Iag. 409. Nay, patience, yet, "I say, my lord, your mind, perhaps, may change." "And to obey shall be in me remorse, This passage, which has exercised the sagacity, and wearied the conjecture of so many able commentators, will at last, perhaps, admit of a very plain interpretation. Iago, always careful to exhibit a character of moderation and humanity, cannot engage in a work of assassination, without expressing some decent compunctionwe have heard him say, 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 murder." And now, while in the ardour of pretended friendship, he gives up "The execution of his wit, hands, heart, "To wrong'd Othello's service," and undertakes, at his desire, "what bloody work soever" (so the quarto), he does not omit the decorum of affecting a reluctance—reluctance, however, that he will stifle in a sense of duty to his commander, and generous resentment of his friend's injuries, At Othello's command he will murder Cassio; but he will do it with the feeling of a man not naturally ferocious. Do you command, says he, the performance shall be mine, though not without that horror and compunction which, in a humane bosom, must necessarily accompany the deed: obedience will resolve itself into remorse, and the pangs of remorse I will en dure for your advantage-I will impose obedience upon my conscience, as an act of duty. 411. "Within these three days let me hear thee Iag. say, "That Cassio's not alive." My friend is dead; 'tis done," &c. These words of Iago appear to have suggested a striking passage in the famous speech of Lord Clive, ascribed to the device of the then Mr. Wedderburne,-"Ali Cawn was my friend, whom I loved, but the service of my country required that he should die-and he was dead." both these passages, as well as Pope's, But "Let spades be trumps, she said—and trumps they were." and Dr. Johnson's, "And bid him go to hell-to hell he goes." are, perhaps, taken from the same sublime origi nal: "Sit lux, et lux fuit.” "That Cassio's not alive." Further disorder: I would propose: Iag. "That Cassio's not alive." My friend is dead, ""Tis done at your request; but let her live? Oth. Damn her, lewd minx! O, damn her! damn her! live! "Come, go with me," &c. In the folio, as here, "damn her!" stands in repetition. "I am your own for ever.” This vapid hemistic I take to be interpolated: the line might readily have been completed: My gracious lord, I am your own for ever. SCENE IV. This Scene, between Desdemona and the Clown, is entirely useless. 413. "Where should I lose that handkerchief?" Desdemona must have mentioned this loss previous to her entrance on the stage, and therefore her repeating the word handkerchief, here, is awkward and superfluous :-the clumsy redundancy of the verse bespeaks corruption: I suppose it stood thus: Desd. "Where should I los't, Emilia?" I know not, madam." "Look where he comes." This will not accord with the metre; we might read: "Drew all such humours from him." Emil. "Here he comes. 66 Well, my good lord.” "Good," here, is not good. "How do you, Desdemona?" Desd. " 414. "A sequester from liberty, fasting and prayer.' I suppose the author wrote, metrically, "A sequester from liberty, prayer, fasting." "A frank one." This is deficient:-I suppose it was, "A very frank one." Desd." You, indeed, may say so." 416. "What promise, chuck ?" Here is more omission, and, of course, more subsequent disorder :-I would offer, with my premised distrust, "What promise, chuck?" Desd. " Why Cassio's reinstatement; "I've sent to bid him come and speak with you." 418. "Lend me thy handkerchief." All that follows, for several lines, is disorder, which I would thus regulate: "Lend me thy handkerchief." 419. "A sibyl that had number'd in the world, "The sun to make two hundred com passes." This, certainly, is obscure and embarrassed; but I believe the construction is this-a sibyl that in the world had counted the sun to make (i. e. to have made) two hundred compasses. 421. "Ha! wherefore?" This hemistic might find accommodation in the preceding line: Desd. "Then would to heaven I had never seen't." Oth. "Ha! wherefore ?" "Heaven bless us !" Here, again, something seems to have been lost: perhaps this regulation may be admitted: "Heaven bless us! how now! what is this, my lord ?" Oth. “ Sáy you.” It's not lost; but what an if it Desd. " The repetition of "come" is interpolation: "Come, you'll ne'er meet a more sufficient man." "Shar'd dangers with you." We might regulate the metre thus : Desd. "Shar'd dangers with you." Oth, Th' handkerchief." |