] in italics;
a line Tolstoi would, no doubt, think stupid-pompous. Timon ought to
have known his steward, one might say in Tolstoi's spirit, as Lear
should have known his daughters; but this is still the tragedy, which
Shakespeare wishes to emphasize that his hero was blind in trusting.
Towards the end Shakespeare speaks through Timon quite unfeignedly:
Richard II. said characteristically:
"Nor I nor any man that but man is
With nothing shall be pleased, till he be eased
With being nothing:"
And Timon says to Flavius:
"My long sickness
Of health and living now begins to mend
And nothing brings me all things."
Then the end:
"Timon hath made his everlasting mansion
Upon the beached verge of the salt flood...."
We must not leave this play before noticing the overpowering erotic
strain in Shakespeare which suits Timon as little as it suited Lear. The
long discussion with Phrynia and Timandra is simply dragged in: neither
woman is characterized: Shakespeare-Timon eases himself in pages of
erotic raving:
".
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