Pish!-Noses, ears, and lips: Is it possible?-Confess!-Handkerchief!-O devil!— [Falls in a Trance.

honour to its author. Yet I am in doubt whether there is any necessity of emendation. There has always prevailed in the world an opinion, that when any great calamity happens at a distance, notice is given of it to the sufferer by some dejection or perturbation of mind, of which he discovers no external cause. This is ascribed to that general communication of one part of the universe with another, which is called sympathy and antipathy; or to the secret monition, instruction, and influence of a Superior Being, which superintends the order of nature and of life. Othello says, Nature could not invest herself in such shadowing passion without instruction. It is not words that shake me thus. This passion, which spreads its clouds over me, is the effect of some agency more than the operation of words; it is one of those notices, which men have, of unseen calamities. Johnson.

Nature could not invest herself in such shadowing passion without some instruction.] However ingenious Dr. Warburton's note may be, it is certainly too forced and far-fetched. Othello alludes only to Cassio's dream, which had been invented and told him by Jago. When many confused and very interesting ideas pour in upon the mind all at once, and with such rapidity that it has not time to shape or digest them, if it does not relieve itself by tears (which we know it often does, whether for joy or grief) it produces stupefaction and fainting.

Othello, in broken sentences and single words, all of which have a reference to the cause of his jealousy, shows, that all the proofs are present at once to his mind, which so over-powers it, that he falls into a trance, the natural consequence.

Sir J. Reynolds.

If Othello, by the words shadowing passion alludes to his own feelings, and not to Cassio's dream, Dr. Warburton's interpretation, if we substitute instruction for induction, (which was introduced merely to usher in the image of an eclipse) is perhaps nearly correct. Induction, in Shakspeare's time, meant introduction, or prelude, (as in the instance quoted from King Richard III) and at no time signified bringing over, as Dr. Warburton interprets it. Malone.

I believe, the text, as it stands, is perfectly right, and that Othello's allusion is to his present and uncommon sensations. Steevens.

5

Noses, ears, and lips :] Othello is imagining to himself the familiarities which he supposes to have passed between Cassio and his wife. So, in The Winter's Tale:

"Cheek to cheek,-meeting noses

"Kissing with inside lip," &c.

If this be not the meaning, we must suppose he is meditating a cruel punishment for Desdemona and her supposed paramour

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raptis

"Auribus, et truncas inhonesto vulnere nares." Steevens.

Iago. Work on,

My medicine, work! Thus credulous fools are caught;
And many worthy and chaste dames, even thus,

All guiltless meet reproach.—What, ho! my lord!
Enter CASSIO.

My lord, I say! Othello!-How now, Cassio?
Cas. What is the matter?

Iago. My lord is fallen into an epilepsy;
This is his second fit; he had one yesterday.
Cas. Rub him about the temples.

Iago.
No, forbear:
The lethargy must have his quiet course:
If not, he foams at mouth; and, by and by,
Breaks out to savage madness. Look, he stirs :
Do you withdraw yourself a little while,

He will recover straight; when he is gone,

I would on great occasion speak with you.- [Exit CAS. How is it, general? have you not hurt

your head?

Oth. Dost thou mock me? Iago. I mock you! no, by heaven: 'Would, you would bear your fortunes like a man. Oth. A horned man 's a monster, and a beast.

Iago. There's many a beast then in a populous city, And many a civil monster.

Oth. Did he confess it?

Iago.

Good sir, be a man;

Think, every bearded fellow, that 's but yok'd,
May draw with you: there 's millions now alive,
That nightly lie in those unproper beds,

Which they dare swear peculiar; your case is better.
O, 'tis the spite of hell, the fiend's arch-mock,

6

in those unproper beds,] Unproper, for common.

Warburtons.

So, in The Arcadia, by Shirley, 1640:

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Every woman shall be common.

"Every woman common! what shall we do with all the proper women in Arcadia?

They shall be common too."

Again, in Gower De Confessione Amantis, B. II, fol.——

"And is his proper by the lawe."

Again, in The Mastive, &c. an ancient collection of Epigrams. and Satires, no date:

"Rose is a fayre, but not a proper woman;

"Can any creature proper be, that 's common?" Steevens.

To lip a wanton" in a secure couch,

And to suppose her chaste! No, let me know;

And, knowing what I am, I know what she shall be.
Oth. O, thou art wise; 'tis certain.

Iago.

Stand you a while apart;

Confine yourself but in a patient list.1

Whilst you were here, ere while mad with your grief,?
(A passion most unsuiting such a man)
Cassio came hither: I shifted him away,
And laid good 'scuse upon your ecstasy;

Bade him anon return, and here speak with me;

7 To lip a wanton -] This phrase occurs in Eastward Hoe, Act I:

8

.6

lip her, lip her, knave." Reed.

in a secure couch,] In a couch in which he is lulled into a false security and confidence in his wife's virtue. A Latin

sense.

So, in The Merry Wives of Windsor: "Though Page be a secure fool, and stands so firmly on his wife's frailty," &c. See also Vol. XII, p. 147, n. 1. Malone.

And, knowing what I am, I know what she shall be.] Redundancy of metre, without improvement of sense, inclines me to consider the word she, in this line, as an intruder. Iago is merely stating an imaginary case as his own. When I know what I am (says he) I know what the result of that conviction shall be. To whom, indeed, could the pronoun she, grammatically, refer?

1

Steevens.

list.] List, or lists, is barriers, bounds. Keep your temper, says lago, within the bounds of patience. So, in Hamlet:

"The ocean over-peering of his list,
"Eats not the flats with more impetuous haste," &c.

Again, in King Henry V: Act V, sc. ii: "

be confined within the weak list of a country fashion.” Again, in King Henry IV, P. I:

"The very list, the very utmost bound,

"Of all our fortunes."

you

Again, in All's Well that Ends Well, Act II, sc. i: " have restrained yourself within the list of too cold an adieu." Chapman, in his translation of the 16th Book of Homer's Odyssey, has thus expressed an idea similar to that in the text: let thy heart

2

66

"Beat in fix'd confines of thy bosom still." Steevens.

ere while mad with your grief,] Thus the first quarte The folio reads:

The which he promis'd. Do but encave yourself,3
And mark the fleers, the gibes, and notable scorns,
That dwell in every region of his face ;4
For I will make him tell the tale anew,-
Where, how, how oft, how long ago, and when
He hath, and is again to cope your wife;

I say, but mark his gesture. Marry, patience;
Or I shall say, you are all in all in spleen,5
And nothi. g of a man.

Dost thou hear, Iago?

Oth.
I will be found most cunning in my patience;
But (dost thou hear?) most bloody.

Iago.
But yet keep time in all. Will you withdraw?

That 's not amiss;

[OTH. withdraws.

Now will I question Cassio of Bianca,

A housewife, that, by selling her desires,

Buys herself bread and clothes: it is a creature,
That dotes on Cassio,-as 'tis the strumpet's plague,
To beguile many, and be beguil'd by one ;-

He, when he hears of her, cannot refrain

From the excess of laughter:-Here he comes:—
Re-enter CASSIO.

As he shall smile, Othello shall go mad;

3

encave yourself,] Hide yourself in a private place.

Johnson.

4 That dwell in every region of his face;] Congrave might have had this passage in his memory, when he made Lady Touchwood say to Maskwell-" Ten thousand meanings lurk in each corner of that various face." Steevens.

region of his face,] The same uncommon expression occurs again in King Henry VIII:

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The respite shook

"The bosom of my conscience

and made to tremble

"The region of my breast." Malone.

5 Or I shall say, you are all in all in spleen,] I read :

Or shall I say, you 're all in all a spleen,

I think our author uses this expression elsewhere. Johnson. "A hare-brain'd Hotspur, govern'd by a spleen."—The old reading, however, is not inexplicable. We still say, such a one is in wrath, in the dumps, &c. The sense therefore is plain. Again, in A Midsummer Night's Dream:

"That, in a spleen, unfolds both heaven and earth -."

Steevens.

And his unbookish jealousy must construe
Poor Cassio's smiles, gestures, and light behaviour,
Quite in the wrong.-How do you now, lieutenant?
Cas. The worser, that you give me the addition,
Whose want even kills me.

Iago. Ply Desdemona well, and you are sure of 't. Now, if this suit lay in Bianca's power, [Speaking lower. How quickly should you speed?"

Cas.

Alas, poor caitiff!

Oth. Look, how he laughs already!

Iago. I never knew a woman love man so.

[Aside.

Cas. Alas, poor rogue! I think, i' faith, she loves me. Oth. Now he denies it faintly, and laughs it out. [Aside. Iago. Do you hear, Cassio?

Oth.

Now he importunes him

To tell it o'er: Go to; well said, well said. [Aside. Iago. She gives it out, that you shall marry her: you intend it?

Do

Cas.

Ha, ha, ha!

Oth. Do you triumph, Roman? do you triumph?

[Aside. Cas. I marry her!-what? a customer! I pr3ythee, bear some charity to my wit; do not think it so unwholesome. Ha, ha, ha!

Oth. So, so, so, so: They laugh, that win. [Aside. Iago. 'Faith, the cry goes, that you shall marry her. Cas. Pr'ythee, say true.

Iago. I am a very villain else.

Oth. Have you scored me? Well.

[Aside.

6 And his unbookish jealousy -] Unbookish, for ignorant.

Warburton.

7 Do you triumph, Roman? do you triumph ?] Othello calls him Roman ironically. Triumph, which was a Roman ceremony, brought Roman into his thoughts. What (says he) you are now triumphing as great as a Roman? Johnson.

8

tom.

a customer!] A common woman, one that invites cusJohnson.

So, in All's Well that Ends Well:

"I think thee now some common customer."

Steevens.

9 Have you scored me?] Have you made my reckoning? have you settled the term of my life? The old quarto reads—stored me? Have you disposed of me? have you laid me up? Johnson.

To score originally meant no more than to cut a notch upon a