Page:Lucian (IA lucianlucas00collrich).pdf/59

Rh spirit the Dialogue (which concludes somewhat abruptly) leaves him.

Timon the Misanthrope was probably a real personage, round whose name many fictitious anecdotes gathered. Aristophanes refers to him move than once in his comedies as a well-known character; Plato mentions him, and, if we may trust Plutarch, he lived about the time of the Peloponnesian war. This latter writer speaks of his intimacy with the Cynic Apemantus, introduced in Shakspeare's play, and gives us an anecdote of him in connection with Alcibiades. Apemantus, we are told, asked Timon why he so much affected the company of that young gallant, hating all other men as he professed to do? "Because," replied Timon, "I foresee that he shall one day become a great scourge to those I hate most—the Athenians."