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Guide Prepared by Michael J. Cummings...©
2003.
Revised
in 2010.©...
'Tis not enough to help
the feeble up,
But to support him after.
(Timon of Athens, 1.1.127-128)
.
Type
of Work
.......Timon
of Athens is a stage play in the form of a tragedy. It has characteristics
of an allegory. In regard to
the latter, Timon appears to serve as a symbol or an abstraction, first
for philanthropy and then for misanthropy.
Key
Dates
Date
Written: Between 1605 and 1608 (probably 1607).
First
Performance: There are no records of a performance in Shakespeare's
lifetime. An adaptation of the play by Thomas Shadwell (1642-1692) was
staged in 1678.
Publication:
1623 as part of the First Folio, the first authorized collection of Shakespeare's
plays.
Sources
.......The
story of Timon of Athens is an ancient one. The playwright Phrynicus, an
important innovator in the development of Greek drama in the Fifth Century,
BC, centered one of his dramas on Timon, a legendary misanthrope. (Only
fragments of his plays survive.) In addition, the playwright Aristophanes(450-388
B.C.) refers to the Timon story in his popular comedy
Lysistrata,
when a chorus of old women sing the following lines:
Once there was a
certain man called Timon, a tough customer, and a whimsical, a true son
of the Furies, with a face that seemed to glare out of a thorn-bush. He
withdrew from the world because he couldn't abide bad men, after vomiting
a thousand curses at them. He had a holy horror of ill-conditioned fellows,
but he was mighty tender towards women. (Anonymous Translator)
These stories were handed down
to the Greek biographer Plutarch (46?-120?), who
refers to Timon in his Life of Marcus Antonius (Mark Antony), and
to the Greek satirist Lucian (125-200), who wrote a work entitled Timon,
or The Misanthrope. One of Lucian's favorite topics was the inability
of people to realize how empty and temporary are wealth and luxury. Shakespeare
is believed to have consulted these works by Plutarch and Lucian. In addition,
he is said to have read a story about Timon in a collection of tales entitled
Palace
of Pleasure, by William Painter (1525-1595).
Settings
.......The
action in the play takes place in Athens, the walls outside the city, and
the city's neighboring woods. Individual scenes are set in rooms of Timon's
house, a senator's house, Lucullus's house, Sempronius's house, a public
place, the Senate house, the environs outside the city, and Timon's cave
and the surrounding woods, near the seashore.
.Characters
.
Protagonist: Timon
Antagonists: Timon's
Faithless Beneficiaries, His Own Stubborn Misanthropy
.
Timon (rhymes with
Simon): Athenian who becomes a misanthrope and a cave-dwelling hermit
after citizens take advantage of his generosity, then refuse to help him
when he runs out of money.
Lucius, Sempronius, Lucullus:
Lords who are false friends of Timon. (Note: Lucius is also the
name of a servant in the play.)
Ventidius: Another
of Timon's false friends.
Apemantus: Cynical
philosopher who warns Timon that his friends are using him..
 Flavius:
Loyal steward of Timon. He is the only character in the play who remains
a friend of Timon to the end.
Alcibiades: An Athenian
general wronged by Athens.
Timandra, Phrynia:
Mistresses of Alcibiades.
Old Athenians
Flaminius, Lucilius,
Servilius: Servants of Timon.
Caphis, Philotus, Titus,
Lucius, Hortensius: Servants of Timon's creditors.
Poet, Painter, Jeweller,
Merchant
Page, Fool, Three Strangers
Cupid and Amazons:
Entertainers performing in a masque.
Minor Characters:
Other lords, senators, officers, soldiers, banditti (bandits), attendants.
Plot
Summary
By
Michael J. Cummings...©
2003
.
.......Timon
of Athens likes nothing better than to please his friends. He lavishes
gifts on them, holds entertainments for them, grants dowries to them. The
word around Athens is that if you ask Timon for something, you shall receive
it in abundance. Give Timon a gift, and he shall give you one with triple
the value. So it is that the citizens of Athens flock to him to flatter,
praise, and esteem him. Painters paint him. Writers write him. Everyone
does everything for Timon, the jolliest (and richest) of good fellows.
Their attentions will surely bring them a handsome reward.
.......One
citizen, the cynical philosopher Apemantus, warns Timon that his friends
are parasites who care only for his gold. If Timon continues to squander
money on them, Apemantus says, he will bankrupt himself: “Thou givest so
long, Timon, I fear me thou wilt give away thyself in paper shortly: what
need these feasts, pomps, and vain-glories?” (1.2.214).
.......Timon’s
honest and loyal steward, Flavius, also cautions Timon that his extravagance
will one day lead to his ruin. Ruin eventually arrives in the form of unpaid
bills, one of them six weeks overdue. When Timon tells Flavius to sell
his lands, Flavius says,
’Tis
all engag’d, some forfeited and gone;
And
what remains will hardly stop the mouth
Of
present dues; the future comes apace. (2.2.137-139)
.......When
Timon turns for help to the very people upon whom he showered his favors,
they give him only cold shoulders and excuses. Their friendship, it seems,
is as empty as Timon’s purse. He then announces a great banquet and invites
these same people to partake. Believing he must have come into new wealth,
they gladly accept his invitation. However, after they arrive, Timon serves
them lukewarm water, throws some in their faces, and says, “Live loath’d
and long, / Most smiling, smooth, detested parasites” (3.6.53-54). Throwing
dishes at them, he drives them out of his house and then quits Athens (Act
IV), vowing never to return. Turning to look at the wall of the city one
last time, he heaps a soliloquy of curses upon Athens and its citizens.
Part of the soliloquy, which constitutes all of Scene I, follows:
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,
Sow
all the Athenian bosoms, and their crop
Be
general leprosy! Breath infect breath,
That
their society, as their friendship, may
Be
merely poison! Nothing I’ll bear from thee
But
nakedness, thou detestable town! (4.1.23-35)
.......Taking
up residence in a cave near the sea, he lives off the land and spends most
of his waking hours bitterly denouncing fickle humankind. One day, while
digging for roots to eat, he finds gold, a great cache of it. He is rich
once again. It so happens that General Alcibiades, who has also been wronged
by the Athenians and has been banished from Athens, comes upon Timon in
the woods near the cave. Timon greets him rudely: “The canker gnaw thy
heart, / For showing me again the eyes of man!” (4. 3. 52-53). But Alcibiades
treats Timon with respect, telling him he has heard of the wrongdoing done
to him. When Alcibiades mentions that he is gathering an army to  make
war on Athens, Timon sees an opportunity for revenge and gives him gold
to finance the venture.
.......After
Alcibiades departs, the pesky philosopher Apemantus arrives at Timon’s
cave to offer his annoying advice and wisdom. He urges Timon to “Be thou
a flatterer now, and seek to thrive / By that which has undone thee . .
.” (4. 3. 222-223). Timon returns only insults, and soon the conversation
becomes a duel of mocks and scorns. “Would thou wert clean enough to spit
upon!” (4. 3. 341) says Timon. Apemantus retorts: “A plague on thee, thou
art too bad to curse” (4. 3. 342).
.......Word
of Timon’s new-found gold spreads, and two bandits descend upon the cave
to steal their fair share. Timon does not shrink from the robbers; nor
does he try to protect his cache of gold. Instead, he willingly gives them
gold—and a harangue urging them to “take wealth and lives together” (4.
3. 418) and “cut throats” (4. 3. 430). His hatred for humankind is so strong
that it nearly shocks the bandits into becoming honest men.
.......After
the bandits leave, the good and worthy Flavius arrives at the cave seeking
the company and love of his master. At first Timon rebukes him, too. Later,
when he realizes that Flavius has come in search of companionship, not
gold, Timon praises him as the only honest man on earth, then gives him
a large portion of gold and bids him adieu. Next to arrive at the cave
are a poet and a painter, whom Timon sends away, and two representatives
of the Athenian senate, who praise Timon and then ask for gold to purchase
the means to shore up their defenses against the invading army of Alcibiades.
.......Timon
tells the senators that he has been busy writing his epitaph, which “will
be seen to-morrow. My long sickness / Of health and living now begins to
mend” (5. 1. 183-184). When he tells them he will do a kindness for his
countrymen in Athens, the senators think Timon has come to his senses and
will aid them. But Timon dashes their hopes when he explains that the kindness
he has in mind is an invitation to Athenians to come out and hang themselves
on a useless tree that Timon plans to cut down. Timon then dismisses the
senators. Thus, their only recourse is to prostrate themselves before Alcibiades
and beg mercy. Back at the walls of Athens, Alcibiades agrees to spare
the innocent and destroy only those who wronged him and Timon. A soldier
then arrives with news that Timon has died. He shows the general a wax
copy of the inscription on Timon’s gravestone:
Here
lies a wretched corse [corpse], of 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 gait. (5.4.84-87)
Alcibiades
praises Timon as noble and says he will pursue a course of peace in Athens.
.
.
.
Climax
.......The
climax of a play or a narrative work, such as a short story or a novel,
can be defined as (1) the turning point at which the conflict begins to
resolve itself for better or worse, or as (2) the final and most exciting
event in a series of events. The climax in Timon of Athens occurs, according
to both definitions, in the final scene of Act 3 in the banquet room of
Timon’s house. There, Timon exposes his so-called friends as frauds, drives
them away, and denounces the world, saying, “Burn, house! Sink, Athens!
Henceforth hated be / Of Timon, man, and all humanity!” (3.6.64-65)..
.Satirical
Undertone
.......Timon
of Athens has been interpreted as a mockery of the spendthrift ways
of England's James I (1566-1625), the first king of the House of Stuart.
He reigned from 1603 to 1625. His personal extravangance ate deeply into
state coffers, and Parliament was reluctant to approve special appropriations
to meet his expenses. However, the skill of his chief advisor, Robert Cecil
(who was made Earl of Salisbury in 1605), helped keep the financial ship
of state from foundering..
.
.
Structure
and Characterization
.
.......Scholars
generally do not include Timon of Athens among Shakespeare's greatest
plays. For example, G. B. Harrison says, "Timon is generally regarded as
an unsatisfactory play. The characterization is poor and the plot as uneven
as the poetry" (1317). Underdevelopment of the characters
may leave the audience or the reader in doubt about the motives of the
characters. Another problem is the dialogue: At times it jerks back and
forth haphazardly between verse and prose. Note, for instance, that in
the following passage Apemantus addresses Timon in verse, then answers
him in prose.
APEMANTUS
What a coil’s1
here!
Serving
of becks2
and jutting out of bums!3
I
doubt whether their legs be worth the sums
That
are given for ’em. Friendship’s full of dregs:
Methinks,
false hearts should never have sound legs.
Thus
honest fools lay out their wealth on curtsies.
TIMON
Now, Apemantus, if thou wert not sullen,
I
would be good to thee.
APEMANTUS
No, I’ll nothing; for if I should be bribed too, there would be none left
to rail upon thee, and then thou wouldst sin the faster. Thou givest so
long, Timon, I fear me thou wilt give away thyself in paper shortly: what
need these feasts, pomps, and vain-glories? (1.2.206-213)
The play
ends abruptly.
.......Among
theories presented to explain deficiencies in the play are the following:
(1) It is a copy of an unfinished or unrevised draft; (2) it was unskillfully
edited or revised by a theatre company; (3) it was written by another author
and rewritten by Shakespeare; (5) it was co-written by Shakespeare and
another author—Thomas Middleton has been mentioned as the second author—resulting
in stylistic and structural problems; (6) Shakespeare was bored at having
to write another tragedy—Timon is the last ascribed to him—and therefore
he rushed through his task.
.......However,
the play may be better than many critics believe. If regarded as a fable
or an allegory—with Timon serving as a symbol or an abstraction, first
for philanthropy and then for misanthropy—Shakespeare's handling of the
story seems appropriate.
Work
Cited
Harrison,
G. B. Shakespeare: the Complete Works. New York: Harcourt, 1952
.
Timon's
Curses: Metaphors of Hate
.
.......Beginning
in Act 3, Shakespeare devotes many lines to metaphors and other figures
of speech centering on Timon’s hatred of humankind. For example, Timon,
speaking to lords and senators who have benefited from his generosity,
compares them to insects and animals.
Live loath’d, and long,
Most
smiling, smooth, detested parasites,
Courteous
destroyers, affable wolves, meek bears,
You
fools of fortune,4 trencher-friends,5
time’s flies,
Cap-and-knee
slaves,6 vapours,
and minute-jacks!7
Of
man and beast the infinite malady
Crust
you quite o’er! (3.6.53-58)
In a soliloquy
that begins Act 4, Timon calls down curses on the ingrates who drained
him of money, then refused to help him pay his debts.
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,
Sow
all the Athenian bosoms; and their crop
Be
general leprosy! Breath infect breath,
That
at their society, as their friendship, may
Be
merely poison! Nothing I’ll bear from thee,
But
nakedness, thou detestable town!
Take
thou that too, with multiplying bans!
Timon
will to the woods; where he shall find
The
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. (4.1.25-42)
Later,
in the same act, Timon epitomizes his attitude when he tells Alcibiades:
I
am Misanthropos,8
and hate mankind.
For
thy part, I do wish thou wert a dog,
That
I might love thee something. (4.3.56-58)
Figures
of Speech
Following are examples of
figures of speech in the play.
Alliteration
It grieves me
to see so
many
dip their meat
In one man’s
blood; and all the madness is,
He cheers them up too.(1.2.42-44)
Immediate
are my needs, and my
relief
Must
not be toss’d and turn’d to me in words,
(2.1.29-30)
Anaphora
If you suspect my
husbandry9
or falsehood,
Call me before the exactest
auditors,
And set me on the proof.
So the gods bless me,
When
all
our offices have been oppress’d
With riotous feeders, when
our vaults have wept
With drunken spilth of wine,
when
every room
Hath blaz’d with lights
and bray’d with minstrelsy,
I have retir’d me to a wasteful
cock,
And set mine eyes at flow.
(2.2.147-154)
Metaphor
He [Flavius] pours
it out; Plutus, the god of gold,
Is but his steward: no meed
but he repays
Sevenfold above itself;
no gift to him
But breeds the giver a return
exceeding
All use of quittance.10
(1.1.301-305)
Comparison of Timon's
steward, Flavius, to the god of gold
Has friendship such a faint
and milky heart
It turns in less than two
nights? (3.1.24-25)
Comparison of friendship
to a living creature
I have
Prompted you in the ebb
of your estate
And your great flow of debts.
My loved lord,
Though you hear now, too
late, yet now’s a time (2.2.130-132)
Comparison of Timon's
financial status to a liquid
’Tis deepest winter in Lord
Timon’s purse;
That is, one may reach deep
enough, and yet
Find little. (3.4.25-27)
Comparison of Timon's
financial status to winter
Oxymoron
[M]uch
of this will make black white, foul fair,
Wrong
right, base noble, old young, coward valiant. (4.3.30-31).
Courteous
destroyers, affable wolves, meek bears (3.6.55)
Poetry
In addition to verse and
prose passages, Timon of Athens also contains poetry with end rhyme,
which is interjected into conversations. Apemantus, for example, presents
the following:
Immortal
gods, I crave no pelf;11
I
pray for no man but myself:
Grant
I may never prove so fond,
To
trust man on his oath or bond;
Or
a harlot for her weeping;
Or
a dog that seems a-sleeping;
Or
a keeper with my freedom;
Or
my friends, if I should need ’em.
Amen.
So fall to ’t:
Rich
men sin, and I eat root. (1.2.62-71)
.
.
.
Themes
.
One
cannot buy friendship. Timon spends lavishly on the citizens of Athens,
presumably to earn and preserve their friendship. But when his money is
gone, his so-called friends desert him.
"The
love of money," as the Bible says, "is the root of all evil." Timon's
friends pretend to love him, but it is his money that they love. Their
greed brings out the worst in Timon and themselves. Shakespeare also developed
this theme in other plays, notably The Merchant of Venice, in which
a note in the golden casket says, "All that glitters is not gold." In King
Lear, the lust for property and wealth is a key motivation. This lust
embitters Lear, just as it does Timon.
Hatred
is a fatal disease. We do not know the pathology of Timon's death,
perhaps because the cause of it lodged in his mind—a burning, unremitting
hatred that consumed his soul rather than his body.
Timon’s
Road to Ruin
.......From
the outset of the play, Timon walks the road to ruin, mainly because he
is unduly generous. In the first scene of the play, a poet calls attention
to Timon's unbridled generosity, telling a painter,
You
see how all conditions, how all minds—
As
well of glib and slippery creatures as
Of
grave and austere quality—tender down
Their
services to Lord Timon: his large fortune,
Upon
his good and gracious nature hanging,
Subdues
and properties to his love and tendance
All
sorts of hearts. (1.1.65-71)
.......But
liberality of coin is not the only fault that dooms Timon. Another is poor
management of his finances, for he keeps no careful account of his assets
and debts. When insolvency overtakes him, he tells his loyal steward, Flavius,
to sell his lands to pay what he owes. However, Flavius informs him that
he has already sold available lands. Timon is down to the change in his
pocket. And it lacks jingle.
.......Still
another fault of Timon is his inability to judge people. He gives freely
of his money to anyone who wears the mask of friend. But when bankruptcy
arrives and Timon asks his friends for help, circumstances unmask them
as opportunists. At this point, Timon could fight back. But instead he
resigns himself to his fate, alienates himself, and chews the bitterroot
of hatred.
Notes
1....coil:
Ado, fuss
2....becks:
Gestures of respect; bows
3....bums:
Buttocks
4....fools
of fortune: Fortune hunters who abandon their quest when their interests
are not served.
5....trencher-friends:
Persons who pretend to be friendly to get a free meal.
6....Cap-and-knee
slaves: Persons who doff their caps and go down on their knees to beg
for something.
7....minute-jacks:
Clock figures that strike the hour. Timon means that his guests are timeservers,
people who seek advantage by adjusting their principles to a particular
time or occasion. They are opportunists, gold diggers.
8....Misanthropos:
Hater of humankind.
9....husbandry:
management of household affairs.
10.
quittance:
legal discharge of a debt
11.
pelf:
profit; money; ill-gotten gain.
.
Study
Questions and Essay Topics
1. In an essay, analyze Timon’s
personality and character. One question you should address is this: Does
Timon’s generosity early in the ....play result
from an abnormal desire to be loved and praised?
2. Why does Flavius remain
loyal to Timon while his other acquaintances rebuff him?
3. If Timon had a wife and
children, would he be a different man?
4. Write a comparison-contrast
essay addressing this question: In what ways is Timon similar to, and different
from, Charles Dickens’s character Ebenezer Scrooge (A Christmas Carol).
As a starting point, consider using the following observation: Timon, at
first kind and generous, becomes cruel and bitter. Scrooge, at first cruel
and bitter, becomes kind and generous.
..
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on DVD (or VHS)
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Nunn |
Ian
McKellen, Michael Grandage |
| Othello
(1965) |
Stuart
Burge |
Laurence
Olivier, Frank Finlay |
| Othello
(1955) |
Orson
Welles |
Orson
Welles |
| Othello
(1983) |
Franklin
Melton |
Peter
MacLean, Bob Hoskins, Jenny Agutter |
| Ran
(1985) Japanese Version of King Lear |
Akira
Kurosawa |
Tatsuya
Nakadai, Akira Terao |
| Richard
II (2001) |
John
Farrell |
Matte
Osian, Kadina de Elejalde |
| Richard
III (1912) |
André
Calmettes, James Keane |
Robert
Gemp, Frederick Warde |
| Richard
III - Criterion Collection (1956) |
Laurence
Olivier |
Laurence
Olivier, Ralph Richardson |
| Richard
III (1995) |
Richard
Loncraine |
Ian
McKellen, Annette Bening |
| Richard
III |
BBC
Production |
Ron
Cook, Brian Protheroe, Michael Byrne |
| Romeo
and Juliet (1968) |
Franco
Zeffirelli |
Leonard
Whiting, Olivia Hussey |
| Romeo
and Juliet (1996) |
Baz
Luhrmann |
Leonardo
DiCaprio, Claire Danes |
| Romeo
and Juliet (1976) |
Joan
Kemp-Welch |
Christopher
Neame, Ann Hasson |
| Romeo
and Juliet |
BBC
Production |
John
Gielgud, Rebecca Saire, Patrick Ryecart |
| The
Taming of the Shrew |
Franco
Zeffirelli |
Elizabeth
Taylor, Richard Burton |
| The
Taming of the Shrew |
Kirk
Browning |
Raye
Birk, Earl Boen, Ron Boussom |
| The
Taming of The Shrew |
Not
Listed |
Franklin
Seales, Karen Austin |
| The
Tempest |
Paul
Mazursky |
John
Cassavetes, Gena Rowlands |
| The
Tempest (1998) |
Jack
Bender |
Peter
Fonda, John Glover, Harold Perrineau, |
| Throne
of Blood (1961) Macbeth in Japan |
Akira
Kurosawa |
Toshirô
Mifune, Isuzu Yamada |
| Twelfth
Night (1996) |
Trevor
Nunn |
Helena
Bonham Carter |
| Twelfth
Night |
BBC
Production |
Not
Listed |
| The
Two Gentlemen of Verona |
BBC
Production |
John
Hudson, Joanne Pearce |
| The
Winter's Tale (2005) |
Greg
Doran |
Royal
Shakespeare Company |
| The
Winter's Tale |
BBC
Production |
Not
Listed |
|
