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 offending'
Hath this extent, no more. Rude am I in my

speech,

And little blefs'd with the fet phrase of peace; For fince these arms of mine had feven years' pith, Till now fome nine moons wafted, they have us'd Their dearest action in the tented field;

3 The very head and front of my offending-] The main, the whole, unextenuated. JOHNSON.

"Frons caufæ non fatis honefta eft," is a phrafe ufed by Quintilian. STEEVENS.

A fimilar expreffion 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 Creffida:

"So rich advantage of a promis'd glory,

"As fmiles upon the forehead of this action." MALONE. 4 And little bless'd with the fet phrafe of peace;] Soft is the reading of the folio. JOHNSON.

This apology, if addreffed to his mistress, had been well expressed. But what he wanted, in fpeaking before a Venetian fenate, was not the foft blandifhments of fpeech, but the art and method of mafculine eloquence. The old quarto reads it, therefore, as I am perfuaded Shakspeare wrote:

the fet phrafe of peace. WARBURTON.

Soft may have been used for fill and calm, as opposed to the clamours of war. So, in Coriolanus.

"Thou art their foldier, and, being bred in broils,
"Haft not the foft way, which thou dost confcfs
"Were fit for thee to use."

Again, in Antony and Cleopatra:

"Tis a worthy deed,

"And fhall become you well, to entreat your captain

To foft and gentle fpeech." MALONE.

5 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 eafe or fafety. JOHNSON.

Their dearest action is their most important action. See Vol. XI. P. 649, n. 7. MALONE.

And little of this great world can I speak,
More than pertains to feats of broil and battle;
And therefore little fhall I grace my cause,

In fpeaking for myself: Yet, by your gracious pa

tience,

I will a round unvarnifh'd' tale deliver

Of my whole course of love; what drugs, what charms,

What conjuration, and what mighty magick,
(For fuch 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

Instead of their deareft action, we should say in modern language, their beft exertion. STEEVENS.

I fhould give these words a more natural fignification, and fuppofe that they mean-their favourite action, the action most dear to them. Othello fays afterwards:

6

I do agnize

“A natural and prompt alacrity

"I find in hardnefs." M. MASON.

unvarnish'd-] The fecond quarto reads-unravifhed.

STEEVENS.

I won his daughter with.] [The first quarto and folio-I won his daughter.] i. e. I won his daughter with: and fo all the modern editors read, adopting an interpolation made by the editor of the fecond folio, who was wholly unacquainted with our poet's metre and phrafeology. In Timon of Athens we have the fame elliptical expreffion:

"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]." See alfo Vol. XIII. p. 235, n. 5, where feveral other inftances of a fimilar phrafeology are collected. MALONE.

As my fentiments concerning the merits of the fecond folio are diametrically oppofite to Mr. Malone's opinion of it, I have not difplaced a grammatical to make room for an ungrammatical expreffion. What Mr. Malone has styled "fimilar phrafeology," I should not hesitate to call, in many instances, congeniality of omiflions and blunders made by tranfcribers, players, or printers.

8

Blush'd at herself; And fhe,-in fpite of nature,
Of years, of country, credit, every thing,-
To fall in love with what fhe fear'd to look on?
It is a judgement maim'd, and most imperfect,
That will confefs-perfection fo could err
Against all rules of nature; and must be driven
To find out practices of cunning hell,

Why this should be. I therefore vouch again,
That with fome mixtures powerful o'er the blood,
Or with fome dram conjur'd to this effect,

He wrought upon her.

DUKE. To vouch this, is no proof;" Without more certain and more overt teft,* Than these thin habits, and poor likelihoods Of modern feeming,' do prefer against him. 1. SEN. But, Othello, fpeak ;

Did you by indirect and forced courfes

Subdue and poifon this young maid's affections?
Or came it by requeft, and fuch fair question
As foul to foul affordeth?

The more I am become acquainted with the ancient copies, the lefs confidence I am difpofed to place in their authority, as often as they exhibit anomalous language, and defective metre. STEEVENS.

8 Blue'd at herfelf;] Mr. Pope reads-at itself, but without neceflity. Shakspeare, like other writers of his age, frequently ules the perfonal, instead of the neutral pronoun. STEEVENS. 9 To vouch &c.] The first folio unites this fpeech with the preceding one of Brabantio; and inftead of certain reads wider. STEEVENS.

2

3

overt teft,] Open proofs, external evidence. JOHNSON. thin habits,

Of modern feeming,] Weak fhow of flight appearance.

JOHNSON.

So modern is generally ufed by Shak fpeare. See Vol. VI. p. 252, n.9; and Vol. VII. p. 537, n. 2. MALONE.

The first quarto reads:

66

These are thin habits, and poore likelyhoods

"Of modern feemings you prefer against him." STEEVENS.

Отн.

I do beseech you,

Send for the lady to the Sagittary,+

And let her speak of me before her father:
If you do find me foul in her report,
The truft, the office, I do hold of you,'
Not only take away, but let your fentence
Even fall upon my life.

DUKE.

Fetch Defdemona hither.

OTн. Ancient, conduct them; you best know the
place.— Exeunt IAGO and Attendants.

And, till she come, as truly as to heaven
I do confefs the vices of my blood,
So juftly to your grave ears I'll present
How I did thrive in this fair lady's love,
And fhe in mine.

DUKE. Say it, Othello.

OTH. Her father lov'd me; oft invited me;
Still queftion'd me the ftory of my life,
From year to year; the battles, fieges, fortunes,
That I have pass'd.

I ran it through, even from my boyish days,
To the very moment that he bade me tell it.
Wherein I spake of most disastrous chances,
Of moving accidents, by flood, and field;

the Sagittary,] So the folio here and in a former pasfage. The quarto in both places reads-the Sagittar. MALONE. The Sagittary means the fign of the fictitious creature fo called, i. e. an animal compounded of man and horse, and armed with a bow and quiver. See Vol. XI. p. 434, n. 5. STEEVENS.

5 The truft, &c.] This line is wanting in the first quarto.

as truly-]

STEEVENS.

I do confefs &c.] This line is omitted in the first quarto.
STEEVENS.

Of hair-breadth fcapes i' the imminent deadly breach;

Of being taken by the infolent foe,

And fold to flavery; of my redemption thence,
And portance in my travel's history:
Wherein of antres vaft, and defarts idle,

And portance &c.] I have restored—
And with it all my travel's hiftory,

from the old edition. It is in the reft,

And portance in my travel's hiftory.

Rymer, in his criticifm, on this play, has changed it to portents, inftead of portance. POPE.

Mr. Pope has reftored a line to which there is a little objection, but which has no force. I believe portance was the author's word in fome revised copy. I read thus:

Of being fold

To flavery, of my redemption thence,

And portance in't; my travel's hiftory.

My redemption from flavery, and behaviour in it. JOHNSON.

I doubt much whether this line, as it appears in the folio, came from the pen of Shakspeare. The reading of the quarto may be weak, but it is fenfe; but what are we to understand by my de meanour, or my fufferings, (which ever is the meaning,) in my travel's hiftory? MALONE.

By-my portance in my travel's history, perhaps our author meant-my behaviour in my travels as defcribed in my hiftory of them. Portance is a word already used in Coriolanus:

took from you

"The apprehenfion of his prefent portance,

"Which gibingly, ungravely, he did fashion," &c. Spenfer, in the third Canto of the fecond Book of the Fay Queen, likewife ufes it:

"But for in court gay portaunce he perceiv'd."

STERVEYS

9 Wherein of antres vaft, &c.] Difcourfes of this nature mase the fubject of the politeft converfations, when voyages into, at difcoveries of, the new world were all in vogue. So, when e Baftard Faulconbridge in King John, defcribes the behaviour of upftart greatnefs, he makes one of the effential circumftances of to be this kind of table-talk. The fashion then running altoge in this way, it is no wonder a young lady of quality fhocid be ftruck with the hiftory of an adventurer. So that Ŕymer, who profeffedly ridicules this whole circumftance, and the noble author