ACT I.

SCENE I.—­A Hall in Timon’s House.

Now he has reflected that his first object is to interest his audience in the action and passion of the piece,—­at the very outset, if possible, to catch their fancies and draw them into the mimic life of the play,—­to beguile and attract them without their knowing it.  He has reflected upon this, we say,—­for see how artfully he opens the scene, and how soon the empty stage is peopled with life!  He chooses to begin by having two persons enter from opposite wings, whose qualities are known at once to the reader of the play, but not to an audience.  The stage-direction informs us:—­

[Enter Poet, Painter, Jeweller, Merchant, and others, at several doors.

We shall see how at the same time they introduce and unfold their own characters and awaken an interest in the main action.  In writing, we are obliged to name them.  They do not all enter quite at once.  At first comes

Poet. Good day, Sir. Painter. I am glad to see you well. Poet. I have not seen you long; how goes the world? Painter. It wears, Sir, as it grows.

This shows them to be acquaintances.—­While the next reply is made, in which the Poet begins to talk in character even before the audience know him, two others enter from the same side, as having just met, and others in the background.

  Poet. Ay, that’s well known:—­
  But what particular rarity? what strange,
  That manifold record not matches?  See,

And we fancy him waving his hand in an enthusiastic manner,—­

Magic of bounty! all these spirits thy power
Hath conjured to attend.

Which manner is only a high-flowing habit, for he adds in the same breath, dropping his figure suddenly,—­

                       I know the merchant.
  Painter. I know them both; t’other’s a jeweller.

It is certainly natural that painters should know jewellers,—­and, perhaps, that poets should be able to recognize merchants, though the converse might not hold.  We now know who the next speakers are, and soon distinguish them.

Merchant. Oh, ’tis a worthy lord! Jeweller. Nay, that’s most fixed. Merchant. A most incomparable man; breathed as it were To an untirable and continuate goodness:  He passes. Jeweller. I have a jewel here.

The Jeweller being known, the Merchant is; and, it will be noticed that the first speaks in a cautious manner.

  Merchant. Oh, pray, let’s see it!  For the lord Timon, Sir?
  Jeweller. If he will touch the estimate; but, for that——­

We begin to suspect who is the “magic of bounty” and the “incomparable man,” and also to have an idea that all these people have come to his house to see him.—­While the Merchant examines the jewel, the first who spoke, the high-flown individual, is pacing and talking to himself near the one he met:—­