eye must be fed; and what delight fhall fhe have to look on the devil? When the blood is made dull with the act of sport, there fhould be,-again to inflame it, and to give fatiety a fresh appetite,lovelinefs in favour; fympathy in years, manners, and beauties; all which the Moor is defective in: Now, for want of thefe required conveniences, her delicate tendernefs will find itself abused, begin to heave the gorge, difrelish and abhor the Moor; very nature will inftruct her in it, and compel her to fome fecond choice. Now, fir, this granted, (as it is a most pregnant and unforced pofition,) who ftands fo eminently in the degree of this fortune, as Caffio does? a knave very voluble; no further conscionable, than in putting on the mere form of civil and humane feeming, for the better compaffing of his falt and moft hidden loose affection? why, none; why, none: A flippery and subtle knave; a finder out of occafions; that has an eye can stamp and counterfeit advantages, though true advantage never prefent itfelf: A devilish knave! befides, the knave is handfome, young; and hath all those requifites in him, that folly and green minds look after: A peftilent complete knave; and the woman hath found him already. ROD. I cannot believe that in her; fhe is full of moft blefs'd condition." 3 LAGO. Blefs'd fig's end! the wine fhe drinks is again to inflame it,] Thus the quarto, 1622. The folio reads—a game. STEEVENS. and humane feeming,] Thus the folio. The quarto, 1622, reads and hand-feeming. MALONE. green minds-] Minds unripe, minds not yet fully formed. JOHNSON. 6 condition.] Qualities, difpofition of mind. JOHNSON. See Vol. IX. p. 494, n. 5. MALONE. made of grapes: if she had been blefs'd, fhe would never have loved the Moor: Blefs'd pudding! Didft thou not fee her paddle with the palm of his hand? didft not mark that? ROD. Yes, that I did; but that was but courtesy. IAGO. Lechery, by this hand; an index, and obfcure prologue to the hiftory of luft and foul thoughts. They met fo near with their lips, that their breaths embraced together. Villainous thoughts, Roderigo! when thefe mutualities fo marshal the way, hard at hand comes the mafter and main exercife, the incorporate conclufion: Pifh!-But, fir, be you ruled by me: I have brought you from Venice. Watch you to-night; for the command, I'll lay't upon you: Caffio knows you not;-I'll not be far from you: Do you find fome occafion to anger Caffio, either by fpeaking too loud, or tainting his difcipline; or from what other courfe you pleafe, which the time fhall more favourably minifter. ROD. Well. IAGO. Sir, he is rash, and very sudden in choler;' and, haply, with his truncheon may strike at you: Provoke him, that he may: for, even out of that, will I cause these of Cyprus to mutiny; whofe 7 an index, and obfcure prologue &c.] That indexes were formerly prefixed to books, appears from a paffage in Troilus and Cref fida. See p. 225, n. 9, of this volume, and Vol. XI. p. 269, n. 2. MALONE. tainting-] Throwing a flur upon his discipline. So, in Troilus and Crefida: 9 2 "In taint of our beft man." STEEVENS. JOHNSON. other courfe-] The first quarto reads-caufe. STEEVENS. ·fudden in choler;] Sudden, is precipitately violent. JOHNSON. qualification fhall come into no true taste again, but by the difplanting of Caffio. So fhall you have a fhorter journey to your defires, by the means I fhall then have to prefer them; and the impediment moft profitably removed, without the which there were no expectation of our prosperity. ROD. I will do this, if I can bring it to any opportunity.' IAGO. I warrant thee. Meet me by and by at the citadel: I muft fetch his neceffaries afhore. Farewell. ROD. Adieu. [Exit. LAGO. That Caffio loves her, I do well believe it; And, I dare think, he'll prove to Desdemona So, Malcolm, defcribing Macbeth: 3 "I grant him bloody, "Sudden, malicious whofe qualification fhall come &c.] Whofe refentment fhall not be fo qualified or tempered, as to be well tafted, as not to retain fome bitterness. The phrafe is harfh, at leaft to our ears. JOHNSON. Perhaps qualification means fitness to preferve good order, or the regularity of military difcipline. STEEVENS. no true tafte} So the folio. The quarto, 1622, reads-no true truft. MALONE. to prefer them;] i. e. to advance them. So, in A Midfummer-Night's Dream: "The fhort and the long is, our play is preferr'd." MALONE. See Vol. XII. p. 395, n. 3. STEEVENS. if I can bring it to any opportunity.] Thus the quarto, 1622. The folio reads-if you can bring it, &c. MALONE. But partly led to diet my revenge, For that I do fufpect the lufty Moor Hath leap'd into my feat: the thought whereof Doth, like a poisonous mineral,' gnaw my inwards; And nothing can or shall content my foul, 8 Till I am even with him, wife for wife; That judgement cannot cure. Which thing to do,- 7 like a poisonous mineral,] This is philofophical. Mineral poifons kill by corrofion. JOHNSON. 8 Till I am even with him,] Thus the quarto, 1622; the first folio reads: Till I am even'd with him. i. e. Till I am on a level with him by retaliation. So, in Heywood's Iron Age, 1632, Second Part: "The ftately walls he rear'd, levell'd, and even'd.” Again, in Tancred and Gifmund, 1592: "For now the walls are even'd with the plain." Again, in Stanyhurst's tranflation of the first book of Virgil's Eneid, 1582" numerum cum navibus æquat.” 9 66 with the fhips the number is even'd." STEEVENS. Which thing to do,— If this poor trash of Venice, whom I trash For his quick hunting, ftand the putting on,] The quarto, 1622, has-crub, the folio reads-trace, an apparent corruption oftrash; for as to the idea of crushing a dog, to prevent him from quick bunting, it is too ridiculous to be defended. To traf, is ftill a hunter's phrafe, and fignifies (See Vol. III. p. 16, n. 9,) to faften a weight on the neck of a dog, when his fpeed is fuperior to that of his companions. Thus, fays Catarach, in The Bonduca of Beaumont and Fletcher, (the quotation was the late Mr. T. Warton's, though misunderstood by him as to its appropriate meaning): I fled too, "But not fo faft; your jewel had been loft then, 66 Young Hengo there: he trafb'd me, Nennius,-." i. e. he was the clog that reftrained my activity. This fenfe of the word-trah has been fo repeatedly confirmed I'll have our Michael Caffio on the hip; 2 Make the Moor thank me, love me, and reward me, For making him egregioufly an ass, And practising upon his peace and quiet Even to madness. 'Tis here, but 'Tis here, but yet confus'd; Knavery's plain face is never feen, till us'd. [Exit. to me by those whom I cannot fufpect of wanting information relative to their mott favourite purfuits, that I do not hesitate to throw off the load of unfatisfactory notes with which the paffage before us has hitherto been oppreffed. Trash, in the first inftance, (though Dr. Warburton would change it into-brach,) may be used to fignify a worthlefs hound, as the fame term is afterwards employed to describe a worthless female: "Gentlemen all, I'do fufpect this trash." It is fcarce neceffary to fupport the prefent jingle on the word— trash, by examples, it is fo much in our author's manner, although his worst. Stand the putting on, may mean-does not start too foon after Defdemona, and fo deftroy my fcheme by injudicious precipitation. But I rather think, thefe words have reference to the enterprize of provoking Caffio, and will then imply,—if he has courage enough for the attempt to which I have juft incited, or put him on. For an example of the latter phrafe, fee p. 466, n. 4. STEEVENS. 2 I'll have our Michael Caffio on the hip;] A phrafe from the art of wrestling. JOHNSON. 3 in the rank garb,] Thus the quarto, and, I think, rightly. Rank garb, I believe, means, grofsly, i. e. without mincing the matter. So, in Marston's Dutch Courtefan, 1604: Whither, in the rank name of madness, whither ?” The folio reads-in the right garb. Rank, perhaps, means not only grofs, but lafcivious. So, in The Merchant of Venice: 66 the ewes, being rank, "In end of autumn," &c. MALONE. 4 Knavery's plain face is never feen,] An honeft man acts upon a plan, and forecafts his defigns; but a knave depends upon temporary and local opportunities, and never knows his own purpose, but at the time of execution. JOHNSON. |