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Iago. He is much chang'd.

Lod. Are his wits fafe? is he not light of brain?

Iago. He is that he is; I may not breathe my cenfure. What he might be,-if, what he might, he is not, I would to heaven, he were.

Lod. What, ftrike his wife!

Iago. 'Faith, that was not fo well; Yet 'would I knew, That stroke would prove the worst.

Lod. Is it his ufe?

Or did the letters work upon his blood,

And new-create this fault?

Iago. Alas, alas!

It is not honefty in me, to fpeak

What I have feen and known.

You fhall obferve him ;

And his own courfes will denote him fo,

That I may fave my fpeech: Do but go after,

And mark how he continues.

Lod. I am forry, that I am deceiv'd in him. [Exeunt.

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A Room in the Caftle.

Enter OTHELLO and EMILIA.

Oth. You have feen nothing then?

Emil. Nor ever heard; nor ever did fufpect.

Oth.

as the power or agency of fortune; as, It was by chance that this accident befel me. At least, if we fuppofe all corrupt that is inaccurate, there will be no end of emendation. JoHNSON.

A Room in the Caftle.] There are great difficulties in afcertaining the place of this fcene. Near the clofe of it, Iago fays to Defdemona, "Go in, and weep not," which would lead us to place it in the court before Othello's caftle. These words may indeed be explained to mean, "Go into the fupper-room" (though I do not think that the meaning) but immediately afterwards Roderigo enters, and converfes with lago, which decifively afcertains the fcene not to be in Othello's houfe: for Roderige, who had given the first intelligence to Brabantio, of his daughter's flight, and had shortly afterwards drawn his fword on Othello and his partifans, certainly would not take the liberty of walking into his house at pleasure.

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Oth. Yes, you have feen Caffio and the together. Emil. But then I faw no harm; and then I heard Each fyllable, that breath made up between them. Oth. What, did they never whisper?

Emil. Never, my lord.

Oth. Nor fend you out o' the way?

Emil. Never.

Oth. To fetch her fan, her gloves, her mask, nor nothing?

Emil. Never, my ford.
Oth. That's strange.

Emil. I durft, my lord, to wager she is honeft,
Lay down my foul at ftake: if you think other,
Remove your thought; it doth abuse your bofom.
If any wretch hath put this in your head,
Let heaven requite it with the ferpent's curse!
For, if the be not honeft, chafte, and true,

There's no man happy; the pureft of their wives 9
Is foul as flander.

Oth. Bid her come hither ;-go.—

[Exit Emilia, She fays enough;—yet she's a fimple bawd,

That cannot lay as much. This is a fubtle whore,
A clofet-lock-and-key of villainous fecrets:

And yet she'll kneel, and pray; I have feen her do't.
Re-enter EMILIA, with DESDEMONA.

Def. My lord, what is your will?

Oth. Pray, chuck, come hither.

On the other hand, what Othello fays early in the fcene to Emilia, "Leave procreants alone, and but the door;"

and his fubfequent addrefs to her as he goes out, as decifively point out a room in Othello's castle as the place of the fcene; and compel us to place the feveral interlocutors there, however inconfiftent with Roderigo's entry, and Iago's address to Defdemona.

The truth is, that our poet and his audience, in this inftance as in many other, were content, from want of fcenery, to confider the very fame spot, at one and the fame time, as the outfide and infide of a houfe. See Vol. VII. p. 122, n. 7, and The Hiftorical Account of the English Stage, &c. Vol. 1. Part II. p. 74. MALONE.

9 - of their wives-] Thus the folio. The quarto, 1622, reads— of her fex. MALONE.

Def

Def. What is your pleasure ?

Oth. Let me fee your eyes; Look in my face.

Def. What horrible fancy's this?

Oth. Some of your function, mistress; Leave procreants alone, and fhut the door; Cough, or cry-hem, if any body come: Your mystery, your mystery ;-nay, dispatch.

[to Emil.

[Exit EMILIA. Def. Upon my knees, what doth your fpeech import? I understand a fury in your words,

But not the words '.

Oth. Why, what art thou?

Def. Your wife, my lord; Your true and loyal wife.

Oth. Come, fwear it, damn thyself;

Left, being like one of heaven, the devils themselves Should fear to feize thee: therefore be double-damn'd, Swear-thou art honeft.

Def. Heaven doth truly know it.

Oth. Heaven truly knows, that thou art falfe as hell. Def. To whom, my lord? With whom? How am I falfe?

Oth. O Desdemona!-away! away! away!

Def. Alas, the heavy day!-Why do you weep?

Am I the occafion of these tears, my lord?

If, haply, you my father do fufpect,

An inftrument of this your calling back,

Lay not your blame on me; if you have loft him,
Why, I have loft him too.

Oth. Had it pleas'd heaven

To try me with affliction; had he rain'd

All kinds of fores, and thames, on my bare head;
Steep'd me in poverty to the very lips;
Given to captivity me and my utmost hopes;
I should have found in fome part of my foul
A drop of patience: but (alas!) to make me

But not the words.] This line is added out of the first edition.

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A fixed figure, for the time of fcorn 2

To point his flow unmoving finger at,-
O! O!

Yet could I bear that too; well, very well:

But

2 time of fcorn—] The reading of both the eldest quartos and the folio is,

for the time of fcorn.

Mr. Rowe reads-band of scorn; and fucceeding editors have filently followed him.

I would (though in oppofition to fo many great authorities in favour of the change) continue to read with the old copy:

the time of fcorn.

We call the bour in which we are to die, the bour of death;—the time when we are to be judged, the day of judgment—the inftant. when we fuffer calamity, the moment of evil; and why may we not diftinguish the time which brings contempt along with it, by the title of the time of fcorn? Thus, in Soliman and Perfeda, 1599:

"So fings the mariner upon the fhore,

"When he hath past the dangerous time of forms."

Again, in Marfton's Infariate Countess, 1603:

"I'll poifon thee; with murder curbe thy paths,
"And make thee know a time of infamy."

Othello takes his idea from a clock. To make me (fays he) a fixed figure (on the dial of the world) for the hour of fcorn to point and make a full ftop at! STEEVENS.

Might not Shakspeare have written

for the fcorn of time

To point his flow unmoving finger at,

i. e. the marked object for the contempt of all ages and all time. So, in Hamlet:

"For who would bear the whips and feorns of time?"

However, in fopport of the reading of the old copies, it may be obferved, that our authour has perfonified fcorn in his 88th Sonnet: "When thou shalt be difpos'd to let me light,

"And place my merit in the eye of fcorn-."

The epithet unmoving may likewife derive fome fupport from Shakfpeare's 104th Sonnet, in which this very thought is expreffed : "Ah! yet doth beauty, like a dial-band,

Steal from bis figure, and no pace perceiv'd;

"So your fweet hue, which methinks ftill deth ftand,
"Hath motion, and mine eye may be deceiv'd."

In the clocks of the laft age there was, I think, in the middle of the dial-plate a figure of time, which, I believe, was in our poet's thoughts, when he wrote the paffage in the text.

The

But there, where I have garner'd up my heart3;
Where either I must live, or bear no life;
The fountain from the which my current runs,
Or elfe dries up; to be discarded thence!
Or keep it as a cistern, for foul toads

To knot and gender in!-turn thy complexion there* !
Patience, thou young and rofe-lipp'd cherubin;
Ay, there, look grim as hell!

Def. I hope, my noble lord efteems me honest.
Oth. O, ay; as fummer flies are in the fhambles,

That quicken even with blowing. O thou weed 5,

Who

The finger of the dial was the technical phrafe. So, in Albovine King of the Lombards, by D'Avenant, 1629:

"Even as the flow finger of the dial

"Doth in its motion circular remove

"To diftant figures,-."

D'Avenant was a great reader of Shakspeare, and probably had read his plays, according to the fashion of the time, in the folio, witho troubling himself to look into the quarto copies.

Unmoving is the reading of the quarto, 1622. The folio reads-ar moving; and this certainly agrees with the image prefented and its counte part, better than unmoving, which can be applied to a clock, only by licence of poetry, (not appearing to move,) and as applied to feorn, has but little force: to fay nothing of the fuperfluous epithet flow; for there needs no ghoft to tell us, that that which is unmoving is flow. Slow implies fome fort of motion, however little it may be, and therefore appears to me to favour the reading of the folio.

I have given the arguments on both fides, and, from refpect to the opinion of others, have printed unmoving, though I am very doubtful whether it was the word intended by Shakspeare. The quarto, 1622, has-fingers; the folio-finger. MALONE.

3-garner'd up my beart;] That is, treasured up; the garner and the fountain are improperly conjoined. JOHNSON.

4turn thy complexion there! &c.] At fuch an object do thou, patience, thyself change colour; at this do thou, even thou, rofy cherub as thou art, look grim as bell. The old editions and the new have it, I bere look grim as bell.

I was written for ay, and not fince corrected. JOHNSON. Here in the old copies was manifeftly an errour of the prefs. See the line next but one above. Mr. Theobald made the correction.

MALONE.

50 thou weed,] Dr. Johnson has, on this occafion, been unjuftly cenfured for having stifled difficulties where he could not remove them. I would therefore obferve, that Othello's fpeech is printed word for word from the folio edition, though the quarto reads:

O thon black weed!

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