Page 3190 - Shakespeare - Vol. 3

O forget
What we are sorry for ourselves in thee.
The senators, with one consent of love,
Entreat thee back to Athens, who have thought

On special dignities which vacant lie [140]
For thy best use and wearing.

SECOND SENATOR
They confess
Toward thee forgetfulness too general gross;

Which now the public body, which doth seldom
Play the recanter, feeling in itself
A lack of Timon’s aid, hath sense withal [145]
Of it own fall, restraining aid to Timon,
And send forth us, to make their sorrowed render

Together with a recompense more fruitful
Than their offence can weigh down by the dram −
Ay, even such heaps and sums of love and wealth [150]

As shall to thee blot out what wrongs were theirs,
And write in thee the figures of their love,
Ever to read them thine.

TIMON
You witch me in it;
Surprise me to the very brink of tears.

Lend me a fool’s heart and a woman’s eyes, [155]
And I’ll beweep these comforts, worthy senators.

FIRST SENATOR
Therefore so please thee to return with us,
And of our Athens, thine and ours, to take

The captainship, thou shalt be met with thanks,
Allowed with absolute power, and thy good name [160]
Live with authority. So soon we shall drive back
Of Alcibiades th’approaches wild,
Who like a boar too savage doth root up

His country’s peace.