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Emil. Do thy worst:

This deed of thine is no more worthy heaven,
Than thou waft worthy her.

Oth. Peace, you were best.

Emil. Thou haft not half the power to do me harm, As I have to be hurt 9. O gull! O dolt!

As ignorant as dirt! thou haft done a deed,-
I care not for thy fword; I'll make thee known,
Though I loft twenty lives-Help! help, ho! help!
The Moor has kill'd my mistress; Murder! murder!

Enter MONTANO, GRATIANO, and IAGO.

Mon. What is the matter?-How now, general?
Emil. O, are you come, Iago? you have done well,
That men must lay their murders on your neck.
Gra. What is the matter?

Emil. Difprove this villain, if thou be'st a man:
He fays, thou told'ft him that his wife was falfe;
I know, thou did'ft not, thou'rt not fuch a villain;
Speak, for my heart is full.

Iago. I told him what I thought; and told no more
Than what he found himself was apt and true.
Emil. But did you ever tell him," she was falfe?
Iago. I did.

Emil. You told a lie; an odious, damned lie; Upon my foul, a lie; a wicked lie:

She falfe with Caffio!-Did you fay, with Caffio?

9 Thou baft not half the power to do me barm,

As I bave to be burt.] She means to fay, I bave in this cause power to endure more than thou haft power to inflict. JOHNSON. This fentiment is more expanded in K. Henry VIII.

"I am able now, methinks,

"(Out of a fortitude of foul I feel,)

"To endure more miferies and greater far,

"Than my weak-hearted enemies dare offer."

Again, in K. Henry VI. P. II.

"More can I bear than you dare execute."

Of this laft line there is no trace in the old play on which Shakspeare formed the Second Part of K. Henry VI. MALONE.

Lage.

Lago. With Caffio, mistress; Go to, charm your tongue'. Emil. I will not charm my tongue; I am bound to speak;

My mistress here lies murder'd in her bed2.

All. O heavens forefend!

Emil. And your reports have fet the murder on.
Oth. Nay, ftare not, masters; it is true, indeed.
Gra. 'Tis a strange truth.

Mon. O monstrous act!

Emil. Villainy, villainy, villainy!

I think upon't, I think,-I fmell't;-O villainy!
I thought fo then;-I'll kill myfelf for grief.-
O villainy, villainy!

Jago. What, are you mad? I charge you, get you home. Emil. Good gentlemen, let me have leave to speak; 'Tis proper I obey him, but not now :

Perchance, Iago, I will ne'er go home.

Oth. O! O! O!

[hanging over his wife.

Emil. Nay, lay thee down, and roar; For thou haft kill'd the fweetest innocent,

That e'er did lift up eye.

Oth. O, fhe was foul!

[rifing.

I scarce did know you, uncle: There lies your niece, Whose breath, indeed, thefe hands have newly ftopp'd:

--

charm your tongue.] By this expreffion, Charm your tongue, the poet means no more than to make lago fay, Apply fome power, strong as a charm would be, to your tongue; for nothing lefs can stop its volubility. So, in King Henry VI. P. II.

Peace, wilful boy, or I will charm your tongue.”

So, Ben Jonson, in Cynthia's Revels:

"cbarm your fkipping tongue."

Again, in Spenfer's Faery Queen, b. 5. c. 9.:

"That well could charm bis tongue, and time his fpeech."

Again, in The Yorkshire Tragedy, 1619:

"The fureft way to charm a woman's tongue,

"Is to break her neck :-a politician did it.”

Pliny informs us, that favete linguis was the conftant exclamation before any religious charm was applied. From this circumftance the phrase, to charm a tongue, might have originated. STEEVENS.

2 My mistress, &c.] This line, and the following fix fpeeches. are wanting in the first quarto. STEEVENS.

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I know,

I know, this act fhews horrible and grim.

Gra. Poor Desdemona! I am glad thy father's dead; Thy match was mortal to him, and pure grief Shore his old thread in twain: did he live now, This fight would make him do a defperate turn; Yea, curfe his better angel from his fide, And fall to reprobation3.

Oth. 'Tis pitiful: but yet Iago knows, That the with Caffio hath the act of shame

A thousand times committed+; Caffio confess'd it:

3 Yea, curfe his better angel from his fide,

And fall to reprobation.] So, in our authour's 144th Sonnet :
my female evil

And

"Tempteth my better angel from my fide." MALONE. 4 A thousand times committed;] This is another paffage which feems to fuppofe a longer space comprised in the action of this play than the fcenes include. JOHNSON.

That he with Caffio bath the act of fame

A thousand times committed ;—

And again:

'Tis not a year or two fhews us a man.] I am not convinced from thefe paffages only, that a longer space is comprised in the action of this play than the fcenes include.

What Othello mentions in the first inftance, might have paffed ftill more often, before they were married, when Caffio went between them; for the, who could find means to elude the vigilance of her father in refpect of Othello, might have done fo in refpect of Caffio, when there was time enough for the occurrence fuppofed to have happened. A jealous perfon will aggravate all he thinks, or speaks of; and might ufe a thousand for a much less number, only to give weight to his cenfure: nor would it have answered any purpose to have made Othello a little nearer or further off from truth in his calculation. We might apply the poet's own words in Cymbeline

fpare your arithmetic;

"Once, and a million."

The latter is a proverbial expreffion, and might have been introduced with propriety, had they been married only a day or two. Emilia's reply perhaps was dictated by her own private experience; and feems to mean ouly," that it is too foon to judge of a husband's difpofition; "or that Desdemona must not be surprized at the discovery of Othello's jealousy, for it is not even a year or two that will display all the "failings of a man."

Mr. Tollet, however, on this occafion has produced several inftances in fupport of Dr. Johnson's opinion; and as I am unable to explain them in favour of my own fuppofition, I fhall lay them before the public.

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And she did gratify his amorous works
With that recognizance and pledge of love
Which I first gave her; I faw it in his hand;
It was a handkerchiefs, an antique token
My father gave my mother.

"A& III. fc. iii. Othello fays:

"What fenfe had I of her stolen hours of luft?
"I faw it not, thought it not, it harm'd not me:
"I flept the next night well, was free and merry :
"I found not Caffio's kiffes on her lips."

Emil

"On Othello's wedding-night he and Caffio embarked from Venice, where Defdemona was left under the care of lago. They all meet at Cyprus; and fince their arrival there, the fcenes include only one night, the night of the celebration of their nuptials. Iago had not then infufed any jealoufy into Othello's mind, nor did he fufpect any former intimacy between Caffio and Desdemona, but only thought it " apt, and of great credit that the loved him." What night then was there to intervene between Caffio's kifles and Othello's fleeping the next night well? Iago has faid, "I lay with Caffio lately," which he could not not have done, unless they had been longer at Cyprus than is reprefented in the play; nor could Caffio have kept away, for the space of a whole week, from Bianca." STEEVENS.

5 It was a bandkerchief, &c.] Othello tells his wife, Act III. fc. iv: that handkerchief

Did an Egyptian to my mother give.

And here he fays:

It was a bandkerchief,

My father gave my mother.

This last paffage has been cenfured as an overfight in the poet; but perhaps it exhibits only a fresh proof of his art. The first account of the handkerchief, as given by Othello, was purpofely oftentatious, in order to alarm his wife the more. When he mentions it a fecond time, the truth was fufficient for his purpose.

This circumftance of the handkerchief is perhaps ridiculed by Ben Jonfon, in his Poetafter: "You fhall fee me do the Moor; mafter, lend me your scarf." STEEVENS.

I question whether Othello was written early enough to be ridiculed in the Poetafter. There were many other Moors on the ftage. It is certain at least, that the paffage,

❝our new heraldry is bands, not hearts."

could not be inferted before the middle of the year 1611. FARMER. If the allufion in the Poetafter (which was printed in 1601) were to O:bello, it would fix its date much earlier than I conceive it to have been written. But the allufion in the paffage quoted, is not to Orbello, but to an old play called the Battle of Alcazar, 1594.-In the Poetafler, Pyrgus, who fays, "you shall fee me do the Moor," proceeds in the

Emil. O heaven! O heavenly powers!

lago. Come, hold your peace.

Emil.'Twill out, 'twill out:-I hold my peace, fir? no; No, I will speak as liberal as the air ;

Let heaven, and men, and devils, let them all,

All, all, cry fhame against me, yet I'll speak.
Iago. Be wife, and get you home.
Emil. I will not.

Gra. Fie!

Your fword upon a woman?

[Iago offers to ftab his wife.

Emil. Othou dull Moor! that handkerchief thou speak'st

of,

I found by fortune, and did give my husband;
For often, with a folemn earnestness,

(More than, indeed, belong'd to fuch a trifle,)
He begg'd of me to fteal it.

Iago. Villainous whore!

Emil. She give it Caffio! no, alas; I found it, And I did give it my husband.

lago. Filth, thou lieft.

Emil. By heaven, I do not; I do not, gentlemen: O murd'rous coxcomb! what should such a fool

Do with fo good a wife?

[Iago ftabs Emilia, then runs out.

Oth. Are there no ftones in heaven,

fame scene, and repeats an abfurd speech of the Moor in the Battle of Alcazar, beginning with this line :

"Where art thou, boy? where is Calipolis ?"

which afcertains the allufion to be to that play. MALONE.

6 No I will speak as liberal as the air;] The quarto, 1622,

reads:

I'll be in speaking liberal as the air.

The folio:

No, I will fpeak as liberal as the north.

The text is formed out of the two copies. MALONE.

Liberal, is free, under no controul. This quality of the Northwind is mentioned in Vistoria Corombona, &c. 1612:

"And let th' irregular North wind fweep her up."

Again, in Jeronimo, i. e. the first part of the Spanish Tragedy, 1605: "Now let your bloods be liberal as the sea." STEEVENS.

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