Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories, Tragedies, and Poems

As I have spoken for you all my best,
And stood within the blank of his displeasure,
For my free speech. You must a while be patient :
What I can do, I will; and more I will,
Than for myself I dare: let that suffice you.

Iago. Is my lord angry?
Emil.

He went hence but now;
And, certainly, in strange unquietness.

Iago. Can he be angry? I have seen the cannon,
When it hath blown his ranks into the air,
And, like the devil, from his very arm
Puff'd his own brother ;-and can he be angry'?
Something of moment, then: I will go meet him.
There's matter in't, indeed, if he be angry.

[Exit Iago.
Des. I pr’ythee, do so.—Something, sure, of state,-
Either from Venice, or some unhatch'd practice,
Made demonstrable here in Cyprus to him,-
Hath puddled his clear spirit; and, in such cases,
Men's natures wrangle with inferior things,
Though great ones are their object. 'Tis even so;
For let our finger ache, and it indues
Our other healthful members ev'n to that sense
Of pain : nay, we must think, men are not gods;
Nor of them look for such observances
As fit the bridal.-Beshrew me much, Emilia,
I was (unhandsome warrior as I am)
Arraigning his unkindness with my soul;
But now I find, I had suborn'd the witness,
And he's indicted falsely.

Emil. Pray heaven, it be state matters, as you think,
And no conception, nor no jealous toy,
Concerning you.

Des. Alas, the day! I never gave him cause.

Emil. But jealous souls will not be answer'd so;
They are not ever jealous for the cause?,
But jealous for they are jealous : 'tis a monster,
Begot upon itself, born on itself.

Des. Heaven keep that monster from Othello's mind !

5 – and can he be angry?] The folio, “and is he angry?” inconsistently with the first words of the speech, and with the measure of the line.

6 – for such OBSERVANCES] “ For such observancy" in the folio.

7 They are not ever jealous for the cause,] It is " for a cause" in the corr. fo. 1632, but perhaps needlessly.

Emil. Lady, amen.

Des. I will go seek him.—Cassio, walk hereabout:
If I do find him fit, I'll move your suit,
And seek to effect it to my uttermost.
Cas. I humbly thank your ladyship.

[Exeunt DESDEMONA and Emilia.

Enter BIANCA.

Bian. Save you, friend Cassio!
Cas.

What make you from home? How is it with you, my most fair Bianca ? l' faith, sweet love', I was coming to your house.

Bian. And I was going to your lodging, Cassio.
What! keep a week away? seven days and nights?
Eight score eight hours ? and lovers absent hours,
More tedious than the dial eight score times ?
Oh, weary reckoning !
Cas.

Pardon me, Bianca ;
I have this while with leaden thoughts been press'd;
But I shall, in a more convenient time ',
Strike off this score of absence. Sweet Bianca,

[Giving her DESDEMONA's handkerchicf. Take me this work out. Bian.

Oh, Cassio, whence came this?
This is some token from a newer friend :
To the felt absence, now,

I feel a cause.
Is it come to this? Well, well.
Cas.

Go to, woman!
Throw your vile guesses in the devil's teeth,
From whence you have them. You are jealous now,
That this is from some mistress some remembrance :
No, in good troth, Bianca.
Bian.

Why, whose is it?

8 What make you from home?] A Saxon idiom which Malone destroyed by printing makes.

y l’raith, sweet love,] The Master of the Revels here again appears to have objected to “ l'faith," and therefore altered it in the MS. from which the folio was printed to Indeed.

- a more CONVENIENT time,] The 4to, 1622, reads “convenient time," and continuate is altered to “ convenient" in the corr. fo. 1632. We have had continuate, it is true, in " Timon of Athens," A. i. sc. I, Vol. v. p. 211, but venient” would not there suit the sense. There seems every reason to suppose that "convenient" was here misheard continuate.

* con

Cas. I know not, sweet: I found it in my

chamber?. I like the work well; ere it be demanded, (As like enough it will) I'd have it copied : Take it, and do't; and leave me for this time.

Bian. Leave you! wherefore ?

Cas. I do attend here on the general,
And think it no addition, nor my wish,
To have him see me woman'd.
Bian.

Why, I pray you'?
Cas. Not that I love you not.
Bian.

But that

you

do not love me. I

pray you, bring me on the way a little; And say,

if I shall see you soon at night. Cas. 'Tis but a little way, that I can bring you, For I attend here; but I'll see you soon.

Bian. 'Tis very good; I must be circumstanc'd. [Exeunt.

ACT IV. SCENE I.

The Same.

Enter OTHELLO and Iago.

Iago. Will

you

think so ? Oth.

Think so, Iago ?
Iago.

What!
To kiss in private?
Oth.

An unauthoriz'd kiss.
Iago. Or to be naked with her friend abed
An hour, or more, not meaning any harm ?

Oth. Naked abed, Iago, and not mean harm ?
It is hypocrisy against the devil:
They that mean virtuously, and yet do so,
The devil their virtue tempts, and they tempt heaven.

Iago. If they do nothing, 'tis a venial slip:
But if I give my wife a handkerchief,–

I know not, sweet: I found it in my chamber,] So the 4tos, and so the verse requires: the folio has “ I know not neither," &c.

Why, I pray you?] This question and the answer to it are wanting in the 4to, 1622. The dialogue is not consecutive without them.

She may,

Oth. What then ?
Iago. Why, then 'tis her's, my lord; and, being her's,

I think, bestow't on any man.
Oth. She is protectress of her honour too:
May she give that?

Iago. Her honour is an essence that's not seen;
They have it very oft, that have it not:
But, for the handkerchief,–

Oth. By heaven, I would most gladly have forgot it.
Thou saidst,-Oh! it comes o'er my memory,
As doth the raven o'er the infected house“,
Boding to all,—he had my handkerchief.

Iago. Ay, what of that?
Oth.

That's not so good, now.
Iago. What, if I had said, I had seen him do you wrong?
Or heard him say,—as knaves be such abroad,
Who having, by their own importunate suit,
Or voluntary dotage of some mistress,
Convinced or supplied them”, cannot choose
But they must blab
Oth.

Hath he said any thing ?
Iago. He hath, my lord; but be you well assur’d,
No more than he'll unswear.
Oth.

What hath he said ?
Iago. 'Faith, that he did, I know not what he did.
Oth. What? what ?
Iago. Lie
Oth.

With her ?
Iago.

With her, on her; what you will.

4 As doth the raven o'er the INFECTED house,] The folio alone bas " infectious house." Shakespeare here seems to bave recollected Marlowe's lines in his “ Rich Jew of Malta,” A. ii. (Dyce's edit. i. 262):

“ Thus like the sad presaging raven, that tolls

The sick man's passport in her hollow beak,
And in the shadow of the silent night

Doth shake contagion from her sable wings.” This is the more probable, because just afterwards Othello uses a proverb, found also in “ The Jew of Malta,”—“confess and be hanged." The Rev. Mr. Dyce, in reference to the lines above quoted, cites “ Skialetheia, or the Shadowe of Truth," 1598, as an anonymous production, not knowing that the authorship had been clearly ascertained to be that of Ed. Guilpin.

• CONVINCED or suPPLIED them,] i.e. Overcome or satisfied them. This is an ordinary sense of " convince" (as in “ Macbeth,” Vol. v. p. 403), and we cannot find the difficulty of the passage which puzzled some of the commentators. Theobald would read suppled for “supplied,” but no alteration of this word is suggested in the corr. fo. 1632.

Oth. Lie with her ! lie on her!-We say, lie on her, when they belie her. Lie with her! that's fulsome.—Handkerchief, -confessions,-handkerchief-To confess, and be hanged for his labour.–First, to be hanged, and then to confess :-I tremble at it. Nature would not invest herself in such shadowing passion', without some instruction. It is not words, that shake me thus :-Pish !-Noses, ears, and lips.Is it possible ?-Confess!—Handkerchief !-Oh devil !

[Falls in a trance. Iago. Work on, My medicine, work! Thus credulous fools are caught; And many worthy and chaste dames, even thus, All guiltless, meet reproach.—What, ho! my lord !

Enter Cassio.

My lord, I say! Othello !-How now, Cassio !

Cas. What's the matter?

Iago. My lord is fallen into an epilepsy:
This is his second fit; he had one yesterday.

Cas. Rub him about the temples.
Iago.

No, forbear.
The lethargy must have his quiet course,
If not, he foams at mouth; and, by and by,
Breaks out to savage madness. Look, he stirs :
Do you withdraw yourself a little while,
He will recover straight: when he is gone,
I would on great occasion speak with you.--

(E.cit Cassio. How is it, general ? have you not hurt your head ?

Oth. Dost thou mock me?
Iago.

I mock you! no, by heaven. Would

you
would bear

your

fortunes like a man.

8 – confessions,-handkerchief.] Here ends the speech in the 4to, 1622, and a stage-direction is added, “he falls down." The text is continued in the folio, and in the 4to, 1630, as we have given it.

7 Nature would not invest herself in such shadowing passion,] It is " shud. dering passion” in the corr. fo. 1632; and bearing in mind the preceding words, " I tremble at it," and those which follow, “ It is not words that shake me thus," there seems considerable reason for the change. However, as sense may be made out of the epithet “shadowing,” and as it is just possible that it may have reference to Cassio's dream, we do not displace it, but merely state, that such a change is proposed in the authority for so many indubitable emendations.

* No, forbear.] These words, necessary to the completion of the preceding hemistich, are not in the folio: we derive them from the 4tos. Lower down the folio reads, “ I mock you not, by heaven.”

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Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories, Tragedies, and Poems, Band 6