Who art fo lovely fair, and fmell'ft fo fweet, That the fenfe aches at thee,-'Would, thou had' ne'er been born! Def. Alas, what ignorant fin have I committed? Had this epithet, black, been admitted, there would ftill have remained an incomplete verfe in the speech: no additional beauty would have been introduced; but instead of it, a paltry antithefis between the words black and fair. STEEVENS. The quarto, 1622, reads: O thou black weed, why art fo lovely fair? "Thou fmell'ft fo fweet, that the fenfe aches at thee," &c. MALONE. 6 Was this fair paper, &c.] Maflinger has imitated this paffage in The Emperor of the Eaft: can you think, "This masterpiece of heaven, this precious vellum "Could be defign'd to have perjury and whoredom 7 Committed!] This, and the three following lines, are omitted in the first quarto. STEEVENS. This word in Shakspeare's time, befide its general fignification, feems to have been applied particularly to unlawful acts of love. Hence perhaps it is fo often repeated by Othello. So, in Sir Thomas Overbury's CHARACTERS, (A Very Woman) 1614: "She commits with her ears for certain; after that, the may go for a maid, but the has been lain with in her understanding." The word is used in the fame fenfe in King Lear: "Commit not with man's fworn spouse." Again, in Decker's Honeft Whore, P. I. 66 if all committers stood in a rank, "They'd make a lane, in which your fhame might dwell." MALONE. The bawdy wind, that kiffes all it meets,] So, in The Merchant of Venice: "Hugg'd and embraced by the ftrumpet wind." MALONE. Def. By heaven, you do me wrong. Def. O, heaven forgive us! I took you for that cunning whore of Venice, Re-enter EMILIA. That have the office oppofite to Saint Peter, Emil. Good madam, what's the matter with my lord? Emil. Why, with my lord, madam? Def. Who is thy lord? Emil. He that is yours, fweet lady. Def. I have none: Do not talk to me, Emilia; I cannot weep; nor anfwer have I none, But what should go by water. Pr'ythee, to-night Emil. Here is a change indeed! [Exit. 8 If to preferve this veffel for my lord,] This expreffion, as well as many others, our authour has borrowed from the facred writings: -to poffefs his veffel in fanctification."-1 Theff. iv. 4. MALONE. any other-] Thus the folio. The quarto reads-any bated. STEEVENS. 9 Who is thy lord ?] This, and the following fpeech, are omitted in the first quarto. STEEVENS. Def. Del. 'Tis meet I fhould be us'd fo, very meet. How have I been behav'd, that he might flick The fmall'ft opinion on my great't abuse? Re-enter EMILIA, with IAGO. Iago. What is your pleafure, madam? How is it with you? Def. I cannot tell. Thofe, that do teach young babes, Do it with gentle means, and eafy tasks: He might have chid me fo; for, in good faith, Iago. What is the matter, lady? Emil. Alas, lago, my lord hath fo bewhor'd her, Thrown fuch defpight and heavy terms upon her, As true hearts cannot bear. Def. Am I that name, Iago? lago. What name, fair lady? Def. Such as, the fays, my lord did fay I was. Emil. He call'd her, whore; a beggar, in his drink, Could not have laid fuch terms upon his callet 3. Iago. Why did he fo? 2 on my great ft abufe?] This is the reading of the quarto, 1622, which Dr. Johnfon thought preferable to the reading of the folio-on my leaft mifufe. MALONE. 3-upon his callet.] Callet is a lewd woman; fo called (fays Dr. Grey) from the French calote, which was a fort of head-dress worn by country girls. This head-drefs is mentioned by Ben Jonfon in his Magnetick Lady: "The wearing the callot, the politic hood." The word is likewife found in Cocke Lorelles Bote, a fatyre, bl. 1. printed by Wynkyn de Worde; no date: Vf he call her talet, the calleth hym knave agayne.” STEEVENS This word is of great antiquity in the English language. Chaucer has it in his Remedy of Love: "C, for calet, for of, we have O, t "L, for leude, D, for demeanure," &c. PERCY. I meet this word in The Tranflation of Ariosto, 1591: "And thus this old ill-favour'd fpiteful callet-." Harrington, in a note on that line, fays that callet is a nickmame ufed to a woman," and that in Irish it fignifies a witch." I have no faith in Dr. Grey's etymology of this word, Calote is a coif or light cap, worn by others befide country girls. MALONE. Def Def. I do not know; I am fure, I am none fuch. Iago. Befhrew him for it! How comes this trick upon him? Emil. I will be hang'd, if some eternal villain, Some cogging cozening flave, to get fome office, Emil. A halter pardon him! and hell gnaw his bones! To lafh the rafcal' naked through the world, Jago. Speak within door 3. 4-fome moft villainous knave,] Thus the folio. The quarto 1622, reads fome outrageous knave. MALONE. 5 -notorious-] For grofs, not in its proper meaning for known. JOHNSON. 6-fuck companions-] Companion, in the time of Shakspeare, was used as a word of contempt, in the fame fenfe as fellow is at this day. So, in The Widow's Tears, by Chapman, 1612: "How now, bale companion ?" Again, in The Spanish Tragedy, 1605: And better 'tis, that bafe companions die, "Than by their life to hazard our good haps." MALONE. 7-the rafcal] Thus the quarto, 1622; folio-rafcals. Emilia first wishes that all bafe fellows were detected, and then that heaven would put a whip in every honeft hand to punish in a fignal manner that villainous knave, particularly in her thoughts, who had abused the too credulous Moor. MALONE. 8 Speak within door.] Do not clamour fo as to be heard beyond the houfe. JOHNSON. Emil. O, fie upon him! fome fuch squire he was, That turn'd your wit the feamy fide without, And made you to fufpect me with the Moor. Iago. You are a fool; go to. Def. O good Iago, What fhall I do to win my lord again? Good friend, go to him; for, by this light of heaven, If e'er my will did trefpafs 'gainst his love, And ever will,-though he do fhake me off lago. I pray you, be content; 'tis but his humour; The bufinefs of the ftate does him offence, And he does chide with you 3. Def. If 'twere no other, lago. It is but fo, I warrant you. 9 [Trumpets the feamy fide without :] That is, infide out. JOHNSON. Here I kneel, &c.] Thefe words, and the following lines of this fpeech, are omitted in the quarto, 1622. MALONE. 2 Either in difcourfe of thought, or actual deed;] Thus the old copies. So, in Hamlet: "O heaven! a beaft, that wants discourse of reason, The modern editors, following Mr. Pope, read-discourse, or thought. MALONE. 3 And be does chide with you.] This line is from the quarto, 1622, STEEVENS. To chide with was the phrafeology of the time. We have, I think, the fame phrafe in one of our poet's Sonnets. MALONE. Hark, |