A fe'nnight's speed. Great Jove, Othello guard! SCENE V.. Enter Desdemona, Iago, Rodorigo, and Emilia. O behold! The riches of the ship is come on shore. Ye men of Cyprus, let her have your knees. Def. I thank you, valiant Caffio. [Sound of Cannon. Gent. They give this greeting to the Citadel: This likewife is a friend. Caf. See for the news. Good Ancient, you are welcome. Welcome, miftrefs. Let it not gall your patience, good lago, [To Æmilia. That I extend my manners. Tis my breeding, That gives me this bold fhew of courtesy. [Kifes her. Iago. Sir, would fhe give you fo much of her lips, As of her tongue the oft beftows on me, You'd have enough. Def. Alas! fhe has no speech. I find it ftill, when I have lift to fleep. Emil. You have little cause to say so. Iugo. Come on, come on; you're pictures out of doors, Bells in your parlours, wild-cats in your kitchens,. (3) Saints in your injuries, devils being offended, Players in your housewifery, and housewives in your beds! Def. O, fy upon thee, flanderer! Iago. Nay, it is true, or else I am a Turk ; Def. What wouldst thou write of me, if thou fhou'd'ft praise me? Iago. Oh gentle lady, do not put me to't, For I am nothing, if not (4) critical. Def. Come, one affay. There's one gone to the harbour? lago. Ay, Madam. Def, I am not merry; but I do beguile The thing I am, by feeming otherwife. -Come, how wouldst thou praise me? Jaga. I am about it; but, indeed, my invention Comes from my pate, as birdlime does from freeze,. It plucks out brains and all. And thus fhe is deliver'd, But my mufe labours, If he be fair and wife, fairness and wit, Def. Well prais'd. How if the be black and witty? Iago. If he be black, and thereto have a wit, She'll find a white that shall her blackness fit. Def. Worfe and worse. Emil. How, if fair and foolifh? (3) When you have a mind to do injuries, you put on an air of fanctity. (4)critical. That is, cenforious. Iago. Iago. (5) She never yet was foolish that was fair ; Def. These are old fond paradoxes, to make fools laugh i'th' alehoufe. What miferable praise haft thou for her that's foul and foolish? Iago. There's none fo foul and foolish thereunto, But does foul pranks, which fair and wife ones do. Def. O heavy ignorance! thou praifeft the worst beft. But what praife couldst thou beftow on a deferving woman indeed? (6) one, that in the authority of her merit, did justly put on the vouch of very malice itself? Iago. She that was ever fair, and never proud, (5) She newer yet was foolish, &c.] We may read, She ne'er was yet so foolish that was fair, But ev'n ber foliy belp'd ber to an heir. Yet I believe the common reading to be right: The law makes the power of cohabitation a proof that a man is not a natural; therefore, fince the foolifheft woman, if pretty, may have a child, no pretty woman is ever foolish. (6) One that in the authority of ber mrit, did jufily put on the wouch of very malice itself?] Tho' all the printed copies agree in this reading, I cannot help fu pecting it. If the text fhould be be genuine, I confefs, it is above my underftanding. In what sense can merit be faid to put on the vouch of malice? I fhould rather think, merit was fo fafe in itself, as to repel and put off all that malice and envy could advance and affirm to its prejudice. I have ventur'd to reform the text to this conftruction, by writing put down, a very flight change that makes it intelligible. THEOB. One One, that in the authority of ber merit, did justly put on the vouch of very malice itself?] The editor, Mr. Theobald, not understanding the phrafe, To put on the vouch of malice, has alter'd it to put down, and wrote a deal of unintelligible ftuff to justify his blunder. To put on the vouch of any one, fignifics, to call upon any one to vouch for another. So that the fenfe of the place is this. that was fo confcious of her own merit, and of the authority her character had with every one, that fhe durft venture to call upon malice itself to vouch for her. This was fome commendation. And the character only of the cleareft virtue; which could force malice, even against its nature, to do justice. WARB. To put on the vouch of malice, is to affume a character vouched by the teftimony of malice itself. Never lackt gold, and yet went never gay, Fled from her wish, and yet said, now I may; She that when anger'd, her revenge being nigh, Bade her wrong flay, and her displeasure fly. She that in wifdom never was fo frail To change the cod's head for the falmon's tail; She that could think, and ne'er difclaje her mind,, See fuitors following, and ne'er look behind; She was a wight, if ever fuch wight wereDef. To do what? Iago. (7) To fuckle fools, and chronicle fmall beer. Def. Oh moft lame and impotent conclufion! Do not learn of him, Emilia, tho' he be thy husband. Howe fay you, Caffio, is he not a moft profane (8) and (9) li-beral counsellor? Caf. He fpeaks home, Madam; you may relifh him more in the foldier, than in the fcholar. lago. (7) To fuckle fools, and chronicle fmall beer.] In this line there feems to be more humour defigned, than I can easily discover or explain. Why should the fuckle fools? Perhaps, that these to whom nature had denied wit, might derive it from a lady to whom it was given in fo much fuperfluity. She would be a wight to chronicle fmall beer, in allufion, I fuppofe, to the Roman practice, of marking the jars with the name of the Conful. The appearance of fuch a woman would make an æra; but as the merit of the beft woman is but fmall, that æra might be properly applied to the diftinction of the different ages of fmall beer. I fee no more humour in this line than is obvious to the most careless reader. After enumerating the perfections of a woman, he adds, that if ever there was one fuch as he had been defcribing, fhe was, at the beft, of no other use than to fuckle children and keep the accounts of a boufbold. The expreffions of to fuckle fools and chronicle fmall beer, are only two inftances of the want of natural affection, and the predominance of a critical cenforioufnefs in lago, which he allows himfelf to have, where he fays, ob, I am nothing if not critical! Shakespeare never thought of any thing like the “O "nate mecum confule Manlio." Mr. STEEVENS. tal. This is certainly right. (8) profane-] Grofs of language, of expreffion broad and bruSo Brabantio, in the firft act, calls Iago, profane wretch. (9) liberal counsellor? 1 Liberal, for licentious. WARB. How fay you, Caffio? Is be not a moft profane and liberal counfellor?] But in what refpect was Iago a counsellor? He caps fentences indeed; but they are not by way of advice, but defcription : what lago. [Afide.] He takes her by the palm; ay, well faid. Whisper. With as little a web as this, will I enfnare as great a fly as Caffio. Ay, fmile upon her, do. (1) I will gyve thee in thine own courtship. You fay true, 'tis fo, indeed. If fuch tricks as these strip you out of your lieutenancy, it had been better you had not kifs'd your three fingers fo oft, which now again you are moft apt to play the Sir in. Very good, (2) well kifs'd, and excellent courtefy; 'tis fo, indeed. Yet again, your fingers to your lips? 'would, they were clyfter pipes for your fake. [Trumpet. I know his trumpet. The Moor. Def. Let's meet him, and receive him. SCENE VI. Enter Othello and Attendants. Oth. Oh my fair warrior! Def. My dear Othello! Oth. It gives me wonder, great as my content, May the winds blow 'till they have waken'd death: As hell's from heav'n! If I were now to die, what he fays, is, Reflexions on character and conduct in life. For this reafon, I am very apt to think, our author wrote cenfurer. THEOB. Counsellor feems to mean, not fo much a man that gives counsel, as one that difcourfes fearlefly and volubly. A talker. (1) I will gyve thee] i. e. catch, fhackle. POPE. (2) well kif'd, and excellent courtesy-] This I think fhould be printed, well kiffed! an excellent courtefy! Spoken when Caffio kilfes his hand, and Defdemona courtefies. Def. |