a bonobo humanity?

Mmm… methinks thou did it to thyself…

Early on in Timon of Athens, a Shakespeare play, though apparently co-written by Thomas Middleton, Timon, a rich Greek, but intent, it seems, on giving his money away, is approached by an ‘old man’, on the subject of his only daughter’s marriage. She has apparently fallen for one Lucilius, a servant of Timon, much to her father’s chagrin. Apparently Lucilius has been courting the maiden, but her father is hoping for richer pickings:

One only daughter have I, no kin else
On whom I may confer what I have got.
The maid is fair, o’ th’ youngest for a bride,
And I have bred her at my dearest cost
In qualities of the best. This man of thine
Attempts her love. I prithee, noble lord,
Join with me to forbid him her resort.
Myself have spoke in vain.

I like the term ‘bred’ here. Methinks of horses. Anyway, Timon speaks highly of his honest servant, but it’s money that the father’s concerned about, honesty be damned. 

TIMON  The man is honest.
OLD MAN  Therefore he will be, Timon.
 His honesty rewards him in itself;
 It must not bear my daughter.
TIMON  Does she love him?
OLD MAN  She is young and apt.
 Our own precedent passions do instruct us
 What levity’s in youth.
TIMON ⌜to Lucilius⌝  Love you the maid?
LUCILIUS  Ay, my good lord, and she accepts of it.
OLD MAN If in her marriage my consent be missing—
 I call the gods to witness—I will choose
 Mine heir from forth the beggars of the world
 And dispossess her all.

So yeah, all standard patriarchy, along with gold-digging. If he doesn’t get money from this future husband he’ll dispossess the daughter as a bad investment. But not to worry, Timon to the rescue:

TIMON 
 This gentleman of mine hath served me long.
 To build his fortune, I will strain a little,
 For ’tis a bond in men. Give him thy daughter.
 What you bestow, in him I’ll counterpoise,
 And make him weigh with her.
OLD MAN   Most noble lord,
 Pawn me to this your honor, she is his.

Job done, and the daughter, whatshername, has her future assured, for better or worse, by three blokes. At least she’s accepting, which isn’t necessarily a ringing endorsement. But is this Timon’s Athens or Shakespeare’s England? Both, perhaps, but mostly England. 

Timon’s story, in Shakespeare’s hands and in those of his ancient predecessors, is much the same. According to Lucian:

To speak the truth, his probity, humanity, and charity to the poor, have been the ruin of him, or rather, in fact, his own folly, easiness of disposition, and want of judgment in his choice of friends; he never discovered that he was giving away his all to wolves and ravens….

So basically it’s a fun romp from riches to rags. Funny that this sort of thing rarely ever happens in real life. Interestingly, though, there’s a contemporary relevance in this play written in the early years of James I’s reign, in which he revealed himself to be rather more lavish in conferring gifts and titles than cousin Elizabeth I. Then again, Shakespeare was always smart at avoiding offence to the current monarchy, unlike some of his contemporaries.

One of the most interestingly-named characters in the play is Apemantus, presented as a kind of archetypical misanthrope, whose critiques of Timon and others aren’t much to be trusted due to their sameness, but it’s interesting that his nature is a foretaste of things to come for Timon. In any case Apemantus is there to amuse and shake the head at, but Flavius, the faithful servant, is the one to provide the reality check.

FLAVIUS
If you suspect my husbandry ⌜of⌝ falsehood,
Call me before th’ exactest auditors,
And set me on the proof. So the gods bless me,
When all our offices have been oppressed
With riotous feeders, when our vaults have wept
With drunken spilth of wine, when every room
Hath blazed with lights and brayed with minstrelsy,
I have retired me to a wasteful cock
And set mine eyes at flow.
TIMON Prithee, no more.
FLAVIUS
Heavens, have I said, the bounty of this lord!
How many prodigal bits have slaves and peasants
This night englutted. Who is not Timon’s?
What heart, head, sword, force, means, but is Lord
Timon’s?
Great Timon, noble, worthy, royal Timon!
Ah, when the means are gone that buy this praise,
The breath is gone whereof this praise is made.
Feast-won, fast-lost. One cloud of winter showers,
These flies are couched.

Now, I’m taking this from the Folger Library version, unannotated, and I’m not fluent in Elizabethan or Jacobean, but I’m guessing that the prodigal bits englutted by those low-class scumbags weren’t fully appreciated, peasants being ever peasants. And that couch-blown flies aren’t the same as fly-blown couches.  In any case, I’m sensing that the tide is already turning here in Act 2. In fact it all happens as suddenly as a stock market crash. But friendship and money don’t go together in the world I live in. People might buy each other drinks every now and then, but it’s hardly a creditor-debtor thing. Timon’s world however seems to be about nothing but over-giving and over-taking. A deliberately exaggerated world, methinks, more like a lab experiment. 

But let me try to understand some of the language. Here’s some lines, from Act 3 Scene 2. Some ‘strangers’ are chatting, having observed someone ‘regretting’ that they can’t help Timon out with a loan. 

FIRST STRANGER  Do you observe this, Hostilius?
SECOND STRANGER  Ay, too well.
FIRST STRANGER  Why, this is the world’s soul, and just of the same
 piece
 Is every flatterer’s sport. Who can call him his friend
 That dips in the same dish? For, in my knowing,
 Timon has been this lord’s father
 And kept his credit with his purse,
 Supported his estate, nay, Timon’s money
 Has paid his men their wages. He ne’er drinks
 But Timon’s silver treads upon his lip.

So I understand some but by no means all of this. Take these words – ‘this is the world’s soul, and just of the same piece is every flatterer’s sport’ – ?!!

But, guess what? Every Shakespeare play now has a Shakescleare translation! God bless the Internet! I knew they’d come through! Here’s all the lines quoted above translated by Billy-Bob Shakescleare!

FIRST STRANGER: Did you see that Hostilius?

SECOND Stranger: Yes

FIRST STRANGER: That’s what the world is like, and every flatterer is the same. What is a friend who takes so much? Timon was so good to Lucilius, and kept him afloat with his own money. It’s Timon who paid for his servants, and he never enjoys anything that does not owe itself to him. But how monstrous he looks for being so ungrateful! He denies him what rich men would give to beggars.

THIRD STRANGER: It’s unholy.

FIRST STRANGER: I myself have never received anything from Timon, and am not his friend. But I swear on all of his good qualities that if he approached me for money, I would have given him something. I like him that much. Men don’t know how to give and value shrewd money-making over their conscience.

https://www.folger.edu/explore/shakespeares-works/timon-of-athens/read/

https://www.folger.edu/explore/shakespeares-works/timon-of-athens/timon-of-athens-a-modern-perspective/

https://www.shakespeare.org.uk/explore-shakespeare/shakespedia/shakespeares-plays/timon-athens/

https://www.litcharts.com/shakescleare/shakespeare-translations/timon-of-athens