I have no judgement in an honest face: Отн. Went he hence now? DES. Ay, footh; fo humbled. That he hath left part of his grief with me; I meet the captains at the citadel. DES. Why then, to-morrow night; or tuefday morn; Or tuesday noon, or night; or wednesday morn;pray thee, name the time; but let it not I Exceed three days: in faith, he's penitent; And yet his trefpafs, in our common reason, What you could ask me, that I fhould deny, 6 I fuffer with him.] Thus the quarto, 1622. The folio reads— To fuffer with him. MALONE. 7 the wars must make examples Out of their beft,] The feverity of military difcipline must not fpare the best men of the army, when their punithment may afford a wholefome example. JOHNSON. The old copies read-her beft. Mr. Rowe made this neceffary emendation. MALONE. Or ftand fo mammering on. What! Michael Caffio, Hath ta'en your part; to have fo much to do will; I will deny thee nothing. DES. Why, this is not a boon; To your own perfon: Nay, when I have a fuit, 8 mammering on.] To hefitate, to ftand in fufpenfe. The word often occurs in old English writings, and probably takes its original from the French M'Amour, which men were apt often to repeat when they were not prepared to give a direct answer. HANMER. I find the fame word in Acolaftus, a comedy, 1540: "I stand in doubt, or in a mamorynge between hope and fear." Again, in Thomas Drant's tranflation of the third fatire of the fecond book of Horace, 1567: 66 Yea, when the daygnes to fend for him, then mameryng he doth doute.' STEEVENS. Again, in Lyly's Euphues, 1580: "-neither ftand in a mamering whether it be beft to depart or not." The quarto, 1622, reads-muttering. Mammering is the reading of the folio. 9 What! Michael Caffio, MALONE. That came a wooing with you;] And yet in the first act Caffio appears perfectly ignorant of the amour, and is indebted to lago for the information of Othello's marriage, and of the perfon to whom he is married. STEEVENS. See the notes on the paffage alluded to, p. 404, n. 5. 2 MALONE. many a time,] Old copies, redundantly, and without the leaft improvement of the fenfe,fo many a time. The compofitor had accidentally repeated-s, from the preceding line. STEEVEN. It fhall be full of poize and difficulty, ΟΤΗ. DES. Shall I deny. you? no: Farewell, my lord. Oтн. Farewell, my Defdemona: I will come to thee ftraight. DES. Emilia, come :-Be it as your fancies teach you; Whate'er you be, I am obedient. [Exit, with EMILIA. OTH. Excellent wretch! Perdition catch my soul, But I do love thee!' and when I love thee not, Chaos is come again.* 2 -full of poize -] i. e. of weight. So, in The Dumb Knight, 1633: They are of poize fufficient —." "But we are all preft down with other poize." 3 Excellent wretch!-Perdition catch my foul, STEEVENS. But I do love thee! &c.] The meaning of the word wretch, is not generally understood. It is now, in fome parts of England, a term of the fofteft and fondeft tenderness. It expreffes the utmost degree of amiablenefs, joined with an idea, which perhaps all tendernefs includes, of feeblenefs, foftnefs, and want of protection. Othello, confidering Defdemona as excelling in beauty and virtue, foft and timorous by her fex, and by her fituation abfolutely in his power, calls her, Excellent wretch! It may be expreffed: Dear, harmless, helplifs excellence. JOHNSON. Sir W. D'Avenant ufes the fame expreffion in his Cruel Brother, 1630, and with the fame meaning. It occurs twice: "Excellent wretch! with a timorous modefty fhe stifleth up her utterance.” 4 when I love thee not, STEEVENS. Chaos is come again.] When my love is for a moment fufpended by fufpicion, I have nothing in my mind but difcord, tumult, perturbation, and confufion. JOHNSON. LAGO. My noble lord, Отн. What doft thou say, Iago? IAGO. Did Michael Caffio, when you woo'd my lady, Know of your love? OTн. He did, from first to last: Why doft thou ask? LAGO. But for a fatisfaction of my thought; No further harm. Отн. Why of thy thought, Iago? IAGO. I did not think, he had been acquainted with her. Oтн. O, yes; and went between us very oft. when I love thee not, Chaos is come again.] There is another meaning poffible. When I ceafe to love thee, the world is at an end; i. e. there remains nothing valuable or important. The firft explanation may be more elegant, the second is perhaps more easy. Shakspeare has the fame thought in his Venus and Adonis: "For he being dead, with him is beauty flain, STEEVENS. This paffage does not strike me in the fame light in which it appeared to Dr. Johnfon; as Othello had not yet any experience of that perturbation and difcord, by which he afterwards is fo fatally agitated. He means, I think, to fay,—and ere I ceafe to love thee, the world itself fhall be reduced to its primitive chaos. Shakspeare probably preferred-" chaos is come again," to " chaos ball come again," as more bold and expreffive. Muretus, a poet of the 16th century, has exactly the fame thought: "Tune meo elabi poffis de pectore, Lacci, "Aut ego, dum vivam, non meminiffe tui? "Ante, vel iftius mundi compage foluta, "Tetras in antiquum fit reditura Chaos." The meaning of Shak fpeare appears very clearly from the following paffage in The Winter's Tale, where the fame thought is more fully expreffed: "It cannot fail, but by "The violation of my faith,-and then Let nature crufh the fides o' the earth together, "And mar the feeds within!" MALONE. IAGO. Indeed? OTн. Indeed! ay, indeed :-Discern'st thou aught in that? 3 Is he not honeft? By heaven, he echoes me, As if there were fome monster in his thought thing: I heard thee fay but now,-Thou lik'dft not that, When Caffio left my wife; What did'ft not like? And, when I told thee-he was of my counfel 3 Iago. Indeed? Oth. Indeed! ay, indeed: &c.] I cannot help fuppofing that this paffage is interpolated, and originally stood thus: Iago. Indeed! Oth. See the next note. Indeed:-Difcern'ft thou ought in that? STEEVENS. 4 Ay, honeft.] The old copies, violating the measure, read: Honeft? ay, honeft. It appears from many inftances, that where words were to be repeated at all, our old blundering printers continued the repetition beyond propriety. Mr. Malone has elfewhere the fame remark. STEEVENS. 5 By heaven, he echoes me, As if there were fome monster in his thought &c.] Thus the eldest quarto. The fecond quarto reads: Why doft thou echo me, As if there were fome monster in thy thought, &c. The folio reads: Alas, thou echo'st me, As if &c.- STEEVENS. This is one of the numerous alterations made in the folio copy by the Licenfer. MALONE. |