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'THE Life of Tymon of Athens' was first | published in the folio collection of 1623; and immediately previous to that publication it was entered in the books of the Stationers' Company, as one of the plays "not formerly entered to other men." The text, in this first edition, has no division into acts and scenes. We have reason to believe that, with a few exceptions, it is accurately printed from the copy which was in the possession of Heminge and Condell; and we judged it important to follow that copy with very slight variations in the of The Pictorial' and other editions. The text which is ordinarily printed, that of Steevens, has undergone, in an almost unequalled extent, what the editors call "regulation." Steevens was a great master in this art of "regulation -a process by which what was originally printed as prose is sometimes transformed into verse, with the aid of transposition, omission, and substitution; and what, on the contrary, stood in the original as verse is changed into prose, because the ingenuity of the editor has been unable to render it strictly metrical. There are various other modes of “regulation,” which have been most extensively employed in 'Timon of Athens;' and the consequence is that some very important characteristics have been utterly destroyed in the modern copies the record has been obliterated. The task, however, which Steevens undertook was in some cases too difficult a one to be carried through consistently; and he has been compelled, therefore, to leave several passages, that invited his ambition to "regulate," even as he found them. For example, in that part of the first scene where Apemantus appears, we have a dialogue, of which Steevens thus speaks:—“The very imperfect state in which the ancient copy of this play has reached us leaves a doubt whether several short speeches in the present scene were designed for verse or prose;

I have, therefore, made no attempt at 'regulation."" Boswell upon this very sensibly asks, "Why should not the same doubt exist with regard to other scenes, in which Mr. Steevens has not acted with the same moderation?” It will be necessary that we should here call the attention of the reader to a few specimens of the difference between the ancient and the modern text.

The original presents to us in particular scenes a very considerable number of short lines, occurring in the most rapid succession. We have no parallel example in Shakspere of the frequency of their use. The hemistich is introduced with great effect in some of the finest passages in Lear.' But, in 'Timon of Athens,' its perpetual recurrence in some scenes is certainly not always a beauty. The "regulation," however, has not only concealed this peculiar feature, but has necessarily altered the structure of the verses preceding or following the hemistich. We print a few such passages in consecutive order :

Tim. I will dispatch you severally.

You to Lord Lucius, to Lord Lucullus you. I hunted with his honour to-day; you to Sempronius; commend me to their loves; and I am proud, say, that my occasions have found time

My father's age, and call him to long peace.

request be fifty talents.

It opens the eyes of expectation.

Performance is ever the duller for his act,

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.

Poet. 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 opulency."

We have thus prepared the reader, who is familiar with the ordinary text, not to rely upon it as a transcript of the ancient copies; and we shall now endeavour to show that, by a careful examination of the original, we may arrive at some conclusions with regard to this drama which have been hitherto entirely overlooked.

The disguises of the ancient text, which have been so long accepted without hesitation, have given to the 'Timon of Athens' something of the semblance of uniformity in the structure of the verse; although in reality the successive scenes, even in the modern text, present the most startling contrarieties to the ear which is accustomed to the versification of Shakspere. The ordinary explanation of this very striking characteristic is,

people,

The deed of saying is quite out of use.

To promise is most courtly and fashionable; Performance is a kind of will and testament Which argues a great sickness in his judgment That makes it.

Poet. 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 opulency."

MODERN COPIES.

ACT V. SCENE I.

"Painter. Good as 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

belief of the English editors. Another theory, which has been received in Germany, is, that the 'Timon,' being one of the latest of Shakspere's performances, has come down to us unfinished. The conviction to which we have ourselves arrived neither rests upon the probable corruption of the text, nor the possibility that the poet has left us only an unfinished draft of his performance; but upon the belief that the differences of style, as well as the more important differences in the cast of thought, which prevail in the successive scenes of this drama, are so remarkable as to justify the conclusion that it is not wholly the work of Shakspere. We think it will not be very difficult so to exhibit these differences in detail as to warrant us in requesting the reader's acquiescence in the principle which we seek to establish, namely, that the 'Timon of Athens' was a

play originally produced by an artist very inferior to Shakspere, and which probably retained possession of the stage for some time in its first form; that it has come down to us not only re-written, but so far re-modelled that entire scenes of Shakspere have been substituted for entire scenes of the elder play; | and lastly, that this substitution has been almost wholly confined to the character of Timon, and that in the development of that character alone, with the exception of some few occasional touches here and there, we must look for the unity of the Shaksperean conception of the Greek Misanthropos-the Timon of Aristophanes and Lucian and Plutarch—“ the enemy to mankind,” of the popular story books of the 'Pleasant Histories and excellent Novels,' which were greedily devoured by the contemporaries of the boyish Shakspere*.

The contrast of style which is to be traced throughout this drama is sufficiently striking in the two opening scenes which now constitute the first act. Nothing can be more free and flowing than the dialogue between the Poet and the Painter. It has all the equable graces of Shakspere's facility, with occasional examples of that condensation of poetical images which so distinguishes him from all other writers. For instance :

"All those which were his fellows but of late, (Some better than his value,) on the moment Follow his strides, his lobbies fill with tendance,

Rain sacrificial whisperings in his ear,

slightest particle of arrogance; he builds his munificence upon the necessity of gratifying without restraint the deep sympathies which he cherishes to all of the human family. He is the very model too of patrons, appearing to receive instead of to confer a favour in his reward of art,-a complete gentleman even in the act of purchasing a jewel of a tradesman. That the Apemantus of this scene belongs wholly to Shakspere is not to our minds qutie so certain. There is little of wit in any part of this dialogue; and the pelting volley of abuse between the Cynic, the Poet, and the Painter, might have been produced by any writer who was not afraid of exhibiting the tu quoque style of repartee which distinguishes the angry rhetoric of fish-wives and school-boys. Shakspere, however, has touched upon the original canvas; no one can doubt to whom these lines belong :

"So, so; there !— Aches contract and starve your supple joints!— That there should be small love 'mongst these sweet knaves,

And all this court'sy! The strain of man's bred

out

Into baboon and monkey."

These lines in the original are printed as prose; and they continued so to be printed by Theobald and the editors who succeeded him, probably from its not being considered that aches is a dis-syllable. This circumstance is a confirmation to us that the dialogue with Apemantus is not entirely Shak

him

Drink the free air."

The foreshadowing of the fate of Timon in the conclusion of this dialogue is part of the almost invariable system by which Shakspere very early infuses into his audience a dim notion of the catastrophe,-most frequently indeed in the shape of some presentiment. When Timon enters, we feel certain that he is the Timon of Shakspere's own conception. He is as graceful as he is generous; his prodigality is without the

*The Palace of Pleasure,' in which the story of Timon is found, was first published in 1575.

that, in all those passages of which there cannot be a doubt that they were wholly written by our poet, there is no confusion of prose for verse,—no difficulties whatever in the metrical arrangement, no opportunity presented for the exercise of any ingenuity in "regulation." It was this fact which first led us to perceive, and subsequently to trace, the differences between particular scenes and passages. Wherever the modern text follows the ancient text with very slight changes, there we could put our finger undoubtingly upon the work of Shakspere. Wherever the tinkering of Steevens had