1. Sen. This cannot be, By no affay of reafon; 'tis a pageant, That, as it more concerns the Turk than Rhodes, But altogether lacks the abilities That Rhodes is drefs'd in :-if we make thought of this, To leave that lateft, which concerns him firft; Duke. Nay, in all confidence, he's not for Rhodes. Enter a Meffenger. Mef. The Ottomites, reverend and gracious, Steering with due course toward the isle of Rhodes, Have there injointed them with an after fleet. 8 1. Sen. Ay, fo I thought? :-How many, as you guess? Mef. Of thirty fail: and now do they re-stem Their backward course, bearing with frank appearance Their purposes toward Cyprus.-Signior Montano, 2 By no affay of reafon ;-] Bring it to the teft, examine it by reafon as we examine metals by the affay, it will be found counterfeit by all trials. JOHNSON, 3- - with more facile queftion-] With lefs difpute; with lefs oppofition. MASON. 4 For that it ftands not, &c.] The seven following lines are added fince the first edition. PoPE. 5- warlike brace,] State of defence. To arm was called to brace on the armour. JOHNSON. 6 To wake, and wage, a danger profitles.] To wage here, as in many other places in Shakspeare, fignifies to fight, to combat. Thus, in King Lear: "To wage against the enmity of the air." It took its rife from the more common expreflion, to wage war. STEEVENS. 7 Ay, fo, &c.-] This line is not in the first quarto. STEEVENS. 8 they do re-fem-] The quartos mean to read re-flerne, though in the first of them the word is mifpelt. STEEVENS. VOL. IX. Hh Your Your trusty and moft valiant fervitor, With his free duty, recommends you thus, Duke. 'Tis certain then for Cyprus.- Duke. Write from us; wish him, poft, poft-hafte difpatch 2. 1. Sen. Here comes Brabantio, and the valiant Moor, Enter BRABANTIO, OTHELLO, IAGO, RODERIGO, and Officers. Duke. Valiant Othello, we muft ftraight employ you Against the general enemy Ottoman 3. I did not fee you; welcome, gentle fignior; We lack'd your counfel and your help to-night. [to Bra. Bra. So did I yours: Good your grace, pardon me; Neither my place, nor aught I heard of bufinefs, Hath rais'd me from my bed; nor doth the general care Take hold on me; for my particular grief Is of fo flood-gate and o'er-bearing nature, 9 And prays you to believe bim.] He intreats you not to doubt the truth of this intelligence. JOHNSON. Marcus Lucchefe,] The old copies have Luccicos. Mr. Steevens made the correction. MALONE. 2 • wish him, poft, poft-hafte difpatch.] i. e. tell him we wish him to make all poffible bafte. Poft-bafte is before in this play used adjectively: "And he requires your hafte, peft-hafte appearance." All meffengers in the time of Shakipeare were enjoined, "Hafte hafte; for thy life, poft bafte." The reading of the text is that of the quarto, 1622, The folio reads: "Write from us to him, poft, poft-hafte difpatch." MALONE. 3 Valiant Othello, we muft ftraight employ you Against the general enemy Ottoman.] It is part of the policy of the Venetian tate never to entrust the command of an army to a native. "To exclude, therefore," (fays Contareno, as tranflated by Lewkenor, 4to, 1599,) "out of our eftate the danger or occafion of any fuch ambitious enterprises, our ancestors held it a better course to defend the dominions on the continent with foreign mercenary foldiers, than with their homebred citizens." Again: "Their charges and yearly occafions of difbursement are likewife very great; for alwaies they do entertain in honourable fort with great provifion a captaine generall, who alwaies is a firanger borne." MALONE. 4 Take bold ➡[ The first quarto reads, Take any hold. STEEVENS. That That it engluts and fwallows other forrows, And it is fill itself. Duke. Why, what's the matter? Bra. My daughter! O, my daughter! Bra. Ay, to me; She is abus'd, ftol'n from me, and corrupted Being not deficient , blind, or lame of sense, s By fpells and medicines bought of mountebanks:] Rymer has ridiculed this circumftance as unbecoming (both for its weakness and superftition) the gravity of the accufer, and the dignity of the tribunal; but his criticism only expofes his own ignorance. The circumstance was not only exactly in character, but urged with the greatest addrefs, as the thing chiefly to be infifted on. For, by the Venetian law, the giving love-potions was very criminal, as Shakspeare without question well understood. Thus the law, De i maleficii et berbarie, cap. 17. of the Code, intitled, Della promiffion del maleficio. "Statuimo etiamdio, che fe alcun homo, o femina, harra fatto "maleficii, iquali fe dimandano vulgarmente amatorie, o veramente "alcuni altri maleficii, che alcun homo o femina fe haveffon in odio, "fia frufta et bollado, et che hara confegliado patisca fimile pena." And therefore in the preceding fcene Brabantio calls them, arts inhibited, and out of warrant. WARBURTON. Though I believe Shakspeare knew no more of this Venetian law than I do, yet he was well acquainted with the edicts of that fapient prince king James the first, against practifers Of arts inhibited and out of warrant. STEEVENS. See p. 462, n. 4. MALONE. 6 Being not, &c.] This line is wanting in the first quarto. 7 For nature fo prepofterously to err STEEVENS. Sans witchcraft could not.] Omit to, fays Mr, Mason," and then the fentence will be complete.' Omiffion is at all times the most dangerous mode of emendation, and here affuredly is unneceffary. We have again and again had occafion to obferve, that Shakspeare frequently begins to conftruct a fentence in one mode, and ends it in another. See p. 239, n.6. Here he ufes could not, as if he had written, bas not the power or capacity to, &c. It is not in nature fo to err; fhe knows not how to do it. MALONE. Duke Hh2 Duke. Whoe'er he be, that, in this foul proceeding, Hath thus beguil'd your daughter of herself, And you of her, the bloody book of law Bra. Humbly I thank your grace. Here is the man, this Moor; whom now, it seems, Hath hither brought. Duke, and Sen. We are very sorry for it. Duke. What, in your own part, can you fay to this? Bra. Nothing, but this is fo. [to Othello. Oth. Most potent, grave, and reverend figniors, Hath this extent, no more. Rude am I in my speech, 8 Stood in your action.] Were the man exposed to your charge or accufation. JoHNSON. The very bead and front of my offending-] The main, the whole, unextenuated. JOHNSON. A fimilar expreffion is found in Marlowe's Tamburlaine, 1590: "The man that in the forebead of his fortunes, "Beares figures of renowne and miracle." Again, in Troilus and Creffida: "So rich advantage of a promis'd glory, "As fmiles upon the forebead of this action." MALONE. And little blefs'd with the fet pbrafe of peace;] Thus the quarto, 1622. The folio reads-with the foft phrafe of peace. Soft may have been used for fill and calm, as opposed to the clamours of war. So, in Coriolanus: "Thou art their foldier, and, being bred in broils, "Haft not the foft way, which thou doft confefs "Were fit for thee to ufe." Again, in Antony and Cleopatra: 66 'Tis a worthy deed, "And fhall become you well, to entreat your captain For For fince these arms of mine had feven years' pith, More than pertains to feats of broil and battle; In fpeaking for myfelf: Yet, by your gracious patience, I will a round unvarnish'd tale deliver Of my whole courfe of love; what drugs, what charms, What conjuration, and what mighty magick, (For fuch proceeding I am charg'd withal,) I won his daughter 3. Bra. A maiden never bold; Of spirit fo ftill and quiet, that her motion Why this fhould be. I therefore vouch again, 2 Their dearest a&ion —] i. e. their most important action. See VI. VIII. p. 130, n. 6. MALONE. I fhould give these words a more natural fignification, and fuppofe that they mean their favourite action, the action most dear to them. Othello fays afterwards: I do agnize "A natural and prompt alacrity "I find in hardnefs." MASON. 3 I won bis daughter.] i. c. I won his daughter with: and fo all the modern editors read, adopting an interpolation made by the editor of the fecond folio, who was wholly unacquainted with our poet's metre and phrafeology. In Timon of Athens we have the fame elliptical expreffion: "Who had the world as my confectionary, "The mouths, the tongues, the eyes, and hearts of men, See alfo Vol. VIII. p. 472, n. 3. where several other instances of a fimilar phrafeology are collected. MALONE. 4 Blush'd at herfelf;] Mr. Pope reads at itself, but without neceffity. Shakspeare, like other writers of his age, frequently ufes the perfonal, instead of the neutral pronoun. STEEVENS. Hh3 That |