Act 2, Scene 1

Athens. A Room in a SENATOR'S House.

[Enter A SENATOR, with papers in his hand.]
Senator
562 And late, five thousand: to Varro and to Isidore
563 He owes nine thousand; besides my former sum,
564 Which makes it five-and-twenty. Still in motion
565 Of raging waste! It cannot hold; it will not.
566 If I want gold, steal but a beggar's dog
567 And give it Timon, why, the dog coins gold;
568 If I would sell my horse, and buy twenty more
569 Better than he, why, give my horse to Timon,
570 Ask nothing, give it him, it foals me straight,
571 And able horses. No porter at his gate,
572 But rather one that smiles and still invites
573 All that pass by. It cannot hold; no reason
574 Can found his state in safety. Caphis, ho!
575 Caphis, I say!
[Enter CAPHIS.]
Caphis
576 Here, sir; what is your pleasure?
Senator
577 Get on your cloak, and haste you to Lord Timon;
578 Importune him for my moneys; be not ceas'd
579 With slight denial, nor then silenc'd when—
580 'Commend me to your master'—and the cap
581 Plays in the right hand, thus;—but tell him,
582 My uses cry to me; I must serve my turn
583 Out of mine own; his days and times are past,
584 And my reliances on his fracted dates
585 Have smit my credit: I love and honour him,
586 But must not break my back to heal his finger;
587 Immediate are my needs, and my relief
588 Must not be toss'd and turn'd to me in words,
589 But find supply immediate. Get you gone:
590 Put on a most importunate aspect,
591 A visage of demand; for I do fear,
592 When every feather sticks in his own wing,
593 Lord Timon will be left a naked gull,
594 Which flashes now a phoenix. Get you gone.
Caphis
595 I go, sir.
Senator
596 Take the bonds along with you,
597 And have the dates in compt.
Caphis
598 I will, sir.
Senator
599 Go.
[Exeunt.]

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Notes

TLN 564archaic vocab
“Still in motion Of raging waste”
'Waste' here means ruinous, uncontrolled expenditure — spending that devours an estate. 'Still in motion' means always continuing, never stopping. The Senator is not describing physical destruction but financial ruin: Timon keeps spending compulsively, and it cannot go on.
TLN 566rhetorical device
“steal but a beggar's dog And give it Timon, why, the dog coins gold”
The Senator uses hyperbole — deliberate exaggeration — to make a precise economic point: anything given to Timon is instantly turned into a lavish gift back. Give him a worthless stray dog, and it 'coins gold' (mints coins, produces money) because Timon will immediately reward the giver far beyond the value of what he received. It is the logic of his ruin: his generosity multiplies every gift outward at ruinous cost to himself.
TLN 580cultural context
“the cap Plays in the right hand, thus”
Holding or turning a cap in the right hand was the standard Elizabethan posture of deference — a servant or petitioner would remove his cap and hold it in his hand rather than keep it on his head in the presence of a social superior. The Senator is miming the obsequious body-language of a debtor's servant who has been fobbed off with 'commend me to your master' and a polite bow. He is telling Caphis: do not accept that brush-off and leave.
TLN 584archaic vocab
“my reliances on his fracted dates Have smit my credit”
'Fracted' means broken, fractured — and 'dates' are the due-dates written on a bond (the legal document recording a loan). 'Fracted dates' are overdue repayment deadlines that Timon has broken. Because the Senator trusted those bonds and used them as collateral or security for his own financial dealings, Timon's failure to pay on time has 'smit' (struck, damaged) the Senator's own creditworthiness with his creditors.
TLN 593rhetorical device
“Lord Timon will be left a naked gull, Which flashes now a phoenix”
The Senator sets two birds against each other to show Timon's imminent fall. A 'gull' is a young seagull, proverbially helpless and bare before it grows its adult feathers — a byword for the foolishly credulous or simply the unprotected. A 'phoenix' is the mythical bird that burns and rises from its own ashes, a symbol of unique, incomparable magnificence. Right now Timon shines like a phoenix; when every flatterer takes back what he gave ('every feather sticks in his own wing'), Timon will be stripped bare — a naked, defenceless fledgling.
historical The fall of princes (de casibus tragedy)