Each drop she falls3 would prove a crocodile :— Out of my sight! Des. I will not stay to offend you. [Going. Lod. Truly, an obedient lady: I do beseech your lordship, call her back. Oth. Mistress, Des. Oth. My lord? What would you with her, sir? Lod. Who, I, my lord? Oth. Ay; you did wish, that I would make her turn: Sir, she can turn, and turn, and yet go on, And turn again; and she can weep, sir, weep; And she 's obedient, as you say,-obedient,Very obedient;-Proceed you in your tears.5Concerning this, sir,-O well-painted passion! I am commanded home :-Get you away; demona, would generate a crocodile, the most deceitful of all animals, and whose own tears are proverbially fallacious. "It is written," says Bullokar," that he will weep over a man's head when he hath devoured the body, and then he will eat up the head too. Wherefore in Latin there is a proverbe, crocodili lachrymæ, crocodile's tears, to signifie such tears as are fained, and spent only with intent to deceive, or doe harme." Engüsh Expositor, 8vo. 1616. It appears from this writer, that a dead crocodile, "but in perfect forme," of about nine feet long, had been exhibited in London, in our poet's time. Malone. 3 Each drop she falls -] To fall is here a verb active. So, in The Tempest: 66 when I rear my hand, do you the like, "To fall it on Gonzalo." Steevens. 4 Sir, she can turn, &c.] So, in King Henry VI, P. I : "Done like a Frenchman; turn and turn again." Steevens. 5 Proceed you in your tears.] I cannot think that the poet meant to make Othello bid Desdemona to continue weeping, which proceed you in your tears, (as the passage is at present pointed) must mean. He rather would have said: -Proceed you in your tears 2 What! will you still continue to be a hypocrite by a display of this well-painted passion? Warner. I think the old punctuation the true one. Malone. I am commanded home:] Thus the folio. The quarto, 1622, reads, perhaps better: I am commanded here-Get you away, &c. The alteration, I suspect, was made, from the editor of the folio not perceiving that an abrupt sentence was intended. Malone. I am commanded here, (without the least idea of an abrupt I'll send for you anon.-Sir, I obey the mandate, You are welcome, sir, to Cyprus.-Goats and monkies !8 sentence) may be an indignant sentiment of Othello:-" I have an officer here placed over my head; I am now under the command of another:" i. e. of Cassio, to whom the government of Cyprus was just transferred. Steevens. 7 Cassio shall have my place.] Perhaps this is addressed to Desdemona, who had just expressed her joy on hearing Cassio was deputed in the room of her husband. Her innocent satisfaction in the hope of returning to her native place, is construed by Othello into the pleasure she received from the advancement of his rival. Steevens. 8 Goats and monkies!] In this exclamation Shakspeare has shown great art. Iago, in the first scene in which he endeavours to awaken his suspicion, being urged to give some evident proof of the guilt of Cassio and Desdemona, tells him it were impossible to have ocular demonstration of it, though they should be "as prime as goats, as hot as monkies."-These words we may suppose, still ring in the ears of Othello, who being now fully convinced of his wife's infidelity, rushes out with this emphatick exclamation:-Iago's words were but too true; now indeed I am convinced that they are as hot as goats and mon kies." Malone. Though the words of Othello, cited by Mr. Malone, could not have escaped the deliberate reader's memory, a reference to a distant scene, but ill agrees with the infuriation of Othello's mind. His fancy, haunted by still growing images of lewdness, would scarce have expressed its feelings in recollected phraseology. Steevens. The shot of accident, nor dart of chance, Could neither graze, nor pierce ?] I cannot see, for my heart, the difference betwixt the shot of accident and dart of chance. The words and things they imply are purely synonymous; but that the poet intended two different things seems plain from the discretive adverb. Chance may afflict a man in some circumstances; but other distresses are to be accounted for from a different cause. I am persuaded our author wrote: Iago. He is much chang'd. Lod. Are his wits safe? is he not light of brain? Iago. He is that he is; I may not breathe my censure. What he might be,-if, what he might, he is not,-I would to heaven, he were. Lod. What, strike his wife! Iago. 'Faith, that was not so well; Yet 'would I knew, That stroke would prove the worst. Lod. Is it his use? Or did the letters work upon his blood, Iago. Alas, alas! It is not honesty in me, to speak What I have seen and known. You shall observe him; And his own courses will denote him so, That I may save my speech: Do but go after, And mark how he continues. Lod. I am sorry, that I am deceiv'd in him. [Exeunt. SCENE II. A Room in the Castle,1 Enter OTHELLO and EMILIA. Oth. You have seen nothing then? The shot of accident, nor dart of change, &c. And, in a number of other places, our poet industriously puts these two words in opposition to each other. Theobald. To graze is not merely to touch superficially, [as Dr. Warburton has stated] but to strike not directly, not so as to bury the body of the thing striking in the matter struck. Theobald trifles, as is usual. Accident and chance may admit a subtle distinction; accident may be considered as the act, and chance as the power or agency of fortune; as, It was by chance that this accident befel me. At least, if we suppose all corrupt that is inaccurate, there will be no end of emendation. Johnson. I do not see the least ground for supposing any corruption in this passage. As pierce relates to the dart of chance, so graze is referred to the shot of accident. The expression is still used; we still say he was grazed by a bullet. For graze, Dr. Warburton arbitrarily substituted—raze. Malone. A Room in the Castle.] There are great difficulties in ascertaining the place of this scene. Near the close of it, Iago says to Desdemona, "Go in, and weep not," which would lead us to place it in the court before Othello's castle. These words may Emil. Nor ever heard; nor ever did suspect. Emil. Never, my lord. Never. Oth. To fetch her fan, her gloves, her mask, nor no thing? Emil. Never, my lord. Oth. That 's strange. Emil. I durst, my lord, to wager she is honest, Let heaven requite it with the serpent's curse! There's no man happy; the purest of their wives? Oth. Bid her come hither;-go.-[Exit EMIL. She says enough;-yet she 's a simple bawd, indeed be explained to mean, "Go into the supper-room" (though I do not think that the meaning): but immediately afterwards Roderigo enters, and converses with Iago, which decisively ascertains the scene not to be in Othello's house: for Roderigo, who had given the first intelligence to Brabantio, of his daughter's flight, and had shortly afterwards drawn his sword on Othello and his partisans, certainly would not take the liberty of walking into his house at pleasure. On the other hand, what Othello says early in the scene to Emilia "Leave procreants alone, and shut the door," and his subsequent address to her as he goes out, as decisively point out a room in Othello's castle as the place of the scene; and compel us to place the several interlocutors there, however inconsistent with Roderigo's entry, and Iago's address to Desdemona. The truth is, that our poet and his audience, in this instance,. as in many others, were content, from want of scenery, to consider the very same spot, at one and at the same time, as the outside and inside of a house. Malone. 2 of their wives-] Thus the folio. The quarto, 1622 reads of her sex. Malone. That cannot say as much. This is a subtle whore, And yet she 'll kneel, and pray; I have seen her do . Des. My lord, what is your will? Oth. Des. What is your pleasure? Oth. Look in my face. Pray, chuck, come hither. Let me see your eyes; [To EMIL. What horrible fancy 's this? [Exit EMIL. Des. Upon my knees, what doth your speech import? I understand a fury in your words, But not the words.3 Oth. Why, what art thou? Des. And loyal wife. Oth. Your wife, my lord; your true Come, swear it, damn thyself; Lest, being like one of heaven, the devils themselves Should fear to seize thee: therefore be double-damn'd, Swear-thou art honest. Des. Heaven doth truly know it. Oth. Heaven truly knows, that thou art false as hell. Des. To whom, my lord? with whom? How am I false? Oth. O Desdemona!-away! away! away! Des. Alas, the heavy day!--Why do you weep? Am I the occasion of these tears, my lord? If, haply, you my father do suspect, An instrument of this your calling back, Lay not your blame on me; if you have lost him, Oth. Had it pleas'd heaven To try me with affliction; had he rain'd All kinds of sores, and shames, on my bare head; Given to captivity me and my utmost hopes; 3 But not the words.] This line is added out of the first edi tion. Pope. |