IV.iii.474 (378,8)

  Grant, I may ever love, and rather woe
  Those that would mischief me, than those that do!]

[W:  rather too/...that woo] In defiance of this criticism, I have ventured to replace the former reading, as more suitable to the general spirit of these scenes, and as free from the absurdities charged upon it.  It is plain, that in this whole speech friends and enemies are taken only for those who profess friendship and profess enmity; for the friend is supposed not to be more kind, but more dangerous than the enemy.  In the amendation, those that would mischief are placed in opposition to those that woo, but in the speaker’s intention those that woo are those that mischief most.  The sense is, Let me rather woo or caress those that would mischief, that profess to mean me mischief, than those that really do me mischief under false professions of kindness.  The Spaniards, I think, have this proverb; Defend me from my friends, and from my enemies I will defend myself.  This proverb is a sufficient comment on the passage.

IV.iii.484 (379,9) all/I kept were knaves, to serve in meat to villains] Knave is here in the compounded sense of a servant and a rascal.

IV.iii.492 (379,1) Pity’s sleeping] I do not know that any correction is necessary, but I think we might read,

  —­eyes do never give
  But thorough lust and laughter, pity sleeping.

Eyes never flow (to give is to dissolve as saline bodies in moist weather) but by lust or laughter, undisturbed by emotions of pity.

IV.iii.499 (380,2) It almost turns my dangerous nature wild] [W:  mild] This emendation is specious, but even this may be controverted.  To turn wild is to distract.  An appearance so unexpected, says Timon, almost turns my savageness to distraction.  Accordingly he examines with nicety lest his phrenzy, should deceive him,

  Let me behold thy face.  Surely this man
  Was born of woman.

And to this suspected disorder of mind he alludes,

  Perpetual, sober, Gods!—­
  Ye powers whose intellects are out of the reach of perturbation.

IV.iii.533 (381,3) thou shalt build from men] Away from human habitations.

V.i (382,5) Enter Poet and Painter] The poet and the painter were within view when Apemantus parted from Timon, and might then have seen Timon, since Apemantus, standing by him could not see them:  But the scenes of the thieves and steward have passed before their arrival, and yet passed, as the drama is now conducted within their view.  It might be suspected that some scenes are transposed, for all these difficulties would be removed by introducing the poet and painter first, and the thieves in this