My fervices, which I have done the fignory, I would not my unhoused free condition. [yonder. For the fea's worth. But look, what lights come (7) -I fetch my life and being From men of royal fiege; and my demerits May fpeak unbonneted to as proud a fortune As this that I have reached.] Thus all the copies read this paffage. But to speak unbonneted, is to fpeak with the cap off, which is directly opposite to the Poet's meaning. So, in King Lear; This night, in which the cub-drawn bear would couch, Keep their furr dry, unbonneted he runs, And bids what will take all. Othello means to fay, that his birth and fervices fet him upon fuch a rank, that he may fpeak to a fenator of Venice with his hat on; i. e. without fhewing any marks of deference, or inequality. I, therefore, am inclined to think Shakespeare wrote; May fpeak, and bonneted, &c. Or, if any like better the change of the negative un, in the corrupted reading, into the epitatic im, we may thus reform it; May fpeak imbonneted, &c. I propofed the correction of this paffage in my Shake.. speare Reftored; upon which Mr Pope, in his laft edition, has found out another expedient, and would read ; May fpeak u bon eting, &c. i. e. as he fays, without pulling off the bonnett. But the fenfe thus is equivocal and obfcure; and untonneting more naturally fignifics pulling off the bonnet, than the contrary. Enter CASSIO with Torches. Tago. Thofe are the raised father, and his friends:You were best go in. Oth. Not I; I must be found. My parts, my title, and my perfect fouli Shall manifest me rightly. Is it they? lago. By Janus, I think no. [nant, Oth. The fervants of the Duke and my Lieute-The goodness of the night upon you, friends! What is the news? Caf. The Duke doth greet you, General; And he requires your hafte, post-hafte appearance, Even on the inftant. Oth. What is the matter, think you? Caf. Something from Cyprus, as I may divine; It is a bufinefs of fome heat. The gallies Have fent a dozen fequent messengers This very night at one another's heels: And many of the counsellors raifed and met, (8) Are at the Duke's already. You have been hotly, called for, When, being not at your lodging to be found, Oth. 'Tis well I am found by you: I will but spend a word here in the house, [Exit Othello. Caf. Ancient, what makes he here? (8) And many of the confuls, raised and met, Are at the Duke's already] Thus all the editions concur in reading; but there is no fuch character as a conjul ap-pears in any part of the play. I change it to counfellers; i e. the grandees that conftitute the great council at Venice, The reafon I have already given above, in the clofe of the Sith note. Iago. 'Faith, he to-night hath boarded a land carrack; If it prove lawful prize, he's made for ever. Caf. To whom? Fago. Marry, to----Come, Captain, will you go? Enter OTHELLO. Oth. Have with you. Gaf. Here comes another troop to feek for you.. Enter BRABANTIO, RODORIGO, with Officers and Torches: Iago. It is Brabantió: General, be advised; Oth. Holla! ftand there. Bra. Down with him, thief! [They draw on both Sides. Jago. You, Rodorigo! come, Sir, I am for you-Oth. Keep up your bright fwords, for the dew will ruft 'em. Good Signior, you shall more command with years Than with your weapons. Bra. O thou foul thief! where haft thou ftowed my daughter; Damned as thou art, thou haft enchanted her; (9) -that he fhunned The ealthy curled darlings of our nation.] Though I have not disturbed the text, here, I ought to fubjoin a very probable conjecture which Mr Warburton proposed me; The wealthy culled darlings of our nation. The wealthy curled darlings of our nation, i. e. picked, felect, chofen from the common fuitors. For the epithet curled, as he obferves, was no mark of diftinction or difference between a Venetian and a Moor; which latter people are remarkably curled by Nature. And though cul.ed now, when our ears are nicer than our understandings, may not fo frequently find a place in the drama, the fame objection did not ly to the found of it in Shak.fpeare's days. Of all complexions the culled fovereignty. Love's Labour Loft. Call for our chiefeft men of difcipline King John. Ibid. And culled these fiery fpirits from the world Ibid. For who is he, whofe chin is-but enriched With one appearing hair, that will not follow Thefe culled and choice-drawn cavaliers to France? Henry V. ↑ Henry VI. Now ye familiar fpirits, that are culled Troilus and Creffida. No, Madam, we have culled fuch neceffaries Romeo and Juliet. In tattered weeds, with overwhelming brows, &c. &c &c, Ibid. (10) Fudge me the world, if 'tis not grofs in fenfe, That thou had practifed on her with foul charms, Abufed her delicate youth with drugs, or minerals, That weaken motion.] Brabantio is here accuting Othello of having ufed fome foul play, and intoxicated Defdemona by That thou haft practised on her with foul charms, Abused her delicate youth with drugs or minerals, drugs and potions to win her over to his love. But why drugs to weaken motion? How then could the have run away with him voluntarily from her father's houfe? Had he been averfe to chufing Othello, though he had given her medicines that took away the ufe of her limbs, might fhe not ftill have retained her fenfes, and oppofed the marriage? Her father, 'tis evident, from feveral of his fpeeches, is pofitive that the must have been abused in her rational faculties, or fhe could not have made fo prepofterous 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 mtion being weakened? If I understand any thing of the Poet's meaning here, I cannot but think he must have wrote; Abused her delicate youth with drugs, or minerals, i. e. her apprehenfion, right conception and idea of things, understanding, judgment, &c. 'Tis ufual with us to fay, we have no notion of a thing, when we would mean, we don't very clearly understand it. The Roman claflics ufed the word in the fame manner; and Cicero has thus defined it for us. Notionem appello, quod Græci tum evroiav tum wpóλntiv. Die notionem nullum animai eft quod habeat præter hominem. Idem 1. de Legibus. Cujus rei rationem notionemque eodem volumine tradidit. Plin. lib. 17. cap. 28. &c. Nor is our Au thor infrequent in the ufage of this term. Does Lear walk thus? fpeak thus? Where are his eyes? Are lethargicd, &c. . -Your judgments, my grave Lords, Must give tinis cur the lie; and his own notion, Who wears my ftripes, &e. -And all things elfe, that might To half a foul, and to a notion crazed Say, thus did Banquo. King Lear.. Coriolanus. Mac'eth. And, in Cymbeline he has expreffed the fame idea by an equi valent term: The drug he gave me, which he faid was precious Murderous to the fenfes? I made this emendation in the appendix to my Shakefpeare Restored, and Mr Pope has adopted it in his laft edis |