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Rod. What will I do, thinkest thou?
Iago. Why, go to bed, and sleep.

Rod. I will incontinently drown myself.

Iago. Well, if thou dost, I shall never love thee after it. Why, thou silly gentleman!

Rod. It is silliness to live, when to live is a torment: and then have we a prescription to die, when death is our physician.

Iago. O villainous! I have looked upon the world for four times seven years: 3 and since I could distinguish between the benefit and injury, I never found a man that knew how to love himself. Ere I would say, I would drown myself for the love of a Guinea-hen, I would change my humanity with a baboon.

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Rod. What should I do? I confess, it is my shame to be so fond; but it is not in virtue to amend it.

Jago. Virtue? a fig! 'tis in ourselves, that we are thus, or thus. Our bodies are our gardens; to the which, our wills are gardeners: so that if we will plant nettles, or sow lettuce; set hyssop, and weed up thyme; supply it

3 I have looked upon the world for four times seven years:] From this passage Iago's age seems to be ascertained; and it corresponds with the account in the novel on which Othello is founded, where he is described as a young, handsome man. The French translator of Shakspeare is, however, of opinion, that Iago here only speaks of those years of his life in which he had looked on the world with an eye of observation. But it would be difficult to assign a reason why he should mention the precise term of twenty. eight years; or to account for his knowing so accurately when his understanding arrived at maturity, and the opperation of his sagacity, and his observations on mankind, commenced.

That Iago meant to say he was but twenty-eight years old, is clearly ascertained, by his marking particularly, though indefi nitely, a period within that time, ["and since I could distinguish," &c.] when he began to make observations on the characters of

men.

Waller on a picture which was painted for him in his youth, by Cornelius Jansen, and which is now in the possession of his heir, has expressed the same thought: Anno ætatis 23; vitæ vix primo." Malone.

4-a Guinea hen,] A showy bird with fine feathers. Johnson. A Guinea-hen was anciently the cant term for a prostitute. So, in Albertus Walenstein, 1640:

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Yonder's the cock o' the game,

"About to tread yon Guinea-hen; they're billing."

Steevens.

with one gender of herbs, or distract it with many; either to have it steril with idleness, or manured with industry; why, the power and corrigible authority of this lies in our wills. If the balance of our lives had not one scale of reason to poise another of sensuality, the blood and baseness of our natures would conduct us to most preposterous conclusions: But we have reason, to cool our raging motions, our carnal stings, our unbitted lusts;7 whereof I take this, that you call-love, to be sect, or scion.8

Rod. It cannot be.

Iago. It is merely a lust of the blood, and a permission of the will. Come, be a man: Drown thyself? drown cats, and blind puppies. I have professed me thy friend, and I confess me knit to thy deserving with cables of perdurable toughness; I could never better stead thee than now. Put money in thy purse; follow these wars; defeat thy favour with an usurped beard; I say, put mo

5 either to have it steril with idleness,] Thus the authentick copies. The modern editors following the second folio, have omitted the word to.—I have frequently had occasion to remark that Shakspeare often begins a sentence in one way, and ends it in a different kind of construction. Here he has made Iago say, if we will plant, &c. and he concludes, as if he had written-if our will is either to have it, &c. See p. 227, n. 9.

Malone.

See Vol. II, p. 15, n. 5, where the remark on which the foregoing note is founded was originally made. Steevens.

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ɓ If the balance &c.] The folio reads-If the brain. Probably a mistake for-beam. Steevens.

7 reason, to cool-our carnal stings, our unbitted lusts;] So, in A Knack to know an Honest Man, 1596:

66

Virtue never taught thee that;

"She sets a bit upon her bridled lusts."

See also As you Like it, Act II. sc. vi:

"For thou thyself hast been a libertine;

"As sensual as the brutish sting itself." Malone.

S a sect, or scion.] Thus the folio and quarto. A sect is what the more modern gardeners call a cutting. The modern editors read-a -a set. Steevens.

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defeat thy favour with an usurped beard;] To defeat, is to undo, to change. Johnson.

Defeat is from defaire, Fr. to undo. Of the use of this word I have already given several instances. Steevens.

Favour here means that combination of features which gives the face its distinguishing character. Defeat, from defaire, in Fr.

ney in thy purse. It cannot be, that Desdemona should long continue her love to the Moor,-put money in thy purse;―nor he is to her: it was a violent commencement, and thou shalt see an answerable sequestration;1 -put but money in thy purse.-These Moors are changeable in their wills;-fill thy purse with money: the food that to him now is luscious as locusts, shall be to him shortly as bitter as coloquintida. She must change

signifies to unmake, decompose, or give a different appearance to, either by taking away something, or adding. Thus, in Don Quixote, Cardenio defeated his favour by cutting off his beard, and the Barber his, by putting one on. The beard which Mr. Ashton usurped when he escaped from the Tower, gave so different an appearance to his face, that he passed through his guards without the least suspicion In The Winter's Tale, Autolycus had recourse to an expedient like Cardenio's, (as appears from the pocketing up his pedlar's excrement) to prevent his being known in the garb of the prince. Henley.

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- it was a violent commencement, and thou shalt see an answerable sequestration;] There seems to be an opposition of terms here intended, which has been lost in transcription. We may read, it was a violent conjunction, and thou shalt see an answerable sequestration; or, what seems to me preferable, it was a violent commencement, and thou shalt see an answerable sequel. Johnson.

I believe the poet uses sequestration for sequel. He might conclude that it was immediately derived from sequor. Sequestration, however, may mean no more than separation. So, in this play-"a sequester from liberty." Steevens.

Surely sequestration was used in the sense of separation only, or in modern language, parting. Their passion began with violence, and it shall end as quickly, of which a separation will be the consequence. A total and voluntary sequestration necessarily includes the cessation or end of affection.We have the same thought in several other places. So, in Romeo and Juliet:

"These violent delights, have violent ends,
"And in their triumph die."

Again, in The Rape of Lucrece:

"Thy violent vanities can never last."

I hate here followed the first quarto. The folio reads-it was a violent commencement in her, &c. The context shows that the original is the true reading. Othello's love for Desdemona has been just mentioned, as well as her's for the Moor. Malone.

2 as luscious as locusts,· as bitter as coloquintida.] The old quarto reads-as acerb as coloquintida.

At Tonquin the insect locusts are considered as a great delicacy, not only by the poor but by the rich; and are sold in the markets, as larks and quails are in Europe. It may be added, that the Levitical law permits four sorts of them to be eaten.

for youth: when she is sated with his body, she will find the error of her choice.-She must have change, she must: therefore put money in thy purse.-If thou wilt needs damn thyself, do it a more delicate way than drowning. Make all the money thou canst: If sanctimo ny and a frail vow, betwixt an erring barbarian3 and a supersubtle Venetian, be not too hard for my wits, and all

An anonymous correspondent imforms me, that the fruit of the locust-tree, (which, I believe, is here meant,) is a long black pod, that contains the seeds, among which there is a very sweet luscious juice of much the same consistency as fresh honey. This (says he) I have often tasted. Steevens.

That viscous substance which the pod of the locust contains, is, perhaps, of all others, the most luscious. From its likeness to honey, in consistency and flavour, the locust is called the honey-tree also. Its seeds, enclosed in a long pod, lie buried in the juice.

Henley.

Mr. Daines Barrington suggests to me, that Shakspeare perhaps had the third chapter of St. Matthew's Gospel in his thoughts, in which we are told that John the Baptist lived in the wilderness on locusts and wild honey. Malone.

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betwixt an erring barbarian] We should read errant; that is, a vagabond, one that has no house nor country.

Warburton.

Sir T. Hanmer reads, arrant. Erring is as well as either.

So, in Hamlet:

"Th' extravagant and erring spirit hies

"To his confine." Steevens.

Johnson.

An erring Barbarian perhaps means a rover from Barbary. He had before said: "You'll have your daughter covered with a Barbary horse." Malone.

Í rather conceive barbarian to be here used with its primitive sense of a foreigner, as it is also in Coriolanus:

"I would they were barbarians, (as they are)

"Though in Rome litter'd."

Steevens.

The word erring is sufficiently explained by a passage in the first scene of the play, where Roderigo tells Brabantio that his daughter was

"Tying her duty, beauty, wit and fortune,

"To an extravagant and wheeling stranger."

Erring is the same as erraticus in Latin.

The word erring is used in the same sense in some of Orlando's verses in As you Like it:

"Tongues I'll hang on every tree,.

"That shall civil sayings show.

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Some, how brief the life of man

"Runs his erring pilgrimage;

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M. Mason.

the tribe of hell, thou shalt enjoy her; therefore make money. A pox of drowning thyself! it is clean out of the way: seek rather to be hanged in compassing thy joy, than to be drowned and go without her.

Rod. Wilt thou be fast to my hopes, if I depend on the issue?

Iago. Thou art sure of me;-Go, make money:-I have told thee often, and I re-tell thee again and again, I hate the Moor: My cause is hearted; thine hath no less reason: Let us be conjunctive in our revenge against him: if thou canst cuckold him, thou dost thyself a pleasure, and me a sport. There are many events in the womb of time, which will be delivered. Traverse; go; provide thy money. We will have more of this to-morrow. Adieu.

Rod. Where shall we meet i' the morning?
Iago. At my lodging.

Rod. I'll be there betimes.

Iago. Go to; farewel. Do you hear, Roderigo?
Rod. What say you?

Jago. No more of drowning, do you hear.
Rod. I am changed. I'll sell all my land.

Iago. Go to; farewel: put money enough in your

purse.

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[Exit ROD.

hearted;] This adjective occurs again in Act III: " hearted throne." Dr. Johnson in his Dictionary has unguardedly said, that it is only used in composition: as, for instance, hardhearted. Steevens.

5 Traverse;] This was an ancient military word of command. So, in King Henry IV, P. II, Bardolph says: " Hold, Wart, traverse; thus, thus, thus." Steevens.

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Do you hear, Roderigo?] In the folio, instead of this and

the following speeches, we find only these words:

Iago. Go to; farewel. Do you hear, Roderigo?

Rod. I'll sell all my land.

lago. Thus do I ever, &c.

The quarto, 1622, reads:

Iago. Go to; farewel:-do you hear, Roderigo?

Rod. What say you?

Iago. No more of drowning, do you hear.

Rod. I am chang'd.

[Exit

[Exit Rod.

Lago. Go to; farewel: put money enough in your purse.

Thus do I ever, &c.

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

Malone.

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