It is the green-ey'd monfter, which doth make Who, 8 It is the green-ey'd monfter, which dath make The meat it feeds on:] The old copies have mock. The correction was made by Sir Thomas Hanmer. MALONE. -which dotb mock The meat it feeds on :] i. e. loaths that which nourishes and fuftains it. This being a miferable state, Iago bids him beware of it. The Oxford editor reads: The meat it feeds on. Implying that its fufpicions are unreal and groundless, which is the very contrary to what he would here make his General think, as appears from what follows: That cuckold lives in blifs, &c. In a word, the villain is for fixing him jealous: and therefore bids him beware of jealoufy, not that it was an unreasonable, but a miserable ftate; and this plunges him into it, as we fee by his reply, which is only, O mifery! WARBURTON. I have received Hanmer's emendation; because to mock does not fignify to leath; and becaufe, when Iago bids Othello beware of jealousy, the green-ey'd monfter, it is natural to tell why he should beware; and for caution he gives him two reafons, that jealousy often creates its own caufe, and that, when the caufes are real, jealousy is milery. JOHNSON. In this place and fome others, to mock feems the fame with to mammock. FARMER. If Shakspeare had written a green-ey'd monster, we might have supposed him to refer to fome creature exifting only in his particular imagination; but the green-ey'd monfter feems to have reference to an object as familiar to his readers as to himself. It is known that the tyger kind have green eyes, and always play with the victim to their hunger, before they devour it. So, in our author's Tarquin and Lucrece: "Like foul night-waking cat, he doth but dally, "While in his hold-faft foot the weak moufe panteth;-." Thus, a jealous husband, who discovers no certain cause why he may be divorced, continues to fport with the woman whom he sufpects, and, on more certain evidence, determines to punish. There is no beast that can be literally faid to make its own food, and therefore I am unwilling to receive the emendation of Hanmer, efpecially as I Batter myfelf that a glimpse of meaning may be produced from the ancient reading. In Antony and Cleopatra the contefted word occurs again : tell him "He mocks the paufes that he makes." Who, certain of his fate, loves not his wronger; Who i. e. he plays wantonly with thofe intervals of time which he should improve to his own prefervation. Should fuch an explanation be admiffible, the advice given by Iago will amount to this:-Beware, my lord, of yielding to a poffion which as yet bas no proofs to justify its excefs. Think bow the interval between fufpicion and certainty must be filled. Though you doubt ber fidelity, you cannot yet refufe ber your bed, or drive ber from your beart; but like the capricious favage, must continue to sport with one whom you wait for an opportunity to deftroy. A fimilar idea occurs in Ail's well that ends well: 66 fo luft doth play "With what it loaths." Such is the only fenfe that I am able to draw from the original text. What I have faid, may be liable to fome objections, but I have nothing better to propofe. That jealoufy is a monfter which often creates the fufpicions on which it feeds, may be well admitted according to Hanmer's propofition; but is it the monster? (i. e. a well known and confpicuous animal) or whence has it green eyes? Yellow is the colour which Shakspeare appropriates to jealoufy. It must be acknowledged that he afterwards characterizes it as "Begot upon itfelf, born on itfelf." but yet "What damned minutes counts he o'er, &c." is the beft illuftration of my attempt to explain the paffage. To produce Hanmer's meaning, a change in the text is neceffary. I am counsel for the old reading. STEEVENS. I have not the fmallest doubt that Shakspeare wrote make, and have therefore inserted it in the text. The words make and mocke (for fuch was the old spelling) are often confounded in these plays, and I have affigned the reafon in a note on Measure for Measure, Vol. II. p. 21, n. 5. Mr. Steevens in his paraphrafe on this paffage interprets the word mock by Sport; but in what poet or profe-writer, from Chaucer and Mandeville to this day, does the verb to mock fignify to sport with? In the paffage from Anthony and Cleopatra, I have proved, I think inconteftably, from the metre, and from our poet's ufage of this verb in other places, (in which it is followed by a perfonal pronoun,) that Shakfpeare must have written "Being fo fruftrate, tell him, he mocks us by "The paufes that he makes." [See Vol. VII. p. 575, n. 8.] Befides; is it true as a general pofition, that jealousy (as jealouly) Sports or plays with the object of love (allowing this not very delicate interpretation of the words, the meat it feeds on, to be the true one)? The pofition certainly is not true. It is Love, not Jealoufy, that sports Who dotes, yet doubts; fufpects, yet ftrongly loves! Oth. O mifery! lago. with the object of its paflion; nor can thofe circumftances which create suspicion, and which are the meat it feeds on, with any propriety be called the food of LOVE, when the poet has clearly pointed them out as the food or caufe of JEALOUSY; giving it not only being, but nutriment. "There is no beaft," it is urged, "that can literally be faid to make its own food." It is indeed acknowledged, that jealousy is a monster which often creates the fufpicions on which it feeds, but is it, we are asked, "the monster? (i. e, a well known and confpicuous ani mal;) and whence has it green-eyes? Yellow is the colour which Shakfpeare appropriates to jealoufy." To this I aniwer, that yellow is not the only colour which Shak Speare appropriates to jealouly, for we have in The Merchant of Venice, -fhuddering fear, and green-ey'd jealousy." and I fuppofe, it will not be contended that he was there thinking of any of the tyger kind. if our poet had written only-"It is the green-ey'd monster; beware of it;" the other objection would hold good, and fome particular moniter, xar' ox, must have been meant; but the words, "It is the green-ey'd monster, which doth, &c. in my apprehenfion have precifely the fame meaning, as if the poet had written, it is that green-ey'd monster, which, &c." or, " it is a green-ey'd monster." He is the man in the world whom I would leaft with to meet,-is the common phrafcology of the prefent day. When Othello fays to lago in a former paffage, "By heaven, he echoes me, as if there were fome monster in his thought," does any one imagine that any animal whatever was meant ? The paffage in a fubfequent fcene, to which Mr. Steevens has alluded, strongly fupports the emendation which has been made: jealoufy will not be anfwer'd fo; 66 They are not ever jealous for the caufe, "But jealous, for they are jealous; 'tis a monfrer, It is, firially fpeaking, as falfe that any monster can be begot, or bora, on itself, as it is, that any monter (whatever may be the colour of its eyes, whether green or yellow) can make its own food; but, poetically, both are equally true of that monster, JEALOUSY. Mr. Steevens feems to have been aware of this, and therefore has added the word literally: "No monfter can be literally faid to make its own food." It should always be remembered, that Shakspeare's allufions fcarcely ever answer precifely on both fides; nor had he any care upon this fubject. Though he has introduced the word monfter,-when he talk'd of its making its own food, and being begot by itself, he was ftill thinking Jago. Poor, and content, is rich, and rich enough; To him that ever fears he thall be poor :- Oth. Why? why is this? thinking of jealoufy only, carelefs whether there was any animal in the world that would correlpond with his defcription. That by the words, the meat it feeds on, is meant, not Desdemona herfelf, as has been maintained, but pabulum zelotypie, may be likewife inferred from a preceding paffage in which a kindred imagery is found: "That policy may either laft fo long, "Or feed upon fuch nice and waterish diet," &c. And this obvious interpretation is ftill more strongly confirmed by Daniel's Rofamond, 1592, a poem which Shakspeare had diligently read, and has more than once imitated in Romeo and Juliet: "O Jealousy, "Feeding upon fufped that doth renew thee, "Happy were lovers, if they never knew thee." In this and the few other places in which I have ventured to depart from the ancient copies, I have thought it my duty to ftate in the fulleft and cleareft manner the grounds on which the emendation stands: which in fome cafes I have found not eafily accomplished, without running into greater prolixity than would otherwise be justifiable. MALONE. The fame idea occurs in Maflinger's Picture, where Mathias, speaking of the groundless jealoufy which he entertained of Sophia's poffible inconftancy, fays, "I am strangely troubled; yet why should I nourish "A building of fufpicion fhe was ever Imagin'd food is food created by imagination, the food that jealoufy 9 MASON. ftrongly loves!] Thus the quarto; the folio,-foundly loves. STEEVENS 'Poor, and content, is rich, and rich enough;] So in Doraftus and Fawnia, (the novel on which The Winter's Tale is formed,) 1592a "We are rich, in that we are poor with content." MALONE. 2 But riches, fineless,] Unbounded, endless, unnumbered treasures. JOHNSON. 3 as poor as winter,] Finely expreffed: winter producing no fruits. WARBURTON. Think't Think'ft thou, I'd make a life of jealousy, To follow ftill the changes of the moon To fuch exfufficate and blown furmifes 4. 4 To such exfufficate and blown furmifes,] Whether our poet had any authority for the word exfufficate, which I think is ufed in the fenfe of fwollen, and appears to have been formed from fufflatus, I am unable to ascertain: but I have not thought it fafe to fubititute for it another word equally unauthorised. Suffolare in Italian fignifies to while. How then can Dr. Johnfon's interpretation of exfuffolate be supported? The introducer of this word explains it, by “whispered, buzz'd in the ears." MALONE. To fuch exfuffolate and blown furmifes.] This old and far-fetched word was made yet more uncouth in all the editions before Hanmer's by being printed, exfuflicate. The allufion is to a bubble. Do not think, fays the Moor, that I fhall change the noble defigns that now employ my thoughts, to fufpicions which, like bubbles blewn into a wide extent, have only an empty fhew without folidity; or that, in confequence of fuch empty fears, I will close with thy inference againft the virtue of my wife. JOHNSON. 5 Where virtue is, these are more virtuous :] An action in itself indifferent, grows virtuous by its end and application. JOHNSON. I know not why the modern editors, in oppofition to the first quarto and folio, read most inftead of more. A paffage in All's well that ends well, is perhaps the best comment on the fentiment of Othello: "I have thofe good hopes of her, education promites: his difpofition the inherits; which makes fait gifts fairer." Gratior e pulchro veniens et corpore virtus. STEEVENS. Moft was arbitrarily introduced by the ignorant editor of the fecond folio. MALONE. |