Tranfported-with no worse nor better guard, I thus would play and trifle with your reverence: Tying her duty, beauty, wit, and fortunes, 9 —and your allowance,] i. e. done with your approbation. See Vol. XI. p. 302, n. 3; and Vol. XIV. p. 129, n. 3. MALONE. That, from the fenfe of all civility,] That is, in oppofition to, or departing from the fenfe of all civility. So, in Twelfth Night: But this is from my commiffion—.' Again, in The Mayor of Quinborough, by Middleton, 1661: "But this is from my bufinefs." MALONE. 9 In an extravagant-] Extravagant is here used in its Latin fignification, for wandering. Thus, in Hamlet: "The extravagant, and erring fpirit,-." STEEVENS. 2 Tying her duty, beauty, wit, and fortunes, In an extravagant and wheeling ftranger,] Thus the old copies, for which the modern editors, following Mr. Pope, have fubftituted To an extravagant &c. In King Lear, we find—“ And hold our lives in mercy;" (not at mercy;) in The Winter's Tale"he was torn to pieces with a bear," not " by a bear;" and in Hamlet, "To let this canker of our nature come "In further evil.” So, in the next fcene, we have " -in your part," not on your part." We might fubftitute modern for ancient phrafcology in all thefe paffages with as much propriety as in the prefent. We yet fay, "the is wrapp'd up in him." MALONE. Let loose on me the juftice of the state Strike on the tinder, ho! BRA. [Exit, from above. To lead their business: in which regard, I muft fhow out a flag and fign of love, Lead to the Sagittary' the rais'd search; And there will I be with him. So, farewell. [Exit. For thus deluding you.] The first quarto reads,-For this delufion. STEEVENS. 4 To be produc'd-] The folio reads,-produced. 6 -fome check,] Some rebuke. JOHNSON. STEEVENS. caft him;] That is, difmifs him; reje& him. We ftill fay, a caft coat, and a caft ferving-man. JOHNSON. 7the Sagittary-] Thus the folio. The quarto, 1622, reads, the Sagittar. I have chofen the unclipped reading. STEEVENS. Enter, below, BRABANTIO, and Servants with torches. BRA. It is too true an evil: gone fhe is; And what's to come of my defpifed time,s Is nought but bitternefs.-Now, Roderigo, Where didst thou fee her?-O unhappy girl!With the Moor, fay'ft thou?-Who would be a father? How didst thou know 'twas fhe?-O, thou deceiv'ft me Paft thought!-What faid fhe to you?-Get more tapers; Raife all my kindred.-Are they married think you? ROD. Truly, I think, they are. BRA. O heaven!-How got the out!-O treason of the blood!— Fathers, from hence truft not your daughters' minds 8 And what's to come of my defpifed time,] Defpifed time, is time of no value; time in which "There's nothing ferious in mortality, "The wine of life is drawn, and the mere dregs "Are left this vault to brag of." Macbeth. JOHNSON. Again, in Romeo and Juliet: -expire the term "Of a defpifed life clos'd in my breast." As the quotation in the preceding note belongs to our steady moralift, Dr. Johnson, it could not have been more uncharacteristi cally vitiated, than by the compofitor, in Mr. Malone's edition, where it appears thus: ១ "There's nothing ferious in morality." STEEVENS. —O, thou deceiv'ft me Paft thought!] Thus the quarto, 1622. The folio, 1623, and the quartos, 1630 and 1655, read, O, fhe deceives me Paft thought! I have chofen the apostrophe to his abfent daughter, as the most fpirited of the two readings. STEEVENS. By what you see them act.-Are there not charms,' By which the property of youth and maidhood May be abus'd? Have you not read, Roderigo, Of fome fuch thing? ROD. Yes, fir; I have, indeed. BRA. Call up my brother.-O, that you had had her!— Some one way, fome another.-Do you know ROD. I think, I can discover him; if you please To get good guard, and go along with me. BRA. Pray you, lead on. At every house I'll call; I may command at moft:-Get weapons, ho! And raise fome special officers of night.'On, good Roderigo;-I'll deferve your pains. [Exeunt. 2 Are there not charms,] Thus the fecond folio. The first, and the quarto, ungrammatically read,-Is there not &c. Mr. Malone follows the oldeft copies, and obferves that the words-Is there not charms, &c. mean-Is there not such a thing as charms? STEEVENS. 3 By which the property of youth and maidhood May be abus'd?] By which the faculties of a young virgin may be infatuated, and made fubject to illufions and false imagination: wicked dreams abuse "The curtain'd fleep." Macbeth. JOHNSON. and maidhood-] The quartos read—and manhood—. STEEVENS. 4 Pray you, lead on.] The first quarto reads,-Pray lead me on. STEEVENS. 5 of night.] Thus the original quarto, 1622; for which the editor of the folio fubftituted-officers of might; a reading which all the modern editors have adopted. I have more than once had occafion to remark that the quarto readings were fometimes changed by the editor of the folio, from ignorance of our poet's phrafeology or meaning. I have no doubt that Shakspeare, before he wrote this play, read The Commonwealth and Government of Venice, translated from the Italian, by Lewes Lewkenor, and printed in quarto. 1599: a book SCENE II. The fame. Another Street. Enter OTHELLO, IAGO, and Attendants. IAGO. Though in the trade of war I have flain men, Yet do I hold it very ftuff o'the confcience," prefixed to which we find a copy of verfes by Spenfer. This treatise furnished our poet with the knowledge of thofe officers of night, whom Brabantio here defires to be called to his affistance. "For the greater expedition thereof, of these kinds of judgements, the heades or chieftaines of the officers by night do obtaine the authority of which the advocators are deprived. These officers of the night are fix, and fix likewife are thofe meane officers, that have only power to correct bafe vagabonds and trifling offences. "Thofe that do execute this office are called heades of the tribes of the city, because out of every tribe, (for the city is divided into fix tribes,) there is elected an officer of the night, and a head of the tribe. The duty of eyther of thefe officers is, to keepe a watch every other night by turn, within their tribes; and, now the one, and then the other, to make rounds about his quarter, till the dawning of the day, being always guarded and attended on with weaponed officers and ferjeants, and to fee that there be not any diforder done in the darkness of the night, which alwaies emboldeneth men to naughtineffe; and that there be not any houses broken up, nor theeves nor rogues lurking in corners with intent to do violence." Commonwealth of Venice, pp. 97, 99. MALONE. It has been obferved by Mr. Malone, in Romeo and Juliet, (See Vol. XIV. p. 557, and 558, n. 2,) that there is no watch in Italy. How does that affertion quadrate with the foregoing account of offcers of the night?" STEEVENS. 6 ftuff o'the confcience,] This expreffion to common readers appears harfh. Stuff of the confcience is, fubftance or effence of the confcience. Stuff is a word of great force in the Teutonic languages. The elements are called in Dutch, Hoefd stoffen, or bead fuffs. JOHNSON. Again, in King Henry VIII: "You're full of heavenly fuff," &c. Frifch's German Dictionary gives this explanation of the word : -materies ex qua aliquid fieri poterit." STEEVENS, |