ACT V. 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: 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; And yet he has given me satisfying reasons: "Tis but a man gone :-forth, my sword; he dies. [Goes to his stand. Iago. I have rubb'd this young quat almost to the sense1, And he grows angry. Now, whether he kill Cassio, Every way makes my gain: Live Roderigo, 1 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 scab. 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 :-' Õ yong quat! incontinence is plagued in all the creatures of the world.' The word is also used in Decker's Gul's Hornbook. 2 The quartos read my game.' Of gold, and jewels, that I bobb'd3 from him, It must not be: if Cassio do remain, He hath a daily beauty in his life, That makes me ugly; and besides, the Moor 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! mur der! murder! Enter OTHELLO, at a distance. [Falls. 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, 3 That I fool'd him out of. To bob is to cheat or deceive with a false tale. So in Turberville's Songs and Sonnets:'When wedding day was doon, To play her pranks, and bob the foole, 4 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. That hast such noble sense of thy friend's wrong! Thou teachest me,-Minion, your dear lies dead, And your fate hies 5 apace;-Strumpet, I come: Forth of my heart those charms, thine eyes, are blotted; Thy bed, lust-stain'd, shall with lust's blood be spotted. [Exit OTHELLO. Enter LODOVICO and GRATIANO, at a distance. Cas.. What, ho! no watch! no passage?? murder! murder! Gra. 'Tis some mischance; the cry is very direful. Cas. O, help! Lod. Rod. Hark! 8 O wretched villain! Lod. Two or three groans :-it is a heavy night: These may be counterfeits; let's think't unsafe To come into the cry, without more help. Rod. Nobody come? then shall I bleed to death. 5 Thus the first quarto. The second quarto and the folio read 'And your unblest fate hies.' 6 The folio reads 'for of;' the quarto reads forth of, i. e. out of. So in King Richard III. :— 'I clothe my naked villany With odd ends, stol'n forth of holy writ.' And in Hamlet : Forth at your eyes your spirits wildly peep.' Again in Jonson's Volpone: - 'Forth the resolved corners of his eyes.' 7 No passengers? nobody going by?' So in the Comedy of Errors: 'Now in the stirring passage of the day.' A passenger anciently signified a passage-boat or vessel, and could not therefore be used in its modern sense without an equivoque. 8 i. e. a thick cloudy night. Enter IAGO, with a Light. Lod. Hark! Gra. Here's one comes in his shirt, with light and weapons. Iago. Who's there? whose noise is this, that cries on murder?? Lod. We do not know. Iago. Did you not hear a cry? Cas. Here, here; for heaven's sake, help me. Iago. What's the matter? Gra. This is Othello's ancient, as I take it. Lod. The same, indeed; a very valiant fellow. Iago. What are you here that cry so grievously? Cas. Iago? O, I am spoil'd, undone by villains! Give me some help. Iago. O me, lieutenant!' what villains have done this? Cas. I think, that one of them is hereabout, And cannot make away. Iago. O treacherous villains! - What are you there? come in, and give some help. [To LODOVICO and GRATIANO. Rod. O, help me here! Cas. That's one of them. Iago. O murderous slave! O villain! [IAGO stabs Roderigo. Rod. O damn'd Iago! O inhuman dog!O! O! O! Iago. Kill men i'the dark!-Where be these bloody thieves? How silent is this town!-Ho! murder! murder! What may you be? are you of good, or evil? Lod. As you shall prove us, praise us. 9 This phrase, to cry on, for cry out on, has already occurred in Hamlet, Act v. Sc. 2. See p. 347, ante. Light, gentlemen; I'll bind it with my shirt. Enter BIANCA. Bian. What is the matter, ho? who is't that cry'd? Iago. Who is't that cry'd? Bian. O my dear Cassio! my sweet Cassio! O Cassio! Cassio! Cassio! Tago. O notable strumpet!-Cassio, may you suspect Who they should be, that have thus mangled you? Cas. No. Gra. I am sorry, to find you thus: I have been to seek you. Iago. Lend me a garter 10: So.-O, for a chair, To bear him easily hence! Bian. Alas,he faints:-O Cassio! Cassio! Cassio! Iago. Gentlemen all, I do suspect this trash To be a party in this injury 11. 12 Patience awhile, good Cassio.-Come, come; 10 This speech is not in the first quarto. this. Thus the folio. The quarto 1622 reads-to bear a part in 12 This passage incontestably proves that Iago was meant for a Venetian. |