The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 17.1024 Monday, 20 November 2006
[1] From: Steve Sohmer <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Saturday, 18 Nov 2006 12:59:41 EST
Subj: Re: SHK 17.1011 Timon of Athens Crux
[2] From: John W. Kennedy <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Saturday, 18 Nov 2006 14:42:45 -0500
Subj: Re: SHK 17.1011 Timon of Athens Crux
[3] From: Peter Bridgman <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Sunday, 19 Nov 2006 15:25:31 -0000
Subj: Re: SHK 17.1011 Timon of Athens Crux
[1]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From: Steve Sohmer <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Saturday, 18 Nov 2006 12:59:41 EST
Subject: 17.1011 Timon of Athens Crux
Comment: Re: SHK 17.1011 Timon of Athens Crux
Dear Larry Weiss et al,
I see no need of emendation in this passage from TIM. The Sun and Moon are
siblings of divergent fortunes, i.e. the lesser shines by the other's
light ... which theme runs through the piece to the final Pasturer and his
hungry brother ... who departs when the larder is bare.
Steve
[2]-------------------------------------------------------------
From: John W. Kennedy <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Saturday, 18 Nov 2006 14:42:45 -0500
Subject: 17.1011 Timon of Athens Crux
Comment: Re: SHK 17.1011 Timon of Athens Crux
Larry Weiss <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
>At the beginning of the long scene before Timon's cave (IV.iii), Timon
has a soliloquy which begins:
>
> O blessed breeding Sunday, draw from the earth
> Rotten humidity: Below thy Sisters Orbe
> Infect the ayre. Twinn'd Brothers of one wombe.
> Whose procreation, residence, and birth,
> Scarce is dividant; touch them with severall fortunes,
> The greater scornes the lesser. Not Nature
> (To whom all sores lay siege) can bear great Fortune
> But by contempt of Nature.
> Raise me this Begger, and deny't that Lord,
> The Senators shall beare contempt hereditary,
> The Begger Native Honor.
> It is the Pastour, lards the Brothers sides,
> The want that makes him leave: ....
>
>Most editors emend "Brothers" to "rother's" or "wether's" and
>"leave" to "lean"; so that the last two lines mean simply that a
>beast is fattened by forage and starves when there is none, hardly
>a striking revelation or one that contributes to the point Timon
>is making. It occurs to me that the correct reading is precisely
>as set out in F1 (revising only spelling and pointing). The sense
>would be that one brother will depart from another when the other
>ceases to offer wealth. This fits the theme of the play and the
>notions that Timon is expressing. Any thoughts?
But why? For the sake of the literalism of "brother" (an imperfect
literalism, anyway, since not one of Timon's betrayers is Timon's parent's
son), you're introducing the bizarre image of the "brother" growing fat
off the pasture. "Rother" or "wether", on the other hand, make perfect
sense as an image, and still possess an obvious reference to Timon's
situation.
[3]-------------------------------------------------------------
From: Peter Bridgman <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Sunday, 19 Nov 2006 15:25:31 -0000
Subject: 17.1011 Timon of Athens Crux
Comment: Re: SHK 17.1011 Timon of Athens Crux
Larry Weiss writes ...
>Most editors emend "Brothers" to "rother's" or "wether's" and "leave" to
"lean" ...
The Oxford editors seem to agree with you about "brothers", but not about
"leave". I must say I agree with them. Which of the following makes the
more sense ... ?
It is the pasture that lards the brother's sides,
The want that makes him lean.
It is the pasture that lards the brother's sides,
The want that makes him leave.
Peter Bridgman
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