Juftice to break her fword. One more, one more;
Be thus when thou art dead, and I will kill thee,
And love thee after. One more, and that's the last ;
So fweet, was ne'er fo fatal. I must weep,
But they are cruel tears: this forrow's heavenly;
It strikes, where it doth love.

SCENE VII. Othello's Confufion, after having murder'd his Wife.

Yes, 'tis Emilia-by and by-she's dead.
"Tis like the comes to speak of Caffio's death;
The noife was high. Ha, no more moving?
Still as the grave. Shall the come in? wer't good?
I think the ftirs again- -No-what's the best?
If the come in, fhe'll fure speak to my wife;
My wife! my wife! what wife? I have no wife.
Oh infupportable! oh heavy hour!
Methinks it fhould be now a huge eclipse
Of fun and moon, and that th' affrighted globe
Should yawn at alteration.

His Love for her.

Had the been true,

If heaven would make me fuch another world,
Of one entire and perfect chryfolite,
I'd not have fold her for it.

SCENE IX. His bitter Remorfe.

Lo! I have a weapon: (14) A better never did itself sustain

Upon

(14) A better, &c.] In the Double Falfhood there is exactly the fame expreffion, whether Shakespear's, or introduced by Theobald, I cannot pronounce;

Wear

Upon a foldier's thigh. I've feen the day,
That with this little arm, and this good fword,
I've made my way through more impediments,
Than twenty times your ftop. But, oh vain boast:
Who can controul his fate? 'tis not fo now.
Be not afraid, though you do fee me weapon'd;
Here is my journey's end, here is my butt,
And very fea-mark of my utmost fail.
Do you go back difmay'd? 'tis a loft fear:
Man but a rush against Othello's breast,
And he retires: Where should Othello go ?
Now,-how dost thou look now? Oh ill-starr'd wench!
Pale as thy fmock! when we fhall meet at compt,
This look of thine will hurl my foul from heav'n,
And fiends will fnatch at it. Cold, cold, my girl?
E'en like thy chastity. O curfed flave!

Whip me, ye devils,

From the poffeffion of this heavenly fight;
(15) Blow me about in winds, roaft me in fulphur,
Wath me in steep-down gulfs of liquid fire-
Oh Desdemona, Defdcmona! dead, dead! oh, oh!

SCENE X. His laft Speech.

Soft you; a word or two before you go,

I have done the state fome fervice, and they know it;
No more of that. I pray you in your letters,
When you fhall these unlucky deeds relate,
Speak of me, as I am nothing extenuate,
Nor fet down ought in malice. Then muft you fpeak
Of one that lov'd not wifely, but too well:
Of one, not eafily jealous, but being wrought,
Perplex'd in the extreme; of one, whofe hand,

Wear I not a sword?

Ne'er on man's thigh rode better.

(15) See Measure for Measure, p. 238, 139, 140, 141.

Like

A. 3. 5. 3.

Like the bafe (16) Judean, threw a pearl away
Richer than all his tribe: of one, whose eyes,
Albeit unufed to the melting mood,
Drop tears as faft as the Arabian trees
Their medicinal gum. Set you down this.
And fay befides, that in Aleppo once,
Where a malignant and a turban'd Turk
Beat a Venetian, and traduc'd the state,
I took by the throat the circumcifed dog,
And fmote him, thus.

[Stabs himself.

(16) Judean. The elder quarto gives us Indian, it was easy for the to have been chang'd into an i; and I fuppofe, he alludes to the well-known ftory of Herod and Mariamne his wife; in fome circumftances not unlike this of Othello and Defdemona, for both husbands lov'd violently, both were jealous, both were the occafion of their wives deaths; befides, the word tribe, feems wholly to confirm this reading, and in fupport of it we may add, "that in the year 1613, the lady Elizabeth Carew, published a tragedy called Mariam, the fair Queen of Jewry." Mr. Upton prefers like the baje Egyptian; which Egyptian he tells us, was Thyamis, mentioned in the romance of Theagenes and Charicka, written by Heliodorus. The Reader, if he thinks proper, may fee his arguments in fupport of this emendation in his Ob fervations, p. 268.

The beauties of this play are so peculiarly Shakespear's own, little can be produced from other writers to compare with them; there are many excellencies, which could not be introduced in this work, depending on circumftances, fo nicely adapted, no Reader can relish them extracted from the tragedy, which is itfelf one compleat beauty.

General Obfervation.

THE beauties of this play (fays Johnson) impress themselves fo ftrongly upon the attention of the Reader, that they can draw no aid from critical illuftration. The fiery openness of Othello, magnanimous, artlefs, and credulous, boundless in his confidence, ardent in his affection, inflexible in his refolution, and obdurate in his revenge; the cool malignity of Iago, filent in his refentment, fubtle in his defigns, and ftudious at once of his intereft and his vengeance; the foft fimplicity of Defdemona, confident of merit, and confcious of innocence, her artless perfeverance in her fuit, and her flowness to fufpect that the can be fufpected are fuch proofs of Shakespear's skill in human nature, as, I fuppofe, it is vain to feek in any modern writer. The gradual progrefs which lago makes in the Moor's conviction, and the circumftances which he employs to inflame him, are fo artfully natural, that, though it will perhaps not be faid of him as he fays of himself, that he is a man not cafily jealous, yet we cannot but pity him, when at last we find him perplexed in the extreme.

Reputation.

(1) Is fpotlefs reputation: that away,
HE pureft treafure mortal times afford,

TH

Men are but gilded loam or painted clay.

SCENE III.

Cowardice.

That which in mean men we entitle patience, Is pale cold cowardice in noble breasts.

SCENE VI. Banifhment, Confolation under it.

(2) All places that the eye of heaven vifits, Are to a wife man ports and happy havens.

Teach

(1) See Othello, p. 210.

(2) All, &c.] Similar to this is the beginning of the 5th act of Paftor Fido.

All