And often did beguile her of her tears,
When I did fpeak of fome diftressful stroke
That my youth fuffer'd. My ftory being done,
She gave me for my pains a world of fighs:

She fwore, "In faith, 'twas ftrange, 'twas paffing ftrange, ""Twas pitiful, 'twas wondrous pitiful".

She wifh'd fhe had not heard it ;-yet she wish'd,
That heav'n had made her fuch a man:-fhe thank'd me,
And bade me, if I had a friend that lov'd her,
I should but teach him how to tell my ftory,
And that would woo her. On this hint I fpake,
She lov'd me for the dangers I had paft,
And I lov'd her, that she did pity them:

Sir Walter Raleigh made this voyage to Guiana in 1595. Mr. Lawrence Keymish, (fometime his lieutenant) who went thither the next year, and who dedicates his relation to Sir Walter, mentions the fame people; and, speaking of a person who gave him confiderable informations, he adds, "He certified me of the headless men, and that their "mouths in their breasts are exceeding wide." Sir Walter, at the time that his travels were publifh'd, is filed Captain of her Majefty's guard, Lord Warden of the Stannaries, and Lieutenant general of the county of Cornwal. If we confider the reputation, as the ingenious Martin Folkes, Efq; obferv'd to me, any thing from fuch a perfon, and at that time in fuch pofts, must come into the world with, we fall be of opinion that a paffage in Shakespeare need not be degraded for the mention of a story, which, however ftrange, was countenane'd with fuch an authority. Shakespeare, on the other hand, has fhewn a find addrefs to Sir Walter, in facrificing fo much credulity to fuch a relation. Befides, both the paffages in our Author have this further ufe; that they do in fome measure fix the chronology of his writing Othello, as well as the Tempeft: for as neither of them could be wrote before the year 1597; fo the mention of thefe circumstances should perfuade us, they appear'd before thefe Travels became ftale to the publick, and their authority was too narrowly fcrutiniz'd.

We may be able to account, perhaps, in a few lines, for the mystery of these fuppos'd beadless people; and with that. I will clofe this long note, OLEARIUS, fpeaking of the manner of cloathing of the Samojeds, a people of northern Muscovy, fays; "Their garments are "made like thofe that are call'd cofaques, open only at the necks. "When the cold is extraordinary, they put their cofaques over their 6.6. heads, and let the fleeves hang down; their faces being not to be "feen, but at the cleft which is at the neck. Whence fome bave "taken occafion to write, that in thefe northern countries there are people "without heads, having their faces in their breafts,”

M 4

This

This only is the witchcraft I have us’d.

Here comes the lady, let her witness it.

Enter Defdemona, Iago, and Attendants.

Duke. I think, this tale would win my daughter tooGood Brabantio,

Take up this mangled matter at the best.

Men do their broken weapons rather use,
Than their bare hands.

Bra. I pray you, hear her speak;

If the confefs that she was half the wooer,
Destruction on my head, if my bad blame
Light on the man! Come hither, gentle miftrefs,
Do you perceive in all this noble company,
Where you moft owe obedience?

Def. My noble father,

I do perceive here a divided duty;
Το you I'm bound for life and education:
My life and education both do learn me
How to refpect you. You're the Lord of duty;
I'm hitherto your daughter. But here's my husband;
And fo much duty as my mother shew'd
To you, preferring you before her father;
So much I challenge, that I may profess
Due to the Moor, my Lord.

Bra. God be with you: I have done.
Please it your Grace, on to the State-affairs;
I had rather to adopt a child, than get it.
Come hither, Moor:

I here do give thee that with all my heart,
Which, but thou haft already, with all my heart
I would keep from thee. For your fake, jewel,
I'm glad at foul I have no other child;

For thy escape would teach me tyranny,

To hang clogs on them. I have done, my Lord.
Duke. Let me fpeak like yourself; and lay a sentence,
Which, as a grice, or ftep, may help these lovers
Into your favour-

When remedies are paft, the griefs are ended

By feeing the worft, which late on hopes depended.

Το

To mourn a mischief that is past and gone,
Is the next way to draw new mischief on.
What cannot be preferv'd when fortune takes,
Patience her injury a mockery makes.

The robb'd, that fmiles, fteals fomething from the thief;
He robs himself, that spends a bootlefs grief.

Bra. So, let the Turk of Cyprus us beguile,
We lofe it not, fo long as we can fmile;
He bears the sentence well, that nothing bears
But the free comfort which from thence he hears;
But he bears both the fentence, and the forrow,
That, to pay grief, muft of poor patience borrow.
These fentences to fugar, or to gall,

Being ftrong on both fides, are equivocal.
But words are words; I never yet did hear, (16)
That the bruis'd heart was pieced through the ear.—
Befeech you, now to the affairs o'th' state.

Duke. The Turk with a moft mighty preparation makes for Cyprus: Othello, the fortitude of the place is best known to you. And though we have there a fubftitute of moft allowed fufficiency; yet opinion, a fovereign mistress of effects, throws a more fafe voice

(16) But words are words; I never yet did hear,

That the bruis'd beart was pierced thro' the ear.] One fuperfluous letter has for thefe hundred years quite fubverted the sense of this paffage; and none of the editors have ever attended to the reafoning of the context, by which they might have difcover'd the error. The Duke has by fage fentences been exhorting Brabantio to patience, and to forget the grief of his daughter's stolen marriage; to which Brabantio is made very pertinently to reply, to this effect: "My "Lord, I apprehend very well the wisdom of your advice; but tho' 66 you would comfort me, words are but words; and the heart, already "bruis'd, was never pierc'd, or wounded, thro' the ear.' -Well! if we want arguments for a fenator, let him be educated at the feet of our fagacious editors. It is obvious, I believe, to my better readers, that the text must be reftor'd, as Mr. Warburton acutely ob. ferv'd to me.

That the bruis'd beart was pieced tho' the ear.

i. e. That the wounds of forrow were ever cur'd, or a man made beart whole meerly by words of confolation. I ought to take notice, this very emendation was likewife communicated to me by an inge nious, unknown, correspondent, who fubfcribes himself only L. H.

M 5

on

on you; you must therefore be content to flubber the glofs of your new fortunes, with this more ftubborn and boisterous expedition.

Oth. The tyrant cuftom, moft grave senators,
Hath made the flinty and fteel couch of war
My thrice-driven bed of down. I do agnize
A natural and prompt alacrity

I find in hardness; and do undertake
This prefent war against the Ottomites.
Moft humbly therefore bending to your ftate,
I crave fit difpofition for my wife,
Due reference of place and exhibition;
With fuch accommodation and befort
As levels with her breeding.

Duke. Why, at her father's.

Bra. I will not have it fo.
Oth. Nor I.

Def. Nor would I there refide,

To put my father in impatient thoughts.
By being in his eye. Moft gracious Duke,
To my unfolding lend your gracious ear,
And let me find a charter in your voice
T'affift my fimpleness.

Duke. What would you, Desdemona?

Def. That I did love the Moor to live with him,
My down-right violence and storm of fortunes
May trumpet to the world. My heart's fubdu'd
Ev'n to the very quality of my Lord;

I faw Othel's visage in his mind,
And to his honours and his valiant parts
Did I my foul and fortunes confecrate.
So that, dear Lords, if I be left behind
A moth of peace, and he go to the war,

The rites, for which I love him, are bereft me:
And I a heavy interim fhall fupport,

By his dear abfence. Let me go with him.

Oth. Your voices, Lords; 'befeech you, let her will

Have a free way. I therefore beg it not, (17)

To

To please the palate of my appetite;
Nor to apply with heat, the young affects,
In my distinct and proper fatisfaction;
But to be free and bounteous to her mind.

And heav'n defend your good fouls, that you think,
I will your
ferious and great business fcant,
For fhe is with me. No, when light-wing'd toys
Of feather'd Cupid foil with wanton dulness
My fpeculative and offic'd inftruments,

That my difports corrupt and taint
my bufinefs;
Let housewives make a skillet of my helm,
And all indign and base adverfities
Make head against my estimation.

In my defunct and proper fatisfaction;

But to be free and bounteous to her mind.] As this has been all along hitherto printed and stop'd, it seems to me a period of as ftubborn nonfenfe, as the editors have obtruded upon poor Shakespeare throughout his whole works. What a prepofterous creature is this Othello made, to fall in love with, and marry, a fine young lady, when appetite and beat, and proper satisfaction are dead and defunct in him! (for, defunct fignifies nothing elfe, that I know of, either primitively or metaphorically:) but if we may take Othello's own word in the affair, when he speaks for himself, he was not reduc❜d to this fatal unperforming state.

or, for I am declin'd,

Into the vale of years; yet that's not much.

Again, why should our Poet fay, (for so he says, as the paffage has been pointed) that the young affect heat? Youth, certainly, bas it, and has no occafion or pretence of affecting it, whatever fuperannuated lovers may have. And, again, after defunct, would he add fo abfurd a collateral epithet as proper? But, I think, I may venture to affirm, that affects was not defign'd here as a verb; and that defunct was not defign'd here at all. I have, by a flight change, rescued the Poet's text from abfurdity; and this I take to be the tenour of what he would fay; "I do not beg her company with me, "merely to please myself; nor to indulge the heat and affects (i. e. "affections) of a new married man, in my own diftinct and pro66 per fatisfaction; but to comply with her in her requeft, and defire, "of accompanying me. Affects, for affections, our Author in feveral other paffages ufes.

For ev'ry man with his affects is born.
As 'twere to banish their affects with him.
Th' affects of forrow for his valiant fons.
&c. &c.

M 6

Love's Labour Loft.

Richard II.

Titus Andronicus.

Duke