ed at present was not enough to pay
the one half of what he owed. Struck with wonder at this presentation,
Timon hastily replied, "My lands extend from Athens to Lacedaemon." "O
my good lord," said Flavius, "the world is but a world, and has bounds;
were it all yours to give in a breath, how quickly were it gone!"

Timon consoled himself that no villanous bounty had yet come from him,
that if he had given his wealth away unwisely, it had not been bestowed
to feed his vices, but to cherish his friends; and he bade the
kind-hearted steward (who was weeping) to take comfort in the assurance
that his master could never lack means, while he had so many noble
friends; and this infatuated lord persuaded himself that he had nothing
to do but to send and borrow, to use every man's fortune (that had ever
tasted his bounty) in this extremity, as freely as his own. Then with a
cheerful look, as if confident of the trial, he severally despatched
messengers to Lord Lucius, to Lords Lucullus and Sempronius, men upon
whom he had lavished his gifts in past times without measure or
moderation; and to Ventidius, whom he had lately released out of prison
by paying his debts, and who, by the death of his father, was now come
into the possession of an ample fortune, and well enabled to requite
Timon's courtesy: to request of Ventidius the return of those five
talents which he had paid for him, and of each of those noble lords the
loan of fifty talents; nothing doubting that their gratitude would
supply his wants (if he needed it) to the amount of five hundred times
fifty talents.

Lucullus was the first applied to. This mean lord had been dreaming
overnight of a silver bason and cup, and when Timon's servant was
announced, his sordid mind suggested to him that this was surely a
making out of his dream, and that Timon had sent him such a present: but
when he understood the truth of the matter, and that Timon wanted money,
the quality of his faint and watery friendship showed itself, for with
many protestations he vowed to the servant that he had long foreseen the
ruin of his master's affairs, and many a time had he come to dinner to
tell him of it, and had come again to supper to try to persuade him to
spend less, but he would take no counsel nor warning by his coming: and
true it was that he had been a constant attender (as he said) at Timon's
feasts, as he had in greater things tasted his bounty; but that he ever
came with that intent, or