THE LIFE OF TIMON OF ATHENS
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From whence 'tis nourish'd: the fire i' the flint
Shows not till it be struck; our gentle flame
Provokes itself, and like the current flies
Each bound it chafes. What have you there?

PAINTER.
A picture, sir. When comes your book forth?

POET.
Upon the heels of my presentment, sir.
Let's see your piece.

PAINTER.
'Tis a good piece.

POET.
So 'tis: this comes off well and excellent.

PAINTER.
Indifferent.

POET.
Admirable! How this grace
Speaks his own standing! what a mental power
This eye shoots forth! how big imagination
Moves in this lip! to the dumbness of the gesture
One might interpret.

PAINTER.
It is a pretty mocking of the life.
Here is a touch; is't good?

POET.
I'll say of it,
It tutors nature: artificial strife
Lives in these touches, livelier than life.

[Enter certain SENATORS, who pass over the stage.]

PAINTER.
How this lord is followed!

POET.
The senators of Athens: happy man!

PAINTER.
Look, more!

POET.
You see this confluence, this great flood of visitors.
I have, in this rough work, shap'd out a man
Whom this beneath world doth embrace and hug
With amplest entertainment: my free drift
Halts not particularly, but moves itself
In a wide sea of wax: no levell'd malice
Infects one comma in the course I hold:
But flies an eagle flight, bold and forth on,
Leaving no tract behind.

PAINTER.
How shall I understand you?

POET.
I will unbolt to you.
You see how all conditions, how all minds--
As well of glib and slipp'ry creatures as
Of grave and austere quality--tender down
Their services to Lord Timon: his large fortune,
Upon his good and gracious nature hanging,
Subdues and properties to his love and tendance
All sorts of hearts; yea, from the glass-fac'd flatterer
To Apemantus, that few things loves better
Than to abhor himself: even he drops down
The knee before him, and returns in peace
Most rich in Timon's nod.

PAINTER.
I saw them speak together.

POET.
Sir, I have upon a high and pleasant hill
Feign'd Fortune to be thron'd: the base o' the mount
Is rank'd with all deserts, all kind of natures