To be suspected; fram'd to make women false,
The Moor is of a free and open nature,

That thinks men honest, that but seem to be so;
And will as tenderly be led by the nose,

As asses are.

I have't; it is engenger'd:-Hell and night
Must bring this monstrous birth to the world's light.

[Exit.

АСТ II.

SCENE I. A Seaport Town in Cyprus 1. A Platform.

Enter MONTANO and Two Gentlemen. Mon. What from the cape can you discern at sea? 1 Gent. Nothing at all: it is a high-wrought flood; I cannot, 'twixt the heaven and the main, Descry a sail.

All the modern editors following Rowe have supposed the capital of Cyprus to be the place where the scene of Othello lies during four Acts: but this could not have been Shakspeare's intention; Nicosia, the capital city of Cyprus, being situated nearly in the centre of the island, and thirty miles distant from the sea. The principal seaport town of Cyprus is Famagusta; where there was formerly a strong fort and commodious haven, 'neare which (says Knolles) standeth an old castle, with four towers after the ancient manner of building.' To this castle we find that Othello presently repairs. Centhis, in the novel, makes no mention of any attack on Cyprus by the Turks; but they took the island from the Venetians in 1570. By mentioning Rhodes as likely to be attacked by the Turks, the historical fact is disregarded; for they were in quiet possession of that island, and had been masters of it since the year 1522; and from 1473, when the Venetians first became possessed of Cyprus, to 1522, they had not been molested by any Turkish armament.

2 The quarto reads :

6

-'twixt the haven and the main ;'

and Malone adopts that reading. Perhaps the poet wrote the

Mon. Methinks, the wind hath spoke aloud at land: A fuller blast ne'er shook our battlements:

If it hath ruffian'd so upon

the sea,

What ribs of oak, when mountains melt on them3,
Can hold the mortise? what shall we hear of this?
2 Gent. A segregation of the Turkish fleet:
For do but stand upon the foaming shore*,
The chiding billow seems to pelt the clouds;
The wind-shak'd surge, with high and monstrous

main,

Seems to cast water on the burning bear 5,

And quench the guards of the ever-fixed pole:
I never did like molestation view

On the' enchafed flood.

Mon.

If that the Turkish fleet

Be not enshelter'd and embay'd, they are drown'd; It is impossible they bear it out.

Enter a third Gentleman.

3 Gent. News, lords! our wars are done: The desperate tempest hath so bang'd the Turks,

heavens. A subsequent passage may serve to show that the folio affords the true reading:

Let's to the seaside, ho!

As well to see the vessel that's come in,

As throw our eyes out for brave Othello:

Even till we make the main and the ethereal blue

An indistinct regard.'

3 The quarto of 1622 reads 'when the huge mountaine meslt, the letter s, which perhaps belongs to mountaine, having wandered at press from its place. In a subsequent scene we have: And let the labouring bark climb hills of seas

Olympus high'

And in Troilus and Cressida :

'The strong ribb'd bark through liquid mountains cuts.'

4 The elder quarto reads 'the banning shore.

5 The constellation near the polar star. The next line alludes to the star Arctophylax, which literally signifies the guard of the bear. The 4to. 1622 reads 'ever-fired pole.'

That their designment halts : A noble ship of Venice Hath seen a grievous wreck and sufferance

On most part of their fleet.

Mon.

How! is this true?

3 Gent. The ship is here put in,

A Veronesé; Michael Cassio,

Lieutenant to the warlike Moor, Othello,

Is come on shore: the Moor himself's at sea,
And is in full commission here for Cyprus.

Mon. I am glad on't; 'tis a worthy governor.
3 Gent. But this same Cassio,-though he speak
of comfort,

Touching the Turkish loss, yet he looks sadly, And prays the Moor be safe; for they were parted With foul and violent tempest.

Mon.
'Pray heaven, he be;
For I have serv'd him, and the man commands
Like a full soldier. Let's to the seaside, ho!
As well to see the vessel that's come in,

As throw out our eyes for brave Othello;
Even till we make the main, and the aerial blue,
An indistinct regard.

3 Gent.

Come, let's do so;

For every minute is expectancy

Of more arrivance.

Enter CASSIO.

Cas. Thanks to the valiant of this warlike isle, That so approve the Moor; O, let the heavens

6 The old copy reads 'a Veronessa;' whether this signified a ship fitted out by the people of Verona, who were tributary to the Venetian republic, or designated some particular kind of vessel, is not yet fully established. But as Veronessa has not hitherto been met with elsewhere, the former is most probably the true explanation.

7

a full soldier is a complete one. See Act i. Sc. 1, note 13.

Give him defence against the elements,

For I have lost him on a dangerous sea !
Mon. Is he well shipp'd?

Cas. His bark is stoutly timber'd, and his pilot Of very expert and approv'd allowance; Therefore my hopes, not surfeited to death, Stand in bold cure 9.

[Within.]

A sail, a sail, a sail!

Enter another Gentleman.

Cas. What noise?

4 Gent. The town is empty; on the brow o'the sea Stand ranks of people, and they cry-a sail.

Cas. My hopes do shape him for the governor. 2 Gent. They do discharge their shot of courtesy; [Guns heard.

Our friends, at least.

Cas.

I pray you, sir, go forth, And give us truth who 'tis that is arriv'd.

2 Gent. I shall.

[Exit. Mon. But, good lieutenant, is your general wiv'd? Cas. Most fortunately: he hath achiev'd a maid

That paragons description, and wild fame;
One that excels the quirks of blazoning pens 10,

8 i. e. of allowed and approved expertness.

9 The meaning seems to be, "Therefore my hopes, not surfeited to death, by excess of apprehension, stand in confidence of being cured.' A parallel expression occurs in Lear :This rest might yet have balm'd his broken senses, Which if conveniency will not allow

Solomon has said Hope deferred maketh the heart sick.'

10 Thus in Shakspeare's 103rd Sonnet :

a face

That over-goes my blunt invention quite,
Dulling my lines, and doing me disgrace.'

And in the essential vesture of creation,

Does bear all excellency 11.-How now? who has

put in ?

Re-enter second Gentleman.

2 Gent. 'Tis one Iago, ancient to the general.
Cas. He has had most favourable and happy speed:
Tempests themselves, high seas, and howling winds,
The gutter'd rocks, and congregated sands,-
Traitors ensteep'd 12 to clog the guiltless keel,
As having sense of beauty, do omit

Their mortal 13 natures, letting go safely by
The divine Desdemona.

Mon.

What is she?

Cas. She that I spake of, our great captain's captain,

Left in the conduct of the bold Iago;

Whose footing here anticipates our thoughts,
A se'nnight's speed. Great Jove, Othello guard,
And swell his sail with thine own powerful breath;

11 This is the reading of the quartos: the folio has:-
And in the essential vesture of creation

Do's tyre the Ingeniuer?'

By the essential vesture of creation the poet means her outward form, which he in another place calls the muddy vesture of decay.' If the reading of the folio be adopted, the meaning would be this: She is one who excels all description, and in real beauty, or outward form, goes beyond the power of the inventive pencil of the artist.-Fleckno, in his discourse on the English Stage, 1664, speaking of painting, mentions the stupendous works of your great ingeniers.' And Ben Jonson, in his Sejanus, Act iv. Sc. 4 :

No, Silius, we are no good ingeniers,

We want the fine arts.'

An ingenier or ingeniuer undoubtedly means an artist or painter; and is perhaps only another form of engineer, anciently used for any kind of artist or artificer.

12 Traitors ensteeped' are merely traitors concealed under the

water.

13 Mortal is deadly, destructive.