As masterly as he: mere prattle, without practice,* Is all his foldiership. But, he, fir, had the elec And I,-of whom his eyes had feen the proof, • More than a fpinfter; unless the bookish theorick, Wherein the toged confuls can propofe As mafterly as he: mere prattle, without practice,] This play has many redundant lines, like the firft and third of the foregoing. I cannot help regarding the words diftinguifhed by the Koman character, as interpolations. In the opening fcene of King Henry V. Shakspeare thought it unneceffary to join an epithet to theorick; and if the monofyllables-as he, were omitted, would Iago's meaning halt for want of them? STEEVENS. smust be be-lee'd and calm'd-] The old quarto-led. The firft folio reads, be-lee'd: but that spoils the measure. I read, let, hindered. WARBURTON. Be-lee'd fuits to calm'd, and the measure is not lefs perfect than in many other places. JOHNSON. Be-lee'd and be-calm'd are terms of navigation. I have been informed that one veffel is faid to be in the lee of another, when it is fo placed that the wind is intercepted from it. Iago's meaning therefore is, that Caffio had got the wind of him, and be-calm'd him from going on. To be-calm (as I learn from Falconer's Marine Dictionary) is likewise to obftruct the current of the wind in its paffage to a ship, by any contiguous object. STEEVENS. I fufpect therefore that Shakspeare wrote-must be lee'd and calm'd. The lee-fide of a fhip is that on which the wind blows. To lee, or to be lee'd, may mean, to fall to leeward, or to lose the advantage of the wind. The reading of the text is that of the folio. I doubt whether there be any fuch fea-phrase as to be-lee; and fufpect the word be was inadvertently repeated by the compofitor of the folio. Mr. Steevens has explained the word becalm'd, but where is it found in the text? MALONE. Mr. Malone is unfortunate in his prefent explanation. The lee By debitor and creditor, this counter-caster;' And I, (God bless the mark!) his Moor-fhip's' ancient. fide of a fhip is directly contrary to that on which the wind blows, if I may believe a skilful navigator whom I have confulted on this occafion. Mr. Malone asks where the word becalm'd is to be found in the text. To this question I must reply by another. Is it not evident, that the prefix-be is to be continued from the former naval phrafe to the latter? Shakspeare would have written be-calm'd as well as be-lee'd, but that the close of his verfe would not admit of a diffyllable. Should we fay that a fhip was lee'd, or calm'd, we should employ a phrase unacknowledged by failors. STEEVENS. 6 By debitor-] All the modern editors read-By debtor; but debitor (the reading of the old copies) was the word used in Shakfpeare's time. So, in Sir John Davies's Epigrams, 1598: "There stands the conftable, there stands the whore,— See alfo the paffage quoted from Cymbeline in n. 7. MALONE. 7this counter-cafter;] It was anciently the practice to reckon fums with counters. up To this Shakspeare alludes again in Cymbeline, A&t V: “ -it fums up thousands in a trice: you have no true debitor and creditor, but it; of what's paft, is, and to come, the difcharge. Your neck, fir, is pen, book, and counters;" &c. Again, in Acolaftus, a comedy, 1540: “ I wyl caft my counters, or with counters make all my reckenynges.” STEEVENS. So, in The Winter's Tale :-66 -fifteen hundred shorn,— What comes the wool to ?—I cannot do't without counters." MALONE. 8 blefs the mark!] Kelly, in his comments on Scots proverbs, obferves, that the Scots, when they compare perfon to per fon, ufe this exclamation. I find, however, this phrafe in Churchyard's Tragicall Difcourfe of a dolorous Gentlewoman, &c. 1593: "Not beauty here I claime by this my talke, "For browne and blacke I was, God blesse the marke! ROD. By heaven, I rather would have been his hangman. IAGO. But there's no remedy, 'tis the curse of fervice; Preferment goes by letter, and affection, Not by the old gradation,' where each second Stood heir to the firft. Now, fir, be judge your felf, Whether I in any just term am affin'd To love the Moor. ROD. I would not follow him then. IAGO. O, fir, content you; I follow him to ferve my turn upon him: It is fingular that both Churchyard and Shakspeare fhould have ufed this form of words with reference to a black person. STEEVENS. • —bis Moorship's-] The first quarto reads-his worship's. 2 STEEVENS. by letter,] By recommendation from powerful friends. JOHNSON. 3 Not by the old gradation,] Old gradation, is gradation established by ancient practice. JOHNSON. Whether I in any juft term am affin'd-] Affin'd is the reading of the third quarto and the first folio. The fecond quarto and all the modern editions have affign'd. The meaning is,-Do I ftand within any fuch terms of propinquity, or relation to the Moor, as that it is my duty to love him? JOHNSON. The original quarto, 1622, has affign'd, but it was manifeftly an error of the prefs. MALONE. For nought but provender; and, when he's old, cashier'd; 5 Whip me fuch honeft knaves: Others there are, Do themselves homage: these fellows have some foul; And fuch a one do I profefs myself. For, fir," It is as fure as you are Roderigo," Were I the Moor, I would not be Iago: For when my outward action doth demonstrate 5 For nought but provender; and, when he's old, cafbier'd;] Surely this line was originally fhorter. We might fafely read, For nought but provender; when old, cafbier'd. STEEVENS. 6 honeft knaves:] Knave is here for fervant, but with a fly mixture of contempt. JOHNSON. 7 For, fir,] Thefe words, which are found in all the ancient copies, are omitted by Mr. Pope, and most of our modern editors. STEEVENS, 8 In compliment extern,] In that which I do only for an outward fhow of civility. JOHNSON. So, in Sir W. D'Avenant's Albovine, 1629: 66 that in fight extern "A patriarch feems." STEEVENS. 9 For daws &c.] The first quarto reads,—For doves— STEEVENS. I have adhered to the original copy, because I fufpect Shak ROD. What a full fortune does the thick-lips owe,2 If he can carry't thus! Call up her father, LAGO. Rouse him: make after him, poifon his delight, Proclaim him in the streets; incenfe her kinsmen, And, though he in a fertile climate dwell, Plague him with flies: though that his joy be joy, Yet throw fuch changes of vexation on't, As it may lose some colour. ROD. Here is her father's houfe; I'll call aloud. fpeare had in his thoughts a paffage in Lyly's Euphues and his England, 1580: "As all coynes are not good that have the image of Cæfar, nor all gold, that is coyned with the kings ftampe, fo all is not truth that beareth the fhew of godlineffe, nor all friends that beare a faire face. If thou pretend fuch love to Euphues, carry thy heart on the backe of thy band, and thy tongue in thy palme, that I may fee what is in thy minde, and thou with thy finger clafpe thy mouth. I can better take a blister of a nettle, than a pricke of a rofe; more willing that a raven should peck out mine eyes, than a turtle peck at them." MALONE. I read with the folio. Iago certainly means to fay, he would expose his heart as a prey to the moft worthlefs of birds, i. e. dars, which are treated with univerfal contempt. Our author would fcarcely have degraded the amiable tribe of doves to fuch an office; nor is the mention of them at all suitable to the harsh turn of Iago's fpeech. STEEVENS. What a full fortune does the thick-lips owe,] Full fortune is, I believe, a complete piece of good fortune, as in another scene of this play a full joldier is put for a complete foldier. So, in Cymbeline: "Our pleasure his full fortune doth confine." To owe is in ancient language, to own, to poffefs. STEEVENS. So, in Antony and Cleopatra: "not the imperious fhow "Of the full-fortun'd Cæfar-." Full is ufed by Chaucer in the fame fense in his Troilus, B. L: "Sufficeth this, my full friend Pandare, "That I have faid." See alfo Vol. XII, p. 580, n. 5. MALONE. |