The Life of Timon of Athens: ACT IV
Introduction ACT I ACT II ACT III ACT IV SCENE I. Without the walls of Athens. SCENE II. Athens. A room in Timon's house. SCENE III. Woods and cave, near the seashore. ACT V About the Play Feedback			Search: All the plays Hamlet Coriolanus Julius Caesar King Lear Macbeth Othello Romeo and Juliet Richard II Richard III Titus Andronicus Antony and Cleopatra Timon of Athens Henry IV Part 1 Henry IV Part 2 Henry the Fifth Henry VI Part 1 Henry VI Part 2 Henry VI Part 3 Henry VIII King John Pericles Troilus and Cressida All's Well... As You Like It The Comedy of Errors Cymbeline A Midsummer... Love's Labour's Lost Measure for Measure The Merry Wives... Much Ado about Nothing The Merchant of Venice Twelfth Night The Taming of... The Tempest The Two Gentlemen... The Winter's Tale    for: SCENE I. Without the walls of Athens. Enter TIMON TIMON       Let me look back upon thee. O thou wall,       That girdlest in those wolves, dive in the earth,       And fence not Athens! Matrons, turn incontinent!       Obedience fail in children! slaves and fools, 5     Pluck the grave wrinkled senate from the bench,       And minister in their steads! to general filths       Convert o' the instant, green virginity,       Do 't in your parents' eyes! bankrupts, hold fast;       Rather than render back, out with your knives, 10    And cut your trusters' throats! bound servants, steal!       Large-handed robbers your grave masters are,       And pill by law. Maid, to thy master's bed;       Thy mistress is o' the brothel! Son of sixteen,       pluck the lined crutch from thy old limping sire, 15    With it beat out his brains! Piety, and fear,       Religion to the gods, peace, justice, truth,       Domestic awe, night-rest, and neighbourhood,       Instruction, manners, mysteries, and trades,       Degrees, observances, customs, and laws, 20    Decline to your confounding contraries,       And let confusion live! Plagues, incident to men,       Your potent and infectious fevers heap       On Athens, ripe for stroke! Thou cold sciatica,       Cripple our senators, that their limbs may halt 25    As lamely as their manners. Lust and liberty       Creep in the minds and marrows of our youth,       That 'gainst the stream of virtue they may strive,       And drown themselves in riot! Itches, blains,       Sow all the Athenian bosoms; and their crop 30    Be general leprosy! Breath infect breath,       at their society, as their friendship, may       merely poison! Nothing I'll bear from thee,       But nakedness, thou detestable town!       Take thou that too, with multiplying bans! 35    Timon will to the woods; where he shall find       The unkindest beast more kinder than mankind.       The gods confound--hear me, you good gods all--       The Athenians both within and out that wall!       And grant, as Timon grows, his hate may grow 40    To the whole race of mankind, high and low! Amen. Exit Return to top of page ... or ... Go to next scene