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Caf. 'Tis but a little way, that I can bring you, For I attend here: but I'll fee you foon.

Bian. 'Tis very good; I must be circumstanc'd ↳

[Exeunt.

[blocks in formation]

Oth. Think fo,

lago?

Iago. What,

To kifs in private ?

Oth. An unauthoriz'd kifs.

Iago. Or to be naked with her friend abed,

An hour, or more, not meaning any harm?

Oth. Naked abed, Iago, and not mean harm?

It is hyprocrify against the devil:

They that mean virtuously, and yet do fo,

The

1- I must be circumftanc'd.] i. e. your civility is now grown con

ditional.

WARBURTON.

Particular circumstances and your own convenience have, I fee, more weight with you than Bianca has. I must be postponed to thefe confiderations. MALONE.

2 Naked abed, lago, and not mean barm?

It is byprocrify against the devil:] This obfervation feems ftrangely abrupt and unoccafioned. We muft fuppofe that Iago had, before they appear in this fcene, been applying cafes of falfe comfort to Othello; as that, though the parties had been even found in bed together, there might be no harm done; it might be only for the trial of their virtue; as was reported of the Romish faint, Robert D'Arbrifiel and his nuns: To this we muft fuppofe Othello here replies; and like a good proteftant. For fo the fentiment does but fuit the character of the fpeaker, Shakspeare little heeds how these fentiments are circumstanced. WARBURTON.

Hypocrify against the devil, means, hypocrify to cheat the devil. As common hypocrites cheat men, by feeming good, and yet living wickedly, these men would cheat the devil, by giving him flattering

hopes,

The devil their virtue tempts, and they tempt heaven 3. lago. So they do nothing, 'tis a venial flip: But if I give my wife a handkerchief,

Oth. What then?

Iago. Why, then 'tis hers, my lord; and, being hers, She may, I think, beftow't on any man.

Oth. She is protectress of her honour too;

May the give that?

lago. Her honour is an effence that's not feen; They have it very oft, that have it not :

But, for the handkerchief,

Oth. By heaven, I would moft gladly have forgot it :Thou faid'ft,-O, it comes o'er my memory,

As doth the raven o'er the infected houfe,

Boding to all,-he had my handkerchief.
Iago. Ay, what of that?

Oth. That's not so good now.

Iago. What, if I had faid, I had feen him do you wrong? Or heard him fay,-As knaves be fuch abroad, Who having, by their own importunate fuit,

hopes, and at laft avoiding the crime which he thinks them ready to commit. JOHNSON.

3 The devil their virtue tempts, and they tempt beaven.] As the devil makes a trial of their virtue by often throwing temptation in their way, so they prefumptuously make a trial whether the divine goodness will enable them to refift a temptation which they have voluntarily created for themselves, or abandon them to the government of their paffions. MALONE.

Shakspeare had probably in view a very popular book of his time, The Beebive of the Roman Church. "There was an old wife, called Julia, which would take the young men and maides, and lay them together in a bed. And for that they should not one byt another, nor kicke backewards with their heeles, he did lay a crucifix between them." FARMER.

4 Beding to all,-] Thus all the old copies. The moderns, lefs grammatically, Boding to ill. JOHNSON.

The raven was thought to be a conftant attendant on a houfe in which there was infection. So, in Marlowe's Jew of Malta, 1633:

"Thus, like the fad-prefaging raven, that tolls

"The fick man's paffport in her hollow beak,
"And in the shadow of the filent night

"Does fake contagion from her fable wing." MALONE.

PP 3

Or

Or voluntary dotage of fome mistress,

Convinced or fupplied them 5, cannot choose
But they must blab-

Oth. Hath he faid any thing?

Iago. He hath, my lord; but be you well affur'd, No more than he'll unswear.

Oth. What hath he faid?

Iago. Faith, that he did,-I know not what he did. Oth. What? what?

Iago. Lie

Oth. With her?

Jago. With her, on her; what you will.

Oth. Lie with her! lie on her!-We fay, lie on her, when they belie her: Lie with her! that's fulfome, Handkerchief,-confeffions,- handkerchief.-To con fefs, and be hang'd for his labour.-First, to be hang'd, and then to confefs:-I tremble at it. Nature would not

5 Who baving, by their own importunate fuit, Or voluntary dotage of fome mistress,

Convinced or fupplied them,-] Mr. Theobald for supplied would read fuppled; but the emendation evidently hurts, inftead of improv ing, the fenfe; for what is fuppled, but convinced, i.e. fubdued. Supplied relates to the words" voluntary dotage," as convinced does to their own importunate fuit." Having by their importunancy conquered the refiftance of a mistress, or, in compliance with her own reques, and in confequence of ber unfolicited fondness, gratified her defires.

Convinced, for conquer'd, fubdued. WARBURTON.

So, in Macbeth:

1611 his two chamberlains

"Will I with wine and waffel fo convince."

Again, in the fame play :

66

their malady convinces

"The great affay of art." STEEVENS.

MALONE.

6 -to confefs and be bang'd-] This is a proverbial faying. It is afed by Marlowe in his few of Malta, 1633:

Blame us not, but the proverb- Confefs, and be bang'd.” It occurs again, in The Travels of the 3 English Brothers, 1607: And in one of the old collections of fmall poems there is an epigram on it. All that remains of this fpeech, including the words to confefs, is wanting in the first quarto. STEEVENS.

inveft,

inveft herself in fuch fhadowing paffion 7, without fome. inftruction. It is not words, that shake me thus:

Pish!

fhadowing paffion,] The modern editions have left out paffion. JOHNSON.

8 - without fome inftruction.] The ftarts and broken reflections in this fpeech have fomething very terrible, and fhew the mind of the Speaker to be in inexpreffible agonies. But the words we are upon, when fet right, have a fublime in them that can never be enough admired. The ridiculous blunder of writing inftruction for induction (for fit fhould be read) has indeed funk it into arrant nonfense. Othello is just going to fall into a fwoon; and, as is common for people in that circumftance, feels an unusual mift and darkness, accompanied with horrour, coming upon him. This, with vaft fublimity of thought, is compared to the season of the fun's eclipfe, at which time the earth becomes fhadowed by the induction or bringing over of the moon between it and the fun. This being the allufion, the reasoning ftands thus: "My nature could never be thus overshadowed, and

falling, as it were, into diffolution, for no caufe. There must be an "induction of fomething: there must be a real caufe. My jealousy "cannot be merely imaginary. Ideas, words only, could not fhake "me thus, and raise all this diforder. My jealousy therefore must be "grounded on matter of fact." Shakspeare ufes this word in the fame fenfe, in Richard III.

"A dire indu&ion am I witness to."

Marston feems to have read it thus in fome copy, and to allude to it in these words of his Fame:

"Plots ha' you laid? inductions dangerous!" WARBURTON. This is a noble conjecture, and whether right or wrong does honour to its author. Yet I am in doubt whether there is any neceffity of emendation. There has always prevailed in the world an opinion, that when any great calamity happens at a distance, notice is given of it to the fufferer by fome dejection or purturbation of mind, of which he discovers no external caufe. This is afcribed to that general communication of one part of the universe with another, which is called fympathy and antipathy; or to the fecret monition, inftruction, and influence of a fuperiour Being, which fuperintends the order of nature and of life. Othello fays, Nature could not inveft herself in fuch fhadewing paffion without inftruction. It is not words that Jhake me tbus. This paffion, which fpreads its clouds over me, is the effect of fome agency more than the operation of words; it is one of thofe notices, which men have, of unfeen calamities. JOHNSON.

However ingenious Dr. Warburton's note may be, it is certainly too forced and far-fetched. Othello alludes only to Caffio's dream, which had been invented and told him by Iago. When many confused and very interefting ideas pour in upon the mind all at once, and with fuch rapidity that it has not time to fhape or digeft them, if it does not re

PP 4

lieve

Pish!-Nofes, ears, and lips?:-Is it poffible?-Confefs!Handkerchief!-O devil!

Iago. Work on,

[falls in a trance.

My medicine, work! Thus credulous fools are caught;
And many worthy and chafte dames, even thus,
All guiltless meet reproach.-What, ho! my lord!
Enter CASSIO.

My lord, I fay! Othello!-How now, Caffio?
Caf. What's the matter?

Iago. My lord is fallen into an epilepfy;
This is his fecond fit; he had one yesterday.
Caf. Rub him about the temples.
Iago. No, forbear :

The lethargy muft have his quiet courfe :
If not, he foams at mouth; and, by and by,
Breaks out to favage madnefs. Look, he firs:
Do you withdraw yourself a little while,
He will recover ftraight; when he is gone,
I would on great occafion fpeak with you.-

[Exit CASSIO. lieve itself by tears, (which we know it often does, whether for joy or grief,) it produces ftupefaction and fainting.

Othello, in broken fentences and fingle words, all of which have a reference to the cause of his jealoufy, fhews that all the proofs are prefent at once to his mind, which fo over-powers it, that he falls into a trance, the natural confequence. Sir J. REYNOLDS.

If Othello by the words fhadowing paffion alludes to his own feelings, and not to Caffio's dream, Dr. Warburton's interpretation, if we fubftitute inftruction for induction, (which was introduced merely to usher in the image of an eclipfe) is perhaps nearly correct. Induction, in Shakspeare's time, meant introduction, or prelude, (as in the inftance quoted from K. Richard III.) and at no time fignified bringing over, as Dr. Warburton interprets it.

MALONE.

9 Nofes, ears, and lips:] Othello is imaging to himself the familiarities which he fuppofes to have paffed between Caffio and his wife. So, in the Winter's Tale:

"Cheek to cheek,—meeting noses

"Kiffing with infide lip," &c.

If this be not the meaning, we muft fuppofe he is meditating a cruel punishment for Desdemona and her suspected paramour:

raptis

Auribus, et truncas inhonefto vulnere mares. STEEVENS.

How

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