Here comes the lady, let her witness it!"_ Timon of Athens, a wealthy, spendthrift lord, becomes bankrupt by his generous entertainment of friends, but maddened by their ingratitude, retires to a forest cave by the sea, giving this parting curse to the people of Athens, and later scattering gold among a band of thieves. Hear the self-ruined epicure: _"Let me look back upon thee, O thou wall That girdlest in those wolves! Dive in the earth, And fence not Athens! Matrons turn incontinent! Obedience fail in children! Slaves and fools, Pluck the grave, wrinkled senate from the bench And minister in their steads! To general filths Convert of the instant, green virginity! Do it in your parents' eyes! Bankrupts, hold fast; Rather than render back, out with your knives, And cut your trusters' throats! bound servants steal! Large-handed robbers your grave masters are; And kill by law! maid, to thy master's bed; Thy mistress is of the brothel! son of sixteen, Pluck the lined crutch from the old, limping sire; With it beat out his brains! piety, and fear Religion to the Gods, peace, justice, truth, Domestic awe, night-rest, and neighborhood, Instruction, manners, mysteries, and trades, Decrees, observances, customs and laws, Decline to your confounding contraries, And yet confusion live! 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 your youth; That 'gainst the stream of virtue they may strive, And drown themselves in riot! itches, blains, Sow all the Athenian blossoms; 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!_ * * * * *