rather to be hang'd in compassing thy joy, than to be drown's and go without her.

Rod. Wilt thou be fast to my hopes, if I depend on the issue ??

lago. Thou art sure of me;-Go, make money :-I have told thee often, and I re-tell thee again and again, I hate the Moor: My cause is hearted; thine hath no less reason: Let us be conjunctive in our revenge against him : if thou canst cuckold him, thou dost thyfelt a pleasure, and me a sport. There are many events in the womb of time, which will be delivered. Traverse; go; provide thy money. We will have more of this to-morrow. Adieu.

Rod. Where shall we mect i' the morning ?
lago. At my lodging.
Rod, I'll be with thee betimes.
Iago. Go to; farewel. Do you hear, Roderigo 9 ?
Röd. What say you?
lago. No more of drowning, do you hear.
Rod. I am changed. I'll lell all my land.
Iago. Go to; farewel : put money enough in your purse.

[Exit RODERIGO.
Thus do I ever make my fool my purse:
For I mine own gain’d knowledge thould profane,
If I would time expend with such a snipe,
But for my sport, and profit. I hate the Moor;
And it is thought abroad, that 'twixt my feets

1 - If I depend on the isue? ] These words are wanting in the first quarto. STEEVENS.

conjunctive-] The first quarto reads, communicative. STIEV.

Do you bear, Roderigo ?] In the folio, instead of this and the following speeches, we find only these words :

lago. Go to; farewell. Do you hear, Roderigo ?
Rod. I'll sell all my land.

[Exit.
lago. Thus do I ever, &c.
The quarto, 1622, reads:

lago. Go to; farewell :--do you hear, Roderigo ?
Rod. What say you?
lago. No more of drowning, do you hear.
Rod. I am chang'd.

[Exit Rod. lago. Go to; farewell : put money enough in your purse. Thus do I ever, &c. The reading of the text is formed out of the two copies. MALONE.

He

8

9

He has done my office: I know not, if't be true ;
But I, for mere suspicion in that kind,
Will do, as if for furety'. He holds me well;
The better shall my purpose work on him.
Callio's a proper man: Let me see now;
To get his place, and to plume up my will ?,
A double knavery,-How? how?-Let me see:-
After some time, to abuse Othello's ear,
That he is too familiar with his wife:-
He hath a person, and a smooth dispose,
To be suspected; fram’d to make women false.
The Moor is of a free and open nature 3,
That thinks men honeft, that but seem to be so;
And will as tenderly be led by the nose,
As asses are.
I have't;-it is engender'd :-Hell and night
Muft bring this monstrous birth to the world's light. [Exit.

1

2

A CT II. SCENE I.
A Sea-port town in Cyprus*. A Platform.

Enter Montano, and two Gentlemen.
Mon. What from the

cape can you

discern at sea ? 1. Gent. Nothing at all: it is a high-wrought flood;

I cannot - as if for surels,] i.e. as if I were certain of the fact. Mason.

– to plume up, &c.] The first quarto reads to make up, &c. STEEV. 3 Tbe Moor is of a free and open nature,] The first quarto reads :

The Moor, a free and open nature too,

That thinks, &c. STEEVENS. All the modern editors, following Mr. Rowe, have supposed the capital of Cyprus to be the place where the scene of Orbello lies during four acts: but this could not have been Shakspeare's intention; NicoSIA, the capital city of Cyprus, being fituated nearly in the center of the island, and thirty miles distant from the sea. The principal sea-port town of Cyprus was FAMAGUSTA; where there was formerly a Itrong fort and a commodious haven, the only one of any magnitude in the ifand; and there undoubtedly the scene should be placed. “ Neere unto the haven (says Knolles,) ftandeth an old CASTLE, with four towers after the ancient manner of building.” To this castle, we find, Othello presently repairs.

It is observable that Cinthio in the novel on which this play is founded, which was first published in 1565, makes no mention of any

attack

I cannot, 'twixt the haven 4 and the main,
Descry a fail.

Mon. Methinks, the wind hath spoke aloud at land ;
A fuller blast ne'er shook our battlements :
If it hach ruffian'd so upon the sea',
What ribs of oak, when mountains melt on them,

Can attack being made on Cyprus by the Turks. From our poet's having mentioned the preparations against this inland, which they firit atsaulted and took from the Venetians in 1570, we may suppose that he intended that year as the era of his tragedy; but by mentioning Rbodes as also likely to be assaulted by the Turks, he has fallen into an historical inconsistency; for they were then in quiet par. feflion of that is and, of which they became masters in December, 1522; and if, to evade this difficulty, we refer Oebello to an era prior to that year, there will be an equal incongruity; for from 1473, when the Venetians first became polieties of Cyprus, to 1522, they had not been molested by any Turkish armament. MALONE.

4 – 'twixt the haven-) Thus the quarto, 1622. The folio hasthe beaver, which affords a bolder image ; but the article prefixed strongly supports the original copy; for applied to beaven, it is extremely aukward. Besides; though in The Winter's Tale our poet has made a Clown talk of a ship boring tbe moon wirb ber mainmast, and say that “ between the sea and the firmament you cannot abruft á bodkir's point," is it probable, that he hould put the same hyperbolical language into the mouth of a gentleman, answering a serious question on an important occafion? In a subsequent pallage indeed he indulges himself without impropriety in the elevated diction of poetry,

Of the baven of Famagusta, which was defended from the main by two great rocks, at the distance of forty paces from each other, Shaka speare might have found a particular account in Knolles's History of tbe Turks, ad ann. 1570, p. 863. MALONE. s If it bath rufian'd so upon tbe sea,] So, in Troilus and Cressida :

" But let the rufian Boreas once enrage

“ The gentle Thitis, MAIONE, 6 gben mountains melt on i bem,] Thus the folio. The quarto reads :

- when tbe buge mountain melts. This latter reading might be countenanced by the following passage in the second part of King Henry IV.

the continent
“ Weary of solid firmness, melt itself

« Into the sea' STEEVENS. The quarto 1622—reads,when the huge mountaine meslt; the letters, which perhaps belongs to mountain, having wandered at the press from its place.

I apprehend, that in the quarto reading (as well as in the folio,) by mountains the poet meant not land-mountains, which Mr. Steesens

seems

Can hold the mortice? what shall we hear of this ?

2. Gent. A segregation of the Turkish fleet:
For do but stand upon the foaming fhore,
The chiding billow seems to pelt the clouds ;
The wind-thak'd surge, with high and monstrous main,
Seems to cast water on the burning bear,
And quench the guards of the ever-fixed pole 8 :
I never did like molestation view
On the enchafed flood.

Mon. If that the Turkish fleet
Be not in shelter'd and embay'd, they are drown'd;
It is impoflible they bear it out.

Enter a third Gentleman.
3. Gent. News, lords ! our wars are done ;
The desperate tempeft hath so bang'd the Turks,
That their designment halts: A noble fhip of Venice
Hath seen a grievous wreck and sufferance
On most part of their feet.

Mon. How ! is this true ?

3. Gent. The ihip is here put in, A Veroneféo: Michael Casio,

Lieutenant feems by his quotation to have thought, but those huge furges, (resembling mountains in their magnitude,) which “ with high and monitrous main feem'd to caft water on the burning bear." So, in a subsequent scene :

" And let the labouring bark climb bills of feas,

« Olympus high".
Again, in Troilus and Cressida:

« and anon behold
“ The strong-ribb’d bark through liquid mountains cuts.”

MALONE. the foaming fore,] The elder quarto reads-banning shore, which offers the bolder image ; i. e. the shore that execrates the raVage of the waves. So, in King Henry VI. P. I:

“ Fell, banning hag, enchantress, hold thy tongue.” STIEV. * And quench the guards of ibe ever-fixed pole :] Alluding to the ftar Aretopbylax. JOHNSON.

The elder quarto reads—ever-fired pole. STEVENS.
9 A Veronese :] The quarto, 1622, has a Veroneffa : the folio, Ve.
Torressa. The true spelling was pointed out by Mr. Heath. In
Thomases History of Iraly, already quoted, the people of Verona are

7

called the Veronefi.

Lieutenant to the warlike Moor, Othello,
Is come on shore: the Moor himself's at sea,
And is in full commission here for Cyprus.

Mon. I am glad on't; tis a worthy governour.
3. Gent. But this same Caffio,—though he speak of

comfort,
Touching the Turkish loss,-yet he looks fadly,
And prays the Moor be safe ; for they were parted
With foul and violent tempest.

Mon. Pray heaven he be;
For I have serv'd him, and the man commands
Like a full soldier'. Let's to the sea-side, ho !
As well to see the vessel that's come in,
As to throw out our eyes for brave Othello ;
Even till we make the main?, and the aerial blue,
An indistinct regard.

Gent. Come, let's do so;
For every minute is expectancy
Of more arrivance.

Enter Cassio.
Caf. Thanks to the valiant of this warlike ille,
That so approve the Moor; 0, let the heavens,

This ship has been already described as a fhip of Venice. It is now called " a Veronesé;" that is, a hip belonging to and furnished by the inland city of Verona, for the use of the Venetian state; and newly arrived from Venice. « Besides many other towns, (lays Contareno,) castles, and villages, they (the Venetians, 1 poffefs feven faire cities; as Trevigi, Padoua, Vicenza, Verona, Breicia, Bergamo, and Crema." Commonwealth of Venice, 1599.

Mr. Heath, Mr. Steevens, and Mr. Warton, concur in observing that Veronese must be pronounced as a quadrifyllable. In our poet's age, “it was common” Mr. Warton observes, “ to introduce Italian words, and in their proper pronunciation then familiar. So Spenser, in The Fairy Queene, B. III. c, xiii. st. 10.

" With Ileeves dependant Albanesé wise.” MALONE. · Like a full soldier. ] Like a complete soldier. So before, p. 447:

“ What a full fortune doth the thick-lips owe.” MALONE. 2 Even till we make tbe main, &c.] This line and half is wanting in the eldest quarto. STEEVENS.

- warlike ifle,] Thus the folio. The first quarto reads-wortby ille. STEEVIN S.

Give

3