SOURCE: “Notes Toward a More Finished Timon,” in Essays in Arts and Sciences, Vol. VII, May, 1978, pp. 21-35.

In the following essay, Rockas examines the inconsistencies in the play and suggests possible revisions that Shakespeare may have intended to make.

There is a controversy over whether and to what extent Timon is an “unfinished” play. The case was suggested by such critics as Ulrici, E. K. Chambers, and Una Ellis-Fermor, and has been challenged by others, notably by A. S. Collins and E. A. J. Honigman.¹ It is certainly impossible to dispute Honigman's claim that the “inconsistencies and loose ends” in the play “confirm its authenticity,”² because Shakespeare is often guilty of these; the question is really how many and what kind of loose ends appear in other plays as against those in Timon. In the light of Honigman's excellent challenge, I will entertain the proposition that Timon...