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315. "Ay, madam."

This fragment, I suppose, belonged to the following line:

Iago." Ay, madam."

Desd. "I'm not well; but I beguile."

"It plucks out brains and all.”—

I suppose the meaning is-My inventions are dragged forth, and I am left destitute of ideas. 316. "Put on the vouch of very malice itself.”

To put on, says Mr. Steevens, is to incite ; and so, undoubtedly, it sometimes is; but does it not here more plainly imply-" to wear" the vouch, to exhibit the testimony? Malice, to be "incited" provoked," does not require such "authority of her merit."

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"Put on the vouch of very malice itself." This is a law phrase: the meaning is one that, confiding in her merit, did justly put herself on the vouch of very malice itself: a vouchee is a person in a feigned action, who is called to establish a fact asserted by another. B. STRUTT.

317. "She was a wight,-if ever such wight were,-"

Desd. "To do what?"

How should Desdemona know, thus exactly, the form in which Iago's speech was to proceed? -he had only said, "She was a wight, if ever such wight were."- -Well! Desdemona would naturally exclaim, upon the pause, proceed-let us hear the rest; but she could not be apprised that the "wight" was going to do any more than

to suffer any thing. Is it not probable, the author pointed the passage thus ?

"She was a wight, if ever such wight were, "To"

The essay is extemporaneous; and Iago has already said, he is no expert poet; he therefore pauses for a concluding thought and expression— "To'

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What? exclaims Desdemona; and then Iago, with some humour, at once disappoints her by his "lame and impotent conclusion."

319. "O, my fair warrior!"

I believe, notwithstanding Mr. Steevens's quotation, that Othello calls his wife a warrior, because she had embarked with him on a warlike expedition. LORD CHEDWORTH.

320. "If it were now to die."

This is hardly a warrantable expression; the infinitive mood is, indeed, sometimes made a noun-but how will the sentence appear, if we substitute "death," for "to die?" perhaps it is elliptical, for, "If it were now (the time) to

die."

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If it were now to die," &c.

It is remarkable, that, in the passage quoted from Terence, by Mr. Malone, as a parallel to this, "interfeci" is printed for "interfici," in every one of these three editions. Theobald reads, "If I were now to die," which is easier than the other reading, "it:" if, however, we continue to read "it," the passage is sufficiently intelligible: it seems to be a Latinism :

"Si jam moriendum fuerit, si moriendum est.

pro Te."

Quint. Curt.

LORD CHEDWORTH.

46 Amen to that, sweet powers!"

The omission of " to that," which is quite superfluous, would reform the metre:

"E'en as our days do grow!"
Amen, sweet powers!"

"That e'er our hearts shall make !"

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O, you are well tun'd now."

"O" has no business here but to interrupt the

verse.

Again :

"Come, let's to the castle."

"Come should be dismissed:

"As honest as I am."

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Let's to the castle."

News, friends; our wars are done.”

Rowe's reading, "Now friends" should be adopted this was no news now, as the messenger had told it before:

"News, lords, our wars are done.”

322. "Honey, you shall be well desir'd."

Honey" is, at this day, in Ireland, a common term of endearment.

"I have found great love amongst them." The antecedent to "them" is too arbitrarily implied in Cyprus-" The people of Cyprus."

324.

"That has an eye can stamp and counterfeit advantages, though true advantage never present itself."

He will interpret her looks of affable innocence into signals for solicitation; and his address and impudence will support him in taking advantage of his feigned mistake.

326. "Whose qualification shall come into no true taste again," &c.

I do not think that either Mr. Steevens or Dr. Johnson has cleared this passage:-is not this the meaning? Whose office will not be relished by them, until the indignity thrown upon it by Cassio, shall be atoned by his disgrace.

329. "Make the Moor thank me, love me, and reward me,

"For

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This part of Iago's conduct has always appeared to me to have been either mismanaged or neglected by the poet, there are no sufficient motives apparent for this excess of malignity: jealousy, indeed, a real jealousy, might do much, as with Othello: but that pernicious affection is so faint in Iago's breast, and has so little influence on his actions throughout the play, that, if he had not himself hinted at it in two places, nobody could suppose that it at all belonged to him: as for his wife, he seems perfectly indifferent towards her; and though he tells us once that he loves Desdemona, we see no effort made to prevail with her, nor the slightest solicitation; and Cassio, as

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well as the Moor, is " suspected" of wearing his night-cap, without any corresponding manners between the parties, to render the fact probable.

'Tis here, but yet confus'd."

This passage seems to have suggested an idea in one of Glenalvon's soliloquies, in Douglas, where it is amplified and illustrated by a simile, which is beautiful in itself, but whether very properly introduced, may, perhaps, be doubted: "Darkly a project peers upon my mind, "Like the red moon, when rising in the east, "Cross'd and divided by strange-colour'd clouds." LORD CHEDWORTH.

SCENE III.

333. "As my young mistress' dog.

mistress' dog. Now, my

sick fool, Roderigo."

The excess of this line might be lopped thus: "As my young mistress' dog-my fool Roderigo." "Hold their honours in a wary distance." Keep carefully aloof from any thing that might seem derogatory to their honour.

334

They have given me a rouse."

A rouse, I believe, is only a stimulus, a dose that bestirs and agitates the spirits; as in Hamlet:

"The king doth wake to-night, and takes his

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