Re-enter OTHELLO. lago. Marry, to- Come, captain, will you go? Oth. Have with you.? with Torches and Weapons. Hola! stand there! Down with him, thief! [They draw on both sides. Iago. You, Rocerigo! come, sir, I am for you. Gih. Keep up your bright swords, for the dew will rust them. daughter? “ Oth. From first to last.” He who was acquainted with the object courted by his friend, could have little reason for doubting to whom he would be mar. ried. Steerens. Cassio's seeming ignorance of Othello's courtship or marriage might only be affected; in order to keep his friend's secret, till it became publickly known. Blackstore. Or he miglit fear that Othello had proved false to the gentle Desdemona, and married another. Mulone. How far this suspicious apprehension would have become the benevolent Cassio, the intimate friend of Othello, let the reader judge. Steevens. 7 Have with you.] This expression denotes readiness. So, in the ancient Interlude of Nature, bl. I. no date: “ And saw that Glotony wold nedys begone; “ For I must go wyth thee.” See Vol. XI, p. 94, n. 8. Steevens. 8 amanna be advis'd ;] That is, be cool; be cautious; be discreet. Folmson. The wealthy curled darlings of our nation, 9 The wealthy curled darlings of our nation,] Curled is elegantly and ostentatiously dressed. He had not the hair particularly in his thoughts. Johnson. On another occasion Shakspeare employs the same expression, and evidently alludes to the hair: “ If she first meet the curled Antony,” &c. Sir W. D'Avenant uses the same expression in his Just Italian, 1630: " The curld and silken nobles of the town.”' Again : “ Such as the curled youth of Italy." I believe Shakspeare has the same meaning in the present instance. Thus, Turnus, in the 12th Æneid, speaking of Æneas: fædare in polvere crines “ Vibratos calido ferro, -.” Steevens. That Dr. Johnson was mistaken in his interpretation of this. line, is ascertained by our poet's Rape of Lucrece, where the hair is not merely alluded to, but expressly mentioned, and the epi. thet curled is added as characteristick of a person of the highest rank: « Let bim have time to tear his curled hair." Tarquin, a king's son, is the person spoken of. Edgar, when he was “ proud in heart and mind,” curled his hair. Malone. 1 Of such a thing as thou; to fear, not to delight.) To fear, in the present instance, may mean-to terrify. So, in King Henry VI, P. III: « For Warwick was a bug that fear'd us all.” The line spoken by Brabantio is redundant in its measure. It might originally have ran Of such as thou; to fear, not to delight. Mr. Rowe; however, seems to have selected the words I would omit, as proper to be put into the mouth of Horatio, who applies them to Lothario: “ To be the prey of such a thing as thou art.” Steevens. to fear, not to delight.] To one more likely to terrify than delight her. So, in the next scene (Brabantio is again the speaker): “ To fall in love with what she fear'd to look on." Mr. Steevens supposes fear to be a verb here, used in the sense of to terrify; a signification which it formerly had. But fear, I apprehend, is a substantive, and poetically used for the object of fear. Malone. 2 [Fudge me the world, &c.] The'lines following in erotchets are not in the first edition, [1622.] Pope. 1 Abus'd her delicate youth with drugs, or minerals, 3 Abus'd her delicate youth with drugs, or minerals, That waken motion :] [Old copy-weaken.] Hanmer reads with probability : That waken motion: Johnson. Motion in a subsequent scene of this play is used in the very sense in which Sir Thomas Harmer would employ it:-" But we have reason to cool our raging motions, our carnal stings, our unbitted lusts.” Steevens. To weaken motion is, to impair the faculties. It was till very lately, and may with some be still an opinion, that philtres or love potions have the power of perverting, and of course weakening or impairing both the sight and judgment, and of procuring fondness or dotage toward any unworthy object who administers them. And by motion, Shakspeare means the senses which are depraved and weakened by these fascinating mixtures. Ritson. The folio, where alone this passage is found, reads: That weaken motion: for there's no motion " It is the woman's part.” Again, in Hamlet : sense sure you have; “Else could you not have motion.". Again, in Measure for Measure: one who never feels “ The wanton stings and motions of the sense.” So also, in A Mad World my Masters, by Middleton, 1608: “ And in myself sooth up adulterous motions, “ And such an appetite as I know damns me.” We have in the play before us—waken'd wrath, and I think in: some other play of Shakspeare-waken'd love. So, in our poet's 117th Sonnet: “But shoot not at me in your waken'd hate.” Ben Jonson in his preface to Volpone has a similar phraseology: it being the office of the comick poet to stirre up gentle af: fections. Mr. Theobald reads-- That weaken notion, i. e. says he, her right conception and idea of things; understanding, judgment. This reading, it must be acknowledged, derives some support from a passage in King Lear, Act II, sc. iv :-“either his notion weakens, or his discernings are lethargy'd.” But the objection to it is, that no opiates or intoxicating potions or powders of any sort can distort or pervert the intellects, but by destroying them for a, 'Tis probable, and palpable to thinking. time; nor was it ever at any time believed by the most credulous, that love-powders, as they were called could weaken the understanding, though it was formerly believed that they could fascinate the affections: or in other words, waken motion. Brabantio afterwards asserts. “ That with some mixtures powerful o'er the blood, “ He wrought upon her." (Our poet, it should be remembered, in almost all his plays uses blood for passion. See Hamlet, Act IV, sc. iv, Vol. XV; and Troi. lus and Cressida, Act II, sc. iii, Vol XII.) And one of the Se. nators asks Othello, not, whether he had weaken'd Desdemona's understanding, but whether he did by indirect and forced courses “Subdue and poison this voung maid's affections." The notion of the efficacy of love-powders was formerly so prevalent, that in the parliament summoned by K. Richard the Third, on his usurping the throne, it was publickly urged as a charge against lady Grey, that she had bewitched King Edward the Fourth, “ by strange potions and amorous charms." See Fabian, p. 495; Speed, p 913, edit 1632; and Habington's History of King Edward the Fourth, p. 35. Malone. In the passages adduced by Mr. Steevens and Mr. Malone, to prove that motion signifies lustful desires, it may be remarked that the word derives this peculiar meaning, either from some epithet, or restrictive mode of expression, with which it stands connected. But, had it been used absolutely, in that sense, with what consist. ency could Brabantio attribute the emotions of lust in his daughter, to the irritation of those verv philtres, which he, in the selfsame breath, represents as abating it? The drugs or minerals, with which Othello is charged as having abused the delicate youth of Desdemona, were supposed to have accomplished his purpose, by Charming her blood with pleasing heaviness," thereby weakening Motion, that is, subduing her MAIDEN PUDENCY, and lulling her woNTED COYNESS into a state of acqui That this is the sense of the passage, is further evident from what follows; for so bashful was she of disposition, that her MOTION I vouch again, “He wrought upon her.” Henley. 4 For an abuser &c.] The first quarto reads-Such an abuser &c. Steevens. escence. Of arts inhibited and out of warrant:- Hold your hands, To prison ; till fit time What if I do obey? 'Tis true, most worthy signior, How! the duke in council! [Exuent. 5 To bring -] The quartos read—To bear. Steevens. 6 Bond-slaves and pagans,] Mr. Theobald alters pagans to pa. geants, for this reason, “ That pagans are as strict and moral all the world over, as the most regular Christians, in the preservation of private property.” But what then? The speaker had not this high opinion of pagan morality, as is plain from hence, that this important discovery, so much to the honour of paganism, was first made by our editor. Warburton. The meaning of these expressions of Brabantio seems to have been mistaken. I believe the morality of either christians or pagans was not in our author's thoughts. He alludes to the common condition of all blacks, who come from their own country, both slaves and pagans; and uses the word in contempt of Othello and his complexion.-If this Moor is now suffered to escape with impunity, it will be such an encouragement to his black coun. trymen, that we may expect to see all the first offices of our state filled up by the pagans and bond-slaves of Africa. Steevens. |