(Which, when I know that boasting is an honour,
I shall promulgate) I fetch my life and being (7)
From men of royal siege ; and my demerits
May speak, and bonnetted, to as proud a fortune
As this that I have reach'd. For know, lazo,
But that I love the gentle Desdemon",
I would not my unhoused free condition
Put into circumscription and confine,
For the sea's worth. But look! what lights come yonder ?

Enter Caffio, with torches. lago. Those are the raised father, and his friends : You were best go in.

Oth. Not I: I must be found.
My parts, my title and my perfect foul
Shall manifest me rightly. Is it they?

lago. By Janu!, I think, no.
Oib. The Servants of the Duke, and my lieutenant :

-I fetch my life and being
From men of royal siege ; and my demerits
May speak unbonnetted to as proud a fortune

As this ibat I bave reach'd.) Thus all the copies read this para Sage. But, to speak unbonnetted, is to speak with the cap off, which is directly opposite to the Poet's meaning. So, in King Lear ;

This night, in which the cub-drawn bear would couch,
The lion, and the belly-pinched wolf,
Keep their furr dry, unbonnetted he runs,

And bids what will take all. Oibello eans to say, that his birth and services set him upon such a rank, that he may speak to a fenator of Venice with his hat on; i. e. without thewing any marks of deference, or inequality. I, therefore, am inclin'd to think, Sbakespeare wrote ;

May speak, and bonnetted, &c. Or, if any like better the change of the negative un, in the cos rupted reading, into the epitatic im, we may thus reform it :

May speak imbonnetted, & C. I

propos d the correction of this passage in my SHAKESPEARE Re. Aord; upon which, Mr. Pope, in his last edition, has found out another expedient, and would read,

May Speak unbonnetting, &c. i. e. as he says, witbout pulling off tbe bonnett. But the senfe thus is equivocal and obscure : and unbonnetting more naturally fignifies, pulling off the bonnett, than the contrary.

The

The goodness of the night upon you, friends!
What is the news ?

C%. The Duke doth greet you, general ;
And he requires your hafte, post-halte, appearance,
Ev'n on the instant.

Oth. What is the matter, think you?

Caf. Something from Cyprus, as I may divine ;
It is a business of some heat. The Gallies
Have sent a dozen sequent messengers
This very night, at one another's heels :
And

many of the couns’lors, rais'd and met, (8)
Are at the Duke's already. You have been hotly callid for,
When, being not at your lodging to be found,
The Senate sent above three several quests,
To search you out.

0:b. Tis well I am found by you:
I will but spend a word here in the house,
And

go
with
you.

[ Exit Othello. Caj. Ancient, what makes he here?

lago. 'Faith, he to-night hath boarded a land-carrack; If it

prove lawful prize, he's made for ever. Caf. I do not understand. lago. He's married. Cal. To whom ! lago. Marry, to Come, Captain, will you go?

Enter Othello. Oth. Have with you. Caf. Here comes another troop to seek for you. Enter Brabantio, Rodorigo, with Officers and torches.

lago. It is Brabantio : General, be advis'd; He comes to bad intent.

Oth. Holla! stand there.

(8) And many of the Consuls, rais'd and met,

Are at tbe Duke's already.] Thus all the editions concur in reading ; but there is no such character as a Consul appears in any part of the play. I change it to Counsellors; i. e. the grandees that con. ftitute the great council at Venice. The reason. I have already given, above, in the close of the sth note,

Rode

Rod. Signior, it is the Moor.
Bia. Down with him, thief!

[They draw on both sides. lago. You, Rodorizo! come, Sir, I am for you Otb. Keep up your bright swords, for the dew will

ruft 'em. Good Signior, you shall more command with years, Than with your weapons:

[daughter; Bru. O thou foul thief! where hath thou ftow'd my Damn'd as thou art, thou hait enchanted her; For I'll refer me to all things of fenfe, If she in chains of magick were not bound, Whether a maid, fo tender, fair and happy, So opposite to marriage, that she shunnid (9) (9) that she sun'd

The wealthy curled darlings of our nation.] Tho' I have not disturb'd the text here, I ought to lubjoin a very probable conjecture which Mr. Warberton propos’d to me.

The wealthy culled darlings of our nation. i. e. pick’d, select, chosen, from the common suitors. For the epithet curled, as he observes, was no mark of diftinétion or difference between a Venetian and a Moor.; which latter people are remarkably curld by Nature. And tho' culled now, when our ears are nicer than our understandings, may not so frequently find a place in the Drama; the same objection did not lie to the sound of it in Sbakefpeare's days.

Of all complexions the cull'd sov'reignty. Love's Labour Loj.
Call for our chiefest men of discipline
To cull the plots of best advantages.

King Jobn.
Then in a moment Fortune shall cull forth
Out of one fide her happy minion.

Ibid.
Before. I drew this gallant head of war,
And sull'd these fiery spirits from the world
To out-look conquest.

Ibid,
For who is he, whose chin is but enrich'd
With one appearing hair, that will not follow
These cull'd and choice-drawn cavaliers to France > Henry V.
Now ye familiar spirits, that are culld
Out of the pow'rful regions under earth. 1 Henry VI.
And here's a lord, come knights from east to weft,
And cull their flow'r, Ajax shall cope the beft. Troil, and Crelo
No, Madam; we have cull'd such necessaries
As are behovefull for our ftate to-morrow. Rom. and Jule
In tatter'd weeds, with overwhelming brows,
Culling of simples,

Ibid. &c. c. &c.

The

The wealthy culled darlings of our nation,
Would ever have, t'incur a general mock,
Run from her guardage to the footy bolom
Of such a thing as thou, to fear, not to delight?
Judge me the world, if ’tis not grofs in sense, (10)
That thou hast practis'd on her with foul charms,
Abus'd her delicate youth with drugs or minerals,

That

(10) Judge me the world, if 'ris not gross in sense,

Tbai ibou bajt practisid on ber with foul charms,
Abus'd ber delicate yourb with drugs, or minerals,

That weaken mo:ion.] Brabantio is here accusing Otbello of having usd some foul play, and intoxicated Desdemona by drugs and potions to win her over to his love. But why, drugs to weaken motion? How then could the have run away with him voluntarily from her father's house ? Had the been averse to chusing Othello, tho he had given her medicines that took away the use of her limbs, might she not still have retain'd her lenses, and opposid the mar. riage ? Her father, 'tis evident, from several of his speeches, is pofitive that she must have been abused in her rational faculties; or the could not have made so preposterous a choice, as to wed with a Moor, a black, and refuse the finest your g gentlemen in Venice. What then have we to do with her motion being weaken'd? If I understand any thing of the Poet's meaning here, I cannot but think, he must have wrote ;

Abus'd ber delicate youtb with drugs, or minerals,

That weaken norion. i. e. her apprehension, right conception and idea of things, understanding, judgment, &c. 'Tis usual with us to say, we bave no notion of a thing, when we would mean, we don't very clearly understand ir. The Roman Classicks used the word in the same manner; and Cicero has thus defin'd it for us. NOTIONEM appello, quod Græc. tùm žvyobav rùm ogóanfor. Dei notionem nullum animal eft quod babeat præter bumi. nem. Idem 1. de Legibus. Cujus rei rationem notionemque eodem volumine tradidit. Plin. lib. 17. cap. 28, Oc. Nor is our Author infrequent in the usage of this term.

Does Lear walk thus ? speak thus? Where are his eyes ?
Either his notion weakens, his discernings
Are lethargied, &c.

King Lear.
Your judgments, my grave Lords,
Must give this cur the lie; and his own notion,
Who wears my stripes, &c.

Coriolanus,
-And all things elle, that might
To half a loul, and to a notion craz'd
Say, thus did Bunquo.

Macberb.

And,

That weaken Notion.l'll hav't disputed on;
'Tis probable, and palpable to thinking.
I therefore apprehend and do attach thee
For an abuser of the world, a practiser
Of arts inhibited and out of warrant ;
I ay hold upon him ; if he do refift,
Subdue him at his peril.

01. Hold your hands,
Both you of my inclining, and the rest.
Were it my cue to fight, I should have known it
Without a prompter. Where will you I go
To answer this your charge ?

Bra. To prison, 'till fit time
Of law, and coarse of direct session
Call thee to answer.

Oth. What if I do obey ?
How may the Duke be therewith satisfied,
Whose messengers are here about

my

side, Upon some present business of the state, To bring me to him?

07. True, mof worthy fignior.
The Duke's in Council; and your noble self,
I'm sure, is sent for.

Bra. How! the Duke in Council ?
In this time of the night? bring him away;
Mine's not an idle cause. The Duke himíelf,
Or any of my brothers of the State,
Cannot but feel this wrong, as 'twere their own;
For if such actions may have passage free, (1)
Bond-slaves, and Pageants, shall our Statesmen be.

FExeunt.

term.

And, in Cymbeline, he has express’d the same idea by an equivalent

The drug he gave me, which he said was precious
And cordial to me, have I not found it

Murtb'rous to th' senses?
I made this emendation in the Appendix to my SHAKESPEARE
Reftor'd, and Mr. Pope has adopted it in his last edition.

£1100s may bave passage free,

sagans all nu na:elmen be. ] I have long hai a fufpicion of pagans here. Would Brabantia infer, if his private in.

jury