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your back already.

APEMANTUS.

No, thou stand'st single; th'art not on him yet.

CAPHIS.

Where's the fool now?

APEMANTUS.

He last ask'd the question. Poor rogues and usurers'

men! Bawds between gold and want!

ALL SERVANTS.

What are we, Apemantus?

APEMANTUS.

Asses.

ALL SERVANTS.

Why?

APEMANTUS.

That you ask me what you are, and do not know

yourselves. Speak to 'em, fool.

FOOL.

How do you, gentlemen?

ALL SERVANTS.

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.

Enter PAGE

FOOL.

Look you, here comes my mistress' page.

PAGE.

[To the 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!

PAGE.

Prithee, Apemantus, read me the superscription of these

letters; I know not which is which.

APEMANTUS.

Canst not read?

PAGE.

No.

APEMANTUS.

There will little learning die, then, that day thou art

hang'd. This is to Lord Timon; this to Alcibiades. Go; thou wast

born a bastard, and thou't die a bawd.

PAGE.

Thou wast whelp'd a dog, and thou shalt famish dog's death.

Answer not: I am gone. Exit PAGE

APEMANTUS.

E'en so thou outrun'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?

ALL SERVANTS.

Ay; would they serv'd us!

APEMANTUS.

So would I- as good a trick as ever hangman serv'd thief.

FOOL.

Are you three usurers' men?

ALL SERVANTS.

Ay, fool.

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

mistress' house merrily and go away sadly. The reason of this?

VARRO'S SERVANT. 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.

VARRO'S SERVANT. 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 moe than's

artificial one. He is 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 SERVANT. Thou art not altogether a fool.

FOOL.

Nor thou altogether a wise man.

As much foolery as I have, so much wit thou lack'st.

APEMANTUS.

That answer might have become Apemantus.

VARRO'S SERVANT. Aside, aside; here comes Lord Timon.

Re-enter TIMON and FLAVIUS

APEMANTUS.

Come with me, fool, come.

FOOL.

I do not always follow lover, elder brother, and woman;

sometime the philosopher.

Exeunt APEMANTUS and FOOL

FLAVIUS.

Pray you walk near; I'll speak with you anon.

Exeunt SERVANTS

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

As I had leave of means.

FLAVIUS.

You would not hear me

At many leisures I propos'd.

TIMON.

Go to;

Perchance some single vantages you took

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,

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, pray'd you

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 lov'd lord,

Though you hear now- too late!- yet now's a time:

The greatest of your having lacks a half

To pay your present debts.

TIMON.

Let all my land be sold.