Page 3178 - Shakespeare - Vol. 3

Within this mile break forth a hundred springs;
The oaks bear mast, the briers scarlet hips;
The bounteous housewife nature on each bush [420]
Lays her full mess before you. Want? Why want?

FIRST BANDIT
We cannot live on grass, on berries, water,

As beasts and birds and fishes.

TIMON
Nor on the beasts themselves, the birds and fishes;
You must eat men. Yet thanks I must you con [425]
That you are thieves profess’d, that you work not

In holier shapes; for there is boundless theft
In limited professions. Rascal thieves,
Here’s gold. Go, suck the subtle blood o’th’ grape,
Till the high fever seethe your blood to froth, [430]

And so ’scape hanging. Trust not the physician;
His antidotes are poison, and he slays
Moe than you rob. Take wealth and lives together.
Do villainy, do, since you protest to do ’t,

Like workmen. I’ll example you with thievery: [435]
The sun’s a thief, and with his great attraction
Robs the vast sea; the moon’s an arrant thief,
And her pale fire she snatches from the sun;

The sea’s a thief, whose liquid surge resolves
The moon into salt tears; the earth’s a thief, [440]
That feeds and breeds by a composture stol’n
From gen’ral excrement; each thing’s a thief.

The laws, your curb and whip, in their rough power
Has uncheck’d theft. Love not yourselves; away,
Rob one another. There’s more gold. Cut throats. [445]
All that you meet are thieves. To Athens go;

Break open shops: nothing can you steal
But thieves do lose it. Steal less for this I give you,
And gold confound you howsoe’er! Amen.
[Withdrawing]