quotes, notes, timelines & more

Home » Quotes » Timon of Athens » Are you three usurers’ men?

Are you three usurers’ men?

Fool
Are you three usurers’ men?
All The Men
Ay, fool.
Fool
I think no usurer but has a fool to his servant.
My mistress is one, and I am her Fool. When men
come to borrow of your masters, they approach
sadly and go away merry, but they enter my master’s
house merrily and go away sadly. The reason of this?

Nor thou altogether a wise man. As much foolery
as I have, so much wit thou lack’st.

Varro’s Man
I could render one.
Apemantus
Do it then, that we may account thee a
whoremaster and a knave, which notwithstanding,
thou shalt be no less esteemed.
Varro’s Man
What is a whoremaster, fool?
Fool
A fool in good clothes, and something like thee.
’Tis a spirit; sometime ’t appears like a lord, sometime
like a lawyer, sometime like a philosopher,
with two stones more than ’s artificial one. He is
very often like a knight, and generally in all shapes
that man goes up and down in from fourscore to
thirteen, this spirit walks in.
Varro’s Man
Thou art not altogether a Fool.
Fool
Nor thou altogether a wise man. As much foolery
as I have, so much wit thou lack’st.
Apemantus
That answer might have become Apemantus.
All The Men
Aside, aside! Here comes Lord Timon.
 Enter Timon and Steward Flavius.
Apemantus
Come with me, fool, come.
Fool
I do not always follow lover, elder brother, and
woman; sometime the philosopher.
 Apemantus and the Fool exit.

Source:
Act 2
Scene 2
Line 109

Source Type:

Spoken by:
, ,