I did not see you; welcome, gentle signior; [To BRA. We lack'd your counsel and your help to-night. Bra. So did I yours: Good your grace, pardon me; Neither my place, nor aught I heard of business, Hath rais'd me from my bed; nor doth the general care3 Take hold on me; for my particular grief Is of so flood-gate and o'er-bearing nature, That it engluts and swallows other sorrows, And it is still itself. Duke. Why, what's the matter? Bra. My daughter! O, my daughter! Sen. Bra. Dead? She is abus'd, stol'n from me, and corrupted Ay, to me; by Lewkenor, 4to. 1599,) out of our estate the danger or occasion of any such ambitious enterprises, our ancestors held it a better course to defend the dominions on the continent with foreign mercenary soldiers, than with their homebred citizens.” Again: "Their charges and yearly occasions of disbursement are likewise very great; for alwaies they do entertain in honourable sort with great provision a captaine generall, who alwaies is a stranger borne." Malone. It was usual for the Venetians to employ strangers and even Moors in their wars. See The White Devil, or Vittoria Corombona, Act V, sc. i. See also Howell's Letters, B. I, S. 1, Letter xxviii. 5 Reed. -general care-] The word care, which encumbers the verse, was probably added by the players. Shakspeare uses the general as a substantive, though, I think, not in this sense. Johnson. The word general, when used by Shakspeare as a substantive, always implies the populace, not the publick: and if it were used here as an adjective, without the word care, it must refer to grief in the following line, a word which may properly denote a private sorrow, but not the alarm which a nation is supposed to feel on the approach of a formidable enemy. M. Mason. I suppose the author wrote: Rais'd me from bed; nor doth the general care — and not Hath rais'd me from my bed; &c. The words in the Roman character I regard as playhouse interpolations, by which the metre of this tragedy is too frequently deranged. Steevens. -general care- -} 66 juvenumque prodis, "Publica cura." Hor. Steevens. • Take hold —] The first quarto reads-Take any hold. Steevens By spells and medicines bought of mountebanks:7 Being not deficient, blind, or lame of sense, 8 Duke. Whoe'er he be, that, in this foul proceeding, After your own sense; yea, though our proper son Bra. Humbly I thank your grace. Here is the man, this Moor; whom now, it seems, 7 By spells and medicines bought of mountebanks:] Rymer has ridiculed this circumstance as unbecoming (both for its weakness and superstition) the gravity of the accuser, and the dignity of the tribunal: but his criticism only exposes his own ignorance. The circumstance was not only exactly in character, but urged with the greatest address, as the thing chiefly to be insisted on. For, by the Venetian law, the giving love potions was very criminal, as Shakspeare, without question well understood. Thus the law, Dei maleficii et herbarie, cap. xvii, of the code, intitled, "Della promission del maleficio." "Statuimo etiamdio, che-se alcun homo, o femina, harra fatto maleficii, iquali se dimandano vulgarmente amatorie, o veramente alcuni altri maleficii, che alcun homo o femina se havesson in odio, sia frusta et bollado, et che hara consegliado patisca simile pena." And therefore in the preceding scene Brabantio calls them: arts inhibited, and out of warrant." Warburton. Though I believe Shakspeare knew no more of this Venetian law than I do, yet he was well acquainted with the edicts of that sapient prince, King James the First, against "Of arts inhibited, and out of warrant." Steevens. See p. 220, n. 3. Malone. 8 Being not &c.] This line is wanting in the first quarto. Steevens. 9 For nature so preposterously to err,— Sans witchcraft could not —] The grammar requires we should read: For nature so preposterously err, &c. without the article to; and then the sentence will be complete. M. Mason. Were I certain that our author designed the sentence to be complete, and not to be cut short by the Duke's interruption, I should readily adopt the amendment proposed by Mr. M. Mason. Steevens. 1 Stood in your action.] Were the man exposed to your charge or accusation. Johnson. Your special mandate, for the state affairs, Hath hither brought. Duke & Sen. We are very sorry for it. Bra. Nothing, but this is so. [TO OTH. Oth. Most potent, grave, and reverend signiors, My very noble and approv'd good masters,― That I have ta'en away this old man's daughter, It is most true; true, I have married her; The very head and front of my offending2 Hath this extent, no more. Rude am I in my speech, And little bless'd with the set phrase of peace ;3 For since these arms of mine had seven years' pith, Till now some nine moons wasted, they have us'd Their dearest action in the tented field; .3 2 The very head and front of my offending —] The main, the whole, unextenuated. Johnson. "Frons causæ non satis honesta est," is a phrase used by Quintilian. Steevens. A similar expression is found in Marlowe's Tamburlaine, 1590: "The man that in the forehead of his fortunes "Beares figures of renowne and miracle." Again, in Troilus and Cressida: "So rich advantage of a promis'd glory, "As smiles upon the forehead of this action." Malone. 3 And little bless'd with the set phrase of peace;] Soft is the reading of the folio. Johnson. This apology, if addressed to his mistress, had been well expressed. But what he wanted, in speaking before a Venetian senate, was not the soft blandishments of speech, but the art and method of masculine eloquence. The old quarto reads it, therefore, as I am persuaded Shakspeare wrote: the set phrase of peace. Warburton. Soft may have been used for still and calm, as opposed to the clamours of war. So, in Coriolanus: "Thou art their soldier, and, being bred in broils, Again, in Antony and Cleopatra: 66 'Tis a worthy deed, "And shall become you well, to entreat your captain 4 Their dearest action-] That is, dear, for which much is paid, whether money or labour; dear action, is action performed at great expence, either of ease or safety. Johnson. And little of this great world can I speak, In speaking for myself: Yet, by your gracious patience, I will a round unvarnish'd' tale deliver Of my whole course of love; what drugs, what charms, What conjuration, and what mighty magick, (For such proceeding I am charg'd withal) I won his daughter with. Bra. A maiden never bold; Of spirit so still and quiet, that her motion Their dearest action is their most important action. See Timon of Athens, Act V, sc. ii, Vol. XV. Malone. Instead of their dearest action, we should say in modern language, their best exertion. Steevens. I should give these words a more natural signification, and suppose that they mean-their favourite action, the action most dear to them. Othello says afterwards: 3 66 I do agnize "A natural and prompt alacrity unvarnish'd —] The second quarto reads-unravished. Steevens. 6 I won his daughter with.] [The first quarto and folio-I won his daughter.] i. e. I won his daughter with: and so all the modern editors read, adopting an interpolation made by the editor of the second folio, who was wholly unacquainted with our poet's metre and phraseology. In Timon of Athens we have the same elliptical expression: "Who had the world as my confectionary, "The mouths, the tongues, the eyes, and hearts of men, "At duty, more than I could frame employment [for].” Malone. As my sentiments concerning the merits of the second folio are diametrically opposite to Mr. Malone's opinion of it, I have not displaced a grammatical to make room for an ungrammatical expression. What Mr. Malone has styled "similar phraseology," I should not hesitate to call, in many instances, congeniality of omissions and blunders made by transcribers, players, or printers. The more I am become acquainted with the ancient copies, the less confidence I am disposed to place in their authority, as often as they exhibit anomalous language, and defective metre. Steevens. 7 Blush'd at herself;] Mr. Pope reads-at itself, but without necessity. Shakspeare, like other writers of his age, frequently uses the personal, instead of the neutral pronoun. Steevens. Of years, of country, credit, every thing,- Why this should be. I therefore vouch again, Duke. To vouch this, is no proof; Without more certain and more overt test,9 Than these thin habits, and poor likelihoods Of modern seeming, do prefer against him. 1 Sen. But, Othello, speak ; 1 Did you by indirect and forced courses Subdue and poison this young maid's affections? Oth. I do beseech you, Send for the lady to the Sagittary,2 And let her speak of me before her father: Duke. 8 To vouch &c.] The first folio unites this speech with the preceding one of Brabantio; and instead of certain reads wider. 9 Steevens overt test,] Open proofs, external evidence. Johnson. 11 thin habits, 2 Of modern seeming,] Weak show of slight appearance. Johnson. the Sagittary,] So the folio here and in a former passage, The quarto in both places reads-the Sagittar. Malone. The Sagittary means the sign of the fictitious creature so called, i. e. an animal compounded of man and horse, and armed with a bow and quiver. Steevens. 3 The trust, &c.] This line is wanting in the first quarto. Steevens. |