That, from the fenfe of all civility 5,

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 7.

6

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!

Tago. Farewel; for I must leave you :
It seems not meet, nor wholesome to my place,
To be produc'd (as, if I stay, I fhall)
Against the Moor; For, I do know, the state,-
However this may gall him with 9 fome check,-
Cannot with fafety caft him; for he's embark'd
With fuch loud reason to the Cyprus' war,

1

5 That from the fenfe of all civility] That is, in oppofi tion to, or departing from the sense of all civility. So, in Twelfth Night:

"But this is from my commiffion

Again, in The Mayor of Quinborough, by Middleton, 1661: "But this is from my bufinefs." MALONE.

6 To an extravagant, &c.] The old copies read, In an extravagant, &c. Mr, Pope made this change, which feems to be neceffary,

Extravagant is here ufed in its Latin fignification, for wen◄ dering. Thus in Hamlet; "The extravagant and erring fpirit." STEEVENS.

7 For thus deluding you.] The first quarto reads, For this de lufion, STEEVENS,

8 To be produc'd] The folio reads, produced. STEEVENS. 9-fome check,] Some rebuke. JOHNSON.

1-cast bim:] That is, difmifs him; reject him. We still fay, a cat coat, and a cat ferving-man, JOHNSON.

(Which even now ftands in act) that, for their fouls,
Another of his fathom they have not,
To lead their bufinefs; in which regard,
Though I do hate him as I do hell pains,
Yet, for neceffity of prefent life,
I must shew out a flag and fign of love,
Which is indeed but fign, That you fhall furely
find him,

Lead to the Sagittary the rais'd search;
And there will I be with him. So, farewel. [Exit,

Enter, below, Brabantio, and fervants,

Bra. It is too true an evil: gone fhe is; And what's to come of my defpifed time,

2

Is nought but bitterness,-Now, Roderigo,
Where didft thou fee her?-O unhappy girl!-
With the Moor, fay't thou ?-Who would be a
father?-

How didft thou know 'twas fhe?- O, thou deceiv'ft

me

Paft thought!-What faid fhe to you?-Get more tapers;

Raife all my kindred,-Are they marry'd, think you? Rod. Truly, I think, they are,

2 And what's to come of my defpifed time,] Defpifed time, is time of no value; time in which

"There's nothing ferious in mortality,

"The wine of life is drawn, and the mere dregs "Are left this vault to brag of," Macbeth. JOHNSON, Again, in Romeo and Juliet :

"expire the term

"Of a defpifed life clos'd in my breaft." STEEVENS. 3 -0, thou deceiv'ft me

Paft thought!-1 Thus the quarto 1622. The folio 1623, and the quartos 1630 and 1655 read,

O, he decieves me
Paft thought.

I have chofen the apostrophe to his abf nt daughter as the most fpirited of the two readings. STEEVENS.

Nn4

Bra.

Bra. O heaven!-How got the out?-O treason of the blood!

Fathers, from hence truft not your daughters' minds
By what you fee them act.-Are there not charms,
* By which the property of youth and maidhood'
May be abus'd? Have you not read, Roderigo,
Of fome fuch thing?

Rod. Yes, fir; I have, indeed,

Bra. Call up my brother,-Q, 'would you had
had her!

Some one way, fome another.-Do you know
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.

;

I

Bra. Pray you, lead on. At every houfe I'll call may command at most :-Get weapons, ho! And raife fome fpecial officers of might'. On, good Roderigo; I'll deferve your pains. [Exeunt,

II.

SCENE

Another Street,

Enter Othello, Iago, and attendants,

lago. Though in the trade of war I have flain men,

4 By which the property of youth and maidhood

May be abus'd] By which the faculties of a young virgin may be infatuated, and made subject to illufions and to falfe ima gination :

"Wicked dreams abuse

"The curtain'd fleep." Macbeth. JOHNSON. 5 -and maidbood-] The quartos read-and manhood—,

STEEVENS.

Pray you, lead on.] The first quarto reads, Pray lead me on,
STEEVENS.

of might.] The first quarto reads-of night.

STEEVENS.

Yet

1

Yet do I hold it very ftuff o' the confcience
To do no contriv'd murder; I lack iniquity
Sometimes, to do me fervice: Nine or ten times
I had thought to have jerk'd him here under the ribs.
Oth. 'Tis better as it is,

Jago. Nay, but he prated,

And spoke such scurvy and provoking terms
Against your honour,

That, with the little godlinefs I have,
I did full hard forbear him. But, I pray you, fir,
Are you faft marry'd? for, be fure of this,-
That the magnifico is much belov'd;
And hath, in his effect, a voice potential
'As double as the duke's; he will divorce

Again, in King Henry VIII:

-

"You're full of heavenly fuff," &c.

you;

8 -stuff o' the confcience] This expreffion to common readers appears harsh. Stuff of the confcience is, fubftance, or effence of the confcience. Stuff is a word of great force in the Teutonic languages. The elements are called in Dutch, Hoefd ftoffen, or bead Ruffs. JOHNSON,

Or

Frisch's German Dictionary gives this explanation of the word
foffmateries ex qua aliquid fieri poterit." STEEVENS.
9-the magnifico] "The chief men of Venice are by a pecu-
liar name called Magnifici, i. e. magnificoes." Minshew's Dictio
See too Volpone. TOLLET.

nary.

As double as the duke's:-] Rymer seems to have had his eye on this paffage, among others, where he talks fo much of the impropriety and barbarity in the ftile of this play. But it is an elegant Grecifm. As double, fignifies as large, as extenfive; for thus the Greeks ufe Amas. 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 Grecism:

"Yet virgin of Proferpina from Jove," lib. ix. ver. 396. It is an imitation of the Пagevoy ix Jaraus of Theocritus, for ant unmarried virgin. WARBURTON.

This note has been much cenfured by Mr. Upton, who denies that the quotation is in Diofcorides, and difputes, not without reason, 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

Lup

Or put upon you what reftraint and grievance
The law (with all his might, to enforce it on)
Will give him cable.

Oth. Let him do his spite:

My fervices, which I have done the figniory,
Shall 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
From men of royal fiege; and my demerits

3

2

fuppofing, that our author copied or knew the Greek phrafe; nor does it follow, that, because a word has two fenfes in one lanthe word which in another answers to one sense, should guage, anfwer to both. Manus, in Latin, fignifics both a hand and a troop of foldiers, but we cannot fay, that the captain marched at the head of his hand; or, that he laid his troop upon his fword. 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 juftice and one of the iuferior judges prevail over the other two, because the chief juftice has a double voice.

Brabantio had, in his effect, though not by law, yet by weight and influence, a voice not actual and formal, but potential and operative, as double, that is, a voice that when a question was fufpended, would turn the balance as effectually as the duke's. Potential is ufed in the fenfe of fcience; a cauftic is called potential fire. JOHNSON,

I believe here is a mistake. The chief juftice and one of the inferior judges do not prevail over the other two. The lord mayor in the court of aldermen has a double voice. TOLLET.

The chief justice has no double voice. If the court is equally divided, nothing is done. BLACKSTONE.

2

-men of royal ficge;-] Men who have fat upcn royal thrones. The quarto has,

Men of royal height.

·Siege is used for feat by other authors. So, in Stowe's Chronicle, "there was fet up a throne or fiege royall for the P. 575: king. See vol. ii. p. 124. STEEVENS.

3 and my demerits] Demerits has the fame meaning in our author, and many others of that age, as merits : See vol. vii, P. 353.

Mereo and demereo had the fame meaning in the Roman language. STEEVENS,

May