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Noble Ventidius! Well,
I am not of that feather to shake off
My friend when he must need me. I do know him
A gentleman that well deserves a help,
Which he shall have. I’ll pay the debt and free him.
. . .
Commend me to him. I will send his ransom;
And, being enfranchised, bid him come to me.
’Tis not enough to help the feeble up,
But to support him after. (1.1.99–103, 105–108)
Timon speaks these lines in the play’s opening scene upon learning that Ventidius has been arrested for unpaid debts. The quickness with which Timon promises to pay his friend’s bail clearly demonstrates his generosity of spirit. And as we see in the second part of the quote reproduced here, his generosity isn’t merely financial. He insists that Ventidius should come to his house so he can provide moral in addition to financial support. The nobility of Timon’s expression of friendship also sets up the later disappointment he will face when he needs debt relief and Ventidius fails to reciprocate his generosity.
Prithee, man, look cheerly. These old fellows
Have their ingratitude in them hereditary.
Their blood is caked, ’tis cold, it seldom flows;
’Tis lack of kindly warmth they are not kind;
And nature, as it grows again toward earth,
Is fashioned for the journey, dull and heavy. (2.2.216–21)
Timon says these lines in response to his steward, Flavius, who has just explained his dire financial circumstances. Not only is Timon essentially bankrupt, but Flavius also worries that has so-called friends are abandoning him. He has already tried to secure loans from these lords, but they have all said no. Timon responds to these concerns with a hint of cynicism. He spurns the ingratitude of these men and implies that their coldness indicates that they are dead inside. This is a new tone for Timon, who has now made the first step in his transformation from philanthrope to misanthrope. Yet that transformation is not yet complete, as indicated when he goes on to comfort Flavius with kind words: “Prithee be not sad; / Thou art true and honest” (2.2.222–23).
I am Misanthropos and hate mankind.
For thy part, I do wish thou wert a dog,
That I might love thee something. (4.3.54–56)
With these lines, Timon formally announces the completion of his transformation into a misanthrope. For audiences in Shakespeare’s own time, this moment likely would have been met with the satisfaction that comes when a key event you know is coming finally happens. In early modern England, the very name “Timon” was archetypally linked to misanthropy. Indeed, the name “Misanthropos” given here comes straight from Thomas Nashe’s translation of Plutarch’s Parallel Lives, where this figure’s name is given as “Timon Misanthropos”—as though Misanthropos was his surname rather than simply a descriptor. When Timon encounters Alcibiades in the woods and introduces him with this name, he signals that he is now essentially a new person, radically changed from his former, philanthropic self.
