“All men did he hate, nor loved himself, nor his kindred,— One hating mankind was the name, worthy of him, he bore. This faultiness and disease from the black bile arise, When freely it flows heavy cares it increases. Wherefore from a pear tree he is said to have fallen, To have broken his legs, nor help to have sought for the evil. From pleasant companions, and sweet conversation They who withdraw themselves, cruel wounds have to bear. Wretched this state of theirs, sorrowful what sighs they draw, And though never a cause arise, ’tis their wish to have died. But thou, while the power remains, join thy well-known companion, Thee overwhelmed he strengthens, and free sets the heart from its grief. Whom, with a friend that is pleasing, never intercourse touches, Without companionship, long without assistance they remain. Either the gods are our own, or false feeling perverteth the soul, And you fancy men stupid, and their hearts all are vain. To us at length reasoning power freely being granted, Into light do thou send them, if of light thou art mindful.” The character here sketched is deficient in the thorough heartiness of hatred for which Shakespeare’s Timon is distinguished, yet may it have served him for the primal material out of which to create the drama. In Sambucus there is a mistiness of thought and language which might be said almost to prefigure the doubtful utterances of some of our modern philosophers, but in Shakespeare the master himself takes in hand the pencil of true genius, and by the contrasts and harmonies, the unmistakeable delineations and portraitures, lays on the canvas a picture as rich in its colouring as it is constant in its fidelity to nature, and as perfect in its finish as it is bold in its conceptions. The extravagance of Timon’s hatred may be gathered from only a few of his expressions,— “Burn, house! sink, Athens! henceforth hated be Of Timon man and all humanity.” _Timon of Athens_, act iii. sc. 6, l. 103 “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.” Act iv. sc. 1, l. 35. “All is oblique; There’s nothing level in our cursed natures But direct villany. Therefore be abhorr’d All feasts, societies and throngs of men.” Act iv. sc. 3, l. 18 “I am misanthropos, and hate mankind. For thy part, I do wish thou wert a dog, That I might love thee something.” Act iv. sc. 3, l. 51