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Emil.

Alas! what cry is that?

Oth. That! what?

Emil. Out, and alas! that was my lady's voice :-
Help! help, ho! help!-O lady, speak again!
Sweet Desdemona! O, sweet mistress, speak !
Des. A guiltless death I die.

Emil.

This deed?

O, who hath done

[Dies.

Alas, who knows?

Des. Nobody; I myself; farewel:
Commend me to my kind lord; O, farewel.
Oth. Why, how should she be murder'd?
Emil.
Oth. You heard her say herself, it was not I.
Emil. She said so; I must needs report the truth.
Oth. She 's, like a liar, gone to burning hell;6
'Twas I that kill'd her.

Emil.

O, the more angel she,

And you the blacker devil!

Oth. She turn'd to folly, and she was a whore.7

cannot bear to deform those beauties which he had so often approached with other sensations, and for different purposes. Therefore, says he,

66 I'll not shed her blood,

"Nor scar that whiter skin of her's than snow,

"And smooth as monumental alabaster."

And this resolution we are to imagine he would have kept, but that he was averse to employing those means again, which had already appeared to be uncertain in their effect.

If this apparent want of a play-house direction had occasioned any absurdity in the original representation of the play, probably it is glanced at by Ben Jonson in The Alchemist, Act V: "Didst hear a cry, said'st thou? Yes, sir, like unto a man that had been strangled an hour, and could not speak." Steevens.

The Alchemist was first represented in the year 1610, and this passage is found in the original copy printed in that year.

Malone

6 She's, like a liar, gone to burning hell;] Here is nothing faulty in this passage, but it may be read

She's, like a liar, gone to burn in hell. The vulgar denunciation of future vengeance is,-I think, you'll burn in hell for this. Whalley.

So, in King Richard II:

"That hand shall burn in never-quenching fire,

Steevens.

7 She turn'd to folly, and she was a whore.] Folly, signifies here, as in the sacred writings, depravity of mind. So, in our author's Rape of Lucrece:

Emil. Thou dost belie her, and thou art a devil. Oth. She was false as water. Emil. Thou art rash as fire, to say That she was false; O, she was heavenly true! Oth. Cassio did tup her; ask thy husband else. O, I were damn'd beneath all depth in hell, But that I did proceed upon just grounds To this extremity;9 Thy husband knew it all. Emil. My husband?

Oth. Thy husband.

Emil. That she was false to wedlock?

Oth.

Nay, had she been true,

Ay, with Cassio.

If heaven would make me such another world

Of one entire and perfect chrysolite,

I'd not have sold her for it.

Emil. My husband?

Oth.

Ay, 'twas he that told me first;2

An honest man he is, and hates the slime

That sticks on filthy deeds.

Emil.

My husband?

Oth. What needs this iterance, woman? I say, thy

husband.

Emil. O mistress, villainy hath made mocks with love!4

"Her sad behaviour feeds his vulture folly." Malone. So, in Deuteronomy, xxii, 21: ". she hath wrought folly in Israel, to play the whore" &c. Steevens.

8

false as water.] As water that will support no weight, nor keep any impression. Johnson.

9 this extremity;] Perhaps our author wrote-to this extreme. The measure demands a shorter word than the former. Thus, in Romeo and Juliet:

""Twixt my extremes and me this bloody knife
"Shall play the umpire." Steevens.

1 that told me first;] The folio reads that told me on

her first.

Steevens.

2 iterance,] Thus the folio. The quarto reads-iteration.

3

4

Steevens.

Emil.] The first quarto omits this and the following speech.

Steevens.

villainy hath made mocks with love!] Villainy has taken advantage to play upon the weakness of a violent passion.

Johnson.

My husband say, that she was false?

Oth.
He, woman;
I say, thy husband; Dost understand the word?
My friend, thy husband, honest, honest Iago.

Emil. If he say so, may his pernicious soul
Rot half a grain a day! he lies to the heart;
She was too fond of her most filthy bargain.
Oth. Ha!

Emil.

Do thy worst:

This deed of thine is no more worthy heaven,
Than thou wast worthy her.

Oth.

Peace, you were best. Emil. Thou hast not half the power to do me harm, As I have to be hurt.5 gull! O dolt!

As ignorant as dirt! thou hast done a deed,—

I care not for thy sword; I'll make thee known, Though I lost twenty lives:-Help! help, ho! help! The Moor has kill'd my mistress; Murder! murder! Enter MONTANO, GRATIANO, and IAGO.

Mon. What is the matter!-How now, general? Emil. O, are you come, Iago? you have done well, That nen must lay their murders on your neck. Gra.hat is the matter?

I mil. Disprove this villain, if thou be'st a man:
He says, thou told'st him that his wife was false;
I know, thou didst not, thou 'rt not such a villain;

I have sometimes thought that these words might mean that, "villainy hath play'd on its object under a pretence of kindness." So, in Macbeth:

66

the surfeited grooms

"Do mock their charge with snores.

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But in this I have very little confidence. Malone.

5 Thou hast not half the power to do me harm,

As I have to be hurt.] She means to say,-I have in this cause power to endure more than thou hast power to inflict.

Johnson.

This sentiment is more expanded in King Henry VIII:
I am able now, methinks,

"(Out of a fortitude of soul I feel)

"To endure more miseries and greater far,
"Than my weak-hearted enemies dare offer."

Again, in King Henry VI, Part II:

"More can I bear than you dare execute."

Of this last line there is no trace in the old play on which Shakspeare formed The Second Part of King Henry VI. · Malone.

Speak, for my heart is full.

Iago. I told him what I thought; and told no more Than what he found himself was apt and true.

Emil. But did you ever tell him, she was false?
Iago. I did.

Emil. You told a lie; an odious, damned lie;
Upon my soul, a lie; a wicked lie :—

She false with Cassio! Did you say, with Cassio? Iago. With Cassio, mistress; Go to, charm your tongue.6

Emil. I will not charm my tongue; I am bound to speak;

My mistress here lies murder'd in her bed.

All. O heavens forefend!

Emil. And your reports have set the murder op.
Oth. Nay, stare not, masters; it is true, indeed.
Gra. 'Tis a strange truth.

'Mon. O monstrous act!

Emil.

Villainy, villainy, villainy!

I think upon 't,—I think,—I smell 't;-O villainy!
I thought so then ;--I 'll kill myself for grief.--

6

charm your tongue.] By this expression, Charm your tongue, the poet meant no more than to make Iago say,—“ Apply some power, strong as charm would be, to your tongue; for nothing less can stop its volubility." So, in King Henry VI, Part

III:

"Peace, wilful boy, or I will charm your tongue." Again, Ben Jonson, in Cynthia's Revels:

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charm your skipping tongue."

Again, in Spenser's Fairy Queen, B. V, c. ix:

"That well could charm his tongue, and time his speech."

Again, in The Yorkshire Tragedy, 1608:

"The surest way to charm a woman's tongue,
"Is-break her neck:-a politician did it."

The same phrase is also employed by Chapman in his version of the fifth Iliad:

"Downe from the chariot he fell, his gay arms shin'd and rung,

"The swift horse trembled, and his soule for ever

charm'd his tongue.

Pliny informs us, that favete linguis was the constant exclamation before any religious charm was applied. From this circumstance the phrase, to charm a tongue, might have originated. Steevens.

7 My mistress &c.] This line, and the following six speeches, are wanting in the first quarto. Steevens.

O villainy, villainy!

Iago. What, are you mad? I charge you, get you home. Emil. Good gentlemen, let me have leave to speak ; 'Tis proper I obey him, but not now:-

Perchance, Iago, I will ne'er go home.
Oth. O! O! O! O!
Emil.

[Hanging over his Wife. Nay, lay thee down, and roar;

For thou hast kill'd the sweetest innocent,
That e'er did lift up eye.

Oth.

O, she was foul!— [Rising.

I scarce did know you, uncle: There lies your niece, Whose breath, indeed, these hands have newly stopp'd: I know, this act shows horrible and grim.

Gra. Poor Desdemona! I am glad thy father's dead; Thy match was mortal to him, and pure grief Shore his old thread in twain: did he live now, This sight would make him do a desperate turn, Yea, curse his better angel from his side, And fall to reprobation."

Oth. 'Tis pitiful: but yet Iago knows,

That she with Cassio hath the act of shame

A thousand times committed;1 Cassio confess'd it:

8 I thought so then;] i. e. at the instant when she gave Desde. mona's handkerchief to Iago: for even then Emilia appears to have suspected it was sought after for no honest purpose, and therefore asks her husband

"What will you do with it?" &c. See p. 326. Steevens.

9

Yea, curse his better angel from his side,

And fall to reprobation.] So, in our author's 144th Sonnet: my female evil

bance.

66

"Tempteth my better angel from my side." Malone.

reprobation.] Both the first and second folio read-repro

Steevens.

1 A thousand times committed;] This is another passage which seems to suppose a longer space comprised in the action of this play than the scenes include. Johnson.

That she with Cassio hath the act of shame

A thousand times committed;

And again:

'Tis not a year or two shows us a man.

I am not convinced from these passages only, that a longer space is comprised in the action of this play than the scenes include. What Othello mentions in the first instance, might have passed still more often, before they were married, when Cassio

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