To affift my fimpleness". Duke. What would you, Defdemona ? Def. That I did love the Moor to live with him, My down-right violence and ftorm of fortunes * May To affift my fimpleness.] The first quarto reads this as an unfinished fentence: And if my fimplenefs STEEVENS. 1 My down-right violence and form of fortunes-] Violence is not violence fuffered, but violence acted. Breach of common rules and obligations. The old quarto has, fcorn of fortune, which is perhaps the true reading. JOHNSON. I would rather continue to read form of fortunes, on account of the words that follow, viz. May trumpet to the world. So, in King Henry IV. P. I: the fouthern wind "Doth valour's fhew, and valour's worth, divide "In forms of fortune." STEEVENS. So, in King Henry VIII. "An old man broken with the forms of fate." The expreffion in the text is found in Spenter's Faery Queen, B. VI. "Give leave awhile, good father, in this shore "To rest my barcke, which hath bene beaten late And Bacon, in his Hiftory of King Henry the Seventh, has ufed the fame language: "The king in his account of peace and calms did much overcaft his fortunes, which proved for many years together full of broken feas, tides, and tempefts." Mr. Mafon objects, that Mr. Steevens has not explained these words. Is any explanation wanting? or can he, who has read in Hamlet, that a judicious player in the tempeft and whirlwind of his paffion fhould acquire and beget a temperance;" who has heard Falftaff with for a tempeft of provocation; and finds in Troilus and Creffida-" in the wind and tempeft of her frown," be at a lofs to understand the meaning of a form of fortunes? By her downright violence and form of fortunes, Defdemona without doubt means, the bold and decifive measure the had taken, of following the dictates of paflion and giving herself to the Moor; regardless of her parent's difpleafure, the forms of her country, and the future inconvenience the might be fubject to, by "tying her duty, beauty, wit, and fortunes, in an extravagant and wheeling ftranger, of here and every where." Од May trumpet to the world; my heart's fubdu'd By his dear abfence: Let me go with him. Oth. Your voices, lords + :-befeech you, let her will Have a free way. On looking into Mr. Edwards's remarks, I find he explains thefe words nearly in the fame manner. Downright violence," fays he, "means, the unbridled impetuofity with which her paffion hurried her on to this unlawful marriage; and form of fortunes may fignify the hazard the thereby ran, of making fhipwreck of her worldly intereft. Both very agreeable to what the fays a little lower -- to his honours and his valiant parts "Did I my foul and fortunes confecrate." MALONE. 2 Even to the very quality of my lord:] The first quarto reads, Even to the utmost pleasure. STEEVENS. Quality here means profeffion. "I am fo much enamoured of Othello, that I am even willing to endure all the inconveniences incident to a military life, and to attend him to the wars." "I cannot mervaile," (faid Lord Effex to Mr. Ashton, a Puritan preacher who was fent to him in the Tower,) "though my proteftations are not believed of my enemies, when they fo little prevaile with a man of your quality. See alfo p. 267, n. 1. That this is the meaning, appears not only from the reading of the quarto," my heart's fubdued, even to the utmoft pleasure of my lord, i. e. fo as to prompt me to go with him wherever he wishes I should go," but alfo from the whole tenour of Defdemona's fpeech; the purport of which is, that as the had married a foldier, fo fhe was ready to accompany him to the wars, and to confecrate her foul and fortunes to his bonours, and his valiant parts; i. e. to attend him wherever his military character and his love of fame fhould call him. MALONE. 3 I faw Orbello's vifage in bis mind;] It must raise no wonder, that I loved a man of an appearance fo little engaging; I faw his face only in his mind; the greatnefs of his character reconciled me to his form. JOHNSON. 4 Your voices, lords :] The folio reads, Let her have your voice. STEEVENS. Vouch Vouch with me, heaven 5, I therefore beg it not, Nor to comply with heat, the young affects, But to be free and bounteous to her mind": And 5 Vouch with me, beaven,] Thus the folio. Thefe words are in the original copy, 1622. MALONE. Nor to comply with beat, the young affects, In my disjunct and proper fatisfaction; not But to be free and bounteous to ber mind:] The old copies read: For the emendation now made I am refponfible. Some emendation is abfolutely neceffary, and this appears to me the leaft objectionable of those which have been propofed. Dr. Johnfon, in part following Mr. Upton, reads and regulates the paffage thus: Nor to comply with heat (the young affects In me defunct) and proper fatisfaction. To this reading there are, think, three strong objections. The firft is, the fuppreffion of the word being before defunct, which is abfolutely neceflary to the fenfe, and of which the omiffion is fo harth, that it affords an argument against the probability of the propofed emendation. The fecond and the grand objection is, that it is highly improbable that Othello fhould declare on the day of his marriage that heat and the youthful affections were dead or defunct in him; that he had outlived the paffions of youth. He himself (as Theobald has obferved,) informs us afterwards, that he is "declined into the vale of years;" but adds, at the fame time, "yet that's not much." This furely is a decifive proof that the text is corrupt. My third objection to this regulation is, that by the introduction of a parenthefis, which is not found in the old copies, the words and proper fatisfaction are fo unnaturally disjoined from thofe with which they are connected in fenfe, as to form a moft lame and impotent conclufion; to say nothing of the awkwardness of ufing the word proper without any poffeflive pronoun prefixed to it. All thefe difficulties are done away, by retaining the original word my, and reading disjunct, instead of defunct; and the meaning will be, I ask it not for the fake of my feparate and private enjoyment, by the gratification of appetite, but that I may indulge the withes of my wife. The young affects, may either mean the affections or paffions of youth, (confidering affects as a fubftantive,) or these words may be connected with beat, which immediately precedes: "I ask it not, for the purpofe of gratifying that appetite which peculiarly ftimulates the young." So in Spenter's Faery Queene, B. V. c. ix. "Layes of fweete love, and youth's delightful beat.", Mr. Tyrwhitt would tranfpofe the last two lines: Nor And heaven defend your good fouls, that you think Nor to comply with heat, the young affects; For and "recommends it to confideration, whether the word defunt, (which would be the only remaining difficulty,) is not capable of a fig nification, drawn from the primitive fenfe of its Latin original, which would very well agree with the context." The mere English reader is to be informed, that defun&us in Latin fignifies performed, accomplished, as well as dead: but is it probable that Shakipeare was apprized of its bearing that fignification? In Bullokar's English Expofitor, 8vo. 1616, the work of a phyfician and a fcholar, defunt is only defined by the word dead; nor has it, I am confident, any other meaning annexed to it in any dictionary or book of the time. Befides; how, as Mr.Tollet has obferved, could his conjugal duties be faid to be discharged or performed, at a time when his marriage was not yet confummated?-On this last circumftance however I do not infift, as Shakspeare is very licentious in the use of participles, and might have employed the paft for the prefent: but the former objection appears to me fatal. Proper is here and in other places used for peculiar. In this play we have unproper beds; not peculiar to the rightful owner, but common to him and others. In the prefent tragedy we have many more uncommon words than disjuna: as facile, agnize, acerb, fequeftration, injointed, congregated, guttured, fequent, extin&ted, exfufficate, indign, fegregated, &c.-lago in a fubfequent fcene fays to Othello, "let us be conjunctive in our revenge ;" and our poet has conjunt in King Lear, and disjoin and difjunaive in two other plays. In King John we have adjuna ufed as an adjective: "Though that my death be adjunct to the act,-" and in Hamlet we find disjoint employed in like manner : "Or thinking "Our state to be disjoint, and out of frame." MALONE. Theobald has obferved the impropriety of making Othello confefs, that all youthful paffions were defunct in him; and Hanmer's reading [diftin&t] may, I think, be received with only a flight alteration. Iwould read, Affects ftands for affections, and is used in that fenfe by Ben Jonfon in The Cafe is alter'd, 1609: For fhe is with me: No, when light-wing'd toys I fhall not need to urge "The facred purity of our affects.” Again, in Love's Labour's Loft: "For every man with his affects is born." Again, in The Wars of Cyrus, 1594: The frail affects and errors of my youth." There is, however, in The Bondman, by Maflinger, a paffage which feems to countenance and explain the young affects in me defanct, &c. youthful heats, "That look no further than your outward form, "Are long fince buried in me." Timoleon is the fpeaker. STEEVENS. 7 - defend, &c.] To defend, is to forbid. So, in Chaucer's Wife of Batbes Prologue, late edit. ver. 5641: "Wher can ye feen in any maner age From defendre, Fr. STEEVENS. 8 auben light-wing'd toys Of feather'd Cupid feel with wanton dulnefs My fpeculative and active inftruments,] Thus the folio, except that instead of active inftruments, it has offic'd inftrument. MALONE. The quarto reads When light-wing'd toys And feather'd Cupid foils with wanton dulnefs My fpeculative and active inftruments All these words (in either copy) mean no more than this: When the pleafures and idle toys of love make me unfit either for feeing the duties of y office, or for the ready performance of them, &c. STEEVENS, Speculative inftruments, in Shakspeare's language, are the eyes; and alive inftruments, the hands and feet. So, in Coriolanus: where, the other inftruments "Did fee, hear, devife, instruct, walk, feel, &c.” To feel is to clofe the eyelids of a hawk by running a thread through them. As it is here metaphorically ufed, it applies very properly to the fpeculative inftruments; but foils, the reading of the quarto, agrees better with active inftruments. Wanton dulnefs is dulness arising from wanton indulgences. MALONE. Make |