Timon of Athens

Timon of Athens, tragic play, written by William Shakespeare, about a man reduced to misanthropy (hatred of humanity) by the ingratitude of his friends. Timon of Athens was probably written in 1608 during Shakespeare’s third period (1600 to 1608), the period in which his greatest tragedies and darkest comedies were also written. Critics, however, do not regard Timon of Athens as one of the great plays of this period. Some consider it the most confused and incoherent play in the Shakespearean canon. The original text in the Folio, a printed edition of Shakespeare’s works, is a medley of misprints, misnomers, inconsistencies, and contradictions. The quality of the writing is uneven, and it has been suggested the play had been written in collaboration with the English dramatist Thomas Middleton.

According to history, Shakespeare, perhaps shortly after completing King Lear (1605?) began a play about the famous misanthrope Timon. Shakespeare had read about him in Life of Antony by the ancient Greek historian Plutarch and possibly in a Latin translation of Dialogues, by the ancient Greek philosopher and rhetorician Lucian, which was used as a textbook in many English grammar schools. Timon was a rich Athenian who squandered his fortune in gifts to false friends. Later reduced to poverty, he received only ingratitude from them. Timon then became a misanthrope and cursed mankind. While digging in the fields, he discovered a buried treasure and again was besieged by flatterers, whom he drove off with threats and blows.

Shakespeare seems to have been engaged in the dramatization of this story when he was interrupted by the demand for a new play at the court of James I that resulted in the composition of Macbeth (1606?). He apparently left his unfinished manuscript in the hands of his fellow actors, who turned it over to a hack writer to finish and to equip with musical effects for a performance at Blackfriars, a prominent theater during Shakespeare’s time. The elaborate stage directions show that the Folio text was printed from an official playbook, but there is no record of a performance. There is reason to believe that this playbook was sent to the printers of the First Folio to fill a gap in that volume, so that it is only by chance that the play has survived. It contains some magnificent poetry, particularly in Timon's invectives against mankind. Yet the theme is essentially undramatic, and it is quite possible that Shakespeare himself recognized this and never returned to finish what he had started.