H.




TIMON THE MISANTHROPE

_Timon. Zeus. Hermes. Plutus. Poverty. Gnathonides. Philiades. Demeas.
Thrasycles. Blepsias_.


_Tim_. O Zeus, thou arbiter of friendship, protector of the guest,
preserver of fellowship, lord of the hearth, launcher of the
lightning, avenger of oaths, compeller of clouds, utterer of thunder
(and pray add any other epithets; those cracked poets have plenty
ready, especially when they are in difficulties with their scansion;
then it is that a string of your names saves the situation and fills
up the metrical gaps), O Zeus, where is now your resplendent
lightning, where your deep-toned thunder, where the glowing, white-
hot, direful bolt? we know now 'tis all fudge and poetic moonshine--
barring what value may attach to the rattle of the names. That
renowned projectile of yours, which ranged so far and was so ready to
your hand, has gone dead and cold, it seems; never a spark left in it
to scorch iniquity.

If men are meditating perjury, a smouldering lamp-wick is as likely to
frighten them off it as the omnipotent's levin-bolt; the brand you
hold over them is one from which they see neither flame nor smoke can
come; a little soot-grime is the worst that need be apprehended from a