which he supposed Othello had inflicted upon

him:

"Nothing can or shall content my soul,

Till I am even with him, wife for wife."*

But of this enterprise nothing afterwards is heard the dramatist seems either to have forgotten his original intentions, or found that Iago had already enough business on his hands.

He

Of the idea furnished by the novel of the Moor's person becoming distasteful to Desdemona, Shakspeare has made a noble use. With sentiments of women entirely libertine, the conclusion of Iago is strictly correct, that the marriage of Othello placed within his reach his much desired opportunity of revenge. beheld his enemy united to a young and lovely woman, who had already transgressed the bounds of propriety and delicacy by quitting the protection of her paternal roof, and clandestinely uniting herself to a Moor; and he sagaciously argued, that Desdemona could not long continue attached to the swarthy object of her choice; that as their love" was a violent commencement," it would not fail of "an answerable sequestration:" "her eye must be fed;

* Act II. sc. 1.

*

and what delight shall she have to look upon the devil?" In want of" sympathy in years, manners and beauties, her delicate tenderness will find itself abused, begin to heave the gorge, disrelish and abhor the Moor; very nature will instruct her in it, and compel her to some second choice."

These points firmly fixed in his belief, his next care is to see what advantage can be made of them; his penetrating mind surveys the materials at his command, and he sketches a bold outline of his plot :

"Cassio's a proper man"

"A young and handsome knave, with all those requisites that folly and green minds look after."

He hath a person and a smooth dispose,

To be suspected; framed to make woman false."

Unlike the Lieutenant in the novel, Iago depends not on the accidents of time, but having carefully formed, boldly enters on the execution of his design, and the consummate skill displayed in his progress, is particularly worthy of observation.

"Ha! I like not that," when he observes Cassio quit Desdemona, is a remark that opens a wide field for conjecture, which his answer to Othello's question, "Was not that Cassio, parted from my wife?" artfully converts into

keen insinuation :

"Cassio, my lord? No, sure, I cannot think it,

That he would steal away so guilty-like,

Seeing you coming."

The first stone of Iago's building being thus laid, the erection of the superstructure is rapidly proceeded in:

"Did Michael Cassio, when you woo'd my lady, Know of your love ?"

"Indeed!" is an expression of mingled astonishment and regret, that Cassio "went between them very oft," which could not fail to make a powerful impression on the Moor; and Iago's cold recognition of Cassio's honesty, accompanied by the reflection that "men should be what they seem" still further alarms, as was intended, the wakeful vigilance of a suspicious mind. His refusal to disclose his thoughts, his acknowledgement that they were "foul," and incompatible with Othello's peace, are gradations so consequent and easy, as to be almost imperceptible, towards the conclusion Iago had all

along been aiming at, and which he at length certainly and permanently fixes, by the mention of the horrid passion "jealousy" and the frightful picture which he draws of the miseries of its victims. *

Othello, by his dignified reply †, rises for a moment superior to the arts of his tormentor; but no change is too sudden to ruffle Iago's selfpossession, and his acuteness and ingenuity turn all things to his own advantage:

"I am glad of this; for now I shall have reason
To show the love and duty that I bear you
With franker spirit: therefore, as I am bound,
Receive it from me: – I speak not yet of proof.
Look to your wife; observe her well with Cassio;
Wear

thus your eye

not jealous, nor secure: I would not have your free and noble nature, Out of self-bounty, be abus'd; look to it:

I know our country disposition well;

In Venice they do let heaven see the pranks

They dare not show their husbands; their best con

Is

science

- not to leave undone, but keep unknown."

Could such remarks, from a young and handsome libertine, fail to impress Othello, a foreigner, little entitled himself to presume on the partiality of the fair sex, with a fearful conviction of the general laxity of Venetian morals?

*

"That cuckold lives in bliss," &c.
"Why? why is this," &c. Ibid.

VOL. II.

G

Act III. sc. 3.

Iago had presumed to believe the virtue of Desdemona assailable, and, with the deepest policy, he presses upon Othello those sentiments by which he himself had been led to his dissolute conclusion. With a force forbidding reply, he urges her violation of the natural delicacy of her sex, and especially her duplicity:

"She did deceive her father, marrying you;

And, when she seem'd to shake, and fear your looks
She lov'd them most.—•

She that so young, could give out such a seeming,
To seal her father's eyes up, close as oak —:"

The inference was too palpable to be missed, and none of its force was lost by compelling the Moor to complete the deduction by an operation of his own mind. His fond relapse into tenderness, "I do not think but Desdemona's honest", is parried with surprising adroitness: "Long live she so! and long live you to think so!" This implied reproach of doting credulity again directs the wavering husband's thoughts into their old channel of suspicion, "And yet, how nature erring from itself, - " a reflection immediately seized on for the introduction of one of the most masterly strokes of Iago's ingenuity:

"Ay, there's the point: As, to be bold with you,
Not to affect many proposed matches,