Timon of Athens: Bard to the Bone #03

Third of the plays in my “Bard to the Bone” effort at familiarising myself with the rest of the 38 plays (I have good familiarity with three or four, so-so with some others, little with some and, er, zilch, with about half).

Year written: 1606

Context of the writing (Shakespeare’s career, political events it was responding to): something to do with the rise of banking, according to the Telegraph podcast I’ve not listened to yet.

Plot in a paragraph:  Actually, the limericks does it well – 

Old Timon held many a feast

Was by “friends” relentlessly fleeced

Went from riches to rags

And now Athens he drags

To hell in a handbasket: the beast!

and

Old Timon had enjoyed high living

And the glow that he got from “giving”

He used all his talents

And lost all his balance

And funded Athenian shivving

Things that worked well: the false friends thing. Apemantus. Alcibiades trying to get his soldier off.

Things that didn’t work well: it was quite good!

Words I learnt: 

Word	Meaning
Meed	Meed- gift, merit
Pelf	Pelf – money, especially when gained in a dishonest or dishonourable way.
fracted	Fracted – broken, cracked
Caitiff	Caitiff (arcaic) a contemptible or cowardly person.
Medlar	Medlar – The fruit of this tree, also called medlar, has been cultivated since Roman times. It is usually available in winter and eaten when bletted. It may be consumed raw and in a range of cooked dishes.
Remotion	Remotion the quality or state of being remote : the act of removing : removal (obsolete) departure
Bletting	Bletting is a process of softening that certain fleshy fruits undergo, beyond ripening.

Lines worth knowing:

Act scene lines	Character	Lines	Comment
Act 1, scene 1	Poet	When Fortune in her shift and change of mood Spurns down her late beloved, all his dependants Which labored after him to the mountain’s top Even on their knees and hands, let him slip down, Not one accompanying his declining foot.
Act 1, scene 1	Apemantus	He that loves to be flattered is worthy o’ th’flatterer
Act 1, scene 2	Apemantus	Immortal gods, I crave no pelf; I pray for no man but myself; Grant I may never prove so fond To trust man on his oath or bond, Or a harlot for her weeping, Or a dog that seems a-sleeping, Or a keeper with my freedom, Or my friends, if I should need’em. Amen. So; fall to’t Rich men sin, and I eat root.
Act 1, scene 2	Flavius	His promises fly so beyond his state That what he speaks is all in debt he owes For every word
Act 1, scene 2	Timon	Alcibiades, Thou art a soldier, therefore seldom rich.
Act 2, scene 2	Senator	And my reliance on his fractured dates have smit my credit
Act 2, scene 2	Steward	Oh my good lord, At many times I brought in my accounts, laid them before you. You would throw them off and say you found them in mine honesty.
Act 2, scene 2	Steward	‘Tis all engaged, some forfeited and gone: And what remains will hardly stop the mouth of present dues. The future comes apace;
Act 2, scene 2	Steward	Feast-won, fast lost
Act 3, scene 2	Stranger	But I perceive Men must learn now with pity to dispense; For policy sits above conscience
Act 3 scene 3	Timon	Be it not in thy care. Go, I charge tee, invite them all, let in the tide of knaves once more: my cook and I’ll provide
Act 3, scene 5		Nothing emboldens sin so much as mercy
Act 3, scene 5, line 68	Senator	He has made too much plenty with ‘e He’s a sworn rioter he has a sin that often drowns him and takes his alor prisoner. If there were no more foes, that were enough to overcome him.
Act 4 scene 3	Timon	Let not thy sword skip one. Pity not honored age for his white beard; He is a usurer. Strike me the counterfeit matron; it is her habit only that is honest, Herself ‘s a bawd…	Kill them all, let god sort them out.
Act 4, scene 3	Timon	Is not thy kindness subtle-covetous, A usuring kindness, and as rich men deal gifts, expecting in return twenty for one?
Act 5, scene	Senator	And now the public body, which doth seldom play the recanter, feeling in itself a lack of Timon’s aid, hath sense withal of it own fail, restraining aid to Timon…

Favourite character

Apemantus, for sure

Marc’s entirely subjective verdict and score out of 5 bards (ymmv): 3 and a half bards out of five.

Will I be tracking down movies of this? : yes, no, hell no.  Yes. I’d watch a movie…

How far would I travel to see a good production of this? Brum or Manc

Limericks

The two at the top and this one that could have ben said by Timon, if he had lived (so, sorry, spoilers)

“O sycophancy splatters

Our truthful orbits shatters

O fortune please grant us

A surly Apemantus

To straighten our public matters”

Next three plays I will do (and I will keep reading detailed plot synopses, since it makes understanding what is going on that much easier – i.e. I don’t have the brain power to both decipher some of the plot while also trying to figure out what each of them is saying…

Cymbeline

Pericles

King John

UPDATE

Podcasts and their contents

I listened (at 1.5 or 1.75, because I am a philistine) to a bunch of podcasts about Timon of Athens this morning while on my moorhen-feeding mission.

Here they are

Podcast	Episode title	Minutes	Marc’s score outa ten	Comments
Approaching Shakespeare	Timon of Athens	55	8	Solid lecture, iffy sound quality, but lots to chew on. Good points about changing perspectives/critical ‘fads’ (my words). Also – Timon has no family, which is highly unusual. Also good on ekphrasis
Much ado about Shakespeare	Wealth and power in Timon of Athens	23	8	Some good stuff on Thomas Middleton (co-author)
Sheldrake on Shakespeare	Timon of Athens – Shakespeare and the City	14	10	SUPERB podcast. Especially good on the coming of the City Comedies from 1599
Shaky Understanding	Episode 33: Timon of Athens with guest Timon	34	8	Fine, fun nice recaps.

From review of a 2023 book called Shakespeare Beyond the Green World: Drama and Ecopolitics in Jacobean Britain. By Todd Andrew Borlik. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2023

Turning to Marx’s favorite play, Timon of Athens, chapter two situates the work within the milieu of early capitalism and puts it in possible conversation with the story of a contemporary mining baron who went bust, and James I’s own unsuccessful mining ventures. Jonson’s The Staple of News directly commented on the former, and a lost 1608 play addressed the latter. Shakespeare’s play more obliquely addresses these contexts with its fixation on Gold (as it is capitalized in the First Folio), and how greed for the stuff leads to destruction of land, lingering contamination, exploitation of workers, and continued costs to the “greater-than-human ecology” (61). As is the case throughout the book, Borlik’s usage of modern environmental parlance infuses his readings with immediacy, reminding us that the ecological catastrophes described by today’s scientists and activists aren’t new.