Page 3191 - Shakespeare - Vol. 3

SECOND SENATOR

And shakes his threat’ning sword
Against the walls of Athens.

FIRST SENATOR
Therefore Timon − [165]

TIMON
Well, sir, I will; therefore, I will, sir, thus:

If Alcibiades kill my countrymen,
Let Alcibiades know this of Timon,
That Timon cares not. But if he sack fair Athens,
And take our goodly aged men by th’ beards, [170]
Giving our holy virgins to the stain

Of contumelious, beastly, mad-brain’d war,
Then let him know (and tell him Timon speaks it,
In pity of our aged and our youth)

I cannot choose but tell him, that I care not, [175]
And let him take’t at worst − for their knives care not
While you have throatas to answer. For myself,
There’s not a whittle in th’ unruly camp
But I do prize it at my love before

The reverend’st throat in Athens. So I leave you [180]
To the protection of the prosperous gods,
As thieves to keepers.

STEWARD
Stay not; all’s in vain.

TIMON

Why, I was writing of my epitaph;
It will be seen to-morrow. My long sickness
Of health and living now begins to mend, [185]
And nothing brings me all things. Go, live still;
Be Alcibiades your plague, you his,

And last so long enough.

FIRST SENATOR