To the felt abfence now I feel a caufe. Caf. Go to, woman! You are jealous now, some remembrance : Throw your vile gueffes in the devil's teeth, Caf. I know not, neither. I found it in my chamber; I like the work well; ere it be demanded, Caf. I do attend here on the general; I Bian. [Why, I pray you? Caf. Not that I love you not.] Bian. But that you do not love me. pray you, bring me on the way a little; And fay, if I fhall fee you foon at night? Caf. 'Tis but a little way that I can bring you, For I attend here. But I'll fee you foon. Bian. 'Tis very good; 5 I must be circumstanc'd. [Exeunt. 5 I must be circumftanc'd.] i. e. your civility is now grown conditional. WARBURTON. VOL. X. Gg ACT ACT IV. SCENE I An apartment in the castle. Enter Othello and Iago. IAGO. ILL you think fo? W Oth. Think fo, Iago? Iago. What, to kiss in private? Iago. Or to be naked with her friend in bed Oth. Naked in bed, Iago, and not mean harm? It is hypocrify against the devil: They that mean virtuously, and yet do so, 7 The devil their virtue tempts, and they tempt heaven. Naked in bed, Iago, and not mean harm? Iago. It is hypocrify against the devil:] This obfervation feems ftrangely abrupt and unoccafioned. We muft fuppofe that Iago had, before they appear in this fcene, been applying cafes of falfe comfort to Othello; as that though the parties had been even found in bed together, there might be no harm done; it might be only for the trial of their virtue; as was reported of the Romith faint, Robert D'Arbriffel and his nuns. To this we muft fuppofe Othello here replies; and like a good proteftant. For fo the fentiment does but fuit the character of the fpeaker, Shakespeare little heeds how these sentiments are circumftanced. WARBURTON. Hypocrify against the devil, means hypocrify to cheat the devik As common hypocrites cheat men, by feeming good, and yet living wickedly, thefe men would cheat the devil, by giving him flattering hopes, and at laft avoiding the crime which he thinks them ready to commit. JOHNSON. 7 The devil their virtue tempts, AND they tempt heaven.] It is plain, from the whole tenor of the words, that the speaker would distinguifh this ftrange fantastical prefumption from other leffer kinds of indifcretion, where prudence is off its guard. But this reading does not diftinguish it from any other, it Iago. If they do nothing, 'tis a venial flip : But if I give my wife a handkerchief Oth. What then? Iago. Why then, 'tis hers, my lord; and, being hers, She may, I think, beftow't on any man. Oth. She is protectress of her honour too; May the give that? Iago. Her honour is an effence that's not seen; They have it very oft, that have it not : But for the handkerchief Oth. By heaven, I would moft gladly have forgot it: Thou faidft-oh, it comes o'er my memory, As doth the raven o'er the infected house, 8 Boding to all-he had my Jago. Ay, what of that? handkerchief. Oth. That's not fo good now. Iago. What if I faid, I had feen him do you wrong? Or heard him fay-as knaves be such abroad, Who having by their own importunate fuit, 9 Convinc'd or fuppled them, they cannot chuse Oth. it being true of all who run into temptation, that the devil their virtue tempts, and they tempt heaven. The true reading, therefore, without queftion, is this, The devil their virtue tempts NOT; they tempt heaven. i. e. they do not give the devil the trouble of throwing temptations in their way they feek them out themselves, and fo tempt heaven by their prefumption. This is a juft character of the extravagance here condemned, and diftinguishes it from other inferior indifcretions. WARBURTON. 8 Boding to all] Thus all the old copies. The moderns, lefs grammatically, Boding to ill JOHNSON. Convinc'd or fupplied them,] I cannot understand the vulgar reading. I read, convinc'd or fuppled. My emendation makes the fenfe of the paffage eafy and intelligible: that there are fome fuch long-tongued knaves in the world, who, if they Ggz through Oth. Hath he faid any thing? Iago. He hath, my lord; but be you well affur'd, No more than he'll unfwear. Oth. What hath he faid? Iago. Why, that he did I know not what he did Oth. What? what? Iago. Lie Oth. With her? Iago. With her, on her; what you will. Oth. Lie with her! lie on her! We fay, lie on her, when they belie her. Lie with her! that's fulfome. Handkerchief-confeffions-handkerchief- [to confefs, and be hang'd for his labour-First, to be hang'd, and then-to confefs :-I tremble at it-nature would not inveft herself in fuch' fhadowing paffion without fome inftruction. It is not words that shake me thus through the force of importunity extort a favour from their miftrefs, or if through her own fondness they make her pliant to their defires, cannot help boafting of their fuccefs. To convince, here, is not, as in the common acceptation, to make fenfible of the truth of any thing by reasons and arguments; but to overcome, get the better of, &c. THEOBALD. Convinc'd] Convinc'd, for conquer'd, fubdued. WARB. -his two chambelains "Will I, with wine and waffel fo convince." Again the fame play: I 68 -their malady convinces "The great affay of art." STEEVENS. Shadowing paffion] The modern editions have left out paffion. JOHNSON. 2 without fome inftruction.-] The ftarts and broken reflections in this fpeech have fomething very terrible, and fhew the mind of the speaker to be in inexpreffible agonies. But the words we are upon, when fet right, have a fublime in them that can never be enough admired. The ridiculous blunder of writing INSTRUCTION for INDUCTION (for fo it should be read) has indeed funk it into arrant nonfenfe. Othello is juft going to fall into a fwoon; and, as is common for people in that circumitance, feels an unufual mift and darkness, accompanied with horror, coming upon him. This, with vaft fub thus-pish!-nofes, ears, and lips :-is it poffible! -confefs !-handkerchief!-oh devil!-] Iago. Work on, [Falls in a trance. My medicine, work! Thus credulous fools are caught; And limity of thought, is compared to the feafon of the fun's eclipse, at which time the earth becomes fhadowed by the induction or bringing over of the moon between it and the fun. This being the allufion, the reafoning ftands thus: " My nature could never be thus overshadowed, and falling, as it were, into "diffolution for no caufe. There must be an INDUCTION of fomething there must be a real cause. My jealoufy cannot "be merely imaginary. Ideas, WORDS only, could not fhake "me thus, and raife all this diforder. My jealousy therefore "must be grounded on matter of fact." Shakespeare uses this word in the fame fenfe, Richard III. "A dire INDUCTION am I witness to." Marfton feems to have read it thus in fome copy, and to allude to it in these words of his Fame: "Plots ha' you lid? INDUCTIONS dangerous! WARE. This is a noble conjecture, and whether right or wrong does honour to its author. Yet I am in doubt whether there is any neceffity of emendation. There has always prevailed in the world an opinion, that when any great calamity happens at a distance, notice is given of it to the fufferer by fome dejection or perturbation of mind, of which he difcovers no external cause. This is afcribed to that general communication of one part of the universe with another, which is called fympathy and antipathy; or to the fecret monition, inftruction, and influence of a fuperior Being, which fuperintends the order of nature and of life. Othello fays, Nature could not invest herfelf in Juch fhadowing paffion without inftruction. It is not words that fake me thus. This paffion, which fpreads its clouds over me, is the effect of fome agency more than the operation of words; it is one of thofe notices which men have of unfeen calamities. JOHNSON. Nature could not inveft herself in such shadowing passion without fome inftruction.] However ingenious Dr. Warburton's note may be, it is certainly too forced and far-fetched. Othello alludes only to Caffio's dream, which had been invented and told him by Iago; when many confufed and very interefting ideas pour in upon the mind all at once, and with fuch rapidity that it has not time to fhape or digeft them, if it does not relieve itself by tears (which we know it often does, whether for joy or grief) it produces ftupefaction and fainting. Gg3 Othello, |