Def. Nor would I there refide,

To put my father in impatient thoughts
By being in his eye. Moft gracious Duke,
To my unfolding lend your gracious ear,
And let me find (5) a charter in your voice
T'affift my fimplenefs.

Duke. What would you, Desdemona ?

Def. That I did love the Moor to live with him,
(6) My down-right violence and storm of fortunes
May trumpet to the world. My heart's fubdu’d
Ev'n to the very quality of my Lord;

(7) I faw Othello's vifage in his mind,
And to his honours and his valiant parts
Did I my foul and fortunes confecrate.
So that, dear Lords, if I be left behind :
A moth of peace and he go to the war,

The rites, for which I love him, are bereft me:
And I a heavy interim shall support,

By his dear abfence. Let me go with him.

Oth. Your voices, Lords. 'Befeech you, let her will Have a free way. I therefore beg it not,

To please the palate of my appetite;

(8) Nor to comply with heat, the young Affects,

In

(5) a charter in your voice-] Let your favour privilege me. (6) My down-right violence AND STORM OF fortunes 1 But what violence was it that drove her to run away with the Moor? We should read,

My down-right violence TO FORMS, MY fortunes.

WARBURTON.

There is no need of this emendation. Violence is not violence fuffered, but violence acted. Breach of commen rules and obligations. The old quarto has, ftorn of fortune, which is perhaps the true reading.

(7). Ifaw Othello's visage in bis mind,] It must raise no wonder, that I loved a man of an appearance fo little engaging; I faw his face only in his mind; the greatnefs of his character reconciled me to his form.

(8) Nor to comply with beat, the young affe&is,

In

my defunct and proper fatisfaction;] As this has been hitherto printed and stopp'd, it seems to me a period of as ftubborn nonfenfe, as the editors have obtruded upon poor Shakespeare throughout his works. What a prepofterous creature is this Orbello made, to fall in love with, and marry, a fine young lady, when appetite and beat, and proper fatisfaction are dead and defunct in him! (For, defunct fignifies nothing else, that I know of, either primitively

In my defunct and proper fatisfaction;

But to be free and bounteous to her mind..
And heav'n defend your good fouls, that you think,
I will your ferious and great bufinefs fcant,
For fhe is with me. No, when light-wing'd toys.
Of feather'd Cupid foil with wanton dulnefs
My fpeculative and active inftruments,

That my difports corrupt and taint my bufinefs,.
Let housewives make a skillet of my helm,

or metaphorically :) but if we may take Othello's own word in the affair, he was not reduc'd to this fatal state.

or, for I am declin'd

Into the vale of years; yet That's not much.

Again, Why fhould our poet fay, (for fo he fays, as the paffage has been pointed;) that the young affect heat? Youth, certainly, bas it, and has no occafion or pretence of affecting it. And, again, after defunct, would he add fo abfurd a collateral epithet as proper? But affects was not defigned there as a verb, and defunct was not defigned here at all. I have, by reading diftinct for defunct, refcued the poet's text from abfurdity; and this I take to be the tenour of what he would fay; "I do not beg her company with me, merely to please myfelf; nor to indulge the heat and af "fects (i. e. affections) of a new-married man, in my own distinct "and proper fatisfaction; but to comply with her in her request, "and defire of accompanying me." Affects for affections, our author in feveral other paffages ufes.

Nor to comply with beat, the young affects

THEOBALD.

In my defunct and preper fatisfaction;] i. e. With that heat and new affections which the indulgence of my appetite has raised and created. This is the meaning of defunct, which has made all the difficulty of the paffage. WARBURTON.

I do not think that Mr. Theobald's emendation clears the text from embaraffment, though it is with a little imaginary improve-ment received by Hanmer, who reads thus,

Nor to comply with beat, affects the young

In my diftinct and proper fatisfaction.

Dr. Warburton's explanation is not more fatisfactory: what made the difficulty, will continue to make it. I read,

I beg it not,

To please the palate of my appetite,

Nor to comply with beat, (the young affects
In me defunct) and proper fatisfaction;

But to be free and bounteous to her mind.

Affects ftands here, not for love, but for quality, for that by which any thing is affected. I afk it not, fays he, to pleafe appetite, or fatisfy loofe defires, the paffions of youth which I have now out-lived, or for any particular gratification of myself, but merely that I may indulge the wishes of my wife.

And

And all indign and base adverfities
Make head against my estimation.

Duke. Be it as you shall privately determine,
Or for her stay or going; th' affair cries hafte;
And speed must answer it. You must hence to-night.
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,

And fuch things elfe of quality and refpect

As doth import you.

Oth. Please your Grace, mine Ancient ; A man he is of honefty and truft,

To his conveyance I affign my wife,

With what else needful your good grace shall think

To be fent after me.

Duke. Let it be fo;

Good-night to every one.

And, noble Signior,

(9) If virtue no delighted beauty lack,

Your fon-in-law is far more fair than black.

Sen. Adieu, brave Moor. Ufe Desdemona well. Bra. Look to her, Moor, have a quick eye to fee. She has deceiv'd her father, and may thee.

[Exit Duke, with Senators. Oth. My life upon her faith. Honeft lago, My Desdemona muft I leave to thee ; I pr'ythee let thy wife attend on her; And bring her after in the (1) best advantage. Come, Desdemona, I have but an hour

Of love, of worldly matter and direction

To speak with thee. We muft obey the time. [Exeunt.

(9) If virtue no DELIGHTED beauty lack,] This is a fenfelefs epithet. We should read BELIGHTED beauty. i. e. white and fair. WARBURTON.

Hanmer reads, more plausibly, delighting. I do not know that belighted has any authority. I fhould rather read, If virtue no delight or beauty lack

Delight, for delectation, or power of pleafing, as it is frequently

used.

(1)

beft advantage.] Faireft opportunity.

0 4

SCENE

Rod. lago

SCENE X.

Manent Rodorigo and Iago..

lago. What fayeft thou, noble heart?.
Rod. What will I do, thinkeft thou?
Jago. Why, go to bed, and fleep.
Rod. I will incontinently drown myfelf."

Iago. Well, if thou doft, I shall never love thee after. Why, thou filly gentleman!

Rod. 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 look'd upon the world for four times feven years, and fince I could diftinguish betwixt a benefit and an injury, I never found man. that knew how to love himself. Ere I would say,. I would drown myself for the love of (2) a Guinea-hen, I would change my humanity with a baboon.

Rod. What fhould I do? I confefs, it is my shame to be fo fond, but it is not in my virtue to amend it.

Jago. 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 lettuce; fet hyffop, and weed up thyme; fupply it with one gender of herbs, or diftract it with many; either have it fteril with idleness, or manured with induftry; why, the power and corrigible authority of this lies in our will. If the balance of our lives had not one fcale of reason to poise another of fenfuality, the blood and bafeness 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 Set or fcien.

Rod. It cannot be.

lago. It is merely a luft of the blood, and a permiffion of the will. Come, be a man. Drown thy

(2) a Guinea-ben, a showy bird with fine feathers.

felf?

felf? drown cats and blind puppies. I have profeft me thy friend, and I confefs me knit to thy deserving with cables of perdurable toughnefs. I could never better ftead thee than now. Put money in thy purse; follow thou these wars; (3) defeat thy favour with an ufurped beard. I fay, put money in thy purfe. It cannot be, that Desdemona fhould long continue her love to the Moor Put money in thy purse

Fill thy

nor he his to her. (4) It was a violent commencement in her, and thou shalt fee an answerable fequeftration. Put but money in thy purse Thefe Moors are changeable in their wills. purfe with money. The food, that to him now is (5) as luscious as lohocks, fhall fhortly be as bitter as coloquintida. When the is fated with his body, fhe will find the errors of her choice. She must have change, she must: therefore put money in thy purfe. If thou wilt needs damn thyfelf, do, it a more delicate way than drowning. Make all the money thou canft. If fanctimony and a frail vow, (6) betwixt an erring Barbarian and a fuper-fubtle Venetian, be not too hard for my wits, and all the tribe of hell, thou

(3) DEFEAT thy favour with an ufurped beard ] This is not Englife. We fhould read DISSEAT thy favour, i. e. turn it out of its feat, change it for another. The word ufurped directs us to this reading. WARBURTON.

It is more English, to defeat, than diffeat. To defeat, is to unde, to change.

(4) It was a violent commencement in ber, and thou shalt see an an fwerable fequeftration] There feems to be an oppofition of terms here intended, which has been loft in tranfcription. We may read, It was a violent conjunction, and thou shalt fee an answerable fequeftration; or, what feems to me preferable, It was a violent commencement, and thou shall fee an answerable fequel.

(5) As luscious as locufts,] Whether you understand by this the infect or the fruit, it cannot be given as an inftance of a delicious morfel, notwithstanding the exaggerations of lying travellers. The true reading is lobocks, a very pleafant confection introduced into medicine by the Arabian phyficians: and fo very fitly oppofed both to the bitterness and use of Collequintida. WARBURTON. (6) betwixt an ERRING Barbarian -] We fhould read FRRANT, that is a vagabond, one who has no houfe nor country. WARBURTON.

Hammer reads, arrant. Erring is as well as either.