troduced: and yet accident and chance are not, in the present instance, to be held as synonymous. The shot of accident' is a random shot; but the very reverse of this, in the passage before us, is to be understood of chance,' which must be taken personally and as spoken of fortune, persecutive fortune. "The goddess might throw her darts at him, and he would yet remain unwounded." In a word, in whatever way assaulted, his virtue was held to be a tower of brass, impregnable, capable of resisting every storm. B.

Oth.

But alas! to make me

A fixed figure, for the time of scorn

To point his slow unmoving finger at,

-time of scorn] The reading of both the elder quartos and the folio is,

for the time of scorn.

Mr. Rowe reads,-—hand of scorn; and succeeding editors have silently followed him.

I would (though in opposition to so many great authorities in favor of the change) continue to read with the old copy:

-the time of scorn.

We call the hour in which we are to die, the hour of death-the time when we are to be judged-the day of judgment—the instant when we suffer calamity-the moment of evil; and why may we not distinguish the time which brings contempt along with it, by the title of the time of scorn?

STEEV.

Perhaps we should read,―slowly moving finger at. I should wish to reject the present reading, for even then the word slow implied some degree of motion, though that motion may not be perceptible to the eye. The time of scorn is a strange expression, to which I cannot reconcile myself; I have no doubt but it is erroneous, and wish we had authority to read hand of scorn, instead of time. MONCK MASON.

"Time of scorn" is undoubtedly nonsense; and if we admit the "hand of scorn" of Rowe, we shall lose a very considerable beauty, because we must then read-" the slow unmoving finger of scorn," instead of the "slow unmoving finger of time."

I read,

"A fixed figure and in scorn, for time "To point his slow-unmoving finger at." Nothing can be more poetical or beautiful, than thus to depicture Time." Slow unmoving," for the imperceptible progression of time time that is and is not. Othello's meaning isthat he should ever after be held in scorn. • Slow-unmoving is

one of those expressions which must be felt to be thoroughly understood. To explain it is wholly impossible. Slowly-moving has been proposed by some one, but such reading would destroy the exquisite beauty of the thought: the change would be wretched indeed! B.

Oth. Or keep it as a cistern, for foul toads

To knot and gender in-turn thy complexion there!
Patience, thou young and rose-lipp'd cherubim;
Ay, there, look grim as hell!

Turn thy complexion there, &c.] At such an object do thou, patience, thyself change color; at this do thou, even thou, rosy cherub as thou art, look as grim as hell. The old editions and the new have

it,

I here look grim as hell,

I was written for ay, and not since corrected. JOHN.
"Turn thy complexion there!

Patience, thou young and rose-lipp'd cherubim ;
Ay, there look grim as hell."

To make patience look grim as hell' is by no means allowable. It is true that, as the passage now stands, no other interpretation than that of Johnson can be received. I cannot but think, however, that Patience, thou young and rose-lipp'd cherubim' should be given to Desdemona: and that turn thy complexion' should be turn thee, complexion.'-I regulate and explain the whole as follows.

Oth. Or keep it as a cistern for foul toads,

To knot and gender in! Turn thee, complexion, there,
Ay, there look grim as hell.

Desd. Patience, thou young and rose-lipp'd cherubinı—
I hope, my noble lord esteems me honest.'

Othello reflects on the supposed disloyalty of Desdemona. His own complexion is black, so that he calls it grim as hell, but his mind is white, it is pure, while that of his wife is sullied. He therefore thinks that the mind and body should be alike: that as the soul of Desdemona is black, so should be her visage, and accordingly exclaims- Turn thee, complexion, there! Ay. there look grim as hell'-" Go, complexion, go from me to her: for there is thy proper seat."

The Lady, on hearing this, is about to call on patience in her aid but wishing to know the particular sentiment of her husband, breaks off with- I hope, my noble lord esteems me honest.' B.

Qth.

O thou weed,

Who art so lovely fair, and smell'st so sweet,

That the sense aches at thee,-'Would, thou hadst ne'er

been born!

-Othou weed!] Dr. Johnson has, on this occasion, been unjustly censured for having stifled difficulties where he could not remove them. I would therefore observe, that Othello's speech is printed word for word from the folio edition, though the quarto reads:

O thou black weed!

Had this epithet, black, been admitted, there would still have remained an incomplete verse in this speech: no additional beauty would have been introduced; but instead of it, a paltry antithesis between the words black and fair. STEEV.

"O thou weed,

Who art so lovely fair."

This remark of Mr. Steevens with regard to Dr. Johnson, is far from being warranted by circumstances. That he has been ' unjustly censured for stifling difficulties where he could not remove them,' no one but his fellow-laborer, I think, will be bold enough to maintain: and if Mr. S. had been desirous of saving himself from the very same charge of having stifled difficulties, and from the further blame of misrepresentation, he would have told us that the quarto reads blache (not black) weed' so that no " paltry antithesis" is found, when the original text is attended to. Blache' must then, as the true reading, be restored to the page. It is the bleche of the French, and signifies poor, tweak, irresolute-an epithet which will well apply to Desdemona, thus laboring under the suspicions of Othello. B.

Iago. I have rubb'd this young quat almost to the

sense,

And he grows angry.

In some editions,

I've rubb'd this young gnat almost to the sense,

And he grous angry.

This is a passage much controverted among the editors. Sir T. Haumer reads quab, a gudgeon; not that a gudgeon can be rubbed to much sense, but that a man grossly deceived is often called a gudgeon. Mr. Upton reads quail, which he proves, by much learning, to be a very choleric bird. Dr. Warburton retains gnat, which is found in the early quarto. Theobald would introduce knot, a small bird of. that name. I have followed the text of the folio, and third and fourth quartos.

A quat in the midland counties is a pimple, which by rubbing is

made to smart, or is rubbed to sense. Roderigo is called a quat by the same mode of speech, as a low fellow is now termed in low lan guage a scab. To rub to the sense, is to rub to the quick. JOHN. The same explanation appeared in a magazine in the year 1748.

EDITOR. So, in The Devil's Law Case, 1623: "O young quat! incontinence is plagued in all creatures in the world."

Again, in Decker's Gul's Hornbook, 1609: “—whether he be a yong quat of the first yeers revennew, or some austere and sullen-fac'd steward, &c."

Such another thought occurs in Ben Jonson's Catiline:

"must have their disgraces still new rubb'd,

"To make them smart, &c." STEEV.

All the commentators, I believe, have mistaken the sense of this passage. A "quat," in my opinion, is an intimate, a crony. We now say, when we speak of the intimacy of one man with another," O! they are quater-cousins."I therefore read as follows:

"I have fubb'd this young quat," &c.

i. e. I have fubb'd, or put off, this quater-cousin, or associate of mine, as long as possible, and now he grows angry. "Quat" appears to be an abbreviation of " quater," and may have been used for quater-cousin or friend, in the same way that cuz is employed for cousin, a relation by blood or marriage.

This reading will be greatly strengthened when it is remembered that Roderigo was really the intimate of Iago: that Iago had long fubb'd or put him off, and that he began to grow sensible of the injury done him. Roderigo says p. 710: I begin to find myself fubb'd in it.' B.

Emil. Thou dost belie her, and thou art a devil.
Oth. She was false as water.

false as water.] As water that will support no weight, nor keep any impression. JOHN.

False as water.' When the Poet says 'false as water,' it is spoken of that element as being a fluid. But though, as a fluid, it can receive no "lasting impression," it cannot strictly be said that it will support no weight." By false, however, Shakspeare evidently means to point to that which cannot be laid hold of that, which like a shadow, we are unable to grasp that, in short, which will elude our attack, or deceive by its appearance. This, I think, is the way in which the expression is to be understood: while, at the same time, the commonly received opinion respecting the nature of water must hold, or the comparison will be naught. For it should be remembered that Boerhaave, Boyle, and other eminent men, have maintained that water is naturally of the chrystaline kind. They observe, "we sometimes find it

appear in a fluid, and sometimes in a solid form and as the former in our warmer climate is the more usual, we conclude it the proper one, and ascribe the other to the extraneous action of cold. Ice is usually said to be water brought into a preternatural state by cold; yet with regard to the nature of things, and setting aside our arbitrary ideas, it might as justly be said that water is ice preternaturally thawed by heat." Now this point, which is yet controverted among Naturalists, must be determined, before we can speak positively as to the justness and propriety of the image in the text. B.