oppressed
With riotous feeders, when our vaults have wept
With drunken spilth of wine, when every room
Hath blazed with lights and brayed with minstrelsy, 180
I have retired me to a wasteful cock
And set mine eyes at flow.

TIMON
Prithee, no more.

FLAVIUS
Heavens, have I said, the bounty of this lord!
How many prodigal bits have slaves and peasants 185
This night englutted. Who is not Timon’s?
What heart, head, sword, force, means, but is Lord
Timon’s?
Great Timon, noble, worthy, royal Timon!
Ah, when the means are gone that buy this praise, 190
The breath is gone whereof this praise is made.
Feast-won, fast-lost. One cloud of winter showers,
These flies are couched.

TIMON
Come, sermon me no further.
No villainous bounty yet hath passed my heart; 195
Unwisely, not ignobly, have I given.
Why dost thou weep? Canst thou the conscience lack
To think I shall lack friends? Secure thy heart.
If I would broach the vessels of my love
And try the argument of hearts by borrowing, 200
Men and men’s fortunes could I frankly use
As I can bid thee speak.

FLAVIUS
Assurance bless your thoughts!

Timon and Flavius talk about what to do. Timon is ticked that Flavius didn't let him in on the situation sooner. Flavius says that's not fair because he really tried; Timon just wouldn't listen.

So Timon is left with no option but to sell his lands and give away all his money.

But Flavius has even more bad news: all of Timon's stuff is gone, because he's already given it all away to people. Yep, even his house and land has been promised away.

Then Timon has a brilliant idea. He'll ask all of his friends to pitch in. After all, he's covered them loads of times. They'll step up for him this time, right?

TIMON
And in some sort these wants of mine are crowned,
That I account them blessings. For by these 205
Shall I try friends. You shall perceive how you
Mistake my fortunes. I am wealthy in my friends.—
Within there! Flaminius!—Servilius!

Enter three Servants, Flaminius, Servilius, and another.

SERVANTS
My lord, my lord.

TIMON
I will dispatch you severally. (To Servilius) 210
You to Lord Lucius, (to Flaminius) to Lord
Lucullus you—I hunted with his Honor today; (to
the third Servant) you to Sempronius. Commend
me to their loves, and I am proud, say, that my
occasions have found time to use ’em toward a 215
supply of money. Let the request be fifty talents.

FLAMINIUS
As you have said, my lord.

Servants exit.

FLAVIUS, aside
Lord Lucius and Lucullus? Humh!

TIMON
Go you, sir, to the Senators,
Of whom, even to the state’s best health, I have 220
Deserved this hearing. Bid ’em send o’ th’ instant
A thousand talents to me.

FLAVIUS
I have been bold—
For that I knew it the most general way—
To them to use your signet and your name, 225
But they do shake their heads, and I am here
No richer in return.

TIMON
Is ’t true? Can ’t be?

FLAVIUS
They answer in a joint and corporate voice
That now they are at fall, want treasure, cannot 230
Do what they would, are sorry. You are honorable,
But yet they could have wished—they know not—
Something hath been amiss—a noble nature
May catch a wrench—would all were well—’tis pity.
And so, intending other serious matters, 235
After distasteful looks and these hard fractions,
With certain half-caps and cold-moving nods
They froze me into silence.

TIMON
You gods, reward them!
Prithee, man, look cheerly. These old fellows 240
Have their ingratitude in them hereditary.
Their blood is caked, ’tis cold, it seldom flows;
’Tis lack of kindly warmth they are not kind;
And nature, as it grows again toward earth,
Is fashioned for the journey, dull and heavy. 245
Go to Ventidius. Prithee, be not sad.
Thou art true and honest—ingeniously I speak—
No blame belongs to thee. Ventidius lately
Buried his father, by whose death he’s stepped
Into a great estate. When he was poor, 250
Imprisoned, and in scarcity of friends,
I cleared him with five talents. Greet him from me.
Bid him suppose some good necessity
Touches his friend, which craves to be remembered
With those five talents. That had, give ’t these fellows 255
To whom ’tis instant due. Ne’er speak or think
That Timon’s fortunes ’mong his friends can sink.

He exits.

FLAVIUSI would I could not think it.
That thought is bounty’s foe;
Being free itself, it thinks all others so. 260

He exits.

Timon calls in his servants and sends them to ask Lucius, Lucullus, and Sempronius for money. Then he tells Flavius to go to the Senators.

That's when Flavius drops the bombshell. He already did. They just shrugged and said, "Too bad, so sad."

Timon can't believe it. No, he really can't believe it: he doesn't even think it's possible.

Then he remembers that he just recently cleared his friend Ventidius's name of debt. Surely he will come to Timon's rescue, right?

Timon delivers a super important message to Flavius. It goes a little something like: "Don't think that just because I seem poor now that I am. It'll all work out."

After Timon exits, Flavius says he wishes he could not think that. Unfortunately, it seems pretty likely that Timon's wealth is a thing of the past.

The Life of Timon of Athens: Act 2, Scene 2 Translation

A side-by-side translation of Act 2, Scene 2 of The Life of Timon of Athens from the original Shakespeare into modern English.

Original Text

Translated Text

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