No Fear Shakespeare: Timon of Athens: Act 4 Scene 1

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Original Text	Modern Text
Enter TIMON.	Enter TIMON.
TIMON Let me look back upon thee. O thou wall That girdles in those wolves, dive in the earth And fence not Athens! Matrons, turn incontinent! Obedience fail in children! Slaves and fools, 5 Pluck the grave wrinkled Senate from the bench And minister in their steads! To general filths Convert o’ th’ instant, green virginity! Do ’t in your parents’ eyes! Bankrupts, hold fast! Rather than render back, out with your knives 10 And cut your trusters’ throats! Bound servants, steal! Large-handed robbers your grave masters are, And pill by law. Maid, to thy master’s bed! Thy mistress is o’ th’ brothel. Son of sixteen, Pluck the lined crutch from thy old limping sire; 15 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, Degrees, observances, customs, and laws, 20 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 25 As lamely as their manners! Lust and liberty, Creep in the minds and marrows of our youth, That ’gainst the stream of virtue they may strive And drown themselves in riot! Itches, blains, Sow all th’ Athenian bosoms, and their crop 30 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! Take thou that too, with multiplying bans! 35 Timon will to the woods, where he shall find Th’ unkindest beast more kinder than mankind. The gods confound—hear me, you good gods all!— Th’ Athenians both within and out that wall, And grant, as Timon grows, his hate may grow 40 To the whole race of mankind, high and low! Amen.	TIMON Let me look back upon thee. O thou wall That girdles in those wolves, dive in the earth And fence not Athens! Matrons, turn incontinent! Obedience fail in children! Slaves and fools, 5 Pluck the grave wrinkled Senate from the bench And minister in their steads! To general filths Convert o’ th’ instant, green virginity! Do ’t in your parents’ eyes! Bankrupts, hold fast! Rather than render back, out with your knives 10 And cut your trusters’ throats! Bound servants, steal! Large-handed robbers your grave masters are, And pill by law. Maid, to thy master’s bed! Thy mistress is o’ th’ brothel. Son of sixteen, Pluck the lined crutch from thy old limping sire; 15 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, Degrees, observances, customs, and laws, 20 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 25 As lamely as their manners! Lust and liberty, Creep in the minds and marrows of our youth, That ’gainst the stream of virtue they may strive And drown themselves in riot! Itches, blains, Sow all th’ Athenian bosoms, and their crop 30 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! Take thou that too, with multiplying bans! 35 Timon will to the woods, where he shall find Th’ unkindest beast more kinder than mankind. The gods confound—hear me, you good gods all!— Th’ Athenians both within and out that wall, And grant, as Timon grows, his hate may grow 40 To the whole race of mankind, high and low! Amen.
He exits.	He exits.

Original Text	Modern Text
Enter TIMON.	Enter TIMON.
TIMON Let me look back upon thee. O thou wall That girdles in those wolves, dive in the earth And fence not Athens! Matrons, turn incontinent! Obedience fail in children! Slaves and fools, 5 Pluck the grave wrinkled Senate from the bench And minister in their steads! To general filths Convert o’ th’ instant, green virginity! Do ’t in your parents’ eyes! Bankrupts, hold fast! Rather than render back, out with your knives 10 And cut your trusters’ throats! Bound servants, steal! Large-handed robbers your grave masters are, And pill by law. Maid, to thy master’s bed! Thy mistress is o’ th’ brothel. Son of sixteen, Pluck the lined crutch from thy old limping sire; 15 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, Degrees, observances, customs, and laws, 20 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 25 As lamely as their manners! Lust and liberty, Creep in the minds and marrows of our youth, That ’gainst the stream of virtue they may strive And drown themselves in riot! Itches, blains, Sow all th’ Athenian bosoms, and their crop 30 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! Take thou that too, with multiplying bans! 35 Timon will to the woods, where he shall find Th’ unkindest beast more kinder than mankind. The gods confound—hear me, you good gods all!— Th’ Athenians both within and out that wall, And grant, as Timon grows, his hate may grow 40 To the whole race of mankind, high and low! Amen.	TIMON Let me look back upon thee. O thou wall That girdles in those wolves, dive in the earth And fence not Athens! Matrons, turn incontinent! Obedience fail in children! Slaves and fools, 5 Pluck the grave wrinkled Senate from the bench And minister in their steads! To general filths Convert o’ th’ instant, green virginity! Do ’t in your parents’ eyes! Bankrupts, hold fast! Rather than render back, out with your knives 10 And cut your trusters’ throats! Bound servants, steal! Large-handed robbers your grave masters are, And pill by law. Maid, to thy master’s bed! Thy mistress is o’ th’ brothel. Son of sixteen, Pluck the lined crutch from thy old limping sire; 15 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, Degrees, observances, customs, and laws, 20 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 25 As lamely as their manners! Lust and liberty, Creep in the minds and marrows of our youth, That ’gainst the stream of virtue they may strive And drown themselves in riot! Itches, blains, Sow all th’ Athenian bosoms, and their crop 30 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! Take thou that too, with multiplying bans! 35 Timon will to the woods, where he shall find Th’ unkindest beast more kinder than mankind. The gods confound—hear me, you good gods all!— Th’ Athenians both within and out that wall, And grant, as Timon grows, his hate may grow 40 To the whole race of mankind, high and low! Amen.
He exits.	He exits.