PLOTS

PLAY-IN-PLAY:

•(465,506)

Type: Maske

Title: Maske of Cupid & the Amazons

The masque of CUPID & THE AMAZONS: (465,506)

And, perhaps, the two PAINTER/POET scenes: (30,116) (2192,2330)

Dision of ACTS 2 to 4 by Rowe (1709), ACT 5 by Capell (1768) The standard arrangement of ACTS and SCENES — as a whole — was established by Dyce (1857).

CREDITORS

Caphis (servant to previous)

(615,655) (666,792)

Varro & Isidore (2 Creditors)

(666,792)

THE LIFE OF TYMON OF ATHENS (Oxford 1605–06; Riverside 1607–08)

POET & PAINTER

SENATORS of Athens

THE LIFE OF TYMON OF ATHENS (Oxford 1605–06;

Riverside 1607–08)

By William Shakespeare (& Thomas Middleton)

Folio is sole authority for this play. Print-house copy was the authors’ manuscript.

TIMON is an anomaly.

It probably wasn’t even meant to be included in the FOLIO but something happened in the course of printing with TROILUS & CRESSIDA. According to learned speculation, the Folio syndicate may have lost the rights to the play. Apparently, TIMON was included as a stopgap in place of T & C (which was supposed to come after ROMEO & JULIET). But TIMON being a much SHORTER play than T & C greatly offset the pagination.

At the very end of ROMEO & JULIET, for instance, the pagination skips from 76 to 79. If you look at T & C (which doesn’t even appear on the “list of plays” at the beginning of the FOLIO but nonetheless heads the TRAGEDY section), there is a weird PROLOGUE, then the TITLE of the play, and then … pages 79 & 80 (the rest of T & C is un-paginated). This indicates that printing HAD started on T & C when the bad news came and when the rights for the play were finally secured the printers salvaged what they could from the initial print run (i.e. pages 79 & 80). Scholars looking at the wearing of the fonts even figured-out that (apart from these pages) T & C was the very last of the Folio’s plays to be printed. The printers then looking for a place to fit it in just slipped T & C at the head of the TRAGEDIES. According to the “List of Plays”, CORIOLANUS was supposed to head this section and it, indeed, begins at page 1.

In all likelihood, TIMON of ATHENS is an unfinished play (or, at the very least, the copy upon which the FOLIO text is based was a very rough draft). Furthermore, it is now generally believed that (like 1HENRY VI) the authorship of TIMON was probably shared. In this case, with THOMAS MIDDLETON (1570–1627) who may have written approximately a third of the play.

According to both the RIVERSIDE and OXFORD editors Middleton probably wrote the following sections:

• 1.1 TLN 324–336;

& all of 1.2

• 2.2 TLN 656–712

• All of 3.1; 3.2; 3.3; 3.4; 3.5;

and 3.6 TLN 1383–1418 & 1485–1502

• All of 4.2 (excepting TLN 1600–01);

and 4.3 TLN 2108–2191

_________

X AXIS (abscisses): 2608 lines

There are NO Subdivisions of ACTS & SCENES in the FOLIO.

Their present arrangement was first established by Dyce (1857).

1.1: line 1 (reads “Act 1 scene 1 begins at line 1″)

1.2: line 337

2.1: line 615

2.2: line 656

3.1: line 916

3.2: line 980

3.3: line 1071

3.4: line 1117

3.5: line 1255

3.6: line 1383

4.1: line 1503

4.2: line 1545

4.3: line 1602

5.1: line 2192

5.2: line 2476

5.3: line 2496

5.4: line 2507

FINIS 2608

_______________

Y AXIS: ENTRANCES & EXITS

Entrances & exits of Characters

According to their order of appearance.

• (2,305) reads “enters at line 2, exits at line 305″.

• PRINCIPAL CHARACTERS are capitalized.

Poet & Painter

(2,305) (2192,2340)

Senators of Athens

(54,305) (338,594) (1255,1367) (1486,1502) (2341,2475) (2476,2495) (2512,2607)

Lucullus (friend of Timon)

(54,305) (338,594) (921,966) (1383,1502)

Lucius (friend of Timon)

(54,305) (338,594) (980,1043) (1383,1502)

Sempronius (friend of Timon)

(54,305) (338,594) (1071,1101) (1383,1502)

TIMON

(118,305) (337,610) (674,712) (787,915) (1210,1234) (1238,1254) (1408,1485) (1503,1544) (1602,2191) (2233,2340) (2360,2469) RIP

Messenger from Ventigius

(118,136) (2476,2495)

APEMANTUS (a cynic)

(215,323) (339,614) (713,790) (1817,2043)

Messenger from Alcibiades

(286,305) (2476,2495)

ALCIBIADES

(294,305) (338,594) (675,675) (1255,1382) (1652,1795) (2507,2607)

Two Lords

(306,336) (338,594)

Ventigius (friend of Timon)

(338,594)

Cupid & Maskers (entertainers)

(465,506)

FLAVIUS (Timon’s steward)

(507,515) (530,563) (656,712) (787,915) (1169,1188) (1238,1254) (1545,1601) (2108,2191) (2341,2745)

Senator (creditor)

(615,655)

Caphis (servant to previous)

(615,655) (666,792)

Varro & Isidore (2 Creditors)

(666,792)

Foole (clown)

(713,790)

Illiterate Page

(738,755)

Flaminius (servant of Timon)

(864,915) (916,979) (1162,1168) (1545,1579)

Servilius (servant of Timon)

(864,915) (1004,1040) (1195,1209) (1545,1579)

3rd servant of Timon

(864,915) (1071,1168) (1563,1579)

Three Strangers to Athens

(980,1070)

Titus, Hortensius, Philotus, two servants of Varro & Lucius (6 other creditors)

(1117,1237)

Phrynia & Timandra (whores of Alcibiades)

(1652,1795)

Banditti

(2044,2107)

Illiterate Soldier

(2496,2506) (2585,2607)

___________

PLOTS & COLOURING

The principal Plot concerns TIMON’s “abrupt” passage (3.4.79 / TLN 1210) from arch-philanthropist to dire misanthropist, which neatly cuts the play in two. Accordingly, Acts 1 to 3 take place in ATHENS, while Acts 4 & 5 mostly occur in the dismal WOODS. The “hinge” scene is 3.6.

There is a Sub-plot (or “back story”) to the play, which concerns the character of ALCIBIADES but it remains largely undeveloped.

Colouring TIMON & ALCIBIADES would suffice in bringing-out the structural inadequacies and the missing counterpoint of the play.

SHADING

Perhaps the MIDDLETON sections of TIMON OF ATHENS should somehow be indicated (either through framing or shading) on the graph itself. As indicated above, Middleton probably wrote the following:

• 1.1 TLN 324–336;

& all of 1.2

• 2.2 TLN 656–712

• All of 3.1; 3.2; 3.3; 3.4; 3.5;

and 3.6 TLN 1383–1418 & 1485–1502

• All of 4.2 (excepting TLN 1600–01);

and 4.3 TLN 2108–2191

_______

METATHEATRE

Three elements are worth noting:

The masque of CUPID & THE AMAZONS: (465,513)

The two PAINTER/POET scenes: (30,116) (2192,2330).