450

As Dian's vifage, is now begrim'd and black
As my own face. If there be cords or knives,
Poison or fire, or fuffocating streams,

I'll not endure it.

'Would I were fatisfied!] Iago. I fee, Sir, you are eaten up with paffion; I do repent me that I put it to you.

You would be fatisfied?

Oth. Would? nay, and will.

Iago. And may; but how? how fatisfied, my lord?

Would you be supervisor, grofly gape on?
Behold her tupp'd?

Oth. Death and damnation! oh!

Iago. It were a tedious difficulty, I think,
To bring 'em to that profpect: damn them then,
If ever mortal eyes do fee them bolster,
More than their own. What then? how then?
Where's fatisfaction? What fhall I fay?
It is impoffible you should fee this,

Were they as prime as goats, as hot as monkeys,
As falt as wolves in pride, and fools as grofs
As ignorance made drunk: but yet, I fay,
If imputation and strong circumstances,
Which lead directly to the door of truth,
Will give you fatisfaction, you might have it.
Oth, Give me a living reafon she's disloyal.
Iago. I do not like the office:

2

But fith I am enter'd in this caufe fo far
Prick'd to it by foolish honefty and love-
I will go on. I lay with Caffio lately;
And, being troubled with a raging tooth,
I could not fleep.-

There are a kind of men, fo loofe of foul,
That in their fleeps will mutter their affairs;

Were they as prime as goats,-] Prime is prompt, from the Celtic or British PRIM. HANMER.

Give me a living reafon] Living, for speaking, mani

fcft.

WARBURTON.

One

One of this kind is Caffio:

In fleep I heard him fay, "Sweet Desdemona, "Let us be wary, let us hide our loves!"

And then, Sir, would he gripe, and wring my hand;
Cry," Oh sweet creature!" and then kifs me hard,
As if he pluck'd up kiffes by the roots,

That grew upon my lips: then laid his leg
Over my thigh, and sigh'd, and kiss'd, and then
Cry'd, "Curfed fate! that gave thee to the Moor!"
Oth. O monstrous! monstrous !

Jago. Nay, this was but his dream.

Oth. But this denoted 3 a foregone conclufion 4 'Tis a fhrewd doubt, though it be but a dream. Iago. And this may help to thicken other proofs, That do demonftrate thinly.

Oth. I'll tear her all to pieces.

Iago. Nay, but be wife; 5 yet we fee nothing done;

She may be honest yet. Tell me but this:
Have you not fometimes feen a handkerchief,
Spotted with strawberries, in your wife's hand?

Oth. I gave her fuch a one; 'twas my first gift.
Iago. I know not that but fuch a handkerchief,
(I am fure it was your wife's) did I to-day
See Caffio wipe his beard with.

Oth. If it be that

Iago. If it be that, or any, if 'twas hers, It speaks against her, with the other proofs. Öth. Oh, that the flave had forty thousand lives; One is too poor, too weak for my revenge!

a foregone conclufion ;] Conclufion, for fact. WARB. Othel. 'Tis a fhrewd doubt, &c.] The old quarto gives this line, with the two following, to Iago; and rightly. WARB. I think it more naturally spoken by Othello, who, by dwelling fo long upon the proof, encouraged Iago to enforce it. JOHNSON.

-yet we fee nothing done;] This is an oblique and fecret mock at Othello's faying, Give me the ocular proof. WARB.

6 Now do I fee, 'tis true.Look here, Iago; fond love thus do I blow to heaven:

All my

'Tis gone.

Arife, black vengeance, from thy 7 hollow cell! Yield up, oh love, thy crown and hearted throne To tyrannous hate! 9 fwell, bofom, with thy fraught, For 'tis of afpicks' tongues!

Iago. Pray, be content.

• Now do I fee 'tis TRUE. -] The old quarto reads, Now do I fee 'tis TIME.

And this is Shakespeare's, and has in it much more force and folemnity, and preparation for what follows; as alluding to what he had faid before,

No, Iago!

I'll fee before I doubt, when I doubt, prove;
And, on the proof, there is no more but this,
Away at once with love or jealousy.

This time was now come. WARBURTON.

7

hollow hell!] This is a poor unmeaning epithet.

The old quarto reads,

Arife, black vengeance, from thy HOLLOW Cell!

Which the editors not knowing what to make of, altered it as above. It should be read thus,

Arife, black vengeance, from the UNHALLOW'D cell! Meaning the internal regions. WARBURTON.

Hollow bell is the reading of the folio. I do not perceive that the epithet hollow is at all unmeaning, when applied to hell, as it gives the idea of what Milton calls

8

66

-the void profound

"Of uneffential night." STEEVENS.

HEARTED throne] Hearted throne is ftrange nonfenfe. The old quarto reads,

-and harted throne:

Which the editors took for a word mij-Spelt, whereas it was a word mifcalled. We should read,

Yield up, oh love, thy crown and PARTED throne,

i. e. thy throne which was parted between me and Defdemona: this prefents us with a fine image. The union of Othello and Desdemona was fo perfect, that love divided his throne between them which he is now bid to refume, and give to hatred. WARBURTON.

Hearted throne, is the heart on which thou waft enthroned. Parted throne has no meaning. JOHNSON.

9

-fwell, bofom, &c.] i. e. fwell, because the fraught is of poifon. WARBURTON.

Oth.

Oth. Oh blood, Iago, blood

Iago. Patience, I fay; your mind, perhaps, may change.

Oth. Never, Iago. ['Like to the Pontick fea, Whofe icy current and compulfive course Ne'er feels retiring ebb, but keeps due on To the Propontick, and the Hellefpont; Even fo my bloody thoughts, with violent pace Shall ne'er look back, ne'er ebb to humble love, 'Till that a capable and wide revenge

[He kneels.

Swallow them up.-Now, 2 by yond marble heaven,]
In the due reverence of a facred vow
I here engage my words.-

Iago. Do not rife yet.
Witness, ye ever-burning lights above!
Ye elements, that clip us round about!
Witness, that here lago doth give up
The execution of his wit, hands, heart,

[Iago kneels.

To wrong'd Othello's fervice! 3 Let him command,
And to obey, fhall be in me remorse,
What bloody business ever.

Oth.

Like to the Pontick fea, &c.] This fimile is omitted in the first edition: I think it should be fo, as an unnatural excurfion in this place. POPE.

-Like the Pontick fea,] Every reader will, I durft fay, abide by Mr. Pope's cenfure on this paffage. As Shakespeare grew more acquainted with fuch particulars of knowledge, he made a difplay of them as foon as an opportunity offered. I find this very account of the Euxine fea, and almoft couched in the fame words, in a book intitled, A Treatife on the Courfes of Rivers, &c. printed by Felix Kingston, in 1595.

Mr. Edwards, in his MSS. notes, conceives this fimile to allude to Sir Philip Sidney's device, whofe imprefs, Camden, in his Remains, fays, was the Cafpian fea, with this motto, SINE REFLUXU.

2

STEEVENS.

by yond marble heaven,] In Soliman and Perfedu, 1599, I find the fame expreffion :

"Now by the marble face of the welkin," &c. STEEV.

3

-Let him command,

And to obey, fhall be in me remorse,

What bloody bufinefs ever.] Thus all the old copies, to the

Ff3

manifeft

Oth. I greet thy love,

Not with vain thanks, but with acceptance bounteous, And will upon the inftant put thee to't.

Within

manifeft depravation of the poet's fenfe. Mr. Pope has attempted an emendation, but with his old luck and dexterity: Not to obey, fhall be in me remorse, &c.

I read, with the change only of a single letter:

Nor, to obey, fhall be in me remorse, &c.

i. e. Let your commands be ever fo bloody, remorfe and compaffion fhall not restrain me from obeying them. THEOBALD, -Let him command,

And to obey, fhall be in me remorfe,

What bloody bufinefs ever.] Thus the old copies read, but evidently wrong. Some editions read, Not to obey; on which the editor Mr. Theobald takes occafion to alter it to, Nor to obey; and thought he had much mended matters. But he miftook the found end of the line for the corrupt; and fo by his emendation, the deep-defigning Iago is foolishly made to throw off his mask, when he had moft occafion for it; and without any provocation, stand before his captain a villain confeffed; at a time, when, for the carrying on his plot, he should make the least show of it. For thus Mr. Theobald forces him him to fay, I shall have no remorse to obey your commands, bow bloody foever the bufinefs be. But this is not Shakespeare's way of preferving the unity of character. Iago, till now, pretended to be one, who, though in the trade of war he had Îlain men, yet held it the very ftuff of the confcience to do no contriv'd murder; when, of a fudden, without caufe or occafion, he owns himself a ruffian without remorfe. Shakespeare wrote and pointed the paffage thus :

Let him command,

And to obey fhall be in me.

What bloody business ever.

REMORD

i.e. however the bufinefs he fets me upon may fhock my ho nour and humanity, yet I promife to go through with it, and obey without referve. Here Iago fpeaks in character, while the fenfe and grammar are made better by it. So Skelton:

And if fo him fortune to write and plaine,
As fometimes be muft vices REMORDE.

And again:

Squire, knight, and lord,

Thus the churche REMORDE. WARBURTON.

Of these two emendations, I believe, Theobald's will have the greater number of fuffrages; it has at leaft mine. The objection against the propriety of the declaration in lago is a