TIMON OF ATHENS.
“I am Misanthropos, and hate mankind.”
The remarkable difference between Timon and all the other dramas, both in construction and general idea, has been a subject of much difficulty with the literary critics. It has been generally supposed to be one of Shakespeare's latest works transmitted to us in an unfinished state; but the explanation of Mr. Knight appears far more probable, that it was originally produced by an inferior artist, and that Shakespeare remodeled it, and substituted entire scenes of his own; this substitution being almost wholly confined to the character of Timon. That of Apemantus, however, bears unmistakable impressions of the same die.
It certainly is not like the sepia sketch of a great master, perfect so far as it goes; nor yet like an unfinished picture which shews the basis of the artist's work; nor yet like those paintings of the old masters, in which the accessories were filled in by the 'prentice hands of their pupils, while the design and prominent figures indicated the taste and skill of high genius. It is rather an old painting, retouched perhaps in all its parts, and the prominent figures entirely remodeled by the hand of the great master, but designed and originally completed by a stranger.
Of the origin of Timon's character there can be no doubt. He is unmistakably of the family of Hamlet and Lear. The
