ment from the commission of his crime to his death, he suffers more than all the suffering of these two women. His deliberate crime belongs to the cold passions; as the deed is done with forethought and in cold blood, so it is avenged by the long-continued tortures of conscience.LUDWIG, Shakespeare-Studien.

GRATIANO, brother to Brabantio

LODOVICO, kinsman to Brabantto

OTHELLO, a noble Moor in the service of the Venetian state-
CASSIO, his lieutenant

2,1 IAGO, his ancient ensignalen

RODERIGO, a Venetian gentleman

MONTANO, Othello's predecessor in the government of Cyprus
Clown, servant to Othello

28 DESDEMONA, daughter to Brabantio and wife to Othello

EMILIA, wife to Iago

BIANCA, mistress to Cassio

Sailor, Messenger, Herald, Officers, Gentlemen, Musicians, and

Attendants

SCENE: Venice: a seaport in Cyprus

THE TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO,

THE MOOR OF VENICE

ACT FIRST

SCENE I

Venice. A street.

Enter Roderigo and Iago.

Rod. Tush, never tell me; I take it much unkindly That thou, Iago, who hast had my purse

As if the strings were thine, shouldst know of this.

Iago. 'Sblood, but you will not hear me:

If ever I did dream of such a matter,

Abhor me.

Rod. Thou told'st me thou didst hold him in thy

hate.

Iago. Despise me, if I do not. Three great ones of the city,

3. "know of this"; that is, the intended elopement. Roderigo has been suing for Desdemona's hand, employing Iago to aid him in his suit, and paying his service in advance. Of course the play opens pat upon her elopement with the Moor, and Roderigo presumes Iago to have been in the secret of their intention.-The words, Tush in this speech, and 'Sblood in the next, are not in the folio.H. N. H.

8. "Despise me if I do not"; admirable is the preparation, so

OTHELLO

9

In personal suit to make me his lieutenant,
Off-capp'd to him: and, by the faith of man,
I know my price, I am worth no worse a place:
But he, as loving his own pride and purposes,
Evades them, with a bombast circumstance
Horribly stuff'd with epithets of war;
And, in conclusion,

Nonsuits my mediators; for, 'Certes,' says he,
'I have already chose my officer.'
And what was he?

Forsooth, a great arithmetician,

One Michael Cassio, a Florentine,

A fellow almost damn'd in a fair wife;

20

truly and peculiarly Shakespearean, in the introduction of Roderigo, as the dupe on whom Iago shall first exercise his art, and in so doing display his own character. Roderigo, without any fixed principle, but not without the moral notions and sympathies with honor which his rank and connections had hung upon him, is already well fitted and predisposed for the purpose; for very want of character, and strength of passion, like wind loudest in an empty house, constitute his character. The first three lines happily state the nature and foundation of the friendship between him and Iago,the purse, as also the contrast of Roderigo's intemperance of mind with Iago's coolness, the coolness of a preconceiving experimenter. The mere language of protestation,-"If ever I did dream of such a matter, abhor me,"-which, falling in with the associative link, determines Roderigo's continuation of complaint,-"Thou told'st me thou didst hold him in thy hate," elicits at length a true feeling of Iago's mind, the dread of contempt habitual to those who encourage in themselves, and have their keenest pleasure in, the expression of contempt for others. Observe Iago's high self-opinion, and the moral, that a wicked man will employ real feelings, as well as assume those most alien from his own, as instruments of his purposes (Coleridge).-H. N. H.

15. Omitted in Ff. and Qq. 2, 3.-I. G.

21. "A fellow almost damn'd in a fair wife"; if this alludes to Bianca, the phrase may possibly mean "very near being married to a most fair wife." Some explain, "A fellow whose ignorance of war would be condemned in a fair woman." The emendations proposed are unsatisfactory, and probably unnecessary.—I. G.