Re-enter TIMON and FLAVIUS. Tim. They have e'en put my breath from me, the slaves: Creditors!-devils. Flav. My dear lord, Tim. What if it should be so? Flav. My lord,—— Tim. I'll have it so:-My steward! Flav. Here, my lord. Tim. So fitly? Go, bid all my friends again, Lucius, Lucullus, and Sempronius; all: I'll once more feast the rascals. Flav. Tim. Be't not in thy care; go, 1 charge thee; invite them all: let in the tide [Exeunt. The Senate sitting. Enter ALCIBIADES, attended. 1 Sen. My lord, you have my voice to it; the fault's Bloody; 'tis necessary he should die: Nothing emboldens sin so much as mercy. 2 Sen. Most true; the law shall bruise him. Alcib. Honour, health, and compassion to the senate! 1 Sen. Now, captain? Alcib. I am an humble suitor to your virtues; For pity is the virtue of the law, And none but tyrants use it cruelly. It pleases time, and fortune, to lie heavy Of comely virtues: Nor did he soil the fact with cowardice; (An honour in him, which buys out his fault,) And with such sober and unnoted passion 1 Sen. You undergo too strict a paradox," Striving to make an ugly deed look fair: Your words have took such pains, as if they labour'd The worst that man can breathe; and make his wrongs His outsides; wear them like his raiment, carelessly; 5 — setting his fate aside,] i. e. putting this action of his, which was pre-determined by fate, out of the question. 6 And with such sober and unnoted passion He did behave his anger, ere 'twas spent, &c.] The sense of this passage, (however perversely expressed on account of rhyme,) may be this: " He managed his anger with such sober and unnoted passion [i. e. suffering, forbearance,] before it was spent, [i. e. before that disposition to endure the insult he had received, was exhausted,] that it seemed as if he had been only engaged in supporting an argument he had advanced in conversation. You undergo too strict a paradox,] You undertake a paradox too hard. · that man can breathe,] i. e. can utter. And ne'er prefer his injuries to his heart, If wrongs be evils, and enforce us kill, 1 Sen. You cannot make gross sins look clear; To revenge is no valour, but to bear. Alcib. My lords, then, under favour, pardon me, If I speak like a captain. Why do fond men expose themselves to battle, And th' ass, more captain than the lion; the felon, If wisdom be in suffering. O my lords, As you are great, be pitifully good: Who cannot condemn rashness in cold blood? To kill, I grant, is sin's extremest gust;' But, in defence, by mercy, 'tis most just.2 To be in anger, is impiety; But who is man, that is not angry? 2 Sen. You breathe in vain. In vain his service done At Lacedæmon, and Byzantium, 9 1 1 Sen. What's that? what make we Abroad?] What do we, or what have we to do in the field? sin's extremest gust;] Gust means rashness. The allusion may be to a sudden gust of wind. So we say, it was done in a sudden gust of passion. 2 by mercy, 'tis most just.] i. e. I call mercy herself to witness, that defensive violence is just. JOHNSON. Alcib. Why, I say, my lords, h'as done fair service, And slain in fight many of your enemies: How full of valour did he bear himself In the last conflict, and made plenteous wounds? Drowns him, and takes his valour prisoner: Alcib. Hard fate! he might have died in war. (Though his right arm might purchase his own time, My honour to you, upon his good returns. 1 Sen. We are for law, he dies; urge it no more, On height of our displeasure: Friend, or brother, He forfeits his own blood, that spills another. Alcib. Must it be so? it must not be. My lords, I do beseech you, know me. 2 Sen. How? Alcib. Call me to your remembrances. 3 Sen. What? Alcib. I cannot think, but your age has forgot me; It could not else be, I should prove so base, To sue, and be denied such common grace: I should prove so base,] Base for dishonoured. My wounds ache at you. 1 Sen. Do you dare our anger? 'Tis in few words, but spacious in effect; We banish thee for ever. Alcib. Banish me? Banish your dotage; banish usury, That makes the senate ugly. 1 Sen. If, after two days' shine, Athens contain thee, Attend our weightier judgment. And, not to swell our spirit, He shall be executed presently. [Exeunt Senators. Alcib. Now the gods keep you old enough; that you may live Only in bone, that none may look on you! Rich only in large hurts;-All those, for this? [Exit. ↑ And, not to swell our spirit,] i. e. not to put ourselves into any tumour of rage, take our definitive resolution. |