Dramatis Persona,

DUKE of Venice.
Brabantio, a noble Venetian.

o
Gratiano, Brother to Brabantio.
Lodovico, Kinsman to Brabantio and Gratiano.
Othello, the Moor, Geperal for the Venetians in Cyprus,
Caffio, bis Lieutenant-General.
Iago, Standard-bearer to Othello.
Rodorigo, a foolish Gentleman, in love with Desdemona.
Montano, the Moor's Predecessor in the Government of

Cyprus.
Closun, Servant to the Moor -
Herald.

3
Desdemona, Daughter to Brabantio, and Wife to Othello.
Æmilia, Wife to Iago.
Bianca, Courtezan, Mistress to Caffio.

Oficers, Gentlemen, Messengers, Muficians, Sailors, and

Attendants.

SCENE, for the First Ai, in Venice; during

the rest of the Play, in Cyprus.

· ACT I. SCENE, a Street in VENICE. .

Enter Rodorigo and Iago.

RODORIGO,

**EVER tell me, I take it much unkindly,

That thou, Iago, who has had my purie,
N
You As if the strings were thine, shouldft know

of this. 张家港

Iago. But you'll not hear me.
If ever I did dream of such a matter, abhor me.,

Rod. Thou told'ít me, thou didst hold him in thy hate.

lago. Despise me,
If I do not. Three great ones of the city,
In personal suit to make me his lieutenant,
Of-capp'd to him: and, by the faith of man,
I know my price, I'm worth no worse a place.
But he, as loving his own pride and purpose,

Evades them with a bombaft circumstance,
Horribly stuft with epithets of war,
Aud, in conclusion,
Non-suits my mediators. “ Certes, says he,
“ I have already chose my

Officer.”
And what was he?
Forsooth, a great arithmetician,
One Michael Caffio; (“ the Florentine's (1)
“ A fellow almoft damn'd in a fair wife;").
That never fet a squadron in the field,
Nor the division of a battle knows
More than a pinster; but the bookish theorick,

(1). Forsooth, a great Arithmetician, One Michael Caffio, a Florentine,

A Fellow, almoft damn'd in a fair Wife.] Thus has this Passage ignorantly been corrupted, (as Mr. Warburton likewise faw with me;) by falle Pointing, and an inadvertence to Matter of Fact, through the whole Course of the Editions. By the Bye, this Play was not published even singly, that I can find, till fix Years after the Author's Death: and by thac Interval became more liable to Errors, l'il fubjoin the Reasons in proof of the Correction. The new Pointing fers Circumstances right, as I shall immediately explain; and it gives a Variety, in lag? reporting the Behaviour of Oibello, to start into these Breaks; now, to make Othello speak; then, to interrupt what Othello says with his own private Reflexions; then, again, to proceed with Oibello's Speeches ::

For this not only marks the inquietude of lago's Mind upon thé Subject in hand; but likewise shews the Actor in the Variation of Tone and Gesture, whilft he (in a breath, as it were) personates. alternately Othello and himself. Besides, to come to the Neceflity of the Change made; lago, not Callio, was the Florentine : lago, not. Caffio, was the married Man; lago's Wife attends Dejdemona to Gyprus; Cassio has a Mistress there, a common Strumpet; and lago tells him in the fourth Act,

She gives it out, that you shall marry her: Which would be very absurd, if. Cafio had been already married at Venice. Besides, our Poet follows the Authority of his Novel in giving the villainous Ensign a fair Wife.

Wherein