Clo. Are these, I pray you, called wind instruments?

1 Mus. Ay, marry, are they, sir. Clo. Oh! thereby hangs a tail.

1 Mus. Whereby hangs a tale, sir?

Clo. Marry, sir, by many a wind instrument that I know. But, masters, here's money for you; and the general so likes your music, that he desires you, for love's sake, to make no more noise with it.

1 Mus. Well, sir, we will not.

Clo. If you have any music that may not be heard, to't again; but, as they say, to hear music the general does not greatly care.

1 Mus. We have none such, sir.

Clo. Then put up your pipes in your bag, for I'll away. Go; vanish into air; away!

[Exeunt Musicians.

Cas. Dost thou hear, mine honest friend?

Clo. No, I hear not your honest friend; I hear you.

Cas. Pr'ythee, keep up thy quillets. There's a poor piece of gold for thee. If the gentlewoman that attends the general's wife' be stirring, tell her there's one Cassio entreats her a little favour of speech: wilt thou do this?

Clo. She is stirring, sir: if she will stir hither, I shall seem so to notify unto her.

6

Enter IAGO.

Cas. Do, good my friend'.-In happy time, Iago.

[Exit.

consider it more than likely that the true word is "squeak." Mr. Singer prints squeak," without assigning as his reason the emendation in the corr. fo. 1632, and perhaps he relied merely upon his own conjecture. The allusion is to the disorder imputed to Naples, which was apt to attack the nose, and to which Shakespeare has elsewhere alluded: see "Troilus and Cressida," A. ii. sc. 3, Vol. iv. p. 517.

3

for love's sake,] So the folio, 1623, and the 4to, 1630: the 4to, 1622, "of all loves," which was an expression of the time, used by Shakespeare in "The Merry Wives of Windsor," A. ii. sc. 2. "For love's sake" affords an explanation of the idiom of all loves.

4

into air;] These two words are not in the 4to, 1622, but in both the other old authorities.

5 that attends the general's WIFE] "That attends the general" in the folio, 1623; but amended so as to accord with the 4tos. in the corr. fo. 1632.

6 - I shall seem so to notify] "So" is from the corr. fo. 1632; and as the same emendation is made in Mr. Singer's copy of the second folio (which luckily saved him the vexation of accepting the change from our corr. fo. 1632, with or without acknowledgment), he adopts it. We are glad of this confirmation of what was mentioned in 1853 in our Vol. of "Notes and Emendations," p. 473..

7 Do, good my friend.] These words are in both 4tos, but were left out in the

[Exit.

Iago. You have not been a-bed, then?

Cas. Why, no; the day had broke
Before we parted. I have made bold, Iago,
To send in to your wife: my suit to her
Is, that she will to virtuous Desdemona
Procure me some access.

Iago.

I'll send her to you presently;

And I'll devise a mean to draw the Moor
Out of the way, that your converse and business
May be more free.

Cas. I humbly thank you for't. I never knew
A Florentine more kind and honest.

Enter EMILIA.

Emil. Good morrow, good lieutenant: I am sorry
For your displeasure; but all will soon be well.
The general, and his wife, are talking of it,
And she speaks for you stoutly: the Moor replies,
That he you hurt is of great fame in Cyprus,
And great affinity, and that in wholesome wisdom
He might not but refuse you; but, he protests, he loves
And needs no other suitor but his likings

To take the safest occasion by the front',
To bring you in again.

Cas.

If you think fit, or that it may be done,-
Give me advantage of some brief discourse
With Desdemona alone".

Emil.

Yet, I beseech you,

Pray you, come in:

you,

folio. The speeches which immediately follow are somewhat differently regulated in the old copies.

A Florentine more kind and honest.] Cassio could not mean to call Iago a Florentine, because he knew he was a Venetian, as is evident from several parts of this tragedy, but merely to say that he, Cassio, never knew even one of his own countrymen more kind and honest.

9

all will soon be well.] "All will sure be well," in the folio only.

1 To take the safest occasion by the front,] This line is excluded from the folio, but is found in the two 4tos. "Safest" must be pronounced saf'st.

2 With DESDEMONA alone.] The folio here, as in some other places, perhaps for the sake of the verse, prints the name Desdemon. The abbreviation is, in fact, not at all necessary here, for one vowel melts into another, and the line can hardly be read otherwise than in the time of ten syllables. Elsewhere the case is sometimes different in this respect (see p. 64), but Desdemon seems seldom or never absolutely required by the measure.

I will bestow you where you shall have time
To speak your bosom freely.
Cas.

I am much bound to you.

[Exeunt.

SCENE II.

A Room in the Castle..

Enter OTHELLO, IAGO, and Gentlemen.

Oth. These letters give, Iago, to the pilot, And by him do my duties to the state*: That done, I will be walking on the works; Repair there to me.

Iago.

Well, my good lord; I'll do't. Oth. This fortification, gentlemen,-shall we see't? Gent. We wait upon your lordship.

[Exeunt.

SCENE III.

Before the Castle.

Enter DESDEMONA, CASSIO, and EMILIA.

Des. Be thou assur'd, good Cassio, I will do

All my abilities in thy behalf.

Emil. Good madam, do: I know it grieves my husband, As if the case were his 3.

Des. Oh that's an honest fellow.-Do not doubt, Cassio, But I will have my lord and you again

As friendly as you were.

Cas.

Bounteous madam,

Whatever shall become of Michael Cassio,

He's never any thing but your true servant.

3 I am much bound to you.] This speech is wanting in the 4to, 1622.

4 to the STATE:] The folio alone reads "to the Senate."

5 As if the CASE were his.] So the 4tos: the folio has warrant for "know,"

and cause for " case." In Desdemona's next speech, the folio alone reads "I know't, I thank you.'

Des. Oh, sir! I thank you.

You do love
You do love my lord;

You have known him long, and be you well assur'd,

He shall in strangeness stand no farther off
Than in a politic distance.

Cas.

Ay, but, lady,
That policy may either last so long,

Or feed upon such nice and waterish diet,
Or breed itself so out of circumstance,
That, I being absent, and my place supplied,
My general will forget my love and service.

Des. Do not doubt that: before Emilia here,
I give thee warrant of thy place.

Assure thee,
If I do vow a friendship, I'll perform it

To the last article: my lord shall never rest;
I'll watch him tame, and talk him out of patience;
His bed shall seem a school, his board a shrift;

I'll intermingle every thing he does

With Cassio's suit. Therefore, be merry, Cassio;
For thy solicitor shall rather die,

Than give thy cause away.

Enter OTHELLO and IAGO, at a distance.

Emil. Madam, here comes my lord.

Cas. Madam, I'll take my leave.

Des. Why, stay, and hear me speak.

Cas. Madam, not now: I am very ill at ease,

Unfit for mine own purpose.

Des. Well, do your discretion.

Iago. Ha! I like not that.
Oth.

[Exit CASSIO.

What dost thou say?

Iago. Nothing, my lord: or if-I know not what.
Oth. Was not that Cassio parted from my wife?
Iago. Cassio, my lord? No, sure; I cannot think it,
That he would steal away', so guilty-like,

♦ I'll watch him TAME,] i. e. Keep him awake, like a hawk, until he is tame. So, in a line quoted by Steevens from Sir W. Davenant's "Just Italian :”— "They've watch'd my hardy violence so tame."

1

would STEAL away] "Sneak away," in the 4to, 1622, only.

A man that languishes in your displeasure.

Oth. Who is't you mean?

Des. Why, your lieutenant Cassio. Good, my lord,

If I have any grace, or power to move you,

His present reconciliation take;

For if he be not one that truly loves you,

That errs in ignorance, and not in cunning,
I have no judgment in an honest face.

I pr'ythee, call him back.

Oth.

Went he hence now ?

Des. Ay, sooth; so humbled,

That he hath left part of his grief with me,

To suffer with him. Good love, call him back.
Oth. Not now, sweet Desdemona; some other time.
Des. But shall't be shortly?

Oth.

The sooner, sweet, for you.

Des. Shall't be to-night at supper?
Oth.

Des. To-morrow dinner then?
Oth.

I meet the captains at the citadel.

No, not to-night.

I shall not dine at home:

Des. Why then, to-morrow night; or Tuesday morn;
On Tuesday noon, or night; on Wednesday morn :
I pr'ythee, name the time, but let it not

Exceed three days: in faith, he's penitent;

And yet his trespass, in our common reason,

(Save that, they say, the wars must make examples
Out of our best) is not almost a fault

T' incur a private check. When shall he come ?
Tell me, Othello: I wonder in my soul,

What you could ask me that I should deny,

Or stand so mammering on. What! Michael Cassio,
That came a wooing with you, and so many a time,

8 To suffer with him:] The reading of the folio, and of the 4to, 1630: the 4to, 1622, "I suffer with him." In the next line Desdemona is abbreviated to Desdemon in the folio, but it is Desdemona in the 4to, 1622.

9 On Tuesday NOON,] Both 4tos. have "On Tuesday morn," which must be an error, as "Tuesday morn" is mentioned in the preceding line. Lower down in this speech every old copy reads "Out of her best," a misprint for "out of our best," as appears by the corr. fo. 1632.

1 SO MAMMERING on.] This is the word in the folio and 4to, 1630: the 4to, 1622, has muttering. "Mammering was a word in common use, meaning doubting or hesitating: in Drant's "Horace," 1567, as Steevens showed, we have "then mammering he doth doute,"—perhaps, muttering while doubting.