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"Most heathenish, and most gross."

This incomplete line is not of value enough to encumber the text.

"O the pernicious caitiff!"

There seems to be no kind of reason for this exclamation of Othello, in this place-all that had been said was, that a discontented paper had been found, and that Iago had removed the discontent Othello would have waved all other circumstances, and come directly to the point; perhaps thus:

Pr'ythee tell me,

"How came you, Cassio," &c.

If this is not admissible, we may, at least, reject the superfluous and burthensome epithet, pernicious," and read,

66

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This appears to be an awkward interpolation: if Roderigo, in his dying moments, had designed to accuse lago of having murdered him, he would hardly have minced the matter, by saying he had hurt him; he would at once have said, Iago killed me:-but any thing to that purpose by the poet himself seems either to have been neglected or lost, and the passage must remain thus:

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Even now he spake,

Long seeming dead, Tago set him on."

“To the Venetian state: come, bring him away." Come," here, should begone.

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"Nor set down aught in malice: then must you speak."

The particle "then" is useless and burthensome; one of the quartos, instead of "must you," reads "you must"-and then the line may Be,

"Nor set down ought in malice-you must speak."

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The passion here, and the natural pause in the middle of the line, may perhaps justify the hypermeter-certainly neither the words "of one,' nor "subdued," can be ejected without injury.

521.

Drop tears as fast as the Arabian trees "Their medicinal gums."

In the Fourth Book of Paradise Lost we meet with

"Groves whose rich trees wept odorous gums and balm."

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It is the opinion of Mr. Strutt, that this was originally the end of Othello's speech, and that what Lodovico and Montano were to down," was the act of suicide;-and, indeed, there does not appear to be any thing else to which the words will so properly apply.

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O, bloody period!"

All, that's spoke, is marr❜d.”

This hemistic, perhaps, was once completed

thus:

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Bloody indeed! All that is spoke is marr❜d.”

“I kiss'd thee, ere I kill'd thee. No way

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but this,

"Killing myself, to die upon a kiss.”

As this quaint antithesis depends upon "kissing" and "killing," and "thee" and "myself," we might, perhaps, with more point, as well as smoothness, read,

"I kiss'd thee, ere I kill'd. No way but this, Killing myself," &c.

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i. e. Before, I kissed and killed; now, I kill and kiss.

Το you, lord governor," &c.

Rymer's censure of the character of Iago is unfounded, and deserved no answer; but Dr. Warburton's answer to it is not just: had there been no other soldier in the play but Iago, no solid objection would have lain against his character; it would not have been to be inferred thence, that all soldiers are villains. In The Eunuch of Terence, there is no soldier but Thraso; but who ever dreamt of concluding, on that account, that all soldiers are vain-glorious boasters? Shakspeare, says Dr. Johnson, always makes nature predominate over accident. See Johnson's Preface, Vol. I. Prolegomena, P. 252, Reed's Ed. LORD CHEDWORTH.

If Shakspeare's dramas were contemplated with a view to their distinct, comparative merits, this and Macbeth, I suppose, would generally be allowed to have a decisive pre-eminence over all the rest: but, of these two, it may be disputed which is the nobler composition, or displays most con

spicuously the matchless genius of the author.The story of the Moor, being a domestic one, more readily engages our sympathy in the progress of his fortunes, than the ambitious and sanguinary projects of the Scottish usurper. Pity, in this tragedy, no less than terror, is powerfully excited; while the subject and conduct of the rival play precludes the indulgence of tender sentiment, and will not allow us a moment's relaxation from that " gelid horror" in which we are enchained, from the beginning to the end of that wonderful performance. Othello lays siege to the bosom; Macbeth to the head: one agitates, softens, and subdues the heart; the other elevates and astonishes the imagination. It is something like the difference between the acting of the late Mrs. Crawford, and that of Mrs. Siddons, If this be a more faithful, varied, and vivid portraiture of men, their actions, and their motives, the other is, confessedly, a more sublime display of bold poetic fancy; one has more truth, the other more invention: Othello is rather what the poet found; Macbeth, what he created; and, taking every circumstance into account on both sides, I scruple not to give the palm of preference to Macbeth.

ROMEO AND JULIET.

14.

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ACT I. SCENE I.

Profaners of this neighbour-stained steel."

This is quaintly expressed; the profanation is, the staining with neighbours' blood those swords which should be devoted to a different purpose: but this line, with the four that follow it, additions after the first copy, would perhaps be better omitted: they are of themselves worthless, and would not be heard during the conflict of the factions.

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"Which, as he breath'd defiance to my ears, "He swung about his head, and cut the winds,

"Who, nothing hurt withal, hiss'd him in

scorn."

This thought occurs in other places:

It is as the air invulnerable;

"And our vain blows, malicious mockery."

Hamlet.

And in Macbeth:

A

As easy may'st thou the entrenchant air

"With thy keen sword impress, as make me

bleed."

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