He is a good one, and his worthiness Does challenge much refpect.-Come, Defdemona, [Exeunt OTHELLO, DESDE MONA, and Attendants. Iago. Do thou meet me prefently at the harbour. Come hither. If thou be'ft valiant, as (they say) base men, being in love, have then a nobility in their natures more than is native to them*,-lift me. The lieutenant to-night watches on the court of guard 7:-First, I muft tell thee this-Defdemona is directly in love with him. Rod. With him! why, tis not poffible. Iago. Lay thy finger-thus, and let thy foul be inftructed. Mark me with what violence the first loved the Moor, but for bragging, and telling her fantaftical lies: And will the love him ftill for prating? let not thy difcreet heart think it. Her eye must be fed; and what delight shall she have to look on the devil? When the blood is made dull with the act of sport, there should be, -again to inflame it, and to give fatiety a fresh appetite,-loveliness in favour; fympathy in years, manners and beauties; all which the Moor is defective in: Now, for want of these required conveniences, her delicate tenderness will find itself abused, begin to heave the gorge, difrelish and abhor the Moor; very nature will inftruct her in it, and compel her to fome fecond choice. Now, fir, this granted, (as it is a most pregnant and unforced pofition,) who stands fo eminently in the captain, where there is a captain; and in chief, where there is none. The pilot is employed only in navigating the ship into or out of port. MALONE. bafe men, being in love, bave then a nobility in their natures-] So, in Hamlet: "Nature is fine in love." MALONE. 7the court of guard :] i. e. the place where the guard mufters. So, in The Family of Love, 1608: "Thus have I pafs'd the round and court of guard." Again, in the Beggar's Bush, by Beaumont and Fletcher: "Vifit your courts of guard, view your munition." STEEV. Lay thy finger-tbus,—] On thy mouth, to stop it while thou art liftening to a wiler man. JOHNSON. 9 And will she love him still for prating ?] The folio reads-To love him fill for prating! STEEVENS. again to inflame it,] Thus the quarto, 1622. The folio reads game. STEEVENS. the the degree of this fortune, as Caffio does? a knave very voluble; no farther confcionable, than in putting on the mere form of civil and humane feeming, for the better compaffing of his falt and moft hidden loofe affection? why, none; why, none: A flippery and fubtle knave; a finder out of occafions; that has an eye can ftamp and counterfeit advantages, though true advantage never prefent itself: A devilish knave! befides, the knave is handsome, young; and hath all thofe requifites in him, that folly and green minds 3 look after: A peftilent complete knave; and the woman hath found him already. Rod. I cannot believe that in her; fhe is full of most blefs'd condition *. Iago. Blefs'd fig's end! the wine fhe drinks is made of grapes: if the had been blefs'd, the would never have loved the Moor: Blefs'd pudding! Didit thou not see her paddle with the palm of his hand? didft not mark that ? Rad. Yes, that I did; but that was but courtesy. Iago. Lechery, by this hand; an index, and obfcure prologue to the hiftory of luft and foul thoughts. They met fo near with their lips, that their breaths embraced together. Villanous thoughts, Roderigo! when thefe mutualities fo marshal the way, hard at hand comes the matter and main exercife, the incorporate conclufion: Pish!-But fir, be you ruled by me: I have brought you from Venice. Watch you to-night; for the command, I'll lay't upon you: Caffio knows you not ;-I'll not be far from you: Do you find fome occafion to anger Caffio, either by fpeaking too loud, or tainting his difcipline; or from what other courfe 7 you please, which the time fhall more favourably minifter. 6 2- and humane feeming,] Thus the folio. The quarto, 1622, reads and band-feeming. MALONE. 3 · green minds—] Minds unripe, minds not fully formed. JOHNS. 4 - condition.] Qualities, difpofition of mind. JOHNSON. See Vol. V. p. 600, n. 1. MALONE. 5- an index and obfcure prologue, &c.] That indexes were formerly prefixed to books, appears from a pailage in Troilus and Creffida. See p. 334, n.4, of this volume, and Vol. VIII. p. 180, n. 6. ΜΑΣΟΝΕ. tainting-] Throwing a flur upon his difcipline. JoHNSON. 6 7 other courle-] The first quarto reads, cause. STEVENS. Rod. Rod. Well. Iago. Sir, he is rafh, and very fudden in choler; and, haply, with his truncheon may ftrike at you: Provoke him, that he may: for, even out of that, will I caufe thefe of Cyprus to mutiny; whofe qualification fhall come into no true tafte again, but by the difplanting of Caffio. So fhall you have a fhorter journey to your defires, by the means I fhall then have to prefer them *; and the impediment most profitably removed, without the which there were no expectation of our profperity. Rod. I will do this, if I can bring it to any opportunity. Iago. I warrant thee. Meet me by and by at the citadel: 1 muft fetch his neceffaries afhore. Farewel. Rod. Adieu. [Exit. Iago. That Caffio loves her, I do well believe it, And, I dare think, he'll prove to Desdemona For that I do fufpe& the luftful Moor Hath leap'd into my feat: the thought whereof 9 8 - sudden in choler ;—] Sudden, is precipitately violent. JOHNSON. whofe qualification fball come, &c.] Whofe reientment shall not be fo qualified or tempered, as to be well tafted, as not to retain fome bitterness. The phrate is harsh, at least to our ears. JOHNSON. Perhaps qualification means fitness to preferve good order, or the regu larity of military difcipline. STEEVENS. no true tafte] So the folio. The quarto, 1622, reads-no true truft. MALONE. - to prefer them ;] i. e. to advance them. So, in A MidfummerNight's Dream: "The short and the long is, our play is preferr'd." 2 MALONE. if I can bring it to any opportunity.] Thus the quarto, 1622. The folio reads-if you can bring it, &c. MALONE. 3-like a poisonous mineral,] This is philofophical. Mineral poifons kill by corrofion. JOHNSON. Till I am even with him, wife for wife; That judgment cannot cure. Which thing to do,- For his quick hunting, ftand the putting on 5, I'll Till I am even with bim,] Thus the quarto, 1622; the first folis reads: Till I am even'd with him i. e. Till I am on a level with him by retaliation. So, in Tancred and Gifmund, 1592: "For now the walls are even'd with the plain." STEEVENS. 5 If this poor trash of Venice, whom I crush For bis quick bunting, fand the putting on,-] Thus the quarto, 1622. The folio reads-whom I trace. To crush is again uled in Troilus and Creffida, where it fignifies, to diminijh, or abafe: "Why then we did our main opinion crush, "In taint of our beft man." Again, in one of Shakspeare's Sonnets: "Bated and crush'd with tann'd antiquity." Here therefore it may certainly mean to keep down and reftrain. Mr. Mafon is of opinion, that there is no proof that Roderigo was fo eager in the chafe, that Iago had occafion to correct and restrain him, and therefore thinks the reading of the folio right; and that the meaning is, "If this poor trash of Venice, whom I fellow folely in order to quicken bim in bis hunting, does but purfue the trail on which have put him, I fhall have our Michael Caffio on the hip." But the doubt which lago expreffès concerning Roderigo's fianding the putting en, proves, in my apprehenfion, that he did think him too impetuous in the chafe.-Iago, I think, fears that Roderigo's impatience will haften too fast to the conclufion he had in view, the poffeffion of Defdemona; and that by his impetuous folly their plan may be difcocovered before it is yet ripe for execution. Our poet in K. Henry V. has made that king fay, in his address to his foldiers before Harfleur: "I fee you stand like greybounds in the flips, "Straining upon the start.-The game's afoot." This, I think, was the particular fpecies of hound here in Shakspeare's thoughts. Iago finding Roderigo too eager after his game, "ftraining upon the start," feared he would not ftand the putting on. It has been fuggefted by Mr. Pegge, that to trace fignifies to put a trace or pair of couples on a dog; and that therefore whom I trace, &c. may mean here, whom I lead in my band on account of his too great eagerness in the purfuit." MALONE. I'll have our Michael Caffio on the hip; If this poor trash of Venice, whom I trace, For bis quick bunting, ftand the putting on,] Dr. Warburton, with his ufual happy fagacity, turned the old reading trap into brach. But it feems to me, that trafb belongs to another part of the line, and that we should read trash for trace. The old quartos (in the fame part of the line) read crub, fignifying indeed the fame as trash, but plainly corrupted from it. To trap a bound is a term of hunting ftill used in the north, and perhaps not uncommon in other parts of England. It is, to corred, to rate. Crush was never the technical expreffion on this occafion; and only found a place here as a more familiar word with the printers. The fenfe is, "If this hound Roderigo, whom I rate for quick hunting, for over-running the fcent, will but fland the putting on, will but have patience to be fairly and properly put upon the fcent," &c. This very hunting-term, to trafb, is metaphorically applied by our author in the Tempeft, Act I. fc. ii. Profp. Being once perfected how to grant fuits, "How to deny them, whom to advance, and whom "To trash for overtopping,-" To trap for overtoppings; i. e. "what fuitors to check for their too great forwardness." Here another phrase of the field is joined with ro trafb. To overtop, is when a hound gives his tongue above the reft, too loudly or too readily: for which he ought to be trash'd or rated. Topper, in the good fenfe of the word, is a common name for a hound. Shakspeare is fond of allufions to hunting, and appears to be well acquainted with its language. WARTON. To tra likewife fignifies to follow. So, in The Puritan, 1007: "A guarded lackey to run before it, and py'd liveries to come trashing after it." The repetition of the word trash is much in Shakfpeare's manner, though in his worst. In a fubfequent fcene, lago calls Bianca-trash. STEEVENS. To trash is ufed in the inftance quoted from the Puritan, to exprefs. the aukward gait of the lackeys. and ought, I think, to be written tbreshing. When coupled with the word after, as it is there, it may fignify to follow; but to thrash, fimply by itself, I believe, never had that fignification. MALONE. I'll bave our Mirbael Caffio on the bip ;] A phrafe from the art of wrestling. JOHNSON. 7-in the rank garb,] The quarto reads in the rank garb, which I think is right, Rank garb, I believe, means, grofsly, i. e. without mincing the matter. So, in Marston's Dutch Courtezan, 1605: "Whither, in the rank name of madnefs, whither?" STEEV. The folio reads-in the right garb. Rank perhaps means not only grofs, but lascivious. So, in The Merchant of Venice : the ewes, being rank, "In end of autumn," &c. MALONE. For |