Flavius

Play

Timon of Athens

Summary

Flavius is Timon's steward — the one unambiguously good character in the play and the most inconvenient figure for Timon's absolute misanthropy. He has warned Timon repeatedly of his impending ruin, grieved over his master's blindness, wept for him in private, and after Timon's self-exile follows him to his cave with what little of his own money he has saved. Timon's encounter with Flavius is the play's single moment of genuine tenderness: Timon recognises Flavius as honest, calls him "one honest man," and gives him gold — but then immediately qualifies this exception by insisting it only proves the rule that all men are base. Flavius's goodness the play holds up as real, however; he is not absorbed into Timon's global curse.

Notable Quotations

"I bleed inwardly for my lord." *(1.2)*

"Poor honest lord, brought low by his own heart, / Undone by goodness!" *(4.2)*

"Never did poor steward wear a truer grief / For his undone lord than mine eyes for you." *(4.3)*

Cross-references

• Timon of Athens — the play
• Tragedies
• character_timon — his master, whom he follows into exile out of true love
• character_apemantus — the cynic who cannot quite dismiss him