My medicine, work! Thus credulous fools are

caught;

And many worthy and chafte dames, even thus, All guiltlefs meet reproach.-What, ho! my lord!

Enter CASSIO.

My lord, fay! Othello!-How now, Caffio?
CAS. What is the matter?

LAGO. My lord is fallen into an epilepfy;
This is his fecond fit; he had one yesterday.
CAS. Rub him about the temples.

LAGO. No, forbear: The lethargy muft have his quiet courfe: If not, he foams at mouth; and, by and by, Breaks out to favage madnefs. Look, he ftirs: Do you withdraw yourself a little while, He will recover ftraight; when he is gone, I would on great occafion speak with you.—

[Exit CASSIO. How is it, general? have you not hurt your head? Ori. Doft thou mock me?

IAGO.

I mock you! no, by heaven: 'Would, you would bear your fortunes like a man. Отн. A horned man's a monfter, and a beaft.

IAGO. There's many a beaft then in a populous

LAGO.

Good fir, be a man;

Think, every bearded fellow, that's but yok'd, May draw with you: there's millions now alive,

That nightly lie in thofe unproper beds,

Which they dare fwear peculiar; your cafe is better.
O, 'tis the spite of hell, the fiend's arch-mock,
To lip a wanton" in a fecure couch,"

And to fuppofe her chaste! No, let me know;
And, knowing what I am, I know what the fhall

be.3

OTH. O, thou art wife; 'tis certain.

IAGO.

Stand you a while apart;

Confine yourself but in a patient lift.+

in those unproper beds,] Unproper, for common.

WARBURTON.

So, in The Arcadia, by Shirley, 1640:

Every woman fhall be common.—

Every woman common! what fhall we do with all the proper women in Arcadia?

"They fhall be common too."

Again, in Gower De Confeffione Amantis, B. II. fol.—

"And is his proper by the lawe."

Again, in The Maflive, &c. an ancient collection of epigrams and fatires, no date:

"Rofe is a fayre, but not a proper woman;

"Can any creature proper be, that's common?"

STEEVENS.

To lip a wanton -] This phrafe occurs in Eastward Hoe,

A&I:

2

66

lip her, lip her, knave." REED.

in a fecure couch,] In a couch in which he is lulled into a falfe fecurity and confidence in his wife's virtue. A Latin fenfe. So, in The Merry Wives of Windfor: "Though Page be a fecure fool, and stands fo firmly on his wife's frailty," &c.

See alfo Vol. XI. p. 384, n. 2. MALONE.

3 And, knowing what I am, I know what she shall be.] Redundancy of metre, without improvement of fenfe, inclines me to confider the word be, in this line, as an intruder. Iago is merely ftating an imaginary cafe as his own. When I know what I am (fays he) I know what the refult of that conviction shall be. To whom, indeed, could the pronoun he, grammatically, refer? STEEVENS.

4lift.] Lift, or lifts, is barriers, bounds. Keep your temper, fays lago, within the bounds of patience.

Whilft you were here, ere while mad with your

grief,s

(A paffion moft unfuiting fuch a man,)
Caffio came hither: I fhifted him away,
And laid good 'fcufe upon your ecftafy;

Bade him anon return, and here speak with me;
The which he promis'd. Do but encave yourfelf,"
And mark the fleers, the gibes, and notable scorns,
That dwell in every region of his face;"
For I will make him tell the tale anew,-
Where, how, how oft, how long ago, and when

So, in Hamlet:

"The ocean over-peering of his lift,

"Eats not the flats with more impetuous hafte," &c.

Again, in King Henry V. A& V. fc. ii: "

COLLINS.

you and I can

not be confined within the weak lift of a country fashion.”

Again, in King Henry IV. P. I:

"The very lift, the very utmost bound,

"Of all our fortunes."

Again, in All's Well that End's Well, A& II. fc. i: “ - you have reftrain'd yourself within the lift of too cold an adieu." Chapman, in his tranflation of the 16th Book of Homer's Odyey, has thus expreffed an idea fimilar to that in the text:

66

let thy heart

"Beat in fix'd confines of thy bosom ftill."

STEEVENS.

ere while mad with your grief,] Thus the first quarto. The folio reads:

6

- o'erwhelmed with your grief. STEEVENS. encave yourself,] Hide yourfelf in a private place. JOHNSON.

7 That dwell in every region of his face;] Congreve might have had this paffage in his memory, when he made Lady Touchwood fay to Mafkwell-" Ten thoufand meanings lurk in each corner of that various face." STEEVENS.

region of his face;] The fame uncommon expression occurs again in King Henry VIII:

66

-The refpite fhook

"The bofom of my confcience

and made to tremble

"The region of my breaft." MALONE.

He hath, and is again to cope your wife;
I fay, but mark his gefture. Marry, patience;
Or I fhall fay, you are all in all in fpleen,
And nothing of a man.

Отн.

Doft thou hear, Iago?

I will be found moft cunning in my patience;
But (doft thou hear?) moft bloody.

IAGO.
That's not amifs;
But yet keep time in all. Will you withdraw?

[OTHELLO withdraws. Now will I queftion Caffio of Bianca,

A housewife, that, by felling her defires,

Buys herself bread and clothes: it is a creature,
That dotes on Caffio,-as 'tis the ftrumpet's plague,
To beguile many, and be beguil'd by one ;-
He, when he hears of her, cannot refrain
From the excefs of laughter :-Here he comes:-

Re-enter CASSIO.

As he fhall fmile, Othello fhall go mad;
And his unbookish jealoufy must conftrue
Poor Caffio's fmiles, geftures, and light behaviour,
Quite in the wrong.-How do you now, lieutenant?
CAS. The worfer, that you give me the addition,
Whose want even kills me.

8 Or I fall fay, you're all in all in spleen,] I read : "Or fhall I fay, you're all in all a fpleen."

I think our author ufes this expreffion elsewhere. JOHNSON. "A hare-brain'd Hotfpur, govern'd by a spleen."-The old reading, however, is not inexplicable. We ftill fay, fuch a one is in wrath, in the dumps, &c. The fenfe therefore is plain. Again, in A Midfummer's-Night's Dream:

“That, in a spleen, unfolds both heaven and earth.”—

STEEVENS.

" And his unbookish jealousy —] Unbookish, for ignorant.

WARBURTON.

LAGO. Ply Defdemona well, and you are fure of't. Now, if this fuit lay in Bianca's power,

How quickly fhould you speed?

[Speaking lower.

CAS.
Alas, poor caitiff!
OTH. Look, how he laughs already! [Afide
LAGO. I never knew a woman love man fo.
CAS. Alas, poor rogue! I think, i'faith, fhe loves

me.

OTн. Now he denies it faintly, and laughs it out.

LAGO. Do you hear, Caffio?

[Afide.

Отн.
Now he importunes him
To tell it o'er: Go to; well faid, well faid.

[Afide.

LAGO. She gives it out, that you shall marry her: Do you intend it?

Orн. Do you triumph, Roman? do you triumph?

Afide.

CAS. I marry her!-what? a customer!' I pr'ythee, bear fome charity to my wit; do not think it fo unwholesome. Ha, ha, ha!

OTH. So, fo, fo, fo: They laugh, that win.

[Afide. LAGO. 'Faith, the cry goes, that you fhall marry

her.

Do you triumph, Roman? do you triumph?] Othello calls him. Roman ironically. Triumph, which was a Roman ceremony, brought Roman into his thoughts. What (fays lie) you are now triumphing as great as a Roman? JOHNSON.

3 - a customer!] A common woman, one that invites cuftom. JOHNSON.

So, in All's well that ends well:

“I think thee now fome common customer." STEEVENS.