Timon of Athens: Difference between revisions
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This | The real Timon of Athens lived there in the fifth century BCE, making him a contemporary of Socrates and Pericles. Shakespeare presents Timon as a figure who suffers such profound disillusionment that he becomes a misanthrope, or man-hater. This makes him a more interesting character than the caricature he had become to Shakespeare's contemporaries, for whom "Timonist" was a slang term for an unsociable man. | ||
Shakespeare's play includes the wealthy, magnificent, and extravagantly generous figure of Timon before his transformation. Timon expects that, having received as gifts all that he owned, his friends will be equally generous to him. | |||
Once his creditors clamor for repayment, Timon finds that his idealization of friendship is an illusion. He repudiates his friends, abandons Athens, and retreats to the woods. Yet his misanthropy arises from the destruction of an admirable illusion, from which his subsequent hatred can never be entirely disentangled. | |||
Many scholars believe that ''Timon of Athens'' is an unfinished play, one that Shakespeare never polished into final form, and that is was not performed during his lifetime. He is thought to have written it in 1605-08, and it was published in the 1623 First Folio. Among Shakespeare's sources was North's translation of Plutarch's ''Lives''.<ref>Adapted from the Folger Library Shakespeare edition, edited by Barbara A. Mowat and Paul Werstine. © 2001 Folger Shakespeare Library.</ref> | |||
== Productions at the Folger == | == Productions at the Folger == | ||
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== Other media == | == Other media == | ||
== Notes == | |||
<references> | |||
Revision as of 09:43, 17 June 2014
The real Timon of Athens lived there in the fifth century BCE, making him a contemporary of Socrates and Pericles. Shakespeare presents Timon as a figure who suffers such profound disillusionment that he becomes a misanthrope, or man-hater. This makes him a more interesting character than the caricature he had become to Shakespeare's contemporaries, for whom "Timonist" was a slang term for an unsociable man.
Shakespeare's play includes the wealthy, magnificent, and extravagantly generous figure of Timon before his transformation. Timon expects that, having received as gifts all that he owned, his friends will be equally generous to him.
Once his creditors clamor for repayment, Timon finds that his idealization of friendship is an illusion. He repudiates his friends, abandons Athens, and retreats to the woods. Yet his misanthropy arises from the destruction of an admirable illusion, from which his subsequent hatred can never be entirely disentangled.
Many scholars believe that Timon of Athens is an unfinished play, one that Shakespeare never polished into final form, and that is was not performed during his lifetime. He is thought to have written it in 1605-08, and it was published in the 1623 First Folio. Among Shakespeare's sources was North's translation of Plutarch's Lives.[1]
Productions at the Folger
Early editions
First Folio
- LUNA: First Folio: 2g1v - 2h6r
- Hamnet: STC 22273 Fo. 1 no. 68
Second Folio
- LUNA: Second Folio: 2j6r - 2l4v
- Hamnet: STC 22274 Fo. 2 no. 07
Modern editions
Timon of Athens can be read online with Folger Digital Texts and purchased from Simon and Schuster.
- Hamnet link to Folger Edition: PR2753 .M6 1992 copy 2 v.32
Translations
Performance materials
Other media
Notes
<references>
- ↑ Adapted from the Folger Library Shakespeare edition, edited by Barbara A. Mowat and Paul Werstine. © 2001 Folger Shakespeare Library.