lago. Go to; fay no more. Oth. How fhall I murder him, Iago? [Exit CASSIO. Iago. Did you perceive how he laugh'd at his vice? Oth. O, Iago! Iago. And did you fee the handkerchief? Oth. Was that mine? Iago. Yours, by this hand and to see how he prizes the foolith woman, your wife! fhe gave it him, and he hath given it his whore. Oth. I would have him nine years a killing:A fine woman! a fair woman! a fweet woman! lago. Nay, you must forget that. Oth. Ay, let her rot, and perifh, and be damn'd tonight; for the fhall not live: No, my heart is turn'd to ftone; I ftrike it, and it hurts my hand. O, the world hath not a fweeter creature: fhe might lie by an emperor's fide, and command him tasks. lago. Nay, that's not your way. Oth. Hang her! I do but fay what he is:- So deli cate with her needle !-An admirable mufician! O, the will fing the favagenefs out of a bear!-Of fo high and plenteous wit and invention! Iago. She's the worfe for all this. Oth. O, a thoufand, a thousand times-And then, of fo gentle a condition'! 5 Yours, by this band, &c.] This fpeech is not in the original quarto, 1622. 61 MALONE. No, my heart is turn'd to fione; I frike it, and it hurts my band] This thought, as often as it occurs to Shakspeare, is fure to be received, and as often counteracts his pathos. So, in Antony and Cleopatra, A& IV. sc. viii : throw my heart "Against the flint and hardness of my fault, "Which, being dried with grief, will break to powder, "And finish all foul thoughts." STEEVENS. O, he would fing the favagenefs out of a bear!] So, in Venus. and Adonis: when he hath fung, "The tyger would be tame." MALONE. 1 And then, of jo gentle a condition!] i. e. of fo fweet a difpofition. So, in King Henry V: "Our tongue is rough, coz, and my condition is not imooth." MALONE. lage. Lago. Ay, too gentle. Oth. Nay, that's certain: But yet the pity of it, Iago!-O, Iago, the pity of it, Iago! Iago. If you are fo fond over her iniquity, give her patent to offend; for, if it touch not you, it comes near nobody. Oth. I will chop her into meffes :-Cuckold me! Oth. With mine officer! Oth. Get me fome poifon, Iago; this night:-I'll not expoftulate with her, left her body and beauty unprovide my mind again :-this night, Íago. Iago. Do it not with poifon; ftrangle her in her bed, even the bed fhe hath contaminated. Oth. Good, good: the justice of it pleases; very good. lago. And, for Caffio,-let me be his undertaker: You shall hear more by midnight. [A trumpet within. Oth. Excellent good.-What trumpet is that fame ? Iago. Something from Venice, fure. 'Tis Lodovico, Come from the duke: and, fee, your wife is with him. Enter LODOVICO, DESDEMONA, and Attendants. Lod. God fave you, worthy general! Oth. With all my heart, fir 9. Lod. The duke and fenators of Venice greet you. [gives him a packet. Oth. I kifs the inftrument of their pleasures. [opens the packet, and reads. Def. And what's the news, good coufin Lodovico ? Iago. I am very glad to fee you, fignior; Welcome to Cyprus. 8 If you are fo fond over ber iniquity, give her patent to offend ;] So, in King Edward III. a tragedy, 1596: "Why then give fin a pallport, to offend." MALONE. 9 With all my heart, fir.] This does not relate to what Lodovico has just faid, but is fpoken by Othello while he falutes him. MALONE. Lod. Lod. I thank you: How does lieutenant Caffio? lago. Lives, fir. Def. Coufin, there's fallen between him and my lord An unkind breach: but you fhall make all well. Oth. Are you fure of that? Def. My lord? Oth. This fail you not to do, as you willLod. He did not call; he's bufy in the paper. Is there divifion 'twixt thy lord and Caffio? Def. A moft unhappy one; I would do much To atone them', for the love I bear to Caffio. Oth. Fire and brimstone! Def. My lord? Oth. Are you wise ? Def. What, is he angry? Lod. 'May be, the letter mov'd him; Def. By my troth, I am glad on't. Oth. Indeed? Def. My lord? [reads. [Atriking her. Lod. My lord, this would not be believ'd in Venice, Though I fhould fwear I faw it: 'Tis very much; Make her amends, the weeps. Oth. O devil, devil! If that the earth could teem with woman's tears 2, Each atone them,-] Make them one; reconcile them. JOHNSON. See Vol. VII. p. 272, n. 8. MALONE. 2 If that the earth could teem, &c.] If women's tears could impregnate the earth. By the doctrine of equivocal generation, new animals were fuppofed producible by new combinations of matter. See Bacon. JOHNSON. Shakspeare here alludes to the fabulous accounts of crocodiles. Each tear, fays Othello, which falls from the falle Desdemona, would generate a crocodile, the most deceitful of all animals, and whofe own tears are proverbially Each drop the falls 3 would prove a crocodile : Out of my fight! Def. I will not stay to offend you. Lod. Truly, an obedient lady : I do befeech your lordship, call her back. Def. My lord? Oth. What would you with her, fir? Lod. Who, I, my lord? [going. Oth. Ay; you did with, that I would make her turn: Sir, the can turn, and turn, and yet go on, And turn again; and the can weep, fir, weep; proverbially fallacious. "It is written", fays Bullokar, "that he will weep over a man's head when he hath devoured the body, and then he will eat up the head too. Wherefore in Latin there is a proverbe, crocodili lachrymæ, crocodile's tears, to fignifie fuch tears as are fained, and fpent only with intent to deceive, or doe harme." English Expofitor, 8vo. 1616. It appears from this writer, that a dead crocodile, "but in perfect forme," of about nine feet long, had been exhibited in London, in our poet's time. MALONE. 3 Each drop fhe falls-] To fall is here a verb active. So, in The Tempest: when I rear my hand, do you the like, "To fall it on Gonzalo." STEEVENS. 4- Proceed you in your tears.] I cannnot think that the poet meant to make Othello bid Defdemona to continue weeping, which proceed you in your tears (as the paffage is at prefent pointed) must mean. He rather would have faid, Proceed you in your tears ?— What! will you ftill continue to be a hypocrite by a difplay of this well-painted paffion? WARNER. I think the old punctuation is the true one. MALONE. 5 I am commanded home:] Thus the folio. The quarto, 1622, reads, perhaps better: I am commanded bere-Get you away, &c. The alteration, I fufpect, was made, from the editor of the folio not perceiving that an abrupt fentence was intended. MALONE. Q9 VOL. IX. I'll I'll fend for you anon.-Sir, I obey the mandate, [Exit DES Caffio fhall have my place. And,-fir, to-night, Lago. • Caffio fhall have my place.] Perhaps this is addreffed to Desdemona, who had just exprefied her joy on hearing Caffio was deputed in the room of her husband. Her innocent fatisfaction in the hope of seturning to her native place, is conftrued by Othello into the pleasure the received from the advancement of his rival. STEEVENS. 7 Goats and monkies !] In this exclamation Shakspeare has fhewn great art. Jago, in the firft fcene in which he endeavours to awaken Othello's fufpicion, being urged to give fome evident proof of the guilt of Caffio and Defdemona, tells him it were impoffible to have ocular demonftration of it, though they should be as prime as gears, as hot as monkies." Thefe words, we may fuppofe, ftill ring in the ears of Otbello, who being now fully convinced of his wife's infidelity, rushes out with this emphatick exclamation:" Iago's words were but too true; now indeed I am convinced that they are as hot as "goats and monkies." MALONE. 8 whofe folid virtus The hot of accident, nor dart of chance, Could neither graze nor pierce ] For graze, Dr. Warburton arbitrarily fubftituted rafe; and Mr. Theobald, because he could not for bis beart fee the difference between fhot of accident and dart of chance," inftead of the latter word reads, change. I do not fee the leaft ground for fuppofing any corruption in this paffage. As pierce relates to the dart of chance, fo graze is referred to the foot of accident. The expreffion is ftill ufed; we ftill fay-he was grazed by a bullet. MALONE. To graxe is not merely to touch fuperficially, [as Dr. Warburton has ftated.] but to ftrike not directly, not fo as to bury the body of of the thing friking in the matter ftruck. Theobald trifles, as ufual. Accident and chance may admit a fubtile distinction; accident may be confidered as the act, and chance |