Oth. Excellent good.--What trumpet is that same ?

Iago. Something from Venice, sure. 'Tis Lodovico,

Come from the duke: and, see, your wife is with
him.

Enter LODOVICO, DESDEMONA, and Attendants.
Lod. 'Save you, worthy general!
Oth.
With all my heart, sir.
Lod. The duke and senators of Venice greet you.
[Gives him a Packet.
Oth. I kiss the instrument of their pleasures.
[Opens the Packet, and reads.
Des. And what's the news, good cousin Lodovico?
Ingo. I am very glad to see you, signior;
Welcome to Cyprus.

Lod. I thank you: How does lieutenant Cassio?
Jago. Lives, sir.

Des. Cousin, there's fallen between him and my

lord

An unkind breach: but you shall make all well.
Oth. Are you sure of that?

Des. My lord?
Oth.

This fail you not to do, as you will-
[Reads.

Lod. He did not call; he's busy in the paper.
Is there division 'twixt thy lord and Cassio?
Des. A most unhappy one; I would do much
To atone them, for the love I bear to Cassio.
Oth. Fire and brimstone !
Des.

Oth.

Des. What, is he angry?
Lod.

My lord ?

Are you wise?

May be, the letter mov'd him;
For, as I think, they do command him home,
Deputing Cassio in his government.
Des. By my troth, I am glad on't.

: Oth. Des.

Oth. I am glad to see you mad.
Des .

Indeed.

My lord?

How, sweet Othello?
[Striking her.

Oth. Devil!
Des.
I have not deserv'd this.
Lod. My lord, this would not be believ'd in Venice;
Though I should swear saw it: "Tis very much,
Make her amends, she weeps.

Oth.

O, devil, devil!
If that the earth could teem with woman's tears,
Each drop she falls would prove a crocodile :3—
Out of my sight!
Des.

I will not stay to offend you.

Lod. Truly, an obedient lady :-

I do beseech your lordship, call her back.
Oth. Mistress,

Des.

My lord?

[Going.

1 The quarto reads God save the worthy general.' Malone says that the reply of Othello does not relate to what Lodovico has just said, but is spoken by Othello while he salutes him. Steevens, on the contrary, thinks that The distracted Othello, considering his happiness in this world at an end, readily catches at the idea of future felicity suggested by the words Sare you, general! He adds, If it be urged that the words only mean preserve you in this world, my sense of the passage will not be much weakened; as our protection, even here, depends on the Almighty.'--In Measure for Measure (Act ii. Sc. 2) two replies of Angelo to similar salutations from Isabel are equally equivocal.

2 i. e. make them one, reconcile them.

Sir, she can turn, and turn, and yet go on,
And turn again; and she can weep, sir, weep;
And she's obedient, as you say,obedient,-
Very obedient:-Proceed you in your tears.--
Concerning this, sir,-O, well painted passion!
I am commanded home :-Get you away;
I'll send for you anon.-Sir, I obey the mandate,
And will return to Venice;-Hence, avaunt!
[Exit DESDEMONA.
Cassio shall have my place. And, sir,-to-night,
I do entreat that we may sup together.
You are welcome, sir, to Cyprus.-Goats, and
monkeys.
[Exit.

Lod. Is this the noble Moor whom our full senate
Call--all-in-all sufficient?-This the noble nature

Whom passion could not shake? whose solid virtue
The shot of accident, nor dart of chance,
Could neither graze, nor pierce?
Iago.
He is much chang'd.
Lod. Are his wits safe? is he not light of brain?
Iago. He is that he is; I may not breathe my

SCENE II. A Room in the Castle. Enter.
OTHELLO and EMILIA.

Oth. You have seen nothing, then?

Emil. Nor ever heard; nor ever did suspect,
Oth. Yes, you have seen Cassio and she together.
Emil. But then I saw no harm: and then I heard
Each syllable that breath made up between them,
Oth. What, did they never whisper?
Emil.

Never, my lord.
Oth. Nor send you out o' the way?
Emil.

4 So in King Henry VI. Part I.

Never.

Done like a Frenchman; turn and turn again.

5 The quarto reads, "I am commanded here."

6 In this exclamation Shakspeare has shown great art. Jago in the first scene, in which he endeavours to awaken his suspicion, being urged to give some evident proof of the guilt of Cassio and Desdemona, tells him it were impossible to have ocular demonstration of it, though they should be as prime as goats, as hot as mon. keys. These words, we may suppose, still ring in the ears of Othello, who, being now fully convinced of his wife's infidelity, rushes out with this emphatic excla. mation: Iago's words were but too true; now, indeed, I am convinced that they are as hot as goals and monkeys.

3 If women's tears could impregnate the earth.' By 7 There are great difficulties in ascertaining the place the doctrine of equivocal generation new animals were of this scene. What Othello says in an early part of it supposed producible by new combinations of matter. to Emilia-Leave procreants alone, and shut the door,' See Bacon, v. lii. p. 70, edit. 1740. Shakspeare here and his subsequent address to her as he goes out, de. alludes to the fabulous accounts which make the croco-cisively point out a room in Othello's Castle as the place dile the most deceitful of animals, whose tears are proverbially fallacions. It is written that he will weep over a man's head when he hath devoured the body, and will then eat up the head too.' Wherefore in Latin there is a proverb, Crocodile lachrymæ, crocodile teares, to signifie such teares as are feigned, and spent only with intent to deceive or do harm.'-Bullokar's Expositor, 1616.

To fall, in this passage, is a verb active.

of the scene; and compel us to place the interlocutors there, however inconsistent with Roderigo's entry, and Iago's address to Desdemona, Go in and weep not. The truth is, that our poet and his audience, in this instance, as in many others, were content, from want of scenery, to consider the very same spot, at one and the same time, as the outside and inside of a house. See the Historical Account of the English Stage, &c. [Boswell's edition of Malone's Shakspeare, vol. iii.]-Mälone.

Oth. To fetch her fan, her gloves, her mask, nor | All kinds of sores, and shames, on my bare head; nothing?

Emil. Never, my lord.
Oth.

That's strange.

Emil. I durst, my lord, to wager she is honest,
Lay down my soul at stake: if you think other,
Remove your thought; it doth abuse your bosom.
If any wretch hath put this in your head,
Let heaven requite it with the serpent's curse!
For, if she be not honest, chaste, and true,
There's no man happy; the purest of their wives'
Is foul as slander.
Oth.

Bid her come hither:-go.-
[Exit EMILIA.
She says enough :-yet she's a simple bawd,
That cannot say as much. This is a subtle whore,
A closet-lock-and-key of villanous secrets:
And yet she'll kneel, and pray; I have seen her do't.

Re-enter EMILIA, with DESDEMONA.
Des. My lord, what is your will?
Oth.

Steep'd me in poverty to the very lips;
Given to captivity me and my utmost hopes;,
I should have found in some part of my soul
A drop of patience: but (alas!) to make me
A fixed figure, for the time of scorn'
To point his slow unmoving finger at,-
0!0!

Yet could I bear that too; well, very well:
But there, where I have garner'd up my heart;
Where either I must live, or bear no life;'
The fountain from the which my current runs,
Or else dries up; to be discarded thence!
Or keep it as a cistern, for foul toads
To knot and gender in !-turn thy complexion
there!

Patience, thou young and rose-lipp'd cherubim ;
Ay, there, look grim as hell!'

Des. I hope, my noble lord esteems me honest.
Oth. O, ay; as summer flies are in the shambles,
That quicken even with blowing. O, thou weed,
"Pray, chuck, come hither. Who art so lovely fair, and smell'st so sweet,
That the sense aches at thee: Would, thou had'st
ne'er been born!

Des. What is your pleasure?
Oth.

Let me see your eyes;
Look in my face.
Des.
What horrible fancy's this?
Oth. Some of your function, mistress;

[To EMILIA.

Leave procreants alone, and shut the door;
Cough, or cry--hem, if any body come :
Your mystery, your mystery ;-nay despatch.

(Exit EMILIA. Des. Upon my knees, what doth your speech import?

I understand a fury in your words,
But not the words.2

Oth. Why, what art thou?
Des.

And loyal wife.

Oth.

Your wife, my lord; your true

Come, swear it, damn thyself;
Lest, being like one of heaven, the devils themselves
Should fear to seize thee: therefore be double
damn'd,
Swear-thou art honest.
Des.
Heaven doth truly know it.
Oth. Heaven truly knows that thou art false as
hell.

Des. To whom, my lord? with whom? How am
I false?

Oth. O, Desdemona !-away! away! away!
Des. Alas, the heavy day!--Why do you weep?
Am I the occasion of these tears, my lord?
If, haply, you my father do suspect,
An instrument of this your calling back,

Lay not your blame on me; if you have lost him,
Why, I have lost him too.

Oth.

Had it pleas'd heaven To try me with affliction; had he rain'd

1 The quarto reads of her sex?

2 This line is not in the folio.

3 Rowe reads 'the hand of scorn,' an elegant and satisfactory emendation; and it is to be wished that there was sufficient authority to admit it into the text Steevens thinks the old reading right, saying, that Othello takes his idea from a clock: To make me (says he) a fixed figure (on the dial of the world) for the hour of scorn to point and make a full stop at " adducing many similar expressions in defence of it, as the hour of death, the day of judgment,' the moment of evil; and in King Richard the Third :

'Had you such leisure in the time of death?" The folio reads and moving instead of unmoving. To ine there seems to be no objection in slow moving;' about which Malone and Mason make difficulties. The epithet derives support from Shakspeare's 104th Son

net:

Ah! yet doth beauty, like a dial hand,
Steal from his figure, and no pace perceived;
So your sweet hue, which methinks still doth stand,
Hath motion, and mine eye may be deceived.'
The finger of the dial was the technical phrase. And
in The Comedy of Errors we have--

'Time's deformed [i. e. deforming] hand.' 4 i. e. treasured up.

Des. Alas, what ignorant sin have I committed?
Oth. Was this fair paper, this most goodly book,
Made to write whore upon? What committed!"
Committed!-0, thou public commoner!
I should make very forges of my cheeks,
That would to cinders burn up modesty,
Did I but speak thy deeds.-What committed!
Heaven stops the nose at it, and the moon winks;
The bawdy wind, that kisses all it meets,10
Is hush'd within the hollow mine of earth,
And will not hear it: What committed!-
Impudent strumpet!
Des.
By heaven, you do me wrong.
Oth. Are not you a strumpet?
Des.

No, as I am a Christian:
If to preserve this vessel for my lord,11
From any other foul unlawful touch,
Be-not to be a strumpet, I am none.
Oth. What, not a whore?
Des.

No, as I shall be saved.

Oth. Is it possible?
Des. O, heaven forgive us!
Oth.

I cry your mercy,

I took you for that cunning whore of Venice,
That married with Othello.-You, mistress,

Re-enter EMILIA.

then;

8 The quarto reads:-

O thou black weed, why art so lovely fair? Thou smell'st so sweet, that the sense aches at thee." 9 This and the three following lines are not in the first quarto. The peculiar sense in which committed is here used may be gathered from King Lear, Act iii. Sc. 14:- Commit not with man's sworn spouse.' It is so used by many of our old writers, and comes from the transgression, being a violation of the commandment, Thou shalt not commit adultery.'

10 So in the Merchant of Venice :

'Hugg'd and embraced by the strumpet wind.'

11 This expression is from Sacred Writ: To possess his vessel in sanctification.'

Emil. Good madam, what's the matter with my | And put in every honest hand a whip,

How comes this trick upon him?
Des.
Nay, heaven doth know.
Emil. I will be hang'd, if some eternal villain,
Some busy and insinuating rogue,

Some cogging cozening slave, to get some office,
Have not devis'd this slander; I'll be hang'd else.
Iago. Fie, there is no such man; it is impossible.
Des. If any such there be, heaven pardon him!
Emil. A halter pardon him! and hell gnaw
bones!
Why should he call her, whore? who keeps her
company?

his

What place? what time? what form? what likeli

The Moor's abus'd by some most villanous knave,
Some base notorious knave, some scurvy fellow :-
O, heaven, that such companions' thou'dst unfold;

9 lago, in a former scene, speaks of Roderigo as of 1 This and the following speech are not in the quarto. one Whom love hath turn'd almost the wrong side 2 There are some lines on the death of Queen Eliza-outward.' beth, in Camden, also to be found in Decker's Wonderful Yeare, 1603, which conclude with a similar conceit:

'I think the barge-men might with easier thighs
Have rowed her thither in her people's eyes:
For how-so-ere, thus much my thoughts have scann'd,
Sh'ad come by water, had she come by land."

3 This is the reading of the quarto: which Dr. Johnson thought preferable to the reading of the folio-on my least misuse.

4 A callet is a trull, a drab. The word is of great antiquity in the English language. Chaucer has it in his Remedy of Love. Harington uses it in his translation of Ariosto, 1591:

And thus this old ill-favour'd spiteful callet.' In a note he says, Callet is a nick-name used to a woman; and that in Irish it signifies a witch. The ety mology of the word is yet to seek.

5 The quarto has, some outrageous knave.'

6 Some notorious knave is here used for some knave worthy to be noted, or branded to everlasting infamy. 7 It has been already observed that companion was a term of contempt.

s 'Do not clamour so as to be heard beyond the house.'

Des. All's one :-Good father! how foolish are our minds!

If I do die before thee, 'pr'ythee, shroud me In one of those same sheets. Emil. Come, come, you talk. Des. My mother had a maid call'd-Barbara; She was in love; and, he, she lov'd, prov'd mad, Des-And did forsake her: she had a song of-willow, An old thing 'twas, but it express'd her fortune, And she died singing it: That song, to-night, Will not go from my mind; I have much to do," But to go hang my head all at one side, And sing it like poor Barbara. 'Pr'ythee, despatch. Emil. Shall I go fetch your night-gown? No, unpin me here.— This Lodovico is a proper man. Emil. A very handsome man. Des.

Emil. It is the wind.

It is so too; And have not we affections?

Des. I call'd my love, false love; but what said Desires for sport? and frailty, as men have?

he then?

Sing willow, &c.

If I court mo women, you'll couch with mo men.1

So, get thee gone; good night. Mine eyes do itch?
Doth that bode weeping ?
Emil.
"Tis neither here nor there.
Des. I have heard it said so.2-O, these men,
these men!-

Dost thou in conscience think,-tell me, Emilia,
That there be women do abuse their husbands
In such gross kind?
Emil.

There be some such, no question. Des. Would'st thou do such a deed for all the world?

Emil. Why, would not you?

Des.
No, by this heavenly light!
Emil. Nor I neither by this heavenly light;

I might do't as well i' the dark.

Then, let them use us well: else, let them know,
The ills we do, their ills instruct us to.

Des. Good night, good night; Heaven me such
usage send,

Not to pick bad from bad; but, by bad, mend!

ACT V.

[Exeunt

SCENE I. A Street. Enter IAGO and RODERIGO.

Iago. Here, stand behind this bulk; straight will
he come;

Wear thy good rapier bare, and put it home:
Quick, quick; fear nothing; F'll be at thy elbow:
It makes us, or it mars us; think on that,
And fix most firm thy resolution.

sword.

Rod. Be near at hand; I may miscarry in't, Iago. Here, at thy hand; be bold, and take thy [Retires to a little distance. Rod. I have no great devotion to the deed; Emil. The world is a huge thing: 'Tis a great Tis but a man gone :-forth, my sword; he dies. And yet he has given me satisfying reasons:price

Des. Would'st thou do such a deed for all the world?

For a small vice.

Des. Good troth, I think thou would'st not. Emil. By my troth, I think I should; and undo't, when I had done. Marry, I would not do such a thing for a joint-ring; nor for measures of lawn; nor for gowns, petticoats, nor caps, nor any petty exhibition: but, for the whole world,-Why, who would not make her husband a cuckold, to make him a monarch? I should venture purgatory

for't.

Des. Beshrew me, if I would do such a wrong

for the whole world.

Emil. Why the wrong is but a wrong i' the world; and, having the world for your labour, 'tis a wrong in your own world, and you might quickly make it right.

Des. I do not think there is any such woman.
Emil. Yes, a dozen; and as many

To the vantage, as would store the world they
play'd for.

But I do think, it is their husbands' faults

If wives do fall: Say, that they slack their duties,
And pour our treasures into foreign laps;
Or else break out in peevish jealousies,
Throwing restraint upon us; or, say they strike us,
Or scant our former having in despite :
Why, we have galls; and, though we have some

1 This couplet is not in the original ballad, which is the complaint not of a woman forsaken, but of a man rejected. These lines were properly added when it was accommodated to a woman.

2 This as well as the following speech is omitted in the first quarto.

3 A joint-ring was anciently a common token among lovers. See Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy, ed. 1632, 544. Their nature will be best understood by a passage Dryden's Don Sebastian :

a curious artist wrought them,
With joints so close as not to be perceived;
Yet are they both each other's counterpart:
and, in the midst,

A heart divided in two halves was placed.'

[Goes to his stand. Iago. I have rubb'd this young quat almost to the sense, 10

And he grows angry. Now, whether he kill Cassio,
Or Cassio him, or each do kill the other,
He calls me to a restitution large
Every way makes my gain: Live Roderigo,
Of gold and jewels that I bobb'd1 from him,
It must not be: if Cassio do remain,
As gifts to Desdemona;
He hath a daily beauty in his life,
That makes me ugly; and, besides, the Moor
May unfold me to him; there stand I in much peril:
No, he must die :--But so, I hear him coming.

Enter CASSIO.

Rod. I know his gait, 'tis he ;-villain, thou diest.
[Rushes from his post, and makes a pass at
CASSIO.

Cas. That thrust had been mine enemy indeed,
But that my coat is better than thou think'st;
I will make proof of thine.

Rod.

[Draws and wounds RODERIGO.
O, I am slain!
[IAGO rushes from his post, cuts CASSIO
behind in the Leg, and exit.
Cas. I am maim'd for ever :-Help, ho! murder!
murder!
[Falls..

Enter OTHELLO, at a distance.
Oth. The voice of Cassio:-Iago keeps his word.
Rod. O, villain that I am!

Oth.
Hark! 'Tis even so.
Cas. O, help! ho! light! a surgeon!"
Oth. 'Tis he;-O, brave Iago, honest, and just,.
That hast such noble sense of thy friend's wrong!
Thou teachest me,-Minion, your dear lies dead,

9 Such uses' is the reading of the folio; but the first quarto has such usage,' which Dr. Johnson prefers, I think, without reason.

10 A quat, in the midland counties, is still used for a pimple, which by rubbing is made to smart, or rubbed to sense. Roderigo is called a quat by the same mode of speech as a low fellow is now termed in low language a scah. To rub to the sense is to rub to the quick. This explanation by Dr. Johnson had previously appeared in the British Magazine, 1748, p. 425. So in The Devil's Law Case, 1623 :-O yong quat! incontinence is plagued in all the creatures of the world. The word is also used in Decker's Gul's Hornbook. 11 The quartos read my game.

12 That I fool'd him out of. To bob is to cheat or 41. e. to boot, over and above. The remaining part deceive with a false tale. So in Turberville's Songs and

of this speech is omitted in the first quarto.

5 So in Shakspeare's 142d Sonnet :

'Robb'd other beds' revenues of their rents.'

6 Our former allowance of expense.

7 Sense is here used, as in Hamlet, for sensation, or sensual appetites.

The old copy reads, their ille instruet us so.'

ST

Sonnets:

"When wedding day was doon,

To play her pranks, and bob the foole,

The shrowish wife begoon.'

13 Iago maims Cassio in the leg, in consequence of what he had just heard him say; from which he supposed. that his body was defended by some secret armour