Brain Snacks: Tasty Tidbits of Knowledge
Shakespeare might have taken his idea for this play from an anonymous play called The Comedy of Timon, in which some dude wants to be transformed into a beast so he can torment mankind (source). Sound familiar? (Except for the whole metamorphosis thing.)
Did you know Shakespeare most likely had help with this one? Most scholars think he wrote the play with Thomas Middleton (source).
Timon of Athens is based on a real person. Timon the Misanthrope, as he was known, was written about by Plutarch and roamed the streets of Athens around 430 B.C.E. (source).
The word "caked" appears for the first time in this play. Ever. Anywhere. That's right, Shakespeare invented it, along with about a billion others (source).
Humour Out of Breath, a play written in Shakespeare's day by John Day, gives a shout out to Timon as "the lord that gave all to his followers, and beg'd for more himself" (4.1) (source).