Oth. I will deny thee nothing: Whereon, I do beseech thee, grant me this, To leave me but a little to myself. Des. Shall I deny you? no: Farewel, my lord. Oth. Farewel, my Desdemona: I will come to thee straight. Des. Emilia, come:-Be it as your fancies teach you; Whate'er you be, I am obedient. [Exit with EMIL. Oth. Excellent wretch! Perdition catch my soul, But I do love thee !6 and when I love thee not, Chaos is come again." 6 Excellent wretch!-Perdition catch my soul, But I do love thee! &c.] The meaning of the word wretch, is not generally understood. It is now, in some parts of England, a term of the softest and fondest tenderness. It expresses the utmost degree of amiableness, joined with an idea which perhaps all tenderness includes, of feebleness, softness, and want of protection. Othello, considering Desdemona as excelling in beauty and virtue, soft and timorous by her sex, and by her situation absolutely in his power, calls her, Excellent wretch! It may be expressed: Dear, harmless, helpless excellence. Johnson. Sir W; D'Avenant uses the same expression in his Cruel Brother, 1630, and with the same meaning. It occurs twice: “ Excellent wretch! with a timorous modesty she stifleth up her utterance." I am assured by Dr. Farmer, that wretch is provincial in Staffordshire for a young woman. Steevens. Chaos is come again.] When my love is for a moment suspended by suspicion, I have nothing in my mind but discord, tumult, perturbation, and confusion. Johnson. when I love thee not, Chaos is come again] There is another meaning possible: When I cease to love thee, the world is at an end; i. e. there remains nothing valuable or important. The first explanation may be more elegant, the second is perhaps more easy. Shakspeare has the same thought in his Venus und Adonis : "For he being dead, with him is beauty slain, "And, beauty dead, black Chaos comes again." Steevens. This passage does not strike me in the same light in which it appeared to Dr. Johnson; as Othello had not yet any experience of that perturbation and discord, by which he afterwards is so fatally agitated. He means, I think, to say,—and ere I cease to love thee, the world itself shall be reduced to its primitive chaos. Shakspeare probably preferred-" chaos is come again," to "chaos shall come again," as more bold and expressive. Muretus, a poet of the 16th century, has exactly the same thought: What dost thou say, Iago? Iago. My noble lord, Oth. Iago. Did Michael Cassio, when you woo'd my lady, Know of your love? Oth. He did, from first to last: Why dost thou ask? Iago. But for a satisfaction of my thought; No further harm. Oth. Why of thy thought, Iago? Iago. I did not think, he had been acquainted with her. Oth. O, yes; and went between us very oft. Iago. Indeed? Oth. Indeed! ay, indeed:-Discern'st thou aught in "Tune meo elabi possis de pectore, Lacci, "Tetras in antiquum sit reditura Chaos." The meaning of Shakspeare appears very clearly from the following passage in The Winter's Tale, where the same thought is more fully expressed: "It cannot fail, but by "The violation of my faith,-and then "Let nature crush the sides o' the earth together, There is the same thought in Buchanan: 8 "Cesset amor, pariter cessabunt fœdera rerum; "In chaos antiquum cuncta elementa ruent." Iago. Indeed? Vol. II, 400, 1725, 4to. H. White. Oth. Indeed! ay, indeed: &c.] I cannot help supposing that this passage is interpolated, and originally stood thus: Iago. Indeed! Oth. Indeed-Discern'st thou aught in that? See the next note. Steevens. 9 Ay, honest.] The old copies, violating the measure, read: Honest? ay, honest. It appears from many instances, that where words were to be repeated at all, our old blundering printers continued the repetition beyond propriety. Mr. Malone has elsewhere the same remark. Steevens. Oth. By heaven, he echoes me, Think, my lord! As if there were some monster in his thought Some horrible conceit: If thou dost love me, Iago. My lord, you know I love you. Oth. I think, thou dost; And, for I know thou art full of love and honesty, And weigh'st thy words before thou giv'st them breath,Therefore these stops of thine fright me the more: For such things, in a false disloyal knave, Are tricks of custom; but, in a man that 's just, They are close denotements, working from the heart, That passion cannot rule.2 1 By heaven, he echoes me, As if there were some monster in his thought &c.] Thus the eldest quarto. The second quarto reads: Why dost thou echo me, As if there were some monster in thy thought &c. The folio reads: Alas, thou echo'st me, As if &c. Steevens. This is one of the numerous alterations made in the folio copy by the licenser. Malone. 2 They are close denotements, working from the heart, That passion cannot rule.] Thus the earliest quarto. But let Dr. Warburton be heard in defence of " cold dilations," the reading of the second folio. I should willingly, however, have adopted an emendation proposed by Dr. Johnson, in the subsequent note, could I have discovered that the word-delation was ever used in its Roman sense of accusation, during the time of Shakspeare. Bacon frequently employs it, but always to signify carriage or conveyance. Steevens. These stops and breaks are cold dilations, or cold keeping back a secret, which men of phlegmatick constitutions, whose hearts are not swayed or governed by their passions, we find, can do: while more sanguine tempers reveal themselves at once, and without reserve. Warburton. For Michael Cassio, Iago. I dare be sworn, I think that he is honest. Iago. That dilations anciently signified delays, may be ascertained, by the following passage in the Golden Legend, Wynken de Worde's edit. fo. 186: "And ye felony of this kyng suffred not to abyde only dilacyon of vengeance. For the nexte daye folowynge he made to come the keepers for to begyn to turment them” &c. Again, ibid. p. 199: “ And Laurence demaunded dylacyon of thre dayes." Again, in Candlemas Day, &c, p. 9: 66 I warne you without delacion, "That ye make serch thurgh out all my region." Steevens. The old copies give,—dilations, except that the earlier quarto has-denotements; which was the author's first expression, afterwards changed by him, not to dilations, but to delations; to occult and secret accusations, working involuntarily from the heart, which, though resolved to conceal the fault, cannot rule its passion of resentment. Johnson. They are close denotements, &c.] i. e. indications, or recoveries, not openly revealed, but involuntarily working from the heart, which cannot rule and suppress its feelings. The folio reads-They are close dilations; but nothing is got by the change, for dilations was undoubtedly used in the sense of dilatements, or large and full expositions. See Minsheu's Dict. 1617: "To dilate or make large." Dilatement is used in the sense of dilation by Lodge, our poet's contemporary: "After all this fowl weather follows a calm dilatement of others too forward harmfulness." Rosalynde, or Euphues Golden Legacie, 4to. 1592. . Dr. Johnson very elegantly reads-They are close delations. But the objection to this conjectural reading is, that there is strong ground for believing that the word was not used in Shakspeare's age. It is not found in any Dictionary of the time, that I have seen, nor has any passage been quoted in support of it. On the contrary, we find in Minsheu the verb, "To delate," not signifying, to accuse, but thus interpreted: "to speak at large of any thing, vid. to dilate :" so that if even delations were the word of the old copy, it would mean no more than dilations. To the reading of the quarto no reasonable objection can be made. Malone. 3 Or, those that be not, 'would they might seem none!] I believe the meaning is, 'would they might no longer seem, or bear the shape of men. Johnson. May not the meaning be: 'Would they might not seem honest! Malone. Oth. Certain, men should be what they seem. I think that Cassio1 is an honest man. Oth. Nay, yet there 's more in this : I pray thee, speak to me as to thy thinkings, Why then, As thou dost ruminate; and give thy worst of thoughts The worst of words. Iago. Good my lord, pardon me; Though I am bound to every act of duty, I am not bound to that all slaves are free to.5 Utter my thoughts? Why, say, they are vile and false,- Keep leets, and law-days, and in session sit 4 that Cassio For the sake of measure, I have ventured to insert the pronoun-that. Steevens. Malone. 5 to that all slaves are free to.] I am not bound to do that, which even slaves are not bound to do. So, in Cymbeline: 5 7 O, Pisanio, "Every good servant does not all commands, Steevens. where's that palace, whereinto foul things Sometimes intrude not?] So, in The Rape of Lucrece: 66 "That some impurity doth not pollute." Malone. who has a breast so pure, But some uncleanly apprehensions Keep leets, and law-days, and in session sit With meditations lawful?] Leets, and law-days, are synony mous terms: "Leet (says Jacob, in his Law Dictionary,) is otherwise called a law-day." They are there explained to be courts, or meetings of the hundred, “ to certify the king of the good manners, and government, of the inhabitants,” and to enquire of all offences that are not capital. The poet's meaning will now be plain: Who has a breast so little apt to form ill opinions of others, but that foul suspicion will sometimes mix with his fairest and most candid thoughts, and erect a court in his mind, to enquire of the offences apprehended. Steevens. Who has so virtuous a breast that some uncharitable surmises and impure conceptions will not sometimes enter into it; hold a session there as in a regular court, and “bench by the side” of authorised and lawful thoughts?-In our poet's 30th Sonnet we find the same imagery: VOL. XVI. Ee |
