And call the noblest to the audience. For with sorrow, Hor. Of that I shall have also cause to speak, On plots and errors, happen. Let four captains To have prov'd most royally: and, for his passage, Take up the bodies:-Such a sight as this The following scene in the first quarto, 1603, differs materially from the revised play, that it has been thought it would not be unacceptable to the reader :-Enter Horatio and the Queen. Hor. Madam, your son is safe arrived in Denmarke, He found the packet sent to the king of England, As at his next conversion with your grace He will relate the circumstance at full. IF the dramas of Shakspeare were to be characterised, from time to time in continual succession, exhibiting The conduct is perhaps not wholly secure against objections. The action is indeed for the most part in continual progression; but there are some scenes which neither forward nor retard it. Of the feigned madness of Hamlet there appears no adequate cause; for he does nothing which he might not have done with the reputation of sanity. He plays the madman most when he treats Ophelia with so much rudeness Queen. Then I perceive there's treason in his looks, which seems to be useless and wanton cruelty. That seem'd to sugar o'er his villanies: Hor. Yes, madam, and he hath appointed me Queen. O fail not, good Horatio, and withal mend me A mother's care to him, bid him a while Hamlet is, through the whole piece, rather an instrument than an agent. After he has, by the strata gem of the play, convicted the King, he makes no attempt to punish him; and his death is at last effected by an incident which Hamlet had no part in producing. The catastrophe is not very happily produced; the exchange of weapons is rather an expedient of neces com-sity, than a stroke of art. A scheme might easily be formed to kill Hamlet with the dagger, and Laertes with the bowl. guinary and unnatural acts, to which the perpetrator was instigated by concupiscence or carnal stings.' The allusion is to the murder of old Hamlet by his brother, previous to his incestuous union with Gertrude. 1. e. instigated, produced. Instead of forced cause,' the quartos read, for no cause.' 2 i. e. some rights which are remembered in this kingdom. The poet is accused of having shown little regard to poetical justice, and may be charged with equal neglect of poetical probability. The apparition left the regions of the dead to little purpose; the revenge which he demands is not obtained, but by the death of him that was required to take it; and the gratification which would arise from the destruction of an usurper and a murderer, is abated by the untimely death of Ophelia, the young, the beautiful, the harmless, and the pious JOHNSON OTHELLO, THE MOOR OF VENICE. PRELIMINARY REMARKS. THE story is taken from the collection of Novels, by The History of the famous Euordanus, Prince of DenGio Giraldi Cinthio, entitled Hecatommithi, being mark; with the strange Adventures of Iago, Prince of the seventh novel of the third decad. No English Saxonie, 4to, 1605. It may indeed be urged, that these translation of so early a date as the age of Shakspeare names were adopted from the tragedy before us: but has hitherto been discovered: but the work was trans-every reader who is conversant with the peculiar style Jated into French by Gabriel Chappuys, Paris, 1584. The version is not a faithful one: and Dr. Farmer suspects that through this medium the novel came into English. The name of Othello may have been suggested by some tale which has escaped our researches, as it occurs in Reynold's God's Revenge against Adultery, standing in one of his arguments as follows:- She marries Othello, an old German soldier.' This history (the eighth) is professed to be an Italian one; and here also the name of lago occurs. It is likewise found in and method in which the work of honest John Roy nolds is composed, will acquit him of the slightest familiarity with the scenes of Shakspeare-Steevens. The time of this play may be ascertained from the following circumstances:-Selymus the Second formed his design against Cyprus in 1569, and took it in 1571 This was the only attempt the Turks ever made upon that island after it came into the hands of the Vene tians, (which was in 1473,) wherefore the time must fall in with some part of that interval We learn from the play, that there was a junction of the Turkish fleet at Rhodes, in order for the invasion of Cyprus; that it first came sailing towards Cyprus; then went to Rhodes, there met another squadron, and then resumed its way to Cyprus. These are real historical facts, which happened when Mustapha, Selymus's general, attacked Cyprus, in May, 1570; which is therefore the true period of this performance.-See Knolle's History of the Turks, p. 938, 846, 867.-Reed. The first edition of this play, of which we have any certain knowledge, was printed by N. O. for Thomas Walkly, to whom it was entered on the Stationers' Books, October 6, 1621. The most material variations of this copy from the first folio are pointed out in the notes. The minute differences are so numerous, that to have specified them would only have fatigued the reader. Walkly's Preface will follow these Preliminary Remarks. Malone first placed the date of the composition of this play in 1611, upon the ground of the allusion, supposed by Warburton, to the creation of the order of baronets. [See Act iii. Sc. 4, note.] On the same ground Mr. Chalmers attributed it to 1614; and Dr. Drake assigned the middle period of 1612. But this allusion being controverted, Malone subsequently affixed to it the date of 1604, because, as he asserts, we know it was acted in that year.' He has not stated the evidence for this decisive fact; and Mr. Boswell was unable to discover it among his papers; but gives full credit to it, on the ground that Mr. Malone never expressed himself at random.' The allusion to Pliny, translated by Philemon Holland, in 1601, in the simile of the Pontic Sea; and the supposed imitation of a passage in Cornwallis's Essays, of the same date, referred to in the note cited above, seem to have influenced Mr. Malone in settling the date of this play. What is more certain is, that it was played before King James at court, in 1613; which circumstance is gathered from the MSS. of Vertue the Engraver. If (says Schlegel) Romeo and Juliet shines with the colours of the dawn of morning, but a dawn whose purple clouds already announce the thunder of a sultry day, Othello is, on the other hand, a strongly shaded picture; we might call it a tragical Rembrandt.' Should these parallels between pictorial representaten and dramatic poetry be admitted, for I have my dov'ts of their propriety,-this is a far more judicious ascription than that of Steevens, who, in a concluding note to this play, would compare it to a picture from the school of Raphael. Poetry is certainly the pabulum of art; and this drama, as every other of our im mortal bard, offers a series of pictures to the imagination of such varied hues, that artists of every school might from hence be furnished with subjects. What Schlegel means to say appears to be, that it abounds in strongly contrasted scenes, but that gloom predominates. Much has been written on the subject of this drama; and there has been some difference of opinion in regard to the rank in which it deserves to be placed. For my own part I should not hesitate to place it on the first. Perhaps this preference may arise from the circumstance of the domestic nature of its action, which lays a stronger hold upon our sympathy; for overpowering as is the pathos of Lear, or the interest excited by Macbeth, it comes less near to the business of life. In strong contrast of character, in delineation of the workings of passion in the human breast, in manifestations of profound knowledge of the inmost recesses of the heart, this drama exceeds all that has ever issued from mortal pen. It is indeed true that no eloquence is capable of painting the overwhelming catastrophe in Othello,-the pressure of feelings which measure out in a moment the abysses of eternity.' WALKLY'S PREFACE TO OTHELLO, ED. 1622, 4TO. THE STATIONER TO THE READER. To set forth a booke without an Epistle, were like to the old English proverbe, A blew coat without a badge;' and the author being dead, I thought good to take that piece of worke upon me: To commend it, I will not; for that which is good, hope every man will commend without intreaty and I am the bolder, because the Author's name is sufficient to vent his worke. Thus leaving every one to the liberty of judgment, I have ventured to print this play, and leave it the generall censure. Yours, THOMAS WALKLY. MONTANO, Othello's Predecessor in the Government SCENE, for the first Act, in Venice; during the of Cyprus. ACT I. rest of the Play, at a Seaport in Cyprus. Iago. Despise me, if I do not. Three great ones of the city, SCENE I. Venice. A Street. Enter RODE- In personal suit to make me his lieutenant, RIGO and IAGO. Roderigo. TOSH, never tell me, I take it much unkindly, Rod. Thou told'st me, thou didst hold him in thy hate. 1 To cap is to salute by taking of the cap: it is still an academic phrase. The flio reads, Off-capp'd.' 2 Circumstance signifies circumlocution. And therefore without circumstance, to the point, Instruct me what I am? The Picture, by Massinger. 8 lago means to represent Cassio as a man merely Conversant with civil matters, and who knew no more of a sqadron than the number of men it contained. He afterwards calls him 'this counter-castor." Oft capp'd' to him ;-and, by the faith of man, Forsooth, a great arithmetician,3 4 The folio reads, dambi. This passage has given rise to much discussion. Mr. Tyrwhitt thought that we should read, almost damn'd in a fair .ife; alluding to the judgment denounced in the Gospel against those ot whom all men speak well.' I should be contented to adept his emendation, but with a different interpretation: A fellow almost damn'd (ì. e. lost from luxurious habite) in the serene or equable tenor of That never set a squadron in the field, Iago. But there's no remedy, 'tis the curse of service; 4 Preferment goes by letter, and affection, Rod. I would not follow him, then. Whip me such honest knaves : Others there are, Do themselves homage: these fellows have some soul; And such a one do I profess myself. It is as sure as you are Roderigo, Heaven is my judge, not I for love and duty, For daws to peck at: I am not what I am. Rod. What a full fortune does the thick-lips owe, If he can carry't thus! Call up her father, Iago. Rouse him: make after him, poison his delight, his life. The passage as it stands at present has been said by Steevens to mean, according to Iago's licentious manner of expressing himself, no more than a man very near being married. This seems to have been the case in respect to Cassio. Act iv. Sc. 1, lago speaking to him of Bianca, says, "Why, the cry goes that you shall marry her.' Cassio acknowledges that such a report had been raised, and adds-This is the monkey's own giving out: she is persuaded I will marry her, out of her love and self flattery, not out of my promise. Iago then, having heard this report before, very naturally alludes to it in his present conversation with Roderigo.-Mr. Boswell suspects that there may be some corruption in the text. 1 i. e. theory. See All's Well that Ends Well, Act iv Sc. 3. 2 The rulers of the state, or civil governors. The word is used in the same sense in Tamburlaine : Both we will reign the consuls of the earth.' By toged is meant peaceable, in opposition to warlike qualifications, of which he had been speaking. The word may be formed in allusion to the adage, Cedant arma toge. The folio reads, tongued consuls,' which agrees better with the words which follow mere prattle, without practice.' 3 It was anciently the practice to reckon up sums with counters. To this the poet alludes in Cymbeline, Act v. It sums up thousands in a trice: you have no true debtor and creditor but it; of what's past, is, and to come, the discharge. Your neck, sir, is pen, book, and counters.' 4 i. e. by recommendation. 5 Do I stand within any such terms of propinquity to the Moor, as that I am bound to love him? The first quarto has assign'd. 6 Knave is here used for servant, but with a sly mixture of contempt. 7 Outward show of civility. 8 This is the reading of the folio. The first quarto reads doves.' 9 Full fortune is complete good fortune: to owe is to possess. So in Antony and Cleopatra :not the imperious show Of the full-fortun'd Cæsar.' 6 And in Cymbeline: Our pleasure his full fortune doth confine.' 10 By night and negligence,' means in the time of night and negligence. Nothing is more common than this mode of expression: we should not hesitate at the expression, By night and day.' 11 i. e. is broken. 12 That is, intoxicating draughts.' In Hamlet, the king is said to be marvellous distemper'd with wine.' See King Henry V. Act ii. Sc. 2. 13 That is, we are in a populous city, mine is not a lone house, where a robbery might easily be committed Grange is, strictly, the farm of a monastery; grangia, Lat. from granum: but, provincially, any lone house or solitary farm is called a grange. So in Measure for Measure: At the moated grange resides this dejected Mariana.' |