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and obscurity. I have nothing that I can, with any approach to confidence, propose. JOHNSON. The great difficulty is, to understand in what sense any man can be said to be almost damn'd in a fair wife; or fair phyz, as Sir T. Hanmer proposes to read. I cannot find any ground for supposing that either the one or the other has been reputed to be a damnable sin in any religion. The poet has used the same mode of expression in The Merchant of Venice, act i. sc. i. "O! my Anthonio, I do know of those "Who therefore only are reputed wise, "For saying nothing; who, I'm very sure, "If they should speak, would almost damn those ears, "Which, hearing them, would call their brothers

fools."

And there the allusión is evident to the gospel judgment against those, who call their brothers fools. I am therefore inclined to believe, that the true reading here is,

A fellow almost damn'd in a fair life;

and that Shakspere alludes to the judgment denounced in the gospel against those of whom all men speak well.

The character of Cassio is certainly such, as would be very likely to draw upon him all the peril of this denunciation, literally understood. Well-bred, easy, sociable, good-natured; with abilities enough to make him agreeable and useful, but not sufficient to excite the envy of his equals, or to alarm the jealousy of his superiors. It may be observed too, that Shakspere has thought it proper to make lago, in several other passages,

passages, bear his testimony to the amiable qualities of his rival. In act v. line 18.

If Cassio do remain,

He hath a daily beauty in his life,
That makes me ugly.

I will only add, that however hard or far-fetch'd this allusion (whether Shakspere's, or only mine) may seem to be, archbishop Sheldon had exactly the same conceit, when he made that singular compliment, as the writer calls it, [Biog. Britan. Art. TEMPLE] to a nephew of Sir William Temple, that "he had the curse of the gospel, because all men spoke well of him." TYRWHITT.

Mr. Tyrwhitt's ingenious emendation is supported by a passage in The Merry Wives of Windsor, where good life is used for a fair character: "Defend your reputation, or bid farewel to your good life for ever.” MALONE.

.The poet, I think, does not appear to have meant Tago to be a Florentine, which has hitherto been inferred from the following passage in act iii. line 42, where Cassio, speaking of lago, says,

- -I never knew

A Florentine more kind and honest.

It is surely not uncommon for us to say, in praise of a foreigner, that we never knew one of our own countrymen of a more friendly disposition. This, I believe, is all that Cassio meant by his observation.

3

From the already-mentioned passage in act iii. line 292. it is certain (as Sir T. Hanmer has observed) that Iago was a Venetian :

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I know our country disposition well;.

In Venice they do let Heaven see the pranks
They dare not shew their husbands.

Again, act v. line 95:

Alas! my friend, and my dear countryman,
Roderigo, &c.

Gra. What of Venice?

lago. Even he, &c.

That Cassio, however, was married, is not sufficiently implied in the words, a fellow almost damn'd in afair wife, since they may mean, according to Iago's licentious manner of expressing himself, no more than a man very hear being married. This seems to have been the case in respect to Cassio, act iv. line 140. Jagó, speaking to him of Bianca, says-Why the cry goes that you shall marry her. Cassio acknowledges that

such a report has been raised, and adds, This is the monkey's own giving out: she is persuaded I will marry her out of her own love and self-flattery, not out of my promise. Iago then, having heard this report before, very naturally circulates it in his present conversation with Roderigo,

If Shakspere, however, designed Bianca for a courtezan of Cyprus (where Cassio had not yet been, and had therefore never seen her) Iago cannot be supposed to allude to the report concerning his marriage with her, and consequently this part of my argument must fall to the ground.

Had Shakspere, consistently with Iago's character, meant to make him say that Cassio was actually damn'd

in being married to a handsome woman, he would have made him say it outright, and not have interposed the palliative almost. Whereas what he says at present amounts to no more than that (however near his marriage) he is not yet completely damn'd, because he is not absolutely married. The succeeding parts of Iago's conversation sufficiently evince, that the poet thought no mode of conception or expression too brutal for the character. STEEVENS.

A fellow almost damn'd in a FAIR wife] Ingenious as Mr. Tyrwhitt's conjecture may appear, it but ill accords with the context. Iago is enumerating the disqualifications of Cassio for his new appointment; but surely his being spoken well of by all men could not be one of them. It is evident from what follows, that a report had prevailed at Venice, of Cassio's being soon to be married to "the most FAIR Bianca." Now as she was in Shakspere's language "a customer," it was with a view to such a connexion that Iago called the new lieutenant a fellow almost damn’d. It may be gathered from various circumstances, that an intercourse between Cassió and Bianca had existed before they left Venice; for Bianca is not only well known to Iago at Cyprus, but she upbraids Cassio, (act iii. line 785.) with having been absent a week from her, when he had not been two days on the island. Hence, and from what Cassio himself relates (act iv. line 148.)" I was, the other day, talking on the SEABANK WITH CERTAIN VENETIANS; and THITHER comes the bauble; by this hand she falls thus about my neck

neck" it may be presumed she had secretly followed him to Cyprus: a conclusion not only necessary to explain the passage in question, but to preserve the consistency of the fable at large.———The sea-bank, on which Cassio was conversing with certain Venetians, was at Venice; for he had never, till the day before, been at Cyprus: he specifies those with whom he conversed as Venetians, because he was himself a Florentine, and he mentions the behaviour of Bianca in their pres sence, as tending to corroborate the report she had spread, that he was soon to marry her. HENLEY.

23. —theorick,] Theorick for theory. So in the Proceedings against Garnet on the Powder Plot, “as much deceived in the Theoricke of trust, as the lay disciples were in the practicke of conspiracie." STEEVENS

24. Wherein the tongued consuls] So the generality of the impressions read: but the oldest quarto has it toged; the senators that assisted the duke in council, in their proper gowns.. THEOBALD, Consuls the rulers of the state or civil governors. The word is used by Marlow, in the same sense, in Tamburlaine, a tragedy, 1591:

"Both we will raigne as consuls of the earth."

MALONE.

By toged, perhaps, is meant peaceable, in opposition to the warlike qualifications of which he had been speaking. He might have formed the word, in allusion to the Latin adage-Cedant arma toga. STEEVENS. must be led and calm'd] Be-lee'd suits to calm'd,

29.

and

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