THE LIFE OF TIMON OF ATHENS
Page: 19

Shall I try friends. You shall perceive how you
Mistake my fortunes; I am wealthy in my friends.
Within there! Flaminius! Servilius!

[Enter FLAMINIUS, SERVILIUS, and other Servants.]

SERVANTS.
My lord! my lord!

TIMON.
I will dispatch you severally: you to Lord Lucius; to Lord
Lucullus you: I hunted with his honour to-day; you, to
Sempronius. Commend me to their loves; and I am proud, say, that
my occasions have found time to use them toward a supply of
money: let the request be fifty talents.

FLAMINIUS.
As you have said, my lord.

FLAVIUS.
[Aside.] Lord Lucius and Lucullus? hum!

TIMON. [To another Servant.]
Go you, sir, to the senators,--
Of whom, even to the state's best health, I have
Deserv'd this hearing,--Bid 'em send o' the 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;
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
Do what they would; are sorry; you are honourable;
But yet they could have wish'd; 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,
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
Have their ingratitude in them hereditary;
Their blood is cak'd, 'tis cold, it seldom flows;
'Tis lack of kindly warmth they are not kind;
And nature, as it grows again toward earth,
Is fashion'd for the journey, dull and heavy.
[To a Servant.] Go to Ventidius.--[To Flavius.]
Prithee, be not sad,
Thou art true and honest; ingenuously I speak,
No blame belongs to thee.--[To Servant.] Ventidius lately
Buried his father; by whose death he's stepp'd
Into a great estate. When he was poor,
Imprison'd and in scarcity of friends,
I clear'd him with five talents; greet him from me,