SOURCE: "The Decay of the Polity: Timon," in Copp 'd Hills Towards Heaven: Shakespeare and the Classical Polity, Martinus Nijhoff, 1970, pp. 25-42.

In the following essay, White examines the decline of Athens in Timon of Athens, pointing out that ingratitude and corruption amongst the city officials and flatterers caused the decay.

Let us explore the surface meaning of the play as I understand it. Timon of Athens is a play about an Athenian philanthropist, who lived considerably later than Theseus. The presence of Alcibiades in the cast might help us to fix the internal chronology of the play. Historical inversions are so common in Shakespeare, however, that we probably could not do even that. Timon is entirely surrounded by flatterers. Though Timon is a philanthropist, he is an unthinking one and gives indiscriminately to all who wait on him. In addition to the flatterers who attend his banquets...