It is the caufe.-Yet I'll not fhed her blood; [Takes off his fword. Yet fhe muft die, elfe fhe'll betray more men.* Put out the light, and then put out the light:5 it obfcure. The meaning, I think, is this:-I am here (fays Othello in his mind) overwhelmed with horror. What is the reafon of this perturbation? Is it want of refolution to do justice? Is it the dread of fhedding blood? No; it is not the action that fhocks me, but it is the cause, it is the caufe, my foul; let me not name it to you, ye chafte ftars! it is the cause. JOHNSON. Othello, full of horror at the cruel action which he is about to perpetrate, feems at this inftant to be seeking his juftification, from reprefenting to himself the caufe, i. e. the greatnefs of the provocation he had received. STEEVENS. 4 Yet he must die, elje she'll betray more men.] This is the fecond attempt of Othello to juftify what he has undertaken. First he fays, It is the caufe, i. e. his own caufe; now he is willing to fuppofe himself the preventer of mischief to others. STEEVENS. 5 Put out the light, and then put out the light:] It should be thus printed : Put out the light, and then-Put out the light! The meaning is, I will put out the light, and then proceed to the execution of my purpofe. But the expreffion of putting out the light, bringing to mind the effects of the extinction of the light of life, he breaks fhort, and questions himself about the effects of this metaphorical extinction, introduced by a repetition of his firft words, as much as to fay,-But hold, let me first weigh the reflections which this expreffion fo naturally excites. WARBURTON. This has been confidered as a very difficult line. Fielding makes Betterton and Booth difpute about it with the author himself in the other world. The punctuation recommended by Dr. Warburton, gives a fpirit to it which I fear was not intended. It feems to have been only a play upon words. To put the light out was a phrase for to kill. In The Maid's Tragedy, Melantius fays, 66 -'Tis a justice, and a noble one, "To put the light out of fuch base offenders." FARMER. This phrafe is twice used in Sidney's Arcadia, for killing a lady, p. 460 and 470, edit. 1633. Again, in an unpublished play called The Second Maiden's Tragedy, by George Chapman, licenfed by Sir George Buc, October If I quench thee, thou flaming minifter, I can again thy former light reftore, 31ft, 1611: (now in the library of the Earl of Shelburne, who honoured me with the ufe of it:) -O foul of cunning! "Came that arch fubtilty from thy lady's counfel, "Or thine own fudden craft? confefs to me "How oft thou haft been a bawd to their close actions, "Or all thy light goes out." STEEVENS. Put out the light, and then put out the light:] This is one of the paffages to which I alluded in a note on As you like it, Vol. VI. p. 175, in which, by a modern regulation, our poet's words have obtained a meaning, which in my opinion was not in his thoughts. Mr. Upton was the firft perfon who introduced the conceit in this line, which has been adopted since his book appeared, by pointing it thus: Put out the light, and then-Put out the light! &c. I entirely agree with Dr. Farmer, that this regulation gives a fpirit to this paffage that was not intended. The poet, I think, meant merely to fay," I will now put out the lighted taper which I hold, and then put out the light of life;" and this introduces his fubfequent reflection and comparifon, juft as aptly, as fuppofing the latter words of the line to be used in the fame fenfe as in the beginning of it, which cannot be done without deftroying that equivoque and play of words of which Shakspeare was fo fond. There are few images which occur more frequently in his works than this. Thus, in King Henry VI. Part III. the dying Clifford fays, "Here burns my candle out, ay, here it dies." Again, in Macbeth: "Out, out, brief candle!" Again, in King Henry VIII: "This candle burns not clear; 'tis I muft fnuff it; Again, in his Rape of Lucrece: "Fair torch, burn out thy light, and lend it not "To darken her, whofe light excelleth thine!" Let the words-put out her light, stand for a moment in the place of-darken her, and then the fentence will run-Burn out thy light, fair torch, and lend it not to put out her light, whofe light is more excellent than thine. In the very fame ftrain, fays Othello, "let me first extinguish the light I now hold, and then put out the light of life. But how different in effect and importance are these two acts! The extinguished taper can be lighted again, but the light of life, when once extinguished, can never, alas, be relumined! Should I repent me :-but once put out thine," I cannot give it vital growth again, It needs muft wither:-I'll fmell it on the tree. [Kiffing her. O balmy breath, that doft almoft perfuade Juftice to break her fword!-One more, one more.Be thus when thou art dead, and I will kill thee, And love thee after:-One more, and this the laft: The question is not, which regulation renders the paffage moft elegant and fpirited, but what was the poet's idea.-I believe, however, that Shakspeare wrote-and then put out thy light; and the reading of the original copy in a fubfequent line," but once put out thine," feems to me to countenance this emendation. In The Merchant of Venice the word light is used with equal ambiguity: "Let me give light, but let me not be light." MALONE. 6 put out thine,] Thus the quarto. The folio reads-put out thy light. I have chofen the former reading for the fake of measure, and to efcape a ufelefs repetition of the word-light. STEEVENS. 7 Thou cunning' pattern of excelling nature,] So, in Palmerin D'Oliva, 1588, p. 1: "thofe that beheld her, efteemed her for the chiefeft piece of workmanfhipp that ever nature framed.” REED. 8 That can thy light relume.] Thus the folio. The firft quarto➡ return: the fecond quarto-relumine. STEEVENS. Our poet has illume for illuminate, in Hamlet: "Had made his course, to illume that part of heaven, 9 — thy rose,] Thus the folio. The quarto reads,—the rose. Again, the quarto reads, I'll fmell it on the tree." "I'll fmell thee on the tree." STEEVENS. So fweet was ne'er fo fatal. I must weep, But they are cruel tears: This forrow's heavenly;* It strikes, where it doth love.-She wakes DES. Who's there? Othello? OTH. Ay, Defdemona. DES. Will you come to bed, my lord? Отн. Have you pray'd to-night, Desdemona? DES. Ay, my lord. OTн. If you bethink yourself of any crime, Unreconcil'd as yet to heaven and grace, Solicit for it straight. DES. Alas, my lord, what may you mean by that? OTH. Well, do it, and be brief; I will walk by: I would not kill thy unprepared fpirit; No,-Heaven forefend!-I would not kill thy foul.' DES. Talk you of killing? Отн. DES. Ay, I do. Then, heaven This forrow's heavenly;] This tenderness, with which I lament the punishment which juftice compels me to inflict, is a holy paffion. I wish thefe two lines could be honestly ejected. It is the fate of Shakspeare to counteract his own pathos. JOHNSON. Perhaps the poet would not have retained both these images, had he publifhed the play himfelf, though in the hurry of compofition he threw them both upon paper. The firft feems adopted from the fabulous hiftory of the crocodile, the fecond from a paffage in the fcripture. STEEVENS. 3 "Whom the Lord loveth, he chafteneth." M. MASON. I would not kill thy foul.] Sir W. D'Avenant has borrowed this thought in his Albovine King of Lombardy, 1629: "I am not fraught with devil's fpleen; I would "Not hurt thy joul." Othello appears to have been a favourite of his author; for he has bestowed on him that piety which he had refused to Hamlet. See p. 216, n. 7. STEEVENS. Have mercy on me! OTH. Amen, with all my heart! DES. If you fay fo, I hope you will not kill me. ОTн. Humph! DES. And yet I fear you; for you are fatal then, When your eyes roll fo: Why I fhould fear, I know not, Since guiltinefs I know not; but yet, I feel, I fear.^ OTH. Think on thy fins. DES. They are loves I bear to you. ОTH. Ay, and for that thou dieft. DES. That death's unnatural, that kills for loving.' Alas, why gnaw you fo your nether lip? 4 Since guiltinefs I know not; but yet, I feel, I fear.] Read, Since guilt I know not; but yet, I feel, I fear. Guiltinefs has been already mifprinted for guilt. [See p. 627, line 2.] It is impoffible that Shakspeare fhould lengthen a word merely to fpoil his metre. RITSON. The chivalry of criticifm does not, in my opinion, require us to defend the old copies (thofe grannams of the ftage, balba de nare locuta) when they fo grofsly offend against the laws of metre. In the earlier part of this work I have got rid of fome of their deformities, but in this and a few of the latter plays I have been content with expofing them, being certain that their notoriety will hereafter prove the means of fecuring a privilege which, respecting the prefent editors, may be litigated. STEEVENS. 5 That death's unnatural, that kills for loving.] This thought is likewife found in The Legend of Orpheus and Eurydice, a poem, by H. L. 16mo. 1597? "Unnatural, which kill where you should kiffe." Again, in our poet's King Richard III: "It is a quarrel most unnatural, "To be reveng'd on him that loveth thee." MALONE. |