'Tis destiny unfhunnable, like death;' poet has maintained a doctrine contrary to that laid down in As you like it :-" Horns? even fo.-Poor men alone? No, no; the moblest deer has them as huge as the rafcal." Here we find all mankind are placed on a level in this refpect, and that it is " deftiny unfhunnable, like death." Shakspeare would have been more confiftent, if he had written, Prerogativ'd are they more than the base? Othello would then have answered his own queftion: [No;] 'Tis deftiny, &c. MALONE. Allowance must be made to the prefent ftate of Othello's mind: paffion is feldom correct in its effufions. STEEVENS. 5 'Tis deftiny unfbunnable, like death;] To be confiftent, Othello muft mean, that it is destiny unfhunnable by great ones, not by all mankind. MALONE. 6 -forked plague-] In allufion to a barbed or forked arrow, which, once infixed, cannot be extracted. JOHNSON. Or rather, the forked plague is the cuckold's horns. PERCY. Dr. Johnson may be right. I meet with the fame thought in Middleton's comedy of A mad World my Mafters, 1608: "While the broad arrow, with the forked bead, "Miffes his brows but narrowly.” Again, in King Lear: 66 though the fork invade "The region of my heart." STEEVENS. I have no doubt that Dr. Percy's interpretation is the true one. Let our poet fpeak for himself. "Quoth fhe," says Pandarus, in Troilus and Creffida, "which of thefe hairs is Paris, my husband? The forked one, quoth he; pluck it out, and give it him.” Again, in The Winter's Tale: - o'er head and ears a fork'd one." So, in Tarleton's News out of Purgatorie: fquire, knight of the forked order,—.' -but the old One of Sir John Harrington's epigrams, in which our poet's very expreffion is found, puts the matter beyond a doubt: Acteon guiltlefs unawares efpying "Naked Diana bathing in her bowre, "Was plagu'd with hornes; his dogs did him devoure; MALONE. When we do quicken. Defdemona comes: " Enter DESDEMONA and EMILIA. If fhe be falfe, O, then heaven mocks itfelf!_ I'll not believe it. DES. How now, my dear Othello? Your dinner, and the generous iflanders' By you invited, do attend your presence. DES. Why is your speech so faint? are you not well? DES. Faith, that's with watching; 'twill away Let me but bind it hard, within this hour Отн. Your napkin is too little;2 [He puts the handkerchief from him, and it drops. 7 -Defdemona comes :] Thus the quartos. The folio reads— Look where he comes. STEEVENS. If he be falje, O, then heaven mocks itself!] i. e. renders its own labours fruitlefs, by forming fo beautiful a creature as Defdemona, and fuffering the elegance of her perfon to be difgraced and fullied by the impurity of her mind.-Such, I think, is the meaning. The conftruction, however, may be different. If the be falfe, O, then even heaven itself cheats us with "unreal mockeries,” with false and specious appearances, intended only to deceive. MALONE. The first of the foregoing explanations, is, I believe, the true one.-If he be falfe, heaven difgraces itself by creating woman after its own image. To have made the refemblance perfect, she should have been good as well as beautiful. STEEVENS. 9 -the generous iflanders-] Are the iflanders of rank, diftination. So, in Measure for Measure: "The generous and graveft citizens "Have hent the gates." Generous has here the power of generofus, Lat. This explanation, however, may be too particular. STEEVENS. 2 Your napkin &c.] Ray fays, that a pocket handkerchief is fo Let it alone. Come, I'll go in with you. DES. I am very forry that you are not well. [Exeunt ОTH. and DEs. EMIL. I am glad, I have found this napkin; This was her first remembrance from the Moor: My wayward husband hath a hundred times Woo'd me to fteal it: but she fo loves the token, (For he conjur'd her, fhe fhould ever keep it,) That fhe referves it evermore about her, To kifs, and talk to. I'll have the work ta’en out,3 And give it Iago: called about Sheffield in Yorkshire. So, in Greene's Never too late, 1616: "I can wet one of my new lockeram napkins with weeping." Napery fignifies linen in general. So, in Decker's Honeft Whore, 1635: " prythee put me into wholefome napery." Again, in Chapman's May Day, 1611: " Befides your munition of manchet, napery, plates," &c. Again, in Hide Park, by Shirley, 1637: "A gentleman that loves clean napery." Naperia, Ital. STEEVENS. In the North of England, and in Scotland, this term for a handkerchief is ftill used. The word has already often occurred. See Vol. VII. p. 426, n. 7; and Vol. XII. p. 336, n. 4. MALONE. 3 -I'll have the work ta'en out,] That is, copied. Her first thoughts are, to have a copy made of it for her husband, and reftore the original to Defdemona. But the fudden coming in of Iago, in a furly humour, makes her alter her refolution, to please him. The fame phrafe afterwards occurs between Caffio and Bianca, in fcene iv. BLACKSTONE. This fcheme of getting the work of this valued handkerchief copied, and reftoring the original to Defdemona, was, I suppose, introduced by the poet, to render Emilia lefs unamiable. It is remarkable, that when the perceives Othello's fury on the lofs of this token, though the is reprefented as affectionate to her miftrefs, the never attempts to relieve her from her diftrefs; which fhe might eafily have done by demanding the handkerchief from her hufband, or divulging the ftory, if he refufed to restore it.—But this would not have ferved the plot. Shakspeare fell into this incongruity by departing from Cinthio's novel; for there, while the artlefs Defdemona is careffing the child of Othello's ancient, (the Iago of our play,) the villain fteals the handkerchief which hung at her girdle, without the knowledge of his wife. MALONE. What he'll do with it, heaven knows, not I; Enter IAGO. LAGO. How now! what do you here alone? EMIL. Do not you chide; I have a thing for you. IAGO. A thing for me?—it is a common thing. EMIL. Ha! LAGO. To have a foolish wife. EMIL. O, is that all? What will you give me now For that fame handkerchief? IAGO. EMIL. What handkerchief? What handkerchief? Why, that the Moor first gave to Defdemona; LAGO. Haft ftolen it from her? EMIL. No, faith; fhe let it drop by negligence; And, to the advantage, I, being here, took't up.' Look, here it is. LAGO. A good wench; give it me. EMIL. What will you do with it, that you have been fo earnest To have me filch it? 4 I nothing, but to please his fantafy.] Thus the folio. The quarto, 1622, reads: I nothing know but for his fantasy. STEEVENS. to the advantage, &c.] I being opportunely here, took it up. JOHNSON. So Marlowe's King Edward II : "And there ftay time's advantage with your fon." REED. IAGO. Why, what's that to you? [Snatching it. EMIL. If it be not for fome purpose of import, Give it me again: Poor lady! fhe'll run mad, When she shall lack it. IAGO. Be not you known of't;' I have use for it. Go, leave me. [Exit EMILIA. I will in Caffio's lodging lofe this napkin, And let him find it: Trifles, light as air, Are, to the jealous, confirmations strong As proofs of holy writ. This may do fomething. The Moor already changes with my poison: '— Dangerous conceits are, in their natures, poisons, Which, at the firft, are scarce found to diftafte; 6 Be not you known of 't;] i. e. feem as if you knew nothing of the matter. The folio reads-Be not acknorun on't; meaning, perhaps," do not acknowledge any thing of the matter." This word occurs alfo in the feventh book of Golding's Tranílation of Ovid's Metamorphofis: "Howbeit I durft not be fo bolde of hope acknowne to be.” Again, in Puttenham's Arte of English Poefie, 1589, p. 212: fo would I not have a tranflatour be ashamed to be acknowen of his tranflation." STEEVENS. Again, in The Life of Arifto, fubjoined to Sir John Harrington's Tranflation of Orlando, p. 418, edit. 1607: "Some fay, he was married to her privilie, but durst not be acknowne of it. PORSON. Be not you known of't;] Thus the quarto, except that it has oz't, the vulgar corruption in fpeaking and writing, of of't or of it; as is proved by various paffages in these plays as exhibited in the folio and quarto, where in one copy we find the corrupt and in the other the genuine words: and both having the fame meaning. The participial adjective, found in the folio, is used by Thomas Kyd, in his Cornelia, a tragedy, 1594:. "Our friends' misfortune doth increase our own. MALONE. 1 The Moor already &c.] Thus the folio. The line is not in the original copy, 1622. MALONE. |