Timon of Athens

• Timon is the most generous man in Athens — gives lavishly to friends, artists, soldiers, senators, everyone • He's spending beyond his means. His steward Flavius warns him repeatedly. Timon ignores the warnings • The money runs out. Timon asks his "friends" for help. Every single one refuses. Excuses pile up • Timon throws a final banquet. The dishes are revealed: warm water. "Uncover, dogs, and lap!" He throws it at them and curses Athens • He retreats to the wilderness, living as a savage misanthrope. Digging for roots, he finds gold • Visitors come: Alcibiades (a banished general marching on Athens), thieves, a cynic philosopher, his loyal steward Flavius • Timon gives gold to everyone — to Alcibiades to destroy Athens, to thieves to keep thieving, to prostitutes to spread disease • The only person he treats kindly: Flavius, whose loyalty he can't deny. But he dismisses him anyway • Timon writes his own epitaph: cursing all humanity, wishing plague on the living • He dies alone (offstage). Alcibiades conquers Athens but offers peace. A lukewarm resolution • The most one-note of Shakespeare's tragedies — Timon goes from total generosity to total misanthropy with nothing in between