Def. To-night, my Lord? Duke. This night. Oth. With all my heart. Duke. At nine i' th' morning here we'll meet again. Othello, leave fome officer behind, And he fhall our commiffion bring to you; Oth. Pleafe your Grace, my Ancient; With what elfe needful your good Grace fhall think Duke. Let it be fo; Good-night to every one. And, noble Signior, If virtue no delighted beauty lack, Your fon-in-law is far more fair than black. Sen. Adieu, brave Moor, ufe Desdemona well. Bra. Adieu, brave Moor, if thou haft eyes to fee, She has deceived her father, and may thee. [Exit Duke, with Senators. Oth. My life upon her faith.. -Honeft lago, My Defdemona muft I leave to thee; I pr'ythee, let thy wife attend on her; And bring her after in the beft advantage. Come, Deldemona, I have but an hour Of love, of worldly matter and direction To speak with thee. We must obey the time. [Exeunt. Manent RODORIGO and IAGO. Rod. Iago------ Iago. What fayel thou, noble heart? Red. I will incontinently drown myself. Iago. Well, if thou doft, I shall never love thee after. Why, thou filly gentleman! Red. It is fillinefs to live, when to live is a torment; and then have we a prefcription to die, when death is our physician. Iago. O villainous! I have looked upon the world for four times seven years, and fince I could diftinguish betwixt a benefit and an injury, I never found man that knew how to love himfelf. Ere I 'would say, I would drown myself for the love of a Guinea-hen, I would change my humanity with a baboon. Rod. What fhould I do? I confefs it is my fhame to be so fond, but it is not in my virtue to amend it. Iago. Virtue? a fig: 'tis in ourselves that we are thus or thus. Our bodies are our gardens, to the which our wills are gardeners. So that if we will plant nettles, or fow lettice; fet hyffop, and weed up thyme; fupply it with one gender of herbs, or distract it with many; either have it steril with idlenefs, or manured with induftry; why, the power and corrigible authority of this lyes in our will. (18) If the beam of our lives had not one scale of (18) If the balance of our lives had not one teale of reason to prife anther of fer fuality i. c. If the fale of our lives had not one feale, &c. which must certainly be wrong. Some of the old Quartos have it thus, but the two elder Folios read, If the braine of our lives had not one fcale, &c. This is corrupt; and I make no doubt but Shakespeare wrote, as I have reformed the text, If the beam of our lives, &c. And my reafon is this; that he generally diftinguishes betwixt the beam and valance, ufing the latter to fignify the fcales; and the former, the fteel-bar to which they a e hung, and which poifes them. I'll fubjoin a few inftances of his ufage of both terms. reafon to poife another of fenfuality, the blood and hafenefs of our natures would conduct us to moft prepofterous conclufions. But we have reafon to cool our raging motions, our carnal ftings, our unbitted lufts: whereof I take this, that you call love, to be a fect or fyen. Rod. It cannot be. Iago. It is merely a luft of the blood, and a permillion of the will. Come, be a man: drown thyfelf? drown cats and blind puppies. I have profelled me thy friend, and I confefs me knit to thy deferving with cables of perdurable toughness. I could never better fteed thee than now. Put money in thy purfe; follow thou thefe wars; defeat thy favour with an ufurped beard; I fay, put money in thy purfe. It cannot be that Defdemona fhould long continue her love to the Moor-----put money in thy purfe-----nor he his to her. It was a violent commencement in her, and thou fhalt see an anfwerable fequeftration,---put but money in thy purfe.---Thefe Moors are changeable in their wills; fill thy purfe with money. (19) The food that to In your lord's fcale is nothing but himself, We, poizing us in her defective scale, We poize the caufe in Juftice' equal fale, 2 Henry IV. Tempest. All's Well, &c. 2 Henry VI. -thy madnefs fhall be paid with weight, Till our fcale turn the beam. Hamlet. In like manner, the French always ufe les balances to fignify the feales; le fleau, the beam of the balance. (19) The food, thot to him now is as lufions as locufts, frall Shortly be as bitter as col quintida.] Mr Warburton has fufped him now is as lufcious as locufts, fhall fhortly be as bitter as coloquintida. When the is fated with his body, fhe will find the errors of her choice. She mult have change, the muft: therefore put money in thy purse. If thou wilt needs damn thy felf, do it a more delicate way than drowning. Make all the money thou canft. If fanctimony and a frail vow, betwixt an erring barbarian, and a fuperfubtle Venetian, be not too hard for my wits, and all the tribe of hell, thou fhalt enjoy her; therefore make money. A pox of drowning thyfelf! way. Seek thou rather to be it is clean out of the hanged in compafling thy joy, than to be drowned and go without her. Rod. Wilt thou be fast to my hopes, if I depend on the iffue? Iago. Thou art sure of me. Go, make money. I have told thee often, and I re-tell thee again and again, I hate the Moor. My caufe is hearted; thine hath no lefs reafon. Let us be conjunctive in our revenge against him. If thou canst cuckold him, thou doft thyfelf a pleafure, and me a fport. ed this paffage, and attempted an emendation; which I ought to fubjoin, with his reafoning upon it. Though "fome kind of locufts have been fometimes eaten, I think 86 they cannot be given as an infiance of very delicious food. Befides, how come locufts, a kind of infect, to be oppofed "to coloquintida, a medicinal drug? Be affured, the true "reading is not locusts, but Lches, a very pleafant confection, introduced into medicine by the Arabian phyficians; and "fo is very fitly oppofed both to the bitterness, and the "ufe of coloquintida."- -I have not, however, difturbed the text for two reafons; because all the printed copies agree in one reading without any variation: and because I am not fure, that by locufts the Poet means the infect, but the fruit of the locuft tree; which is fweet and luscious in the fame degree, as coloquintida, the fruit of the wild gourd, is acerb and bitter. There are many events in the womb of Time, which will be delivered. Traverfe, go, provide thy money. We will have more of this to-morrow. Adieu. Rod. Where fhall we meet i' th' morning? Rod. I'll be with thee betimes. Lego. Go to, farewel. Do you hear, Rodorigo? Rod. What fay you? lago. No more of drowning, do you hear. Rod. I am changed; I'll go fell all my land. Manet IAGO. [Exit. Jago. Co to, farewel, put money enough in your Thus do I ever make my fool my purfe; [purfe--For I mine own gained knowledge fhould prophane, If I fhould time expend with fuch a fnipe, But for my fport and profit. I hate the Moor, |