'Tis deftiny uufhunnable, like deaths; bafe have more prerogative in this refpect than the great, that is, that the bafe or poor are less likely to endure this forked plague, our pret has maintained a doctrine contrary to that laid down in As you like it :"Horns? even fo.-Poor men alone? No, no; the nobleft deer has them as huge as the rafcal." Here we find all mankind are placed on a level in this refpect, and that it is "destiny unfhunnable, like death." Shakspeare would have been more confiftent, if he had written, "Prerogativ'd are they more than the bafe? Othello would then have answered his own queftion: [No;] 'Tis destiny, &c. MALONE. 5 'Tis deftiny unfunnable, like death;] To be confiftent, Othello muft mean, that it is destiny unfhunnable by great ones, not by all mankind. MALONE. 6-forked plague-] In allufion to a barbed or forked arrow, which, once infixed, cannot be extracted. JOHNSON. Or rather, the forked plague is the cuckold's horns. PERCY. Dr. Johnfon may be right. I meet with the fame thought in Middleton's comedy of, A Mad World my Mafters, 1608: "While the broad arrow, with the forked bead, though the fork invade "The region of my heart,-." STEEVENS. I have no doubt that Dr. Percy's interpretation is the true one. Let our poet speak for himself. "Quoth she,” says Pandarus, in Treilus and Creffida, "which of these hairs is Paris, my husband? The forked one, quoth he; pluck it out, and give it him." Again, in The Winter's Tale: o'er head and ears a fork'd one." So, in Tarleton's Nervs out of Purgatorie:-" but the old fquire, knight of the forked order,-." One of Sir John Harrington's epigrams, in which our poet's very expreffion is found, puts the matter beyond a doubt: "Actæon guiltless unawares elpying "Naked Diana bathing in her bowre, "Was plagu'd with bornes; his dogs did him devoure; MALONE. 7 Desdemona comes:] Thus the quartos. The folio reads: Look where he comes. 4 STEEVENS. Enter Enter DESDEMONA, and EMILIA. If he be falfe, O, then heaven mocks itfelf!- Def. How now, my dear Othello? Your dinner, and the generous islanders Def. Why is your speech so faint? are you not well? Def. Faith, that's with watching; 'twill away again: Let me but bind it hard, within this hour It will be well. Oth. Your napkin is too little; [He puts the handkerchief from him, and it drops. Let it alone. Come, I'll go in with you. Def. I am very forry that you are not well. [Exeunt DES. and OTH Emil. I am glad, I have found this napkin; This was her first remembrance from the Moor: My wayward husband hath a hundred times Woo'd me to fteal it: but she fo loves the token, (For he conjur'd her, the should ever keep it,) That the referves it evermore about her, 8 If he be falfe, O, then beaven mocks it felf!-] i. e. renders its own labours fruitless, by forming fo beautiful a creature as Defdemona, and' fuffering the elegance of her perfon to be difgraced and fullied by the impurity of her mind.-Such, I think is the meaning.-The conftruction, however, may be different. If the be falfe, O, then even beaven itself cheats us with "unreal mockeries," with falfe and fpecious appearances, intended only to deceive. MALONE. 9 - the generous iflanders-] are the islanders of rank, diftinction. So, in Measure for Measure. "The generous and graveft citizens "Have hent the gates." Generous has here the power of generofus, Lat. This explanation, however, may be too particular. STEEVENS. Your napkin-] In the North of England, and in Scotland, this term for a handkerchief is ftill ufed. The word has already often occurred. SeeVol. IV. p. 337, n. 7, and Vol. VII. p. 374, n. 7. MALONE. To kifs, and talk to. I'll have the work ta'en out, And give it lago: What he'll do with it, heaven knows, not I; I nothing, but to please his fantasy 3. Enter IAGO. Iago. How now! what do you here alone? Iago. To have a foolish wife. Emil. O, is that all? What will you give me now For that fame handkerchief? Iago. What handkerchief? Emil. What handkerchief? Why, that the Moor first gave to Desdemona; lago. Haft ftolen it from her? Emil. No, faith; fhe let it drop by negligence; 2- - I'll have the work ta'en out,] That is, copied. Her first thoughts are, to have a copy made of it for her husband, and restore the original to Desdemona. But the fudden coming in of lago, in a furly humour, makes her alter her refolution, to please him. The fame phrafe afterwards occurs between Caffio and Bianca, in sc. iv. BLACKSTONE. This scheme of getting the work of this valued handkerchief copied, and reftoring the original to Defdemona, was, I suppose, introduced by the poet, to render Emilia lefs unamiable. It is remarkable, that when she perceives Othello's fury on the lofs of this token, though fhe is reprefented as affectionate to her mistress, the never attempts to relieve her from her diftrefs; which the might eafily have done by demanding the handkerchief from her husband, or divulging the story, if he refused to restore it.—But this would not have ferved the plot. Shakspeare fell into this incongruity by departing from Cinthio's novel; for there, while the artless Desdemona is carefling the child of Othello's ancient, (the Iago of our play,) the villain steals the handkerchief which hung at her girdle, without the knowledge of his wife. MALONE. 3 I nothing, but to please bis fantasy.] Thus the folio. The quarto, 1622, reads: I nothing know but for his fantafy. STEEVENS. And, And, to the advantage 4, I, being here, took it up. Iago. A good wench; give it me. Emil. What will you do with it, that you have been fo earnest To have me filch it? Lago. Why, what's that to you? [Snatching it. Emil. If it be not for fome purpose of import, Give it me again: Poor lady! fhe'll run mad, When the fhall lack it. Iago. Be not you known of 't ; I have ufe for it. Go, leave me. [Exit Emil. I will in Caffio's lodging lofe this napkin, Burn like the mines of fulphur.-I did fay fo7: Enter 4-to the advantage, &c.] I being opportunely here, took it up. JOHNSON. 5 Be not you known of 't;] Thus the quarto, except that it has on't, the vulgar corruption in fpeaking and writing, of of 't or of it; as is proved by various paffages in these plays as exhibited in the folio and quarto, where in one copy we find the corrupt and in the other the genuine words and both having the fame meaning. The folio reads, as Mr. Steevens has obferved-Be not acknown on't, i. e. do not acknowledge any thing of this matter. The reading of the quarto affords the fame meaning. The participial adjective, found in the folio, is ufed by Thomas Kyd, in his Cornelia, a tragedy, 1594: MALONE. "Our friends' misfortune doth increase our own, "Cic. But ours of others will not be acknown." Again, in The Life of Ariofto, fubjoined to Sir John Harrington's tranflation of Orlando, p. 418. edit. 1607: her privilie, but durit not be acknowne of it." 6 The Moor already, &c.] Thus the folio. original copy, 1622. MALONE. Some fay, he married to The line is not in the 7-I did fay fo:] As this paffage is fuppofed to be obfcure, I Ball attempt an explanation of it. Jage Enter OTHELLO. Look, where he comes! Not poppy, nor mandragora 7, Nor all the drowfy fyrups of the world, Shall ever med'cine thee to that sweet sleep Which thou ow'dft yesterday 3. Oth. Ha! ha! falfe to me? to me? Iago. Why, how now, general? no more of that. Oth. Avaunt! be gone! thou haft fet me on the rack: I fwear, 'tis better to be much abus'd, Than but to know't a little. Iago. How now, my lord? Oth. What fenfe had I of her ftolen hours of luft ?? I faw it not, thought it not, it harm'd not me: I slept Iago firft ruminates on the qualities of the paffion which he is la bouring to excite; and then proceeds to comment on its effects. Jealousy (fays he) with the smalleft operation on the blood, flames out with all the violence of fulphur, &c. -I did fay fo; Look where he comes ! j. e. I knew that the leaft touch of fuch a paffion would not permit the Moor to enjoy a moment of repofe :--I have juft said that jealousy is a reftless commotion of the mind; and lock where Othello approaches, to confirm the propriety and juftice of my observation. STEEVENS. 7-nor mandragora,] The mandragoras or mandrake has a foporifick quality, and the ancients used it when they wanted an opiate of the moft powerful kind. So Antony and Cleopatra, A&. I. sc. vi. give me to drink mandragora, 66 "That I may fleep out this great gap of time See Vol. VII. p. 451, n. 9. MALONE. & Shall ever med'cine thee to that fweet fleep, Which thou ow'dft yesterday.] To owe, as Dr. Johnson has obferved, fignified formerly to poffefs. See Vol. IV. .P. 473, n.7. MALONE. 9 What fenfe bad I, &c.] A fimilar paffage to this and what follows it, is found in an unpublished tragi-comedy by Thomas Middleton, called The Witch: I feele |