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

Rod. Wilt thou be faft to my hopes, if I depend on the iffue??

8

Iago. Thou art fure of me;-Go, make money:-I have told thee often, and I re-tell thee again and again, I hate the Moor: My caufe is hearted; thine hath no lefs reason: Let us be conjunctive in our revenge against him if thou canft cuckold him, thou doft thyfelf a pleasure, and me a fport. There are many events in the womb of time, which will be delivered. Traverfe; go; provide thy money. We will have more of

this to-morrow. Adieu.

Rod. Where fhall we meet i' the morning?

Iago. At my lodging.

Rod. I'll be with thee betimes.

Iago. Go to; farewel. Do you hear, Roderigo??
Rod. What fay you?

Iago. No more of drowning, do you hear.

Rod. I am changed. I'll fell 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 fuch a fnipe, But for my fport, and profit. I hate the Moor; And it is thought abroad, that 'twixt my sheets

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

8

9

conjunctive-] The first quarto reads, communicative. STEEV. Do you bear, Roderigo ?] In the folio, instead of this and the following fpeeches, we find only these words:

Iago. Go to; farewell. Do you hear, Roderigo?

Rod. I'll fell all my land.

Iago. Thus do I ever, &c.

The quarto, 1622, reads:

[Exit.

Lago. Go to; farewell:-do you hear, Roderigo?

Rod. What fay you?

lago. No more of drowning, do you hear.

Rod. I am chang'd.

[Exit Rod.

Iago. 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

He has done my office: I know not, if't be true;
But I, for mere fufpicion in that kind,
Will do, as if for furety'. He holds me well;
The better fhall my purpose work on him.
Caffio's a proper man: Let me fee now;
To get his place, and to plume up my will 2,
A double knavery,-How? how?-Let me fee:-
After fome time, to abuse Othello's ear,
That he is too familiar with his wife:-
He hath a perfon, and a smooth dispose,
To be fufpected; fram'd to make women falfe.
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 nofe,

As affes are.

I have't; it is engender'd:-Hell and night
Muft bring this monstrous birth to the world's light. [Exit.

ACT 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 furety.] i. e. as if I were certain of the fact. MASON. 2-to plume up, &c.] The first quarto reads-to make up, &c. STEEV. 3 The 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 fuppofed 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 diftant from the fea. The principal fea-port town of Cyprus was FAMAGUSTA; where there was formerly a strong fort and a commodious haven, the only one of any magnitude in the island; and there undoubtedly the scene should be placed. "Neere unto the haven (fays Knolles,) ftandeth an old CASTLE, with four towers after the ancient manner of building." To this caftle, we find, Othello prefently repairs.

It is obfervable 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 and the main,
Defery a fail.

Mon. Methinks, the wind hath fpoke aloud at land; A fuller blaft ne'er fhook our battlements :

If it hath ruffian'd fo upon the fea3,

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 island, which they first aflaulted and took from the Venetians in 1570, we may fuppofe that he intended that year as the era of his tragedy; but by mentioning Rhodes as alfo likely to be affaulted by the Turks, he has fallen into an hiftorical inconfiftency; for they were then in quiet poffeflion of that ifland, of which they became mafters 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 poffelfed of Cyprus, to 1522, they had not been molested by any Turkish armament. MALONE.

4twixt the haven-] Thus the quarto, 1622. The folio hasthe beaven, which affords a bolder image; but the article prefixed ftrongly fupports the original copy; for applied to beaven, it is extremely aukward. Befides; though in The Winter's Tale our poet has made a Clown talk of a ship boring the moon with her mainmaft, and fay that

between the fea and the firmament you cannot thrust a bodkin's point," is it probable, that he should put the fame hyperbolical language into the mouth of a gentleman, anfwering a ferious queftion on an important occafion? In a fubfequent paffage indeed he indulges himself without impropriety in the elevated diction of poetry.

Of the baven of Famagufta, which was defended from the main by two great rocks, at the distance of forty paces from each other, Shakfpeare might have found a particular account in Knolles's Hiftory of the Turks, ad ann. 1570, p. 863. MALONE.

5 If it bath ruffian'd fo upon the fea,] So, in Troilus and Cresfida: "But let the ruffian Boreas once enrage

"The gentle Thetis, MALONE.

ben mountains melt on them,] Thus the folio. The quarto reads: when the buge mountain melts.

This latter reading might be countenanced by the following passage in the fecond Part of King Henry IV.

66

the continent

"Weary of folid firmness, melt itself

"Into the fea" STEEVENS.

The quarto 1622-reads, when the huge mountaine meslt; the letters, which perhaps belongs to mountain, having wandered at the prefs 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. Steevens

feems

Can hold the mortice? what fhall we hear of this?
2. Gent. A fegregation of the Turkish fleet:
For do but ftand upon the foaming fhore",
The chiding billow feems to pelt the clouds;

The wind-thak'd furge, with high and monftrous main,
Seems to caft water on the burning bear,

And quench the guards of the ever-fixed pole:
I never did like moleftation view

On the enchafed flood.

Mon. If that the Turkish fleet

Be not infhelter'd and embay'd, they are drown'd;
It is impoffible they bear it out.

Enter a third Gentleman.

3. Gent. News, lords! our wars are done;
The defperate tempeft hath fo bang'd the Turks,
That their defignment halts: A noble fhip of Venice
Hath feen a grievous wreck and fufferance

On moft part of their fleet.

Mon. How! is this true?

3. Gent. The ship is here put in,

A Veronefé: Michael Caffio,

Lieutenant

feems by his quotation to have thought, but thofe huge furges, (refembling mountains in their magnitude,) which with high and monftrous main feem'd to caft water on the burning bear."

So, in a fubfequent scene :

"And let the labouring bark climb bills of feas,

"Olympus high,-".

Again, in Troilus and Creffida :

and anon behold

"The strong-ribb'd bark through liquid mountains cuts."

MALONE.

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

"Fell, banning hag, enchantrefs, hold thy tongue." STEEV. 8 And quench the guards of the ever-fixed pole:] Alluding to the ftar Artopbylax. JOHNSON.

The elder quarto reads-ever-fired pole. STEEVENS.

In

9 A Veronefe:] The quarto, 1622, has-a Veroneffa: the folio, Veronneffa. The true fpelling was pointed out by Mr. Heath. Thomafes Hiftory of Italy, already quoted, the people of Verona are called the Veronefi.

494

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

Mon. I am glad on't; tis a worthy governour.

3. Gent. But this fame Caffio,-though he fpeak of comfort,

Touching the Turkish lofs,-yet he looks fadly,
And prays the Moor be fafe; for they were parted
With foul and violent tempeft.

Mon. Pray heaven he be;

For I have ferv'd him, and the man commands
Like a full foldier'. Let's to the fea-fide, ho!
As well to fee the veffel that's come in,

As to throw out our eyes for brave Othello;
Even till we make the main 2, and the aerial blue,
An indistinct regard.

Gent. Come, let's do fo;

For every minute is expectancy

Of more arrivance.

Enter CASSIO.

Caf. Thanks to the valiant of this warlike ifle3, That fo approve the Moor; O, let the heavens

This hip has been already described as a ship of Venice. It is now called "a Veronefé;" that is, a fhip belonging to and furnished by the inland city of Verona, for the ufe of the Venetian ftate; and newly arrived from Venice. Befides many other towns, (fays Contareno,) cafties, and villages, they [the Venetians,] poffefs feven faire cities; as Trevigi, Padoua, Vicenza, Verona, Brefcia, Bergamo, and Crema." Commonwealth of Venice, 1599.

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

"With fleeves dependant Albanefé wife." MALONE.

Like a full foldier.] Like a complete foldier. So before, p. 447: "What a full fortune doth the thick-lips owe." MALONE. 2 Even till we make the main, &c.] This line and half is wanting in the eldest quarto. STEEVENS.

3

- warlike ifle,] Thus the folio. The first quarto reads-worthy ille. STEEVENS.

Give