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INTRODUCTORY

REMARKS

THELLO-noble, generous, and commanding-appeals to the imagination as some
grand, elevated tower, overlooking a perturbed and dangerous sea; a fortress inde-
structible by fair and open arts, but still not proof against the machinations of the subtle,
sly, embosomed engineer, who, under pretence of strengthening its defences, labours
incessantly to undermine its base. That Iago, the "demi-devil," the "cursed slave,"
who works the ruin of the high-minded Moor and his gentle, hapless Bride, can be
at all endured, in reading or in scenic show, constitutes a higher compliment to intel-
lectual gifts, than even Desdemona's ill-starred passion. Yet, horrible as is the
vengeance of the disappointed and malignant Ancient, it is not altogether motiveless :
he has the slight excuse of supercession by a junior, and (if his own word is to be
taken) less skilful and deserving officer. His denunciation of "the curse of service,"
where "
preferment goes by letter and affection," has been uttered in bitterness by
many a better man, and its instructive tendency should never be neglected by superiors,
unless with ample cause.

The bland and cordial manners of Iago's successful rival, and intended minor victim, denote the favourite both of intimates and of general society. Nor is Cassio's merit that of mere good-nature simply. His devoted attachment to his General and to Desdemona, seems wholly unpolluted by views of interest on the one hand, or of sensual passion on the other: and his eloquent anathemas against the immediate agent of his disgrace, the "invisible spirit of wine," have anticipated the substance of many a hundred lengthened essays, lectures, and exhortations. The pithy exclamation, "O that men should put an enemy in their mouths, to steal away their brains!" has passed into a proverb.

Desdemona is felt by all to rank among the loveliest of the many lovely female emanations from the Poet's pure and fertile mind. She seems a dew-drop in the traveller's path, glittering and delightful in its little sphere and transient hour, but too ethereal in its texture to endure. Even while he stands to gaze upon its heavenly beauty, the unknowing sun's first fiery glance drinks up its sweet existence !

The first edition of this great drama was published by Thomas Walkley, in 1622, as "The Tragedy of Othello, the Moore of Venice. As it hath been diverse times acted at the Globe and at the Blackfriars, by his Majesties Servants. Written by William Shakespeare." To this copy is prefixed a brief address from "The Stationer to the Reader," in terms which serve to shew that the Poet was highly appreciated both by the writer and by the public whom he addressed and sought to gratify:-"To set forth a book without an epistle, were like to the old English proverb,—' a blue coat without a badge:' and the author being dead, I thought good to take that piece of work upon me. To commend it, I will not; for that which is good, I hope every man will commend without entreaty and I am the bolder, because the author's name is sufficient to vent his work. Thus leaving every one to the liberty of judgment, I have ventured to print this play, and leave it to the general censure.”—In the following year appeared the first folio collection, of which "THE TRAGEDIE OF OTHELLO, THE MOORE OF VENICE," forms the last part but two in that division of the work. The differences in the copies are for the most part slight.

One of Cinthio's novels, called in the original," IL MORO DI VENEZIA," furnished a ground-work for the admirable plot of Othello. The incidents of the narrative are generally followed; but its characters are, of course, mere shadows compared with the vital beings of Shakspere's glowing page. Further mention of the original story will be found in the Notes.

The time of the supposed action of the drama is determined with sufficient accuracy. Cyprus was taken from the Venetians by the Turks in 1571. The Republic had then been masters of the island for about a hundred years; and no hostile movement had been made against them previously to that which proved successful. The junction of the Turkish fleets at Rhodes, in order to proceed to the attack, actually occurred in 1570: that year may, therefore, be considered as the era of Othello's fancied government. In August, 1602, Queen Elizabeth was for three days entertained at Harefield, by Sir Thomas Egerton, afterwards Lord Ellesmere. Among the expenses (accounts of which are preserved at Bridgewater House), mention is made of "£10. to Burbidge's players of Othello." Mr. Collier, who furnishes the fact, reasonably presumes that the play was then both new and popular: no previous allusion to it has been hitherto discovered.—Shakspere was then in his thirty-ninth year: he was born in April, 1564.

PERSONS REPRESENTED.

DUKE OF VENICE.

BRABANTIO, a Senator.

Two other Senators.

GRATIANO, Brother to BRABANTIO.

LODOVICO, Kinsman to BRABANTIO.

OTHELLO, the Moor.

CASSIO, his Lieutenant.

IAGO, his Ancient.

RODERIGO, a Venetian Gentleman.

MONTANO, OTHELLO's predecessor in the Government

of Cyprus.

Clown, Servant to OTHELLO Ferald

DESDEMONA, Daughter to BRABANTIO, and Wife to

OTHELLO.

EMILIA, Wife to IAGO.

BIANCA, a Courtezan.

Officers. Gentlemen, Messengers Musicians, Sailors,
Attendants, &c

SCENE. For the First Act. in VENIOR: during the rest of

the Play, at a Sea port in CYPRUS

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In personal suit to make me his lieutenant,
Oft capped to him: and, by the faith of man,
I know my price; I am worth no worse a place:
But he, as loving his own pride and purposes,
Evades them with a bombast circumstance,
Horribly stuffed with epithets of war;
And, in conclusion, nonsuits my mediators:
"For certes," says he, "I have already
Chosen my officer." And what was he?
Forsooth, a great arithmetician;
One Michael Cassio, a Florentine,

A fellow almost damned in a fair wife:
That never set a squadron in the field,
Nor the division of a battle knows
More than a spinster; unless the bookish theoric,
Wherein the togéd consuls can propose
As masterly as he. Mere prattle, without practice,
Is all his soldiership. But he, sir, had the election:
And I,-of whom his eyes had seen the proof,
At Rhodes, at Cyprus, and on other grounds,
Christian and heathen,-must be be-lee'd and

calmed

By debitor and creditor; this counter-caster:
He, in good time, must his lieutenant be,
And I (God bless the mark!) his Moorship's

ancient.

Rod. By heaven, I rather would have been his hangman.

Iago. But there's no remedy; 'tis the curse of service:

Preferment goes by letter and affection,
Not by the old gradation, where each second
Stood heir to the first. Now, sir, be judge yourself
Whether I in any just term am affined
To love the Moor.

Rod.

I would not follow him, then.
Iago. O, sir, content you;

I follow him to serve my turn upon him:
We cannot all be masters, nor all masters
Cannot be truly followed. You shall mark
Many a duteous and knee-crooking knave,
That, doting on his own obsequious bondage,
Wears out his time, much like his master's ass,
For nought but provender; and when he's old,
cashiered:

Whip me such honest knaves. Others there are,
Who, trimmed in forms and visages of duty,
Keep yet their hearts attending on themselves;
And, throwing but shows of service on their lords,
Do well thrive by them; and, when they have lined

their coats,

Do themselves homage: these fellows have some soul;

And such a one do I profess myself. For, sir,
It is as sure as you are Roderigo,
Were I the Moor, I would not be Iago.
In following him, I follow but myself:

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