<正> So far, relatively few scholars have shown special interests in Timon of Athens and those who have, were, more often than not, concerned with textual problems. Wilson Knight, in his essay about the play, offers a praising tone that Timon of Athens possesses "the nature of a tragic movement more precipitous and unimpeded than any other in Shakespeare; one which is conceived on a scale even more tremendous than that of Macbeth and King Lear; and one whose universal tragic significance is of all most clearly apparent." Aside from this point of view, most critics seem to look at the play as an