2 As having sense of beauty, do omit Mon. What is she? Cas. She that I spake of, our great captain's captain, Left in the conduct of the bold Iago; Whose footing here anticipates our thoughts, Enter DESDEMONA, EMILIA, IAGO, RODERIGO, and The riches of the ship is come on shore! rowed from the French escarpé, which Shakspeare not finding congruous to the image of clogging the keel, afterwards changed. I once thought that the poet had written-Traitors enscarf'd, i. e. muffled in their robes, as in Julius Cæsar. So, in Hamlet: "My sea-gown scarf'd about me;" and this agrees better with the idea of a traitor: yet whatever is gained one way is lost another. Our poet too often adopts circumstances from every image that arose in his mind, and employing them without attention to the propriety of their union, his metaphorical expressions become inextricably confused. Steevens. Mr. Steevens's difficulty respecting ensteep'd, would, perhaps, have been removed, if he had but recollected the passage of the fourth Act, where Othello alludes to the fate of Tantalus: "Had it pleas'd heaven "To try me with affliction; had he rain'd "All kind of sores, and shames on my bare head; 9 Their mortal natures,] i. e. their deadly, destructive natures. So, in Macbeth: "That tend on mortal thought." See Dr. Johnson's note, Vol. VII, p. 54, n. 9. Reed. 1— Great Jove &c.] For this absurdity I have not the smallest doubt that the Master of the Revels, and not our poet, is answerable. Malone. 2 Make love's quick pants in Desdemona's arms,] Thus the folio. The quarto with less animation: And swiftly come to Desdemona's arms. Steevens. 3 And bring all Cyprus comfort!] This passage is only found in the quartos. Steevens. Hail to thee, lady! and the grace of heaven, Enwheel thee round! Des. Cas. He is not yet arriv'd; nor know I aught Des. O, but I fear;-How lost you company? Cas. The great contention of the sea and skies Parted our fellowship: But, hark! a sail. [Cry within, A sail, a sail! Then Guns heard. 2 Gent. They give their greeting to the citadel; This likewise is a friend. Cus. See for the news.4— [Exit Gent. Good ancient you are welcome;-Welcome, mistress :— Let it not gall your patience, good lago, [To EMIL. That I extend my manners; 'tis my breeding That gives me this bold show of courtesy. [Kissing her. Iago. Sir, would she give you so much of her lips, As of her tongue she oft bestows on me, You'd have enough. Des. Alas, she has no speech. Iago. In faith, too much;5 I find it still, when I have list to sleep: Emil. You have little cause to say so. Iago. Come on, come on; you are pictures out of doors, Bells in your parlours, wild cats in your kitchens, Saints in your injuries, devils being offended, 6 4 See for the news.] The first quarto reads-So speaks this voice. Steevens. 5 In faith, too much;] Thus the folio. The first quarto thus: I know too much; I find it, I; for when, &c. Steevens. 6 Saints in your injuries, &c.] When you have a mind to do in. juries, you put on an air of sanctity. Johnson. In Puttenham's Art of Poesie, 1589, I meet with almost the same thoughts: "We limit the comely parts of a woman to consist in four points; that is, to be, a shrew in the kitchen, a saint in the church, an angel at board, and an ape in the bed; as the chronicle reports by mistress Shore, paramour to King Edward the Fourth." Players in your housewifery, and housewives in your beds. Iago. Nay, it is true, or else I am a Turk; Iago. No, let me not. Des. What would'st thou write of me, if thou should'st praise me? Iago. O gentle lady, do not put me to 't; For I am nothing, if not critical.R Des. Come on, assay:-There's one gone to the harbour? Iago. Ay, madam. Des. I am not merry; but I do beguile The thing I am, by seeming otherwise.Come, how would'st thou praise me? Iago. I am about it; but, indeed, my invention Comes from my pate, as birdlime does from frize, It plucks out brains and all: But my muse labours, Again, in a play of Middleton's, called Blurt Master Consatble; or, The Spaniard's Night-Walk, 1602: “ - according to that wise saying of you, you be saints in the church, angels in the street, devils in the kitchen, and apes in your beds." Again, in The Miseries of inforc'd Marriage, 1607: "Women are in churches saints, abroad angels, at home devils." Puttenham, who mentions all other contemporary writers, has not once spoken of Shakspeare; so that it is probable he had not produced any thing of so early a date. The truth is, that this book appears to have been written several years before its publication. See p. 115, 116, where the author refers to Sir Nicholas Bacon, who died in 1579, and recounts a circumstance, from his own knowledge, that happened in 1553. See also Meres's Wit's Treasury, p. 48. Reed. Steevens. 70, fy upon thee, slanderer !] This short speech is, in the quar to, unappropriated; and may as well belong to Emilia as to Desdemona. Steevens. 8 critical] That is, censorious. Johnson. So, in our author's 122d Sonnet: 9 "To critick and to flatterer stopped are." Malone. my invention Comes from my pate, as birdlime does from frize,] A similar thought occurs in The Puritan: "The excuse stuck upon my tongue, like ship-pitch upon a mariner's gown." Steevens. And thus she is deliver'd. If she be fair and wise,-fairness, and wit, Des. Well prais'd! How if she be black and witty? She 'll find a white that shali her blackness fit.1 Emil. How, f ifair and foolish? Iago. She never yet was foolish that was fair;2 For even her folly help'd her to an heir. Des. These are old fond paradoxes, to make fools laugh i' the alehouse. What miserable praise hast thou for her that 's foul and foolish? Iago. There's none so foul, and foolish thereunto, But does foul pranks which fair and wise ones do. Des. O heavy ignorance!--thou praisest the worst best. But what praise could'st thou bestow on a deserving woman indeed?3 one, that, in the authority of her merit, did justly put on the vouch of very malice itself?" 1 her blackness fit.] The first quarto reads-hit. So, in King Lear: "I pray you, let us hit together." I believe hit, in the present instance also, to be the true reading, though it will not bear, as in Love's Labour's Lost, explanation. Steevens. 2 She never yet was foolish &c.] We may read: She ne'er was yet so foolish that was fair, But even her folly help'd her to an heir. Yet I believe the common reading to be right: the law makes the power of cohabitation a proof that a man is not a natural; therefore, since the foolishest woman, if pretty, may have a child, no pretty woman is ever foolish. Johnson. 3 But what praise couldst thou bestow on a deserving woman indeed?] The hint for this question, and the metrical reply of Iago, is taken from a strange pamphlet, called Choice, Chance, and Change, or Conceits in their Colours, 1606; when after Tidero has described many ridiculous characters in verse, Arnofilo asks him, "But, I pray thee, didst thou write none in commendation of some worthy creature?" Tidero then proceeds, like Iago, to repeat more verses. Steevens. one, that, in the authority of her merit, did justly put on the vouch of very malice itself?] The sense is this, one that was so conscious of her own merit, and of the authority her character had with every one, that she durst venture to call upon malice itself to vouch for her. This was some commendation. And the character only of clearest virtue; which could force malice, even against its nature, to do justice. Warburton. Iago. She that was ever fair, and never proud; To change the cod's head for the salmon's tail; 5 Iago. To suckle fools, and chronicle small beer.7 Des. O most lame and impotent conclusion!-Do not learn of him, Emilia, though he be thy husband.-How say you Cassio? is he not a most profane and liberal counsellor?9 To put on the vouch of malice, is to assume a character vouched by the testimony of malice itself. Johnson. To put on is to provoke, to incite So, in Macbeth: 66 the powers above "Put on their instruments." Steevens. 5 To change the cod's head for the salmon's tail ;] i. e. to exchange a delicacy for a courser fare. See Queen Elizabeth's Household Book for the 43d Year of her Reign: "Item, the Master Cookes have to fee all the salmon's tailes" &c p. 296 Steevens. Surely the poet had a further allusion, which it is not necessary to explain. The word frail in the preceding line shows that viands were not alone in his thoughts Malone. A frail judgment, means only a weak one I suspect no equi voque. Steevens. 6 See suitors following, and not look behind;] The first quarto omits this line. Steevens. 7 To suckle fools, and chronicle small beer.] After enumerating the perfections of a woman, lago adds, that if ever there was such a one as he had been describing, she was, at the best, of no other use, than to suckle children, and keep the accounts of a household The expressions to suckle fools, and chronicle small beer, are only instances of the want of natural affection, and the predominance of a critical censoriousness in Iago, which he allows himself to be possessed of, where he says, O! I am nothing, if not critical. Steevens. 8 profane-] Gross of language, of expression broad and brutal. So, Brabantio, in the first Act, calls Iago profane wretch. Johnson. Ben Jonson, in describing the characters in Every Man out of |