i It is the cause. - Yet I'll not shed her blood, [Takes off his fword. Yet she must die, else she'll betray more men. Yet she must die, elfe she'll betray more men.) This is the second attempt of Otheilo to justify what he has undertaken. First he fays, It is the caufe, i. e. his own cause; now he is willing to suppose himself the preventer to fucceeding mischief to others. STLEVENS. Put out the light, and then-Put out the light!] So it should be printed. The meaning is, I will put out the light, and then proceed to the execution of my purpose. But the expreffion of putting out the light, bringing to mind the effects of the extinction of the light of life, he breaks short, and questions himself about the effects of this metaphorical extinction, introduced by a repetition of his first words, as much as to say, But hold, let me first weigh the reflections which this expression so naturally excites. WARBURTON. This has been confidered as a very difficult line. Fielding makes Betterton and Booth difpute about it with the author himself in the other world. The punctuation recommended by Dr. Warburton, gives a fpirit to it which I fear was not intended. It seems to have been only a play upon words. To put the light out was a phrafe for to kill. In the Maid's tragedy, Melantius says, - 'Tis a justice, and a noble one, "To put the light out of fuch base offenders." FARMER. Put out the light. This phrafe is twice used in Sidney's Arcadia for killing a lady, p. 460 and 470, edit. 1633 Again, in an unpublished play, called The Second Maiden's Tragedy, by George Chapman, licensed by fir George Buc, October 31st, 1611: (now in the library of the earl of Shelburne, who honour'd me with the use of it) 2 66 - O foul of cunning! "Came that arch fubtilty from thy lady's counsel, "How oft thou hast been a bawd to their close actions, "Or all thy light goes out." STEEVENS. put out thy light, Thus the folio. The quarto reads put out thine. STEEVENS. 1 1 Thou cunning'it pattern of excelling nature", That can thy light relumine3. pluck'd thy + rofe, I cannot give it vital growth again, When I have It needs must wither : - I'll fmell it on the tree. laft: So fweet was ne'er so fatal. I must weep, Oth. Ay, Desdemona. Def. Will you come to bed, my lord? Oth. Have you pray'd to-night, Desdemona ? Thou cunning'st pattern of excelling nature,] So in Palmerin D'Oliva 1588, p. 1. "---those that beheld her esteemed her for the chiefeft piece of workmanshippe that ever nature framed." EDITOR. 3 - relumine.] The folio reads-relume. The first quartoreturn: the second quarto-relumine. STEEVENS. 4-thy rofe,] Thus the folio. The quarto reads, the rofe." Again, the quarto reads, "I'll fmell it on the tree." STEEVENS. The folio, "I'il fmell bee on the tree." STEEVENS. 5 —This forrow's heavenly ;) This tenderness, with which I lament the punishment which justice compels me to inflict, is a holy paffion. I wish these two lines could be honestly ejected. It is the fate of Shakspeare to counteract his own pathos. JOHNSON. Perhaps the poet would not have retained both these images had he published the play himself, though in the hurry of com1 ofition he threw them both upon paper. The first seems adopted from the fabulous history of the crocodile, the second from a passage in the fcripture. STEEVENS, Def. Ay, my lord. Oth. If you bethink yourself of any crime, Unreconcil'd as yet to heaven and grace, Def. Alas, my lord, what may you mean by that? Oth. Well, do it, and be brief; I will walk by: I would not kill thy unprepared fpirit; No, Heaven forefend! I would not kill thy foul. Def. Talk you of killing? Oth. Ay, I do. Def. Then, heaven Have mercy on me! Oth. Amen, with all my heart! Def. If you fay so, I hope you will not kill me. Oth. Hum! Def. And yet I fear you; for you are fatal then, When your eyes roll so: Why I should fear, I know not, Since guiltiness I know not; but yet, I feel, I fear. Oth. Think on thy fins. Def. They are loves I bear to you. Oth. Ay, and for that thou dy'st. Def. That death's unnatural, that kills for loving. Alas, why gnaw you to your nether lip ? Some bloody passion shakes your very frame: These are portents; but yet, I hope, I hope, They do not point on me. Oth. Peace, and be still! Def. I will fo: What's the matter? Oth. That handkerchief, which I so lov'd, and gave thee, Thou gav'ft to Caffio. Def. No, by my life and foul; Send for the man, and ask him. 7 I would not kill thy foul.] Sir W. D'Avenant has borrowed this thought in his Albovine King of Lombardy, 1629: "I am not fraught with devil's spleen; I would 3 A4 Oth Oth. Sweet foul, take heed, Take heed of perjury; thou art on thy death-bed. Def. Ay, but not yet to die. Oth. Yes, presently : Therefore confefs thee freely of thy fin; Cannot remove, nor choak, the strong conception Def. O, heaven have mercy on me! Oth. I fay, amen. Def. And have you mercy too! -I never did Oth. By heaven, I faw my handkerchief in his hand. O perjur'd woman! thou dost stone my heart, Def. He found it then ; I never gave it him :- Send for him hither, And let him confefs a truth. Oth. He hath confefs'd. Def. What, my lord? Oth. That he hath-us'd thee. Def. How? unlawfully ? 8 A murder, which I thought a facrifice.) This line is difficult. Thou hast bardened my heart, and makejt me kill thee with the rage of a murderer, when I thought to have facrificed thee to justice with the calmness of a priest striking a victim. It must not be omitted, that one of the elder quartos reads, thou doft flone thy beart; which I fufpect to be genuine. The meaning then will be, thou forceft me to dismiss thee from the worts in the ftate of the murdered without preparation for death, when I intended that thy punishment should have been a facrifice atoning for thy crime. 1 am glad that I have ended my revisal of this dreadful scene. It is not to be endured. JOHNSON. Oth. Oth. Had all his hairs been lives, my great re venge Had ftomach for them all. Def. Alas! he is betray'd, and I undone. Oth. Out, ftrumpet ! Weep'it thou for him to my face? Def. O, banish me, my lord, but kill me not. Oth. Down, ftrumpet ! Def. Kill me to-morrow, let me live to-night. Des. But half an hour. Oth. Being done', There is no pause. Def. But while I say one prayer. 8-bath ta'en order for't) i. e. has taken measures. So, in Holinshed's Reign of King John: " he took fuch order for him, that he was despoiled of all his goods and benefices," p. 174. STEEVENS. Again, in Dido Queen of Carthage, by Marlowe and Nathe, 1594: " I will take order for that presently." MALONE. 9 Had all his hairs been lives, ) This thought appears to have been very common, as it occurs frequently in dramatic performances prior to Shakspeare's Othello. So, in the Devil's Charter, by Barnaby Barnes, 1607: "Know Cæfar, had I now as inany lives As there are ftones, or hairs upon my head, " I would," &c. Again, in Beaumont and Fletcher's King and no King: but if all "My hairs were loves, I would not be engaged Being done, I bere is no pause.] The first quarto omits this speech. STEEVENS. Oth. 1 |