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Enter a Lord.'

Lord. My lord, his majesty commended him to you by young Osric, who brings back to him, that you attend him in the hall: He sends to know, if your pleasure hold to play with Laertes, or that you will take longer time.

Ham. I am constant to my purposes, they follow the king's pleasure: if his fitness speaks, mine is ready; now, or whensoever, provided I be so able

as now.

Lord. The king, and queen, and all are coming down.

Ham. In happy time.

Lord. The queen desires you, to use some gentle entertainment to Laertes, before you fall to play. Ham. She well instructs me. [Exu Lord.

Hor. You will lose this wager, my lord. Ham. I do not think so; since he went into France, I have been in continual practice; I shall win at the odds. But thou would'st not think, how ill all's here about my heart: but it is no matter. Hor. Nay, good my lord,

Ham. It is but foolery; but it is such a kind of gain-giving, as would, perhaps, trouble a woman. Hor. If your mind dislike any thing, obey it: I will forestal their repair hither, and say, you are not fit.

Ham. Not a whit, we defy augury; there is a special providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now, 'tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be now; if it be not now, yet it will come: the readiness is all: Since no inan, of aught he leaves,knows;-what is't to leave betimes.3 Let be. Enter King, Queen, LAERTES, Lords, OSRIC, and Attendants, with Foils, &c. King. Come, Hamlet, come, and take this hand

from me.

[The King puts the hand of LAERTES into that of HAMLET.

Ham. Give me your pardon, sir: I have done

you wrong;

But pardon it, as you are a gentleman.

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If Hamlet give the first or second hit,
or quit in answer of the third exchange,
Let all the battlements their ordnance fire:
The king shall drink to Hamlet's better breath;
And in the cup an union shall he throw,
Richer than that which four successive kings

This presence knows, and you must needs have In Denmark's crown have worn; Give me the cups;

heard,

How I am punish'd with a sore distraction.
What I have done,

That might your nature, honour, and exception,
Roughly awake, I here proclaim was madness.
Was't Hamlet wrong'd Laertes? Never, Hamlet:
If Hamlet from himself be ta'en away,
And, when he's not himself, does wrong Laertes,
Then Hamlet does it not, Hamlet denies it.
Who does it then? His madness: If't be so,
Hamlet is of the faction that is wrong'd;
His madness is poor Hamlet's enemy.
bubbles burst; or, in other words, display their emp-

tiness.'

1 All that passes between Hamlet and this Lord is omitted in the folio.

2 i. e. misgiving, a giving against, or an internal feeling and prognostic of evil.

3 Since no man, of aught he leaves,-knows; What is it to leave betimes! This is the reading of the folio; the quarto reads, 'Since no man has aught of what he leaves. What is't to leave betimes.' Has is evidently here a blunder for knows. Johnson thus interprets the passage:- Since no man knows aught of the state which he leaves, since he cannot judge what other years may produce, why should we be afraid of leaving life betimes?' Warburton's explanation is very ingenious, but perhaps strains the poet's meaning farther than he intended. It is true that by death we lose all the goods of life; yet seeing this loss is no otherwise an evil than as we are sensible of it; and since death removes all sense of it, what matters it how soon we lose them.' This argument against the fear of death has been dilated and placed in a very striking light by the late Mr. Green.-See Diary of a Lover of Literature, Ipswich, 1810, 4to. p. 230.-Shakspeare himself has elsewhere said, the sense of death is most in apprehension.'

4 i. e. the king and queen.

5 This line is not in the quarto.

6 i. e. unwounded. This is a piece of satire on fantastical honour. Though nature is satisfied, yet he will

And let the kettle to the trumpet speak,
The trumpet to the cannoneer without,

The cannons to the heavens, the heaven to earth,
Now the king drinks to Hamlet.-Come, begin ;-
And you, the judges, bear a wary eye.
Ham. Come on, sir.

Laer.

Ham.

Laer.

Ham.

Come, my lord.

[They play.

One.

No.

Osr. A hit, a very palpable hit. Laer.

Judgment. Well,-again.

ask advice of older men of the sword, whether artificial honour ought to be contented with Hamlet's apology. 7 The king had wagered sir Burbury horses to a few rapiers, poniards, &c.; that is, about twenty to one.These are the odds here meant. The odds the King means in the next speech were twelve to nine in favour of Hamlet, by Laertes giving him three.

8 Stoup is a common word in Scotland at this day, and denotes a pewter vessel resembling our wine mea. sures; but of no determinate quantity; for there are gallon-stoups, pint-stoups, mulchkin-stoups, &c. The vessel in which water is fetched or kept is also called a water-stoup. A stoup of wine is therefore equivalent to a pitcher of wine.

9 An union is a precious pearl, remarkable for its size. And hereupon it is that our dainties and delicates here at Rome, &c. call them unions, as a man would say singular, and by themselves alone. To swallow a pearl in a draught seems to have been common to royal and mercantile prodigality. Thus in the second part of If You Know Not Me You Know Nobody :

'Here sixteen thousand pound at one clap goes,
Instead of sugar. Gresham drinks this pearl
Unto the queen his mistress.'

According to Rondeletus, pearls were supposed to have an exhilarating quality. Uniones quæ a conchis, &c. valde cordiale sunt.' Under pretence of throwing a pearl into the cup, the King may be supposed to drop some poisonous drug into the wine. Hamlet subsequently asks him tauntingly, 'Is the union here?

King. Stay, give me drink: Hamlet, this pearl | Exchange forgiveness with me, noble Hamlet:
is thine;
Mine and my father's death come not upon thee;
Nor thine on me!

Here's to thy health.-Give him the cup.

[Trumpets sound; and Cannons shot off within. Ham. I'll play this bout first, set it by awhile. Come. Another hit; What say you? [They play. Laer. A touch, a touch, I do confess. King. Our son shall win. Queen. He's fat, and scant of breath. Here, Hamlet, take my napkin, rub thy brows: The queen carouses' to thy fortune, Hamlet. Ham. Good madam,

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Gertrude, do not drink. Queen. I will, my lord;-I pray you, pardon me. King. It is the poison'd cup; it is too late.

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[Aside. Ham. I dare not drink yet, madam; by and by. Queen. Come, let me wipe thy face. Laer. My lord, I'll hit him now. King.

I do not think it. Laer. And yet it is almost against my conscience. [Aside. Ham. Come, for the third, Laertes: You do but dally;

pray you, pass with your best violence;

[They play.

I am afeard, you make a wanton2 of me."
Ler. Say you so? come on.
Osr. Nothing neither way.
Laer. Have at you now.

[LAERTES wounds HAMLET; then, in scuf-
fling, they change Rapiers, and HAMLET
wounds LAERTES.

King.
Part them, they are incens'd.
Ham. Nay, come again. [The Queen falls.
Osr.
Look to the queen there, ho!
Ilor. They bleed on both sides;-How is it, my
lord?

Osr. How is't, Laertes?

Laer. Why, as a woodcock to mine own springe,
Osric;

I am justly kill'd with mine own treachery.
Ham. How does the queen?

King.
She swoons to see them bleed.
Queen. No, no, the drink, the drink,—O my dear
Hamlet!
The drink, the drink ;-I am poison'd! [Dies.
Ham. Ó villany!-Ho! let the door be lock'd:
Treachery! seek it out.
[LAERTES falls.
Laer. It is here, Hamlet; Hamlet, thou art slain;
No medicine in the world can do thee good,
In thee there is not half an hour's life;
The treacherous instrument is in thy hand,
Unbated, and envenom'd: the foul practice
Hath turn'd itself on me: lo, here I lie,
Never to rise again: Thy mother's poison'd;
I can no more; the king, the king's to blame.
Ham. The point

Envenom'd too!-Then, venom, to thy work.4
[Stabs the King.
Osr. and Lords. Treason! treason!
King. O, yet defend me, friends, I am but hurt.
Ham. Here, thou incestuous, murd'rous, damned
Dane,

[Dies
Ham. Heaven make thee free of it! I follow thee,
I am dead, Horatio:-Wretched queen, adieu!—
You that look pale and tremble at this chance,
That are but mutes or audience to this act,
Had I but time (as this fell sergeant, death,
Is strict in his arrest,) O, I could tell you,-
But let it be :-Horatio, I am dead;
Thou liv'st; report me and my cause aright
To the unsatisfied.
Hor.
Never believe it;

I am more an antique Roman than a Dane,
Here's yet some liquor left.
Ham.
As thou'rt a man,-
Give me the cup; let go; by heaven, I'll have it.-
O, God!-Horatio, what a wounded name,
Things standing thus unknown, shall live behind me?
If thou didst ever hold me in thy heart,
Absent thee from felicity awhile,
And in this harsh world draw thy breath in pain,
To tell my story.-

[March afar off, and Shot within, What warlike noise it this? Osr. Young Fortinbras, with conquest come from Poland,

To the ambassadors of England gives
This warlike volley.

Ham.

O, I die, Horatio;
The potent poison quite o'ercrows my spirit,
I cannot live to hear the news from England:
But I do prophesy the election lights
On Fortinbras; he has my dying voice;
So tell him, with the occurrents, more or less,
Which have solicited,'-The rest is silence. Thes
Hor. Now cracks a noble heart;-Good night,
sweet prince;

And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest!
Why does the drum come hither?

[March within. Enter FORTINBRAS, the English Ambassadors, and others.

Fort. Where is this sight?
Hor.

What is it, you would see? If aught of woe, or wonder, cease your search. Fort. This quarry cries on havoc !-O, proud

death!

What feast is toward in thine eternal cell,
That thou so many princes, at a shot,
So bloodily hast struck?

1 Amb.

The sight is dismal;
And our affairs from England come too late :
The ears are senseless, that should give us hearing,
To tell him, his commandment is fulfill'd,
That Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead:
Where should we have our thanks?

Hor.
Not from his mouth,
Had it the ability of life to thank you;
He never gave commandment for their death.
But since, so jump upon this bloody question.
You from the Polack wars, and you from England,
Are here arriv'd; give order, that these bodies
High on a stage be placed to the view;
[King dies. And let me speak, to the yet unknowing world,
How these things came about: So shall you hear
Of carnal, bloody, and unnatural acts;10"

Drink off this potion :-Is the union here? Follow my mother.

Laer.

He is justly serv'd ;' It is a poison temper'd by himself.

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6 To overcrow, is to overcome, to subdne, noblemen laboured with tooth and naile to orETYSVAR, and consequently to overthrow one another.”— Hollashed's History of Ireland.

7 The occurrents which have solicited—the a ofe rences or incidents which have incited. The scatenare is left unfinished.

8 This quarry cries on havoc! To cry on, was 19 exclaim against. I suppose when unfair spvt-Ti destroyed more game than was reasonable, the censore was to call it haror.-Johnson.

Quarry was the term used for a heap of slaughtered game. See Macbeth, Act iv. Sc. 3.

9 It has been already observed that jump and pat or exactly, are synonymous. Vide note on Act i. SI 10 Of carnal, bloody, and unnatural acts.' Of al

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Let us haste to hear it.

And call the noblest to the audience.

For me,
with sorrow, I embrace my fortune;
I have some rights of memory2 in this kingdom,
Which now to claim my vantage doth invite me.

Hor. Of that I shall have also cause to speak,
And from his mouth whose voice will draw on more;
But let this same be presently perform'd,
Even while men's minds are wild; lest more mis-
chance,

On plots and errors, happen.

Fort.

Let four captains
Bear Hamlet, like a soldier, to the stage;
For he was likely, had he been put on,

To have prov'd most royally: and, for his passage,
The soldier's music, and the rites of war,
Speak loudly for him.-

Take up the bodies :-Such a sight as this
Becomes the field, but here shows much amiss.
Go, bid the soldiers shoot. [A dead March.
[Exeunt, bearing off the dead Bodies; after
which, a Peal of Ordnance is shot off.

The following scene in the first quarto, 1603, differs so materially from the revised play, that it has been thought it would not be unacceptable to the reader :-Enter Horatio and the Queen.

Hor. Madam, your son is safe arrived in Denmarke,
This letter I even now receiv'd of him,
Whereas he writes how he escap'd the danger,
And subtle treason that the king had plotted,
Being crossed by the contention of the winds,
He found the packet sent to the king of England,
Wherein he saw himself betray'd to death,
As at his next conversion with your grace
He will relate the circumstance at full.

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Hor. He being set ashore, they went for England,
And in the packet there writ down that doom
To be perform'd on them 'pointed for him:
And by great chance he had his father's seal,
So all was done without discovery.

Queen. Thanks be to Heaven for blessing of the
prince.

Horatio, once again I take my leave,

With thousand inother's blessings to my son.
Hor. Madam, adieu!

IF the dramas of Shakspeare were to be characterised,
each by the particular excellence which distinguishes
it from the rest, we must allow to the tragedy of Ham-
let the praise of variety. The incidents are so nume-
rous, that the argument of the play would make a
long tale. The scenes are interchangeably diversified
with merriment and solemnity with merriment that
includes judicious and instructive observations; and
solemnity not strained by poetical violence above the
natural sentiments of man. New characters appear
from time to time in continual succession, exhibiting
various forms of life and particular modes of conver-
sation. The pretended madness of Hamlet causes
much mirth, the mournful distraction of Ophelia fills
the heart with tenderness, and every personage pro-
duces the effect intended, from the apparition that in
the first Act chills the blood with horror, to the fop in
the last, that exposes affectation to just contempt.

The conduct is perhaps not wholly secure against objections. The action is indeed for the most part in continual progression; but there are some scenes which neither forward nor retard it. Of the feigned madness of Hamlet there appears no adequate cause; for he does nothing which he might not have done with the reputation of sanity. He plays the madman most when he treats Ophelia with so much rudeness,

Queen. Then I perceive there's treason in his looks, which seems to be useless and wanton cruelty.

That seem'd to sugar o'er his villanies:
But I will sooth and please him for a time,
For murderous minds are always jealous;
But know not you, Horatio, where he is?

Hor. Yes, madam, and he hath appointed me
To meet him on the east side of the city
To-morrow morning.

Queen. O fail not, good Horatio, and withal
mend me

A mother's care to him, bid him a while

Hamlet is, through the whole piece, rather an instrument than an agent. After he has, by the stratagem of the play, convicted the King, he makes no attempt to punish him; and his death is at last effected by an incident which Hamlet had no part in producing. The catastrophe is not very happily produced; the exchange of weapons is rather an expedient of neces A scheme might easily be com.sity, than a stroke of art. formed to kill Hamlet with the dagger, and Laertes with the bowl.

guinary and unnatural acts, to which the perpetrator was instigated by concupiscence or carnal stings. The allusion is to the murder of old Hamlet by his brother, previous to his incestuous union with Gertrude.

1. e. instigated, produced. Instead of forced cause,' the quartos read, for no cause.'

2 i. e. some rights which are remembered in this kingdom.

The poet is accused of having shown little regard to poetical justice, and may be charged with equal neglect of poetical probability. The apparition left the regions of the dead to little purpose; the revenge which he demands is not obtained, but by the death of him that was required to take it; and the gratification which would arise from the destruction of an usurper and a murderer, is abated by the untimely death of Ophelia, the young, the beautiful, the harmless, and the pious, JOHNSON,

OTHELLO, THE MOOR OF VENICE.

PRELIMINARY REMARKS.

THE story is taken from the collection of Novels, by Gio Giraldi Cinthio, entitled Hecatommithi, being the seventh novel of the third decad. No English translation of so early a date as the age of Shakspeare has hitherto been discovered: but the work was translated into French by Gabriel Chappuys, Paris, 1584. The version is not a faithful one: and Dr. Farmer suspects that through this medium the novel came into English.

The name of Othello may have been suggested by some tale which has escaped our researches, as it occurs in Reynold'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; and here also the name of lago occurs. It is likewise found in

SP

The History of the famous Euordanus, Prince of Denmark; with the strange Adventures of Iago, Prince of Saxonie, 4to, 1605. It may indeed be urged, that these names were adopted from the tragedy before us: but every reader who is conversant with the peculiar style and method in which the work of honest John Rey. nolds is composed, will acquit him of the slightest familiarity with the scenes of Shakspeare.-Steevens.

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 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 is therefore the true period of this performance.-See Knolle's History of the Turks, p. 838, 846, 867.--Reed. The first edition of this play, of which we have any certain knowledge, was printed by N. O. for Thomas Walkly, to whom it was entered on the Stationers' Books, October 6, 1621. The most material variations of this copy from the first folio are pointed out in the notes. The minute differences are so numerous, that to have specified them would only have fatigued the reader. Walkly's Preface will follow these Preliminary Remarks.

Malone first placed the date of the composition of this play in 1611, upon the ground of the allusion, supposed by Warburton, to the creation of the order of baronets. [See Act iii. Sc. 4, note.] On the same ground Mr. Chalmers attributed it to 1614; and Dr. Drake assigned the middle period of 1612. But this allusion being controverted, Malone subsequently affixed to it the date of 1604, because, as he asserts, we know it was acted in that year. He has not stated the evidence for this decisive fact: and Mr. Boswell was unable to discover it among his papers; but gives full credit to it, on the ground that Mr. Malone never expressed himself at random.' The allusion to Pliny, translated by Philemon Holland, in 1601, in the simile of the Pontic Sea; and the supposed imitation of a passage in Cornwallis's Essays, of the same date, referred to in the note cited above, seem to have influ enced Mr. Malone in settling the date of this play. What is more certain is, that it was played before King James at court, in 1613; which circumstance is gathered from the MSS. of Vertue the Engraver.

If (says Schlegel) Romeo and Juliet shines with the colours of the dawn of morning, but a dawn whose purple clouds already announce the thunder of a sultry day, Othello is, on the other hand, a strongly shaded picture; we might call it a tragical Rembrandt.' Should these parallels between pictorial representation and dramatic poetry be admitted, for I have my doubts of their propriety, this is a far more judicious ascription than that of Steevens, who, in a concluding

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note to this play, would compare it to a picture from the school of Raphael. Poetry is certainly the pabslum of art; and this drama, as every other of our inmortal bard, offers a series of pictures to the imagmation of such varied hues, that artists of every school might from hence be furnished with subjects. What Schlegel means to say appears to be, that it abounds in strongly contrasted scenes, but that gloom predominates, Much has been written on the subject of this drama; and there has been some difference of opinion in re gard to the rank in which it deserves to be placed. For my own part I should not hesitate to place it on the first. Perhaps this preference may arise from the circumstance of the domestic nature of its action, which lays a stronger hold upon our sympathy; for over powering as is the pathos of Lear, or the interest excited by Macbeth, it comes less near to the business of life.

In strong contrast of character, in delineation of the workings of passion in the human breast, in manifes tations of profound knowledge of the inmost recesses of the heart, this drama exceeds all that has eve issued from mortal pen. It is indeed true that e eloquence is capable of painting the overwhelming catastrophe in Othello,-the pressure of feelings which measure out in a moment the abysses of eternity.'

WALKLY'S PREFACE TO OTHELLO,

ED. 1622, 4TO.

THE STATIONER TO THE READER. To set forth a booke without an Epistle, were like to the old English proverbe, A blew coat without a badge;' and the author being dead, I thought good to take that piece of worke upon me: To commend it, I will not, for that which is good, I hope every man will commend without intreaty: and I am the bolder, because the Author's name is sufficient to vent bis worke. Thus leaving every one to the liberty of judgment, I have ventured to print this play, and leave it the generall censure. Yours,

THOMAS WALKLY.

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RODERIGO, a Venetian Gentleman.

Clown, Servant to Othello.
Herald.

DESDEMONA, Daughter to Brabantio, and Wife to

Othello.

EMILIA, Wife to lago.

BIANCA, a Courtesan, Mistress to Cassio.

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

MONTANO, Othello's Predecessor in the Government SCENE, for the first Act, in Venice; during the of Cyprus.

ACT I.

rest of the Play, at a Seaport in Cyprus.

Iago. Despise me, if I do not. Three great ones of the city,

SCENE I. Venice. A Street. Enter RODE- In personal suit to make me his lieutenant,

RIGO and IAGO. Roderigo.

TUSH, never tell me, I take it much unkindly,
That thou, Iago,-who hast had my purse,
As if the strings were thine,—should'st know of this.
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.

1 To cap is to salute by taking off the cap: it is still an academic phrase. The folio reads, Off-capp'd,' 2 Circumstance signifies circumlocution. And therefore without circumstance, to the point, Instruct me what I am?

The Picture, by Massinger. 8 lago means to represent Cassio as a man merely conversant with civil matters, and who knew no more of a squadron than the number of men it contained. He afterwards calls him this counter-castor."

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,*
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?

Forsooth, a great arithmetician,3
One Michael Cassio, a Florentine,
A fellow almost damn'd in a fair wife ;*

4 The folio reads, dambd. This passage has given rise to much discussion. Mr. Tyrwhitt thought that we should read, almost damn'd in a fair life; alluding n the judgment denounced in the Gospel against those of whom all men speak well. I should be contented to adopt his emendation, but with a different interpretation: A fellow almost damn'd (i. e. Inst frea luxurious habits) in the serene or equable tenor of

That never set a squadron in the field,
Nor the division of a battle knows

Proclaim him in the streets; incenso her kinsmen,
And, though he in a fertile climate dwell,
Plague him with flies: though that his joy be joy,
Yet throw such changes of vexation on't,
As it may lose some colour.

More than a spinster; unless the bookish theoric,'
Wherein the toged 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 calm'd | As when, by night and negligence, the fire

By debitor and creditor, this counter-caster ;3
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 affin'd

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 follow'd. 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,
cashier'd;

Whip me such honest knaves : Others there are,
Who, trimm'd 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 lin'd
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 Tago:
In following him, I follow but myself:

Heaven is my judge, not I for love and duty,
But seeming so, for my peculiar end:
For when my outward action doth demonstrate
The native act and figure of my heart
In compliment extern,' 'is not long after
But I will wear my heart upon my sleeve

For daws to peck at: I am not what I am.
Rod. What a full fortune does the thick-lips owe,
If he can carry't thus!

Call up her father,

Rod. Here is her father's house: I'll call aloud. Iago. Do; with like timorous accent, and dire yell,

Is spied in populous cities.

Rod. What ho! Brabantio! signior Brabantio!

ho!

Iago. Awake! what ho! Brabantio! thieves!
thieves! thieves!

Look to your house, your daughter, and your bags!
Thieves! thieves!

BRABANTIO, above, at a Window.

Bra. What is the reason of this terrible summons?

What is the matter there?

Rod. Signior, is all your family within?

Iago. Are your doors lock'd?"

Bra.

Why? wherefore ask you this? Iugo. 'Zounds, sir, you are robb'd; for shame, put on your gown:

11

Your heart is burst, you have lost half your soul;
Even now, very now, an old black ram
Is tupping your white ewe. Arise, arise;
Awake the snorting citizens with the bell,
Or else the devil will make a grandsire of you:
Arise, I say.

Bra.
What, have you lost your wits?
Rod. Most reverend signior, do you know my
voice?

Bra. Not I; What are you?
Rod. My name is-Roderigo.
Bra.

The worse welcome :
In honest plainness thou hast heard me say,
I have charg'd thee, not to haunt about my doors:
My daughter is not for thee; and now, in madness,
Being full of supper, and distemperingi2 draughts,
Upon malicious bravery, dost thou come
To start my quiet.

Rod. Sir, sir, sir, sir,-
Bra.

But thou must needs be sure,

My spirit, and my place, have in them power
To make this bitter to thee.

Rod.
Patience, good sir.
Bra. What tell'st thou me of robbing? this is

Venice;

My house is not a grange.13

Rod.

In simple and pure soul I come to you.
Most grave Brabantio,

Iago. 'Zounds, sir, you are one of those, that will not serve God, if the devil bid you. Because we come to do you service, you think we are ruf

4 i. e. by recommendation.

quarto has assign’d.

lago. Rouse him: make after him, poison his delight, his life. The passage as it stands at present has been said by Steevens to mean, according to Iago's licentious Inanner of expressing himself, no more than a man 5 Do I stand rithin any such terms of propinquity very near being married.' This seems to have been to the Moor, as that I am bound to love him? The the case in respect to Cassio. Act iv. Sc. 1, lago speak-first ing 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 love and self flattery, not out of my promise.' Jago then, having heard this report before, very naturally alludes to it in his present conversation with Roderigo.-Mr. Boswell suspects that there may be some corruption in the text.

1 i. e. theory. See All's Well that Ends Well, Act

iv. Sc. 3.

2 The rulers of the state, or civil governors. The word is used in the same sense in Tamburlaine :

'Both we will reign the consuls of the earth.' By foged is meant peaceable, in opposition to warlike qualifications, of which he had been speaking. The word may be formed in allusion to the adage, Cedant arma toga. The folio reads, tongued consuls,' which agrees better with the words which follow: mere prattle, without practice.'

3 It was anciently the practice to reckon up sums with counters. To this the poet alludes in Cymbeline, Act v. :—It sums up thousands in a trice: you have no true debtor and creditor but it; of what's past, is, and to come, the discharge. Your neck, sir, is pen, book,

and counters.'

6 Knave is here used for servant, but with a sly mixture of contempt.

7 Outward show of civility.

S This is the reading of the folio. The first quarto reads 'doces.'

9 Full fortune is complete good fortune: to owe is to possess. So in Antony and Cleopatra :— not the imperious show Of the full-fortun'd Cæsar.'

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And in Cymbeline:

Our pleasure his full fortune doth confine.” 10 By night and negligence,' means in the time of night and negligence. Nothing is more common than this mode of expression: we should not hesitate at the expression, By night and day.' 11 i. e. is broken.

12 That is, intoxicating draughts. In Hamlet, the king is said to be marvellous distemper'd with wine.' See King Henry V. Act ii. Sc. 2.

13 That is, we are in a populous city, mine is not a lone house, where a robbery might easily be committed. Grange is, strictly, the farm of a monastery; grangia, Lat. from granum: but, provincially, any lone house or solitary farm is called a grange. So in Measure for Measure:-' At the moated grange resides this dejected Mariana.'

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