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OTHEL L 0,

THE

MOOR OF VENICE.

Z 2

Perfons Represented.

DUKE of Venice.

Brabantio, a fenator.

Two other fenators.

Gratiano, brother to Brabantio.

Lodovico, kinfman to Brabantio and Gratiano.

Othello, the Moor.

Caffio, his lieutenant.

Iago, his ancient.

Roderigo, a Venetian gentleman.

Montano, the Moor's predeceffor in the government of

Cyprus.

Clown, fervant to the Moor.

Herald.

Desdemona, wife to Othello.

Emilia, wife to Iago.

Bianca, mistress to Caffio.

Officers, gentlemen, meffengers, musicians, failors, and

attendants.

SCENE, for the first act, in Venice; during the reft of the play, in Cyprus.

The Moor of VENICE.

ACT I. SCENE I.

N

A Street in Venice.

Enter Roderigo and Iago.

RODERIG O.

EVER tell me. I take it much unkindly,
That thou, Iago, who haft had my purse,
As if the ftrings were thine, fhouldft know
of this.

Iago. But you'll not hear me.

If ever I did dream of fuch a matter, abhor me. Rod. Thou toldft me, thou didst hold him in thy hate.

Iago. Defpife me,

If I do not. Three great ones of the city,
In perfonal fuit to make me his lieutenant,
2 Off-capp'd to him; and, by the faith of man,
I know my price, I am worth no worse a place.
But he, as loving his own pride and purposes,

1 Othello, the Moor of Venice.] The ftory is taken from Cynthio's Novels. POPE.

I have not hitherto met with any tranflation of this novel (the feventh in the third decad) of fo early a date as the age of Shakespeare; but undoubtedly many of thofe little pamphlets have perifhed between his time and ours. STEEVENS. 2 Off-capp'd to him ;—] Thus the folio. The quarto, Oft capp'd to him. STEEVENS.

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Evades them with a bombaft circumstance,
Horribly ftuff'd with epithets of war;
And, in conclufion,

Non-fuits my mediators: for "certes, fays he,
"I have already chofe my officer."
And what was he?

Forfooth, a great arithmetician,

One Michael Caffio, 3 a Florentine,

A fellow almost damn'd 4 in a fair wife;

3

That

-a Florentine,] It appears from many paffages of this play (rightly underflood) that Caflio was a Florentine, and Iago a Venetian. HANMER.

-in a fair wife ;] In the former editions this hath been printed, a fair wife; but furely it must from the beginning have been a mistake, because it appears from a following part of the play, that Caffio was an unmarried man: on the other hand, his beauty is often hinted at, which it is natural enough for rough foldiers to treat with fcorn and ridicule. I read therefore,

A fellow almoft damn'd in a fair phyz. HANMER.

-a Florentine,

A fellow almeft damn'd' in a fair wife ;] But it was lago, and not Caffio, who was the Florentine, as appears from A&t 3. Scene 1. The paffage therefore should be read thus,

a Florentine's,

A fellow almoft damn'd in a fair wife;] These are the words of Othello (which Iago in this relation repeats) and fignify, that a Florentine was an unfit perfon for command, as being always a flave to a fair wife; which was the cafe of Jago. The Oxford Editor, fuppofing this was faid by lago of Caffio, will have Caffio to be the Florentine; which, he says, is plain from many paffages in the play, rightly understood. But becaufe Caflio was no married man (though I wonder it did not appear he was, from fome paffages rightly underflood) he alters the line thus,

A fellow almoft dumn'd in a fair phyz. A White-friers' phrafe. WARBURTON.

This is one of the paffages which muft for the prefent be refigned to corruption and obfcurity. I have nothing that I can, with any approach to confidence, propose. I cannot think it very plain from Act 3. Scene 1. that Caffio was or was not a Florentine. JOHNSON.

The great difficulty is to underftand in what fense any man can be faid to be almost damn'd in a fair wife; or fair phyz,

That never fet a fquadron in the field,
Nor the divifion of a battle knows

More

cannot find any ground

as Sir T. Hanmer propofes to read. I for fuppofing that either the one or the other have been reputed to be damnable fins in any religion. The poet has ufed the fame mode of expreflion in The Merchant of Venice, A& 1. Scene 1.

66

"O my Anthonio, I do know of those
"Who therefore only are reputed wife,

For faying nothing; who, I'm very fure,

"If they fhould fpeak, would almost damn thofe ears, "Which, hearing them, would call their brothers fools." And there the allufion is evident to the gofpel-judgment against thofe, who call their brothers fools. I am therefore inclined to believe, that the true reading here is,

"A fellow almost damn'd in a fair LIFE;"

and that Shakespeare alludes to the judgment denounced in the gospel against thofe of whom all men fpeak well.

The character of Caffio is certainly fuch, as would be very likely to draw upon him all the peril of this denunciation, literally underfood. Well-bred, eafy, fociable, good-natured; with abilities enough to make him agreeable and useful, but not fufficient to excite the envy of his equals, or to alarm the jealoufy of his fuperiors. It may be observed too, that Shakefpeare has thought it proper to make Iago, in several other paffages, bear his teftimony to the amiable qualities of his rival. In Act 5. Scene 1. he speaks thus of him;

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-If Caffio do remain,

"He hath a daily beauty in his life,

"That makes me ugly.".

I will only add, that, however hard or far-fetch'd this allufion (whether Shakespeare's, or only mine) may feem to be, archbishop Sheldon had exactly the fame conceit, when he made that fingular compliment, as the writer calls it, [Biog. Britan. Art. TEMPLE] to a nephew of Sir William Temple, that " he "had the curfe of the gofpel, because all men spoke well of "him." Obfervations and Conjectures, &c. printed at Oxford, 1766.

The poet does not appear to have meant Iago to be a Florentine, which has hitherto been inferred from the following paffage in A& 3. Scene 1. where Caffio, speaking of lago, fays, -I never knew

A Florentine more kind and honeft.

It is furely not uncommon for us to fay in praife of a foreigner, that we never knew one of our own countrymen of a more friendly difpofition.

Z 4

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