Shakespeare Portal

Act 4, Scene 1

Without the walls of Athens

  1. [Enter TIMON.]
  2. Timon
  3. 1381 Let me look back upon thee. O thou wall,
  4. 1382 That girdles in those wolves, dive in the earth,
  5. 1383 And fence not Athens! Matrons, turn incontinent!
  6. 1384 Obedience fail in children! slaves and fools,
  7. 1385 Pluck the grave wrinkled senate from the bench,
  8. 1386 And minister in their steads! To general filths
  9. 1387 Convert, o' the instant, green virginity.
  10. 1388 Do't in your parents' eyes! Bankrupts, hold fast;
  11. 1389 Rather than render back, out with your knives,
  12. 1390 And cut your trusters' throats. Bound servants, steal,—
  13. 1391 Large-handed robbers your grave masters are,
  14. 1392 And pill by law. Maid, to thy master's bed;
  15. 1393 Thy mistress is o' the brothel! Son of sixteen,
  16. 1394 Pluck the lin'd crutch from thy old limping sire,
  17. 1395 With it beat out his brains! Piety, and fear,
  18. 1396 Religion to the gods, peace, justice, truth,
  19. 1397 Domestic awe, night-rest and neighbourhood,
  20. 1398 Instruction, manners, mysteries and trades,
  21. 1399 Degrees, observances, customs and laws,
  22. 1400 Decline to your confounding contraries,
  23. 1401 And let confusion live! Plagues incident to men,
  24. 1402 Your potent and infectious fevers heap
  25. 1403 On Athens, ripe for stroke! Thou cold sciatica,
  26. 1404 Cripple our senators, that their limbs may halt
  27. 1405 As lamely as their manners! Lust and liberty
  28. 1406 Creep in the minds and marrows of our youth,
  29. 1407 That 'gainst the stream of virtue they may strive,
  30. 1408 And drown themselves in riot! Itches, blains,
  31. 1409 Sow all the Athenian bosoms, and their crop
  32. 1410 Be general leprosy! Breath infect breath,
  33. 1411 That their society, as their friendship, may
  34. 1412 Be merely poison! Nothing I'll bear from thee
  35. 1413 But nakedness, thou detestable town!
  36. 1414 Take thou that too, with multiplying bans!
  37. 1415 Timon will to the woods; where he shall find
  38. 1416 Th' unkindest beast more kinder than mankind.
  39. 1417 The gods confound—hear me, you good gods all—
  40. 1418 The Athenians both within and out that wall!
  41. 1419 And grant, as Timon grows, his hate may grow
  42. 1420 To the whole race of mankind, high and low!
  43. 1421 Amen.
  44. [Exit.]