* OTHELLO.] The story is taken from Cynthio's Novels.

POPE.

I have not hitherto met with any translation of this novel (the seventh in the third decad) of so early a date as the age of Shakspeare; but undoubtedly many of those little pamphlets have perished between his time and ours.

It is highly probable that our author met with the name of Othello in some tale that has escaped our researches; as I likewise find it in Reynolds's God's Revenge against Adultery, standing in one of his Arguments as follows: "She marries Othello, an old German soldier." This History (the eighth) is professed to be an Italian one. Here also occurs the name of Iago.

It is likewise found, as Dr. Farmer observes, in "The History of the famous Euordanus Prince of Denmark, with the strange Adventures of IAGO Prince of Saxonie; bl. 1.4to. London, 1605."

It may indeed be urged that these names were adopted from the tragedy before us: but I trust that every reader who is conversant with the peculiar style and method in which the work of honest John Reynolds is composed, will acquit him of the slightest familiarity with the scenes of Shakspeare.

This play was first entered at Stationers' Hall, Oct. 6, 1621, by Thomas Walkely. STEEVENS.

I have seen a French translation of Cynthio, by Gabriel Chappuys, Par. 1584. This is not a faithful one; and I suspect, through this medium the work came into English. FARMER.

This tragedy I have ascribed (but on no very sure ground) to the year 1611. See An Attempt to ascertain the Order of Shakspeare's Plays, Vol. II. MALONE.

The time of this play may be ascertained from the following circumstances: Selymus the Second formed his design against Cyprus in 1569, and took it in 1571. This was the only attempt the Turks ever made upon that island after it came into the hands of the Venetians, (which was in the year 1473,) wherefore the time must fall in with some part of that interval. 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 happened when Mustapha, Selymus's general, attacked Cyprus in May, 1570, which therefore is the true period of this performance. See Knolles's History of the Turks, p. 838, 846, 867. REED.

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.1

Clown, Servant to Othello.

Herald.

Desdemona, Daughter to Brabantio, and Wife to

Othello.

Emilia, Wife to lago.

Bianca, a Courtezan, Mistress to Cassio.

Officers, Gentlemen, Messengers, Musicians, Sailors,

Attendants, &c.

SCENE, for the first Act, in Venice; during the rest of the Play, at a Sea-Port in Cyprus.

Though the rank which Montano held in Cyprus cannot be exactly ascertained, yet from many circumstances, we are sure he had not the powers with which Othello was subsequently invested.

Perhaps we do not receive any one of the Personæ Dramatis to Shakspeare's plays, as it was originally drawn up by himself. These appendages are wanting to all the quartos, and are very rarely given in the folio. At the end of this play, however, the following enumeration of persons occurs:

"The names of the actors.-Othello, the Moore.-Brabantio, Father to Desdemona. - Cassio, an Honourable Lieutenant. Iago, a Villaine. Rodorigo, a gull'd Gentleman. Duke of Venice. -Senators. Montano, Governour of Cyprus. Gentlemen of Cyprus. Lodovico, and Gratiano, two noble Venetians. Saylors. Clowne. Desdemona, Wife to Othello.- Æmilia, Wife to Iago. Bianca, a Curtezan." STEEVENS.

OTHELLO,

THE MOOR OF VENICE.

ACT I. SCENE I.

Venice. A Street.

Enter RODerigo and IAGO.

ROD. Tush, never tell me, I take it much un

kindly,

That thou, Iago, who hast had my purse,
As if the strings were thine,-should'st know of

this.

3

IAGO. 'Sblood, but you will not hear me :-If ever I did dream of such a matter, Abhor me.

ROD. Thou told'st me, thou didst hold him in

thy hate.

IAGO. Despise me, if I do not. Three great

ones of the city,

In personal suit to make me his lieutenant,

* Tush, never tell me,] Thus the quarto, 1622. The folio omits the interjection-Tush. STEEVENS.

3 'Sblood, but you will not &c.] Thus the quarto: the folio suppresses this oath. STEEVENS.

Oft capp'd 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,5
Horribly stuff'd with epithets of war;
And, in conclusion, nonsuits
My mediators; for, certes, says he,
I have already chose my officer.
And what was he?

6

Forsooth, a great arithmetician,"

4 Oft capp'd to him; Thus the quarto. The folio reads,Off-capp'd to him. STEEVENS.

In support of the folio, Antony and Cleopatra may be quoted: " I have ever held my cap off to thy fortunes."

This reading I once thought to be the true one. But a more intimate knowledge of the quarto copies has convinced me that they ought not without very strong reason to be departed from. MALONE.

To cap is to salute by taking off the cap. It is still an academick phrase. M. MASON.

5

Circumstance signifies cir

a bombast circumstance, cumlocution. So, in Greene's Tu Quoque:

"You put us to a needless labour, sir,
"To run and wind about for circumstance,

"When the plain word, I thank you, would have serv'd."

Again, in Massinger's Picture:

" And therefore, without circumstance, to the point,
"Instruct me what I am."

Again, in Knolles's History of the Turks, p. 576:"-wherefore I will not use many words to persuade you to continue in your fidelity and loyalty; neither long circumstance to encourage you to play the men." REED.

certes,] i. e. certainly, in truth. Obsolete. So, Spenser, in The Fairy Queen, Book IV. c. ix:

"Certes, her losse ought me to sorrow most."

STEEVENS.

Forsooth, a great arithmetician,] So, in Romeo and Juliet, Mercutio says: "-one that fights by the book of arithmetick." STEEVENS.

Iago, however, means to represent Cassio, not as a person

One Michael Cassio, a Florentine,
A fellow almost damn'd in a fair wife;

whose arithmetick was "one, two, and the third in your bosom," but as a man merely conversant with civil matters, and who knew no more of a squadron than the number of men it contained. So afterwards he calls him this counter-caster.

MALONE.

As a Florentine,] It appears from many passages of this play (rightly understood) that Cassio was a Florentine, and Iago a Venetian. HANMER.

9 A fellow almost damn'd in a fair wife;] Sir Thomas Hanmer supposed that the text must be corrupt, because it appears from a following part of the play that Cassio was an unmarried man. Mr. Steevens has clearly explained the words in a subsequent note: I have therefore no doubt that the text is right; and have not thought it necessary to insert Mr. Tyrwhitt's note, in which he proposed to read" a fellow almost damn'd in a fair life." Shakspeare, he conceived, might allude to the judgment denounced in the gospel against those of whom all men speak well. MALONE.

Mr. Tyrwhitt's conjecture is ingenious, but cannot be right; for the malicious Iago would never have given Cassio the highest commendation that words can convey, at the very time that he wishes to depreciate him to Roderigo; though afterwards, in speaking to himself, [Act V. sc. i.] he gives him his just character. M. MASON.

That Cassio was married is not sufficiently implied in the words, a fellow almost damn'd in a fair wife, since they mean, according to Iago's licentious manner of expressing himself, no more than a man very near being married. This seems to have been the case in respect of Cassio. - Act IV. sc. i, Iago speaking to him of Bianca, says, -Why, the cry goes, that you shall marry her. Cassio acknowledges that such a report had been raised, and adds, This is the monkey's own giving out: she is persuaded I will marry her, out of her own love and self flattery, not out of my promise. Iago then, having heard this report before, very naturally circulates it in his present conversation with Roderigo. If Shakspeare, however, designed Bianca for a courtezan of Cyprus, (where Cassio had not yet been, and had therefore never seen her,) Iago cannot be supposed to allude to the report concerning his marriage with her, and consequently this part of my argument must fall to the ground.

Had Shakspeare, consistently with Iago's character, meant to

2