The meat it feeds on: That cuckold lives in blifs, Who,

i. e. he plays wantonly with thofe intervals of time which, he fhould improve to his own prefervation.

Should fuch an explanation be admiffible, the advice given by Iago will amount to this :-Beware,my lord, of yielding to a paffion which as yet has no proofs to justify its accefs. Think how the interval between fufpicion and certainty must be filled. Though you doubt her fidelity, you cannot yet refufe her your bed, or drive her from your heart; but, like the capricious favage, mut continue to Sport with one whom you wait for an opportunity to defroy. A fimilar idea occurs in All's Well that ends Well :

fo luft doth play

"With what it loaths."

Such is the only fenfe that I am able to draw from the original text. What I have faid, may be liable to fome objections, but I have nothing better to prop fe. That jealoufy is a monter which often creates the fufpicions on which it feeds, may be well admitted according to Hanmer's propofition; but is it the monfter? (i. e. a well-known and confpicuous animal) or whence has it green eyes? Yellow is the colour which Shakspeare appropriates to jealoufy. It must be acknowledged that he afterwards characterizes it as

a monster, Begot upon itself, born on itself.

but yet What damned minutes counts he o'er, &c." is the best illuftration of my attempt to explain the paffage, To produce Hanmer's meaning, a change in the text is neceffary. I am counsel for the old reading. STEEVENS.

Yellow is not always the colour which Shakspeare appropriates to jealoufy; for we meet in 7he Merchant of Venice:

66

-fhudd'ring fear, and green-ey'd jealoufy.'

By "the green-ey'd monfter," I believe, Shakspeare only means that green-eyed monster, which doth mock, &c. If we understand it in this way, it is the fame, as if he had faid—a greeney'd monster.

The paffage alluded to by Mr. Steevens, in my opinion, ftrongly confirms the emendation proposed by fir Thomas Hanmer [make]:

"jealoufy will not be anfwer'd fo;

"They are not ever jealous for the caufe,

"But jealous for they are jealous: 'tis a monfler,
"Begot upon itself, born on itself."

It is, ftrictly speaking, as falfe, that any monfter can beget or be born on itself, as it is, that, any monster can make his own food; but, poetically, both are equally true of that monfter,

JEALOUSY,,

T +3'

In

1

Who, certain of his fate, loves not his wronger;
But, O, what damned minutes tells he o'er,

Who dotes, yet doubts; fufpects, yet ftrongly loves $!

Oth. O mifery!

Iago. Poor, and content, is rich, and rich enough;

In Measure for Measure, at i. edit. 1623, make is printed instead of mock. MALONE.

It is fo difficult, if not impoffible, to extract any sense from this paffage as it ftands, even by the most forced construction of it, and the flight amendment propofed by Hanmer, renders it fo clear, elegant, and poetical, that I am furprized the editors fhould hefirate in adopting it, and fill more furprized they should reject it. As for Mr. Steevens's objection, that the definite article is used, not the indefinite, he furely need not be told in the very last of these plays, that Shakspeare did not regard fuch minute inaccuracies, which may be found in every play he wrote.

When Mr. Steevens compares the jealous man, who continues to fport with the woman he fufpects. and is determined to destroy, to the tiger who plays with the victim of his hunger, he forgets that the meat on which jealoufy is fuppofed to feed, is not the woman who is the object of it, but the feveral circumstances of fufpicion which jealoufy itself creates, and which cause and nourish it. So Emilia, at the end of the third act in answer to Desdemona, who fpeaking of Othello's jealoufy fays,

Replies,

Alas the day! I never gave him cause

But jealous fools will not be answered fo,
They are not jealous ever for the caufe,

But jealous, for they are jealous-'tis a monster
Begot upon itself, born on itself.

This paffage is a ftrong confirmation of Hanmer's reading, The fame idea occurs in Maffingers Picture, where Matthias, fpeaking of the groundless jealoufy he entertained of Sophia's poffible inconftancy, fays,

but why fhould I nourish

"A fury here, and with imagin'd food,
"Holding no real ground on which to raise

A building of fufpicion fhe was ever,

"Or can be falfe?

Imagin'd food, is food created by imagination, the food that jealoufy makes and feeds on. MoNCK MASON.

8 Arongly loves!] Thus the quarto; the folio,-foundly loves. STEEYENS,

But

A

But riches, finelefs, is as poor as winter,
To him that ever as he thall be poor :-
Good heaven, the fouls of all my tribe defend
From jealoufy!

Oth. Why? why is this?

Think'ft thou, I'd make a life of jealoufy,
To follow fill the changes of the moon
With fresh fufpicions? No, to be once in doubt,
Is-once to be refolv'd: Exchange me for a goat,
When I fhall turn the bufinefs of my foul

2 To such exfuffelate, and blown furmifes 3,
Matching thy inference. 'Tis not to make me jea-
lous,

To fay-my wife is fair, feeds well, loves company,
Is free of fpeech, fings, plays, and dances well;
+ Where virtue is, thefe are more virtuous :

Nor

9 But riches, finelefs,-] Unbounded, endlefs, unnumbered treafures. JOHNSON.

1

as poor as winter,] Finely expreffed: winter producing no fruits. WARBURTON.

To fuch exfuffolate and blown furmifes,] This odd and farfetched word was made yet more uncouth in all the editions before Hanmer's, by being printed, exfufflicate. The allufion is to a bubble. Do not think, fays the Moor, that I fhall change the noble designs that now employ my thoughts, to fufpicions which, like bubbles blown into a wide extent, have only an empty fhew without folidity; or that, in confequence of fuch empty fears, I will clofe with thy inference against the virtue of my wife. JOHNSON.

3-blown furmifes,

Matching your inference.] That is, fuch as you have mentioned in defcribing the torments of jealoufy. The part of lago's fpeech particularly alluded to is that where he fays,

But, Oh, what damned momen's counts he o'er,

Who doats, yet doubts; fuipects, yet ftrongly loves.
MONCK MASON.

4 Where virtue is, these are moft virtuous:] An action in itself indifferent, grows virtuous by its end and application. JOHNSON. I know not why the modern editors, in oppofition to the first quarto and folio, read most inftead of more.

A paffage in All's Well that Ends Well, is perhaps the best comment on the fentiment of Othello: "I have thofe good hopes of

Nor from mine own weak merits will I draw
The smallest fear, or doubt of her revolt;
For the had eyes, and chose me: No, Iago;
I'll fee, before I doubt; when I doubt, prove;
And, on the proof, there is no more but this,-
Away at once with love, or jealousy.

Iago. I am glad of this; for now I fhall have
reafon

To fhew the love and duty that bear I you
With franker fpirit: therefore, as I am bound,
Receive it from me :-I fpeak not yet of proof.
Look to your wife; obferve her well with Caffio;
Wear your eye-thus, not jealous nor fecure:
would not have your free and noble nature,
"Out of felf-bounty, be abus'd; look to't:
I know our country's difpofition well;
In Venice they do let heaven fee the pranks
They dare not fhew their husbands; their best con-
science

Is-not to leave undone, but keep unknown 7.
Oth. Doft thou say so?

Iago. She did deceive her father, marrying you;
And, when the feem'd to fhake, and fear your looks,
She lov'd them moft.

Oth.

her, education promifes: his difpofition fhe inherits; which makes fair gifts fairer." Gratior e pulchro veniens et corpore virtus. STEEVENS,

Moft is the reading of the fecond folio. REMARKS. Out of felf-bounty be abus'd ;—] Self-bounty, for inherent ge nerofity. WARBURTON,

our country difpofition.

In Venice] Here Iago feems to be a Venetian.

JOHNSON.

Is not to leave undone, but keep unknown.] The folio per haps more clearly reads:

Is not to leave't undone, but keep't unknown.

STEEVENS. And, when the feem'd-] This and the following argument of Iago ought to be deeply impreffed on every reader. Deceit and falfehood, whatever conveniences they may for a time pro

Oth. And fo fhe did.

Iago. Why, go to, then;

She that, fo young, could give out fuch a feeming, To feel her father's eyes up, close as oak,

He thought, 'twas witchcraft :-But I am much to blame;

I humbly do befeech you of your pardon,
For too much loving you.

Oth. I am bound to thee for ever.

Iago. I fee, this hath a little dafh'd your spirits. Oth. Not a jot, not a jot.

Iago. Truft me, I fear it has.

I hope, you will confider, what is fpoke Comes from my love:-But, I do fee, you are mov'd ;

I am to pray you, not to ftrain my fpeech. 9 To groffer iffues, nor to larger reach, Than to fufpicion.

Oth. I will not.
Iago. Should

you do fo, my lord,

mife or produce, are, in the fum of life, obstacles to happiness. Thoc, who profit by the cheat, diftruit the deceiver, and the act, by which kindness was fought, puts an end to confidence.

The fame objection may be made with a lower degree of strength against the imprudent generofity of difproportionate marriages. When the first heat of paffion is over, it is easily fucceeded by fuf picion, that the fame violence of inclination, which caufed one irregularity, may stimulate to another; and thofe who have fhewn, that their paffions are too powerful for their prudence, will, with very flight appearances against them, be cenfured, as not very likely to restrain them by their virtue. JOHNSON.

To feel her father's eyes up, close as oak,-] The oak is (I believe) the most clofe-grained wood of general ufe in England, Clofe as oak, means, clofe as the grain of the oak. I fee no cause for alteration.

'To feel is an expreffion taken from falconry. So, in Ben Jon. fon's Catiline:

would have kept

Both eyes and beak feel'd up, for fix fefterces."
STEEVENS.

? To groffer iffsues,] fues, for conclufions. WARBURTON.

My