I flept the next night well ', was free and merry; He that is robb'd, not wanting what is stolen, Oth. I had been happy, if the general camp, Again: "I feele no eafe; the burthen's not yet off, "Had'st thou byn secret, then had I byn happy, “And, which is heavier than all torments to me, This is utter'd by a jealous husband, who supposes himself to have just deftroy'd his wife. Again, Iago fays: Dangerous conceits, &c. -with a little act upon the blood Burn like the mines of fulphur. Thus Sebaftian, in Middleton's play: "When a suspect doth catch once, it burns maynely.” A fcene between Francifca and her brother Antonio, when the firft excites his jealoufy, has likewife feveral circumstances in common with the dialogue which passes between lago and Othello on the fame fubject. This piece contains alfo a paffage very strongly resembling another in Hamlet, who fays:-" I am but mad north-north weft: when the wind is foutherly, I know a hawk from a handfaw."-Thus, Almacbildes :-"There is fome difference betwixt my jovial condition and the lunary state of madness. I am not quite out of my wits: I know a bawd from an aqua-vitæ fhop, a ftrumpet from wild fire, and a beadle from brimftone." For a further account of this MS. play, fee a note on Mr. Malone's Attempt to afcertain the order in which the pieces of Shakspeare were written :-Article, Macbeth. STEEVENS. 1 I slept the next night well, was free and merry ;] Thus the quartos. The folio reads: I slept the next night well, fed well; was free and merry. STEEVENS. Pioneers Pioneers and all2, had tasted her sweet body, if the general camp, The Pioneers and all,] That is, the most abject and vileft of the camp. Pioneers were generally degraded foldiers, appointed to the office of pioneer, as a punishment for misbehaviour. "A foldier ought ever to retaine and keep his arms in faftie and farth comming, for he is more to be detefted than a coward, that will lofe or play away any part thereof, or refuse it for his eafe, or to avoid paines; wherefore fuch a one is to be difmiffed with punishment, or to be made fome abject pioner." The Art of War and Englands Traynings, &c. by Edward Davies, Gent. 1619. So, in The Laws and Ordinances of War established by the earl of Effex, printed in 1640: "If a trooper shall loose his horfe or hackney, or a footman any part of his arms, by negligence or lewdneffe, by dice or cardes; he or they fhall remain in qualitie of pioners, or scavengers, till they be furnished with as good as were loft, at their own charge." GROSE. 3 Farewel the plumed troop and the big wars, Farewel the neighing feed, &c.] In a very ancient drama entitled Common Conditions, printed about 1576, Sedmond, who has loft his fifter in a wood, thus expreffes his grief: "But farewell now, my courfers brave, attraped to the ground! hounde! "Farewell, ye nobles all, farewell eche marfial knight, "Adue, eche wight, and marfial knight, adue, eche living One is almoft tempted to think that Shakspeare had read this old play. MALONE. 4 The Spirit-ftirring drum, the ear-piercing fife,] In mentioning the fife joined with the drum, Shakspeare, as ufual, paints from the life; thofe inftruments accompanying each other being used in his age by English foldiery. The fife, however, as a martial inftrument, was afterwards entirely difcontinued among our troops for many years, but at length revived in the war before the laft. It is commonly fuppofed that our foldiers borrowed it from the Highlanders in the last rebellion: but The royal banner; and all quality, Pride but I do not know that the fife is peculiar to the Scotch, or even ufed at all by them. It was firft ufed within the memory of man among our troops by the British guards, by order of the duke of Cumberland, when they were encamped at Maeftricht, in the year 1747, and thence foon adopted into other English regiments of infantry. They took it from the Allies with whom they served. This inftrument accompanying the drum is of confiderable antiquity in the European armies, particularly the German. In a curious picture in the Afhmolean Museum at Oxford, painted 1525, reprefenting the fiege of Pavia by the French king, where the emperor was taken prifoner, we fee fifes and drums. In an old English treatife written by William Garrard before 1587, and published by one captain Hichcock in 1591, intitled The Art of Warre, there are feveral wood cuts of military evolutions, in which thefe inftruments are both introduced. In Rymer's Fadera, in a diary of king Henry's fiege of Bulloigne 1544, mention is made of the drommes and vifleurs marching at the head of the king's army. Tom. xv. P. 53. The drum and fife were alfo much ufed at ancient festivals, fhews, and proceffions. Gerard Leigh in his Accidence of Armorie, printed in 1576, defcribing a Chriftmas magnificently celebrated at the Inner Temple, fays, "We entered the prince his hall, where anon heard the noife of drum and fife." p. 119. At a ftately mafque on Shrove-Sunday 1510, in which Henry VIII. was an actor, Holinfhed mentions the entry "of a drum and fife apparelled in white damafke and grene bonettes." Chron. iii. 805. col. 2. There are many more inftances in Holinfhed, and Stowe's Survey of London. From the old French word viffleur, above-cited, came the English word whiffler, which anciently was ufed in its proper literal fenfe. Strype, fpeaking of a grand tilting before the court in queen Mary's reign 1554, fays, from an old journal, that king Philip and the challengers entered the lifts, preceded by "their whifflers, their footThis exmen, and their armourers." Ecclef. Memor. iii. p. 211. plains the ufe of the word in Shakspeare, where it is alfo literally applied. Hen. V. A&t. IV. fc. ult. behold, the British beach "Pales in the flood with men, with wives and boys, "Whofe fhouts and claps out-voice the deep-mouth'd fea, "Seems to prepare his way." By degrees, the word abiffler hence acquired the metaphorical meaning, which it at prefent obtains in common fpeech, and became an application of contempt: Whiffler, a light trivial character, a fellow bired to pipe at processions. T. WARTON. Pride, pomp, and circumftance of glorious war! Oth. Villain, be fure thou prove my love a whore ; [taking him by the throat. Or, by the worth of mine eternal foul", Thou hadst been better have been born a dog, Iago. Is it come to this? Oth. Make me to fee it ; or (at the leaft) fo prove it, That the probation bear no hinge, nor loop, To hang a doubt on: or, woe upon thy life! In the old dramatic piece, intitled Wine, Beer, Ale, and Tobacco, 2d edit. 1630, Tobacco fays to Beer: ¢¢ it will become your duty to obey me." To which Wine replies: "You our fovereign! a mere whiffler !" Again, in Ram-alley, or Merry Tricks, 1611: he was known "But only for a swaggering whiffler. STEEVENS. s Pride, pomp, and circumftance of glorious war !] Sir William D'Avenant does not appear to have been fcrupulous of adopting almoft Shakspeare's own words. So, in Albovine, 1629: "Then glorious war, and all proud circumftance "That gives a foldier noise, for evermore farewell!” STEEVENS. Fletcher has parodied this paffage of Othello, in his Prophetess, which was first represented in May, 1622: and to keep "My faith untainted, farewel pride, and pomp, "Farewel, for ever! MALONE. whofe rude throats-] So Milton, P. L. B. VI. "From thofe deep-throated engines," &c. The quarto, 1622, reads-whose wide throats. STEEVENS. 7-mine eternal foul,] Perhaps the quarto, 1622, more forcibly reads: -man's eternal foul. Shakspeare might have defigned an oppofition between man and dog. STEEVENS. Jago. My noble lord, Oth. If thou doft flander her, and torture me, Never pray more: abandon all remorfe ; On horrour's head horrours accumulate : 8 Do deeds to make heaven weep 9, all earth amaz'd, Greater than that. Iago. O grace! O heaven defend me! Are you a man? have you a foul, or fenfe?- O monstrous world! Take note, take note, O world, I thank you for this profit; and, from hence, Oth. By the world 3, I think my wife be honeft, and think fhe is not; As 8 abandon all remorfe;] All tenderness of nature, all pity; in which fenfe, as Mr. Steevens has justly observed, the word was frequently ufed in Shakspeare's time. See p. 565, n. 5. The next line fhews it is used in this fenfe here. MALONE. 9 Do deeds to make heaven weep,] So, in Measure for Measure: "Plays fuch fantaftick tricks before high heaven, "As make the angels weep." STEEVENS. That liv'ft-] Thus the quarto. The folio-that lov'st—. STEZVENS. fince love-] So, the quarto, 1622. Folio: fith love—. MALONE. 2 By the world, &c.] This fpeech is not in the first edition. POPE. - My name, &c.] Thus the folio, where alone this speech is found. Mr. Pope and all the fubfequent editors read-Her name: but this, like a thousand other changes introduced by the fame editor, was made without either authority or neceffity. Shakspeare undoubtedly might have written Her name; but the word which the old copy furnishes, affords alfo good fenfe. Othello's name or reputation, accord |