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Make head against my eftimation?!

Duke. Be it as you shall privately determine, Either for her stay, or going: the affair cries-hafte, And speed muft anfwer it; you must hence to-night. Dej. To-night, my lord?

Duke. This night.

Oth. With all my heart.

Duke. At nine i' the morning here we'll meet again. Othello, leave some officer behind,

And he shall our commiffion bring to you;
With fuch things elfe of quality and respect,

As doth import you,

Oth. Pleafe your grace, my ancient; A man he is of honesty, and trust:

To his conveyance I affign my wife,

With what else needful your good grace fhall think
To be fent after me.

Duke. Let it be fo.

Good night to every one.-And, noble fignior, [to Bra. If virtue no delighted beauty lack',

Your fon-in-law is far more fair than black.

I Sen. Adieu, brave Moor! ufe Defdemona well. Bra. Look to her, Moor; have a quick eye to fee2; She has deceiv'd her father, and may thee.

[Exeunt Duke, Senators, Officers, &c. 9my eftimation!] Thus the folio; the quarto-reputation.

STEEVENS.

If virtue no delighted beauty lack,] The meaning, I believe, is, if virtue comprehends every thing in itself, then your virtuous fon-in-law of courfe is beautiful: he has that beauty which delights every one. Delighted, for delighting; Shakspeare often ufes the active and paffive participles indifcriminately. Of this practice I have already given many inftances. The fame fentiment feems to occur in Twelfth Night:

"In nature is no blemish, but the mind;

"None can be call'd deform'd, but the unkind:
"Virtue is beauty." STEEVENS.

Delighted is ufed by Shakspeare in the sense of delighting, or delightful. See Cymbeline, A&t V:

2

"Whom best I love, I crofs, to make my gift, "The more delay'd, delighted." TYRWHITT. - bave a quick eye to fee ;] Thus the eldest quarto. reads,if thou haft eyes to fec. STEEVENS. I i3

The folio

Oth.

Oth. My life upon her faith.-Honeft Iago,
My Desdemona muft I leave to thee:
I pr'ythee let thy wife attend on her;
And bring them after 3 in the beft advantage 4..
Come, Desdemona; I have but an hour
Of love, of worldly matters and direction,
To spend with thee: we must obey the time.

Rod. Iago.

[Exeunt OTHELLO, and DESDEMONA.

lago. What fay'ft thou, noble heart? Rod. What will I do, think'ft thou?

Iago. Why, go to bed, and fleep.

Rod. I will incontinently drown myself.

Iago. Well, if thou doft, I fhall never love thee after it. Why, thou filly gentleman!

Rod. It is fillinefs to live, when to live is a torment: and then have we a prefcription to die, when death is our phyfician.

Iago. O villainous! I have look'd upon the world for four times feven years and fince I could diftinguish

:

3 And bring them after] Thus the folio. The quarto, 1622, reads and bring ber after. MALONE.

4

best advantage.—] Fairest opportunity. JOHNSON.

5 I bave look'd upon the world for four times feven years :] From this paffage Iago's age feems to be afcertained; and it correfponds with the account in the novel on which Othello is founded, where he is defcribed as a young, handfome man. The French translator of Shakspeare is however of opinion, that Iago here only speaks of those years of his life in which he had looked on the world with an eye of obfervation. But it would be difficult to affign a reason why he fhould mention the precife term of twenty-eight years; or to account for his knowing fo accurately when his understanding arrived at maturity, and the operation of his fagacity, and his obfervations on mankind, commenced.

That Iago meant to say he was but twenty eight years old, is clearly afcertained, by his marking particularly, though indefinitely, a period within that time, [" and fince I could diftinguifh," &c.] when he began to make obfervations on the characters of men.

Waller on a picture which was painted for him in his youth, by Cornelius Janfen, and which is now in the poffeffion of his heir, has expreffed the same thought: "Anno ætatis 23; vitæ vix primo.”

MALONI.

between

between a benefit and an injury, I never found a man that knew how to love himself. Ere I would fay, I would drown myself for the love of a Guinea hen", I would change my humanity with a baboon.

Rod. What should I do? I confefs, it is my fhame to be fo fond; but it is not in virtue to amend it.

Iago. Virtue? a fig! 'tis in ourselves, that we are thus, or thus. Our bodies are our gardens; to the which, our wills are gardeners: fo that if we will plant nettles, or fow lettice; fet hyffop, and weed up thyme; fupply it with one gender of herbs, or distract it with many; either to have it fteril with idleness', or manured with industry; why, the power and corrigible authority of this lies in our wills. If the balance of our lives had not one fcale of reason to poise another of fenfuality, the blood and baseness of our natures would conduct us to moft prepofterous conclufions: But we have reason, to cool our raging motions, our carnal ftings, our unbitted lufts; whereof I take this, that you call-love, to be a fect, or scyon'.

6 -a Guinea ben,] A fhowy bird with fine feathers. JOHNSON. A Guinea-ben was anciently the cant term for a prostitute. So, in Albertus Wallenfiein, 1640:

46 --

Yonder's the cock o' the game,

"About to tread yon Guinea-ben; they're billing."

STEEVENS.

7 - either to bave it fteril with idleness,-] Thus the authentick copies. The modern editors following the fecond folio, have omitted the word to. I have frequently had occafion to remark that Shakfpeare often begins a fentence in one way, and ends it in a different kind of conftruction. Here he has made lago fay, if we will plant, &c. and he concludes, as if he had written-if our will is-either to have it, &c. See p. 467, n. 7. MALONE.

8 If the balance-] The folio reads-If the brain. STEEVENS. reafon to cool-our carnal itings, our unbitted lufts ;] So,in A Knack to know an Honest Man, 1596:

9

"Virtue ne er taught thee that;

"She fets a bit upon her bridled lufts."

See alfo As you Like it, Act II. fc. vi.

"For thou thyself haft been a libertine ;

"As fenfual as the brutish fting itself." MALONE.

1 - a fect or scyon.] Thus the folio and quarto. A fect is what the more modern gardeners call a cutting. The modern editors reada fet. STEEVENS.

I i4

Rod.

Rod. It cannot be.

Iago. It is merely a luft of the blood, and a permiffion of the will. Come, be a man: Drown thyfelf? drown cats, and blind puppies. I have profefs'd me thy friend, and I confefs me knit to thy deferving with cables of perdurable toughnefs; I could never better flead thee than now. Put money in thy purfe; follow thefe wars; defeat thy favour with an ufurped beard 3; I fay, put money in thy purfe. It cannot be, that Defdemona fhould long continue her love to the Moor,— put money in thy purfe ;-nor he his to her: it was a violent commencement, and thou fhalt fee an anfwerable fequeftration+;-put but money in thy purse.Thefe Moors are changeable in their wills;-fill thy

purfe

2 I confefs me knit to thy deferving with cables of perdurable toughnefs;] So, in Antony and Cleopatra:

To make you brothers, and to knit your hearts "With an unflipping knot.”

Again, in our authour's 26th Sonnet:

3

"Lord of my love, to whom in vaffalage

"Thy merit hath my duty strongly knit." MALONE.

defeat thy favour with an ufurped beard;] To defeat, is to undo, to change. JOHNSON.

Defeat is from defaire, Fr. to undo. STEEVENS.

To defeat, Mintheu in his Dictionary, 1617, explains by the words"to abrogate, to undo." See alfo Florio's Italian Dictionary, 1598: "Disfacere. To undoe, to marre, to unmake, to defeat." MALONE. 4- it was a violent commencement, and thou shalt fee an enfwerable fequeftration;-] There feems to be an oppofition of terms here intended, which has been loft in tranfcription. We may read, it was a violent conjunction, and thou shalt see an answerable sequeftration; or, what seems to me preferable, it was a violent commencement, and thou shalt see an answerable sequel. JOHNSON.

I believe the poet uses fequeftration for fequel. He might conclude that it was immediately derived from fequor. Sequeftration, however, may mean no more than feparation, So, in this play-" a fequefter from liberty." STEEVENS.

Surely fequeftration was used in the fenfe of feparation only, or in modern language, parting. Their paffion began with violence, and it fall end as quickly, of which a feparation will be the confequence. A total and voluntary fequeftration neceffarily includes the ceffation or end of affection.-We have the fame thought in feveral other places. So, in Romeo and Juliet:

"Thefe

purfe with money: the food that to him now is as lufcious as locufts fhall be to him fhortly as bitter as coloquintida. She muft change for youth: when the is fated with his body, fhe will find the error of her choice. -She must have change, fhe muft: therefore put money in thy purse. If thou wilt needs damn thyfelf, do it a more delicate way than drowning. Make all the money thou canft: If fan&timony and a frail vow, betwixt an erring Barbarian and a fuper-fubtle Venetian, be not too hard for my wits, and all the tribe of hell, thou fhalt enjoy her; therefore make money. A pox of drowning thyfelf! it is clean out of the way: feek thou

"Thefe violent delights have violent ends,
"And in their triumph die."

Again, in The Rape of Lucrece :

"Thy violent vanities can never last."

I have here followed the first quarto. The folio reads-it was a violent commencement in ber, &c. The context fhews that the original is the true reading. Othello's love for Defdemona has been MALONE. juft mentioned, as well as her's for the Moor.

5-as lufcious as locufts,—as bitter as coloquintida.] The old quarto reads as acerb as coloquintida.

At Tonquin the infect locufts are confidered as a great delicacy, not only by the poor but by the rich; and are fold in the markets, as larks and quails are in Europe. It may be added, that the Levitical law permits four forts of them to be eaten.

An anonymous correfpondent informs me, that the fruit of the locuft-tree is a long black pod, which contains the feeds, among which there is a very fweet lufcious juice of much the fame confiftency as fresh honey. This (fays he,) I have often tafted. STEEVENS.

Mr. Daines Barrington fuggefts to me, that Shakspeare perhaps had the third chapter of St. Matthew's gofpel in his thoughts, in which we are told that John the Baptist lived in the wildernefs on locufts and wild boney. MALONE.

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betwixt an erring Barbarian-] So, in Hamlet:
"Th' extravagant and erring fpirit hies

"To his confine." STEEVENS.

An erring Barbarian; perhaps means a rover from Barbary. He had before faid, "You'll have your daughter covered with a Barbary horfe." MALONE.

The word erring is fufficiently explained by a paffage in the first fcene of this play, where Roderigo tells Brabantio, that his daughter was "Tying her duty, beauty, wit, and fortune

"In an extravagant and wheeling stranger,
"Of here and every where."

Erring is the fame as erraticus in Latin. MASON.

rather

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