Timon renounces society (1803, Timon of Athens,IV.i).

The historian Plutarch describes Timon of Athens as a misanthrope who lived during the Peloponnesian War (431 BC–404 BC). He lavished his riches on flattering friends who left when they ran out. Timon was reduced to working in the fields, where he found a pot of gold, and soon his fairweather friends were back, but he drove them away. Aristophanes says he hated all mankind except Alcibiades because he foresaw Alcibiades would harm Athens. After his defeat at Actium (31 BC), Mark Antony built a temple in Alexandria named the Timonium, as Antony considered himself to be like Timon, being mistreated by his friends.

Shakespeare seems to have favored the Trojans over the Greeks, whom he often shows discreditably, as here, both the cynical hangers-on and Timon's own excessive idealism, which proves fatal. As in King Lear Shakespeare chooses an example from pagan society to show that idealistic individuals are self-destructive, because they cannot reconcile themselves to human fallibility.

Timon renounces society: IV.i: an 1803 Boydell engraving by Isaac Taylor (1730–1807) after painting by Henry Howard (1796–1847). Attribution-Share- Alike License (Wikipedia).