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[Offering him food]

TIMON.

First mend my company: take away thyself.

APEMANTUS.

So I shall mend mine own by th' lack of thine.

TIMON.

'Tis not well mended so; it is but botch'd.

If not, I would it were.

APEMANTUS.

What wouldst thou have to Athens?

TIMON.

Thee thither in a whirlwind. If thou wilt,

Tell them there I have gold; look, so I have.

APEMANTUS.

Here is no use for gold.

TIMON.

The best and truest;

For here it sleeps and does no hired harm.

APEMANTUS.

Where liest a nights, Timon?

TIMON.

Under that's above me.

Where feed'st thou a days, Apemantus?

APEMANTUS.

Where my stomach. finds meat; or rather, where I eat it.

TIMON.

Would poison were obedient, and knew my mind!

APEMANTUS.

Where wouldst thou send it?

TIMON.

To sauce thy dishes.

APEMANTUS.

The middle of humanity thou never knewest, but the

extremity of both ends. When thou wast in thy gilt and thy

perfume, they mock'd thee for too much curiosity; in thy rags

thou know'st none, but art despis'd for the contrary. There's a

medlar for thee; eat it.

TIMON.

On what I hate I feed not.

APEMANTUS.

Dost hate a medlar?

TIMON.

Ay, though it look like thee.

APEMANTUS.

An th' hadst hated medlars sooner, thou shouldst have

loved thyself better now. What man didst thou ever know unthrift

that was beloved after his means?

TIMON.

Who, without those means thou talk'st of, didst thou ever

know belov'd?

APEMANTUS.

Myself.

TIMON.

I understand thee: thou hadst some means to keep a dog.

APEMANTUS.

What things in the world canst thou nearest compare to

thy flatterers?

TIMON.

Women nearest; but men, men are the things themselves.

What

wouldst thou do with the world, Apemantus, if it lay in thy power?

APEMANTUS.

Give it the beasts, to be rid of the men.

TIMON.

Wouldst thou have thyself fall in the confusion of men, and

remain a beast with the beasts?

APEMANTUS.

Ay, Timon.

TIMON.

A beastly ambition, which the gods grant thee t' attain to!

If thou wert the lion, the fox would beguile thee; if thou wert

the lamb, the fox would eat thee; if thou wert the fox, the lion

would suspect thee, when, peradventure, thou wert accus'd by the

ass. If thou wert the ass, thy dulness would torment thee; and

still thou liv'dst but as a breakfast to the wolf. If thou wert

the wolf, thy greediness would afflict thee, and oft thou

shouldst hazard thy life for thy dinner. Wert thou the unicorn,

pride and wrath would confound thee, and make thine own self the

conquest of thy fury. Wert thou bear, thou wouldst be kill'd by

the horse; wert thou a horse, thou wouldst be seiz'd by the

leopard; wert thou a leopard, thou wert german to the lion, and

the spots of thy kindred were jurors on thy life. All thy safety

were remotion, and thy defence absence. What beast couldst thou

be that were not subject to a beast? And what beast art thou

already, that seest not thy loss in transformation!

APEMANTUS.

If thou couldst please me with speaking to me, thou

mightst have hit upon it here. The commonwealth of Athens is

become a forest of beasts.

TIMON.

How has the ass broke the wall, that thou art out of the city?

APEMANTUS.

Yonder comes a poet and a painter. The plague of company

light upon thee! I will fear to catch it, and give way. When

I

know not what else to do, I'll see thee again.

TIMON.

When there is nothing living but thee, thou shalt be

welcome. I had rather be a beggar's dog than Apemantus.

APEMANTUS.

Thou art the cap of all the fools alive.

TIMON.

Would thou wert clean enough to spit upon!

APEMANTUS.

A plague on thee! thou art too bad to curse.

TIMON.

All villains that do stand by thee are pure.

APEMANTUS.

There is no leprosy but what thou speak'st.

TIMON.

If I name thee.

I'll beat thee- but I should infect my hands.

APEMANTUS.

I would my tongue could rot them off!

TIMON.

Away, thou issue of a mangy dog!

Choler does kill me that thou art alive;

I swoon to see thee.

APEMANTUS.

Would thou wouldst burst!