_Pain._ Good as the best. Promising is the very air o' the[2648][2652] time: it opens the eyes of expectation: performance is ever[2648] the duller for his act; and, but in the plainer and simpler[2648] kind of people, the deed of saying is quite out of use. To[2648][2653] 25 promise is most courtly and fashionable: performance is a[2648] kind of will or testament which argues a great sickness in[2648] his judgement that makes it.[2648][2654] [_Timon comes from his cave, behind._ _Tim._ [_Aside_] Excellent workman! thou canst not[2648] paint a man so bad as is thyself.[2648][2655] 30 _Poet._ I am thinking what I shall say I have provided[2648] for him: it must be a personating of himself; a satire against[2648] the softness of prosperity, with a discovery of the infinite[2648] flatteries that follow youth and opulency.[2648] _Tim._ [_Aside_] Must thou needs stand for a villain in[2648] 35 thine own work? wilt thou whip thine own faults in other[2648] men? Do so, I have gold for thee.[2648] _Poet._ Nay, let's seek him:[2656] Then do we sin against our own estate,[2656] When we may profit meet, and come too late.[2656] 40 _Pain._ True;[2656] When the day serves, before black-corner'd night,[2656][2657] Find what thou want'st by free and offer'd light.[2656] Come.[2656][2658] _Tim._ [_Aside_] I'll meet you at the turn. What a god's gold,[2659] 45 That he is worshipp'd in a baser temple[2659][2660] Than where swine feed![2659][2661] 'Tis thou that rigg'st the bark and plough'st the foam,[2662] Settlest admired reverence in a slave: To thee be worship! and thy saints for aye[2663][2664] 50 Be crown'd with plagues, that thee alone obey![2664] Fit I meet them.[2665] [_Coming forward._ _Poet._ Hail, worthy Timon! _Pain._ Our late noble master! _Tim._ Have I once lived to see two honest men?[2666] _Poet._ Sir, 55 Having often of your open bounty tasted,[2667] Hearing you were retired, your friends fall'n off, Whose thankless natures--O abhorred spirits!--[2668] Not all the whips of heaven are large enough--[2669] What! to you,[2670] 60 Whose star-like nobleness gave life and influence To their whole being! I am rapt, and cannot cover[2671][2672] The monstrous bulk of this ingratitude[2672] With any size of words. _Tim._ Let it go naked, men may see't the better:[2673] 65 You that are honest, by being what you are, Make them best seen and known.[2674]