tended donors knew
well enough, and that their false presents were but the putting out of
so much money at large and speedy interest. In this way lord Lucius
had lately sent to Timon a present of four milk-white horses trapped
in silver, which this cunning lord had observed Timon upon some
occasion to commend; and another lord, Lucullus, had bestowed upon him
in the same pretended way of free gift a brace of greyhounds, whose
make and fleetness Timon had been heard to admire; these presents the
easy-hearted lord accepted without suspicion of the dishonest views of
the presenters: and the givers of course were rewarded with some rich
return, a diamond or some jewel of twenty times the value of their
false and mercenary donation.

Sometimes these creatures would go to work in a more direct way, and
with gross and palpable artifice, which yet the credulous Timon was
too blind to see, would affect to admire and praise something that
Timon possessed, a bargain that he had bought, or some late purchase,
which was sure to draw from this yielding and soft-hearted lord a gift
of the thing commended, for no service in the world done for it but
the easy expence of a little cheap and obvious flattery. In this way
Timon but the other day had given to one of these mean lords the bay
courser which he himself rode upon, because his lordship had been
pleased to say that it was a handsome beast and went well; and Timon
knew that no man ever justly praised what he did not wish to possess.
For lord Timon weighed his friends' affection with his own, and so
fond was he of bestowing, that he could have dealt kingdoms to these
supposed friends, and never have been weary.

Not that Timon's wealth all went to enrich these wicked flatterers;
he could do noble and praise-worthy actions; and when a servant of
his once loved the daughter of a rich Athenian, but could not hope
to obtain her by reason that in wealth and rank the maid was so far
above him, lord Timon freely bestowed upon his servant three Athenian
talents, to make his fortune equal with the dowry which the father of
the young maid demanded of him who should be her husband. But for the
most part, knaves and parasites had the command of his fortune, false
friends whom he did not know to be such, but, because they flocked
around his person, he thought they must needs love him; and because
they smiled, and flattered him, he thought surely that his conduct was
approved by all the wise and