Iago. And so I do too, lieutenant.

Caj. Ay, but, by your leave, not before me; the lieutenant is to be saved before the ancient. Let's have no more of this; let's to our affairs,-Forgive us our fins!—Gentlemen, let's look to our business. Do not think, gentlemen, I am drunk; this is my ancient; this is my right hand, and this is my left hand :- I am not drunk now; I can stand well enough, and speak well enough.

Aii. Excellent well.

Caf. Why, very well then : you must not think then that I am drunk.

[Exit, Mon. To the platform, masters ; come let's set the

watch.
lago. You see this fellow, that is gone before ;
He is a soldier, fit to stand by Cæsar
And give direction : and do but fee his vice;
'Tis to his virtue a just equinox,
The one as long as the other: 'tis pity of him.
I fear, the trust Othello puts him in,
On some odd time of his infirmity,
Will shake this island.

Mon. But is he often thus ?
lugo. 'Tis evermore the prologue to his sleep:
He'll watch the horologe a double sets,
If drink rock not his cradle.

Mon. It were well,
The general were put in mind of it.
Perhaps, he sees it not ; or his good nature
Prizes the virtue that appears in Callio,
And looks not on his evils; Is not this true ?

8 He'll warcb obe horologe a double fet,] If he have no drink, he'll keep awake while the clock Atrikes two rounds, or four-and.swenty hours. Chaucer uses the word borologe in more places than one:

« Well fikerer was his crowing in his loge

* Than is a clock or abbey borologe." JOHNSON. So, in Tbe Devil's Charter, 1607 :

“my gracious lord,
" By Sitto's berologe 'tis struck eleven," STIEVENS.

Entor

Enter RoderiGO. Iago, How now, Roderigo ?

[ Alides I pray you, after the lieutenant ; go. [Exit Rod.

Mon. And 'tis great pity, that the noble Moor
Should hazard such a place, as his own second,
With one of an ingiaft infirmity":
It were an honest action, to say
So to the Moor.

Iago. Not I, for this fair island:
I do love Casio well; and would do much
To cure him of this evil. But, hark! what noise ?

(Cry within, -Help! help!
Re-enter Cassio, driving in RODERICO.
Cal. You rogue! you rascal!
Mont. What's the matter, lieutenant ?

Cal. A knave!- teach me my duty!
I'll beat the knave into a twiggen bottle'.

Rod. Beat me!
Caf. Doft thou prate, rogue ?

[Ariking Rod. Mun. Nay, good lieutenant?

[1taying bitte I pray you, fir, hold your hand.

Caf. Let me go. fir,
Or I'll knock you o'er the mazzard.

Mon. Come, come, you're drunk.
Caf. Drunk

[They fight. lago. Away, I say! go out, and cry-a mutiny.

[Aside to Rod. who goes out: Nay, good lieutenant,-alas, gentlemen,Help, ho !- Lieutenant.-fir,--Montano,-fir; Help, masters !--Here's a goodly watch, indeed!

[Bell rings. 9 - ingrast infirmiry:] An infirmity rooted, settled in his conftitu. tion. JOHNSON

Dr. Johnson's explanation is certainly juft, though it has been con. troverted. So, in King Lear :-" then must we look to receive from his age not alone the imperfection of long ingrafted condition, but there. withal," &c. MALONE.

into a twiggen boerle.) A twigsen bottle is a wicker'd borrie; and so the quarto reads. STEVENS.

Who's

Who's that that rings the bell ?-Diablo?, ho !
The town will rise : God's will, lieutenant ! hold;
You will be sham'd for ever.

Enter OTHELLO, and Attendants.
Oth. What is the matter here?
Mon. 'Zounds, I bleed still, I am hurt to the death 3 ,
Oth. Hold, for

your

lives. lago. Hold, hold, lieutenant+,-fir, Montano,-gentle.

men,Have you forgot all sense of place and duty s? Hold, hold! the general speaks to you; hold, for shame!

Qih. Why, how now, ho! from whence ariseth this? Are we turn'd Turks; and to ourselves do that, Which heaven hath forbid the Ottomites ? For christian Thame, put by this barbarous brawl ; He that stirs next to carve forth his own rage, Holds his foul light; he dies upon his motion.Silence that drcadful bello, it frights the ille

From Diablo,) I meet with this exclamation in Marlowe's King Edward II. “ Diablo ! what paflions call you these?" STEEVENS.

3 'Zounds, I bleed fill, I am burt to the death.] Thus the quarto 1622. The editor of the folio, thinking it necessary to omit the first word in the line, absurdly supplied its place by adding at the end of the line, He dies.

I had formerly inadvertently said that the marginal direction, He faines, was found in the quarto, 1622 : but this was a mistake. Ic was inserted in a quarto of no value or authority, printed in 1630.

MALONE. - lam burt to death he dies.] Montano thinks he is mortally wounded ; yet by these words he ieems determined to continue the duel, and to kill his antagonist Coffio. So when Roderigo runs at Cassio, in the fifth act, he says,—“ Villain, thou dy'ft.” Toilet.

He dies, i. e. he shall die. He may be supposed to say this as he re. news the fight. STEEVENS.

4 Hold, bold, lieutenant,] Thus the original quarto. The folio reads-Hold bo, lieutenant. MALONE. s – all sense of place and duty ? ] So Hanmer. The rest,

all place of Jense and duty ? JOHNSON. 6 Silence rbar dreadfui bell,] It was a common practice formerly, when any great affray happened in a town, to ring the alarum bell. When David Rizzio was murdered at Edinburgh, tbc Provost ordered

LI3

the

From her propriety?.- What is the matter, masters ?
Honest Iago, that look't dead with grieving,
Speak, who began this? on thy love, I charge thee.

lago. I do not know ;-friends all but now, even now,
In quarters, and in terms like bride and groom
Develting them for bed: and then, but now,
(As if iome planet had unwitted men,)
Swords out, and tilting one at other's breast,
In opposition bloody. I cannot speak
Any beginning to this peevish odds ;
And 'would in action glorious I had lost
These legs, that brought me to a part of it!

(th. How comes it, Michael, you are thus forgoto? Caf. I pray you, pardon me, I cannot fpeak.

Oih. Worthy Montano, you were wont be civil ; The gravity and stillness of your youth The world hath noted, and your name is great In mouths of wiseft censure ; What's the matter, That you unlace' your reputation thus, the common bell to be rung, and five hundred persons were immediately assembled. See Saunderson's Hift. of Queen Mary, p. 41. MALUNE. 7 From ber propriety.--] From her regular and proper fiate.

JOHNSON, 3 In quarter,] i. e. on our station. So, in Timon of Arbens:

to acone your fears
“ With my more noble meaning, not a man

“ Shall pass his quarter." Their Nation or quarter in the present instance, was the guard-room in Othello's castle.' In Cymbeline we have" their quarier'd fires," i. e. their fires regularly disposed.

In quarter Dr. Johnson supposed to mean, at ibeir lodgings; but that cannot be the meaning, for Montano and the gentlemen who accompanied him, had continued, from the time of their entrance, in the apartment in Othello's castle, in which the carousal had been ; and Callio had only gone forth for a short time to the platform, to set the watch. On his return from the platform into the apartment, in which he left Montano and lago, he meets Roderigo; and the fcuffie, first between Callio and Roderigo, and then between Montano and Callio, ensues.

MALONE. 9 – you are sbus forgor ?] i. e. you have forgot yourself.

STEEVENS. " Tbal you unlace-] Slacken, or loosen, Put in danger of dropping; or perhaps ftrip of its ornaments. JOHNSON.

And

And spend your rich opinion”, for the name
Of a night-brawler? give me answer to it.

Mon. Worthy Othello, I am hurt to danger;
Your officer, lago, can inform you-
While I fpare speech, which something now offends me,
Of all that I do know: nor know I aught,
By me that's said or done amiss this night;
Unless self-charity 3 be sometime a vice;
And to defend ourselves it be a sin,
When violence assails us.

Oth. Now, by heaven,
My blood begins my fafer guides to rule ;
And passion, having my best judgment collied“,
Asfays to lead the way: If I once ftir,
Or do but lift this arm, the best of you
Shall sink in my rebuke. Give me to know
How this foul rout began, who set it on;
And he that is approv'd in this offences,
Though he had twinn'd with me, both at a birth,
Shall Icre me. What! in a town of war,
Yet wild, the people's hearts brimfull of fear,
To manage private and domestick quarrel,

- spend your rich opinion,] Throw away and squander a reputation fo valuable as yours. JOHNSON.

3 – self-cbarily -] Care of one's felf, JOHNSON.

4 And passion, baving my best judgment collied,] Thus the folio reads, and I believe rightly. Othello means, that passion has difcoloured his judgment. The word is used in The Midjummer-Nigbi's Dream :

like lightning in the collied night." To colly anciently signified to besmut, to blacken as with cool. So, in a comedy called The Family of Love, 1608:-“ carry thy link a t'other fide the way, thou collow A me and my ruffe." The word (as I am allured) is still used in the midland counties. ST EEVENS.

Coles in his Dictionary, 1679, renders " cellow'd by denigratus :" to colly,” denigro.

The quarto, 1622, reads-having my best judgment cooled. Amodern editor supposed that quelld was the word intended. MALONE.

s And be that is approv'd in tbis offence,] He that is convicted by proof, of having been engaged in this offence. JOHNSON.

VOL. IX.

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