My fpeech should fall into fuch vile success As my thoughts aim not at. Caffio's my worthy friend: My lord, I fee you are mov'd. Oth. No, not much mov'd: I do not think, but Defdemona's honeft. Iago. Long live the fo! and long live you to think fo! Oth. And yet, how nature erring from itself, Lago. Ay, there's the point: As, -to be bold with you, Not to affect many proposed matches, But pardon me; I do not in position, 1 My Speech would fall into fuch vile success,] Success, for fuc- ceffion, i. e. conclufion; not profperous issue. I rather think there is a depravation, and would read : My Speech will fall into fach vile excess. If fuccefs be the right word, it seems to mean confequence or event, as fucceffo is used in Italian. JOHNSON. I think fuccefs may, in this inftance, bear its common interpretation. What lago means, feems to be this: "Should you do fo, my lord, my words would be attended by fuch an infamous degree of fuccefs, as my thoughts do not even aim at." Iago, who countericits the feelings of virtue, might have faid fail into fuccefs, and vile fuccefs, because he would appear to Othelle, to wish that the enquiry into Desdemona's guilt might prove fruitless and unfuccefsful. STEEVENS. The following paflages will perhaps be confidered as proofs of Dr. Johnson's explanation, Palace of Pleafure, bl. 1. " Then the poor defolate women, fearing leaft their cafe would forte to fome pitifull fucceffe," Promos and Caffandra, 1578: "God forbyd all hys hope should turne to fuch fucceffe." HENDERSON. 2-will most rank,] Will, is for wilfulness. It is so used by Afcham. A rank will, is felf-will overgrown and exuberant. Distinctly fpeak of her though I may fear, Oth. Farewel, farewel: If more thou dost perceive, let me know more; doubtless, [Going. Sees and knows more, much more, than he unfolds. Iago. My lord,- I would, I might entreat your honour To scan this thing no further; leave it to time: Iago. I once more take my leave. [Exit, Oth. This fellow's of exceeding honesty, And knows all qualities, with a learned spirit, 3 You shall by that perceive him, and bis means,] You shall difcover whether he thinks his best means, his most powerful intereft, is by the folicitation of your lady. JOHNSON. 4 -prain bis entertainment) Press hard his re-admiffion to his pay and office. Entertainment was the military term for admiffion of foldiers. JOHNSON. 5 Fear not my government.) Do not diftrust my ability to contain my patsion. JOHNSON. 6 -with a learned Spirit,] Learned, for experienced. WARBURTON. The conftruction is, He knows with a learned spirit all qualities of human dealings. JOHNSON, Of Of human dealings: 7 If I do prove her haggard, * Though that her jesses were my dear heart-strings, • I'd whistle her off, and let her down the wind, To 7- If I do prove her haggard,] A baggard hawk, is a wild hawk, a hawk unreclaimed, or irreclaimable. JOHNSON. A baggard is a particular species of hawk. It is difficult to be reclaimed, but not irreclaimable. From a passage in Vittoria Corombona, it appears that baggard was a term of reproach sometimes applied to a wanton: "Is this your perch, you haggard? fly to the stews." Turbervile says, that "the baggart falcons are the most excel. lent birds of all other falcons." Latham gives to the baggart only the second place in the valued file. In Holland's Leaguer, a comedy, by Shakerly Marmyon, 1633, is the following illustrative paffage : Again, "Before these courtiers lick their lips at her, " For she is ticklish as any baggard, Again, in Two Wife Men, and all the Reft Fools, 1619: "the admirable conquest the faulconer maketh in a hawk's nature; bringing the wild baggard having all the earth and feas to fcour over une controulably, to attend and obey, &c." Haggard, however, had a popular fenfe, and was used for wild by those who thought not on the language of falconers. STEEVENS. 8 Though that her jesses were my dear beart-ftrings,] Jeffes are short straps of leather tied about the foot of a hawk, by which she is held on the fist. HANMER. In Heywood's comedy, called A Woman killed with Kindness, 1617, a number of these terms relative to hawking occur together: returns. "Now she hath seiz'd the fowl, and 'gins to plume her; STEEVENS. I'd whistle her off, and let ber down the wind To prey at fortune.-) The falconers always let fly the hawk against the wind; if the flies with the wind behind her, she seldom If therefore a hawk was for any reason to be dismissed, she was let down the wind, and from that time shifted for herself, and preyed at fortune. This was told me by the late Mr. Clark, JOHNSON. I'll whistle ber off, &c.] This passage may poffibly receive illustration from a fimilar one in Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy, To prey at fortune. Haply, for I am black; When p. 2. fect 1. mem. 3. "As a long-winged hawke, when he is "first whistled off the fift, mounts aloft, and for his pleasure fetch"eth many a circuit in the ayre, still foaring higher and higher, " till he comes to his full pitch, and in the end, when the game " is sprung, comes down amaine, and ftoupes upon a sudden." PERCY Again, in The Spanish Gipfie, 1653, by Middleton and Rowley: 66 - That young lannerd, "Whom you have such a mind to; if you can whistle ber "To co ne to fift, make trial, play the young falconer." A lannerd is a species of hawk. Again, in Beaumont and Fletcher's Bonduca: "- he that bafely "Whistled his honour off to the wind, &c." STEEVENS. Chamberers] i. e. men of intrigue. So, in the Countess of Pembroke's Antonius, 1590: "Fal'n from a fouldier to a chamberer." Again, in Chaucer's Romaunt of the Rofe, ver. 4935 : "Only through youth the chamberere." Thus, in the French poem : " Par la jeunesse la chamberiere." STEEVENS. 2-forked plague-] In allufion to a barbed or forked arrow which, once infixed, cannot be extracted. JOHNSON. Or rather, the forked plague is the cuckold's horns. PERCY. Dr. Johnson's may be right. I meet with the fame thought in Middleton's comedy of A Mad World my Masters, 1608: "While the broad arrow, with the forked bead, " Misses his brows but narrowly." When we do quicken. Desdemona comes 3: Enter Desdemona, and Æmilia. If the be false, O, then heaven mocks itself!一 Def. How now, my dear Othello? Def. Why is your speech fo faint? are you not well? Def.Why, that's with watching; 'twill away again: Let me but bind it hard, within this hour Oth. 5. Your napkin is too little; [S.2 drops her handkerchief. Let it alone. Come, I'll go in with you. Des. I am very forry that you are not well. Amil. I am glad, I have found this napkin; This was her first remembrance from the Moor: Again, in King Lear: "-though the fork invade "The region of my heart. Mr. Malone fupports the explanation of Dr. Percy, by the fol lowing passage in Machin's Dumb Knight, 1633: Women, why were you made for man's affliction ? "You devils, shap'd like angels, through whose deeds "Our forked frames are made most visible." Again, from Tarlton's Nevses out of Purgatorie: "-dub the old Squire Knight of the forked order." STEEVENS. 3 Desdemona comes :) 'Thus the quartos. The folio reads : Look where she comes. SrEEVENS. 4 -the generous islanders] Are the islanders of rank, distinctions So, in Measure for Measure: "The generous and gravest citizens "Have hent the gates. Generous has here the power of generofus, Lat. This explana tion, however, may be too particular. STEEVENS. s Your napkin, &c.] See vol. iii. p. 384 STEEVENS. My |