Timon of Athens

Possibly a collaboration with Thomas Middleton, Timon is one of Shakespeare’s less read plays, and not especially highly regarded– Frank Kermode calls it “a poor relation of the major tragedies” in The Riverside Shakespeare. Herman Melville was an admirer, though claiming “Through the mouths of the dark characters of Hamlet, Timon, Lear, and Iago, he craftily says, or sometimes insinuates the things, which we feel to be so terrifically true…”

Timon is a well-loved citizen of Athens who possesses a massive fortune, but squanders it, giving it away to artists and craftsmen keen to earn his favor. His profligacy results in him losing his mind, and eventually being driven to death.

The play represents probably the most obvious instance of Shakespeare adapting the model of the medieval morality plays, which were an influence across all of his work, but are particularly evident in Timon’s moralizing– it’s a fuzzy kind of moralizing, though, which lacks the clarity of the medieval plays. Timon remains infrequently performed.

Timon of Athens by Wyndham Lewis, 1912. Lewis made a consciously futurist drawing of the play, emphasizing hard edges and intense shadows.

Purchase Timon of Athens:

The Arden Shakespeare
The Oxford Shakespeare
The New Cambridge Shakespeare
Signet Classics Shakespeare