Of such a matter, abhor me a.

ROD. Thou told'st me, thou didst hold him in thy hate.
IAGO. Despise me, if I do not. Three great ones of the city,
In personal suit to make me his lieutenant,
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,
Evades them, with a bombast circumstance,
Horribly stuff'd with epithets of war;
And, in conclusion,

Nonsuits my mediators. For, certes, says he,
I have already chose my officer .
And what was he?

Forsooth, a great arithmetician,

One Michael Cassio, a Florentine',
A fellow almost damn'd in a fair wife,
That never set a squadron in the field,
Nor the division of a battle knows

More than a spinster; unless the bookish theorick,
Wherein the toged a consuls can propose

a Steevens writes these lines thus:

"'Sblood, but you will not hear me;

If ever I did dream of such a matter,
Abhor me."

Steevens adds, "The folio suppresses this oath 'sblood;" but he does not tell us what the folio does besides. It accommodates the rhythmical arrangement of the sentence to the suppression of the oath, giving the lines as we print them.

b Off-capp'd. So the folio; the quarto, oft capp'd. The reading of the quarto has been adopted by all the editors, and is used as an example of the antiquity of the academical phrase to-cap, meaning to take off the cap. We admit that the word cap is used in this sense by other early English authors; we have it in 'Drant's Horace,' 1567. But, we would ask, is oft capp'd supported by the context? As we read the whole passage, three great ones of the city wait upon Othello; they off-capp'd-they took cap-in-hand-in personal suit that he should make Iago his lieutenant; but he evades them, &c. He has already chosen his officer. The audience was given, the solicitation was humbly made, the reasons for refusing it courteously assigned. But take the other reading, oft capp'd; and then we have Othello perpetually haunted by the three great ones of the city, capping to him and repeating to him the same prayer, and he perpetually denying them with the same bombast circumstance. Surely this is not what Shakspere meant to represent.

• These lines, in the folio, are printed thus:

"But he, as loving his own pride and purposes,
Evades them; with a bombast circumstance,
Horribly stuff'd with epithets of war,
Nonsuits my mediators; for, certes, says he,
I have already chose my officer."

Circumstance is circumlocution. According to this reading, Iago does not mean to say that Othello made a long rigmarole speech to the three great ones, and then in conclusion nonsuited the mediators by telling them he had already chosen his officer. But, in the spirit of calumny, he imputes to Othello that, having chosen his officer before the personal suit was made to him for Iago, he suppressed the fact; evaded the mediators; and nonsuited them with a bombast circumstance. Toged, in the quarto. Tongued, in the folio.

Is all his soldiership. But he, sir, had the election:
And I,-of whom his eyes had seen the proof

At Rhodes, at Cyprus, and on other grounds

Christen'da and heathen,-must be be-lee'd and calm'd"
By debitor and creditor: this counter-caster,

He, in good time, must his lieutenant be,

And I,-bless the mark! his Moor-ship's ancient.
ROD. By Heaven, I rather would have been his hangman.
IAGO. Why, there's no remedy, 't is the curse of service;
Preferment goes by letter and affection,

And not by old gradation, where each second
Stood heir to the first. Now, sir, be judge yourself,
Whether I in any just term am affin'd

I follow him to serve my turn upon him:
We cannot all be masters, nor all masters
Cannot be truly follow'd. You shall mark
Many a duteous and knee-crooking knave,
That, doting on his own obsequious bondage,
Wears out his time, much like his master's ass,
For nought but provender; and when he 's old, cashier'd;
Whip me such honest knaves: Others there are
Who, trimm'd in forms and visages of duty,

Keep yet their hearts attending on themselves;

And, throwing but shows of service on their lords,

Do well thrive by them, and, when they have lin'd their coats,
Do themselves homage: these fellows have some soul;

And such a one do I profess myself. For, sir,

It is as sure as you are Roderigo,

Were I the Moor I would not be Iago.

In following him I follow but myself;

Heaven is my judge, not I for love and duty,
But seeming so, for my peculiar end;

For when my outward action doth demonstrate
The native act and figure of my heart

In complement extern, 't is not long after

a Christen'd. In the quarto, Christian.

• Be-lee'd and calm'd. Iago uses terms of navigation to express that Cassio had out-sailed him. • In complement extern. Johnson interprets this-" In that which I do only for an outward show of civility." Surely this interpretation, by adopting the secondary meaning of complement (compliment), destroys Iago's bold avowal, which is, that when his actions exhibit the real intentions and motives of his heart, in outward completeness, he might as well wear it upon his sleeve.

But I will wear my heart upon my sleeve

For daws to peck at: I am not what I am.
ROD. What a full fortune does the Thicklips 2 owe,
If he can carry 't thus a!

IAGO.

Call up her father,
Rouse him make after him, poison his delight,
Proclaim him in the streets; incense her kinsmen,
And though he in a fertile climate dwell,

Plague him with flies: though that his joy be joy,

b

Yet throw such chances of vexation on 't,

As it may lose some colour.

ROD. Here is her father's house; I'll call aloud.
IAGO. DO; with like timorous accent, and dire yell,
As when (by night and negligence) the fire
Is spied in populous cities.

ROD. What, hoa! Brabantio! signior Brabantio, hoa!
IAGO. Awake; what, hoa! Brabantio! thieves! thieves !
Look to your house, your daughter, and your bags!
Thieves

thieves!

BRABANTIO, above.

BRA. What is the reason of this terrible summons ?

What is the matter there?

ROD. Signior, is all your family within?

IAGO. Are your doors lock'd?

BRA.

Why? wherefore ask you this?

IAGO. Sir, you are robb'd; for shamed put on your gown;

Your heart is burst, you have lost half your soul;
Even now, now, very now, an old black ram

Is tupping your white ewe. Arise, arise;
Awake the snorting citizens with the bell,

Or else the devil will make a grandsire of you:
Arise, I say.

BRA.

What, have you lost your wits?
ROD. Most reverend signior, do you know my voice?

BRA. Not I; what are you?

ROD. My name is Roderigo.

BRA.

The worser welcome :

I have charg'd thee not to haunt about my doors:

In honest plainness thou hast heard me say

■ This is simply, how fortunate he is. The reading of the folio is, “What a fall Fortune,” &c. Chances. The quarto reads changes.

We adopt the parenthetical punctuation of the folio, which, if it had been followed, might have saved the discussion as to Shakspere's carelessness in making the fire spied “by night and negligence."

For shame. This is not used as a reproach, but means-for decency put on your gown.

BRA. What tell'st thou me of robbing? this is Venice;
My house is not a grange b.

ROD.
Most grave Brabantio,
In simple and pure soul I come to you.

с

IAGO. Sir, you are one of those that will not serve God, if the devil bid you. Because we come to do you service, and you think we are ruffians, you 'll have your daughter covered with a Barbary horse: you 'll have your nephews neigh to you: you'll have coursers for cousins, and gennets for germans. BRA. What profane wretch art thou?

IAGO. I am one, sir, that comes to tell you your daughter and the Moor are making the beast with two backs.

BRA. This thou shalt answer. I know thee, Roderigo.
ROD. Sir, I will answer any thing. But I beseech you,

If 't be your pleasure and most wise consent,
(As partly I find it is,) that your fair daughter,
At this odd-even and dull watch o' the night 2,
Transported with no worse nor better guard,
But with a knave of common hire, a gondolier,
To the gross clasps of a lascivious Moor:

If this be known to you, and your allowance,

a Knavery. The quarto, bravery.

Grange. Strictly speaking, the farmhouse of a monastery. But it is used by the old writers as a separate dwelling, as in Spenser:

"Ne have the watery fowls a certain grange
Wherein to rest."

Shakspere, in Measure for Measure,' gives the feeling of loneliness (which Brabantio here expresses) in a few words:" At the moated grange resides this dejected Mariana."

Nephews. The word was formerly used to signify a grandson, or any lineal descendant. In 'Richard III.' (Act IV., Scene 1) the Duchess of York calls her grand-daughter niece. Nephew here is the Latin nepos.

< The seventeen lines beginning " If 't be your pleasure," are not found in the quarto of 1622. We cannot, therefore, consult that quarto here, as in other instances, when a doubtful reading occurs. We have two difficulties here. First, what is the odd-even of the night? It is explained to be the interval between twelve at night and one in the morning. But then, secondly, an auxiliary verb is wanting to the proper construction of the sentence; and Capell would read, “be transported." We can only give the passage as we find it.

We then have done you bold and saucy wrongs;
But if you know not this, my manners tell me
We have your wrong rebuke. Do not believe
That, from the sense of all civility,

I thus would play and trifle with your reverence:
Your daughter,-if you have not given her leave, —
I say again, hath made a gross revolt;

Tying her duty, beauty, wit, and fortunes,

In an extravaganta and wheeling stranger,
Of here and every where: Straight satisfy yourself:
If she be in her chamber, or your house,

Let loose on me the justice of the state
For thus deluding you.

BRA.

Strike on the tinder, hoa!

Give me a taper; call up all my people :
This accident is not unlike my dream;
Belief of it oppresses me already :
Light, I say! light!

IAGO.

Farewell; for I must leave you :
It seems not meet, nor wholesome to my place,
To be produc'd (as, if I stay, I shall)
Against the Moor: For, I do know, the state
(However this may gall him with some check)

Cannot with safety cast him. For he 's embark'd

With such loud reason to the Cyprus' wars,

(Which even now stand in act,) that, for their souls,
Another of his fathom they have none
To lead their business: in which regard,
Though I do hate him as I do hell pains,
Yet, for necessity of present life,

I must show out a flag and sign of love,

Which is indeed but sign. That you shall surely find him,

Lead to the Sagittary the raised search;

And there will I be with him. So, farewell.

[Exit from above.

Enter, below, BRABANTIO, and Servants with torches.

[Exit.

BRA. It is too true an evil: gone she is ;

And what 's to come of my despised time

Is nought but bitterness. Now, Roderigo,

Where didst thou see her?-O, unhappy girl!—

a Extravagant. Wandering, unsettled, as in 'Hamlet:'-" The extravagant and erring spirit.” The Sagittary. This is generally taken to be an inn. It was the residence at the arsenal of the commanding officers of the navy and army of the republic. The figure of an archer, with his drawn bow, over the gates, still indicates the place. Probably Shakspere had looked upon that sculpture.