Mark, how thefe inftruments fummon to fupper! [Exeunt DESDEMONA, and EMILIA. Enter RODERIGO. How now, Roderigo? Rod. I do not find, that thou deal'ft juftly with me. Rod. Every day thou doff'ft me with fome device, Iago; and rather (as it feems to me now) keep'ft from me all conveniency, than fupplieft me with the leaft advantage of hope. I will, indeed, no longer endure it: Nor am I yet perfuaded, to put up in peace what already I have foolishly fuffer'd. Iago. Will you hear me, Roderigo? Rod. 'Faith, I have heard too much; for your words, and performances, are no kin together. Iago. You charge me most unjustly. Rod. With nought but truth. I have wafted myself out of my means. The jewels you have had from me, to deliver to Defdemona, would half have corrupted a votarift: You have told me-fhe has received them, and return'd me expectations and comforts of fudden refpect and acquittances; but I find none. lago. Well; go to; very well. Rod. Very well! go to! I cannot go to, man; nor 'tis not very well: By this hand, I fay, it is very fcurvy; and begin to find myself fobb'd in it. Lago. Very well. Rod. I tell you, 'tis not very well. I will make my 4 And the great messengers of Venice flay :] Thus the quarto. The folio reads: The mesengers of Venice ftay the meat. STEEVENS. 5-and acquittance;] This is the reading of the original quarto, 1622. The folio reads and acquaintance. Acquittance is requital. So, in K. Henry V. "And fhall forget the office of our hand "Sooner than 'quittance of defert and merit." See alfo Hamlet, p. 405, n. 6. MALONE. felf felf known to Desdemona: If she will return me my jewels, I will give over my fuit, and repent my unlaw ful folicitation; if not, affure yourself, I will seek fatisfaction of you. Iago. You have faid now. Rod. Ay, and I have faid nothing, but what I protest intendment of doing. Iago. Why, now I fee there's mettle in thee; and even, from this inftant, do build on thee a better opinion than ever before. Give me thy hand, Roderigo: Thou hast taken against me a moft juft exception; but yet, I proteft, I have dealt moft directly in thy affair. Rod. It hath not appear'd. Iago. I grant, indeed, it hath not appear'd; and your fufpicion is not without wit and judgment. But, Roderigo, if thou haft that within thee indeed, which I have greater reason to believe now than ever,-I mean, purpose, courage, and valour,-this night fhew it: if thou the next night following enjoy eft not Defdemona, take me from this world with treachery, and devife engines for my life. Rod. Well, what is it? is it within reason, and compafs? Iago. Sir, there is especial commiffion' come from Venice, to depute Caffio in Othello's place. Rod. Is that true? why, then Othello and Desdemona return again to Venice. lago. O, no; he goes into Mauritania, and takes away with him the fair Desdemona, unless his abode be linger'd here by fome accident; wherein none can be fo determinate, as the removing of Caffio. Rod. How do you mean-removing of him? 6 -your fufpicion is not without wit and judgment.] Shakspeare knew well, that most men like to be flattered on account of those endowments in which they are moft deficient. Hence Iago's compliment to this fripe on his fagacity and fhrewdnefs. MALONE. 7- there is especial commiffion] Shakspeare probably wrote-a Special MALONE. Iago. Why, by making him uncapable of Othello's place; knocking out his brains. Rod. And that you would have me to do? Iago. Ay; if you dare do yourfelf a profit, and a right. He fups to-night with a harlot, and thither will I him; he knows not yet of his honourable fortune: if you go to will watch his going thence, (which I will fashion to fall out between twelve and one,) you may take him at your pleafure; I will be near to fecond your attempt, and he Thall fall between us. Come, ftand not amazed at it, but go along with me; I will fhew you fuch a neceffity in his death, that you fhall think yourself bound to put it on him. It is now high fupper-time, and the night grows to wafte: about it. Rod. I will hear further reafon for this. SCENE III. Another Room in the Castle. [Exeunt. Enter OTHELLO, LODOVICO, DESDEMONA, EMILIA, and Attendants. Lod. I do befeech you, fir, trouble yourself no fur ther. Oth. O, pardon me; 'twill do me good to walk. fhip. Def. Your honour is most welcome. and the night grows to waste:] I fuppofe Jago means to fay, that it is near midnight. Perhaps we ought to print waift. Both the old copies, the quarto, 1622, and the folio, 1623, read-waft, which was the old fpelling of waist. So Hamlet: "In the dead wast [waist] and middle of the night." See the note on that paffage, p. 203, n. 2. So alfo, in The Puritan, a comedy, 1607: 46 ere the day "Be spent to the girdle, thou shalt be free." The words, however, may only mean-the night is waking apace. MALONE Oth Oth. Will you walk, fir?-0,-Desdemona,- Oth. Get you to bed on the inftant; I will be return'd forthwith: difmifs your attendant there; look, it be done. Def. I will, my lord. [Exeunt ОTH. LOD. and Attend. Emil. How goes it now? he looks gentler than he did. Def. He fays, he will return incontinent: He hath commanded me to go to bed, And bade me to dismiss you. Emil Difmifs me! Def. It was his bidding; therefore, good Emilia, Give me my nightly wearing, and adieu: We must not now difplease him. Emil. I would, you had never feen him! Def. So would not I; my love doth fo approve him, That even his ftubbornness, his checks, and frowns,— Pr'ythee, unpin me,-have grace and favour in them. Emil. I have laid thofe fheets you bade me on the bed. Def. All's one :-Good father! how foolish are our minds! If I do die before thee, pr'ythee, shroud me Emil. Come, come, you talk. Def. My mother had a maid, call'd-Barbara; She was in love; and he, the lov'd, prov'd mad, And did forfake her': fhe had a fong of willow, 9-Good father!] Thus the folio. The quarto, 1622, reads-➡ all's one, good faith. MALONE. 1 and be, he lov'd, prov'd mad, And did forfake ber :] I believe that mad only fignifies wild, frantick, uncertain. JOHNSON. We still call a wild girl a mad-cap: and, in The First Part of King Henry VI. are mentioned, "Mad, natural graces, that extinguish art.” Again, in the Two Gentlemen of Verona: "Come on, you mad-cap." Again, in Love's Labour's Loft: "Do you hear, my mad wenches?" STEEVENS. An old thing 'twas, but it exprefs'd her fortune, 2 And fing it like poor Barbara. Pr'ythee, difpatch. Def. No, unpin me here. This Lodovico is a proper man. Emil. A very handsome man. Def. He fpeaks well. Emil. I know a lady in Venice, would have walk'd barefoot to Palestine, for a touch of his nether lip. 4 Def.The poor foul3 fat fighing by a sycamore tree, Her band on her bofom, her head on her knee, Sing willow, willow, willow: 2 I bave much to do, [finging. But to go bang my bead-] I have much ado to do any thing but bang my bead. We might read: Not to go bang my head. This is perhaps the only infertion made in the latter editions which has improved the play. The reft feem to have been added for the fake of amplification, or of ornament. When the imagination had fubfided, and the mind was no longer agitated by the horror of the action, it became at leisure to look round for fpecious additions. This addition is natural. Desdemona can at firft hardly forbear to fing the fong; the endeavours to change her train of thoughts, but her imagination at last prevails, and the fings it. JOHNSON. These words, and all that follows, to Nay that's not next, inclufively, are not in the original quarto, 1622; and appeared first in the folio. The remaining lines of the fong alfo appeared firft in that copy. MALONE. 3 The poor foul, &c.] This fong, in two parts, is printed in a late collection of old ballads; the lines preferved here differ fomewhat from the copy difcovered by the ingenious collector. JoHNSON. 4-fat fighing-] The folio reads finging. The paffage, as has been already obferved, is not in the original copy printed in 1622. The reading of the text is taken from a quarto of no authority printed in 1630. Sighing, as Mr. Steevens has obferved, is alfo the reading in the black-letter copy of this ballad in the Pepys Collection, which Dr. Percy followed. See the Reliques of Ancient English Poetry. I. 192. MALONE. The |