I fear, the trust Othello puts him in,
On some odd time of his infirmity,

Will shake this island.

Mon.

But is he often thus?

Iago. "Tis evermore the prologue to his sleep: He'll watch the horologe a double set',

If drink rock not his cradle.

Mon.

It were well,

The general were put in mind of it.

Perhaps, he sees it not; or his good nature
Prizes the virtue that appears in Cassio,

8

And looks not on his evils. Is not this true?

Enter RODERIGO.

Iago. How now, Roderigo?

I

[Aside to him.

pray you, after the lieutenant; go. [Exit RODERIGO. Mon. And 'tis great pity, that the noble Moor Should hazard such a place as his own second, With one of an ingraft infirmity:

It were an honest action to say

So to the Moor.

Iago.

Not I, for this fair island:

I do love Cassio well, and would do much

To cure him of this evil. But hark! what noise?

[Cry within,-Help! Help!

Re-enter CASSIO, driving in RODERIGO.

Cas. You rogue! you rascal!

Mon.

What's the matter, lieutenant?

Cas. A knave!-teach me my duty?

7 He'll watch the horologe a double set,] "Horologe" was not an uncommon word for a clock in the time of Shakespeare: to watch it "a double set," probably means to keep awake while the hands went twice round.

8 PRIZES the virtue-] The reading of the folio is here clearly to be adopted

instead of that of the two quartos, which have Praises for " Prizes."

9 Cry within,-Help! help!] This stage-direction is only in the quartos.

I'll beat the knave into a wicker bottle'.
Rod. Beat me!

Iago. Away, I say! [Aside to ROD.] go out, and cry

-a mutiny.

[Exit ROD.

Nay, good lieutenant, alas, gentlemen!-
Help, ho!-Lieutenant,-sir,-Montano,-sir ;-
Help, masters!-Here's a goodly watch, indeed!

[Bell rings.

Who's that that rings the bell ?-Diablo2, ho!
The town will rise: God's will! lieutenant, hold!
You will be sham'd for ever.

Oth.

Enter OTHELLO, and Attendants.

What is the matter here?

Mon. 'Zounds! I bleed still: I am hurt to the

death'.

Oth. Hold, for your lives!

1 a wicker bottle.] So both the quartos: the folio " The meaning is the same, a bottle made of twigs.

[He faints.

a twiggen bottle."

2 Diablo,] An exclamation employed by other dramatists. Monck Mason and Steevens observe, that "it is a mere contraction of Diavolo, the Italian word for the devil." We know not why we should go to the Italian, when Diablo is the ordinary Spanish word.

3 God's will!] Fie, fie! in the folio; and below it omits "Zounds!"

4 - I am hurt to the death.] We here have a different kind of proof of the value of the quarto, 1630: the folio, 1623, adds, by obvious error, "He dies," printing the two words in the ordinary type, and some modern editors have, therefore, considered them part of the text. They were, in fact, nothing more than a printer's blunder, which the editor of the folio, 1632, corrected by making Montano say, "I am hurt, but not to the death." The true stage-direction, for which "He dies" was, no doubt, intended, is found in the quarto, 1630, “He faints," and that we have inserted.

VOL. VII.

N n

Iago. Hold, hold, lieutenant!-sir, Montano,-gen

tlemen!

Have you forgot all sense of place and duty"?

Hold, hold! the general speaks to you: hold, for

shame!

Oth. Why, how now, ho! from whence ariseth this?
Are we turn'd Turks, and to ourselves do that,
Which heaven hath forbid the Ottomites?

For Christian shame, put by this barbarous brawl:
He that stirs next to carve for his own rage,
Holds his soul light; he dies upon his motion.-
Silence that dreadful bell! it frights the isle
From her propriety.-What is the matter, masters ?—
Honest Iago, that look'st dead with grieving,

Speak, who began this? on thy love, I charge thee.
Iago. I do not know :-friends all but now, even

now

In quarter, and in terms like bride and groom
Divesting them for bed; and then, but now,
(As if some planet had unwitted men)
Swords out, and tilting one at other's breast,
In opposition bloody. I cannot speak
Any beginning to this peevish odds;
And would in action glorious I had lost
Those legs, that brought me to a part of it.

Oth. How came it, Michael, you were thus forgot??
Cas. I pray you, pardon me; I cannot speak.
Oth. Worthy Montano, you were wont be civil;

5 Have you forgot all sense of place and duty?] Every old copy has a transposition here, which Sir T. Hanmer corrected: they read “Have you forgot all place of sense and duty?"

G

to carve FOR his own rage,] Our reading is that of the folio, 1623, confirmed by that of the quarto, 1630: the quarto, 1632, alone has “to carve forth his own rage."

7 How CAME it, Michael, you WERE thus forgot?] The commentators take no notice of a material variation here between the two quartos and the folio, the latter only reading, "How comes it, Michael, you are thus forgot?" Othello is of course referring to what has past, and ought to speak in the past tense.

8 Worthy Montano,] Montano, we may presume, had by this time somewhat recovered from his faintness.

The gravity and stillness of your youth

The world hath noted, and your name is great
In mouths of wisest censure: what's the matter,
That you unlace your reputation thus,

And spend your rich opinion, for the name
Of a night-brawler? give me answer to it.

Mon. Worthy Othello, I am hurt to danger:
Your officer, Iago, can inform you,

While I spare speech, which something now offends

me,

Of all that I do know; nor know I aught
By me that's said or done amiss this night,
Unless self-charity be sometime a vice,
And to defend ourselves it be a sin,

When violence assails us.

Oth.

Now, by heaven,

My blood begins my safer guides to rule;
And passion, having my best judgment collied3,
Assays to lead the way. If I once stir,

Or do but lift this arm, the best of you

Shall sink in my rebuke. Give me to know
How this foul rout began, who set it on;
And he that is approv'd in this offence,
Though he had twinn'd with me, both at a birth,
Shall lose me.-What! in a town of war,

Yet wild, the people's hearts brimful of fear,
To manage private and domestic quarrel,

In night, and on the court and guard of safety!!

9

my best judgment COLLIED,] So the folio: the quarto-reading cool'd seems decidedly wrong, and in order to make some sense of "collied," it is taken to mean discoloured, blackened, and so far disfigured: in "Midsummer Night's Dream," Vol. ii. p. 396, we have had "collied night" for black night. It has been suggested that "collied" was a misprint for quelled, and we own that it appears very possible. The verbs to colly and to collar, which are synonymous, and mean to blacken, as with coal-dust, are used in various parts of the North and West of England. See Holloway's General Provincial Dictionary, 8vo. 1838, where both words are found.

1 - on the court and guard of safety !] We give here the text of every old copy, which is quite intelligible, although we admit the plausibility of Malone's suggestion, that we ought to read, "on the court of guard and safety." The

"Tis monstrous.-Iago, who began it??

Mon. If partially affin'd, or leagu'd in office3, Thou dost deliver more or less than truth,

Thou art no soldier.

Iago.

Touch me not so near.

I had rather have this tongue cut from my mouth,
Than it should do offence to Michael Cassio;

Yet, I persuade myself, to speak the truth

Shall nothing wrong him. Thus it is, general.
Montano and myself being in speech,

There comes a fellow, crying out for help,

And Cassio following him with determin'd sword
To execute upon him. Sir, this gentleman
Steps in to Cassio, and entreats his pause:
Myself the crying fellow did pursue,
Lest by his clamour (as it so fell out)

The town might fall in fright: he, swift of foot,
Outran my purpose; and I return'd, the rather
For that I heard the clink and fall of swords,
And Cassio high in oath, which till to-night
I ne'er might say before. When I came back,
(For this was brief) I found them close together,
At blow and thrust, even as again they were,
When you yourself did part them.

More of this matter can I not report1:

But men are men; the best sometimes forget:-
Though Cassio did some little wrong to him,

As men in rage strike those that wish them best,
Yet, surely, Cassio, I believe, received
From him that fled some strange indignity,

"court of guard," as we have before seen, (p. 535) was a technical expression in the art of war.

2 Iago, who began IT!] In the two quartos, "it" perhaps accidentally dropped out at the end of the verse: the folio reads, "who began't." As Malone observed, to make out the line it is necessary here, as in some other places, to read "monstrous" as a trisyllable.

3 if partially AFFIN'D, or LEAGUED in office,] For the sense of "affin'd," see p. 499, and Vol. vi. p. 28. The old copies all read "league in office." CAN I NOT report :] The folio alone, " cannot I report."

4