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    Timon of Athens
    Timon of Athens
    Timon of Athens
    Ebook137 pages1 hour

    Timon of Athens

    By William Shakespeare

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    A wealthy citizen of ancient Greece, Timon delights in entertaining his friends and lavishing them with extravagant gifts. His largesse ultimately exceeds his means, and when creditors begin to press him for repayment, the open-handed host is devastated to discover that the guests — who gladly accepted everything he had — have now turned their backs on him. Profoundly disillusioned, Timon forswears society and retreats to the wilderness, where further discoveries await.
    In this deeply cynical drama, Shakespeare tells a thought-provoking tale of conspicuous consumption, debt, ruin, and misanthropy. Combining elements of tragedy, satire, and farce, Timon of Athens poses ever-relevant questions about the meaning of friendship, generosity, and gratitude.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDover Publications
    Release dateNov 12, 2014
    ISBN9780486800769
    Author

    William Shakespeare

    William Shakespeare is widely regarded as the greatest playwright the world has seen. He produced an astonishing amount of work; 37 plays, 154 sonnets, and 5 poems. He died on 23rd April 1616, aged 52, and was buried in the Holy Trinity Church, Stratford.

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    Reviews for Timon of Athens

    3.5/5

    154 ratings9 reviews

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    • 2/5
      Wow. Okay, that was just awful. Gives Edward III serious competition in the race to the bottom. It's like someone said to Shakespeare, “Bet you can't make a more unlikeable protagonist than Titus Andronicus,” and Shakespeare said, “Oh yeah? Here, hold my ale!”Timon has the good fortune to be born to wealth and position in Athens, and manages to blow through absolutely all of his money by endlessly playing the “Lord Bountiful,” ignoring the protests of his more sensible steward, glorying in the flattery and sycophantic sucking up of toadies. Where he might be sympathetic as an “excessively compassionate” sort if he gave away all his money to people in real need, Timon's generosity seems to be directed mostly at comfortably well-off friends. He hauls out his jewel chest at parties, ostentatiously handing out gems as party favors, and, remembering that a friend admired the horse he was riding recently, announces “'Tis yours, because you lik'd it.” He's maybe a step away from lighting his cigars with $100 bills. Until the funds are all gone. And, shocker, his buddies no longer care about him. Who, in the noble Timon's estimation, is to blame for his downfall? Himself, perhaps, and his own reckless irresponsibility? His friends, who enjoyed his largesse but don't want to help him when he's in trouble? Nope. ALL MANKIND. That's who's to blame. All the women, maidens, toddlers, infants, slaves, old men, etc. of Athens. ”Spare not the babe, whose dimpled smiles from fools exhaust their mercy; think it a bastard, whom the oracle hath doubtfully pronounc'd the throat shall cut, and mince it sans remorse. Swear against objects, put armor on thine ears and on thine eyes, whose proof nor yells of mothers, maids, nor babes, nor sight of priests in holy vestments bleeding, shall pierce a jot.”There are a few amusing exchanges, and Timon's steward is a lovely, devoted fellow who does his level best, but his master is an idiot and a jerk. This is a relatively short play, but it sure felt like it went on forever.
    • 3/5
      Timon is a wealthy man who is happy to help his friends whenever they need him. He loans money without a second thought, helping one man marry the woman he loves and another pay off an outstanding debt. Soon the tables turn on Timon and he finds himself out of funds and in need of help. He soon discovers that fickle friends disappear when the coffers runs dry. He ends up exiled in the woods, disillusioned and angry.As is the case with many of Shakespeare’s lesser known plays, this one shares themes and plot points with some of his more successful work. There are so many similarities with King Lear, the popular character becoming a friendless outcast, betrayal by those who are meant to be his truest supporters. Both plays also have one supporter who remains loyal to the title character: Cordelia (the daughter) in King Lear and Flavius (the steward) in Timon. Lear makes many of the same basic points in a more powerful way. There were also a few spots that reminded me of Coriolanus, including the banished character aiding an enemy force in attacking his former home. Timon of Athens feels a bit disjointed. The first half is cheerful and optimistic, but once he is deserted by his friends and living in the woods it takes on a much darker tone. Scholars have apparently attributed this to a joint authorship. I have no idea if that’s true, but with the flow of the story it certainly makes sense. BOTTOM LINE: Not one of my favorites, but another insight into Shakespeare’s development as a playwright. I love seeing him hone his skills in different works and seeing the many factors that affect whether that play will fail or succeed. I would love to see this one performed live. “The moon's an arrant thief, And her pale fire she snatches from the sun.”“Lips, let sour words go by and language end:What is amiss plague and infection mend!Graves only be men's works and death their gain!Sun, hide thy beams! Timon hath done his reign.” 
    • 3/5
      I could see that I had arrived at the autumn of the Bard's career when I reached his collaborations with hacks.I would like to think that the parts of the play I didn't like were the work of the hack. I assume that he was responsible for the Alcibades scenes reading like some schoolboy was doing an adaptation of Coriolanus as an classroom assignment or the perfunctory setup of Timon's future woes or the dimwitted idea of having the hero die off-stage. By contrast, I credit the Bard with the stinging reproaches ("Uncover, dogs, and lap") and the magnificent rants (and the Bard can rant) and the unmasking of fraud and hypocrisy (take that, poet and painter). A bad play with great moments.P.S. I just realized what it really lacked - no strong women characters!?
    • 3/5
      Stylistically and thematically Timon is like Lear only less so. In the first act Timon generously gives away money to everyone around him, but at the end of the act his steward Flavius lets us know that he’s not as rich as he seems. In the second act his bankruptcy goes public, and people begin to turn down his requests for money. He invites all his “friends” to a banquet of warm water in the third act. He goes into the wilderness, shedding clothes and raging at ingratitude like Lear, and his faithful steward follows, again like Lear. There are static encounters between Timon and various people—Athenian senators, bandits, and so on. Timon and Apemantus the misanthropic philosopher argue over which of them hates the world more and why. After Timon dies, his friend Alcibiades enters Athens (which he’d been besieging since the senators refused to pardon one of his soldiers) as the new leader.
    • 3/5
      I read this because it was heavily referenced in Pale Fire and I see the thematic link there regarding exile - I guess I should re-read Pale Fire again having read it but I never re-read anything. Anyway, it's actually pretty good. According to wikipedia it's one of the Shakespear plays that don't fit as cleanly in the comedy/tragedy division as the others - conventional wisdom is supposed to be that it's a tragedy, but personally I'd describe it as more of a black comedy. So of course I like it. I love the climax, where in one last grandiose gesture Timon lets Athens know who it can go fuck (itself), and how Apemantus's presence in the story finally builds to and culminates in a lengthy scene where he and the protagonist go at it full-bore line for line for multiple pages. Also, Alcibiades is in it! Although disappointingly he's apparently this stock-character Alcibiades originating in Plato instead of the lovable scampini I remember from Thucydides (seriously, it seems like a totally different guy).
    • 2/5
      Certainly not one of William Shakespeare's best works... I can understand why "Timon of Athens" is rarely staged. It is thought to be a collaboration between Shakespeare and Thomas Middleton -- which may be why the play feels really uneven -- as if different parts were written by different people and patched together later.The plot is fairly simplistic -- Timon, an Athenian lord is so anxious to spread his wealth around to his friends that he eventually runs out of money and has to sell all of his lands. He becomes bitter after hearing the variety of excuses his friends provide for not helping him out in his financial need. There is a subplot involving a march into Athens by a soldier, but it wasn't particularly well developed (or else I had difficulty following it, I'm not sure which was the case.)The action in the play is very slow and the plot is a bit too simplistic to keep things interesting. I'd recommend this one only to Shakespeare completists.
    • 3/5
      I normally wouldn’t read another Shakespeare play so soon after taking a class on the Bard, but this May I happened to be going to the Windy City while Ian McDiarmid was performing Timon of Athens with the Chicago Shakespeare Theater, so I decided to read the play before going to see it. Because I read so quickly and uncritically, and because I saw the play so soon afterward, I’m having a difficult time separating text from performance in my mind, but I’ll try to do my best.Many have compared Timon to King Lear, and it’s not terribly surprising considering that many of the tropes in this play recur in King Lear: the self-centered protagonist, the proliferation of two-faced flatterers, the faithful servant, stirrings of civil war, various banishments and self-banishments. What I’ve often heard hinted at, but never stated outright, is this small truth: Timon is the poor man’s Lear. It is a decent play, not a great one. Current scholarship holds that Shakespeare collaborated on the play with Thomas Middleton, which makes sense because there’s quite a stylistic shift between the frenetic scenes in Timon’s Athenian home and his melancholy, elegiac asylum in the woods. I can say from experience that the first half plays better while the rest reads better, but the first three acts or so are more entertaining in either format. This is odd because I think I read somewhere that Middleton was probably responsible for the first two to three acts, after which Shakespeare continued in a less enjoyable fashion. I guess his heart wasn’t in it. Maybe he was just using the opportunity to warm up for King Lear.There is one truly great moment in the play: Act III scene 6, wherein Timon invites his false friends to yet another of his feasts, serves them only stones and hot water, then proceeds to chase them out. It’s thrilling both to read and behold (in the right production). The problem is that, after this and his great soliloquy in Act IV scene 1, Timon has nowhere to go as a character. He just continues hating humanity to the exact same degree, not developing in either direction. The ending is not quite as bleak as King Lear—there is a sense that society will continue lumbering on—but it is perhaps Shakespeare’s most cynical.The highly abridged two-act version that I saw at Chicago Shakespeare Theater is probably about the best this play can get. It was reset to the present day, something I don’t usually care for, but in this case it was incredibly effective. The cuts were nicely chosen, although I wish we had seen more of Flavius early on. And the acting was excellent. Ian McDiarmid (Emperor Palpatine for you Star Wars geeks) has incredible range and energy, not to mention a powerful voice, and it was a pleasure to view his craft at such close quarters, on a simple thrust stage. Sean Fortunato as Flavius matched him line for line. Alcibiades and Apemantus were among the weakest of the ensemble, regrettable since those are among the most important roles in the play. The last 20 minutes before the intermission, including Timon’s shunning of his friends and his leavetaking of Athens, made for theatrical magic; unfortunately, the director wasn’t able to do much with the scene's of Timon’s solitude, and I simply disliked the ending, which showed Flavius taking Timon’s place in society, with the flatterers and false friends flocking to him. Though it underlined the cynicism of the play, I thought it was out of character for Flavius to befriend the men who ruined his master, and whom he described as “monstrous.” I suppose he could only be pretending to befriend them, with the intent of avenging Timon, but I never thought him in any way vengeful, either.I don't think I’ll ever return to Timon of Athens, but I’m glad I read it, and even happier that I saw the CST production. A part of me still wishes McDiarmid had been playing Lear or Prospero instead, though, which indicates what I think of the play in relation to the rest of the canon.
    • 3/5
      Wealthy Athenian Timon spreads his wealth generously and hold parties. After giving all his wealth away, he discovers his so-called friends only cared about his wealth. He spends his remaining days in a cave. Shakespeare borrowed from other sources to create this work, and critics attribute portions to other authors. It's not among Shakespeare's best efforts.
    • 5/5
      3 stars for the play, 5 stars for the incredible, comprehensive academic study of it that runs through this 500-page volume.

    Book preview

    Timon of Athens - William Shakespeare

    ACT I.

    SCENE I. Athens. A Hall in Timon’s House.

    Enter Poet, Painter, Jeweller, Merchant, and others, at several doors

    POET. Good day, sir.

    PAIN. I am glad you’re well.

    POET. I have not seen you long: how goes the world?

    PAIN. It wears, sir, as it grows.

    POET. Ay, that’s well known:

    But what particular rarity? what strange,

    Which manifold record not matches? See,

    Magic of bounty! all these spirits thy power

    Hath conjured to attend. I know the merchant.

    PAIN. I know them both; the other’s a jeweller.   [10]

    MER. O, ’t is a worthy lord!

    JEW.      Nay, that’s most fix’d.   [12]

    MER. A most incomparable man, breathed, as it were,   [13]

    To an untirable and continuate goodness:   [14]

    He passes.

    JEW.      I have a jewel here—

    MER. O, pray, let’s see’t: for the Lord Timon, sir?

    JEW. If he will touch the estimate: but, for that—   [17]

    POET. [Reciting to himself] "When we for recompense have praised the vile,

    It stains the glory in that happy verse

    Which aptly sings the good."   [20]

    MER. [Looking on the jewel] ’T is a good form.

    JEW. And rich: here is a water, look ye.   [22]

    PAIN. You are rapt, sir, in some work, some dedication

    To the great lord.

    POET.    A thing slipp’d idly from me.

    Our poesy is as a gum, which oozes

    From whence ’t is nourish’d: the fire i’ the flint

    Shows not till it be struck; our gentle flame

    Provokes itself, and, like the current, flies

    Each bound it chafes. What have you there?

    PAIN. A picture, sir. When comes your book forth?   [30]

    POET. Upon the heels of my presentment, sir.   [31]

    Let’s see your piece.

    PAIN. ’T is a good piece.

    POET. So ’t is: this comes off well and excellent.   [34]

    PAIN. Indifferent.   [35]

    POET.     Admirable: how this grace

    Speaks his own standing! what a mental power

    This eye shoots forth! how big imagination   [38]

    Moves in this lip! to the dumbness of the gesture

    One might interpret.

    PAIN. It is a pretty mocking of the life.   [40]

    Here is a touch; is’t good?

    POET.      I will say of it,   [42]

    It tutors nature: artificial strife

    Lives in these touches, livelier than life.

    Enter certain Senators, and pass over

    PAIN. How this lord is follow’d!   [46]

    POET. The senators of Athens: happy man!

    PAIN. Look, moe!

    POET. You see this confluence, this great flood of visitors.

    I have, in this rough work, shaped out a man,

    Whom this beneath world doth embrace and hug   [49]

    With amplest entertainment: my free drift   [50]

    Halts not particularly, but moves itself

    In a wide sea of wax: no levell’d malice

    Infects one comma in the course I hold;

    But flies an eagle flight, bold and forth on,

    Leaving no tract behind.

    PAIN. How shall I understand you?

    POET.      I will unbolt to you.

    You see how all conditions, how all minds,

    As well of glib and slippery creatures as   [58]

    Of grave and austere quality, tender down

    Their services to Lord Timon: his large fortune,   [60]

    Upon his good and gracious nature hanging,

    Subdues and properties to his love and tendance   [62]

    All sorts of hearts; yea, from the glass-faced flatterer   [63]

    To Apemantus, that few things loves better   [64]

    Than to abhor himself: even he drops down

    The knee before him, and returns in peace

    Most rich in Timon’s nod.

    PAIN.       I saw them speak together.

    POET. Sir, I have upon a high and pleasant hill

    Feign’d Fortune to be throned: the base o’ the mount

    Is rank’d with all deserts, all kind of natures,   [70]

    That labour on the bosom of this sphere

    To propagate their states: amongst them all,   [72]

    Whose eyes are on this sovereign lady fix’d,

    One do I personate of Lord Timon’s frame,

    Whom Fortune with her ivory hand wafts to her;

    Whose present grace to present slaves and servants Translates his rivals.   [76]

    PAIN.       ‘T is conceived to scope.   [77]

    This throne, this Fortune, and this hill, methinks,

    With one man beckon’d from the rest below,

    Bowing his head against the steepy mount   [80]

    To climb his happiness, would be well express’d   [81]

    In our condition.

    POET.       Nay, sir, but hear me on.

    All those which were his fellows but of late,

    Some better than his value, on the moment   [85]

    Follow his strides, his lobbies fill with tendance,   [86]

    Rain sacrificial whisperings in his ear,   [87]

    Make sacred even his stirrup, and through him

    Drink the free air.

    PAIN. Ay, marry, what of these?

    POET. When Fortune in her shift and change of mood

    Spurns down her late beloved, all his dependants   [90]

    Which labour’d after him to the mountain’s top

    Even on their knees and hands, let him slip down,

    Not one accompanying his declining foot.

    PAIN. ’T is common:

    A thousand moral paintings I can show,

    That shall demonstrate these quick blows of Fortune’s

    More pregnantly than words. Yet you do well   [97]

    To show Lord Timon that mean eyes have seen   [98]

    The foot above the head.

    Trumpets sound. Enter LORD TIMON, addressing himself courteously to every suitor; a Messenger from VENTIDIUS talking with him; LUCILIUS and other servants following

    TIM.       Imprison’d is he, say you?

    MESS. Ay, my good lord: five talents is his debt;   [100]

    His means most short, his creditors most strait:

    Your honourable letter he desires

    To those have shut him up; which failing,   [103]

    Periods his comfort.

    TIM.      Noble Ventidius! Well,

    I am not of that feather to shake off

    My friend when he must need me. I do know him   [106]

    A gentleman that well deserves a help:

    Which he shall have: I’ll pay the debt and free him.

    MESS. Your lordship ever binds him.

    TIM. Commend me to him: I will send his ransom;   [110]

    And, being enfranchised, bid him come to me:

    ’T is not enough to help the feeble up,

    But to support him after. Fare you well.

    MESS. All happiness to your honour!      [Exit.

    Enter an old Athenian

    OLD ATH. Lord Timon, hear me speak.

    TIM.      Freely, good father.

    OLD ATH. Thou hast a servant named Lucilius.

    TIM. I have so: what of him?

    OLD ATH. Most noble Timon, call the man before thee.

    TIM. Attends he here, or no? Lucilius!

    LUC. Here, at your lordship’s service.   [120]

    OLD ATH. This fellow here, Lord Timon, this thy creature,

    By night frequents my house. I am a man

    That from my first have been inclined to thrift,

    And my estate deserves an heir more raised

    Than one which holds a trencher.   [125]

    TIM.       Well, what further?

    OLD ATH. One only daughter have I, no kin else,

    On whom I may confer what I have got:

    The maid is fair, o’ the youngest for a bride,

    And I have bred her at my dearest cost

    In qualities of the best. This man of thine   [130]

    Attempts her love: I prithee, noble lord,

    Join with me to forbid him her resort;

    Myself have spoke in vain.

    TIM.       The man is honest.   [134]

    OLD ATH. Therefore he will be, Timon:

    His honesty rewards him in itself;

    It must not bear my daughter.   [137]

    TIM.       Does she love him?   [138]

    OLD ATH. She is young and apt:

    Our own precedent passions do instruct us

    What levity’s in youth.

    TIM. [To Lucilius] Love you the maid?   [140]

    LUC. Ay, my good lord; and she accepts of it.

    OLD ATH. If in her marriage my consent be missing,

    I call the gods to witness, I will choose

    Mine heir from forth the beggars of the world,

    And dispossess her all.

    TIM.       How shall she be endow’d,   [146]

    If she be mated with an equal husband?

    OLD ATH. Three talents on the present; in future, all.

    TIM. This gentleman of mine hath served me long:

    To build his fortune I will strain a little,

    For ’t is a bond in men. Give him thy daughter:   [150]

    What you bestow, in him I’ll counterpoise,

    And make him weigh with her.

    OLD ATH.       Most noble lord,

    Pawn me to this your

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