[General] William Shakespeare's Timon Of Athens Question -

[Bookworm5589]

Which of the following statements:

1.Be honest and live in freedom,
2.Reward no man for none is needy
3.Be prosperous and live in contentment
4.Believe in no man for none is deserving

summarizes Timon's advice to Flavius in the following quote.

"Look thee, 'tis so! Thou singly honest man,
Here, take: the gods out of my misery
Have sent thee treasure. Go, live rich and happy;
But thus condition'd: thou shalt build from men;
Hate all, curse all, show charity to none,
But let the famish'd flesh slide from the bone,
Ere thou relieve the beggar; give to dogs
What thou deny'st to men; let prisons swallow 'em,
Debts wither 'em to nothing; be men like
blasted woods,
And may diseases lick up their false bloods!
And so farewell and thrive."

 

[Barb_D]

What do you think? Can you eliminate any of them?

 

[Bookworm5589]

To me, I eliminated 1 and 3 because they don't sound like the message he is trying to get across. To me, I'd pick 4. Mostly because he says Hate All, Curse All, Show Charity to None. To me that says no man is worth believing in and none deserves anything from you. But 2 sort of sounds like it could be true as well but to me it doesn't sound like it convey's the same message, but I'm not sure.

 

[Barb_D]

I agree with you on 1 and 3. He doesn't say "no one has any need, so you don't need to help anyone" which is how I interpret 2. So I would support your answer of 4.