Saints in your injuries 4, devils being offended, Lago. Nay, it is true, or else I am a Turk; You rife to play, and go to bed to work. lago. No, let me not. beds. Def. What would't thou write of me, if thou should'st praise me? Iago. O gentle lady, do not put me to't; For I am nothing, if not critical'. Def. Come on, affay:-There's one gone to the harbour? Iago. Ay, madam. Def. I am not merry; but I do beguile The thing I am, by feeming otherwife.Come, how would'st thou praife me? Iago. I am about it; but, indeed, my invention Comes from my pate, as bird-lime does from frize, It plucks out brains and all: But my mufe labours, And thus fhe is deliver'd. If the be fair and wife, fairness, and wit, The one's for ufe, the other useth it. Def. Well prais'd! How if the be black and witty? Iago. If the be black, and thereto have a wit, She'll find a white that fhall her blackness fit7. Def. Worfe and worse. Emil. How, if fair and foolish ? Iago. She never yet was foolish that was fair; For even her folly help'd her to an heir. Def. Puttenham, who mentions all other contemporary writers, has not once spoken of Shakspeare; so that it is probable he had not produced any thing of fo early a date. STEEVENS. 50, fie upon thee, flanderer!] This fhort fpeech is, in the quarto, unappropriated; and may as well belong to Æmilia as to Desdemona. STEEVENS. 6-critical. That is, cenforious. JOHNSON. So, in our authour's 122d Sonnet: my adder's fense "To critick and to flatterer stopped are." MALONE. ·ber blackness fit.] The first quarto reads bit. STEEVENS. 8 She never yet was foolish, &c.] We may read, She Def. These are old fond paradoxes, to make fools laugh i' the alehoufe. What miferable praise haft thou for her that's foul and foolish? Iago. There's none fo foul, and foolish thereunto, But does foul pranks which fair and wife ones do. Def. O heavy ignorance!-thou praiseft the worft beft. But what praife could't thou beftow on a deferving woman indeed? one, that, in the authority of her merit, did justly put on the vouch of very malice itself1? Iago. She that was ever fair, and never proud; To change the cod's head for the falmon's tail2; But even ber folly help'd ber to an heir. Yet I believe the common reading to be right: the law makes the power of cohabitation a proof that a man is not a natural; therefore, fince the foolisheft woman, if pretty, may have a child, no pretty woman is ever foolish. JOHNSON. 9 But what praife could't thou beftow on a deferving woman indeed?] The hint for this question, and the metrical reply of Iago is taken from a strange pamphlet, called Choice, Chance, and Change, or Conceits in their Colours, 1606; when after Tidero has described many ridiculous characters in verfe, Arnofilo asks him, "but I pray thee, didst thou write none in commendation of fome worthy creature?" Tidero then proceeds, like lago, to repeat more verfes. STEEV. 1 — one, that, in the authority of her merit, did juftly put on the vouch of very malice itself?] The fenfe is this: One that was fo confcious of her own merit, and of the authority her character had with every one, that he durft venture to call upon malice itfelf to vouch for her. This was fome commendation. And the character only of clearest virtue; which could force malice, even against its nature, to do justice. WARBURTON. To put on is to provoke, to incite. So, in Macbeth: 66 the powers above 2 To change the cod's head for the falmon's tail;] i. e. to exchange a delicacy for coarfer fare. STEEVENS. Surely the poet had a further allufion, which it is not neceffary to explain. The word frail in the preceding line fhews that viands were not alone in his thoughts. MALONE. Kk 3 She She that could think, and ne'er disclose her mind, Iago. To fuckle fools, and chronicle small beer*. Def. O moft lame and impotent conclufion!-Do not learn of him, Emilia, though he be thy husband.How fay you, Caffio? is he not a moft profane and liberal counfellor? Caf. He speaks home, madam; you may relish him more in the foldier, than in the scholar. Iago. [Afide.] He takes her by the palm: Ay, well faid, whifper: with as little a web as this, will I enfnare as great a fly as Caffio. Ay, fmile upon her, do; I will gyve thee in thine own courtship. You fay true; 'tis fo, indeed: if fuch tricks as thefe ftrip you out of your lieutenantry, it had been better you had not kifs'd your three fingers fo oft, which now again you are most apt to play the fir in. Very good; well kifs'd! an 3 See fuitors following, and not look bebind;] The first quarto omits this line. STEEVENS. 4 To fuckle fools, and chronicle fmall beer.] After enumerating the perfections of a woman, lago adds, that if ever there was fuch a one as he had been defcribing, the was, at the best, of no other ufe, than 10 fuckle children, and keep the accounts of a boufebold. The expreffions to fuckle fools, and chronicle fmall beer, are only inftances of the want of natural affection, and the predominance of a critical cenforioufnels in lago, which he allows himself to be poffeffed of, where he fays O! I am nothing, if not critical. STEEVENS. 5-profane ] Grofs of language, of expreffion broad and brutal. So Brabantio, in the first act, calls Iago profane wretch. JOHNSON. Ben Jonfon, in defcribing the characters in Every Man out of his Humour, ftyles Carlo Buffone, a publick, fcurrilous, and profane jefter. STEEVENS. 6-liberal counsellor ?] Liberal, for licentious. WARBURTON. So, in the Fair Maid of Briftow, 1605, bl. l. "But Vallenger, molt like a liberal villain, See p. 382, n. 4. MALONE. STEEVENS. Counsellor feems to mean, not fo much a man that gives courfel, as one that difcourfes fearlessly and volubly. A talker. JOHNSON. 7- I will gyve thee] i. e. catch, shackle. PoPE. The first quarto reads I will catch you in your own courtefies;” the fecond quarto-"I will catch you in your own courtship." The folio as it is in the text, STEEVENS. excellent excellent courtefy! 'tis fo, indeed, Yet again your fingers to your lips? would, they were clyfter-pipes for your fake!-[Trumpet.] The Moor,-I know his trumpet. Caf. 'Tis truly fo. Def. Let's meet him, and receive him. Caf. Lo, where comes! Enter OTHELLO, and Attendants. Oth. O my fair warrior! Def. My dear Othello! Oth. It gives me wonder great as my content, As hell's from heaven! If it were now to die, Def. The heavens forbid, But that our loves and comforts should increase, 8-well kifs'd! an excellent courtesy !] Spoken when Caffio kiffes his hand, and Defdemona courtfies. JOHNSON. This reading was recovered from the quarto, 1622, by Dr. Johnson. The folio has and excellent courtesy. I do not believe that any part of thefe words relates to Defdemona. In the original copy, we have juft feen, the poet wrote-" ay, smile upon her, do; I will catch you in your own courtefies." Here therefore he probably meant only to speak of Caffio, while kiffing his hand. "Well kifs'd! an excellent courtesy!" i. e. an excellent falute. Courtesy, in the fenfe of an obeifance or falute, was in Shakspeare's time applied to men as well as women. See Vol. X. p. 160, n. 9. 9 MALONE. come fuch calmnefs,] Thus the original quarto, 1622. The folio has calmes. MALONE. 'Twere new to be most bappy ;] Sɔ Cherea, in The Eunuch of Terence, A&III. fc. v. : Proh Jupiter! "Nunc tempus profecto eft, cum perpeti me poffum interfeci, "Ne vita aliquâ hoc gaudium contaminet ægritudine." Kk 4 MALONE. Even Even as our days do grow! Oth. Amen to that, fweet powers !—— I cannot speak enough of this content, It stops me here; it is too much of joy : And this, and this, the greatest difcords be, [kissing her 2. That e'er our hearts fhall make! Iago. O, you are well tun'd now! 3 But I'll fet down 3 the pegs that make this mufick, As honeft as I am. Oth. Come, let's to the caftle. [Afide. News, friends; our wars are done, the Turks are drown'd. I have found great love amongst them. I prattle out of fashion, and I dote O my fweet, In mine own comforts.-I pr'ythee, good Iago, He 2 And this, and this, &c.—kissing ber.] So, in Marlowe's Lufi's Do minion: "I pr'ythee, chide, if I have done amifs, "But let my punishment be this and this.” [“ kiffing the Moor." MALONE. Marlowe's play was written before that of Shakspeare, who might poffibly have acted in it. STEEVENS. 3 I'll let down-] Thus the old copies, for which the modern editors, following Mr. Pope, have substituted-let down. But who can prove that to fet down was not the language of Shakspeare's time, when a viol was spoken of?-To set formerly fignified to tune, though it is no longer ufed in that fenfe. "It was then," fays AnthonyWood in his Diary, "that I fet and tuned in ftrings and fourths," &c. So in Skialetheia, a Collection of Satires, &c. 1598: to a nimbler key "Set thy wind inftrument." MALONE. 4 News, friends;-] The modern editors read (after Mr. Rowe) Now, friends. I would obferve once for all, that (in numberless inftances in this play, as well as in others) where my predeceffors had filently and without reafon mace alteration, I have as filently restored the old readings. STEEVENS. 5 I prattle out of fashion,-] Out of method, without any settled crder of difcourfe. JOHNSON. -the mafter Dr. Johnfon fuppofed, that by the mafter was meant the pilot of the fhip, and indeed had high authority for this fuppofition; for our poet himself feems to have confounded them. See A&t. III. fc. ii. 1. i. But the mafter is a diftin&t perfon, and has the principal command, and care of the navigation of the ship, under the |