Or put upon you what restraint and grievance Oth. Let him do his spite: I would not my unhoused free condition 6 For the sea's worth 9. But, look! what lights come yonder? 5 Men who have sat upon royal thrones.' So in Grafton's Chronicle, p. 443:- Incontinent, after that he was placed in the royal siege,' &c. 6 Demerits has the same meaning in Shakspeare as merits. Mereo and demereo had the same meaning in the Roman language. 'Demerit (says Bullokar), a desert; also (on the contrary, and as it is most commonly used at this day) ill-deserving.' See Coriolanus, p. 131. 7 Mr. Fuseli (and who was better acquainted with the sense and spirit of Shakspeare?) explains this passage as follows:I am his equal or superior in rank; and were it not so, such are my merits, that unbonneted, without the addition of patrician or senatorial dignity, they may speak to as proud a fortune,' &c. At Venice the bonnet, as well as the toge, is a badge of aristocratic honours to this day. 8 i. e. unsettled, free from domestic cares. 9 Pliny, the naturalist, has a chapter on the riches of the sea. The expression seems to have been proverbial. Thus in Davenant's Cruel Brother, 1630:→ he would not lose that privilege For the sea's worth.' So in King Henry V. Act i.: 6 As rich with praise, As is the ooze and bottom of the sea With sunken wreck and sumless treasuries.' Enter CASSIO, at a Distance, and certain Officers with Torches. Jago. These are the raised father, and his friends: You were best go in. Oth. Not I: I must be found; Oth. The servants of the duke, and my lieutenant. The goodness of the night upon you, friends 10! What is the news? The duke does greet you, general; 11 Cas. And he requires your haste, post-haste 11 appearance, Even on the instant. Oth. What is the matter, think you? Cas. Something from Cyprus, as I may divine; It is a business of some heat: the galleys Have sent a dozen sequent messengers This very night at one another's heels; And many of the consuls 12, rais'd, and met, Are at the duke's already: You have been hotly call'd for; 13 When, being not at your lodging to be found, Oth. you out. "Tis well I am found by you. I will but spend a word here in the house, And go with you. 10 So in Measure for Measure: The best and wholesomest spirits of the night [Exit. 11 These words were ordinarily written on the covers of letters or packets requiring the most prompt and speedy conveyance. Often reduplicated thus:-Haste, haste, haste, post-haste!' 12 See note 6, on Scene 1, p. 256. 13 Quests are here put for messengers; properly it signified searchers. Vide Cotgrave, in questeur. Cas. Ancient, what makes he here? Iago. 'Faith, he to-night hath boarded a land If it carrack 14; prove lawful prize, he's made for ever. Cas. I do not understand. Iago. Cas. He's married. To who 15? Re-enter OTHello. Iago. Marry, to-Come, captain, will you go? Oth. Have with you. Cas. Here comes another troop to seek for you. Enter BRABANTIO, RODERIGO, and Officers of Night, with Torches and Weapons. Iago. It is Brabantio:-general, be advis’d 16; He comes to bad intent. Oth. Rod. Signior, it is the Moor. Bra. Hola! stand there! Down with him, thief! [They draw on both sides. Iago. You, Roderigo! come, sir, I am for you. Oth. Keep up your bright swords, for the dew will rust them. Good signior, you shall more command with years, Than with your weapons. Bra. O thou foul thief, where hast thou stow'd my daughter? 14 A carrack, or carrick, was a ship of great burthen, a Spanish galeon; so named from carico, a lading, or freight. 15 In the third scene of the third act Iago says: 'Did Michael Cassio, when you woo'd my lady, Oth. From first to last.' Cassio's seeming ignorance might therefore only be affected in order to keep his friend's secret till it became publicly known. 16 i. e. be cautious, be discreet. Damn'd as thou art, thou hast enchanted her: 17 Sir W. Davenant uses the same expression in his Just Italian, 1630: Again: The curl'd and silken nobles of the town.' 'Such as the curled youth of Italy.' It was the fashion of the poet's time for lusty gallants to wear a curled bush of frizzled hair.' See Hall's Satires, ed. 1824, book iii. sat. 5. Shakspeare has in other places alluded to the fashion of curling the hair among persons of rank and fashion. Speaking of Tarquin, in The Rape of Lucrece, he says;— 'Let him have time to tear his curled hair.' And Edgar, in Lear, when he was proud in heart and mind,' curled his hair. Turnus, in the twelfth Æneid, speaking of Æneas, says: fœdare in pulvere crines Vibratos calido ferre.' 18Of such a thing as thou: a thing to fear (i. e. terrify), not to delight.' So in the next scene :— 'To fall in love with what she fear'd to look on.' 19 The lines in crotchets are not in the first edition, 4to. 1622. 20 The old copy reads, "That weaken motion.' The emendation is Hanmer's. Motion is elsewhere used by our poet precisely in the sense required here. So in Measure for Measure: one who never feels The wanton stings and motions of the sense.' And in a subsequent scene of this play :-' But we have reason I therefore apprehend and do attach thee,] Oth. Hold your hands, Both you of my inclining, and the rest: Were it my cue to fight, I should have known it Without a prompter.-Where will you that I go To answer this your charge? Bra. To prison: till fit time Of law, and course of direct session, Oth. What if I do obey? How may the duke be therewith satisfied; Off. "Tis true, most worthy signior, The duke's in council; and your noble self, How! the duke in council! Bra. Cannot but feel this wrong, as 'twere their own: [Exeunt. to cool our raging motions, our carnal stings, our unbitted lusts.' So in A Mad World, my Masters, by Middleton, 1608: And in myself sooth up adulterous motions.' To waken is to incite, to stir up. We have in the present play, 'waken'd wrath.' And in Shakspeare's 117th Sonnet,' waken'd hate.' Brabantio afterwards asserts: That with some mixtures powerful o'er the blood He wrought upon her.' 21 This passage has been completely misunderstood. Pagan |