Bra. Thou art a villain.

lago. You are a senator.

Bra. This thou fhalt answer. I know thee, Rodorigo. Rod. Sir, I will answer any thing. But I beseech you, *If't be your pleasure and most wife confent,

As partly, I find, it is, that your fair daughter,
At (3) this odd even and dull watch o' th' night
Tranfported with no worfe nor better guard,
But with a knave of hire, a Göndelier,
To the grofs clafps of a lafcivious Moor:
If this be known to you, and your
allowance,
We then bave done you bold and faucy wrongs.
But if you know not this, my manners teli me,
We have your wrong rebuke. Do not believe,
That from the fenfe of all civility

I thus would play and trifle with your reverence.
Your daughter, if you have not given her leave,
I fay again, hath made a gross revolt ;
Tying her duty, beauty, wit, and fortunes
To an extravagant and wheeling ftranger,

Of here and every where. Straight fatisfy yourself.
If the be in her chamber, or your house,
Let loose on me the juftice of the State
For thus deluding you.

Bra. Strike on the tinder, ho!
Give me a taper. Call up all

my people.

This accident is not unlike my dream,
Belief of it oppreffes me already.
Light! I fay, light!

lago. Farewel; for I must leave you.

It seems not meet, nor wholefome to my place,
To be produc'd, as, if I ftay, I fhall,

Against the Moor. For I do know, the State,
However this may gall him with (4) some check,
Cannot with fafety (5) caft him.

For he's embark'd

The lines printed in Italicks are not in the first edition, but in

the folio of 1623.

(3) this odd even

time when night is divided into two even parts. Some check,] Some rebuke.

(4)

(5)

caft bim.

-] The even of night is midnight, the

] That is, difmifs him; reject him. We

ftill fay, a caft coat, and a caft ferving man.

With fuch loud reafon to the Cyprus' wars,

Which ev'n now ftand in act, that, for their fouls,
Another of his fadom they have none,

To lead their bufinefs. In which regard,
Tho' I do hate him as I do hell's pains,
Yet, for neceffity of prefent life,

I must shew out a flag and fign of love:
Which is, indeed, but fign.

him,

That you may furely find

Lead to the Sagittary the raised search;

And there will I be with him.

So, farewel.

[Exit.

SCENE III.

Enter Brabantio, and fervants with torches..

Bra. It is too true an evil. Gone fhe is;
(6) And what's to come of my despised time,
Is nought but bitterness. Now, Rodorigo,
Where didst thou fee her? Oh unhappy girl!
With the Moor, faidft thou?

father?

Who would be a

How didft thou know 'twas fhe? Oh, thou deceiv'ft me

Paft thought.

What faid fhe to you?

Get

more tapers,

Are they married, think

Raife all my kindred.

you?

Rod. Truly, I think, they are.

Bra. Oh heaven! how gat fhe out?

Oh treafon of my blood!

Fathers, from hence truft not your daughters' minds

By

what you fee them act.

Are there not charms,

(6) And what's to come of my DESPISED time,] Why despised time? We fhould read,

DESPITED time,

i. e. vexatious.

WARBURTON.

Defpifed time is easily explained; it is time of no value; time in

which

There's nothing ferious in mortality,

The wine of life is drawn, and the meer dregs.

Are left, this vault to brag of.

Macbeth.

(7) By which the property of youth and maidhood May be abus'd? Have you not read, Rodorigo,

Of fome fuch thing?

Rod. Yes, Sir, I have, indeed.

Bra. Call up my brother.

had her.

Some one way, fome another

Oh, 'would you had

Do

you

Where we may apprehend her and the Moor?
Rod. I think, I can discover him, if you please
To get good guard, and go along with me.

know

Bra. Pray you, lead on. At every houfe I'll call, I command at most. Get may

weapons,

And raise fome special officers of might.
On, good Rodorigo, I'll deferve your pains.

SCENE IV.

hoa!

[Exeunt.

Changes to another STREET, before the Sagittary.
Enter Othello, Iago, and attendants with Torches.
lago. Tho' in the trade of war I have flain men,.
Yet do I hold it very (8) ftuff o' th' confcience
To do no contriv'd murder. I lack iniquity
Sometimes to do me fervice.

Nine or ten times
I thought to've jerk'd him here under the ribs.
Oth. It's better as it is.

Iago. Nay, but he prated,

And fpoke fuch fcurvy and provoking terms
Against your honour;

That with the little godlinefs I have,

I did full hard forbear him. But 1 pray, Sir,

Are

you faft married? for, be fure of this,

(7) By which the property of youth and maidbood

May be abus'd ? By which the faculties of a young virgin may be infatuated, and made fubject to illufions and to falfe imagination. Wicked dreams abuse

The curtain'd fleep.

Macbeth.

(8) -Stuff o' th' confcience] This expreffion to common readers appears harth. Stuff of the confcience is, fubftance, or effence, of the confcience. Stuff is a word of great force in the Teutonick languages. The elements are called in Dutch, koefed ftoffen, or bead fluffs.

That

That the Magnifico is much belov'd,
And hath in his effect a voice potential

(9) As double as the Duke's: he will divorce you,
Or put upon you what reftraint or grievance
The law, with all his might t'enforce it on,
Will give him cable.

Oth. Let him do his fpight:

My fervices, which I have done the Signory,
Shali out-tongue his complaints. 'Tis yet to know,
Which, when I know that Boafting is an honour,
I fhall promulgate, I fetch my Life and Being

(9) As double as the Duke's: -] Rymer feems to have had?: his eye on this paffage, amongst others, where he talks so much of the impropriety and barbarity in the style of this play. But it is an elegant Grecism. As double fignifies as large, as extenfive; for thus the Greeks ufe dλs. Diofc. 1. 2. c. 213. And in the fame manner and conftruction, the Latins fometimes ufed duplex.. And the old French writers fay, La plus double. Dr. Bentley has been as fevere on Milton for as elegant a Grecifm,

Yet Virgin of Proferpina from Jove. lib. 9 ver. 396. 'Tis an imitation of the Παρθένον ἐκ θαλάμε of Theocritus for an unmarried virgin.

WARBURTON. This note has been much cenfured by Mr. Upton, who denies, that the quotation is in Diofcorides, and difputes, not without reafon, the interpretation of Theocritus.

All this learning, if it had even been what it endeavours to be thought, is, in this place, fuperfluous. There is no ground of fuppofing, that our authour copied or knew the Greek phrafe; nor does it follow, that, becaufe a word has two fenfes in one language, the word which in another anfwers to one fenfe, fhould anfwer to hoth. Manus, in Latin, fignifies both a band and troop of foldiers, but we cannot fay, that the captain marched at the head of bis hand; or, that be laid his troop upon bis favsrd. It is not always in books that the meaning is to be fought of this writer, who was much more acquainted with naked reafon and, with living

manners.

Double has here its natural fenfe. The prefident of every deliberative affembly has a double voice. In our courts, the chief juf tice and one of the inferiour judges, prevail over the other two, because the chief juftice has a double voice.

Brabantio had, in bis effect, tho' not by law yet by weight and influence, a voice not actual and formal, but patential and operative, as double, that is, a voice that when a queftion was fufpended, would turn the balance as effectually as the Duke's. Potential is ufed in the fenfe of fcience; a cauftick is called potential fire.

From

From (1) men of royal fiege; and my demerits
May (2) fpeak, and bonnetted, to as proud a fortune
As this that I have reach'd. For know, Iago,
But that I love the gentle Desdemona,

I would not my (3) unhoufed free condition
Put into circumfcription and confine,

(4) For the fea's worth. But look, what light comes yonder ?

SCENE V.

Enter Caffio, with torches.

Iago. Those are the raised father, and his friends: You were best go

in.

Oth Not I: I must be found.

My parts, my title and my perfect Soul

Shall manifeft me rightly. Is it they?

(2)

men of royal height.

Speak, UNBONNETTED,

]Men who have fat upon

-] Thus all the copies

read. It fhould be UNBONNETTING, i. e. without putting off

the bonnet.

and my demerits

POPE.

May peak unbonnetted to as proud a Fortune As this that I bave reacb'd. -] Thus all the copies read this paffage. But, to speak unbonnetted, is to speak with the cap off, which is directly oppofite to the poet's meaning. Othello means to fay, that his birth and fervices fet him upon fuch a rank, that he may speak to a fenator of Venice with his hat on; i. e. without fhewing any marks of deference, or inequality. I, therefore, am inclined to think, Shakespeare wrote;

May fpeak, and bonnetted, &c.

THEOBALD.

I do not fee the propriety of Mr. Pope's emendation, though. adopted by Dr. Warburton. Unbonnetting may as well be, not putting on, as not putting off, the bonnet. Hanmer reads e'en bonnetted. (3) unboufed- -] Free from domeftick cares. A thought

natural to an adventurer.

-] I would not marry her, though the

(4) For the fea's worth. were as rich as the Adriatick, which the Doge annually marries.

Lage.