With the Moor, say'st thou ?-Who would be a father?—
How didst thou know 't was she?-O, she deceives me a
Past thought! What said she to you?-Get more tapers;
Raise all my kindred.—Are they married, think you?

ROD. Truly, I think they are.

BRA. O heaven!-How got she out?-O treason of the blood!—
Fathers, from hence trust not your daughters' minds

ROD.

By what you see them act.-Are there not charms
By which the property of youth and maidhood
May be abus'd? Have you not read, Roderigo,
Of some such thing?

Yes, sir; I have indeed.

BRA. Call up my brother.-O, would you had had her!--
Some one way, some another.- Do you know
Where we may apprehend her and the Moor?

ROD. I think I can discover him, if you please
To get good guard, and go along with me.
BRA. Pray you, lead on. At every house I'll call ;

I may command at most;-Get weapons, hoa!
And raise some special officers of night".-
On, good Roderigo. I will deserve your pains.

[Exeunt.

SCENE II.-The same. Another Street.

Enter OTHELLO, IAGO, and Attendants with torches.

IAGO. Though in the trade of war I have slain men,
Yet do I hold it very stuff o' the conscience,
To do no contriv'd murther: I lack iniquity
Sometime to do me service: Nine or ten times

I had thought to have yerk'd him here under the ribs d.
ОTH. "T is better as it is.

The quarto reads, "Thou deceiv'st me."

Officers of night. So the quarto. The folio reads officers of might. Malone has given a quotation from the Commonwealth of Venice,' a translation from the Italian, printed in 1599, from which it appears that, the city being divided into six tribes, each tribe furnished an officer of the night, "to make rounds about his quarter, till the dawning of the day, being always guarded and attended on with weaponed officers and serjeants."

Stuff. Matter-material. The stuff of the conscience is the very substance of the conscience.

d

Iago is preparing Othello for the appearance of Roderigo with Brabantio, which he does by representing that Roderigo has communicated to him his intention to apprise Desdemona's father of her flight, and that he resented his expressions towards Othello.

And spoke such scurvy and provoking terms
Against your honour,

That, with the little godliness I have,

Are

I did full hard forbear him. But, I pray you, sir,
you fast married? Be assur'd of this a,
That the magnifico is much belov'd,
And hath, in his effect, a voice potential,
As double as the duke's: he will divorce you;
Or put upon you what restraint and grievance
The law (with all his might to enforce it on)
Will give him cable.

Отн.

Let him do his spite:
My services, which I have done the signiory,
Shall out-tongue his complaints. "T is yet to know,
(Which when I know that boasting is an honour
I shall promulgate,) I fetch my life and being
From men of royal siege; and my demerits
May speak, unbonnetedd, to as proud a fortune.
As this that I have reach'd: For know, Iago,
But that I love the gentle Desdemona,

I would not my unhousede free condition

Put into circumscription and confine

For the sea's worth. But, look! what lights come yond?

a The quarto reads--for be sure of this.

As double as the duke's. Most of the editors give this a literal construction, supposing that Shakspere adopted the popular though incorrect notion, that the doge had two voices in the senate. Capell calls as double a Grecism, signifying as large, as extensive. It is clear that Shakspere did not take the phrase in a literal sense; for, if he had supposed that the Duke had a double voice as duke, he would not have assigned the same privilege to the senator Brabantio. Siege. The quarto reads height. A siege royal was a throne, an elevated seat. We have in Spenser,

C

"A stately siege of sovereign majesty."

Unbonneted. Theobald says, to speak unbonneted is to speak with the cap off, which is directly opposed to the poet's meaning. Mr. Fuseli suggested an ingenious explanation, that as at Venice the cap or bonnet constituted an important distinction, so the demerits of Othello might speak for themselves without any extrinsic honours. Demerits is used in the sense of merits; mereo and demereo being synonymous in Latin. We have the same word in Coriolanus:'

• Johnson explains unhoused-free from domestic cares. Whalley says that Othello, talking as a soldier, means that he has no settled habitation. Mr. Hunter (Disquisition on the Tempest') points out that Shakspere "Italianates" in the use of the word unhoused, which, he adds, "to an English ear suggests nothing that a man would not willingly resign; but it would be different with an Italian." It appears to us that Othello had expressed no satisfaction at having been houseless, but that he simply uses unhoused for unmarried. The husband is the head or band of the house-the unmarried is the unhouse-banded-the unhoused.

Enter CASSIO, at a distance, and certain Officers with torches.

CAST

The duke does greet you, general;

And he requires your haste-post-haste appearance,
Even on the instant.

What is the matter, think you?

OTH.
CAS. Something from Cyprus, as I may divine:
It is a business of some heat. The galleys
Have sent a dozen sequent messengers
This very night, at one another's heels;

And many of the consulsa, rais'd and met,

Are at the duke's already: You have been hotly call'd for;

When, being not at your lodging to be found,

The senate hath sent about three several quests,

Отн.

CAS.

To search you out.

"T is well I am found by you.

[Exit.

I will but spend a word here in the house,

And go with you.

Ancient, what makes he here?

IAGO. 'Faith, he to-night hath boarded a land carack;
If it prove lawful prize he 's made for ever.

Enter BRABANTIO, RODERIGO, and Officers with torches.

IAGO. It is Brabantio :-general, be advis'd;

Consuls. In the first scene we have "the toged consuls;" doubtless the senators are meant

in both passages.

Carack. A vessel of heavy burden.

Down with him, thief! [They draw on both sides.

IAGO. You, Roderigo! Come, sir, I am for you.

Отн. Keep up your bright swords, for the dew will rust them.
Good signior, you shall more command with years

Than with your weapons.

BRA. O thou foul thief, where hast thou stow'd my daughter?
Damn'd as thou art, thou hast enchanted her :

For I'll refer me to all things of sense,
(If she in chains of magic were not bounda,)
Whether a maid so tender, fair, and happy,
So opposite to marriage, that she shunn'd
The wealthy curled darlings of our nation,
Would ever have, to incur a general mock,
Run from her guardage to the sooty bosom
Of such a thing as thou,-to fear, not to delight.
Judge me the world, if 't is not gross in sense,
That thou hast practis'd on her with foul charms;
Abus'd her delicate youth with drugs, or minerals,
That weaken motion d:-I'll have it disputed on;
"T is probable, and palpable to thinking.
I therefore apprehend and do attach thee,
For an abuser of the world, a practiser
Of arts inhibited and out of warrant:
Lay hold upon him; if he do resist,
Subdue him at his peril.

This line is wanting in the quarto.

b The quarto has darlings; the folio, dearling.

To fear. Brabantio calls Othello, a thing to terrify, not to delight.

d So the folio. The passage in which the word weaken occurs, beginning at "Judge me the world," and ending at "palpable to thinking," is not found in the quarto. The commentators, therefore, change weaken to waken, which they elucidate by three pages of notes, which are neither satisfactory in a critical point of view, nor edifying in a moral one.

1 SEN.

Indeed, they are disproportion'd;
My letters say, a hundred and seven galleys.
DUKE. And mine, a hundred forty.
2 SEN.

And mine, two hundred :

But though they jump not on a just account, (As in these cases where the aim reports, "T is oft with difference,) yet do they all confirm A Turkish fleet, and bearing up to Cyprus. DUKE. Nay, it is possible enough to judgment:

I do not so secure me in the error,

But the main article I do approve

In fearful sense.

SAILOR. [Within.] What hoa! what hoa! what hoa!

[Exeunt.

Enter Sailor.

Now? What's the business?

OFF. A messenger from the galleys.

DUKE.

SAIL. The Turkish preparation makes for Rhodes";

So was I bid report here to the state,

■ The aim reports. Aim is used in the sense of conjecture, as in the Two Gentlemen of Verona:'

"But fearing lest my jealous aim might err."