And cannot make away. IAGO. O treacherous villains!- [To LODOVICO and GRATIANO. What are you there? come in, and give some help. ROD. O, help me here! CAS. That's one of them. IAGO. O murderous flave! O villain! [IAGO flabs RODERIGO. ROD. O damn'd Iago! O inhuman dog!O! O! O! IAGO. Kill men i'the dark!-Where be these bloody thieves?— How filent is this town!-Ho! murder! murder! What may you be? are you of good, or evil?? Lob. As you shall prove us, praise us. IAGO. Signior Lodovico? Light, gentlemen; I'll bind it with my shirt. Enter BIANCA. BLAN. What is the matter, ho? who is't that cry'd? LAGO. Who is't that cry'd? 9 are you of good, or evil?] So, in Hamlet: "Art thou a fpirit of health? or goblin damn'd?" STEEVENS. BIAN. O my dear Caffio! my fweet Caffio! O Caffio! Caffio! Caffio! LAGO. O notable ftrumpet!-Caffio, may you fuf pect Who they should be, that have thus mangled you? CAS. No. GRA. I am forry, to find you thus: I have been to feek you. LAGO. Lend me a garter: So.-O, for a chair, To bear him easily hence! BIAN. Alas, he faints :-O Caffio! Caffio! Cassio! LAGO. Gentlemen all, I do fufpect this trafh To be a party in this injury.3 Patience a while, good Caffio.-Come, come; Lend me a light.-Know we this face, or no? Alas! my friend, and my dear countryman,+ Roderigo? no:-Yes, fure;-O heaven! Roderigo. GRA. What, of Venice? LAGO. Even he, fir; did you know him? GRA. Know him? ay. IAGO. Signior Gratiano? I cry you gentle par don; These bloody accidents must excufe my manners, That so neglected you. GRA I am glad to see you. LAGO. How do you, Caffio?—O, a chair, a chair! 2 Lend me a garter: &c.] This fpeech is omitted in the first quarto. STEEVENS. 3 To be a party in this injury.] Thus the folio. The quarto, 1622, reads to bear a part in this. MALONE. 4 Alas! my friend, and my dear countryman,] This paffage incon teftably proves that Iago was meant for a Venetian. STEEVENS. VOL. XV. S s GRA. Roderigo! LAGO. He, he, 'tis he:-O, that's well faid;the chair:[A chair brought in. Some good man bear him carefully from hence; I'll fetch the general's furgeon.-For you, mistress, [To BIANCA. Save you your labour.-He that lies flain here, Caffio, Was my dear friend: What malice was between you? CAS. None in the world; nor do I know the man. LAGO. [TO BIAN.] What, look you pale?-0, bear him out o'the air. [CASSIO and ROD. are borne off. :-Look you pale, Stay you, good gentlemen:'. miftrefs? 6 Do you perceive the gaftnefs of her eye?— Nay, if you ftare,' we fhall hear more anon: 5good gentlemen:] Thus the folio. The quarto readsgentlewoman. STEEVENS That the original is the true reading, may be collected from the fituation and feelings of the parties on the fcene. No reafon can be affigned why Lodovico and Gratiano fhould immediately quit the fpot where they now are, before they had heard from lago further particulars of the attack on Caffio, merely because Caffio was borne off: whereas, on the other hand, his mistress, Bianca, who has been officioufly offering him affiftance, would naturally endeavour to accompany him to his lodgings. MALONE. There feems to me to be a very good reafon affignable why thefe two gentlemen fhould immediately quit the fpot on Caffio's being borne off, viz. to aflift him or fee him properly taken care of, rather than to ftay and gratify their curiofity. Refpect for the perfon appointed Othello's fucceffor, if not perfonal regard, would, I fhould think, naturally have dictated fuch a proceeding, had they not been ftopped by Iago's defiring them not to go. REED. 6the gaftnefs-] So, the folio. The quartos readjeftures. STEEVENS. Nay, if you ftare,] So, the folio, The quartos read-firre. Behold her well; I pray you, look upon her; Enter EMILIA. EMIL. 'Las, what's the matter; what's the matter, husband? LAGO. Caffio hath here been fet on in the dark, By Roderigo, and fellows that are fcap'd; He's almost flain, and Roderigo dead. EMIL. Alas, good gentleman! alas, good Caffio! LAGO. This is the fruit of whoring.-Pr'ythee, Emilia, Go know of Caffio where he fupp'd to-night:" -guiltinefs will speak, Though tongues were out of ufe.] So, in Hamlet: "For murder, though it have no tongue, will speak - Pr'ythee, Emilia, Go know of Caffio where he fupp'd to-night:] In the laft fcene of the preceding act lago informs Roderigo, that Caffio was to fup with Bianca; that he would accompany Caffio to her house, and would take care to bring him away from thence between twelve and one. Caffio too had himself informed lago, in Act IV. sc. i. that he would fup with Bianca, and Iago had promised to meet him at her house. Perhaps, however, here lago chofe to appear ignorant of this fact, confcious that he had way-laid Caffio, and therefore defirous of being thought ignorant of his motions during the evening. MALONE. Yet, how happens it, Jupp'd &c. did not anfwer, He fupp'd &c.? that Bianca, inftead of replying-He The former line being imperfect, fome fuch words might have been omitted. Or perhaps, our author was unwilling that Bianca should fay in the prefence of Iago's wife, that he too had been of Caffio's fupper-party; and hence this feeming inconfiftency. STEEVENS. What, do you shake at that? BIAN. He fupp'd at my houfe; but I therefore shake not. IAGO. O, did he fo? I charge you, go with me. EMIL. Fye, fye upon thee, ftrumpet! BIAN. I am no ftrumpet; but of life as honeft, As you that thus abuse me. EMIL. As I foh! fye upon thee! IAGO. Kind gentlemen, let's go fee poor Caffio drefs'd: Come, mistress, you must tell us another tale.— Emilia, run you to the citadel, And tell my lord and lady what has happ'd.— Will you go on, I pray?-This is the night, [Afide. That either makes me, or fordoes me quite. [Exeunt. SCENE II. A Bedchamber: DESDEMONA in bed afleep. A light burning. Enter OTHELLO. OTH. It is the cause, it is the caufe, my foul,— Let me not name it to you, you chafte ftars!— 2 or fordoes me quite.] To fordo, is to undo, to ruin, to destroy. So, in Hamlet: 66 did, with defperate hand, "Fordo its own life.' Again, in the Interlude of Jacob and Efau, 1568: "If God were fo pleased, I would that were fordonne.” See p. 95, n. 2. MALONE. 3 It is the caufe, it is the caufe, my foul,— STEEVENS. Let me not name it-] The abruptnefs of this foliloquy makes |