I suppose the author wrote, for the sake of the jingle, not "potting," but "pōting,”—drinking. 337. "And give direction: and do but see his vice."

"The one as long as the other, 'tis pity of him."

These lines, though apparently exuberant, may be uttered in due time.

"And give direction, and do but see his vice." "The one as long as th' other; 'tis pity of him." In the same manner the following verse might stand:

"Will shake this island.

These redundancies, however, as it has already been remarked, though warrantable, occasionally, in dramatic verse, should not recur too often; and, in this last instance, it might easily be avoided: "Will shake this isle.

338. "And looks not on his evils; is not this true?"

A slight and common contraction is wanted: "And looks not on his evils: is't not true?" "How now, Roderigo? I pray you, after the lieutenant."

The words, "I pray you" are as unsuitable to the spirit of the scene as they are to the measure of the verse; there is neither time nor occasion for entreaty; and Roderigo only wanted his cue.

After the lieutenant."

This is managed with consummate skill:-Iago would dismiss Roderigo, from a double motive; the design to embroil him with Cassio, and the policy to prevent Roderigo's hearing the sentiments he was about to utter concerning the lieu

tenant.

339.

86

" It were an honest action, to say.”

Action," undoubtedly, may be extended, as it often is, to three syllables; but as, without necessity, it is uncouth, we might read,

"It were an honest action to say so."

"You rogue! you rascal !" &c.

The metre, in this tumultuous colloquy, might, with a little care, be redeemed:

Cas. "You rogue! you rascal!"

Mont. "

Cas.

What's the matter, lieutenant ?" "A knave! teach me my duty! I will

beat

"The knave into a twiggen bóttlě."

(Quarto, "wicker bottle.")

Cas "Dost thou prate, rogue?"

Mont. "

Nay, good lieutenant, hold,

56 I pray you hold your hand."

Cas. 66

Let me go, sir,

"Or I will knock you o'er the mazzard." Come,

Mont. "

340. "You will be sham'd for ever."

What is the matter here ?"

This exuberance is easily cleared:

"You will be sham'd for ever."

Oth. "

66

What's the matter?"

Hold, for your lives."

This hemistic and the subsequent disorder in the metre, might be prevented thus:

Oth. "Hold for your lives."

Iag.

341.

Hold, hold, lieutenant, sir, "Montano! gentlemen! have you forgot "All sense of place and duty? Hold! I say, "The general speaks to you; hold! hold! for shame!"

To carve for his own rage."

To cut-out, or shape the course of his rage. This strange phrase, which seems to be taken from the mechanic's bench, occurs in Hamlet:

"He may not, as unvalued persons do,
"Carve for himself,"

which Voltaire ludicrously interpreted, he may

not cut his own meat.

343. "How comes it, Michael, you are thus forgot?"

The quarto, much better, I think, reads, "How came it, Michael, you were thus forgot."

Cassio, at present, is not "forgot," but the recent disorder calls forth the question, how he had so forgotten himself and his duty as to suffer this uproar to take place, or be concerned in it.

"In mouths of wisest censure."

The quarto:

"In men of wisest censure."

Perhaps we should read:

"With men of wisest censure,"

Or, "'Mongst men," &c.

"That you unlace your reputation thus.”

Mr. Tooke's interpretation of this passage, in the Diversions of Purley, may be right-unless, or onles (dismiss) from the Saxon verb, onleran. 344. "And passion, having my best judgment

collied."

The sense by Mr. Steevens annexed to "collied," here, besmutted, or blackened, is extremely forced and unnatural. The quarto reads, "cool'd," but I believe the true word is "quell'd," which gives the sense, precisely, that is implied in the context:

Assays to lead the way."

I find that I have been anticipated in this conjecture; and am therefore the more satisfied of its truth.

345. "Shall lose me.-What! in a town of war." There has been a syllable lost here perhaps the line ran thus,

"Shall lose me.-What! here! in a town of war." "I had rather have this tongue cut from my mouth."

347.

It has been very justly observed by Dr. Lowth, that the common expression, "I had rather" seems to be a corruption of "would rather," induced by mistaking the contraction of “would,'

in the latter phrase, "I'd rather," i. e. I would rather, for I had rather:-in the present case, at least, we must point,

"I'd rather have this tongue cut from

my mouth." 348. "What's the matter, dear?"

"Dear" only overloads the line, and is an interpolation.

Lead him off."

It is, I think, evident, as Mr. Malone has observed, that this was some stage direction which afterwards crept into the text: it is utterly useless, and an awkward excrescence.

"What, are you hurt, lieutenant ?”

Cas. Ay, past all surgery."

Ay" should be ejected.

"More offence in that, than in reputation."

"Reputation," humorously, for loss of reputation; as, in K. Henry IV. Falstaff uses "security," for the requisition of security:-" I send to him for satin, and he sends me security."

349. Oft got without merit, and lost without deserving."

This is vicious phraseology; "deserving" stands as if it were a noun, and then it might as well have been "merit" again; whereas it has only a participial sense, implying, without the person's deserving to lose it.

"I will rather sue to be despised, than to deceive so good a commander," &c.

Surely this repetition of the particle "to" is