Imatges de pàgina
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Oth. What doft thou fay, Iago?

Iago. Did Michael Caffio, when you woo'd my lady, Know of your love?

Oth. He did, from first to laft: Why doft thou ask? Jagd. But for a fatisfaction of my thought; No further harm.

Oth. Why of thy thought, Iago?

Iago. I did not think, he had been acquainted with her.
Oth. O, yes; and went between us very oft.
Iago. Indeed?

Oib.Indeed! ay,indeed;-Difcern'ft thou aught in that? Is he not honeft?

Iago. Honeft, my lord?

Orb. Honeft! ay, honest.

Iago. My lord, for aught I know.

Oth. What doft thou think?

lago. Think, my lord?

Oth. Think, my lord!-By heaven, he echoes me, As if there were fome monster in his thought,

means, I think, to fay, and ere I ceafe to love thee, the world itself fhall be reduced to its primitive chaos. Shakspeare probably preferredchaos is come again,", to "chaos fhall come again," as more bold and expreffive. Muretus, a poet of the 16th century, has exactly the fame thought:

"Tune meo elabi poffis de pectore, Lacci,

"Aut ego, dum vivam, non meminifle tui?

"Ante, vel iftius mundi compage foluta,

"Tetras in antiquum fit reditura Chaos."

The meaning of Shakspeare appears very clearly from the following paffage in The Winter's Tale, where the fame thought is more fully expreffed:

8

"It cannot fail, but by

"The violation of my faith,-and then

"Let nature crufh the fides o' the earth together,

"And mar the feeds within !"

By heaven, be echoes me,

MALONE.

As if there were fome monfter in bis thought, &c.] Thus the eldest quarto. The fecond quarto reads:

-Why doft thou echo me,

As if there were fome monster in thy thought, &c.

The folio reads:

Alas, thou echo'ft me. STEEVENS.

This is one of the numerous alterations made in the folio copy by the Licenfer. MALONE,

M m 4

Too

Too hideous to be fhewn.-Thou doft mean fomething:
I heard thee lay but now,-Thou lik'dft not that,
When Caffio left my wite; What did'ft not like ?
And, when I told thee-he was of my counfel

In my whole courfe of wooing, thou cry'dft, Indeed ?
And did't contract and purfe thy brow together,
As if thou then had'ft fhut up in thy brain
Some horrible conceit: If thou doft love me,
Shew me thy thought.

Iago. My lord, you know I love you.

Oth. I think, thou doft;

And, for I know thou art full of love and honefty,
And weigh'ft thy words before thou giv'ft them breath,-
Therefore thefe ftops of thine fright me the more:
For fuch things in a falfe difloyal knave

Are tricks of custom; but, in a man that's juft,
They are clofe denotements, working from the heart,
That paffion cannot rule.

• They are close denotements, &c.] i. e. indications, or discoveries, not openly revealed, but involuntarily working from the heart, which cannot rule and fupprefs its feelings.

Thus the original copy, 1622. The folio reads-They are clofe dilations; but nothing is got by the change, for dilations was undoubtedly used in the fenfe of dilatements, or large and full expofitions. See Minfheu's Dict. 1617: " To dilate or make large."

Dilatement is used in the fenfe of dilation by Lodge, our poet's contemporary" After all this foul weather follows a calm dilatement of others too forward harmfulness" Rofalynde, or Eupbues Golden Legacie, 4to. 1592.

Dr. Johnfon very elegantly reads -They are clofe delations; "i. e. occult and fecret accufations, working involuntarily from the heart, which, though refolved to conceal the fault, cannot rule its paffion of refentment."

But the objection to this conjectural reading is, that there is strong ground for believing that the word was not used in Shakspeare's age. It is not found in any dictionary of the time, that I have feen, nor has any paflage been quoted in fupport of it. On the contrary, we find in Mintheu the verb, " To delate," not fignifying, to accufe, but thus interpreted: "to speak at large of any thing. vid. to dilate :" fo that if even delations were the word of the old copy, it would mean no more than dilations. To the reading of the quarto no reasonable objection can be made. MALONE.

lage.

Iago. For Michael Caffio,

I dare be fworn, I think that he is honest.

Oth. I think fo too.

Iago. Men fhould be what they feem;

Or, thofe that be not, 'would they might feem none !
Oth. Certain, men fhould be what they feem.

Iago. Why then, I think Caffio's an honest man.
Oth. Nay, yet there's more in this:

I pray thee, fpeak to me as to thy thinkings,
As thou doft ruminate; and give thy worst of thoughts
The worft of words.

Iago. Good my lord, pardon me;
Though I am bound to every act of duty,

I am not bound to that all flaves are free to 2.

Utter my thoughts? Why, fay, they are vile and falfe,-
As where's that palace, whereinto foul things.
Sometimes intrude not 3? who has a breast so pure,
But fome uncleanly apprehenfions

Keep leets, and law-days, and in feffion fit
With meditations lawful?

Oth.

1 Or, thofe that be not, 'would they might feem none !] I believe the meaning is, would they might no longer feem, or bear the fhape of men.

JOHNSON.

May not the meaning be, 'Would they might not seem boneft!

MALONE.

am not bound to do that, which

2- to that all flaves are free to.] even flaves are not bound to do. MALONE.

3

where's that palace, whereinto foul things
Sometimes intrude mot ?] So, in The Rape of Lucrece :
-no perfection is fo abfolute,

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"That fome impurity doth not pollute."

who has a breaft so pure,

But fome uncleanly apprehenfions

Keep leets, and law days, and in feffion fit

MALONE.

With meditations lawful?] Who has fo virtuous a breaft, that fome uncharitable furmizes and impure conceptions will not fometimes enter into it; hold a feffion there as in a regular court, and "bench by the fide" of authorifed and lawful thoughts?-In our poet's 30th Sonnet we find the fame imagery:

"When to the feffions of fweet filent thought
"I fummon up remembrance of things paft."

A leet and law-day were fynonymous terms. "A leet," fays Bullokar,

Oth. Thou doft confpire against thy friend, Iago, If thou but think' him wrong'd, and mak'ft his ear A ftranger to thy thoughts.

Iago I do befeech you,-.

Though 1, perchance, am vicious in my guefs,
As, I confefs, it is my nature's plague

in his English Expofitor, 1616, "is a court or law-day, holden commonly every half year." To keep a leet was the verbum juris ; the title of one of the chapters in Kitchin's book on Courts, being, "The manner of keeping a court-lcet." The leet, according to Lambard, was a court or jurifdiction above the wapentake or hundred, comprehending three or four hundreds. The jurifdiction of this court is now in most places merged in that of the County Court. MALONE.

5 Though I, perchance, am vicious in my guess,] That abruptness in the fpeech which Dr. Warburton complains of, and would alter, may be easily accounted for. Iago feems defirous, by his ambiguous hint, Though I-to inflame the jealoufy of Othello, which he knew would be more effectually done in this manner, than by any expression that bore a determinate meaning. The jealous Othello would fill up the paufe in the fpeech, which lago turns off at last to another purpose, and find a more certain caufe of difcontent, and a greater degree of torture arifing from the doubtful confideration how it might have concluded, than he could have experienced, had the whole of what he enquired after been reported to him with every circumftance of aggravation.

We may fuppofe him imagining to himself, that lago mentally continued the thought thus, Though I know more than I choose too Speak of.

Vicious in my guess does not mean that he is an ill gueffer, but that he is apt to put the woft conftruction on every thing he attempts to account for. STEEVENS.

The reader fhould be informed, that the mark of abruption which I have placed after the word you, was placed by Mr. Steevens after the word perchance: and his note, to which I do not fubfcribe,is founded on that regulation. I think the poet intended that Iago fhould break off at the end of the first hemiftich, as well as in the middle of the fifth line. What he would have added, it is not neceflary very nicely to examine. The adverfative particle, though, in the fecond line, does not indeed appear very proper; but in an abrupt and ftudiously clouded fentence like the prefent, where more is meant to be conveyed than meets the ear, ftrict propriety may well be difpenfed with. The word perchance, if strongly marked in fpeaking, would fufficiently fhew that the fpeaker did not fuppofe himself vicious in his guess.

By the latter words, Iago, I apprehend, means only, "though I perhaps am mistaken, led into an errour by my natural disposition, which is apt to fhape faults that have no existence." MALONE.

Το

To fpy into abufes; and, oft, my jealousy
Shapes faults that are not,-I entreat you then 6,
From one that fo imperfectly conjects,

You'd take no notice; nor build yourfelf a trouble
Out of his scattering and unfure obfervance :-
It were not for your quiet, nor your good,
Nor for my manhood, honefty, or wildom,
To let you know my thoughts.

Oth. What doft thou mean?

lago. Good name, in man, and woman, dear my lord, Is the immediate jewel of their fouls:

Who steals my purse, fteals trafh7; 'tis fomething, no

thing;

'Twas mine, 'tis his, and has been flave to thousands ; But he, that filches from me my good name,

Robs me of that, which not enriches him,

And makes me poor indeed.

Oth. By heaven, I'll know thy thought.

Iago. You cannot, if my heart were in your hand 1; Nor thall not, whilft 'tis in my cuftody.

Oth. Ha!

Iago. O, beware, my lord, of jealoufy;

6-I entreal you then, &c.] Thus the quarto, 1622. The folia

reads :

and of, my jealousy

Shapes faults that are not that your wildom

From one that fo imperfectly conceits,

Would take no notice. MALONE.

To conjec, i. e. to conjecture, is a verb ufed by other writers. So, in Acolaftus, a comedy, 1540:

Again :

Now reafon I, or conject with myself."

"I cannot forget thy faying, or thy conjecting words."

7 Good name, in man, and woman, dear my lord, Is the immediate jewel of their fouls:

STEEVENS.

Who fleals my purse, fleals trash; &c.] The facred writings were here perhaps in our poet's thoughts: "A good name is rather to be chofen than great riches, and loving favour than filver and gold." PROVERBS, chap. xxii, verfe 1. MALUNE.

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