How is it, general? have you not hurt your head? Iago. I mock you! no, by heaven : Would, you would bear your fortunes like a man. Iago. There's many a beat then in a populous city, And many a civil monster. Oth. Did he confefs it? Iago. Good fir, be a man; Think, every bearded fellow, that's but yok'd, And to fuppofe her chatte! No, let me know; Iago. Stand you a while apart; in thofe unproper beds,] Unproper, for common. WARE. So, in The Arcadia, by Shirley, 1640: "Every woman fhall be common.- what fhall we do with all the proper women in Arcadia ? "They shall be common too." Again, in Gower De Confeffione Amantis, B. 2. fol. "And is his proper by the lawe." STEEVENS. 2- in a secure couch,] In a couch in which he is lulled into a falfe fecurity and confidence in his wife's virtue. A Latin fenfe. So, in The Merry Wives of Windfor: "Though Page be a fecure fool, and ftands fo firmly on his wife's frailty," &c. See alfo Vol. VIII. p. 259, n. 4. MALONE. 3 Confine yourself but in a patient list.] Keep your temper within the bounds of patience. So, in Hamlet: "The ocean over-peering of his lift, "Eats not the flats with more impetuous hafte," &c. COLLINS. Again, in King Henry V. A&t. V. fc. ii. "you and I cannot be confined within the weak lift of a country fashion." Again, in King Henry IV. P. I: "The very lift, the very utmoft bound, "Of all our fortunes." STEEVENS. Whilft you were here, ere while mad with your grief, Bade him anon return, and here fpeak with me; Oth. Doft thou hear, Iago? I will be found moft cunning in my patience; Iago. That's not amifs; But yet keep time in all. Will you withdraw? [Othello withdraws. Now will I queftion Caffio of Bianca, bile, mad with your grief,] Thus the first quarto. The folio reads: o'erwhelmed with your grief. STEEVENS. 5- encave yourself,] Hide yourself in a private place. JOHNSON. That dwell in every region of bis face;] The fame uncommon expreffion occurs again in King Henry VIII: 66 The refpite fhook "The bofom of my confcience— "The region of my breaft." MALONE. 7 Or I shall fay, you are all in all in fpleen,] Or I fball fay, you're all in all a Spleen. I read : I think our author ufes this expreffion elsewhere. JOHNSON. "A hare-brain'd Hotfpur, govern'd by a spleen."-The old reading, however, is not inexplicable. We ftill fay, fuch one is in wrath, in the dumps, &c. The fenfe therefore is plain. Again, in A Midfummer-Night's Dream: "That, in a spleen, unfolds both heaven and earth",-. STEEVENS. A houfe A housewife, that, by felling her defires, As he fhall fmile, Othello fhall go mad; 8 Poor Caffio's fmiles, geftures, and light behaviour, Iago. Ply Defdemona well, and you are fure of't. Now, if this fuit lay in Bianca's power, [Speaking lower. How quickly fhould you speed? Cal. Alas, poor caitiff! Oth. Look, how he laughs already! [Afide. Iago. I never knew a woman love man fo. Caf. Alas, poor rogue! I think, i'faith, fhe loves me. Oth. Now he denies it faintly, and laughs it out. [Afide. Iago. Do you hear, Caffio? Oth. Now he importunes him To tell it o'er: Go to; well faid, well faid. [Afide. Do you intend it? Caf. Ha, ha, ha! Iago. She gives out, that you fhall marry her: Oth. Do you triumph, Roman ? do you triumph? [Afide. Caf. I marry her!-what? a cuftomer! I prythee, And bis unbookish jealousy-] Unbookish, for ignorant. WARB. Do you triumph, Roman? do you triumph ?] Othello calls him Roman ironically. Triumph, which was a Roman ceremony, brought Roman into his thoughts. What, (fays he,) you are now triumphing as great as a Roman JOHNSON. -a customer !] A common woman, one that invites cuftom. So, in All's well that end's well: JOHNSON. bear "I think thee now fome common cuftomer." STEEVENS. bear fome charity to my wit; do not think it fo unwholefome. Ha, ha, hal Oth. So, fo, fo, fo: They laugh, that win. [Afide. Iago. 'Faith, the cry goes, that you fhall marry her. Caf. Pr'ythee, fay true. lago. I am a very villain elfe. Oth. Have you fcored me? Well. [Afide. Caf. This is the monkey's own giving out: the is perfuaded I will marry her, out of her own love and flattery, not out of my promise. Oth. Iago beckons me; now he begins the story. [Afide. Caf. She was here even now; fhe haunts me in every place. I was, the other day, talking on the feabank with certain Venetians; and thither comes the bauble; by this hand 3 the falls thus about my neck ;→ 2 Have you scored me?] Have you made my reckoning ? have you fettled the term of my life? The old quarto readsftored me. Have you difpofed of me? have you laid me up. JOHNSON. To fcore originally meant no more than to cut a notch upon a tally, or to mark out a form by indenting it on any fubitance. Spenser, in the first Canto of his Faery Queen, fpeaking of the Cross, fays: "Upon his shield the like was alfo fcor'd.” Again, b. 2. c. 9: why on your fhield, fo goodly fear'd, "Bear you the picture of that lady's head ?" But it was foon figuratively used for setting a brand or mark of dif grace on any one. "Let us fcore their backs," fays Scarus, in Antony and Cleopatra; and it is employed in the fame fenfe on the prefent occafion. STEEVENS. "What counts harsh fortune calls upon my face," &c. But in the paffage before us our poet might have been thinking of the ignominious punishment of flaves. So, in his Rape of Lucrece : "Worfe than a flavish wipe, or birth-hour's blot." MALONE. 3 by this band-] This is the reading of the first quarto. STEEVENS. Inftead of which, the editor of the folio, or rather the licenfer of plays, fubftituted-thither comes the bauble, and falls me thus, &c. MALONE. Oth. Oth. Crying, O dear Caffio! as it were: his gefture imports it. [Afide. Caf. So hangs, and lolls, and weeps upon me; fo hales, and pulls me: ha, ha, ha! Oth. Now he tells, how the pluck'd him to my chamber: O, I fee that nofe of yours, but not that dog I fhall throw it to. [Afide. Caf. Well, I must leave her company. Iago. Before me! look, where fhe comes. Caf. 'Tis fuch another fitchew! marry, a perfumed one. What do you mean by this haunting of me? Bian. Let the devil and his dam haunt you! What did you mean by that fame handkerchief, you gave me even now? I was a fine fool to take it. I must take out the whole work.-A likely piece of work, that you fhould find it in your chamber, and not know who left it there! This is fome minx's token, and I must take out the work? There,-give it your hobby-horfe: wherefoever you had it, I'll take out no work on't. Caf. How now, my fweet Bianca? how now? how now? Oth. By heaven, that fhould be my handkerchief! Bian. An you'll come to fupper to-night, you may: an [Afide. you will not, come when you are next prepared for. [Exit. Iago. After her, after her. Caf. 'Faith, I muft, fhe'll rail in the ftreet elfe. Caf. 'Faith, I intend fo. Iago. Well, I may chance to see you; for I would very fain speak with you. Caf. Pr'ythee, come; Will you? 4-fitchew!-] A polecat. POPE. Shakspeare has in another place mentioned the luft of this animal. He tells Iago that the is as lewd as the polecat, but of better scent, the polecat being a very stinking animal. JOHNSON. A pole-cat was anciently one of the cant terms for a ftrumpet. STEEVENS. |