Not Ep. 299: Shakespeare’s “Timon of Athens” Audioplay (Part Two)

0:02 Mark/Various: Hey, it's time for part two. Which means Acts four and five of the Partially Examined Life Players. Unrehearsed read through of Shakespeare's Timon of Athens. And before we start, I want to thank Jonathan Segal for doing the music for this. He did significant research to try to make music that was appropriate to ancient Athens. I will take his word for it. Jay, you ready to have a whole scene to yourself?

0:29 Jay: Oh God.

0:31 Mark/Various: It's only a page.

0:33 Jay: The roll's a heavy lift.

0:36 Mark/Various: That's why you're here, buddy. We start. Act four, scene one. Timon is by himself. Take it, Jay.

1:01 Jay: Let me look back upon thee. O thou wall that girdles in those wolves, Dive in the earth and fence not Athens. Machines turn incontinent obedience fail in children, slaves and fools. Pluck the grave wrinkled senate from the bench. And minister in their steads to general filths. Convert at the instant green virginity do it in your parents eyes bankrupts hold fast rather than render back. Out with your knives and cut your trusters throats. Bound servants steal large handed robbers your gravemasters are. And pill by law, maid to thy master's bed. Thy mistress is.

O the brothel. Son of 16, pluck the lined crutch from thy old limping sire. With it beat out his brains, piety and fear. Religion to the gods, Peace, justice, truth, domestic awe, Night rest and neighborhood instruction, manners, mysteries and trades, Degrees, observances, customs and laws, decline to your confounding contraries. And yet confusion live plagues incident to men. Your potent and infectious fevers heap on Athens ripe for stroke. Thou cold sciatica, cripple our senators, that their limbs may halt as lamely as their manners. Lust and liberty creep in the minds and marrows of our youth, that gainst the stream of virtue they may strive and drown themselves in riot itches, blains, so all the Athenian bosoms and their crop by general leprosy breath, infect breath, that their society as their friendship may be merely poison.

Nothing I'll bear from thee but nakedness thy detestable town. Take thou that too with multiplying banns. Timon will to the woods where he shall find unkindest beast more kinder than mankind. The gods confound. Hear me you good gods. All the Athenians both within and out that wall. And grant as Timon grows, his hate may grow to the whole race of mankind, high and low. Amen.

4:16 Mark/Various: He exits a little bit later enters the steward Flavius with some servants.

4:24 Seth: Here ye master steward. Where's our master? Are we undone? Cast off, nothing remaining.

4:30 Unknown speaker: Alack, my fellows, what should I say to you? Let me be recorded by the righteous gods. I am as poor as you.

4:38 Seth: Such a house broke, no noble master fallen, all gone. And not one friend to take his fortune by his arm and go along with him.

4:47 Wes: As we do turn our backs from our companions thrown into his grave so his familiars to his buried fortune slink all away leave their false vows with him like empty purses picked and his poor self, a dedicated beggar to the air. With his disease of all shunned poverty walks like contempt alone.

5:06 Unknown speaker: More of our fellows all broken implements of a ruined house.

5:12 Wes: Yet do our hearts wear Timon's livery. That see I by our faces we are fellows still serving alike in sorrow leaked is our bark. And we poor mates, stand on the dying deck Hearing the surge's threat, we we must all part into the sea of air.

5:31 Unknown speaker: Good fellows, all the latest of my wealth I'll share amongst you wherever we shall meet. For Timon's sake, let's yet be fellows. Let's shake our heads and say as twere a knell unto our master's fortunes, we have seen better days. Let each take some. Nay, put out all your hands. Here's money. Not one word more. Thus part we, rich in sorrow, parting

5:56 Mark/Various: poor, they all hug, parting several ways.

6:02 Unknown speaker: O the fierce wretchedness that glory brings us. Who would not wish to be from wealth exempt since riches point to misery and contempt. Who would be so mocked with glory? Or to live but in a dream of friendship? To have his pomp and all that state compounds but only painted like his varnished friends? Poor honest lord, brought low by his own heart Undone by goodness, strange, unusual blood. When man's worst sin is he does too much good who then dares to be half so kind again? For bounty that makes gods does still mar men. My dearest lord, blessed to be most accurst rich only to be wretched the thy great fortunes are made Thy chief afflictions.

Alas, kind lord, he's flung in rage from this ingrateful seat of monstrous friends. Nor has he with him to supply his life for that which can command it. I'll follow and enquire him out. I'll ever serve his mind with my best will. Whilst I have gold, I'll be his steward still.

7:15 Mark/Various: He exits. Now we're to act four, Scene three. We're going to spend some time in the woods now. Timon was very angry at this ingratitude among all his friends. After serving them a bunch of stones, he's now run off to the woods. And here he is.

7:32 Jay: O blessed breeding sun, draw from the earth rotten humidity below thy sister's orb infect the air. Twinned brothers of one womb, Whose procreation, residence and birth scarce is dividend, Touch them with several fortunes. The greater scorns, the lesser not Nature, to whom all sores lay siege, can bear great fortune, but by contempt of nature raise me this beggar. And denied that, lord, the senators shall bear contempt hereditary the beggar native honour. It is the pasture lards the beggar's sides the want that makes him lean. Who dares? Who dares in purity of manhood stand upright and say, this man's a flatterer?

If one be so are they all. For every grease of fortune is smoothed by that below the learned pate ducks to the golden fool. All's oblique. There's nothing level in our cursed natures but direct villainy. Therefore be abhorred all feast, society and throngs of men. His semblable, yea, himself, Timon disdains destruction. Fang mankind, earth, yield me roots, who seek for better of thee, sauce his palate with thy most operant poison. What? What is here? Gold. Yellow, glittering, precious gold. O gods, I am no idle votaress. Roots, you clear heavens.

Thus much of this will make black, white, foul, fair, wrong, right, base, noble, old, young, coward, valiant. Ha ha, ha ha. You gods, why this? Why this? You gods, why this? Will lug your priests and servants from your sides, pluck stout men's pillows from below their heads. This yellow slave will knit and break religions, Bless the accursed, make the whore leprosy, adored, place thieves and give them title, knee and approbation with senators on the bench. This is it that makes the wappened widow wed again. She whom the spittle house and ulcerous sores would cast the gorge at this embalms and spices to the April day again.

Come, damned earth, thou common whore of mankind, that puts odds among the rout of nations. I will make thee do thy right. Nature. Ha. A drum not quick, but yet I'll bury thee. Thou go, strong thief, when gouty keepers of thee cannot stand. Nay, stay thou out for earnest.

11:31 Mark/Various: Enter Alcibiades with drum and fife in warlike manner, and Phrynia and Timandra.

11:38 Unknown speaker: What art thou there? Speak.

11:41 Jay: A beast. Thou art a canker. Gnaw thy heart for showing me again the eyes of man.

11:49 Unknown speaker: What is thy name, this man so hateful to thee? Thou art thyself a man.

11:55 Jay: I am misanthropos and hate mankind for thy part, I do wish thou wert a dog, and I might love thee

12:06 Unknown speaker: something I know thee well, but in thy fortunes am unlearn'd and strange.

12:13 Jay: I know thee too, and more than that I know thee, I not desire to know. Follow thy drum with man's blood, paint the ground. Jewels, jewels, religious canons, civil laws are cruel. Then what should war be? This fell whore of thine hath in her more destruction than thy sword. For all her cherubim look, thy lips rot off. I will not kiss thee. Then the rot returns to thine own lips again.

12:50 Unknown speaker: How came the noble Timon to this change?

12:53 Jay: As the moon does, by wanting light to give. But then renew I could not like the moon. There were no suns to borrow of.

13:05 Unknown speaker: Noble Timon, what friendship may I do thee?

13:09 Jay: None but to maintain my opinion.

13:14 Unknown speaker: What is it, Timon?

13:17 Jay: Promise me friendship, but perform none as thou wilt not promise. The gods plague thee, for thou art a man. If thou dost perform, confound thee, for thou art a man.

13:31 Unknown speaker: I have heard, in some sort of

13:33 Jay: thy miseries Thou sawst them when I had prosperity.

13:38 Unknown speaker: I see them now. Then was a blessed time, as thine

13:44 Jay: is now held with a brace of harlots.

13:47 Sarah: Is this the Athenian minion whom the world voiced so regardfully?

13:53 Jay: Art thou Timandra? Yes, be a whore still they love thee not that use thee. Give them diseases, leaving with thee their lust make use of thy salt hours. Season the slaves for tubs and baths. Bring down rose cheek'd youth to the tubfast and the diet.

14:19 Sarah: Hang thee, monster.

14:21 Unknown speaker: Pardon him, sweet Timandra, for his wits are drown'd and lost to his calamities. I have but little gold of late. Brave Timon, the want whereof doth daily make revolt in my penurious friend I have heard and grieved. How cursed Athens. Mindless of thy worth, forgetting thy great deeds when neighbour states, but for thy sword and fortune trod upon them.

14:43 Jay: I prithee, beat thy drum and get thee gone.

14:47 Unknown speaker: I am thy friend, and pity thee, dear Timon.

14:51 Jay: How dost thou pity him? Thou dost trouble. I'd rather be alone.

14:57 Unknown speaker: I fare thee well. Here is some gold for thee.

15:02 Jay: Keep it. I cannot eat it when I have

15:05 Unknown speaker: laid proud Athens on a heap.

15:07 Jay: War' st thou gainst Athens?

15:11 Unknown speaker: Ay, Timon, and have cause the gods

15:16 Jay: confound them all in thy conquest, and thee after, when thou hast conquered.

15:23 Unknown speaker: Why me, Timon, that by killing villains

15:27 Jay: thou wast born to conquer my country? Put up thy gold.

15:32 Unknown speaker: No.

15:33 Jay: Go on. Here's gold.

15:35 Unknown speaker: Go on.

15:36 Jay: Be as a planetary plague. When Jove will o' er some high viced city hang his poison in the sick air. Let not thy sword skip one. Pity not honour'd age for his white beard. He is a usurer. Strike me the counterfeit matron. It is her habit only that is honest. Herself's a bawd. Let not the virgin's cheek make soft thy trenchant sword. For those milk paps that through the window bars bore at men's eyes are not within the leaf of pity writ, but set them down, horrible traitors. Spare not the babe, whose dimpled smiles from fools exhaust their mercy.

Think it a bastard, whom the oracle hath doubtfully pronounced. The throat shall cut and mince it sans remorse. Swear against objects, Put armour on thine ears and on thine eyes, Whose proof nor yells of mothers, maids, nor babes, nor sight of proof. Priests in holy vestments bleeding shall pierce a jot. There's gold to pay thy soldiers make large confusion, and thy fury spent. Confounded be thyself, speak not, begone.

17:08 Unknown speaker: Hast thou gold yet? I'll take the gold thou givest me. Not all thy counsel.

17:15 Jay: Dost thou, or dost thou not? Heaven's curse upon thee.

17:20 Sara: Give us some gold, good Timon.

17:23 Sarah: Hast thou more enough to make a

17:25 Jay: whore forswear her trade, and to make whores a bawd? Hold out, you sluts. Your apron's mountain'd. You're not oathable, although I know you'll swear terribly swear into strong shudders and to heavenly agues. The immortal gods that hear you spare your oaths. I'll trust to your conditions. Be whores still, and he whose pious breath seeks to convert you, be strong in whore. Allure him, burn him up. Let your close fire predominate his smoke, and be no turncoats you may your pain six months be quite contrary, and thatch your poor thin roofs with burdens of the dead. Some that were hanged, no matter wear them, betray them. Whore still. Paint till a horse may mire upon your face a pox of wrinkles.

18:35 Unknown speaker: Well, more gold.

18:37 Sarah: What then, believe it, that will do anything for gold consumptions?

18:42 Jay: So in hollow bones of men, strike their sharp shins and mar men, spurring, crack the lawyer's voice, that he may never more false title plead, nor sound his quillets shrilly.

18:55 Timon: Whore.

18:56 Jay: The flamen that scolds against the quality of flesh and not believes himself. Down with the nose. Down with it flat. Take the bridge quite away of him that is particular to foresee. Smells from the general weal make curled paint ruffians bald. And let the unscarred braggarts of the war devise some pain from you. Plague all, that your activity may defeat and quell the source of all erection. There's more gold. Do you damn others? And let this dam damn you, and ditches grave you all.

19:42 Sara: More counsel, with more money.

19:44 Sarah: Bounteous Timon.

19:46 Jay: More whore. More mischief first. I have given you earnest.

19:52 Unknown speaker: Strike up the drum towards Athens. Farewell, Timon. If I thrive well, I'll visit thee again.

20:00 Jay: If I hope well, I'll never see thee more.

20:03 Unknown speaker: I never did thee harm.

20:06 Jay: Yes, thou spok' st well of me. Call' st thou that harm men daily find it. Get thee away, and take thy beagles with thee.

20:19 Unknown speaker: We but offend him. Strike

20:24 Timon: all.

20:24 Mark/Various: Exit. But Timon.

20:29 Jay: That nature, being sick of man's unkindness, should yet be hungry. Common mother, thou whose womb, unmeasurable and infinite breast, teems and feeds all whose self same metal whereof thy proud child, arrogant man, is puffed, engenders the black toad, and adder blue the gilded newt, and eyeless venom'd worm, with all their horrid bright births below, crisp heav', n, whereon Hyperion's quick' ning fire doth shine. Yield him who all thy human sons do hate. From forth thy plenteous bosom, one poor root, and sear thy fertile and conceptuous womb, Let it no more bring out, ingrateful man.

Go great with tigers, dragons, wolves and bears, teem with new masters, whom upon thy face hath to the marble mansion'd all above, never presented. Ah. A root, dear thanks. Dry up thy marrow's vines and plough torn lees, whereof in grateful man, with liquorish draughts and morsels unctuous greases his poor mind, that from it all consideration slips.

22:04 Mark/Various: Enter Apemantus.

22:07 Jay: More men. Plague. Plague.

22:13 Timon: I was directed hither. Men report thou dost affect my manners, and dost use them.

22:20 Jay: Tis then, because thou dost not keep a dog whom I would imitate consumption. Catch thee.

22:28 Unknown speaker: Ah.

22:28 Timon: This is in thee a nature but infected, a poor unmanly melancholy sprung from change of fortune. Why this spade, this place, this slave like habit, and these looks of care? Thy flatterers yet wear silk, drink wine, lie soft, hug their diseased perfumes, and have forgot that ever timing was shame not these woods, by putting on the cunning of a carper, Be thou a flatterer now, and seek to thrive by that which has undone thee. Hinge thy knee, and let his very breath, whom thou'll observe, Blow off thy cap. Praise his most Vicious strain, and call it excellent. Thou wast told thus. Thou gav' st thine ears like tapsters, that bade welcome to knaves and all approachers. Tis most just that thou turn rascal. Hadst thou wealth again, rascals should have it. Do not assume my likeness.

23:34 Jay: Were I like thee, I'd throw away myself.

23:38 Timon: Thou hast cast away thyself, being like thyself a madman. So long now a fool. What, think' st that? The bleak air, thy boisterous chamberlain will put thy shirt on? Warm, will these moss'd trees that have outlived the eagle, page thy heels, and skip when thou point' st out? Will the cold brook, candied with ice, caudle thy morning taste to cure thy o' er night surfeit? Call the creatures whose naked natures live in all the spite of wreakful heaven, whose bare unhoused trunks to the conflicting elements expos'd answer mere nature, bid them flatter thee. O, thou shalt find a fool of thee, depart. I love thee better now than e' er I did.

24:29 Jay: I hate thee worse. Why, thou flatterest misery.

24:34 Timon: I flatter not, but say thou art a caitiff.

24:38 Jay: Why dost thou seek me out to vex thee? O, as a villain's office, or a fool's dost please thyself, It I? What, a knave too.

24:51 Timon: If thou didst put this sour cold habit on to castigate thy pride, twere well, but thou dost it enforcedly. Thou' st courtier be again. Wert thou not beggar willing misery outlives uncertain pomp is crowned before the one is filling still, never complete, the other at high wish, best state contentless, hath a distracted and most wretched being, Worse than the worst content thou shouldst desire to die, being miserable, not by his

25:29 Jay: breath, that is more miserable. Thou' rt a slave, whom Fortune's tender arm with favour never clasped, but bred a dog. Hadst thou, like us, from our first swath proceeded the sweet degrees that this brief world affords to such as may the passive drugs of it freely command. Thou wouldst have plunged thyself in general riot, melted down thy youth in different beds, beds of lust, and never learned the icy precepts of respect, but followed the sugared game before thee. But myself, who had the world as my confectionary, the mouths, the tongues, the eyes, the hearts of men, that duty more than I could frame employment, that numberless upon me, stuck as leaves do on the oak, have with one winter's brush fell from their boughs and Left me open bare for every storm that blows I to bear this that never knew, but better is some burden.

Thy nature did commence in sufferance. Time hath made thee hardened. Why shouldst thou hate men? They never flattered thee. What hast thou given? If thou wilt curse thy father, that poor rag must be thy subject, who in spite put stuff to some she beggar, and compounded thee, poor rogue, hereditary, hence, begone. If thou hadst been born the worst of men, thou hadst been a knave and flatterer.

27:25 Timon: Art thou proud yet?

27:27 Jay: Ay, that I am not thee.

27:30 Timon: Ay, that I was no prodigal.

27:33 Jay: Ay, that I am one now. For all the wealth I have shut up in thee, I give thee leave to hang it. Get thee gone. That the whole life of Athens were in this thus I would eat it here.

27:52 Timon: I will mend thy feast.

27:54 Jay: First mend my company, take away thyself.

27:57 Timon: So I shall mend mine own by the lack of thine.

27:59 Jay: Tis not well mended so, but it is botched. If not, I would it were.

28:07 Timon: What wouldst thou have to Athens?

28:09 Jay: Thee thither in a whirlwind. If thou wilt, tell them. There I have gold. Look, so I have.

28:19 Timon: Here is no use for gold, the

28:22 Jay: best and truest, for here it sleeps and does no hired harm.

28:30 Timon: Where liest a night's timon?

28:32 Jay: Under that's above me. Where feed' st thou a days, apemantus?

28:38 Timon: Where my stomach finds meat. Or rather, where I eat it.

28:41 Jay: Would poison were obedient and knew my mind.

28:44 Timon: Where wouldst thou send it?

28:46 Jay: To sauce thy dishes?

28:49 Timon: The middle of humanity thou never knewdst but the extremity of both ends. When thou wast in thy guilt and thy perfume, they mocked thee for too much curiosity in thy rags thou know' st none, but art despised for the contrary. There's a medlar for thee. Eat it.

29:11 Jay: On what I hate, I feed not.

29:13 Timon: Dost hate a medlar?

29:14 Jay: Ay, though it look like thee.

29:17 Timon: Ah, thou hadst hated medlars sooner. Thou shouldst have loved thyself better. Now what man didst thou ever know on thrift, that was beloved after his means?

29:29 Jay: Who without those means thou talk' st of? Didst thou ever know?

29:33 Timon: Belov'd myself.

29:36 Jay: I understand thee. Thou hadst some means to keep a dog.

29:41 Timon: What things in the world canst thou nearest compare to thy flatterers?

29:46 Jay: Woman, nearest. But men, men are the things themselves. What wouldst thou do with the world, Apemantus? If it lay in thy power, give

29:56 Timon: it to the beasts to be rid of the men.

29:59 Jay: Wouldst thou have thyself fall in the confusion of men, and remain a beast with the beasts? Aye, Timon, a beastly ambition which the gods grant thee to attain to. If thou wert the lion, the fox would beguile thee. If thou wert the lamb, the fox would eat thee. If thou wert the fox, the lion would suspect thee when, peradventure thou wert accused by the ass. If thou at the ass, thy dulness would torment thee, and still thou livest but as a breakfast to the wolf, as thou art the wolf, thy greediness would afflict thee, and oft thou shouldst hazard thy life for thy dinner.

Were thou the unicorn, pride and wrath would confound thee, and make thine own self the conquest of thy fury. Wert thou a bear, thou wouldst be killed by the horse. Wert thou a horse, thou wouldst be seized by the leopard. Wert thou a leopard, thou wert German to the lion. And the spots of thy kindred were jurors. On thy life, all thy safety were remotion, and thy defence absence. What beast could thou be that were not subject to a beast? And what a beast art thou already that sees not thy loss in transformation?

31:36 Timon: If thou couldst please me with speaking to me, thou mightst have hit upon it. Here the commonwealth of Athens is become a forest of beasts.

31:46 Jay: How has the ass broke the wall? That thou art.

31:50 Timon: Out of the city yonder comes a poet and painter. The plague of company light upon thee. I will fear to catch it and give way when I know not what else to do. I'll see thee again when there is

32:02 Jay: nothing living but thee, thou shalt be welcome. I'd rather be a beggar's dog than apemantus.

32:09 Timon: Thou art the cap of all the fools alive.

32:14 Jay: Would thou wert clean enough to spit upon?

32:17 Timon: The plague on thee. Thou art too bad to curse.

32:21 Jay: All villains that do stand by thee are pure.

32:26 Timon: There is no leprosy but what thou speak'.

32:29 Unknown speaker: St.

32:30 Jay: If I name thee, I'll beat thee. But I should infect my hands.

32:36 Timon: I would my tongue could rot them off.

32:39 Jay: Away, thou issue of a mangy dog. Choler. Does kill me that thou art alive. I swoon to see thee.

32:49 Timon: Would thou wouldst burst.

32:52 Jay: Away, thou tedious rogue. I'm sorry. I shall lose a stone by thee.

32:58 Timon: Beast.

32:59 Jay: Slave.

32:59 Timon: Toad.

33:00 Seth: Rogue.

33:02 Jay: Rogue. Rogue. I am sick of this false world, and would love naught but even the mere necessities upon't. Then Timon presently prepare thy grave. Lie where the light foam of the sea may beat thy gravestone daily. Make thine epitaph, that death in me, at others lives may laugh. O, thou sweet king, killer and dear divorce twixt natural son and sire, Thou bright defiler of Hymen's purest bed. Thou valiant Mars, thou ever young, fresh loved and delicate wooer, whose blush doth thaw the consecrated snow that lies on Dian's lips. Lap, thou visible God, that solderest close impossibilities, and makes them kiss, that speak' st with every tongue, to every purpose. O, thou touch of hearts, Think thy slave man rebels, and by thy virtue set them into confounding odds that beasts may have the world.

34:25 Timon: An empire would twere so, but not till I am dead. I'll say thee hast gold. Thou wilt be thronged too shortly.

34:35 Jay: Thronged too.

34:36 Timon: Ay, thy back. I prithee, live, and love thy misery.

34:43 Jay: Long live so, and so die.

34:45 Timon: I am quit more things like men eat timon and abhor them.

34:52 Mark/Various: Exit. Finally Apemantus. Enter. Bandits. Where should he have this gold? It is some poor fragment, some slender ort of his remainder. The mere want of gold and the falling from of his friends drove him into this melancholy.

35:10 Unknown speaker: It is noised he hath a mass of treasure.

35:14 Seth: Let us make the assay upon him. If he care not for't, he will supply it easily. If he covetously reserve it, how shall get it true?

35:25 Unknown speaker: For he bears it not about him. Tis hid.

Is not this he, where, ah?

Tis his description, he.

35:36 Seth: I know him.

35:38 Jay: Save thee, Simon. Now, thieves.

35:42 Unknown speaker: O soldiers. Not thieves.

35:46 Jay: Both too, and women, sons.

35:50 Unknown speaker: We are not thieves, but men, that

35:53 Jay: Your greatest want is. You want much of meat? Why should you want? Behold, the earth hath roots within this mile, break forth a hundred springs, the oaks bear mast the brier's scarlet hips, the bounteous housewife. Nature on each bush lays her full mess before you.

36:19 Unknown speaker: Want?

36:20 Jay: Why want?

36:22 Mark/Various: We cannot live on grass, on berries, water, as beasts and birds and fishes,

36:28 Jay: nor on the beasts themselves, the birds and fishes. You must eat men yet. Thanks, I must. You can that your thieves profess that you work not in holier shapes, for there is boundless theft in limited professions. Rascal thief. Here's gold. Go suck the subtle blood of the grape till the high fever seethe your blood to froth and so scape hanging. Trust not the physician. His antidotes are poisonous, and he slays more than you rob. Take wealth and lives together do villains do, since you protest to do it like workmen. I'll example you with thievery.

The sun's a thief, and with his great attraction robs the vast sea. The moon's an arrant thief, and her pale fire she snatches from the sun. The sea's a thief, whose liquid surge resolves the moon into salt tears. The earth's a thief that feeds and breeds by a composture stolen from general excrement. Each thing's a thief. The laws your curb and whip in their rough power has uncheck'd theft. Love not yourselves. Away, rob one another. There's more gold, cut throats. All that you meet are thieves. To Athens go break open shops. Nothing can you steal, but thieves do lose it.

Steal less. For this I give you, and gold confound you. Howsoe' er Amen.

38:26 Seth: Has almost charmed me from my profession by persuading me to it.

38:31 Mark/Various: Tis in the malice of mankind that he thus advises us not to have us thrive in our mystery.

38:38 Unknown speaker: I'll believe him as an enemy and give over my trade.

38:43 Mark/Various: Let us first see peace in Athens. There is no time so miserable, but a man may be true. Exit, thieves. Enter the steward Flavius to Timon.

38:53 Unknown speaker: O you gods. Is yon despis'd and ruinous man? My lord, full of decay and failing. O monument and wonder of good deeds evilly bestowed. What an alteration of honour has desperate want made. What viler thing upon the earth than friends who can bring noblest minds to basest ends. How rarely does it meet with this time's guise, when man was wished to love his enemies. Grant I may ever love, and rather woo those that would mischief me than those that do has caught me in his eye. I will present my honest grief unto him, and as my lord, still serve him with my life. My dearest master.

39:37 Sarah: Away.

39:37 Unknown speaker: What, dost thou have you forgot me, sir?

39:42 Jay: Why dost thou ask that? I have forgot all men? And if thou grant' st thou art a man, I have forgot thee.

39:50 Unknown speaker: An honest poor servant of yours.

39:54 Jay: Then I know thee not. I never had honest man about me, I. All I kept were knaves to serve in meat to villains.

40:06 Unknown speaker: The gods are witness. Ne' er did poor steward wear, A truer grief for his undone lord than mine eyes for you.

40:16 Jay: What, dost thou weep? Come nearer, then. I love thee because thou art a woman, and disclaim' st flinty mankind, whose eyes do never give but thorough lust and laughter, pity's sleeping, strange times that weep with laughing, not with weeping.

40:40 Unknown speaker: I beg of you to know Me? Good my lord, to accept my grief, and whilst this poor wealth lasts, to entertain me as your steward still, and

40:50 Jay: I a steward so true, so just, and now so comfortable, it almost turns my dangerous nature mild. Let me behold thy face. Surely this man was born of woman. Forgive my general and acceptless rashness. You perpetual sober gods, I do proclaim one honest man, mistake me not, but one. No more, I pray. And he's a steward. How vain. I would have hated all mankind. And thou redeem'st thyself. But all save thee, I fell with curses. Methinks thou art more honest now than wise, for by oppressing and betraying me, thou mightst have sooner got another service. For many so arrive at second masters upon their first lord's neck. But tell me true, for I must never doubt, though ne' er so sure, is not thy kindness subtle, covetous, if not a usuring kindness, and as rich men deal gifts expecting in return. 20 for one.

42:11 Unknown speaker: No, my most worthy master, in whose breast doubt and suspicion, alas, are placed too late, you should have fear'd false times when you did feast. Suspicion still comes where an estate is least. That which I show, heaven knows, is merely love, duty and zeal to your unmatched mind, care of your food and living. And believe it, my most honoured lord, for any benefit that points to me, either in hope or present, I'd exchange for this one wish that you had power and wealth to requite me by making rich yourself. Look thee.

42:52 Jay: Tis so. A singly honest man, thou singer.

42:57 Unknown speaker: Here.

42:59 Jay: Take the gods out of my misery, have sent thee treasure. Go, live rich and happy. But thus conditioned thou shalt build from men, hate all, curse all, and show charity to none. But let the famished flesh slide from the bone, ere thou relieve the beggar. Give to dogs what thou deniest to men. Let prisons swallow em debts, wither em to nothing be men like blasted woods, and may diseases lick up their false blood, and so farewell and thrive.

43:41 Unknown speaker: O, let me stay and comfort you, my master.

43:46 Jay: If thou hatest curses, stay not fly, while thou art blest and free. Ne' er see thou man, and let me ne' er see thee.

44:01 Mark/Various: And easily convinced, apparently. Flavius leaves. We are now. Act five, Scene one. I guess some time has passed. And our old friends, the poet and painter enter, where Timon is crouched in

44:13 Timon: a hole

44:15 Seth: as I took note of the place. It cannot be far from where he abides.

44:20 Mark/Various: What's to be thought of him that the rumour hold for true? That he's so full of gold?

44:26 Seth: Certain Alcibiades reports it. Phrynia and Timandra had gold of him. He likewise enriched poor straggling soldiers with great quantity. Tis said he gave unto his steward a mighty sum.

44:41 Mark/Various: Then this breaking of his has been

44:43 Seth: but a try for his friends, nothing else. Ye shall see him a palm in Athens again, and flourish with the highest. Therefore tis not amiss. We tender our loves to him in this supposed distress of his. It will show us honestly in us, and is very likely to load our purposes with what they travail for, if it be a just and true report that goes of his having.

45:09 Mark/Various: What have you now to present unto him?

45:12 Seth: Nothing at this time but my visitation only I will promise him an excellent piece.

45:19 Mark/Various: I must serve him so too. Tell him of an intent that's coming toward him.

45:24 Seth: Good is the best. Promising is the very air o' the time. It opens the eyes of expectation. Performance is ever the duller for his act, and but in the plainer and simpler kind of people, the deed of saying is quite out of use. To promise is most courtly and fashionable. Performance is a kind of will or testament, which argues a great sickness in his judgment that makes it.

45:50 Mark/Various: And there's Timon, coming from his cave.

45:54 Jay: Excellent workman. Thou canst not paint a man so bad as is thyself.

46:01 Mark/Various: I am thinking what I shall say. I have provided for him. It must be a personating of himself, a satire against the softness of prosperity, with a discovery of the infinite flatteries that follow youth and opulence.

46:14 Jay: Must thou needs stand for a villain in thine own work? Wilt thou whip thine own faults in other men?

46:22 Timon: Do so.

46:22 Jay: I have gold for thee.

46:24 Mark/Various: Nay, let's seek him. Then do we sin against our own estate, when we may profit, meet, and come too late.

46:31 Seth: True, when the day serves before black cornered night, find what thou want' st by free and offer'd light.

46:39 Jay: Come, I'll meet you at the turn. What a God's gold, that he has worshipped in a baser temple than where swine feed. Tis thou, that rigg' st the bark and plough' st the foam settlest. Admired reverence in a slave. To thee be worship, and thy saints, for aye be crown'd with plagues, that thee alone obey. Fit I meet them.

47:09 Seth: Hail, worthy Timon, our late noble master.

47:15 Jay: Have I once lived to see two

47:18 Mark/Various: honest men, sir, having often of your open bounty tasted, hearing you were retir'd, your friends fallen off, whose thankless natured. O abhorred spirits. Not all the whips of heaven are large enough. What to you, whose star, like nobleness, gave life and influence to their whole being? I am rapt, and cannot cover the monstrous bulk of this ingratitude with any size of words.

47:43 Jay: Let it go. Naked men may see it the better. You that are honest by being what you are, make them best seen and known.

47:52 Seth: He and myself have travell'd in the great shower of your gifts, and sweetly felt it.

47:57 Jay: Ay, you are honest men.

48:01 Seth: We are hither come to offer you

48:02 Jay: our service, most honest man. Why, how shall I requite you? Can you eat roots and drink cold water?

48:09 Mark/Various: No. What we can do, we'll do to do in your service.

48:14 Jay: Your honest men. I've heard that you have gold. I'm sure that you have. Speak truth. You're honest man.

48:22 Seth: So it is said, my noble lord. But therefore came not, my friend and

48:25 Jay: I, good honest men. Thou draw' st a counterfeit. Best in all Athens, thou' rt indeed the best. Thou counterfeitest most lively.

48:38 Seth: So so, my lord.

48:39 Jay: Even so, sir, as I say. And for thy fiction, why, thy verse swells with stuff so fine and smooth, that thou art even natural in thine art. But for all this, my honest natured friends, I must needs say you have a little fault. Merit is not monstrous in you, neither wish I. You make much pains to mend.

49:07 Seth: Beseech your honour to make it known to us.

49:10 Mark/Various: You'll take it ill most thankfully, my lord.

49:14 Seth: Will you indeed doubt it not, my lord?

49:17 Jay: There's never a one of you but trusts a knave that mightily deceives you.

49:22 Mark/Various: Do we, my lord?

49:24 Jay: Ay, and you. Hear him cog, see him dissemble, know his gross patchery, love him, feed him, keep in your bosom, yet remain assured that he's a made up villain.

49:37 Seth: I know none such, my lord.

49:39 Mark/Various: Nor I.

49:41 Jay: Look here. I love you well. I'll give you gold. Rid me these villains from your companies. Hang them, or stab them, drown them in a draught, confound them by some course, and come to me. I'll give you gold enough.

49:59 Seth: Name them, my lord, let's know them.

50:01 Jay: You, that way, and you this. But two in company, each man apart, all single and alone, yet an arch villain keeps him company. If where thou art two villains shall not be, come not near him. If thou wouldst not reside, but where one villain is, then him abandon. Hence, pack. There's gold. You came for gold. Ye slaves. You have work for me, there's payment hence. You're an alchemist, make gold of that. Out, rascal.

50:38 Mark/Various: Dogs, the poet and painter exit. But here is the steward Flavius again, and two senators in tower.

50:48 Unknown speaker: It is in vain that you would speak with Timon, for he is set so only to himself, that nothing but himself which looks like man is friendly with him.

50:57 Wes: Bring us to his cave. It is our part. And promise to the Athenians to speak

51:01 Sara: with Timon at all times alike, men are not still the same. Twas time and griefs that framed him thus. Time with his fair hand, offering the fortunes of his former days. The former man may make him bring us to him, and chance it as it may.

51:20 Unknown speaker: Here is his cave. Peace and content be here. Lord Timon. Timon. Look out and speak to friends. The Athenians by two of their most reverend senate greet thee. Speak to them, noble Timon.

51:33 Mark/Various: Enter Timon out of his cave.

51:35 Jay: Thou sun that comfort'st, burn, speak and be hanged. For each true word a blister, and each false bears a king, cantharizing to the root of the tongue, consuming it with speaking.

51:53 Wes: Worthy Timon.

51:54 Jay: But none such as you and you of Timon.

51:58 Wes: The senators of Athens greet thee, Timon.

52:00 Jay: I thank them, and would send them back the plague, could I but catch it for them.

52:07 Wes: Oh, 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 for thy best use and wearing they

52:20 Sara: 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 of it own fall, restraining aid to Timon. And send forth us to make their sorrowed render together we with a recompense more fruitful than their offence can weigh down by the dram. Ay, even such heaps and sums of love and wealth as shall to thee blot out what wrongs were theirs, and write in thee the figures of their love ever to read them.

52:58 Jay: Shine, you witch me in it, surprise me to the very brink of tears. Lend me a fool's heart and a woman's eyes, and I'll be weep these comforts, worthy senators.

53:18 Wes: 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 in thy good name. Live with authority. So soon we shall drive back of Alcibiades the approaches wild, who like a boar too savage, doth root up his

53:40 Sara: country's peace, and shakes his threatening sword against the walls. Of Athens.

53:45 Wes: Therefore, Timon.

53:46 Jay: 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 the beards, giving our holy virgins to the stain of contumelious beastly mad brained 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 I care not. And let him take that worst for their knives. Care not, while you have throats to answer for. Myself there's not a whittle in the unruly camp, but I do prize it at my love before the reverence throat in Athens. So I leave you to the protection of the prosperous gods, as thieves to keepers.

54:51 Unknown speaker: Stay, not all's in vain.

54:53 Jay: Why, I was writing of my epitaph. It will be seen to morrow. My long sickness of health and living now begins to mend, and nothing brings me all things. Go, live still. Be Alcibiades your plague you his, and last so long.

55:13 Wes: Enough we speak in vain.

55:17 Jay: But yet I love my country, and am not one that rejoices in the common wreck, as common brute doth put it.

55:26 Wes: That's well spoke.

55:28 Jay: Commend me to my loving countrymen.

55:32 Wes: These words become your lips as they

55:34 Sara: pass through them and enter in our ears like great triumphers in their applauding gates.

55:40 Jay: Commend me to them, and tell them that to ease them of their grief, their fears of hostile strokes, their aches, losses, their pangs of love with other incident throes that nature's fragile vessel doth sustain in life's uncertain voyage. I will some kindness do them. I'll teach them to prevent wild Alcibiades wrath.

56:07 Wes: I like this well. He will return again.

56:10 Jay: I have a tree which grows here in my close, that mine own use invites me to cut down, and shortly I must fell it. Tell my friends, tell Athens in the sequence of degree, from high to low throughout that whoso please to stop affliction, let him take his haste. Come hither, ere my tree hath felt the axe and hang himself. I pray you, do my greeting trouble him no further.

56:47 Unknown speaker: Thus you still shall find him.

56:49 Jay: Come not to me again, but say to Athens, Timon hath made his everlasting mansion upon the beached verge of the salt flood, who once a day with his embossd froth the turbulent surge shall cover dither. Come, and let my gravestone be your oracle. 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.

57:44 Wes: His discontents are unremovably coupled to nature.

57:49 Sara: Our hope in him is dead. Let us return and strain. What other means is left unto us in our dear peril?

57:57 Wes: It requires swift foot.

58:00 Mark/Various: And the senators exit. And Timon exits into his cave, ne' er to be seen again. We're now in Act V, scene 2. Enter two other senators, different senators, with

58:12 Unknown speaker: a messenger thou hast painfully discovered. Are his files as full as thy report

58:21 Sarah: I have spoke the least. Besides, his expedition promises present approach we

58:26 Wes: stand much hazard if they bring not Timon.

58:30 Sarah: I met a courier, one mine ancient friend, whom, though in general part we were oppos'd, yet our old love made a particular force, and made us speak like friends. This man was riding from Alcibiades to Timon's cave with letters of entreaty which imported his fellowship in the cause against your city, in part for his sake moved.

58:52 Mark/Various: And now the two senators from the previous scene enter.

58:56 Unknown speaker: Here come our brothers.

58:58 Wes: No talk of Timon? Nothing of him? Expect the enemy's drum is heard, and fearful scouring doth choke the air with dust. In and prepare. Ours is the fall. I fear our foes the snare.

59:12 Mark/Various: They exit. And now will Athens be overrun? Will they all be worm food? Let's see. We see a sole soldier in the woods seeking Timon. It is not Apemantus, having joined the army, though his voice might sound similar by all description.

59:31 Timon: This should be the place. Who's here? Speak. Ho. No answer. What is this? Timon is dead. Who hath outstretched his span? Some beast. Read this. There does not live a man dead sure, and this his grave. What's on this tomb? I cannot read. The character I'll take with wax. Our captain hath in every figure skill, an aged interpreter, though young in days before proud Athens he set down by this whose fall the mark of his ambition is, he exits.

1:00:12 Mark/Various: It is Scene four the trumpet sound. Enter Alcibiades with his powers before Athens

1:00:22 Unknown speaker: sound to this coward and lascivious town our terrible approach. Till now you have gone on and filled the time with our all licentious measure. Making your wills the scope of justice. Till now myself and such as slept within the shadow of your power have wandered with our traversed arms and breathed our sufferance vainly. Now the time is flush, when crouching marrow in the bearer strong cries of itself. No More now breathless wrong shall sit and pant in your great chairs of ease and pursy. Insolence shall break his wind with fear and horrid flight, noble and young.

1:01:03 Wes: When thy first griefs were but a mere conceit, ere thou hadst power, or we had cause of fear, we sent to thee to give thy rage's balm, to wipe out our ingratitude with loves above their quantity.

1:01:17 Sara: So did we woo, transformd Timon to our city's love by humble message and by promised means. We were not all unkind, nor all deserved the common stroke of war.

1:01:30 Wes: These walls of ours were not erected by their hands, from whom you have received your grief. Nor are they such, that these great towers, trophies and schools should fall for private faults in them them.

1:01:43 Sara: Nor are they living who were the motives that you first went out. Shame that they wanted. Cunning in excess hath broke their hearts. March, noble lord, into our city, with thy banners spread by decimation and a tithe death. If thy revenges hunger for that food which nature loathes, take thou the destined tenth, and by the hazard of the spirit spotted die, let die.

1:02:10 Wes: The spotted all have not offended. For those that were. It is not square to take on those that are revenge. Crimes, like lands, are not inherited. Then, dear countrymen, bring in thy ranks. But leave without thy rage. Spare thy Athenian cradle and those kin which in the bluster of thy wrath must fall. With those that have offended, like a shepherd, approach the fold and call the infected forth. But kill not altogether what thou wilt.

1:02:41 Sara: Thou rather shalt enforce it with thy smile than hew to it with thy sword.

1:02:48 Wes: Set but thy foot against our rampart gates, and they shall ope so thou wilt send thy gentle heart before to say thou' LT enter friendly.

1:02:57 Sara: Throw thy glove, or any token of thine honour, else that thou wilt use the wars as thy redress and not as our confusion. All thy powers shall make their harbor in our town till we have sealed thy full desire.

1:03:14 Unknown speaker: Then there's my glove. Descend, and open your uncharged ports. Those enemies of Timon and my own, whom you yourselves shall set out for reproof fall, and no more. And to atone your fears with my more noble meeting, Not a man shall pass his quarter or offend the stream of regular justice in your city bounds, but shall be render'd to your public laws at heaviest answer.

1:03:40 Sara: Tis most nobly spoken.

1:03:43 Unknown speaker: Descend, and keep your words.

1:03:46 Mark/Various: Enter. A messenger.

1:03:48 Sarah: My noble general Timon is dead, entombed upon the very hem O the sea. And on his gravestone this in sculpture, which with wax I brought away, Whose soft impression interprets for my poor ignorance.

1:04:04 Mark/Various: Alcibiades is reading the epitaph. And we hear the voice of Timon.

1:04:10 Jay: Here lies a wretched corpse, a wretched soul bereft. Seek not my name, A plague consume you, wicked caitiffs left here lie I Timon, who alive all living men did hate. Pass by and curse thy fill. But pass and stay not here thy

1:04:34 Mark/Various: gate

1:04:37 Unknown speaker: these well express in thee thy latter spirits. Though thou abhorrd' st in us our human griefs scorn', st our brains flow, and those are droplets which from niggard nature fall. Yet rich conceit taught thee to make vast Neptune weep. For aye on thy low grave. On faults forgiven dead is noble Timon, of whose memory hereafter more. Bring me into your city. Then I will use the olive with my sword. Make war breed peace. Make peace stint war. Make each prescribe to other as each other's leech. Let our drums strike.

1:05:23 Mark/Various: And there's a dance number. And everyone comes out together and does the bowing and all that stuff. Thank you guys for doing this. That's the end of the play.

1:05:31 Timon: Very good.

1:05:32 Unknown speaker: Thank you.

1:05:33 Wes: Thank you.

1:05:34 Unknown speaker: Thank you. Well done, everybody.

That's it.

1:05:36 Jay: Who wins?

1:05:36 Sarah: Thank you.

1:05:37 Jay: That was fun.

1:05:38 Seth: You do, you do.

1:05:40 Timon: You.

1:05:41 Seth: You carried the heavy will oat on that one.

1:05:43 Jay: Oh, my God.

1:05:47 Mark/Various: I'd love to get. For those of you that we are not talking to later. To get some impressions of what you thought of this thing that you've now sat here and read with us for three hours. Michael Black, do you want to start us? What'd you think of all this?

1:06:02 Timon: Not his best. I mean, it's very repetitive. There's just not a whole lot that happens in it. Look, I'd love to see it as a one act.

1:06:16 Unknown speaker: Terrific.

1:06:17 Timon: Little one act.

1:06:18 Mark/Various: Or perhaps a little more Alcibiades. Boost the B plot.

1:06:25 Timon: There's just not a whole lot going on there. I mean, he's rich, he's poor, he's generous, he curses and we get all of it. But I would like there to be a bit more.

1:06:34 Unknown speaker: I've seen a production done where they added some from Coriolanus to Alcibiades and did beef up that side of things. Trimmed it down to make the two weave more together.

1:06:47 Mark/Various: Sarah, you were pulled in rather at the last minute. Sarah Manton, had you had any experience with this?

1:06:52 Sarah: No, no. And my sister works for the rsc. I'm in the education department and my brother in law teaches Shakespeare. And I texted them both and was like, what's going on with this play? And they were like, oh, we don't go near that one.

1:07:06 Jay: So it was funny.

1:07:09 Sarah: I was interested in. I saw that Kathryn Hunter did it. I was like, yes, like, what's going on with the women in this? Like, it's almost offensive. Like the women that are there, you know, and there's so much offensive stuff and then there's no women. And Jonathan, I assume you saw Kathryn Hunter do it. Yeah. Did it work better?

1:07:27 Unknown speaker: It was a really interesting take. Although, you know, I mean, I think one of the keys to the play is precisely that there is so little love in it. The only love is the loyalty of Flavius. So I do think the absence of women is the key to what is rotten about Athens in this play. I'm sure we'll be talking about this next week, but I think one of the questions about Timon is what's in it for him? Is it that he's incapable of love or is it that he's like repressed and gay? It's kind of interesting, isn't it, that Alcibiades, you philosophers know, in Plato's Symposium is kind of a big gay character. So that's something I'd be interested in talking about.

1:08:06 Mark/Various: Michael, to. I didn't see you playing up Alcibiades sexuality. There's no call in the script for that at all. What did you think of this? Did you know anything about this coming in?

1:08:16 Unknown speaker: No. As I mention you offline, I'm not a Shakespeare person. So anytime I get to kind of explore, it's a complete learning process. I don't understand half of what's going on, but try to at least understand some of what I was saying.

Two things to say to end. Remember, half of it is by Thomas Middleton. He's not quite as good as Shakespeare. And secondly, I do think, particularly in that long scene in the woods, there are some fantastic speeches. I mean, the read beautifully, I have to say. The one that always sticks in my mind, of course, is the one that Vladimir Nabokov thought was one of Shakespeare's greatest speech. The one about everything's a thief, including the moon with its pale fire.

Right?

1:08:55 Wes: Yeah.

1:08:55 Unknown speaker: Yep.

1:08:57 Mark/Various: Sarah Lynn, we hadn't heard from you yet. What'd you think of this whole thing?

1:09:00 Sara: I think I agree with Michael. This is not his best. I've never read this one before. I don't know, it seems like the. An anti 1980s story about, you know, greed is bad, I guess,

1:09:16 Mark/Various: but And Bill Youmans. You were reading this, right? When I reached out to you, you said, is that coincidentally?

1:09:21 Unknown speaker: Yeah, totally coincidentally. I'd never read it. It was, I guess, the last of the main canon of the plays that I had never read. So I said, well, I guess I should read it. And then you reached out and said, hey, let's do this. And I was about halfway through by the time.

1:09:35 Wes: Very cool.

1:09:36 Mark/Various: Well, damn. Any other thoughts, Jay?

1:09:40 Unknown speaker: I saw this twice. I saw it 30 years ago. Fascinating production directed by Michael Langham from Stratford, Ontario, with Brian Bedford playing this role. Bedford, an amazing Shakespearean actor. He was able to personalize it all so much and make it so simple. And then many years later, 10 years ago, I was about to do Titus Andronicus at the public when it was. When Timon was done just before us with Richard Thomas, and a friend of mine directed it, who we talked at length about the bringing Alcibiades forward, because it's clearly a very flawed piece, and I think you have to kind of cut it up and rearrange it if you're going to make it work.

But I agree there's some beautiful thoughts and sentiments. The difficulty with playing Timon is to find. How do you get the subtleties of the changes in him obvious. The first, the giving to everyone in disbelief that people won't give back to him and that they're loathing him. And then the vitriol, but with all those beautiful speeches, how to shade what he goes through and his choice to. I mean, it's interesting because I was doing Titus. Interesting, the idea of invite them back again to another feast. And of course, at the time I saw it, I was preparing to feed Tamora's sons to her, which is a whole different kind of feast.

But you're seeing the. And it was much earlier in Shakespeare's. Titus was very, very, very early. It was sort of like Chris Nolan doing the Batman trilogy. Shakespeare took on. He said, oh, revenge tragedies. You like revenge tragedies? And he wrote sort of the ultimate. But it was fascinating to have one swimming in my head while I saw that other. But what a beautiful gift to be asked to swim through it and find those beautiful ponds of thought and poetry within this. It's glorious language, even where it's too much, even where it's not working.

It's a real gift. I'm very glad you asked me to do it.

1:12:01 Mark/Various: Well, thanks. And definitely the high point for me was the last Apemantus and Timon back and forth, where they're cursing each Other and.

1:12:10 Jay: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

1:12:11 Mark/Various: Any other thoughts before we get out of here?

1:12:14 Wes: I'll put in a plug for the BBC performance. I think it's from 1981, but it has Jonathan Pryce as Timon.

1:12:21 Unknown speaker: Oh, right.

1:12:22 Wes: Which is very cool.

1:12:23 Jay: Yeah.

1:12:24 Unknown speaker: It'd be great fun to go back and watch again now having picked our way through it once.

1:12:31 Wes: Yeah, I mean, I think it's, you know, as people have said, there's a lot of beautiful language as a play, as something. As a plot, it's incomplete. I mean, I think it's clearly a rough draft. And so I read it that way. Hey, this is really interesting to be able to get to read a rough draft by Shakespeare.

1:12:47 Unknown speaker: Interestingly, Michael Langham did his production. It had been a big hit in Stratford and then brought it down to New York when I saw it. But he did it all to the music of Duke Ellington.

1:12:59 Jay: Wow.

1:13:00 Unknown speaker: And it. And it really gave it a world and a flavor. And it wasn't modern, you know, it was still Athens and all. But it was fascinating to see those things running together.

1:13:16 Mark/Various: At the party. I was picturing the Cantina Band doing the right.

1:13:22 Unknown speaker: Well, the other thing is that in. In playing time and once you get into it and start writing it, you go, I better keep moving through this, you know, because you break it up too much and people will just be way out instead of you. You're hoping that people will. Will at least be fascinated by the thoughts that he's putting out there.

1:13:42 Wes: So it's a lot of time and. Yeah, all time. In all the time.

1:13:46 Unknown speaker: Time and time and again. That's where he gets.

The play is often compared to King Lear in structure. You know, very angry. And he goes out onto the heath, essentially. But you can see that kind of. It doesn't go where Lear does. He doesn't have the sort of transcendent breakthrough that Lear has and he doesn't break through to Love of Cordelia. But it's kind of similar in sketch. And as Jay said, you know, some of those speeches that the end are just Titanic. It's just phenomenal.

1:14:23 Seth: Yeah. I'll probably save this for the follow up discussion. But you see when he leaves and he goes into the woods, it's almost like he becomes Diogenes the Cynic. So he's talking looking for an honest man. He's talking about the dogs. He's living in a hole. Which points you in a completely different trajectory than obviously King Lear. There's no redemption to be found in that character.

1:14:47 Mark/Various: And we'll. I'm sure. We'll, we'll, we'll try parsing those speeches for whatever we can know about the philosophers, the cynical school, because that is a school of which there are no extant texts. So, like, all we know are just these stories about Diogenes roaming the streets and, you know, a few things like that. So we can probably even for our discussion, read what little bit there is about that.

1:15:08 Seth: Thanks for everybody.

1:15:09 Wes: Thanks, everyone.

1:15:10 Seth: Yes, thanks.

1:15:11 Unknown speaker: Thanks you guys.

1:15:12 Mark/Various: Yes, thank you for all of those.

1:15:13 Sara: This was fun.

1:15:14 Mark/Various: Thank you, listeners.

1:15:15 Seth: So long.

1:15:16 Jay: Good night, everybody.

1:15:17 Unknown speaker: Thanks.

Nice to meet you, Jonathan.

1:15:20 Mark/Various: Thanks, everybody.