Scaife ATLAS

CTS Library / Timon, or the Misanthrope

Timon, or the Misanthrope (14-16)

urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0062.tlg022.perseus-eng2:14-16
Refs {'start': {'reference': '14', 'human_reference': 'Section 14'}, 'end': {'reference': '16', 'human_reference': 'Section 16'}}
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As a matter of fact, you used to say that they acted absurdly in that they loved you to excess, yet did not dare to enjoy ‘you when they might, and instead of giving free rein to their passion when it lay in their power to do so, they kept watch and ward, looking fixedly at the seal and the bolt; for they thought it enjoyment

v.2.p.343
enough, not that they were able to enjoy you themselves, but that they were shutting out everyone else from a share in the enjoyment, like the dog in the manger that neither ate the barley herself nor permitted the hungry horse to eat it. Moreover, you laughed them to scorn because they scrimped and saved and, what is strangest of all, were jealous of themselves, all unaware that a cursed valet or a shackle-burnishing steward would slip in by stealth and play havoc, leaving his luckless, unloved master to sit up over his interests beside a dim, narrownecked lamp with a thirsty wick. Why, then, is it not unjust in you, after having found fault with that sort of thing in the past, to charge Timon with the opposite now?

RICHES Really, if you look into the truth, you will think that I do both with good reason, for Timon’s extreme laxity may fairly be deemed inconsiderate and unfriendly toward me; and on the other hand, when men kept me locked up in dark coffers, taking pains to get me fat and plump and overgrown, and neither laid a finger on me themselves nor brought me out into the light of day for fear that I might be seen by someone else, I used to consider them senseless and arrogant because they let me grow soft in such durance when I had done no wrong, and were unaware that after a little they would go away and leave me to some other favourite of fortune.

I have no praise, therefore, either for these men or for those who are very free with me, but only for those who will do what is best and observe modera-

v.2.p.345
tion in the thing, neither holding hands off altogether nor throwing me away outright. Look at it in this way, Zeus, in the name of Zeus. If a man should take a young and beautiful woman for his lawful wife and then should not keep watch of her or display jealousy at all, but should let her go wherever she would by night and by day and have to do with anyone who wished, nay more, should himself induce her to commit adultery, opening his doors and playing the go-between and inviting everybody in to her, would such a man appear to love her? You at least, Zeus, who have often been in love, would not say so!

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