No wonder that Thomas Middleton is thought to have had a hand in this play, it has his bleak, fatalist conception of mankind written all over it. In pace and structure as well as in its themes it anticipates post-modern 20th century theatre. A marvelous work that, alongside its convoluted creation, is clearly a one-off. ( )

Wealthy Athenian Timon spreads his wealth generously and hold parties. After giving all his wealth away, he discovers his so-called friends only cared about his wealth. He spends his remaining days in a cave. Shakespeare borrowed from other sources to create this work, and critics attribute portions to other authors. It's not among Shakespeare's best efforts. ( )

Plutarch tells us that Timon was a noted misanthrope, of legendary proportions in Athens during the Peloponnesian war. Shakespeare uses this simple idea to write a very acerbic play about how most of one's friends are really convenient acquaintances already to share in good times but not willing to help in times of need. After losing or giving away his money, Timon leaves Athens for the woods, and once there he makes a fortuitous gold strike which he uses to fund Alcibiades successful capture of the city. Then he dies, unhappy with his experience with the bulk of mankind. ( )

Maybe I need to see a good performance to like it. ( )

This is a weird one for me. I'm basically slowly plowing through the various plays and I'm the first to admit that I'm quite ignorant on the world of Shakespeare. I see others commenting on how this was a collaboration with Middleton and I think...who the hell's Middleton?

I think it should be noted that, as I (far too rapidly) approach my sixth decade on the planet, I decided to right a wrong from high school. That is, to come at Shakespeare's works with no expectations, just to enjoy them, to love the language, and let them wash over me as they will. Because in high school, Mr. Elsie (who looked remarkably like an undernourished G.I. Joe action figure...think G.I. Joe Inaction Figure) had us autopsy a couple of Shakespeare's plays, flaying virtually every scene and demanding that we wring out every ounce of subtext and meaning we could either glean or simply make up to appease the teacher enough to award a respectable, if ultimately disappointing grade. In short, he killed all enjoyment of Shakespeare's works for me, an avid reader even then.

So here I am, four decades later, coming at them and mostly enjoying them. Which is a long way back around to this particular play.

Supposedly this is a comedy, and while it held some smirkable lines, it didn't have me laughing out loud as some of his earlier works did. It's not quite a tragedy, yet Timon cuts a rather tragic figure.

And of all of Shakespeare's works, I'll admit to literally never having heard of this one until I started working on his entire output of work. And ultimately, while it's not my favourite by any means, I did enjoy Shakespeare's take on the "no good deed goes unpunished" theme. ( )