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As salt as wolves in pride, and fools as gross
As ignorance made drunk. But yet, I say,
If imputation, and strong circumstances,-
Which lead directly to the door of truth,-
Will give you satisfaction, you may have it.
Oth. Give me a living reason she 's disloyal.
Iago. I do not like the office:

But, sith I am enter'd in this cause so far,
Prick'd to it by foolish honesty and love,-
I will go on. I lay with Cassio lately;
And, being troubled with a raging tooth,
I could not sleep.

There are a kind of men so loose of soul,
That in their sleeps will mutter their affairs;
One of this kind is Cassio:

In sleep I heard him say,-Sweet Desdemona,
Let us be wary, let us hide our loves!

And then, sir, would he gripe, and wring my hand,
Cry,-O, sweet creature! and then kiss me hard,
As if he pluck'd up kisses by the roots,
That grew upon my lips: then laid his leg
Over my thigh, and sigh'd, and kiss'd; and then
Cry'd, Cursed fate! that gave thee to the Moor!
Oth. O monstrous! monstrous!
Iago.

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Nay, this was but his dream.

6 Give me a living reason -] Living, for speaking, manifest

Warburton.

Give me a living reason that she's disloyal,] Thus the quarto, 1622. The folio omits the word that, probably for the sake of the metre; but our poet often uses such words as reason, as a monosyllable. Malone.

How such words as reason can be pronounced as monosyllables, I am yet to learn. Steevens.

A living reason is a reason founded on fact and experience, not on surmise or conjecture: a reason that convinces the understanding as perfectly as if the fact were exhibited to the life.

Malone.

What Othello here demands is actual proof, arising from some positive FACT. Henley.

7 and sigh'd, and kiss'd; and then

Cry'd,] Thus the quarto, 1622. The folio reads:

66

then lay'd his leg o'er my thigh,

"And sigh, and kiss, and then cry, cursed fate," &c. The omission of the personal pronoun before lay'd is much in our author's manner. See King Lear, Act II, sc. iv, Vol. XIV.

Malone.

Oth. But this denoted a foregone conclusion ;
'Tis a shrewd doubt, though it be but a dream.9
Iago. And this may help to thicken other proofs,
That do demonstrate thinly.

Oth.

I'll tear her all to pieces. Iago. Nay, but be wise: yet we see nothing done;1 She may be honest yet. Tell me but this,— Have you not sometimes seen a handkerchief, Spotted with strawberries, in your wife's hand? Oth. I gave her such a one; 'twas my first gift. Iago. I know not that: but such a handkerchief, (I am sure it was your wife's) did I to-day See Cassio wipe his beard with.

Oth.

If it be that,

Iago. If it be that, or any that was hers,2

-

It speaks against her, with the other proofs.
Oth. O, that the slave had forty thousand lives!
One is too poor, too weak for my revenge!
Now do I see 'tis true.3-Look here, Iago;

8 a foregone conclusion;] Conclusion, for fact. Warburtan. A conclusion in Shakspeare's time meant an experiment or trial. See the last scene in Antony and Cleopatra, Vol. XIII. Malone.

9 'Tis a shrewd doubt, &c.] The old quarto gives this line, with the two following, to Iago; and rightly. Warburton. In the folio this line is given to Othello. Malone.

I think it more naturally spoken by Othello, who, by dwelling so long upon the proof, encouraged Iago to enforce it.

Johnson.

1 yet we see nothing done;] This is an oblique and secret mock at Othello's saying,-Give me the ocular proof. Warburton.

2 that was hers,] The only authentick copies, the quarto, 1622, and the folio, read-or any, it was hers. For the emendation I am answerable. The mistake probably arose from yt only being written in the manuscript. The modern editors, following an amendment made by the editor of the second folio, read-if 'twas hers. Malone.

I prefer Mr. Malone's correction to that of the second folio, though the latter gives sense where it was certainly wanting. Steevens.

Now do I see 'tis true.] The old quarto reads:

Now do I see 'tis time.

And this is Shakspeare's, and has in it much more force and solemnity, and preparation for what follows: as alluding to what he had said before:

All my fond love thus I do blow to heaven:4
'Tis gone.

Arise, black vengeance, from thy hollow cell!5
Yield up, O love, thy crown, and hearted throne,

No, Iago!

"I'll see before I doubt, when I doubt, prove;
"And, on the proof, there is no more but this,
"Away at once with love or jealousy."

This time was now come. Warburton.

4 All my fond love thus do I blow to heaven:] So, in Marlowe's Lust's Dominion, 1657:

"Are these your fears? thus blow them into air." Malone. Marlowe's idea was perhaps caught from Horace:

"Tradam protervis in mare Creticum

"Portare ventis." Steevens.

5 -from thy hollow cell!] Thus the quarto, 1622. The folio reads-from the hollow hell. Hollow, Dr. Warburton considers as 66 a poor unmeaning epithet." Malone.

I do not perceive that the epithet hollow is at all unmeaning, when applied to hell, as it gives the idea of what Milton callsthe void profound

66

"Of unessential night,"

Or the inane profundum of Lucretius.

The same phrase indeed occurs in Jasper Heywood's translation of Seneca's Thyestes, 1560:

"Where most prodigious ugly things the hollow hell doth hide."

Again, in Goulart's Admirable Histories, 1607, p. 626: "— - cast headlong into places under-ground that were wonderful hollow -where he had seen the persons of the wicked, their punishments," &c.

Again, in Arthur Hall's translation of the eighth Iliad:

"Into the hollow dreadful hole which Tartare men do tel." Steevens.

Again, in Paradise Lost, B. I, v. 314, the same epithet and subject occurs:

"He call'd so loud, that all the hollow deep

"Of hell resounded." H. White.

Milton was a great reader and copier of Shakspeare, and he undoubtedly read his plays in the folio, without thinking of examining the more ancient quartos. In the first Book of Paradise Lost, we find:

66 the universal host up sent "A shout that tore hell's concave. 99 See Vol. XII, p. 271, n. 6. Steevens.

6

Malone.

hearted throne.] Hearted throne, is the heart on which thou wast enthroned. Johnson.

So, in Twelfth Night:

To tyrannous hate! swell, bosom, with thy fraught,7
For 'tis of aspicks' tongues!

Iago. Pray, be content.

Oth.

O, blood, Iago, blood!

Iago. Patience, I say; your mind, perhaps, may change.

Oth. Never, Iago. Like to the Pontick sea,9
Whose icy current and compulsive course
Ne'er feels retiring ebb,' but keeps due on
To the Propontick, and the Hellespont;
Even so my bloody thoughts, with violent pace,
Shall ne'er look back, ne'er ebb to humble love,
Fill that a capable and wide revenge?

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"It gives an echo to the seat,

"Where love is thron'd."

See also Romeo and Juliet, Vol. XII, Act V, sc. i. Malone. swell, bosom, &c.] i. e. swell, because the fraught is of poison. Warburton.

8 Never, Iago,] From the word Like, to marble heaven, inclusively, is not found in the quarto, 1622. Malone.

9 Like to the Pontick sea, &c.] This simile is omitted in the first edition: I think it should be so, as an unnatural excursion in this place. Pope.

Every reader will, I durst say, abide by Mr. Pope's censure on this passage. When Shakspeare grew acquainted with such particulars of knowledge, he made a display of them as soon as opportunity offered. He found this in the 2d Book and 97th Chapter of Pliny's Natural History, as translated by Philemon Holland, 1601: "And the sea Pontus evermore floweth and runneth out into Propontis, but the sea never retireth backe againe within Pontus."

Mr. Edwards, in his MS. notes, conceives this simile to allude to Sir Philip Sidney's device, whose impress, Camden, in his Remains, says, was the Caspian sea, with this motto, Sine refluxu.

Steevens.

1 Ne'er fees retiring ebb,] The folio, where alone this passage is found, reads-Ne'er keeps retiring ebb, &c. Many similar mistakes have happened in that copy, by the compositor's repeating a word twice in the same line. So, in Hamlet:

"My news shall be the news [r. fruit] to that great feast." Again, ibidem:

"The spirit, upon whose spirit depend and rest," &c. instead of upon whose weal. The correction was made by Mr. Pope. Malone.

2 - a capable and wide revenge -] Capable perhaps signifies ample, capacious. So, in As you Like it:

"The cicatrice and capable impressure."

Swallow them up.-Now, by yond' marble heaven,3
In the due reverence of a sacred vow

I here engage my words.

[Kneels.

Iago. Do not rise yet.- [Kneels. Witness, you ever-burning lights above! You elements that clip us round about! Witness, that here Iago doth give up The execution of his wit, hands, heart, To wrong'd Othello's service! let him command, And to obey shall be in me remorse,

What bloody work soever.5

Again, in Pierce Pennilesse his Supplication to the Devil, by Nashe, 1592: " Then belike, quoth I, you make this word, Damon, a capable name, of Gods, of men, of devils."

It may, however, mean judicious. In Hamlet the word is often used in the sense of intelligent. What Othello says in another place, seems to favour this latter interpretation:

"Good; good;-the justice of it pleases me." Malone. Capable, means, I suppose, capacious, comprehensive. Steevens.

3

by yond marble heaven,] In Soliman and Perseda, 1599, I find the same expression:

"Now by the marble face of the welkin," &c. Steevens. So, in Marston's Antonio and Mellida, 1602:

"And pleas'd the marble heavens." Malone.

4 The execution-] The first quarto reads-excellency.

Steevens. By execution Shakspeare meant employment or exercise. So, in Love's Labour's Lost:

"Full of comparisons and wounding flouts,
"Which you on all estates will execute."

The quarto, 1622, reads-hand. Malone.

Again, in Troilus and Cressida :

5

"In fellest manner execute your arms." Steevens.

let him command,

And to obey shall be in me remorse,

What bloody work soever.] Iago devotes himself to wronged Othello, and says, Let him command whatever bloody business, and in me it shall be an act, not of cruelty, but of tenderness, to obey him; not of malice to others, but of tenderness for him. If this sense be thought too violent, I see nothing better than to follow Mr. Pope's reading, as it is improved by Mr. Theobald. Johnson.

The quarto, 1622, has not the words-in me. They first appeared in the folio. Theobald reads-Nor to obey, &c. Malone. Dr. Johnson's interpretation is undoubtedly the true one; and I can only claim the merit of supporting his sense of the word remorse, i. e. pity, by the following instances.

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