lago. Yours, by this hand and to fee how he prizes the foolith woman your wife! fhe gave it him, and he hath given it his whore. Oth. I would have him nine years a killing :A fine woman! a fair woman! a fweet woman! Iago. Nay, you must forget that. Oth. Ay, let her rot, and perifh, and be damn'd to-night; for fhe fhall not live: No, my heart is turn'd to ftone; I ftrike it and it hurts my hand. O, the world hath not a fweeter creature: fhe might lie by an emperor's fide, and command him tasks. Iago. Nay, that's not your way. Oth. Hang her! I do but fay what he is :-So delicate with her needle!-An admirable musician! O, fhe would fing the favagenefs out of a bear :Of fo high and plenteous wit and invention !— Jago. She's the worfe for all this. Ofb. O, a thoufand, a thousand times:- And then, of fo gentle a condition ! Iago. Ay, too gentle. Oth. Nay, that's certain: But yet the pity of it, Iago!-O, Iago, the pity of it, Iago! Iago. If you are fo fond over her iniquity, give her patent to offend; for, if it touch not you, it comes near nobody. Oth. I will chop her into meffes :--Cuckold me! Iago. O, 'tis foul in her. Oth. With mine officer ! Iago. That's fouler. Qth. Get me fome poifon, Iago; this night :-I'll 3-No, my heart is turn'd to flone; I firike it and it hurts my band. This thought, as often as it occurs to Shakspeare, is fure to be received, and as often counteracts his pathos. So, in Antony and Cleopatra, act iv. fc. 8: 66 throw my heart "Against the flint and hardnefs of my fault, "Which, being dried with grief, will break to powder, And finifh all foul thoughts." Y y 4 STELVENS. not not expoftulate with her, left her body and beauty unprovide my mind again :-this night, Iago. lego. Do it not with poifon; ftrangle her in her bed, even the bed the hath contaminated. Oth. Good, good: the juftice of it pleases; very good. Iago. And, for Caffio,-let me be his undertaker : You fhall hear more by midnight. [A trumpet founds. Oth. Excellent good.-What trumpet is that fame? Iago. Something from Venice, fure. 'Tis Lodo vico, Come from the duke: and, fee, your wife is with him. Enter Lodovico, Desdemona, and Attendants, Lod. Save you, worthy general! Oth. With all my heart, fir. Lod. The duke and fenators of Venice greet you. [Gives him a letter. Oth. I kifs the inftrument of their pleasures. Def. And what's the news, good coufin Lodovico? Iago. I am very glad to fee you, fignior; Welcome to Cyprus. Lod. 1 thank you: How does lieutenant Cassio ? Jago. Lives, fir. Def. Coufin, there's fallen between him and my lord An unkind breach: but you fhall make all well. Oth. Are you fure of that? Def. My lord? Oth. This fail you not to do, as you will—' [Reads. Lod. He did not call; he's bufy in the paper. Is there divifion 'twixt by lord and Caffio ? Def. Def. A moft unhappy one; I would do much. To atone them, for the love I bear to Caffio. Oth. Fire and brimftone! Def. My lord? Oth. Are you wise ? Def. What, is he angry? Lod. 'May be, the letter mov'd him ; For, as I think, they do command him home, Def. By my troth, I am glad on't. Def. My lord? Oth. I am glad to fee you mad. Oth. Devil! Def. I have not deferv'd this. [Striking her. Lod. My lord, this would not be believ'd in Venice, Though I should fwear I faw it: 'Tis very much; Make her amends, the weeps. Oth. O devil, devil! 3 If that the earth could teem with woman's tears, Each drop the falls 4 would prove a crocodile :Out of my fight! Def. I will not ftay to offend you. I do befeech your lordship, call her back, 2 [Going atone them,-] Make them one; reconcile them. JOHNSON. 3 If that the earth would teem, &c.] If women's tears could im pregnate the earth. By the doctrine of equivocal generation, new animals were fuppofed producible by new combinations of matter. See Bacon. JOHNSON. 4 Each drop the falls] To fall is here a verb active. So, in the Tempest: "when I rear my hand do you the like, "To fall it on Gonzalo." STEEVENS. Def. Def. My lord? Oih. What would you with her, fir? Oth.Ay; you did with, that I would make her turn; kies?! [Exit. Lod. Is this the noble Moor, whom our full fenate 7-Proceed you in your tears.-] I cannot think that the poet meant to make Othello bid Defdemona to continue weeping, which proceed you in your tears (as the paffage is at prefent pointed) must He rather would have faid, mean. Proceed you in your tears ? What will you fill continue to be a hypocrite by a display of this well-painted paffion? WARNER. 8 Caffio fhall have my place.]. Perhaps this is addreffed to Def demona, who had juft expreffed her joy on hearing Caffio was deputed in the room of her husband. Her innocent fatisfaction in the hope of returning to her native place is conftrued by Othello into the pleafure fhe received from the advancement of his rival. STEEVENS. 9 Goats and monkies! In this exclamation Shakspeare has hewn great art. Iago, in the firft fcene in which he endeavours to awaken his fufpicion, being urged to give fome evident proof of the guilt of Caffia and Defdemona, tells him it were impoffible to have ocular demonftration of it, though they fhould be as prime as goats, as hot as monkies."-Thefe words we may suppose, fill ring in the ears of Othello, who being now fully convinced or his wife's infidelity, rufhes out with this emphatic exclamation: -Iago's words were but too true - now indeed I am convinced that they are as hot as "goats and monkies." MALONE. Call 1 Call-all-in-all fufficient? This the noble nature I Iago. He is much chang'd. Lod. Are his wits fafe? is he not light of brain? whofe folid virtue The hot of accident, nor dart of chance, Now to Could neither graze nor pierce,] But it is no commendation to the most folid virtue to be free from the attacks of fortune; but fo impenetrable as to fuffer no impreffion. graze fignifies only to touch the fuperfices of any thing. the attack of fortune and by that virtue is tried, but not difcredited. We ought certainly therefore to read : Can neither raze nor pierce. That is, i. e. neither lightly touch upon, nor pierce into. The ignorant tranfcribers being acquainted with the phrafe a bullet grazing, and hot being mentioned in the line before, they corrupted the true word. Befides, we do not fay, graze a thing; but graze on it. WARBURTON. I have ventured to attack another part of this fentence, which my ingenious friend flipped over. I cannot fee for my heart, the difference betwixt the shot of accident and dart of chance. The words and things they imply are purely fynonymous; but that the poet intended two different things feems plain from the difcretive adverb. Chance may afflict a man in fome circumstances; but other diftreffes are to be accounted for from a different caufe. I am perfuaded our author wrote: The hot of accident, nor dart of change, &c. And, in a number of other places, our poet industriously puts thefe two words in oppofition to each other. THEOBALD. To graze is not merely to touch fuperficially, but to strike not directly, not fo as to bury the body of the thing striking in the matter ftruck. Theobald trifles, as is ufual. Accident and chance may admit a fubtle distinction; accident may be confidered as the a, and chance as the power or agency of fortune; as, It was by chance that this accident befel me. At least, if we fuppofe all corrupt that is inaccurate, there will be no end of emendation. JOHNSON. I do not fee the leaft ground for fuppofing any corruption in this paffage. As pierce relates to the dart of chance, fo graze is referred to the hot of accident. The expreffion is ftill ufed; we ftill fay he was grazed by a bullet. MALONE. Iago |