and again, calls Roderigo, of Venice, his countryman. These assertions, be it again observed, rest upon the authority of Iago the liar. We do not, however, think that it is proved, as Tieck maintains, that Iago is a Florentine, and Cassio the Veronesé; but we distinctly agree with him that Iago meant to speak disparagingly of Cassio when he called him a Florentine. He was an "arithmetician," a "counter-caster," a native of a state whose inhabitants, pursuing the peaceful and gainful occupations of commerce, had armies of mercenaries. Cassio, for this reason, upon the showing of lago, was one "that never set a squadron in the field." According to Tieck, this imputation of being a Florentine must solve the enigma of the next line "A fellow almost damn'd in a fair wife." But we are of opinion that it is not necessary to find any mystical meaning in these words; and that lago distinctly refers to Bianca. 2 SCENE I." The Thick-lips." This passage has been received as indicating the intention of Shakspere to make Othello a Negro. It is very probable that the popular notion of a Moor was somewhat confused in Shakspere's time, and that the descendants of the proud Arabs who had borne sovereign sway in Europe ("men of royal siege "), and, what is more, had filled an age of comparative darkness with the light of their poetry and their science, were confounded with the uncivilised Africanthe despised slave. We do not think, however, that Shakspere had any other intention than to paint Othello as one of the most noble and accomplished of the proud children of the Ommiades and the Abbasides. The expression, "thick-lips," from the mouth of Roderigo, can only be received dramatically, as a nick-name given to Othello by the folly and ill-nature of this coxcomb. Whatever may have been the practice of the stage even in Shakspere's time -and it is by no means improbable that Othello was represented as a Negro-the whole context of the play is against the notion. Coleridge has very acutely remarked, with reference to the present practice of making him a black-a-moor "Even if we supposed this an uninterrupted tradition of the theatre, and that Shakspere himself, from want of scenes, and the experience that nothing could be made too marked for the senses of his audience, had practically sanctioned it, would this prove aught concerning his own intention as a poet for all ages?" Rymer, in his most amusingly-absurd attack upon this tragedy, seems to confound the notion of Moor and Negro, without any reference to the stage. "The character of that state (Venice) is to employ strangers in their wars; but shall a poet thence fancy that they will set a Negro to be their general, or trust a Moor to defend them against the Turk? With us a black-a-moor might rise to be a trumpeter; but Shakspere would not have him less than a lieutenantgeneral. With us a Moor might marry some little drab, or small-coal wench : Shakspere would provide him the daughter and heir of some great lord, or privy councillor; and all the town should reckon it a very suitable match. Yet the English are not bred up with that hatred and aversion to the Moors as are the Venetians, who suffer by a perpetual hostility from them. Littora littoribus contraria. Nothing is more odious in nature than an improbable lie; and certainly, never was any play fraught, like this of Othello,' with improbabilities." Rymer's accuracy is not more to be depended on than his taste. In a subsequent page he says, "This senator's daughter runs away to a carrier's inn, the Sagittary, with a black-a-moor." Shakspere's local knowledge was more to be depended upon than the guessing learning of the editor of the Fadera. The Sagittary was not an inn (see note on that passage); nor were the Venetians in perpetual hostility with the Moors. Upon this subject we are favoured with the following observations from the friend who contributed some local illustrations to 'The Merchant of Venice : Every shade of complexion is even now familiar to Venetians, and was yet more so in former days. Groups of Greeks, Africans, and natives of both Indies, may be daily seen in the great squares of Venice, conversing in the arcades, or gathered about the cafés. In the ages of her splendour, Venice was thronged with foreigners from every climate of the earth; and nowhere else, perhaps, has prejudice of colour been so feeble. A more important fact, as regards Desdemona's attachment, is that it was the policy of the Republic to employ foreign mercenaries, and especially in offices of command, for the obvious purpose of lessening to the utmost the danger of cabal and intrigue at home. The Literary Remains,' vol. ii., p. 257. attacked Cyprus in May, 1570." families of senators, or other chief citizens, were | happened when Mustapha, Selymus's general, in the habit of seeing, in their dark-complexioned guests, those only who were distinguished by ability, and by the official rank thereby gained:picked men, whose hue might be forgotten in their accomplishments. 3 SCENE I.-" To start my quiet." The singular quiet of residences on the canals of Venice seems to have been, at all times, a temptation to "start" it by practical jokes. The houses may be approached and quitted so stealthily as to render it extremely easy to cause an alarm. We have seen great confusion occasioned by a single wag, who, late in the evening, kept up a succession of thundering knocks at the great palace doors on either side of the Grand Canal, approaching each by swimming, and diving the moment the trick was played. The starting the quiet of elderly citizens was an easy revenge for the disappointed lovers of their daughters, and an infliction with which old Brabantio seems to have been well acquainted. (M.) SCENE I.-"Transported with no worse, The word "knave," with its answering terms in foreign languages, seems to be the most approved description of an ancient and modern gondolier. The reply in Venice to our question, whether gondoliers were usually knaves, was, "O! oui,-naturellement." The explanation of "naturellement" is, that the gondoliers are the only conveyers of persons, and of a large proportion of property, in Venice; that they are thus cognizant of all intrigues, and the fittest agents in them, and are under perpetual and strong temptation to make profit of the secrets of society. Brabantio might well be in horror at his daughter having, in "the dull watch o' the night," "no worse nor better guard." (M.) SCENE III." The Turkish preparation makes for Rhodes." Reed, in his edition of Shakspere, has the following observation :— "We learn from the play that there was a junction of the Turkish fleet at Rhodes, in order for the invasion of Cyprus; that it first came sailing towards Cyprus, then went to Rhodes, there met another squadron, and then resumed its way to Cyprus. These are real historical facts which 6 SCENE III.- "the bloody book of law You shall yourself read in the bitter letter." We now know for a certainty, through the researches of Mr. Collier, that 'Othello' was performed in 1602; and yet it would seem that this passage has a direct allusion to a statute of the first James. When Othello says, "I will a round unvarnish'd tale deliver Of my whole course of love: what drugs, what charms, What conjuration, and what mighty magie, (For such proceeding I am charg'd withal,) I won his daughter" he almost uses the very words of the statute, which enacts, That if any person or persons should take upon him or them, by witchcraft, enchantment, charm, or sorcery—to the intent to provoke any person to unlawful love, and being thereof lawfully convicted, he or they should, for the first offence, suffer imprisonment, &c. Might not this passage have been added to the original copy of the tragedy? This particular superstition was, however, much earlier than the period of our witch-hunting James. We find a curious story of this nature in Skelton, about the enchantment of Charlemagne, which he says he had from Who would believe that there were mountaineers, A few lines before, Antonio, half sneeringly, remarks, -"Travellers ne'er did lie, Though fools at home condemn them." The putter-out of one for five was the travelling adventurer, who effected an insurance on his own risk-the very opposite of the principle of life-insurances. He was to be the gainer if he survived the dangers of his expedition. (See Illustrations of "The Two Gentlemen of Verona,' Act I., Scene 3.) Mr. Hunter considers that the satire of 'The Tempest' is most distinctly pointed at Raleigh's marvellous tales in his voyage to Guiana, in 1595. The passage in Raleigh is certainly a singular proof of his credulity, for he only affirms his own belief upon the report of others. "Next unto the Arvi" (a river which he says falls into the Orenoque, or Oronoko), "are two rivers, Atoica and Caora; and on that branch which is called Caora are a nation of people whose heads appear not above their shoulders; which, though it may be thought a mere fable, yet for my own part I am resolved it is true, because every childe in the province of Arromaia and Canuri affirme the same. They are called Ewaipanoma; they are reported to have their eyes in their shoulders, and their mouthes in the middle of their breasts, and that a long traine of haire groweth backward betweene their shoulders." Hondius, the Dutch geographer, published in 1599 a Latin translation of the more remarkable passages of Raleigh's tract, with plates of Anthropophagi, ■ Raleigh's 'Narrative,' printed in Hakluyt's Voyages,' 1600. Amazons, and headless men. But these tales are as old as Pliny, and of his account of the headless men there is an almost literal translation in Sir John Maundevile's "Travels.' "And in another yle, toward the southe, duellen folk of foule stature, and of cursed kynde, that han no hedes, and here eyen bin in here scholdres." Mr. Hunter is so sure that the passage in 'The Tempest' is meant to be an attack upon Raleigh, that he proposes it as one of his special proofs that the play was written as early as 1596. But we may ask how we are to account for the difference of tone in 'Othello?' In the passage before us there is no ridicule-nothing in the slightest degree approaching to a sarcasm. Othello, perfectly simple and veracious, though enthusiastic, and it may be credulous, speaks precisely in the same spirit of his own "Most disastrous chances; Of moving accidents by flood and field;" and of "The Anthropophagi, and men whose heads Do grow beneath their shoulders." ACT II. * SCENE III. "King Stephen was a worthy peer." The PERCY, in his 'Reliques,' has printed from a manuscript the exceedingly interesting ballad from which Shakspere adopted this verse. reading in the manuscript of that verse is somewhat different, although Percy adopted Shakspere's reading, generally, in his printed ballad : "King Harry was a verry good king, I trow his hose cost but a crown; He thought them 12d. to deere, Therefore he calld the taylor clowne. He was king, and wore the crowne, And thouse but of a low degree; Itts pride that putts this countrye downe, Our readers will not be displeased to have the entire ballad here reprinted. Percy thinks that it was originally Scotch. TAKE THY OLD CLOAK ABOUT THEE. This winter's weather itt waxeth cold, Spill. To spoil; to come to harm. 9 ACT III. SCENE III." The spirit-stirring drum, the ear-piercing fife." WARTON says that the fife accompanying the drum is of considerable antiquity in the European armies, particularly in the German. There is a picture in the Ashmolean Museum, painted in 1525, representing the siege of Pavia, in which we see fifes and drums; and, in a journal of the siege of Boulogne, 1544, which is printed in Rymer's 'Fœdera,' mention is made of drummes and viffleurs marching at the head of the king's army. At a subsequent period, however, the fife was disused in the English armies; and was first revived, within the memory of man, says Warton, among our troops by the British guards, by order of the Duke of Cumberland, when they were encamped at Maestricht, in 1747. Amongst the French regiments the fife is not found; and those who have witnessed this peculiarity must have observed how dull, and monotonous, and un-spirit-stirring is the drum without its ear piercing companion. The fife is so completely unknown to the French in the present day, that M. Alfred de Vigny, in his translation of this passage of 'Othello,' gives us only the drum : "Adieu, beaux bataillons aux panaches flottants; 10 SCENE IV. from the cross being stamped on it. Douce says that it was of gold, of the value of 98. English; and that the sovereigns who struck this coin were Emanuel and his son John. Douce adds, that "the cruzado was not current at Venice, though it certainly was in England, in the time of Shakspere, who has here indulged his usual practice of departing from costume." It would have been an exceedingly difficult thing for any antiquary of the last generation not to have indulged his usual practice of girding at Shakspere, for some supposed violation of propriety. In this case, we would ask, how could the cruzado be current in England, except as an instrument of commercial exchange; and how could the same instrument of exchange be kept out of Venice, whose foreign trade at that period was much greater than that of England? 11 SCENE IV. "The hearts of old gave hands: But our new heraldry is-hands, not hearts." James I., in 1611, created the order of baronets; and, in 1612, to ampliate his favour towards the baronets, he granted them, by a second patent, "the arms of Ulster, that is, in a field argent, a hand geules, or a bloudie hand." Spenser tells us, in his 'State of Ireland,' that the bloody hand is O'Neel's badge." This was a notable device of James to raise money, for the alleged purpose of settling and improving the province of Ulster; and the sum of money " "I had rather have lost my purse paid for the patent upon each creation was Full of cruzadoes." 1095., estimated as equivalent to the support The cruzado was a Portuguese coin, so called of thirty infantry for three years. Warburton, with these facts before him, says, "We are not to doubt but that this was the new heraldry alluded to by our author, by which he insinuates that some then created had hands indeed, but not hearts; that is, money to pay for the creation, but no virtue to purchase the honour." Johnson and Douce believe in the interpretation of Warburton. Steevens and Malone are opposed to it. In his 'Chronology' of the plays, Malone gives a passage from the 'Essays' of Sir William Cornwallis, 1601, which certainly has a considerable resemblance to the passage in the text "We of these later times, full of a nice curiosity, mislike all the performances of our forefathers; we say they were honest plain men, but they want the capering wits of this ripe age. . They had wont to give their hands and their hearts together; but we think it a finer grace to look asquint, our hand looking one way, and our heart another." One thing is perfectly certain :---if the passage be an allusion to the new heraldry of the baronets' arms, it must have been an interpolation at least ten years after the first production of the play, for we know that 'Othello' was performed before Elizabeth, in 1602. If, too, it were an interpolation, it must have displaced some other passage; for if we omit these two lines the context is destroyed. We do not think that Shakspere would have gone out of his way to introduce a covert sarcasm at a passing event, offensive as it must have been if understood, and perfectly useless if not understood. The obvious meaning of the words, without any allusion, is plain enough; and our new heraldry, if it be any more than a figurative expression, may be easily referred to the practice of quartering or joining the arms of the husband and wife. 12 SCENE IV." That handkerchief." The description of this tremendous handkerchief in the original Italian novel is, "lavorato alla morisco sottilissimamente." Mrs. Jameson thus explains this:-" Which, being interpreted into modern English, means, I believe, nothing more than that the pattern was what we now call arabesque." Shakspere has expanded this into one of the finest poetical passages in the play, in which the Moor crowds together some of the prevailing superstitions of his nation, for the purpose of disturbing the imagination of Desdemona, and thus, as he supposes, arriving at the truth through the influence of terror. This was a fatal mistake; for she loses her balance, and evades the question. ACT IV. 13 SCENE III." She had a song of 'willow." IN Percy's 'Reliques' will be found an old ballad, from the black-letter copy in the Pepys collection, entitled 'A Lover's Complaint, being forsaken of his Love.' Shakspere, in adopting a portion of this ballad, accommodated the words to the story of 'Poor Barbarie.' We subjoin four stanzas of the original from which the song in the text has been formed: "A poore soule sat sighing under a sicamore tree; O willow, willow, willow! With his hand on his bosom, his head on his knee: O willow, willow, willow! O willow, willow, willow! Sing, O the greene willow shall be my garland. The cold stream ran by him, his eyes wept apace; The salt tears fell from him, which drowned his face: Sing, O the greene willow, &c. The mute birds sate by him, made tame by his mones: The salt tears fell from him, which softened the stones. Sing, O the greene willow, &c. Let nobody blame me, her scornes I do prove; She was borne to be fair; I, to die for her love. Sing, O the greene willow, &c." 14 SCENE III.“ A joint ring.” Dryden, in 'Don Sebastian,' has described such a ring with a minute particularity: "A curious artist wrought them, A heart divided in two halves was plac'd. |