Emil. Out, and alas! that was my lady's voice. Help! help, ho! help! oh lady, fpeak again! Sweet Desdemona! oh sweet mistress, speak! Def. A guiltless death I die. Emil. Oh, who hath done this deed? Def. No body; I myself; farewell: Commend me to my kind lord. Oh, farewell. [Dies. Oth. Why, how should she be murder'd? Emil. Alas! who knows? Oth. You heard her fay herself it was not I. Emil. She faid fo; I must needs report the truth. Oth. She's like a liar gone to burning hell; 'Twas I that kill'd her. Emil. Oh, the more angel fhe, And you the blacker devil. Oth. She turn'd to folly, and she was a whore. Emil. Thou doft bely her, and thou art a devil. Oth. She was 3 falfe as water, Emil, Thou art rafh as fire, to fay That she was falfe.-Oh, she was heavenly true! Ob falfly, falfly murder'd!] If Othello's only attempt on the life of Defdemona was by fmothering her, and the inftrument of fuffocation was removed before her breath was entirely fuppreffed, fhe might speak again (as fhe does) and afterwards recover. But the reprefents herself as murder'd, and the means he took to deftroy her, prove effectual in her death. I fufpect that fome play-house direction has been omitted; and that when he says, I would not have thee linger in thy pain. So, fo. He then ftabs her, repeating the two laft words, as he repeats the blow. So Virgil: 3 -fic, fic, juvat ire fub umbras.” STEEVENS. falfe as water.] As water that will fupport no weight, nor keep any impreffion. JOHNSON. But But that I did proceed upon juft grounds Oth. Thy husband. Emil. That fhe was falfe to wedlock? Oth. Ay, with Caffio. Had he been true, Emil. My hufband? Oth. Ay, 'twas he that told me first ; An honest man he is, and hates the flime That sticks on filthy deeds. Emil. My husband? Oth. What needs this iteration, woman? I fay, thy hufband. [Emil. Oh miftrefs! 4 villainy has made mocks with love. My husband fay that she was false? Oth. He, woman; I fay, thy husband; do'ft understand the word? Emil. If he fay fo, may his pernicious foul Emil. Do thy worst. This deed of thine is no more worthy heaven, Than thou waft worthy her. Oth. Peace, you were best. Emil. 5 Thou haft not half that power to do me harm, As I have to be hurt. Oh gull! oh dolt! villainy has made mocks with love.] Villainy has taken advantage to play upon the weakness of a violent paffion. JOHNSON. · 5 Thou haft not half that power to do me harm, As I have to be hurt.] Power for will: for quill fignifying both ability and inclination, and power fignifying ability, As ignorant as dirt! thou haft done a deed I care not for thy fword, I'll make thee known, Though I lost twenty lives.-Help! help, ho! help! The Moor hath kill'd my mistress: murder! murder! Enter Montano, Gratiano, Iago, and others. Mon. What is the matter? How now, general? Emil. Oh, are you come, Iago? you have done well, That men must lay their murders on your neck. Emil. Difprove this, villain, if thou be'st a man; Iago. I told him what I thought; and told no more Than what he found himself was apt and true. Emil. But did you ever tell him she was falfe? Iago. I did. Emil. You told a lie; an odious, damned lie: She falfe with Caffio!-Did you fay with Caffio? tongue. Emil. ability, he ufes power for inclination. But the Oxford Editor, not understanding his author's phrafeology any better when he had ended than when he had begun with him, alters, As I have to be hurt, to, As I have to bear burt: which yet does not mend the matter, had the poet here ufed power in the fense of ability. WARBURTON. The Oxford Editor faw well the meaning of his author, but weakened his expreffion. She means to fay, I have in this cause power to endure more than thou haft power to inflict. JOHNSON. 6 charm your tongue ] I know not whether I have read, or whether my own thoughts have fuggefted, an alteration of this paffage. It feems to me rot improbable, that Shakespeare wrote clam your tongue; to clam a bell, is to cover the clapper with felt, which drowns the blow, and hinders the found. JOHNSON. -charm Emil. I will not charm my tongue; I am bound to speak; [My mistress lies here murder'd in her bed. All. Oh heavens forefend! Emil. And your reports have set the murder on. Oth. Nay, ftare not, mafters. It is true, indeed. Gra. 'Tis a strange truth, Mon. Oh monstrous act! Emil. Villainy, villainy, villainy! I think upon't-I think-I smell't-Oh villainy! Iago. What, are you mad? I charge you, get you home. Emil. Good gentlemen, let me have leave to speak. 'Tis proper I obey him, but not now :Perchance, Iago, I will ne'er go home. Oth. Oh! oh! oh! [Othello looking on his wife. For thou haft kill'd the sweetest innocent Oth. Oh, fhe was foul! [Rifing. I fcarce did know you, uncle. There lies your niece, Whose breath, indeed, these hands have newly stopp'd. I know this act shews horrible and grim. Gra. Poor Desdemona! I am glad thy father's dead: Thy match was mortal to him; and pure grief Shore his old thread in twain. Did he live now, -charm your tongue.] By this expreffion, Charm your tongue, the poet meant no more than to make Iago fay, Apply fome power, ftrong as a charm would be, to your tongue; for nothing lefs can stop its volubility. So Henry VI. Part 3. "Peace, wilful boy, or I will charm your tongue.” Spenfer uses the fame expreffion : "That well could charm bis tongue, and time his speech." So Ben Jonson, in Cynthia's Revels: -charm your skipping tongue." Again, in The New Inn': -clip the wings of time, "Or make him ftand still with a charm." STEEVENS. This fight would make him do a defperate turn; And fall to reprobation. Oth. 'Tis pitiful: but yet Iago knows, That the with Caffio had the act of fhame 7 A thousand times committed.-Caffio confess'd it; And fhe did gratify his amorous works, With that recognizance and pledge of love Which I first gave her; I faw it in his hand 8 It was an handkerchief, an antique token My father gave my mother. 7 A thousand times committed.] This is another paffage which feems to fuppofe a longer space comprised in the action of this play than the fcenes include. JOHNSON. That he with Caffio had the aft of shame A thousand times committed. And page 461. 'Tis not a year or two fhews us a man.] I cannot fuppofe, from these paffages, that a longer space is comprised in the action of this play than the fcenes include. What Othello mentions in the first instance, might have pafs'd ftill more often, before they were married, when Caffio went between them; for fhe, who could find means to elude the vigilance of her father in respect of Othello, might have done fo in respect of Caffio, when there was time enough for the thing fuppofed, to have happened. A jealous perfon will aggravate all he thinks, or fpeaks of; and might ufe a thousand for a much less number, only to give weight to his accufation: nor would it have answered any purpofe to have made Othello a little nearer or further off from truth in his calculation. We might apply the poet's own words in Cymbeline: 66 -fpare your arithmetic "Once, and a million." The latter is a proverbial expreffion, and might have been introduced with propriety, had they been married only a day or two. Emilia's reply means no more than, "that is too "foon to judge of her husband's difpofition, or that she must not be furprized at the difcovery of his jealoufy, for it is "not even a year or two that will display all the failings of a man." STEEVENS. • It was an handkerchief, &c.] Othello tells his wife, A& 3. Sc. 10. -that handkerchief Did an Egyptian to my mother give. And |