!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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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According to both the RIVERSIDE and OXFORD editors Middleton probably wrote the following sections:
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• 1.1 TLN 324-336;
& all of 1.2
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• 2.2 TLN 656-712
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• All of 3.1; 3.2; 3.3; 3.4; 3.5;
and 3.6 TLN 1383-1418 & 1485-1502
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• All of 4.2 (excepting TLN 1600-01);
and 4.3 TLN 2108-2191
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!!X AXIS (abscisses): 2608 lines
There are NO Subdivisions of ACTS & SCENES in the FOLIO.
Their present arrangement was first established by Dyce (1857).
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1.1: line 1 (reads "Act 1 scene 1 begins at line 1")
1.2: line 337
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2.1: line 615
2.2: line 656
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3.1: line 916
3.2: line 980
3.3: line 1071
3.4: line 1117
3.5: line 1255
3.6: line 1383
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4.1: line 1503
4.2: line 1545
4.3: line 1602
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5.1: line 2192
5.2: line 2476
5.3: line 2496
5.4: line 2507
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FINIS 2608
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!!Y AXIS: ENTRANCES & EXITS
Entrances & exits of Characters
According to their order of appearance.
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• (2,305) reads "enters at line 2, exits at line 305".
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• PRINCIPAL CHARACTERS are capitalized.
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Poet & Painter
(2,305) (2192,2340)
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Senators of Athens
(54,305) (338,594) (1255,1367) (1486,1502) (2341,2475) (2476,2495) (2512,2607)
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Lucullus (friend of Timon)
(54,305) (338,594) (921,966) (1383,1502)
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Lucius (friend of Timon)
(54,305) (338,594) (980,1043) (1383,1502)
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Sempronius (friend of Timon)
(54,305) (338,594) (1071,1101) (1383,1502)
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TIMON
(118,305) (337,610) (674,712) (787,915) (1210,1234) (1238,1254) (1408,1485) (1503,1544) (1602,2191) (2233,2340) (2360,2469) RIP
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Messenger from Ventigius
(118,136) (2476,2495)
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APEMANTUS (a cynic)
(215,323) (339,614) (713,790) (1817,2043)
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Messenger from Alcibiades
(286,305) (2476,2495)
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ALCIBIADES
(294,305) (338,594) (675,675) (1255,1382) (1652,1795) (2507,2607)
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Two Lords
(306,336) (338,594)
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Ventigius (friend of Timon)
(338,594)
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Cupid & Maskers (entertainers)
(465,506)
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FLAVIUS (Timon’s steward)
(507,515) (530,563) (656,712) (787,915) (1169,1188) (1238,1254) (1545,1601) (2108,2191) (2341,2745)
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Senator (creditor)
(615,655)
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Caphis (servant to previous)
(615,655) (666,792)
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Varro & Isidore (2 Creditors)
(666,792)
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Foole (clown)
(713,790)
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Illiterate Page
(738,755)
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Flaminius (servant of Timon)
(864,915) (916,979) (1162,1168) (1545,1579)
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Servilius (servant of Timon)
(864,915) (1004,1040) (1195,1209) (1545,1579)
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3rd servant of Timon
(864,915) (1071,1168) (1563,1579)
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Three Strangers to Athens
(980,1070)
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Titus, Hortensius, Philotus, two servants of Varro & Lucius (6 other creditors)
(1117,1237)
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Phrynia & Timandra (whores of Alcibiades)
(1652,1795)
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Banditti
(2044,2107)
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Illiterate Soldier
(2496,2506) (2585,2607)
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!!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.
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There is a Sub-plot (or “back story”) to the play, which concerns the character of ALCIBIADES but it remains largely undeveloped.
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Colouring TIMON & ALCIBIADES would suffice in bringing-out the structural inadequacies and the missing counterpoint of the play.
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!!!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:
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• 1.1 TLN 324-336;
& all of 1.2
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• 2.2 TLN 656-712
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• All of 3.1; 3.2; 3.3; 3.4; 3.5;
and 3.6 TLN 1383-1418 & 1485-1502
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• All of 4.2 (excepting TLN 1600-01);
and 4.3 TLN 2108-2191
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!!METATHEATRE
Three elements are worth noting:
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The masque of CUPID & THE AMAZONS: (465,513)
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The two PAINTER/POET scenes: (30,116) (2192,2330).
