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And heaven defends your good souls, that you think

In me defunct &c.

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- youthful heats,

"That look no further than your outward form,
"Are long since buried in me."

Timoleon is the speaker.

In King Henry V, also, we have the following passage:
"The organs, though defunct and dead before,
"Break up their drowsy grave,

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Steevens.

I would venture to make the two last lines change places:
I therefore beg it not,

To please the palate of my appetite,

Nor to comply with heat, the young affects;
But to be free and bounteous to her mind,
In my defunct and proper satisfaction.

And would then rcommend it to consideration, whether the word defunct (which would be the only remaining difficulty) is not capable of a signification, drawn from the primitive sense of its Latin original, which would very well agree with the context.

Tyrwhitt.

I would propose to read-In my defenct, or defenc'd, &c. i. e. I do not beg her company merely to please the palate of my appetite, nor to comply with the heat of lust which the young man affects, i. e. loves and is fond of, in a gratification which I have by marriage defenc'd, or inclosed and guarded, and made my own property. Unproper beds, in this play, means, beds not peculiar or appropriate to the right owner, but common to other occupiers. In The Merry Wives of Windsor the marriage vow was represented by Ford as the ward and defence of purity or conjugal fidelity: "I could drive her then from the ward of her purity, her reputation, and a thousand other her defences, which are now too strongly embattled against me." The word affect is more generally, among ancient authors, taken in the construction which I have given to it, than as Mr. Theobald would interpret it. It is so in this very play, "Not to affect many proposed matches," means not to like, or be fond of many proposed matches.

I am persuaded that the word defunct must be at all events ejected. Othello talks here of his appetite, and it is very plain that Desdemona to her death was fond of him after wedlock, and that he loved her. How then could his conjugal desires be dead or defunct? or how could they be defunct or discharged and performed when the marriage was consummated? Tollet.

Othello here supposes, that his petition for the attendance of his bride, might be ascribed to one of these two motives :-either solicitude for the enjoyment of an unconsummated and honourable marriage; -or the mere gratification of a sensual and selfish passion. But, as neither was the true one, he abjures them both:

"Vouch with me heaven, I therefore beg it NOT
"To please the palate of my appetite;

I will your serious and great business scant,

"NOR to comply with heat (———————

-) and proper satisfaction."

The former, having nothing in it unbecoming, he simply disclaims; but the latter, ill according with his season of life (for Othello was now declined into the vale years) he assigns a reason for renouncing

the young affects,

In me defunct.

As if he had said, "I have outlived that wayward impulse of passion, by which younger men are stimulated: those

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youthful heats,

"That look no further than the OUTWARD FORM,
"Are long since buried in me."

The supreme object of my heart is—

to be free and bounteous to her MIND,

By YOUNG affects, the poet clearly means those "YOUTHFUL lusts” [τας ΝΕΩΤΕΡΙΚΑΣ επιθυμίας, cupiditates rei nova, thence JUVENILES, and therefore EFFRENES cupiditates,] which St. Paul admonishes Timothy to fly from, and the Romans to MORTIFY.

Henley.

For the emendation now offered, [disjunct] I am responsible. Some emendation is absolutely necessary, and this appears to me the least objectionable of those which have been proposed. Dr. Johnson, in part following Mr. Upton, reads and regulates the passage thus:

Nor to comply with heat (the young affects

In me defunct) and proper satisfaction.

To this reading there are, I think, three strong objections. The first is, the suppression of the word being before defunct, which is absolutely necessary to the sense, and of which the omission is so harsh, that it affords an argument against the probability of the proposed emendation. The second and the grand objection is, that it is highly improbable that Othello should declare on the day of his marriage that heat and the youthful affections were dead or defunct in him; that he had outlived the passions of youth. He himself (as Mr. Theobald has observed) informs us afterwards, that he is "declined into the vale of years;" but adds, at the same time, " yet that 's not much." This surely is a decisive proof that the text is corrupt. My third objection to this regulation is, that by the introduction of a parenthesis, which is not found in the old copies, the words and proper satisfaction are so unnaturally disjoined from those with which they are connected in sense, as to form a most lame and impotent conclusion; to say nothing of the aukwardness of using the word proper without any possessive pronoun prefixed to it.

All these difficulties are done away, by retaining the original word my, and reading disjunct, instead of defunct; and the meaning will be, I ask it not for the sake of my separate and private enjoyment, by the gratification of appetite, but that I may indulge the wishes of my wife.

For she is with me: No, when light-wing'd toys

The young affects, may either mean the affections or passions of youth, (considering affects as a substantive) or these words may be connected with heat, which immediately precedes: " I ask it not, for the purpose of gratifying that appetite which peculiarly stimulates the young.” So, in Spenser's Fairy Queen, B, V, c. ix: "Layes of sweete love, and youth's delightful heat.”

Mr. Tyrwhitt "recommends it to consideration, whether the word defunct, is not capable of a signification, drawn from the primitive sense of its Latin original, which would very well agree

with the context."

The mere English reader is to be informed, that defunctus in Latin signifies performed, accomplished, as well as dead but is it probable that Shakspeare was apprized of its bearing that signification? In Bullokar's English Expositor, 8vo. 1616, the work of a physician and a scholar, defunct is only defined by the word dead; nor has it, I am confident, any other meaning annexed to it in any dictionary or book of the time. Besides; how, as Mr. Toilet has observed, could his conjugal duties be said to be discharged or performed, at a time hen his marriage was not yet consummated?-On this last circumstance, however, I do not insist, as Shakspeare is very licentious in the use of participles, and might have employed the past for the present: but the former objection appears to me fatal.

Proper is here and in other places used for peculiar. In this play we have unproper beds; not peculiar to the rightful owner, but common to him and others.

In the present tragedy we have many more uncommon words than disjunct: as facile, agnize, acerb, sequestration, injointed, congregated, guttered, sequent, extincted, exsufflicate, indign, segregated, &c.-Iago in a subsequent scene says to Othello, let us be conjunctive in our revenge" and our poet has conjunct in King Lear, and disjoin and disjunctive in two other plays. In King John we have adjunct used as an adjective:

Though that my death be adjunct to the act, --.” and in Hamlet, we find disjoint, employed in like manner: "Or thinking

Malone.

"Our state to be disjoint, and out of frame." As it is highly probable this passage will prove a lasting source of doubt and controversy, the remarks of all the commentators are left before the publick. Sir Thomas Hanmer's distinct, however, appearing to me as apposite a change as Mr. Malone's synonymous disjunct, I have placed the former in our text, though, perhaps the old reading ought not to have been disturbed, as in the opinion of more than one critick it has been satisfactorily explained by Dr. Johnson and Mr. Henley. Steevens.

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defend &c.] To defend, is to forbid. So, in Chaucer's Wife of Bathes Prologue, Mr. Tyrwhitt's edit. ver. 5641: "Wher can ye seen in any maner age "That highe God defended mariage,

Of feather'd Cupid seel with wanton dulness
My speculative and active instruments,"
That my disports corrupt and taint my business,
Let housewives make a skillet of my helm,
And all indign and base adversities

Make head against my estimation!"

Duke. Be it as you shall privately determine, Either for her stay, or going: the affair cries-haste, And speed must answer it; you must hence to-night. Des. To-night, my lord?

Duke.

Oth.

This night.

With all my heart.

Duke. At nine i' the morning here we 'll meet again. Othello, leave some officer behind,

And he shall our commission bring to you;
With such things else of quality and respect,

"By expresse word?"

From defendre, Fr. Steevens.

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when light-wing'd toys

Of feather'd Cupid seel with wanton dulness

My speculative and active instruments,] Thus the folio, except that instead of active instruments, it has offic'd instrument. Malone. For a particular explanation of the verb-to seel, the reader is referred to Vol. VII, p. 139, n. 5.

The quarto reads:

when light-wing'd toys

And feather'd Cupid foils with wanton dulness
My speculative and active instruments

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All these words (in either copy) mean no more than this:-When the pleasures and idle toys of love make me unfit either for seeing the duties of my office, or for the ready performance of them, &c. So, in Chapman's translation of the eighteenth Book of Homer's Odyssey:

and were palsied

"In his mind's instruments." Steevens.

Speculative instruments, in Shakspeare's language, are the eyes; and active instruments, the hands and feet. So, in Coriolanus:

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"Did see, hear, devise, instruct, walk, feel," &c.

To seel, is to close the eyelids of a hawk by running a thread through them. As it is here metaphorically used, it applies very properly to the speculative instruments; but foils, the reading of the quarto, agrees better with active instruments.

Wanton dulness is dulness arising from wanton indulgences.

Malone.

17 my estimation!] Thus the folio; the quarto-reputation.

Steevens.

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Please your grace, my ancient;

A man he is of honesty, and trust:

To his conveyance I assign my wife,

With what else needful your good grace shall think
To be sent after me.

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And, noble signior, [To BRA.

Good night to every one.

If virtue no delighted beauty lack,8

Your son-in-law is far more fair than black.

1 Sen. Adieu, brave Moor! use Desdemona well. Bra. Look to her, Moor; have a quick eye to see;9 She has deceiv'd her father, and may thee.

[Exeunt Duke, Senators, Officers, &c.

Oth. My life upon her faith.-Honest Iago,
My Desdemona must I leave to thee:

I pr'ythee, let thy wife attend on her;
And bring them after1 in the best advantage.2.
Come, Desdemona; I have but an hour
Of love, of worldly matters and direction,
To spend with thee: we must obey the time.

Rod. Iago.

[Exeunt ОтH. and DES.

Iago. What say'st thou, noble heart?

8 If virtue no delighted beauty lack,] The meaning, I believe, is, if virtue comprehends every thing in itself, then your virtuous son-in-law of course is beautiful: he has that beauty which delights every one. Delighted, for delighting; Shakspeare often uses the active and passive participles indiscriminately. Of this practice I have already given many instances. The same sentiment seems to occur in Twelfth Night:

"In nature is no blemish, but the mind;

"None can be call'd deform'd, but the unkind:

"Virtue is beauty

Steevens.

Delighted is used by Shakspeare in the sense of delighting, or delightful. See Cymbeline, Act V:

reads:

"Whom best I love, I cross, to make my gift,
"The more delay'd, delighted." Tyrwhitt.

have a quick eye to see;] Thus the eldest quarto. The folio

if thou hast eyes to see.

Steevens.

1 And bring them after-] Thus the folio. The quarto, 1622, reads-and bring her after. Malone.

2 best advantage.] Fairest opportunity. Johnson.

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