256. To who?] It is somewhat singular that Cassio should ask this question. See act iii sc. 3.

"Did Michael Cassio, when you woo'd my lady,

"Know of your love?

"Oth. From first to last.

He who was acquainted with the object courted by his friend, could have little reason for doubting to whom he would be married STEEVENS.

Cassio's seeming ignorance of Othello's courtship or marriage might only be affected; in order to keep his friend's secret, till it became publickly known.

BLACKSTONE.

258. Have with you.] This expression denotes readiness. See Richard III. act iii. and Johnson's STEEVENS

note.

26. be advis'd;] That is, be cool; be cautious; be discreet. JOHNSON. 275. The wealthy curled' darlings of our nation,] Curled is elegantly and ostentatiously dressed. He had not the hair particularly in his thoughts. JOHNSON.

In Antony and Cleopatra, Shakspere employs the same expression, and evidently alludes to the hair:

"If she first meet the curled Antony," &c. Sir IV. D'Avenant uses the same expression in his Just Italian, 1630:"

"The curl'd and silken nobles of the town."

Again,

"Such as the curled youth of Italy."

I believe. Shakspere has the same meaning in the pre

sent instance.

STELVENS

.

278. to fear,] . e. to terrify. See Comedy of Errors.

STEEVENS. 279. Judge me the world, &c.] The lines following in crotchets are not in the first edition. POPE. 281. Abus'd her delicate youth with drugs, or minerals,

That weaken motion:] Brabantio is here accusing Othello of having used some foul play, and intoxicated Desdemona by drugs and potions to win her over to his love. But why drugs to weaken motion? How then could she have run away with him voluntarily from her father's house? Had she been averse to choosing Othello, though he had given her medicines that took away the use of her limbs, might she not still have retained her senses, and opposed the marriage? Her father, it is evident, from several of his speeches, is positive, that she must have been abused in her rational faculties, or she could not have made so preposterous a choice, as to wed with a Moor, a Black, and refuse the finest young gentlemen in Venice. What then have we to do with her motion being weakened? If I understand any thing of the poet's meaning here, I cannot but think he must have wrote:

Abus'd her delicate youth with drugs, or minerals,
That weaken notion.

i. e. her apprehension, right conception and idea of things, understanding, judgment, &c.

Hanmer reads with probability:

That weaken motion.

THEOBALD.

JOHNSON.

Motion in a subsequent scene of this play is used in the very sense in which Hanmer would employ it :

"But

But we have reason to cool our raging motions, our carnal stings, our unbitted lusts." STEEVENS.

Drugs, or love powders, as they are sometimes called, may operate as inflamers of the blood-may waken motion. But I believe no drugs have yet been found out that can fascinate the understanding or affections; that can weaken the judgment without entirely subverting it. Opiates, or intoxicating potions 'may set the senses to sleep, but cannot distort or per, vert the intellects, but by destroying them for a time. However, it may be said, that Brabantio believed in the efficacy of such drugs, and therefore might, with propriety, talk of their weakening the understanding. The reading proposed by Theobald is, it must be ac. knowledged, strongly supported by a passage in King Lear, act ii.

"His notion weakens, his discernings

"Are lethargy'd.”

MALONE,

To weaken notion is, to impair the faculties. It was till very lately, and may with some be still an opinion, that philtres, or love potions, have the power of perverting, and of course, weakening or impairing both the sight and judgment, and of procuring fondness or dotage toward any unworthy object who adminsters them. And by motion, Shakspere means the senses which are depraved and weakened by these fascinating REMARKS.

mixtures.

In the passages adduced by Mr. Steevens and Mr. Malone, to prove that motion signifies lustful desires, it may be remarked that the word derives this peculiar meaning,

meaning, either from some epithet, or restrictive mode of expression, with which it stands connected. But, had it been used absolutely, in that sense, with what consist ency could Brabantio attribute the emotions of lust in his daughter, to the irritation of those very philtres, which he, in the self-same breath, represents as abating it?

The drugs or minerals, with which Othello is charged as having abused the delicate youth of Desdemona, were supposed to have accomplished his purpose, by.

"charming her blood with pleasing heaviness." thereby weakening MOTION, that is subduing her MAIDEN PUDENCY, and lulling her WONTED COYNESS into a state of acquiescence.

That this is the sense of the passage, is further evident from what follows; for so bashful was she of disposition,

that her MOTION:

Blush'd at herself:

and, therefore, adds Brabantio:

-I vouch again,

That with some mixtures powerful o'er the blood,

Or with some dram conjur'd to this effect,

He wrought upon her.

HENLEY.

285. For an abuser, &c.] The first quarto reads,

Such an abuser, &c..

STEEVENS.

290. You of my inclining] That is you who are under my command.

301. To bring-] The quarto's read-To bear—,

STEEVENS.

311. Bond-slaves, and pagans,—] Brabantio alludes to the common condition of all blacks, who come from their own country, both slaves and pagans; and uses the words in contempt of Othello and his complexion. If this Moor is now suffered to escape with impunity, it will be such an encouragement to his black countrymen, that we may expect to see all the first offices of our state filled up by the pagans and bond-slaves of Africa. STEEVENS. Composition, for WARBURTON.

312. There is no composition-] consistency, concordancy.

319. As in these cases where they aim reports,] These Venetians seem to have had a very odd sort of persons in employment, who did all by hazard, as to what, and how, they should report; for this is the sense of man's aiming reports. The true reading, without question, is,

where the aim reports.

i. e. where there is no better ground for information than conjecture: which not only improves the sense, but, by changing the verb into a noun, and the noun into a verb, mends the expression. WARBURTON.

The folio has,

-the aim reports.

But, they aim reports, has a sense sufficiently easy and commodious. Where men report not by certain knowledge, but by aim and conjecture. JOHNSON. To aim is to conjecture. So, in the Two Gentlemen of Verona:

"But fearing lest my jealous aim might err.”

3

STEEVENS.