IAGO. Well; go to; very well. ROD. Very well! go to! I cannot go to, man; nor 'tis not very well: By this hand, I fay, it is very scurvy; and begin to find myself fobb'd in it. LAGO. Very well. ROD. I tell you, 'tis not very well. I will make myself known to Defdemona: If the will return me my jewels, I will give over my fuit, and repent my unlawful folicitation; if not, affure yourself, I will feek fatisfaction of you. LAGO. You have faid now. ROD. Ay, and I have faid nothing, but what I proteft intendment of doing. IAGO. Why, now I fee there's mettle in thee; and even, from this inftant, do build on thee a better opinion than ever before. Give me thy hand, Roderigo: Thou haft taken against me a most juft exception; but yet, I proteft, I have dealt most directly in thy affair. ROD. It hath not appear'd. LAGO. I grant, indeed, it hath not appear'd; and your fufpicion is not without wit and judgement.* But, Roderigo, if thou haft that within thee indeed, which I have greater reafon to believe now than ever, I mean, purpose, courage, and valour,—this "And fhall forget the office of our hand See alfo Hamlet, p. 329, n. 9. MALONE. See alfo Vol. IX. p. 16, n. 2. STEEVENS. 2 your fufpicion is not without wit and judgement.] Shakfpeare knew well, that most men like to be flattered on account of thofe endowments in which they are most deficient. Hence lago's compliment to this fnipe on his fagacity and fhrewdnefs. MALONE. night show it if thou the next night following enjoyeft not Defdemona, take me from this world with treachery, and devise engines for my life.* ROD. Well, what is it? is it within reafon, and compass? LAGO. Sir, there is efpecial commiffion come from Venice, to depute Caffio in Othello's place. ROD. Is that true? why, then Othello and Defdemona return again to Venice. LAGO. O, no; he goes into Mauritania, and takes away with him the fair Defdemona, unlefs his abode be linger'd here by fome accident; wherein none can be fo determinate, as the removing of Caffio. ROD. How do you mean-removing of him? IAGO. Why, by making him uncapable of Othello's place; knocking out his brains. ROD. And that you would have me do? IAGO. Ay; if you dare do yourself a profit, and a right. He fups to-night with a harlot, and thither will I go to him; he knows not yet of his honourable fortune: if you will watch his going thence, (which I will fashion to fall out between twelve and one,) you may take him at your pleafure; I will be near to fecond your attempt, and 2 take me from this world with treachery, and devife engines for my life.] To devife engines, seems to mean, to contrive racks, tortures, &c. RITSON. So, in King Lear: 66 like an engine, wrench'd my frame of nature." STREVENS 3- there is cfpecial commission -] Shakspeare probably wrote -a fpecial. MALONE. ▲ He fups to-night with a harlot,] The folio reads-a barletry, which may be right. Our author has the expreflion-" a peevith felf-will'd harlotry," in two plays. RITSON. he shall fall between us. Come, stand not amazed at it, but go along with me; I will fhow you fuch a neceffity in his death, that you fhall think yourself bound to put it on him. It is now high supper-time, and the night grows to wafte: about it. ROD. I will hear further reason for this. [Exeunt. It is now high fupper-time,] I believe we should read: It is now nigh upper-time, The old reading is the true one. M. MASON. There is no phrafe more common than-" high time to go to bed—to get up," &c. High time is full, complete time. Thus Spenfer, in his Faery Queen: Again: 66 High time now 'gan it wax for Una fair "To think of thofe her captive parents High time it is this war now ended were.” Clarendon is frequent in his ufe of this expreffion. STEEVENS. 6 and the night grows to waste :] I suppose Iago means to fay, that it is near midnight. Perhaps we ought to print-waist. Both the old copies, the quarto, 1622, and the folio, 1623, read— waft, which was the old fpelling of waist. So Hamlet: "In the dead waft [waift] and middle of the night." See note on that paffage, p. 42, n. 3. So alfo, in The Puritan, a comedy, 1607: ere the day "Be fpent to the girdle, thou fhalt be free." The words, however, may only mean-the night is waiting apace. MALONE. The laft is certainly the true explanation. So, in Julius Cæfar: Sir, March is wafted fourteen days." STEEVENS. 66 Enter OTHELLO, LODOVICO, DESDEMONA, EMILIA, and Attendants. LOD. I do befeech you, fir, trouble yourself no further. OTн. O, pardon me; 'twill do me good to walk. LOD. Madam, good night; I humbly thank your ladyfhip. OTH. Get you to bed on the inftant; I will be return'd forthwith: difmifs your attendant there; look, it be done. DES. I will, my lord. [Exeunt OTHELLO, LODOVICO, and Attendants. EMIL. How goes it now? he looks gentler than he did. DES. He fays, he will return incontinent: He hath commanded me to go to bed, And bade me to difmifs you. EMIL. Difmifs me! DES. It was his bidding; therefore, good Emilia, Give me my nightly wearing, and adieu: We must not now displease him. EMIL. I would, you had never feen him! DES. So would not I; my love doth so approve him, That even his ftubbornness, his checks, and frowns,Pr'ythee, unpin me,-have grace and favour in them. EMIL. I have laid thofe fheets you bade me on the bed. DES. All's one:-Good father!" how foolish are our minds!— If I do die before thee, pr'ythee, shroud me EMIL. Come, come, you talk. DES. My mother had a maid, call'd—Barbara; She was in love; and he, fhe lov'd, prov'd mad, And did forfake her: fhe had a fong of-willow, An old thing 'twas, but it exprefs'd her fortune, And fhe died finging it: That fong, to-night, Will not go from my mind; I have much to do, But to go hang my head all at one fide, And fing it like poor Barbara. Pr'ythee, defpatch, 6 Good father!] Thus the folio. The quarto, 1622, reads— all's one, good faith. MALONE. 7 and he, she lov'd, prov'd mad, And did forfake her:] I believe that mad only fignifies wild, frantick, uncertain. JOHNSON. Mad, in the prefent inftance, ought to mean-inconftant. RITSON. We ftill call a wild giddy girl a mad-cap: and, in the First Part of King Henry VI. are mentioned, "Mad, natural graces that extinguish art." Again, in The Two Gentlemen of Verona: "Come on, you mad-cap." Again, in Love's Labour's Loft: "Do you hear, my mad wenches?" STEEVENS. But to go hang my head-] I have much ado to do any thing but hang my head. We might read: Not to go hang my head. This is perhaps the only infertion made in the latter editions which has improved the play. The reft feem to have been added for the fake of amplification, or of ornament. When the imagina |