EMIL. Shall I go fetch your night-gown?

DES.

This Lodovico is a proper man.

No, unpin me here.

And he speaks well.

EMIL. A very handsome man.

DES.

EMIL. I know a lady in Venice, who would have walk'd barefoot to Palestine, for a touch of his nether lip.

DES. The poor foul' fat fighing by a fycamore tree, Sing all a green willow;"

[Singing. Her hand on her bofom, her head on her knee,

Sing willow, willow, willow:

tion had fubfided, and the mind was no longer agitated by the horror of the action, it became at leifure to look round for fpecious additions. This addition is natural. Desdemona can at first hardly forbear to fing the fong; fhe endeavours to change her train of thoughts, but her imagination at laft prevails, and the fings it.

JOHNSON. From I have much to do, to Nay, that's not next, was inferted after the first edition, as was likewife the remaining part of the fong. STEEVENS.

8 The poor foul &c.] This fong, in two parts, is printed in a late collection of old ballads; the lines preferved here differ fomewhat from the copy difcovered by the ingenious collector.

JOHNSON.

9 -fat fighing-] The folio reads--finging. The paffage, as has been already obferved, is not in the original copy printed in 1622. The reading of the text is taken from a quarto of no authority printed in 1630. Sighing, as Mr. Steevens has obferved, is alfo the reading in the black-letter copy of this ballad in the Pepys Collection, which Dr. Percy followed, See The Reliques of Ancient English Poetry. I. 192. MALONE.

2 Sing all a green willow; &c.] In the Gallery of gorgious Inuentions &c. 4to. 1578, there is also a song to which the burden

is

"Willow, willow, willow, fing all of green willow;
"Sing all of greene willow fhall be my garland."

Sig. L. ii. STEEVENS.

The fresh ftreams3 ran by her, and murmur'd her

moans;

Sing willow, &c.

Her falt tears fell from her, and foften'd the ftones;

Lay by thefe:

Sing willow, willow, willow;

Pr'ythee, hie thee; he'll come anon.

Sing all a green willow must be my garlánd.

2.

Let nobody blame him, his fcorn I approve,^—

Nay, that's not next.-Hark! who is it that knocks? EMIL. It is the wind.

5

DES. I call'd my love, falfe love; but what faid be then?

Sing willow, &c.

If I court mo women, you'll couch with mo men."

3 The fresh fireams &c.] Thefe lines are formed with fome additions from two couplets of the original fong:

"The cold ftreams ran by him, his eyes wept apace;

"O willow, &c.

"The falt tears fell from him, which drowned his face; "O willow, &c.

"The mute birds fate by him, made tame by his mones; "O willow, &c.

"The falt tears fell from him, which foften'd the ftmes."

MALONE.

4 Let nobody blame him, his fearn I approve,] In the original: "Let nobody blame me, her fcorns I do prove,

"O willow, &c.

"She was born to be fair; I to die for her love.”

MALONE.

I call'd my love, falfe love;] This couplet is not in the ballad,

So, get thee gone; good night. Mine eyes do itch; Doth that bode weeping?

EMIL.

'Tis neither here nor there.

DES. I have heard it faid fo.-O, thefe men, thefe

men!

Doft thou in confcience think,-tell me, Emilia,—
That there be women do abuse their husbands
In fuch grofs kind?

EMIL.

There be fome fuch, no queftion.

DES. Would'ft thou do fuch a deed for all the

world?

EMIL. Why, would not you?

DES.

No, by this heavenly light!

EMIL. Nor I neither by this heavenly light;

I might do't as well i'the dark.

DES. Would'ft thou do fuch a deed for all the world?

EMIL. The world is a huge thing: 'Tis a great

price

For a fmall vice.

DES.

Good troth, I think thou would'st not. EMIL. By my troth, I think I should; and undo't, when I had done. Marry, I would not do

which is the complaint, not of a woman forfaken, but of a man rejected. Thefe lines were properly added when it was accommodated to a woman. JOHNSON.

6 -you'll couch with mo men.] This verb is found alfo in The Two Noble Kinjmen, 1634:

66

O, if thou couch

"But one night with her," MALONE.

It is ufed likewife in The Merchant of Venice:

couching with the lawyer's clerk." STEEVENS. This as well as the following speech, STEEVENS.

▾ I have heard it faid fo.]

is omitted in the first quarto.

fuch a thing for a joint-ring; nor for measures of lawn; nor for gowns, petticoats, nor caps, nor any petty exhibition: but, for the whole world,-Why, who would not make her husband a cuckold, to make him a monarch? I fhould venture purgatory for't.

DES. Befhrew me, if I would do fuch a wrong for the whole world.

EMIL. Why, the wrong is but a wrong i'the world; and, having the world for your labour, 'tis a wrong in your own world, and you might quickly make it right.

DES. I do not think, there is any fuch woman. EMIL. Yes, a dozen; and as many

To the vantage, as would store the world they play'd for.

But, I do think, it is their husbands' faults,
If wives do fall: Say, that they flack their duties,
And pour our treasures into foreign laps;3

8 -for a joint-ring;] Anciently a common token among lovers. The nature of thefe rings will be beft explained by a paffage in Dryden's Don Sebaftian:

66

a curious artift wrought them,

"With joints fo close as not to be perceiv'd;
"Yet are they both each other's counterpart :
"Her part had Juan infcrib'd, and his had Zayda,

(You know thofe names are theirs) and, in the midst,

"A heart divided in two halves was plac'd.
"Now if the rivets of those rings inclos'd,
"Fit not each other, I have forg'd this lye:

But if they join, you must for ever part." STEEVENS. To the vantage,] i. e. to boot, over and above. STEEVENS. 2 But, I do think, &c.] The remaining part of this fpeech is omitted in the first quarto. STEEVENS.

3-And pour our treasures into foreign laps;] So, in one of our author's poems:

Robb'd other beds' revenues of their rents."

MALONE.

Or elfe break out in peevish jealoufies,
Throwing restraint upon us; or, fay, they ftrike us,
Or fcant our former having in despite;

Why, we have galls; and, though we have fome

grace,

Yet have we fome revenge. Let husbands know, Their wives have fenfe like them: they fee, and

fmell,

And have their palates both for fweet and four,
As husbands have. What is it that they do,
When they change us for others? Is it fport?
I think it is; And doth affection breed it?
I think, it doth; Is't frailty, that thus errs?
It is fo too: And have not we affections?
Defires for fport? and frailty, as men have?
Then, let them ufe us well: elfe, let them know,
The ills we do, their ills inftruct us to."

DES. Good night, good night: Heaven me fuch

ufage fend,

Not to pick bad from bad; but, by bad, mend! [Exeunt.

4our former having-] Our former allowance of expence.

JOHNSON.

have fenfe like them:] Senfe is used here, as in Hamlet, for fenfation, or fenfual appetite. See p. 228, n. 9. MALONE.

6 inftruct us to.] Mr. Malone, in the following note, has defcribed and rejected a correction which I have received on the authority of the following paffage in Pericles. Till this inftant I had fuppofed this paffage itfelf to need amendment:

"Your honour and your goodness teach me to it.” Perhaps no rhyme was intended. STEEVENS.

This paffage, [in Othello,] as has been already obferved, is not in the quarto, 1622. The reading of my text [%] is that of the folio, 1623. The modern editors, following an alteration made by the editor of the fecond folio, read-inftruct us to. Our poet, for the f ke of rhyme, often ufes an uncommon phraseology; I have therefore adhered to the authentick copy. MALONE.

7- Heaven me fuch ufage fend,] Such fes is the reading of the