whole world,-Why, who would not make her husband a cuckold, to make him a monarch? I should venture purgatory for 't.

Des. Beshrew me, if I would do such a wrong for the whole world.

Emil. Why, the wrong is but a wrong i' the world; and, having the world for your labour, 'tis a wrong in your own world, and you might quickly make it right. Des. I do not think, there is any such woman. Emil. Yes, a dozen; and as many

To the vantage, as would store the world they play'd for.
But, I do think, it is their husbands' faults,

If wives do fall: Say, that they slack their duties,
And pour our treasures into foreign laps ;5

Or else break out in peevish jealousies,

Throwing restraint upon us; or, say, they strike us,
Or scant our former having in despite;

Why, we have galis; and, though we have some grace,
Yet have we some revenge. Let husbands know,
Their wives have sense like them: they see, and smell,
And have their palates both for sweet and sour,
As husbands have. What is it that they do,
When they change us for others? Is it sport?
I think it is; And doth affection breed it?
I think, it doth; Is 't frailty, that thus errs?
It is so too: And have not we affections?
Desires for sport? and frailty, as men have?
Then, let them use us well: else, let them know,
The ills we do, their ills instruct us to.8

3 To the vantage,] i. e. to boot, over and above.

4

Steevens.

But, I do think, &c.] The remaining part of this speech is omitted in the first quarto. Steevens.

5 And pour our treasures into foreign laps;] So, in one of our author's Poems :

6

"Robb'd other beds' revenues of their rents."

Malone.

our former having —] Our former allowance of expence. Johnson.

7

have sense like them:] Sense is used here, as in Hamlet, for sensation, or sensual appetite. See Humlet, Act III, sc. iv, Vol. XV.

Malone.

8 instruct us to.] Mr. Malone, in the following note, has described and rejected a correction which I have received on

Des. Good night, good night: Heaven me such usage

send,$

Not to pick bad from bad; but, by bad, mend! [Exeunt.

ACT V..... SCENE I.

A Street.

Enter IAGO and RODERIGO.

Iago. Here, stand behind this bulk; straight will he

come:

Wear thy good rapier bare, and put it home;
Quick, quick; fear nothing; I'll be at thy elbow:
It makes us, or it mars us; think on that,

And fix most firm thy resolution.

Rod. Be near at hand; I may miscarry in 't.

Iago. Here, at thy hand; be bold, and take thy sword. [Retires to a little distance.

Rod. I have no great devotion to the deed;

And yet he has given me satisfying reasons:

'Tis but a man gone :-forth, my sword; he dies.

[Goes to his stand. Iago. I have rubb'd this young quat almost to the

sense,

And he grows angry. Now, whether he kill Cassio,

the authority of the following passage in Pericles. Till this instant I had supposed this passage itself to need amendment: "Your honour and your goodness teach me to it." Perhaps no rhyme was intended. Steevens.

This passage, [in Othello] as has been already observed, is not in the quarto, 1622. The reading of my text [so] is that of the folio, 1623. The modern editors, following an alteration made by the editor of the second folio, read-instruct us to. Our poet, for the sake of rhyme, often uses an uncommon phraseology; I have therefore adhered to the authentick copy. Malone.

9 Heaven me such usage send,] Such uses is the reading of the folio, and of the subsequent editions; but the old quarto has, such usage send. Usage is an old word for custom, and, I think, better than uses. Johnson.

1 I have rubb'd this young quat almost to the sense,

And he grows angry.] This is a passage much controverted among the editors. Sir T. Hanmer reads quab, a gudgeon; not that a gudgeon can be rubbed to much sense, but that a man

Or Cassio him, or each do kill the other,
Every way makes my gain: Live Roderigo,
He calls me to a restitution large

Of gold, and jewels, that I bobb'd from him,3
As gifts to Desdemona;

It must not be: if Cassio do remain,

He hath a daily beauty in his life,

That makes me ugly; and, besides, the Moor
May unfold me to him; there stand I in much peril :
No, he must die:-But so, I hear him coming.

grossly deceived is often called a gudgeon. Mr. Upton readsquail, which he proves, by much learning, to be a very cholerick bird. Dr. Warburton retains gnat, which is found in the early quarto. Theobald would introduce knot, a small bird of that name. I have followed the text of the folio, and third and

fourth quartos.

A quat in the midland counties is a pimple, which by rubbing is made to smart, or is rubbed to sense. Roderigo is called a quat by the same mode of speech, as a low fellow is now termed in low language a scab. To rub to the sense, is to rub to the quick. Johnson.

The same explanation appeared in The British Magazine, p. 425, in the year 1748. Reed.

So, in The Devil's Law-Case, 1623: "O young quat! incontinence is plagued in all creatures in the world.”

Again, in Decker's Gul's Hornbook, 1609: "

- whether he be a young quat of the first yeeres revennew, or some austere and sullen-fac'd steward," &c.

Such another thought occurs in Ben Jonson's Catiline: must have their disgraces still new rubb’d,

"To make them smart," &c.

Again, in the Preface to Robert Dallington's Method of Tra vel, shewed by taking the View of France, as it stood in the Yeare of our Lord, 1598: " and be assured that where it rubbeth the French itche till it smart," &c.

Again, in Chapman's translation of Homer's Batrachomuo

machia:

"And this it is that rubs the angry sore
"Of my offence

دو

Steevens.

2 my gain:] The quartos read-my game.

3

Steevens.

that I bobb'd from him,] That I fool'd him out of. A bob formerly signified a mock, or jeer. Cole renders it in his Dictionary, 1679, by sanna, as he does bobb'd by illusus. Malone. To bob for fish is likewise a technical term among those who delight in angling. Thus, in a well-known line describing a giant's occupation:

"He sat upon a rock, and bobb'd for whales." Steevens.

Enter CASSIO.

Rod. I know his gait, 'tis he;--Villain, thou diest. [Rushes from his post, and makes a pass at CAS. Cas. That thrust had been mine enemy indeed, But that my coat is better than thou think'st; I will make proof of thine. [Draws, and wounds Rod. Rod. O, I am slain! [IAGO rushes from his post, cuts CAS. behind in the Leg,* and exit. Cas. I am maim'd for ever:--Help, ho! murder! mur

der!

Enter OTHELLO, at a distance.

[Falls.

Oth. The voice of Cassio:--Iago keeps his word.
Rod. O, villain that I am!

Oth.

Hark! 'tis even so. Cas. O, help! ho! light! a surgeon!

Oth. 'Tis he;--O brave Iago, honest, and just, That hast such noble sense of thy friend's wrong! Thou teachest me,--Minion, your dear lies dead, And your fate hies apace:--Strumpet, I come : Forth of my heart those charms, thine eyes, are blotted;

4 in the leg,] Iago maims Cassio in the leg, in consequence of what he had just heard him say, from which he supposed that his body was defended by some secret armour.

5

Malone.

And your fate hies apace:] Thus the first quarto. The se cond quarto and the folio read—And your unblest fate hies.

Steevens.

6 Forth of my heart &c.] Thus the first quarto. The folio reads-For of Steevens.

Mr. Whalley observes to me that the reading of the quarto is the true one. Forth signifies both out and from. So, in Hamlet: "Forth at your eyes your spirits wildly peep."

Again, in Jonson's Volpole:

"Forth the resolved corners of his eyes."

Mr. Henley had also made the same observation, and in proof of it produced the following passages from King Richard III: "I clothe my naked villainy

Again:

"With old odd ends, stol'n forth of holy writ."

"'Faith, none but Humphrey Houre, that call'd your grace,

"To breakfast once, forth of my company." Reed. For off [once proposed by Mr. Steevens] is the conjectural reading introduced by the editor of the second folio, and is one of a thousand proofs of capricious alterations made in that copy, and without any regard to the most ancient editions. The origi

Thy bed, lust-stain'd, shall with lust's blood be spotted.
[Exit CTH.
Enter LODOVICO and GRATIANO, at a distance.
Cas. What, ho! no watch? no passage ? murder! mur-

der!

Gra. 'Tis some mischance; the cry is very direful. Cas. O, help!

Lod.

Rod.

Hark!

O wretched villain!

Lod. Two or three groans;—it is a heavy night:
These may be counterfeits; let 's think 't unsafe
To come in to the cry, without more help.
Rod. No body come? then shall I bleed to death.
Enter IAGO, with a Light.

Lod. Hark!

Gra. Here's one comes in his shirt, with light and weapons.

Iago. Who's there? whose noise is this that cries on

murder?

66

nal reading is undoubtedly the true one. So, in Mount Tabor, or the Private Exercises of a Penitent Sinner, 1639 : whilst all this was acting, there came forth of another door at the farthest end of the stage, two old men," &c. Malone.

7

no passage?] No passengers? nobody going by?

So, in The Comedy of Errors:

Johnson.

"Now in the stirring passage of the day." Steevens. 8 — a heavy night :] A thick cloudy night, in which an ambush may be commodiously laid. Johnson.

So, in Measure for Measure:

"Upon the heavy middle of the night." Steevens.

9 whose noise is this, that cries on murder?] Thus the quarto, 1622, and the folio, 1623; and such was the phraseology of Shakspeare's age. So, in Eastward Hoe, a comedy, 1605: "Who cries on murder? lady, was it you?"

That line is a parody on one in The Spanish Tragedy.—The editor of the second folio, who altered whatever he did not understand, for cries on, substituted cries out, and has been followed by all the modern editors. Malone.

To" cry on" any thing, is not, I believe, a phrase more ancient than to " cry out" on any thing. In King Henry IV, P. II, these prepositions act together in one line:

"And that same word even now cries out on us." Perhaps they would both also have been employed in the passage under consideration, but that the structure of our author's