That never fet a squadron in the field, belonging to Verona, at the fame time with the Moor; and what difficulty is there in fuppofing that Bianca, who, Caffio himself informs us, "haunted him every where," took her paffage in the fame veffel with him; or followed him afterwards? Othello, we may suppose, with fome of the Venetian troops, failed in another veffel; and Defdemona and Iago embarked in a third. Iago, after he has been at Cyprus but one day, fpeaks of Bianca, (Act IV. fc. i.) as one whom he had long known: he must therefore (if the poet be there correct) have known her at Venice: Now will I queftion Caffio of Bianca, "A hufwife, that, by felling her defires, MALONE. Ingenious as Mr. Tyrwhitt's conjecture may appear, it but ill accords with the context. Iago is enumerating the difqualifications of Caffio for his new appointment; but furely his being well spoken of by all men could not be one of them. It is evident from what follows that a report had prevailed at Venice of Caffio's being foon to be married to the moft fair Bianca." Now as she was in Shakfpeare's language "a cuftomer," it was with a view to fuch a connexion that Iago called the new lieutenant a fellow almoft damn'd. It may be gathered from various circumftances that an intercourse between Caffio and Bianca had exifted before they left Venice; for Bianca is not only well known to Iago at Cyprus, but she upbraids Caffio (Act III. fc. iv.) with having been abfent a week from her, when he had not been two days on the island. Hence, and from what Caffio himself relates, (Act IV. fc. i.) I was the other day talking on the SEA-BANK WITH CERTAIN VENETIANS, and THITHER comes the bauble; by this hand, he falls thus about my neck;-it may be prefumed the had fecretly followed him to Cyprus: a conclufion not only neceffary to explain the paffage in question, but to preserve the confiftency of the fable at large. The fea-bank on which Caffio was converfing with certain Venetians, was at Venice; for he had never till the day before been at Cyprus: he specifies those with whom he converfed as Venetians, because he was himself a Florentine; and he mentions the behaviour of Bianca in their prefence, as tending to corroborate the report she had spread that he was foon to marry her. HENLEY. I think, as I have already mentioned, that Bianca was a Venetian courtezan: but the fea-bank of which Caffio fpeaks, may have been the fhore of Cyprus. In feveral other inftances befide this, 4 Nor the division of a battle knows our poet appears not to have recollected that the perfons of his play Yet I Thus far our commentaries on this obfcure paffage are arranged as they stand in the very fuccinct edition of Mr. Malone. cannot prevail on myfelf, in further imitation of him, to suppress the note of my late friend Mr. Tyrwhitt, a note that feems to be treated with civilities that degrade its value, and with a neglect that few of its author's opinions have deferved. My inability to offer fuch a defence of his prefent one, as he himself could undoubtedly have fupplied, is no reason why it should be prevented from exerting its own proper influence on the reader. STEEVENS. The poet has ufed the fame mode of expreffion in The Merchant of Venice, Act I. fc. i: "O my Antonio, I do know of those "Who therefore only are reputed wife, "For faying nothing; who, I'm very fure, "If they fhould fpeak, would almoft damn thofe ears, "Which, hearing them, would call their brothers fools." And there the allufion is evident to the gofpel-judgement against thofe, who call their brothers fools. I am therefore inclined to believe, that the true reading here is : A fellow almoft damn'd in a fair life; and that Shakspeare alludes to the judgement denounced in the gofpel against thofe of whom all men speak well. The character of Caffio is certainly fuch, as would be very likely to draw upon him all the peril of this denunciation, literally understood. Well-bred, eafy, fociable, good-natured; with abilities enough to make him agreeable and ufeful, but not fufficient to excite the envy of his equals, or to alarm the jealoufy of his fuperiors. It may be obferved too, that Shakspeare has thought it proper to make lago, in feveral other paffages, bear his testimony to the amiable qualities of his rival. In Act V. fc. i. he speaks thus of him: 66 if Caffio do remain, "He hath a daily beauty in his life, "That makes me ugly." I will only add, that, however hard or farfetch'd this allufion (whether Shakfpeare's or only mine) may feem to be, arch More than a spinfter; unless the bookish theorick,1 Wherein the toged confuls' can propose bishop Sheldon had exactly the fame conceit, when he made that fingular compliment, as the writer calls it, [Biograph. Britan. Art. TEMPLE,] to a nephew of fir William Temple, that "he had the curfe of the gofpel, because all men spoke well of him." TYRWHITT. 66 That Mr. Tyrwhitt has given us Shakspeare's genuine word and meaning I have not the leaft doubt. Bianca is evidently a courtezan of Cyprus, and Caffio, of courfe, not yet acquainted with her. But even admitting that the might have followed him thither, and got comfortably fettled in a house," ftill, I think, the improbability of his having any intention to marry her is too grofs for confideration. What! the gallant Caffio, the friend and favourite of his gencral, to marry a "cuftomer," a "fitchew,” a "hufwife who by felling her defires buys herself bread and clothes!" Iago, indeed, pretends that he had given out fuch a report, but it is merely with a view to make Caffio laugh the louder. There can be no reafon for his practifing any fimilar impofition upon Roderigo. RITSON. theorick,] Theorick, for theory. So, in The Proceedings against Garnet on the Powder-Plot: " —as much deceived in the theoricke of truft, as the lay difciples were in the practicke of confpiracie." STEEVENS. This was the common language of Shakspeare's time. See Vol. VI. p. 324, n. 8. MALONE. Wherein the toged confuls-] Confuls, for counsellors. WARBURTON. Sir T. Hanmer reads, council. Mr. Theobald would have us read, counsellors. Venice was originally governed by confuls: and confuls feems to have been commonly used for counsellors, as afterwards in this play. In Albion's Triumph, a mafque, 1631, the Emperor Albanact is faid to be attended by fourteen confuls." Again, " the habits of the confuls were after the fame manner.' Geoffery of Monmouth, and Matthew Paris after him, call both dukes and earls, confuls. STEEVENS. " The rulers of the fate, or civil governours. The word is used by Marlowe, in the fame fenfe, in Tar burlaine, a tragedy, 1590: "Both we will raigne as confuls of the earth." MALONE. By toged perhaps is meant peaceable, in oppofition to the warlike qualifications of which he had been fpeaking. He might have formed the word in allufion to the Latin adage,-Cedant arma toga. STEEVENS. As masterly as he mere prattle, without practice,* tion: And 1,-of whom his eyes had seen the proof, • More than a spinster; unless the bookish theorick, As mafterly as he: mere prattle, without practice,] This play has many redundant lines, like the firft and third of the foregoing. I cannot help regarding the words diftinguished by the Roman character, as interpolations. In the opening fcene of King Henry V. Shakspeare thought it unneceffary to join an epithet to theorick; and if the monofyllables-as be, were omitted, would Iago's meaning halt for want of them? STEEVENS. s must be be-lee'd and calm'd-] The old quarto-led. The first folio reads, be-lee'd: but that spoils the measure. I read, let, hindered. WARBURTON. Be-lee'd fuits to calm'd, and the measure is not lefs perfect than in many other places. JOHNSON. Be-lee'd and be-calm'd are terms of navigation. I have been informed that one veffel is faid to be in the lee of another, when it is fo placed that the wind is intercepted from it. Iago's meaning therefore is, that Caffio had got the wind of him, and be-calm'd him from going on. To be-calm (as I learn from Falconer's Marine Dictionary) is likewise to obftruct the current of the wind in its paffage to a ship, by any contiguous object. STEEVENS. I fufpect therefore that Shakspeare wrote-must be lee'd and calm'd. The lee-fide of a fhip is that on which the wind blows. To lee, or to be lee'd, may mean, to fall to leeward, or to lose the advantage of the wind. The reading of the text is that of the folio. I doubt whether there be any fuch fea-phrase as to be-lee; and fufpect the word be was inadvertently repeated by the compofitor of the folio. Mr. Steevens has explained the word becalm'd, but where is it found in the text? MALONE. Mr. Malone is unfortunate in his prefent explanation. The lee By debitor and creditor, this counter-cafter;* And I, (God blefs the mark!) his Moor-fhip's" ancient. fide of a fhip is directly contrary to that on which the wind blows, if I may believe a skilful navigator whom I have confulted on this occafion. Mr. Malone asks where the word becalm'd is to be found in the text. To this question I must reply by another. Is it not evident, that the prefix-be is to be continued from the former naval phrafe to the latter? Shakspeare would have written be-calm'd as well as be-lee'd, but that the clofe of his verse would not admit of a diffyllable. Should we fay that a fhip was lee'd, or calm'd, we fhould employ a phrase unacknowledged by failors. STEEVENS. 6 By debitor-] All the modern editors read-By debtor; but debitor (the reading of the old copies) was the word used in Shakfpeare's time. So, in Sir John Davies's Epigrams, 1598: "There ftands the conftable, there ftands the whore,- See alfo the paffage quoted from Cymbeline in n. 7. MALONE. 7this counter-cafter;] It was anciently the practice to reckon up fums with counters. To this Shakspeare alludes again in Cymbeline, A& V: “ it fums up thoufands in a trice: you have no true debitor and creditor, but it; of what's past, is, and to come, the difcharge. Your neck, fir, is pen, book, and counters;" &c. Again, in Acolaftus, a comedy, 1540: “I wyl caft my counters, or with counters make all my reckenynges." STEEVENS. So, in The Winter's Tale :-mss fifteen hundred fhorn,What comes the wool to ?—I cannot do't without counters." MALONE. 8 blefs the mark!] Kelly, in his comments on Scots proverbs, obferves, that the Scots, when they compare perfon to perfon, ufe this exclamation. I find, however, this phrafe in Churchyard's Tragicall Difcourfe of a dolorous Gentlewoman, c. 1593: "Not beauty here I claime by this my talke, "For browne and blacke I was, God bleffe the marke! |
