Enter RODERIGO and IAGO.

ROD. Tush!* never tell me; I take it much unkindly

That thou, Iago, who hast had my purse
As if the strings were thine, shouldst know of

this,

IAGO. 'S blood, but you 'll not hear me ;If ever I did dream of such a matter,

Abhor me.

ROD. Thou told'st me, thou didst hold him in thy hate.

(*) First folio omits, Tush. (†) First folio omits, 'S blood.

a And, in conclusion,-] This hemistich is not found in the folio 1623.

IAGO. Despise me, if I do not. Three great ones of the city,

In personal suit to make me his lieutenant,
Off-capp'd to him :-and, by the faith of man,
I know my price, I am worth no worse a place :-
But he, as loving his own pride and purposes,
Evades them with a bombast circumstance,
Horribly stuff'd with epithets of war,
And, in conclusion,"

Nonsuits my mediators; for, Certes, says he,
I have already chose my officer.

And what was he?

(*) The quartos, Oft capt.

Forsooth, a great arithmetician,
One Michael Cassio, a Florentine,a
A fellow almost damn'd in a fair wife;
That never set a squadron in the field,
Nor the division of a battle knows

More than a spinster; unless the bookish theoric,
Wherein the tongued consuls can propose
As masterly as he mere prattle, without practice,
Is all his soldiership. But he, sir, had the election:
And I,--of whom his eyes had seen the proof
At Rhodes, at Cyprus, and on other grounds
Christian* and heathen,-must be be-lee'd and
calm'd

By debitor-and-creditor: this counter-caster,
He, in good time, must his lieutenant be,
And I, (God bless the mark!) his Moorship's

aa Florentine, Are we quite assured Iago means by this expression merely that Cassio was a native of Florence? The system of book-keeping called Italian Book keeping came, as is well known, originally from Florence; and he may not improbably use "Florentine," as he employs arithmetician,” “debitor-anderetitor," and "counter-caster." in a derogatory sense to denote the mercantile origin and training which he chooses to attribute to his rival.

b A fellow almost damn'd in a fair wife.-] This line has perplexed the commentators not a little. Tyrwhitt's conjecture that "wife" was a misprint of life, and that the allusion is to the judgment denounced in the Gospel against those of whom all men speak well, was in high favour at one time, but has long been disregarded; the impression now is that lago refers to a report, which he subsequently speaks of, that Cassio was on the point of marrying the courtezan Bianca. To this it is objected, and the objection seems unanswerable, that there is no reason for supposing Cassio had ever seen Bianca until they met in Cyprus. We doubt, indeed, the possibility of eliciting a satisfactory meaning from the line as it stands, and, in despair of doing so, have sometimes thought the poet must have written,

"A fellow almost damn'd in a fair-wife;"

That is to say, a fellow by habit of reckoning debased almost into a market-woman. In of old was commonly used for into; we even still employ it so, as in the expression to fall in love. pare, too, "Troilus and Cressida," Act III. Sc. 3,

Com

"Why, he stalks up and down like a peacock,-a stride and a stand, ruminates, like an hostess that hath no arithmetic but her brain to set down her reckoning."

of a battle-] Of an army. So in " 'Henry V." (Chorus) Act IV.

"Each battle sees the other's umber'd face: " And in "Richard III." Act V. Sc. 3,

Wears out his time, much like his master's ass, For nought but provender; and, when he's old. cashier'd:

Whip me such honest knaves. Others there are, Who, trimm'd in forms and visages of duty, Keep yet their hearts attending on themselves; And, throwing but shows of service on their lords, Do well thrive by them, and, when they have lin'd their coats,

[soul; Do themselves homage: these fellows have some And such a one do I profess myself. For, sir, It is as sure as you are Roderigo, Were I the Moor, I would not be Iago: In following him, I follow but myself; Heaven is my judge, not I for love and duty, But seeming so, for my peculiar end: For when my outward action doth demonstrate The native act and figure of my heart In compliment extern, 't is not long after But I will wear my heart upon my sleeve For daws to peck at. I am not what I am. ROD. What a full' fortune does the thickp

owe,

If he can carry 't thus !

IAGO. Call up her father, Rouse him :-make after him, poison his delight, Proclaim him in the streets; incense her kinsmen. And, though he in a fertile climate dwell, Plague him with flies: though that his joy be jor. Yet throw such chances of vexation on 't, As it may lose some colour.

ROD. Here is her father's house; I'll call alond IAGO. Do; with like timorous accent, and dire yell

we will follow In the main battle."

d-the tongued consuls-] So the folio and the quarto 1670, the quarto of 1622 has, toged." The former, as Boswell oberte agrees better with the words "mere prattle," &c.; but “f may have sprung from the common adage, Cedant arma iş, and is equally appropriate.

e-must be be-lee'd -] The quarto 1622 has, "must be led" &c.; this and the imperfect measure of the line in other cos might lead us to suspect the author wrote, "must be lee'd and calm'd," &c.

fdebitor-and-creditor:] The title of certain old treatise upon commerc al book-keeping. So in "Cymbeline," Act V

Sc. 4,-" You have no true debitor-and-creditor but it."

in any just term am affin'd-] By any moral obligation am bound, &c.

h- knave,-] "Knave" carries no opprobrious meaning here it is simply servitor.

i dom.

- obsequious bondage,-] That is, obedient, submissive thral k Who, trimm'd in forms and visages of duty,-] Who, dress'd in shapes and masks of duty, &c. Mr. Collier proposes to read, in forms and usages of duty,"

which the expression "trimm'd" negatives at once.

1 What a full fortun] The folis bas "fall" for "full." å reading Mr. Knight prefers, although in "Cymbeline," Act V. Sc. 4, we find,

"Our pleasure his full fortune doth confine;"

in "Antony and Cleopatra," Act IV. Sc. 1.-"full ortant Cæsar;" and in D'Avenant's "Law against Lovers," Act Ill. Sc. 1,-"She has a full fortune."

m

-chances of vexation-] Crosse, or casualties ; the read, "changes."

quartos

Most grave Brabantio, In simple and pure soul I come to you.

b

*

IAGO. Zounds, sir, you are one of those that will not serve God, if the devil bid you. Because we come to do you service, and you think we are ruffians, you'll have your daughter covered with a Barbary horse; you'll have your nephews neigh to you; you'll have coursers for cousins, and gennets for germans.

BRA. What profane wretch art thou?

IAGO. I am one, sir, that comes to tell you, your daughter and the Moor are now making the beast with two backs.

BRA. This thou shalt answer; I know thee, Roderigo.

ROD. Sir, I will answer any thing. But, I beseech you,

If 't be your pleasure and most wise consent
(As partly I find it is) that your fair daughter,
At this odd-even and dull watch o' the night,
Transported, with no worse nor better guard
But with a knave of common hire, a gondolier,
To the gross clasps of a lascivious Moor,-
If this be known to you, and your allowance,
We then have done you bold and saucy wrongs;
But, if you know not this, my manners tell me
We have your wrong rebuke. Do not believe
That, from the sense of all civility,

I thus would play and trifle with your reverence :
Your daughter, if you have not given her leave,-
I say again, hath made a gross revolt ;

Tying her duty, beauty, wit, and fortunes,

(*) First folio omits, Zounds.

(+) First folio omits, new. this is Venice; My house is not a grange.]

Grange, Warton remarks, is strictly and properly the farm of a monastery. But in Lincolnshire, and in other northern counties, they call every lone house, or farm which stands solitary, a grange. What Brabantio means, then, is,-I am in a populous city, not in a place where robbery can be easily committed.

bruffians,-] Here ruffian is employed in its secondary sense of roisterer, swash-buckler, and the like, though its primary meaning undoubtedly was, pander; the Latin, leno, the Italian, "roffiano."

To be produc'd* (as, if I stay, I shall)
Against the Moor: for, I do know, the state,-
However this may gall him with some check,—
Cannot with safety cast him; for he's embark'd
With such loud reason to the Cyprus' wars,
Which even now stand in act, that, for their souls.
Another of his fathom they have none
To lead their business: in which regard,
Though I do hate him as I do hell-pains,†
Yet, for necessity of present life,

I must show out a flag and sign of love,
Which is indeed but sign. That you shall sure'r
find him,

Lead to the Sagittary (1) the raised search;
And there will I be with him. So, farewell.

[E

Past thought!—What said she to you?-Gt more tapers;

Raise all my kindred.-Are they married, thi you?

ROD. Truly, I think they are.

BRA. O, heaven!-How got she out?-0, treason of the blood!— Fathers, from hence trust not your daughters minds

By what you see them act.-Are there t charms

By which the property of youth and maidhood May be abus'd? Have you not read, Roderigo. Of some such thing?

ROD. Yes, sir, I have indeed. BRA. Call up my brother.-0, would you had had her!Some one way, some another.-Do you know Where we may apprehend her and the Moor?